Problems rendering video at small banner sizes

[Stephen Barrante]

Our project requires that we can export our animations at several smaller form Banner sizes. The first comp that we've setup is 300 x 600. Historically we are usually able to export content at just about any size, within the limitations of the codec (e.g. a movie not too large for mp4 container, etc...).

We have not be successful rendering our comp to actual size. Each time it exports it hits a modified minimum size of 384 x 768. Even though the file metadata indicates the size is 300 x 600, which is the size of our original comp. We have tried multiple codecs and methods. For example, through both AME and AE directly, Lossless Animation, ProRes, H264, and they all result in a video that is forced to scale. This is as you would expect causing pixelation and quality issues.

I also tried a brand new project, simple comp set at Full Quality (as were the others), some basic text animations. Rendered out a few seconds, with the same results.

At a loss here, because this is completely unexpected. I hope this isn't part of one of those Quicktime "changes". Appreciate any help on this one, thank you.

[Dave_LaRonde]

If you're running an updated AE version, it IS one of those Quicktime changes.  Download and use CC 2017 for this.

And be sure to thank Adobe for dropping QT support.

I happen to work for the owner of the most TV stations on Planet Earth.  The Home Office refuses to allow CC 2018 on company machines.  What does that tell you about CC 2018?

[Kevin-Monahan]

Dave,

And be sure to thank Adobe for dropping QT support.

As I understand it, QT32 based codecs are simply not supported for macOS in the very near future for all applications, not just Adobe applications. 64 bit custom created QuickTime codecs created by Adobe are still supported, which covers most post scenarios.

True, it's painful to make this transition away from certain QT32 era codecs, but we all have to face it at some point if one wishes to continue using macOS.

However looking at the big picture: your suggestion to complain to Adobe about "dropping QuickTime" is misdirected, in my opinion. Apple is the one discontinuing support for these formats. We are just updating our software to meet the OS requirement for our partners.

Regards,
Kevin

[Roland Kahlenberg]

Your version of AE and OS will be useful and as Dave suggest, take a look at an earlier version of AE for a resolution.

[Stephen Barrante · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the quick responses all. It definitely pushed us to try a few more things.

It's a convoluted mess right now. But we discovered that we actually are getting the render out of 2018 OK, and it's Quicktime Player that's messing the size. The one thing I hadn't tried was to import the clip back into AE to see if it is in fact at the wrong size, and it is currently showing up at 300 x 600. The million dollar question will be if this works when embedded in a webpage as a banner. If we run into issues with that, I'll update the post.