After Effects CS3: Rendering non-standard sizes in high resolution - mov
by Patricia Buck
on
Jun 23, 2009 at 8:30:34 am
Hi,
I am looking to find out how to render high resolution, good quality video in Adobe After Effects in non-standard sizes. I have access to both PC and Mac, and have been trying to output in many formats, but ideally getting a .mov h264.
I have two different projects which I think have the same problem;
Size: 1024 x 768
Frame rate: 30fps
Imported files include many png sequences
Size: 3840 x 1024
Frame rate: 20fps (but may change back to 25fps)
Imported files include three high resolution mov files
The playback program is probably going to be quicktime, but this may change.
Each time I try and render these they either end up running out of RAM (After Effects can't continue ... (0::42)), or outputting a random 48kb empty file. I have tried both PC and Mac Pro to see if that makes a difference, but have the same results for both.
Does anyone know how, or have any ideas or suggestions?
Re: After Effects CS3: Rendering non-standard sizes in high resolution - mov by Dave LaRonde on Jun 23, 2009 at 4:11:03 pm
The non-standard sizes aren't a problem for AE.
You really should pick a frame rate: 20 or 25 fps. Fixing it after the fact is NO FUN.
If you're certain that the 30 fps stuff will NOT play back through an NTSC TV -- as it would on a DVD or Blu-ray -- you're good to go. Otherwise, you should be in 29.97.
If you have your heart set on H.264, you should not -- repeat, NOT -- render in AE to H.264. You should render in the best quality you can in AE, then use a compression application to convert it to H.264. Since I'm a Mac guy, Apple's Compressor comes immediately to mind.
You may not be able to render the comps as they currently exist. You may have to prerender wherever you can. I recently had to do that on a 720x480 comp that contained six 11600x5800 layers. It happens. We're talking about desktop, off-the-shelf machines running off-the-shelf software, and they have their limitations. They are not some custom-built miracle contraption with a price tag well into in six figures running proprietary software in Hollywood... and you have to make allowances for that fact.
I'd also be interested in knowing how you intend to play this stuff back.
Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV (ABC) Cedar Rapids, IA
Re: After Effects CS3: Rendering non-standard sizes in high resolution - mov by Patricia Buck on Jun 24, 2009 at 9:00:29 am
Hi Dave,
Thanks for the quick reply.
In answer to your question, I am a uni student putting together work for an exhibition where one piece is going on a high resolution monitor, and the other is going on a 180 degree projector at the given resolution. (The screen ratio of the projector is the same as three 4:3 monitors, ie 12:3.)
I needed to check the fps on the projector before committing to one or the other, and have deliberately been working on figuring out the settings I need before getting too far along with the composition. I know this may affect things later on, but I thought it would be a wise thing to do.
Also, .mov h264 was requested to be the final format, so I have no say in that.
Thanks to your suggestion I think what I have done works;
Outputting the files as .mov animation (huge file size, good quality)
Converting to .mov h264 in the Compressor program on the Mac (smaller file size, good quality)
This works well on all the machines I have tested on, but I will know 100% for sure when I am able to test on the specific exhibition equipment.
