Comp Settings & Lossless

[Walter Soyka]

[Robby Monk] “The footage I am shooting seems a bit soft (not sharp), and I am not sure if I have my comp settings set correctly and/or rendering out my footage properly.”

Are you sure the footage itself is sharp? Depending on your lens choices, your depth of field may be very shallow, which makes maintaining tack-sharp focus very challenging.

[Robby Monk] “I shoot at 1920×1080 (24fps) and have my comp settings at HDTV 1080 25. When I render, I am using Quicktime with MPEG – 4video.”

Why the frame rate difference between your footage and your comp?

Also, I’d suggest dumping QuickTime/MPEG-4. For general use, I’d suggest you instead render with the lossless preset, then use Adobe Media Encoder to make an H.264 MP4.

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

[Robby Monk]

Thanks Walter. No clue why I was off with the frame rate and my comp. Chalk that up to my stupidity.

I will try your suggestion on using the Lossless preset. So once that is rendered, I then drop that finished file into Adobe Media Encoder? I’ll let you know how that turns out!

Thanks again!
Robby

[Walter Soyka]

[Robby Monk] “No clue why I was off with the frame rate and my comp. Chalk that up to my stupidity.”

Let’s chalk it up to being a beginner!

Since you’re new to After Effects, I’d recommend the following link, in which Adobe’s Todd Kopriva pulls together some important introductory materials:

https://blogs.adobe.com/toddkopriva/2010/01/getting-started-with-after-eff.html

[Robby Monk] “I will try your suggestion on using the Lossless preset. So once that is rendered, I then drop that finished file into Adobe Media Encoder?”

Yes, using an H.264 preset. I like the Vimeo H.264 presets as a good starting point.

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

[Robby Monk]

Excellent. Thank you!

[Daniel Waldron]

Adobe TV and and Andrew Kramer’s Basic Training are also great free resources to teach yourself the basics of After Effects.