Flatten video layers?

[Todd Kopriva]

I think that you’re misunderstanding why your output video is large. It’s (likely) large because you’re using the default settings, and the default settings are for an uncompressed movie in an AVI container. If you want a smaller movie, you need to choose a codec (specifically an encoder) that will compress your movie more. AVI files can contain video compressed with all sorts of different codecs.

For more information about compression, start here:
“Encoding and compression otions for movies”

Since you are new to After Effects, I very strongly recommend that you begin from the beginning—that being here:
“Getting started with After Effects

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
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[Jack Howard]

Hi Alex,

Because After Effects is just a compositing program, you can’t “flatten” layers like you can in Photoshop (unless there’s a way unbeknownst to me). You can group the layers together by Pre-composing them, however that won’t make the file size smaller.

If you want your file to be smaller, you will need to render it out, not as .avi, but as something that compresses the video. I recommend rendering it as a .mov (Quicktime Format). It will make the file size a lot smaller, while still retaining a good amount of quality.

However, I suggest that you experiment with the different types of formats to render to. Either way, you will need to stop rendering it out to .avi if it is the final render, unless of course if it is going into an editing program like Sony Vegas, Final Cut Pro, etc.

Hope this helps,

Jack Howard

[Greg Robbins]

Actually weather its a .avi or .mov file does not determine how big the file is or the quality. Its the compression and codec. The .mov extension just is the container. Your .avi files you render out are so large because they are uncompressed. You’d experience the same if you rendered out a .mov uncompressed. You need to choose a good codec like H.264 in a .mov for example.