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akhilac53944127
Participant
June 19, 2015
Answered

How to render a file as MP4 in AE CC 2015

  • June 19, 2015
  • 4 replies
  • 161017 views

Hi

I want to know how to render a file as MP4 in After effects after the 2015 upgrade that happened yesterday

Regards

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Rick Gerard

    You have to use the Adobe Media Encoder. It's been that way since CC 2014

    4 replies

    B
    Brad L.
    Known Participant
    May 18, 2017

    I render to MP4 in AE all the time using the latest CC. Currently 2017.2 Release. We use it for quick disposable client or producer versions. They look great. Playback great on the crappiest of PCs and are small enough to transfer around the network quickly. Granted they are not H.264 with all the bells and whistles. In AE as Quicktime, HD MPEG-4 Video set to Quality 100 looks pretty good for general client approval. I also use AME all the time for this too but just thought I'd mention it since this thread seems to say it can't or shouldn't be done anymore. BG Renderer is another reason to use it over AME if you have dozens of renders going.

    Lately, when I heading out for the night and cueing up renders I set each one with two output modules one for master quality and one for MP4 for viewing. Then I sent out emails to the producers to check the mp4's (from their office over the network) in the morning to see how they look. They would never be able to check the master file until they get into the edit suite. Keeps everybody moving and happy.

      Szalam
      Community Expert
      SzalamCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      May 18, 2017

      Since this thread has been re-awoken, I should point out the new tool on AE scripts that just came out called After Codecs. It not only lets you render MP4s directly out of AE (at lower bit rates/higher quality than AME according to their marketing material), but also lets Windows users render ProRes files out of AE too. Info here. I haven't used it yet, so I can't give a personal endorsement, but I did just buy it, so I'll likely be using it soon.

      B
      Brad L.
      Known Participant
      May 20, 2017

      Just looking at AfterCodecs. Looks pretty sweet. It uses the latest FFMpeg libraries. h.264, h.265 (8K res) and finally an easy windows way to create ProRes (Proxy, LT, Normal, HQ and 4444). Definitely going to be getting this. Wonder if you can save Output Templates with the settings you want saved. Hope so.

      Thanks for the heads up Szalam.

        Edward at overend
        Edward at overend
        Participating Frequently
        November 17, 2016

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxO0w4YYL7s - this helped me

        Roei Tzoref
        Roei Tzoref
        Legend
        November 17, 2016

        Oy vey. definitely DO NOT do that. yes you can technically create an H.264 file in an mp4 container in After Effects CC2014 and above, But the results are crap. this is an old, buggy, and pretty useless codec. the file will be 10X larger and with poor quality in comparison to rendering through AME.

          Edward at overend
          Edward at overend
          Participating Frequently
          December 1, 2016

          Thanks for the feed back

          M
          marcelamaldonado
          Participant
          October 18, 2016

          You can still to convert to .mp4 extension with Adobe Media Encoder selecting the option H.264.

          R
          Community Expert
          Rick GerardCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
          Community Expert
          June 19, 2015

          You have to use the Adobe Media Encoder. It's been that way since CC 2014

            imeilfx
            imeilfx
            Inspiring
            June 19, 2015

            As Rick said - you have to use Adobe Media Encoder to export mp4 file by using Composition/Add to Adobe Media Encoder render queue... that feature (exporting mp4 from AE directly was removed in CC 2014. Here you can find more info on that: using Adobe Media Encoder to create H.264, MPEG-2, and WMV videos from After Effects | After Effects region of interes…

              deanh47387717
              deanh47387717
              Participating Frequently
              August 25, 2016

              You would probably benefit from creating a watch folder for AME.

              You can set AME up (on a separate computer even) to watch some folders. Set your AE to render your intermediate (Cineform, DNxHD, QuickTime with PNG codec, etc.) into one of those watch folders and AME immediately creates your MP4's. Quite handy for a production environment with set specs for encoding as you describe.


              Sounds like good advice. Thanks!

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