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Preview movie file size before rendering?
I’m trying to create a very specific file size limit movie and was wondering if AE7.0 shows this anywhere beforehand (rendering that is)?
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15 Replies
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That depends what you mean – you can tell after effects to break up your render – in other words, you can say, for example, if you reach 2 GB, then stop here, and render the next 2 Gb as a separate QuickTime file. (Under: Preferences > Output)
On the other hand, if you want to know if it’s possible to to make the complete rendered video constrain to a specific file size (so it just renders and targets a specific size for the whole movie) then no.
Or at least, to my knowledge, no.
You have to render uncompressed, and then use a compression program with the ability to constrain video to certain file size. Sorenson Squeeze can do this.
Aharon Rabinowitz
Email: arabinowitz (AT) yahoo (DOT) com
All Bets Are Off Productions, Inc.
Creative Cow After Effect Podcast
Internet Killed the Video Star: A Guide to Creating Video for the Web -
Ahh what I meant is there a way to see what the estimated file size will be? Like say I have a 36 min composition and I want to see how big the file size will be before I render it.
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You can calculate this by knowing the data rate of various codecs, no? Or render 10 seconds, then extrapolate.
At least, AE shows an estimated file size while rendering from the Render Queue. If you don’t like it, stop the render.
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unless you’re rendering uncompressed, which is the same size every time, that6 file size will vary a lot based on content.
QT Animation, for example, really varies across the board depending on what’s in the video. I’ve had text on a solid BG come in close to ther same size of a sorenson 3 compressed video.
If you’re talking sorenson 3, again, you can set a limit for the data rate, but that’s an estimate. It will sometimes go over, and often come in under the limit.
So yeah – I guess you can guess-timate, but there is no real way to make sure, as far as I know.
Aharon Rabinowitz
Email: arabinowitz (AT) yahoo (DOT) com
All Bets Are Off Productions, Inc.
Creative Cow After Effect Podcast
Internet Killed the Video Star: A Guide to Creating Video for the Web -
Oh, and I should point out that if you are rendering a section to help guess, choose a section that is most like the whole piece – if there is a lot of motion in it, and you render the first 10 seconds which are slow and unchanging, you will get skewed results.
Aharon Rabinowitz
Email: arabinowitz (AT) yahoo (DOT) com
All Bets Are Off Productions, Inc.
Creative Cow After Effect Podcast
Internet Killed the Video Star: A Guide to Creating Video for the Web -
Yep … or drop it into another comp and speed it up a lot and render that … then you get an average…?
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maybe, maybe not. If the footage changed a lot, you might get an over estimate as you’d have even more motion than the actual piece – which can effect the compression process and therefore the file size.
But, Steve, you’re point is taken – you can probably get an average and guess based on that. And for these purposes it’s probably good enough.
For the record, Edward, compressing in AE is a very bad way to go. It isn’t designed for the purpose of compressing, and while it can do it, it does a poor job compared to actual compression apps. File size will be bigger and look worse when compressed out of AE.
Aharon Rabinowitz
Email: arabinowitz (AT) yahoo (DOT) com
All Bets Are Off Productions, Inc.
Creative Cow After Effect Podcast
Internet Killed the Video Star: A Guide to Creating Video for the Web -
Yep Aharon, guessing was what I was going for, since after watching the render details a few times, we only know the exact file size is once the render is done, eh? 🙂
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Of course.
But when someone writes: “I’m trying to create a very specific file size limit movie…” I take it literally.
It’s a weakness. I’m very literal minded when it comes to answering these types of questions, which is not always conducive to actually giving the the right answer.
Aharon Rabinowitz
Email: arabinowitz (AT) yahoo (DOT) com
All Bets Are Off Productions, Inc.
Creative Cow After Effect Podcast
Internet Killed the Video Star: A Guide to Creating Video for the Web -
Ah. Good point, Aharon. “My bad”, as the kids today say. 🙂
I think that’s three for me today. Time to get some fresh air.
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