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After Effects output formats query?
Hi there.
I am creating a 3 to 5 minute motion graphics piece in After Effects 5.5. The finished file is being sent to Japan to be played on a Mac, up until now I have normally generated a Quicktime file (but this will obviously create a massive file). Ideally I would like to output to DVD presumably this would be quite a safe format for someone else to play), or does anyone know of another reliabel format that will create a smaller/more realistic file size.
The main aim of this is to create a file that isn’t huge but gives good quality, reliable playback.
Any help you could give would be much appreciated!
Cheers
Andy -
2 Replies
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Okay, thats interesting, I figured DVD would allow me better quality. The file is to be played on a computer as part of an exhibition, rather than on a TV. What im unsure of really is how to output to DVD format from After Effects 5.5? Can anyone help with this?
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“What we all have heah, is” … never mind.
DVD-R (DVD-data) is just a data format. Like a big CD. Won’t play on set-top players. It would just be a disc to hold a Quicktime move … like a big CD. All you need to make one of those is a Quicktime movie that will play on a computer (photo-JPEG codec, for example) or a WMV movie, and DVD-burning software that came with your burner. You’d make one of these if the movie was rather large and you expected the client to want to edit it.
However, a DVD (not -R, not +R) that will play in a DVD player is a completely different animal. Sure, the content could be contained on a DVD-R or DVD+R disc, but it needs to be authored. That means that a high-quality (animation codec) QT movie or AVI rendered in AE needs to be recompressed to MPEG-2 (by necessity) in Compressor or Encore or Squeeze (probably) then the DVD needs to be authored in DVD Studio Pro, Encore or the like, with play commands and menus if necessary. Stringent DVD standards are necessary to allow playback on many devices. It’s difficult to edit these, though not impossible. MPEG-2 is quite compressed: a final delivery codec, not an intermediate codec.
It sounds as if you want the DVD, MPEG-2 and all … for that you need the other apps I mentioned. You should also talk to the client and find out how they want your piece: as a standalone thing or edited into a sequence.
For more info, you might want to check out the COW DVD forum.
Hope that helps,
Steve
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