hello all, I'm new both to the forum and After Effects, so thanks in advance for any help.
I have a 2min:25sec animation in AE. I would like to render it out as H.264 mp4 but the file size is at best 38MB. I have dropped the bitrate to 2.5min 5max.
I believe a colleague produced exactly the same file (different animation) and their final file is only 2.9MB !
Any tips on how to achieve this please? (the are almost exact same file, some different type)
That's extremely unlikely. A heavily compressed JPEG at HD resolution has sometimes more data in a single image than your alleged colleague's whole 2 minute file. That is, unless his file has the size of a thumbnail/ post stamp vs. you're being a regular HD resolution or whatever. Other than that, even if this weren't the case, the mere mention of "different animation" is an indicator that it may simply not be possible to compress your content as efficiently. Due to how MPEG compression works it is simply highly adaptive and can strongly vary based on the content. You could match every setting, yet the results will still be different. that's just how it is. So other than you using a different resolution I cannot see any realistic reason why there should be anything wrong or different, so by all means check that at least. Otherwise 38 MB for more than two minutes of footage really isn't that bad.
The biggest reduction in file size comes from reducing the frame rate and then by reducing the frame size. A 60 fps file is going to be twice as large as a 30 fps file. A 4K clip is going to be 4 times the file size as an HD Clip. All the Looney Toons cartoons were originally only 12 fps so depending on the project, you may be able to cut the frame rate in half, reduce the frame size, and reduce the frame rate and end up with an acceptable project that is less than 1/4 of the original file size. Just changing the compression rate isn't going to do that much for you. Maybe a 20% reduction in file size over the standard YouTube or Vimeo presets before the image starts to completely fall appart.
Thanks Rick. It is just animated text, blocks of colour and a logo. Could you recommend an ideal minimum frame rate for 1080p TV screen please? Thanks for your time, complete novice here...
29.97 is the NTSC standard for the US and any country that has 60Hz power. 25 is the PAL standard for all countries that have 50Hz power. All of the looney toons cartoons were done at 12 fps and recorded two frames for 1 and they look just fine.
On your idea or re-compressing in another app, that's a really bad idea, especially with line art on solid backgrounds. You can set the data rate way down in the AME and enable Multi Pass compression and end up with a very small file. The only problem with that is that if you send a file to YouTube or Vimeo that does not match their standards for frame size and data rate, they bring out the sledgehammer and re-compress it taking no regard for how it will look. If you want the best playback on YouTube or Vimeo you must use their standards. They re-compress everything, but you get a lot better job if you match their standards, to begin with. The farther off from the standards, the worse the compression looks.
So for anyone interested, my colleague returned from leave and I've found out the way it was done - she had taken the mp4 that was rendered by Media Encoder and then compressed further using an online video compressor to achieve the small file size.
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