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What Export Format??
Hey everyone. I’m doing some mograph content for a digital signage network. My work canvas is 1920×1080 to match the signage resolution. I exported straight from Motion as an .mov file using project settings. The company who made the software says it can’t support that and I must either export as h264, photo JPEG, or MPG-4. What’s going to be my best option on export for highest quality. I’m trying no to have to keep going back and forth to the site with different formats so thought I’d post my query here to save my client some time. Any help is appreciated.
Mick Haensler
Higher Ground Media -
10 Replies
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Exporting using current project settings creates a lossless ProRes or Animation codec file that is never meant to be used as a final deliverable – it is an intermediate format to be placed into another application, like Final Cut Pro. Many machines will not be able to play back this file.
No one can tell you the best settings to use. Your client should tell you the delivery resolution, frame rate, code, pixel aspect ratio, but you need to determine the best compression settings to use to trade off between bit rate and quality based on the content of the video. However, the Compressor presets are a good start.
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Mark Spencer
Freelance Producer/Editor/Motion Graphics Artist
Apple-certified Master Trainer
Author, Motion 4 from Peachpit Press
https://www.applemotion.net -
Thanks Mark. Looks like a bit of trial and error. When you say “the Compressor presets are a good start”, are you saying to take the lossless file I have and plug it into Compressor and use the presets there? Or just to custom exports straight from Motion?
Mick Haensler
Higher Ground Media -
Either way. I’d probably start with your lossless file since you have it already, and compress just a representative section of it with a few adjusted presets as a batch to test.
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Mark Spencer
Freelance Producer/Editor/Motion Graphics Artist
Apple-certified Master Trainer
Author, Motion 4 from Peachpit Press
https://www.applemotion.net -
Dang!! Yer quick. Thanks again. That’s what I figured. Up until now I’ve only created Motion projects to be used inside of FCP projects so this was never an issue. Fortunately the content is very short loops, :20 or less so I can export the whole file in a number of formats without to much render time. Hopefully the players will be able to do seemless looping, I won’t know that until we get some content up.
Mick Haensler
Higher Ground Media -
Motion JPEG is old, but with the quality settings turned way up, still looks very good to my eye. And it can be edited easier than h.264 can.
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I’ve done the H.264 set to a very high bit rate and it looks good on the digital signage. Photo JPEG is great as well, a lot of stock footage is delivered in that format for reasons Mark Suszko brings up.
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Thanks everyone, I’m going to try both and see what looks better. Really appreciate the input. I gotta say, Motion is perfect for doing DS content. Easy to manage workflow, not too steep a learning curve, intuitive interface. The only thing I don’t like is the way it handles hi rez PSD layered files. Wondering if that has changed in Motion 3.
Mick Haensler
Higher Ground Media -
The way Motion handles hi-rez Photoshop files has a lot to do with your gfx card. The better the card, the higher rez you can work with in Motion.
Andy
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Thanks Andy, that explains a lot. I have a ATI XT1900 which isn’t the best. As far as working formats for the DS network, H264 worked great. So, thanks everyone for the input!! Once again, COW Rocks!!
Mick Haensler
Higher Ground Media -
RE: Hi Rez PSD’s
You must be commenting on down scaling them.
Yep the hardware scale can get ratty pretty quickly.
Alternative method available in motion 3 is the Library>Image Units>Geometry Adjustments
These give a superior down scale acan save you from having to make several resolution versions of files in Photoshop.
Alex
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