Full HD Movie is pixelated after compositing???

[Guest]

Hi, Im new to the forums but have been using After Effects for a while now...

I just got a HD Camcorder and shot a movie with some friends. I composited in AE CS5 and then rendered/exported it as a H.264 file. I viewed the movie in Windows Media Player, Quicktime, iTunes, and VLC, and the quality is below Full HD, it is less than Standard Definition.

CAMERA:

1920x1080

30fps

AE SETTINGS:

1920x1080

30fps

around 9mins of footage

COMPUTER:

Win 64-bit

4GB RAM

nvidia 1GB (Graphics)

i5 (2.53Ghz)

I then viewed movie in AE, RAM preview, it looks stunning!

So I cant work out whether it is the format (H.264 or MP4), the rendering settings, the media players or it wont view in FullHD due to my hardware? Any help would be MUCH appreciated.

[Mylenium]

You forgot to set render quality to "Best" and instead left it at "Current", which uses your current comp preview resolution which rather obviously was not set to full...

Mylenium

[Guest]

Thanks for the help, but yes my Render Settings are set to best.

Does my bitrate effect the quality of the picture???

[Andrew Yoole]

Of course it does.  Please post all your output and render settings.  Or a screen grab of those settings.  It's far easier for us to discuss what you're doing if we don't have to guess what you're doing.

[Guest]

BTW, Thank you for your help. I havent worked with HD before...

[Andrew Yoole]

Post a screen grab of your output settings if you would like further thoughts, if Mylenium's suggestion doesn't solve the issue.

[Guest]

FORMAT:  H.264

VIDEO OUTPUT (default settings):

Channels: RGB

Color: Premultiplied (Matted)

Codec: MainConcept H.264 Video

Profile: Main

Level: 5.1

Bitrate Encoding: VBR, 1 Pass

Target Bitrate [Mbps]: 3

Max. Bitrate [Mbps]: 3

SIZE:

1920 x 1080 (100%)

AUDIO OUTPUT:

48 kHz/Stereo

[Rick Gerard]

Your biggest problem is that you are trying to compress to H264 directly from After Effects. You bit rate is way too low for HD. H264 is also suitable for Web distribution but it's a lousy codec to send to a DVD or Blu Ray compressor. For that you should be using a lossless output.

The best way to go is to open up your AE project directly in Adobe Media Encoder and pick a default setting for your desired audience. If you want HD for the web then use Apple TV or You Tube HD. You'll end up with a variable bit rate between 5 and 7 or 8 and 9, and 2 pass compression. If you want to go directly to BluRay then use that option, but personally I find that compressing for Blu Ray works a lot better if you do it in Encore.

If you're wanting to archive the video or use it in another production then pick a lossless or nearly lossless format like Apple ProREZ or Black Magic, or even a PhotoJpg QT or AVI set to 90% quality.

You cannot expect single pass compression at a data rate of 3 Mbps to give you a quality image in an HD frame size. It just can't be done. That's barely an acceptable data rate for SD.

[Guest]

So that would explain it, my bitrate, what do you think the bitrate should be.

Im done in production it is at its final stage, and lossless is terrible, because the AVI file was around 100GB...

The only reason Im doing this in H.264 format is because thats what my camcorder uses and I thought it was a good format to use for HD.

I dont want to put it on disc, however wish to store it on my hard drive and eventually upload it to Youtube,'

I will try Encoder! Ill get back to you.

[Guest]

great, Media Encoder won't open?!?

It stops loading at ImporterRED.prm

[Rick Gerard]

Try rebooting your system. If AME still won't launch try a re-install. Do you have a suite or just AE?

[Guest]

AME still doesn't open when I updated it... but it's ok. Thanks for everyone's help, I changed some render settings and it looks perfect, got them from a YouTube video!

[Guest]

These were my new settings for anyone having the smae problem..

FORMAT:  H.264 (Include BOTH Project Link & Source XMP Metadata)

VIDEO OUTPUT (default settings):

Channels: RGB

Color: Premultiplied (Matted)

Codec: MainConcept H.264 Video

Profile: High

Level: 5.1

Bitrate Encoding: CBR

Bitrate [Mbps]: 8

SIZE:

1920 x 1080 (100%)

AUDIO OUTPUT:

48 kHz/Stereo

[thecarsonhunter]

@Blackrider_99, much thanks for posting this. Was having the same problem and using your settings worked perfectly!

[jesterfilms]

First, before you open AE.

Press Command+Option+Shift together and press after effects icon to open.

This actually will reset all your previous settings to default.

Create new composition and without touching any settings import your camera footage H.264 format.

After effects will create by it self the right settings.

Don't go into project settings. Leave them as they are.

Go to Edit/Templates/Output Module

Defaults (Make sure they are the following)

Movie Default: H.264

Frame Default: Lossless

RAM Preview: Lossless

Pre-Render Default: Lossless

Movie proxy Default Lossless

Settings

Settings Name H.264

Save all and close

Do your editing to your footage, color correction or whatever has to be done, than...

When you add your composition to Render Queue down low to Output Module press the yellow text H.264

When the Output Module setting box is opened on your right side at the video output section it says FORMAT OPTIONS.

Press it than go to Mbs/bitrate settings and move the sliders to about 27 or 30.

Maximum Bitrate 27

Target Bitrate     27

Close it and you re good to go.

Render a few frames from your working are to make sure the problem has been solved first. If yes than render the whole thing.

[Navarro_Parker]

Compressing h264 at 30mbit/sec is ridiculously high.

Follow the earlier suggestion and render to an uncompressed or lightly compressed interim format. And try Handbrake. It's an incredibly efficient h264 encoder. It has a visual quality slider that's super easy to use. You don't have to worry about bitrates or profiles or levels or any of that stuff. The default of Quality 20 is fine for most material.

[glhello]

Handbrake gave me vastly superior results. Thanks for the tip!

[Sophia Ann5C4A]

hello! how to use handbrake btw?

[Joanna Bronson]

Hey there!!

So Im having a simlar issue. I'm woring with footage that was shot in 6K and sized to 3840x1920. FIRST time working with soething this big. It's a proof of concept and for festival. I do have the suite however can't run dynamic between After effects and Premiere because my computer is older ( will need to update soon see specs below). Therefore, I can't use Media Encoder with After Effects. But it does work with Premiere. Current workflow is: edited/color corrected in Premiere, then exported videos that needed overlays of animation to AE. Made composition for each based off exported premiere shots. In AE imported Illustrator Vector Files. Animated said files over the live footage and have the adaptive res & motion blur on. The graphics look clean and perfect in AE when in motion but when I render out and try to bring back into premiere some of the lines look pixelated also when I openthe video files on desktop ( not blurry but wavy?? like moire effect pls see images). An editor said the the 1.5 line stroke in the vector I'm using could be the issue. So I made the lines thicker 3pt. Any thicker I'm not crazy about the look. However i'm still having the issue. Render settings below.

1. Is it the render settings?

2. Am I crazy and it could be the monitors I'm working off of? Insignia: 2x 32" LED screen. (on some screens I dont see the issue) I also noticed that if I open the video on my desktop and then try to shrink the viewing screen the graphics get way worse. NOT the image though. Image is still beautiful. IS this something that regularly happens with bigger formats? Because these file formats are all 3840x1920.

ANY ideas are welcomed. It is my first time doing something like this project.  Thank you so much for your time. 

Render settings:

Lossless, Best Settings, Premultiplied, RGB, 48khz, 16 bit, 3840x1920

Computer:

macOS Mojave V10.14.6 (highest it can go) 2x3.06GHz 6-core Intel Xeon, Memory 48GB 1333 MHz DDR3, Graphics: Radeon RX 580 8GB

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