After effects blurry

[default5r67plticis4]

I have had major issues recently. I am new to After Effects and I work with lots of Adobe products. I am just trying to make an animation to go on a electric billboard with the dimensions of 342x144 px. I have been working on this for a couple days but every time I import my Illustrator work, it becomes blurry in After Effects. And yes I have checked coninusly rasterize check box.

I have come to the conclusion that the dimensions are just too small. Am I missing something or am I right about small dimensions.

[Rick Gerard]

Your preview is at 200% magnification so you are probably going to see pixels. I don't see CR turned on for any layers. 

The comp size is very small. Depending on the output file specifications you might be better off creating your AI artwork on an artboard that is at least twice as large as the final output, doing the same for the main comp, then dropping your main comp in a smaller comp for rendering. You can apply sharpening to the smaller comp to help with the compression. 

You should also be aware that the pure white against pure red is not going to compress well if you use any kind of MPEG compression. It is also going to be quite difficult to get an accurate preview on your monitor because even if your screen is HD, the final render will only take up about 18% of the screen and that's awfully small. You'll have to look at the final at full resolution and 100% magnification to have a good idea of what it looks like.

[default5r67plticis4]

This was very helpful, I will try it!

[default5r67plticis4]

Another question I had was when I was working with comp that was 1000x1000 px or more this elements seemed perfect. Is 342x144 px just way too small?

[Andrew Yoole]

342x144 is an unusually small and non-standard resolution.  I can't think of any reason to work at this resolution unless its some kind of size-specific web page design.

To put it in perspective, here's that resolution (in black) superimposed on a standard HD 1920x1080 box.  Most TVs and computer monitors are this res or higher.  If you expand your tiny resolution to fit that frame it will, of course, look soft and pixelated. 

Unless there's a specific reason, I would always work in 1920x1080 or higher.

[default5r67plticis4]

This is also very helpful, thank you! As this project is supposed to go on a billboard at a local stadium a was suprised to find out that those are the dimensions that are required.

[Andrew Yoole]

That explains it then.  LED event screens like billboards and on stage screens can be surprisingly low resolution.

I do quite a bit of onstage-screen stuff for TV and large events.  When the final output resolution is quite low, I'll often double or quadruple the working resolution while in the design stage, then convert the final renders to the output resolution at the end.  The final results tend to look a little better, and it's a huge bonus if the client suddenly wants to use the material somewhere at the last minute that requires higher resolution, like on TV advertising or something.

In the case of your output resolution of 342x144, I'd quadruple it and work at 1368 x 576.  Then just render a high quality intermediate file and convert to the correct resolution and format with Media Encoder when you're ready to deliver.

[default5r67plticis4]

Thank you so much. I will start doing that from now on!