Transparent export for proxy with compression

[Osanosa]

What format can I use to make transparent proxy with compression? Uncompressed takes too much space for my laptop's ram (I wish I could remove memory limit altogether, but it's not possible). I know I can do matte's, but 1/4 matte isn't looking pretty, and it's a hassle to juggle around

[Ishan Y]

Hey Osanosa,

Proxies with compression (like H.264 or HEVC) will likely be more intensive on your system's CPU and memory than proxies encoded in codecs with minimal compression. I recommend reducing your proxy frame size as much as you can. To the best of my knowledge,  there aren't any high-compression codecs that support alpha channels in After Effects.

Thanks,

Ishan

Please tag me (@) in your replies so that it notifies me and helps me respond promptly.

[Osanosa]

Limiting factor for me is my laptop's having 16gigs of RAM. I can barely fit just one uncompressed ¼ proxy, and I needed two. 

Tho AfterCodecs has a decent compressed codec with alpha support, cutting size good enough

[Rick Gerard]

I would use the High Quality with Alpha option in the Render Queue's Output Module presets. This will give you a high-quality video with transparency. It will be smaller and more modern than the file you get if you fiddle with the export formats on your own.

Any codec that supports RGB + Alpha channels will be larger than an H.264 or H.265 file, and those formats will only support RGB. You are stuck with a frame-based RGBA format.

You don't have to preview at full resolution, and After Effects is not a video editing app. It is used to create shots you cannot create in an NLE. If you are putting a lot of shots together in a long comp I suggest that you pre-render your comps using the Composition menu, then do the final editing in Premiere Pro.