Best Render Settings for Rendering 4k Short Film

[Praxis Visuals]

Originally I had issues with sending my video to Media Encoder (due to the codecs messing up the color and lighting of the color grade I had added)... But now I come to a different quesiton-- What is the BEST settings for FILE SIZE AND VIDEO (Film) QUALITY...

I've tried:

Quicktime (using the animation codec) and the colors are close but it dims the lighting slightly.

AVI (huge file size)

Sending it to ME and using the good ole H.264 codec but that ruins the lighting and brings out grain

Almong MANY other ways...

Are there not any good render format thats good for Film quality rendering without destroying my work?

[Ossama5FE3]

Try Quicktime and Apple ProRes 444

[Praxis Visuals]

The codec is not supported... I assume it's because it's an apple codec. I'm on a PC

[OussK]

Did you try Avid’s DNxHR? it's one of the best codecs and can give you a result similar to ProRes 

[Praxis Visuals]

It still says "This item was encoded in a format that's not supported."... Is there a way to get this missing codec?

[Praxis Visuals]

Figured it out... Downloaded VLC (Weird how I haven't downloaded that yet in all these years)... I'm testing the DNxHR

[OussK]

Perfect, let us know if this can help you get the result you're looking for 

[Praxis Visuals]

I'm rendering it out now... I did a 2 second test render to see how the colors looked... VERY close, but it did seem to dim the expoure by like .01 (very small amount but nothing drastic). I'm rendering out my 15 minute film to see how large it will be. If it's a reasonable size (maybe anything under 100GB then I believe you gave a correct answer. Stand by.

[Rick Gerard]

Your post tells me that you are not using the tools properly and that you don't understand video formats, compression, and color space. 

First After Effects is not a video editing app. You should be using After Effects to create shots you cannot create or manipulate in an NLE like Premiere Pro, and you should be doing your editing in an app like Premiere Pro. 

If you want to maintain color control you have to fully implement color management throughout the entire production process or turn it off completely and let the defaults handle it. There is no in-between that works. 

The Render Queue/Output Module workflow is for producing visually lossless production masters. These files are not intended to be used for distribution. Send a visually lossless production master to any streaming service and it will be recompressed into many different H.264 copies with different resolutions, but the compression will be done with a sledgehammer and it will look terrible. You must follow Vimeo, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and anybody else that streams videos guidelines. The Adobe Media Encoder has presets that comply and you should use them. 

When you compress video for distribution the color is resampled, the luminance is compressed, and frames are predicted so you are going to lose some quality, but if your color grading is good and your frame size and frame rate corresponds to a standard video format, the Media Encoder or Premiere Pro through the Media Encoder, will do a very good job of rendering a good copy for distribution. If you push the color grading too far, don't follow the rules, and expect miracles, you will be disappointed. 

To give you specific help and guidance we need to see screenshots showing us the color grading scopes from AE or Premiere Pro. We need a detailed description of your project including any color management you are using, and we need to know what render settings you have fiddled with. 

FYI, when I render a DI (digital intermediate) from After Effects using the Render Queue/Output Module I almost always have my project set to 16-bit color and choose GoPro Cineform 10 bit. That codec also supports alpha channels if you need transparency. It is universal, decodes very quickly, and is visually lossless. It is a very good choice. I almost never render anything at a frame rate higher than 29.97 because there is little or nothing to gain for almost all videos except a doubling of the required bandwidth and file size and the likelihood that YouTube or Vimeo will either serve up a lower resolution copy of my video or cut the frame rate in half when most viewers look at the final product goes way up. It's just generally not a good idea.

I hope this helps. If you need more guidance or want to share screenshots and details please use the toolbar to embed screenshots instead of the Drag and drop here link below the reply field. That option is useless when it comes to sharing images.  

[Praxis Visuals]

Yeah I'm still having issues...

The reason why I'm operating in After Effects is because this project requires not just color grading, but also a fair amount of  VFX. So since my director wanted me to handle almost all aspects of the post production process (visuals not audio) I decided to do my work in AE rather Premiere (as a time saver and for organization). Not mention I'm more fluent in AE and not so much in Premiere. 

The main issues I'm still having is my color. I worked out my harddrive space so file size won't be much of an issue (as long as the file doesn't exeed 400Gigs). I've tried these other file formats like DNxHR, GoproCineform, and Apple ProRes (4444, and 422). But they all still seem to tweak the specific lighting I've arranged in the grading process. The common factor seems to be darkening the result. The only render results that had NO effect to the image and was a perfect recreation of the preview, was PNG, JPEG, and DPX sequences. While these are good, they all had their own kinks. (PNG taking over 2 days to render, JPEG quality not as good... But still could resort to it if needed, and DPX having a big file size).

The grade isn't harsh, It's just got very specific mid tones and darks. I will post a photo with this to give an example of what the original is, and what the results of a render are. 

So what should be my next move? I get it, I'm stuck. But with 2 months work done, I can't just say "oh well, guess I messed up" and abandon ship. Should I transfer the color grading comps to Premiere and export it there? Lemme know what you think. 

Thanks again!

[Andrew Yoole]

It depends entirely on what purpose you're exporting the file for.  Mastering?  Delivery, and if so to whom and for what purpose?

If you're mastering, aim for the highest bitrate DNxHr (Windows) or ProRes 4444 (Mac).  If hard drive space is no object you could also store a totally lossless 10 bit file.

If this is a file for delivery, there are a million options and variables.  You'll need to clarify with the recipient what they require.