• Adobe After Effects

  Best render settings for 1080p HD YouTube upload.

  Posted by Sam Alderson on October 3, 2014 at 7:45 am

  Hi there,

  Just wondering what is the best render settings of two options for me to get an HD 1080p H.264 with AAC audio, for uploading to YouTube.

  Should I render it out of After Effects with VBR 1-pass encoding?

  OR

  Export a lossless Animation codec out of AE and then turn it into an H.264 using VBR 2-pass encoding in Adobe Media Encoder?

  My main priority is the audio as it is a music video, so I’m wondering if converting it twice would compress the audio (and video) more than just a direct render from AE.

  Thank you so much for any help!
  Sam

  Jeff Pulera replied 11 years, 9 months ago 3 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  John Cuevas

  October 3, 2014 at 11:23 am

  Just for good housekeeping, I always make a full quality master for myself, you never know when you will need it again. From there I will make my deliverables in Media Encoder, and I always just use the H.264 Youtube preset in Encoder.

  Johnny Cuevas, Editor
  Thinkck.com

  “I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
  —THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.
• 

  Sam Alderson

  October 3, 2014 at 11:39 am

  Thanks for the tip John!
  What kind of settings do you use for a full quality master encode, when intending to convert it to h.264?
  Animation codec? I could guess, but just to makes sure I’m doing it the right way.

  Thanks again
  Sam
• 

  John Cuevas

  October 3, 2014 at 12:58 pm

  Animation would do the trick, or an AVI, but AVI’s tend to be huge. Being that we use avid’s, I generally master to an Avid DNxHD codec. Smaller than animation, and the loss in quality is pretty negligible. Avid DNxHD is free to download if you are inclined to go that route.

  Johnny Cuevas, Editor
  Thinkck.com

  “I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
  —THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.
• 

  Jeff Pulera

  October 3, 2014 at 1:25 pm

  John is right, export to a quality intermediate and then use AME for the H.264 encode. I don’t know if you’re on PC or Mac, with Mac you can use ProRes to create a master file. On PC, the Avid codec could be used as mentioned, or download the free Lagarith lossless codec. Files are fairly heavy – much smaller than uncompressed, but with same quality.

  In AME, choose H.264 for format, and then scroll all the way down to bottom of Presets lists and there are YouTube presets, try them first without making changes and see how it comes out.

  Thanks

  Jeff Pulera
  Safe Harbor Computers

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