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papayasusie
Participant
November 13, 2019
Question

issues with exporting/rending my animation to .mov

  • November 13, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 534 views

I'm having issues with exporting/rending my animation. I do not know what is going on, but when I finally get my animation to .mov and open it with QuickTime an error pops up saying "The file is not compatible with quicktime player". I am very confused because this is how I usually export/render my animation project, so that I can then open it in photoshop and make a gif. I can't seem to figure out how to get it to .mov and then to photoshop anymore. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

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2 replies

Warren Heaton
Community Expert
Warren HeatonCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 14, 2019

Sounds like you're rendering to Best Settings Lossless in After Effects and running macOS 10.15 Catalina.

 

Change the Lossless template from Animation to Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) and you'll be back to being able to playing your movies in QuickTime Player as expected.

 

For what it's worth, Apple deprecated QuickTime as a system driver for time based media back in 2013 in favor of AV Foundation Frameworks.  As of the currrent macOS, that system driver is gone.  What's tricky is that the QuickTime file format (.mov) stayed around; however, you need to be using one of the modern CODECs like Apple ProRes, H264 or H265 for playback in the Finder and in QuickTime Player (which probably should have been renamed AV Foundation Frameworks Player).

 

You'll probably notice that your movie files still open and play in After Effects and Premiere Pro.  Thankfully, Adobe picked up where Apple left off to support many common QuickTime formats directly.

Jose Panadero
Community Expert
Jose PanaderoCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 13, 2019

What codec are you using inside your .mov render file in After Effects?

R
Community Expert
Rick GerardCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 13, 2019

Check out the rendering tutorials in the Learning resources available on the Home Screen of After Effects. You will be sent here: Learn AE

 

Until you become an expert in compression and formats avoid creating your own custom settings. 

Warren Heaton
Community Expert
Warren HeatonCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 14, 2019

As of the release of macOS 10.15 Catalina, the long standing "Lossless" Output Module is out-of-date.  Custom Apple ProRes422 settings are needed on the AE side while Adobe Media Encoder has Apple ProRes presest for QuickTime ready to go.

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