Best Video Codec for AE

[Michael Szalapski]

AE can work with most codecs.

It’s best with codecs that don’t use heavy interframe compression. So, for example, a QuickTime with the PNG codec is a good choice, whereas an mp4 file with the h.264 codec would be less than ideal.

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Richard Herd]

It doesn’t really matter anymore. It used to matter when animating stills or using video because dynamic link changed all that. RAM previews are rendered out regardless.

One good thing though is to go to File > Project Settings > Working Space > [choose the one you are delivering to]

[Richard Herd]

But Scott asked

[Scott Witthaus] “Hey all. Is there any “flavor” that AE likes best.”

And the answer is No. After Effects likes them all the same. It really doesn’t matter what footage you’re handed, but if you can demand a particular flavor, Dave makes a good point:

[Dave LaRonde] “Stick with the best codecs you can use” However, if the shooter shot dSLR longGOP 420 and hands you APR422, that is not an increase in the picture quality.

But often we don’t get to choose. The shooter hands us footage and we make a story out of it. In the cases when I’m handed a bunch of mixed stuff, I always put it into Apple Pro Res 422, and then I pick the frame rate that makes sense. Mixed frame rates will drive render times/RAM previews sky high. If AE renders seem sluggish be sure to check the frame rates on all the footage and all the comps.

[Scott Witthaus]

Great advice. Thank you all. I went with ProRes422 and it seems to be working fine. Really liking AE for what I am doing, which is basic stuff but a great learning experience. Thanks again.

Scott Witthaus
Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
1708 Inc./Editorial
Professor, VCU Brandcenter

[Richard Herd]

[Dave LaRonde] “who re-renders things six times?
“

I have some clients…sheesh. 😉