Lowest possible video file size compatible for HD Screens in After Effects

[Jay-Designs]

Ok first off...

I have been searching for this answer for months, though there are similar discussions, no one really gets to the answer...

Please Note: If you are answering please do not explain why, rather give me the how and then I am set, I am not a video production guru, I am just a designer that needs my artwork/video to play on any HD Screen in the lowest possible size but at the highest possible quality...

Also I am not intending to be rude in any way, but I have been searching for months through forums and discussions but all I am getting are explations on why "Avi is bad, mp4 is this... etc."

I just need a step by step guide to do it.

That's it, just straight to the point please...

Hopefully I will be getting this after effects haunting out of the way for good.

[A.I.1]

If it's on any HD screen you might want it at 1280x720p but that won't give the best quality on 1080p screens (nor UHD screens).

I'm not sure whether every HD screen is compatible with 24 fps so you may want 1280x720p60 as that's a TV standard introduced when HD arrived in the US (as well as 1920x1080i30 - you could also try that). If 24 fps is compatible with most you might want to use that (though I don't think it is). US and other region TVs should be compatible with 1280x720p60 (even though European and Australian TV is normally 25 fps/50Hz).

I'd probably do a version at 1920x1080 as well though as that's what most currently on sale HD screens probably are though (with the UHD ones being 3840x2160).

Animate your artwork setting keyframes or whatever (you are best looking at After Effects beginners guides for things like importing files, moving things with keyframes). But for moving a layer you basically create a keyframe with the layer (eg. image) positioned at one position (x,y or for 3d, x,y,z) and at a different point in the timeline you can reposition it and create a new keyframe with the layer (eg. image) in a different position. After Effects will interpolate the positions inbetween (using whatever interpolation method you have in your preferences).

A .mp4 will be better, with a codec like H264 for the final rendered video because it's likely to be most compatible with TVs/players I think. Basically, after you've finished any animation in After Effects, you can select "Add to Media Encoder Queue" if you want to render it to the H264 codec. In Media Encoder make sure the settings are what you want in terms of bitrate etc. render quality (eg. "Use maximum render quality" checked), audio etc. and click the green triangular button to "Start Queue".

If the HDTV is old and it doesn't work with H264 you could try mpeg2 (but that will be either lower quality than h264 or need a higher bitrate to match the quality).

I'm assuming your going to be playing from a memory stick and not writing to a disc for this (if you are writing to a Blu-ray disc it would still likely be best as H264 either 1280x720p60 or 1920x1080i30 - for USA at least for the best compatibility - written with Blu-ray authoring software.

--

My recommendation though is to go through the After Effects beginner's tutorials first though so you know how After Effects works in terms of loading, keyframing, previewing, rendering etc.

[Mylenium]

I just need a step by step guide to do it.

If there were, you would have found it in all those months. I know it's not what you want to hear and I don't mean to be snarky, but like it or not, especially when dealing with compressed formats like H.264/ MP4 you have to get into the ugly and dirty details and simply put, nobody can tell you what "lowest possible size and best quality" in your case is supposed to mean. It's a broad, generic and vague sentence that opens up so many cans of worms. As far as AE and AME go, you can rely on the presets, but this really doesn't spare you from trying things out and building your own catalog of experience and gut feeling about what might work and what not. My 2 cents.

Mylenium

[Roei Tzoref]

Use AfterCodecs or Handbrake and get the x.264 that will give you better results and smallest file size in comparison to AME's H.264.

This is from AfterCodecs FAQ:

• x264 : best H264 / AVC implementation, outperforming both Adobe Media Encoder and QuickTime H264. A special easy-to-use Youtube Upload profile is provided.