Exported AE video low quality and file too small to make sense?

[saldesignstudio]

I exported a 12 minute video from AE as a .mov but the video file is telling me it's under 70MB and is very low quality. The original file is set at 1920x1080, and I made sure the precomps are the same. The exported file says it's also 1920x1080, but the quality is horrible (like 1950s TV) and the file size makes no sense at all.

I tried exporting again but the same thing happened. I tried again and got a file that doesn't open up and says it's almost 12GB. I never had this kind of problem before. Any idea why this is happening? There must be some setting I'm missing?? What am I doing wrong?

Any leads would be amazing... Thanks!

[Mylenium]

Without any info on what output settings you actually used nobody can tel lyou much. Being vague and generic is not helpful. From specific encoder settings that override AE's comp settings to mundane issues with hardware acceleration in Adobe Media Encoder that messes up the resolution this could be anything.

Mylenium

[saldesignstudio]

Sorry, I didn't mean to be vague and generic on purpose. I actually tried to provide the information I thought was useful to describe my problem.

What info would be helpful? I would be happy to share it.

I exported both through Media Encoder, as well as directly from AE. I never came across this problem before.

You mentioned some kind of encoder settings override AE's comp settings. What are you referring to? Do you have any examples? I never heard of this, maybe this is my issue. Is there anywhere that would show me if my settings are being overridden?

Do you think that hardware acceleration can be the problem, if I haven't had anything like this happen before?

Thanks for your quick response.

[Warren Heaton]

It sounds like you're using custom settings or a preset that's not a good match for what you're expecting of you rendered movie file.

Try going one of theses two options:

Chose File > Export Using Render Queue.  In the Render Queue, set the Render Setting to Best and the Output Module to Lossless (these are the defaults and will probably already be selected).  This file will be very close, if not the same, image quality as the original Comp; however, it will be very large (that is, it will take up a lot of disk space) and it will only play smoothly from high bandwidth storage.  If you need an alpha channel (for say, an animated logo), change the Output Module to Lossless with Alpha.

Or,

Chose File > Export Using Adobe Media Encoder Queue.  In the Queue tab for Adobe Media Encoder (AME), set the Format to H264, set the Preset to Match Source - High Bit Rate.  This creates a high bit rate MP4 file that should have very good image quality and the file will play back from just about anything (but not exactly everything) that supports the MP4 file format.

-Warren

[saldesignstudio]

Thanks for this reply!

I actually tried both of these... I rendered out of AE with the exact settings you mentioned, and out of AME also using H264 and High Bit Rate...

Any other ideas why an exported file may come out really bad quality?

[Warren Heaton]

What is your source footage?

It sounds like you are dealing with footage that doesn’t hold up to being recompressed.

Can you post some screen shots?

It would be helpful to see your source footage in the Project tab, the Footage tab and the Composition tab.  Also, screen shots of what your source footage looks like before you import it and a screenshot of what your rendered video looks like outside of After Effects.

-Warren

[saldesignstudio]

I ended up opening the AE file in PR and exporting it from there. That worked fine. Thanks for your help!

[P.M.B]

saldesignstudio  wrote

What info would be helpful? I would be happy to share it.

For starters,  your render settings would have been helpful.