Formatting Issues

[nikon99224562]

Hello! I am working on a project for something, yet whenever i render the video the aspect ratio changes. I found out the reason for this problem, and it was this.

I am pretty new to AE, and I need to render my project in 720p or 1080p in mp4 file so my partner can put it all together... so I'm wondering if there is anyway i can fix this while keeping the quality and file type.

[dj.summitt · Accepted solution]

The MPEG4 you are trying to create is an old template for cellphone video. In Adobe Media Encoder, you need to select "H.264" instead of "MPEG4".  MPEG4 is a container format, while H.264 is an encoding format.

So here are the steps:

1. In AE, with your comp selected, go to the "Composition" menu, then "Add to Adobe Media Encoder Queue."
2. In AME, select "H.264" as your format.
3. Choose a preset. There are tons! I typically start with a YouTube preset, so for your 720p video select "YouTube HD 720p XXX", where XXX is the frame rate of your comp.
4. Then click on the text name of the preset to customize things. If you don't know what you're doing, then don't make any changes EXCEPT: In the "Video" tab, in the "Bitrate Settings" panel, change "Bitrate Encoding" to "VBR, 1 pass".  Hit OK.
5. Set the path for your output file, then start rendering!

[nikon99224562]

Hmm.. I don't see "Add to Adobe Media Encoder Queue". Perhaps it's because the version of after effects that I'm using is a bit older, or I'm doing something wrong, im not very good at explaining things so here is a picture;

[dj.summitt]

Sorry, that's on me. File > Export > Add to Adobe Media Encoder.

[nikon99224562]

Ahh, I see. Well I believe i've got it now. Thank you ^^!!