Add back rendering support for H264 codec directly out of AE

[vanessaa28291406]

Around 2012 you removed the option for rendering a .mp4 file directly out of AE. Please add it back. The work around is to either render in a different codec and compress that in media encoder, or to launch the render directly from media encoder from AE (which is extremely slow and cumbersome, especially when you have large/complex project files). Not sure why removing functionality seemed like a good idea at the time...?

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

@david Simonton - Exporting h.264 from the media encoder results in colors that do not match what is shown in the composition. They look much more saturated. It's a color space issue and currently there is no way to manage colors in Media Encoder. I never experienced this problem with the old render que option. It's a problem when you've got clients demanding very specific color values. The work around is to de-saturate colors in the comp then guess what the results will be after rendering. No one should have to do this though, it's ridiculous.

[yeah_corey]

Why hasn't After Effects made some kind of statement regarding this? Offered an alternative workflow? Anything?

[montevsimard]

This is an especially important issue for freelancers who may not have or may not be able to install AME on the computers provided to them. H.264 is still an ideal WIP codec, and it can be painful to budgets and to sanity to force users to wait on AME when it still feels like the Dynamic Link from AE to AME is at beta quality at best.

[PanBeep]

@Victoria Nece
What is the reason the H264 files are not rendered directly out of AE and people has to use ME?

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

for parallel rendering of several projects from the command line or terminal. Especially for this, I wrote a script. and now it is useless.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

You can use https://aescripts.com/aftercodecs/ you will have a better quality or lower filesize than Adobe's H264 and directly into AE native render queue

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Adobe should buy out After Codecs and integrate it. This is like showing up to a 5 star restaurant and finding out that it's BYO cutlery...

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Media Encoder workflow from AE works fine for me now, just need getting used to a bit.

[dsapadin]

No H.264 in AE Render Engine anymore? Whaddya nuts????

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Por favor, habilitem o codec H.264 no After Effects, o Dynamic Link vive dando problemas, e eu acabo tendo que renderizar duas vezes meu vídeo (uma em .mov no After e outra em .MP4 no Premiere). Esse Dynamic Link presta para nada, ao transferir o vídeo para o Media Encoder, o Dynamic Link fica carregando e não funciona a renderização! Esse bug está atrasando minha vida, seria mil vezes melhor ter o codec H.A64 no After para renderizar direot em .mp4

[prowl]

What people don't seem to get that is if you export to the ME Render Queue you can carry on working...

There are some features in the AE queue that are missing from the ME - Queue I think.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Adobe with every version tries hard to users leave adobe suite. This is most stupid thing i've ever seen. Oh, no! the most stupid thing in AE for example was not support professional graphics cards and not follow standards in graphic industry. Sick leftist minds!

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I'm seriously looking for and alternative to the whole suite, this codec issue has been going on for years, Support has no clue how to fix and they just leave you hanging, I can't export .mov files without the h.264 codec preset for quicktime, this is so frustrating

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Yes, I want the H.264 MP4 NOT Quicktime back. It's annoying to use Media Encoder.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

In CS6 we had the H.264 MP4 option, it was BEAUTIFUL. I just compared a H264 MP4 from CS6 with a Quicktime MOV H264 in CC 2017, and MP4 was reaaaallly better quality and size.

Now in CC 2018 we have not even Quicktime H264... Frustrating.

[yeah_corey]

Adobe you are absolutely blowing it. I’m at a major studio and am trying to render and I can’t because of this. We can’t update to the latest AE because the studio isn’t able to update to windows 10 for some probably very legitimate reasons. Now I hear you are implementing some sort of legal thing where you can sue for using older versions of software? Unbelievable.

[ヤマダイ]

Please restore the mp4 (h.264 format) direct export feature that was possible in previous versions.

It is possible to send to and export from AME even under current conditions.I feel inconvenient because I can not give out what I was able to release freely.

In the current version with Ae's render queue function, it is easy for users to be able to export directly.

以前のバージョンで可能だったmp4(h.264形式)の直接書き出し機能を戻してほしい。

現状でもAMEに送り書き出すことは可能ですが、気軽に出せていたものが出せなくなり不便に感じます。Aeのレンダーキュー機能がある現行バージョンでは直接書き出しができる事がユーザーにとっては手軽です。

[iusebiro]

It's an extra purchase, but https://aescripts.com/aftercodecs/ is excellent. And does exactly this and more.

[ヤマダイ]

Thank you!
but.We want Japanese users to be equipped with standard features....

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Please return direct export to H264. It's a working tool for me. Thanks!

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

While it's true that you should not use H264 as a production format, in the real world you share preview renders with clients and superiors that don't need to be excellent quality. Quick H264 export from After Effects was perfect for this. Now, if you just want your art director to take a look at an edit of ******-quality playblasts, you need to render them lossless - totall overkill - and compress them afterwards. Super annoying extra step.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Ferdi did you have a look at AfterCodecs ? https://autokroma.com/AfterCodecs/

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Hey Antoine, yes, I have! I think it's a great plugin, but I don't really see why I have to spend extra money to use a basic export feature.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Looks like Adobe needs some advanced AI algorithms to bring it back.... or maybe they spent all their money on Tiffany Haddish wage and have no more budget for this. 😛

[yairk73580408]

H264 is still the most widely used codec & the lack of exporting it straight from AE is hallucinatory,
There is a free AE plugin similar to After codecs called voukoder which evolves quickly & contains many HW acceleration encodings.
https://www.voukoder.org/