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Best format for rendering?
I’m confused at what to use as the best format to render to. I’m doing some zooms and animations on photos (simple stuff) and I want the best quality from them possible. They will eventually be put into a FCP project with NTSC DV and rendered with ProRes quality.
I’m reading that a lot of people use Quicktime Animation Codec with high quality (100). I’m also reading though that the Animation codec only supports 8 bits per channel of color resolution. So wouldn’t I want something that supports 16 bits per channel? And if so, which one should I use? What is the best and second best and third best for my situation … thanks.
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7 Replies
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If you’re working in ProRes in FCP, you can render directly to ProRes from After Effects.
I’d recommend skipping DV entirely — it’s heavily compressed and chroma sub-sampled, and there would be noticeable DV artifacts on your graphics.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
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Oh , I did not know that. I only get to use the program in really small spurts so I’m not familiar with all the settings yet. Thanks,
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One question though. Will ProRes give me the best quality for my project? Is the Animation codec better or worse than ProRes?
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ProRes is very, very good — it will be perfect for your project.
ProRes is a visually lossless, though slightly mathematically lossy 10-bit 4:2:2 YUV (sic) lightly-compressed codec with no support for alpha channels. Animation is a mathematically lossless 8-bit “4:4:4” RGB format with alpha support.
ProRes is mastering quality, and ProRes a preferred codec for FCP. I’d only choose Animation over ProRes if I had a very good reason (like legacy or broader cross-platform support, or if I needed an alpha channel).
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
FAQ: What is the best format for rendering and exporting from After Effects?
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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
Technical Support for professional video software
After Effects Help & Support
Premiere Pro Help & Support
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ProRes 422 is a great format to use. I’d recommend it if it fits into your workflow. Some people have experienced issues with Gamma levels between AE and FCP, but they appear to have been worked out.
If you need an alpha channel, then I’d still recommend Animation. I find the results to be better than other options I’ve tried. Even though you need to “render” that portion of your timeline in FCP, I think the tradeoff is worth it.
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Thanks so much for the recommendation, guys. So I’ll be rendering in ProRes 422. I hope that gamma thing isn’t something that comes up..
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