Highest quality export from AE

[Kevin Camp]

[Dean Markey] “does anyone know what’s the highest quality format and settings AE can export that will maintain its quality when converted to mpeg2 later for DVD… quick time or avi.”

the best quality settings will be any that are uncompressed or losslessly compressed. which container/file type will be best will come down to what your mpeg-2 converter or dvd software will import… if it only takes avi, then uncompressed avi would be the way to go, if it only takes mov, then lossless mov would be the way to go.

if it takes either, then i’d probably go with a lossless mov just for the potential of smaller rendered files.

[Dean Markey] “If you export several video files with loss less settings then re import them to a new time line will re exporting them at the same settings lower the quality? “

you will not lose any quality using the lossless animation codec over and over again…

also, in most cases, you should be rendering via composition>make movie or add to render queue, rather than file>export. you’ll have more options for rendering, you’ll get post render actions and you can easily set presets to fit your workflow.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW