Fastest way to render HUGE AE file?

[Liam Wiebe]

Hello

     I am making a very long tournament video (about 3-4 hours long). I probably shouldn't be using AE to work on this, but I know the workspace better and I need to make little changes here and there that I don't know how to do in Premiere Pro. but I digress. Once I'm finished, the file will be incredibly large, and I'm wondering what would be the best course of action to turn this beast of a project into a compressed mp4 (H.264) file.

     The file is comprised of a bunch of gameplay footage, repeated tournament brackets and end screens, etc. I don't want any motion blur, or to rasterize. I just want a smallish 720p mp4 file with acceptable quality and a FAST RENDER!

     Any suggestions? I have 6 days to render this thing out, is that possible?

[Roei Tzoref · Accepted solution]

I probably shouldn't be using AE to work on this

definitely.

something wrong with the equation of: long duration + compressed output = fast render.

I would recommend you make a lossless version first, so when you have that, you could experiment with different compressed setups and not have to re-render the whole thing.

the fastest lossless render is QT Animation, but it will take a lot of disk space. if you are on Mac go for ProRes 422(HQ) that is also fast and the size will be smaller. once you have that, take that file to AME and try different presets. render a small part to see how it goes and calculate approximately. in AME for H.264 you also have a estimated file size at the video settings and that's usually accurate. 

[Rick Gerard]

Each “small change” should be a separate composition that is only as long as the small change. If you need to fix 20 frames, then make a 20 frame long comp.

Editing is done in Premiere Pro and the UI and process is much easier to follow than it is in AE. A 3 or 4 hour video is, well frankly, nuts. You are probably adding days if not weeks to the production process. Use After Effects to create visual effects (fix) shots you cannot possibly fix or create in another app like Premiere Pro.

As for rendering speed, if your original footage is a compatible video codec PPro can re-render those frames very quickly. Only the frames that have some effects or fixes applied will slow down the render process. If you push those same frames through After Effects the unmodified frames will take much longer to render than the same unmodified frames in Premiere Pro. Depending on the source footage format they may take four or five times longer to render than they would if you were using Premiere.

Spend an hour learning the basics of editing in PPro, figure out exactly what frames you need top fix and use AE for that and you will have some free time to spend with your family or just take a nap.

[Dave_LaRonde]

Good luck rendering that out.  The maximum comp length in AE is 3 hours..... not to mention that this is something best done in Premiere Pro.  Bit the bullet, render individual AE comps out, import into PP and do your tweaks there.  Compared to AE, PP is pretty simple & intuitive, especially if you've used an NLE before.