Animate/Media Encoder. Pulling my hair out.

[Dazzer_21]

I already asked a similar question, but I can't get my head around the responses. So I'm now reverting to this: can someone please PLEASE provide me with an actual workflow for this? The settings I am using are clearly not working. I am using Adobe Animate to produce simple 2D build up animations for a retailer. The file is set up as a portrait 1080p (1080x1920px) canvas. The problem is that looking at the artwork file compared to the finished .mov file after it has been exported as "video/media" and fed through Media Encoder, the difference is night and day. The finished .mov item is unacceptably blurry and the colours aren't as vivid. If I export the Animate file as a "movie", the resulting .swf file is nice and sharp. The format being asked for is a Quicktime .mov with H.264 encoding. So: what preset should I use on export from Animate (currently Format: Quicktime; Preset: H264 Match Source High Bitrate)? As far as Media Encoder presets go, I'm completely in the dark. I haven't used it before as this is the first time I've needed to produce files of this type. It was all going so well up until the file translation bit! ANY help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

[kglad]

some presets are definitely better than others.  after clicking on quicktime in ame, you're presented with the preset menu in the export settings panel.  clicking each preset shows the initial frame of your source on the left side of the ame panel.  click different presets to see how they change the output appearance on the left side.  select the one that looks best to you.

[Mario_CR]

The format you chose should be fine enough.

What's your stage resolution? If you think the output looks blurry, increase the stage size in Animate which in turn will increase the resolution of the video (for a portrait 1080p video, stage size should be 1920×1080 px). You can also increase render size from the export video/media dialog.

Also do not compare the SWF output sharpness with rasterized video. The SWF is still using vector data and so it will always look sharper.

[Dazzer_21]

It is set up to the correct size (1080x1920). It should reproduce like the SWF file - regardless of whether the on-screen items are vectors or not, they are still being viewed on the same bitmapped screen at the same resolution. The images are being blurred so badly, even upping the canvas by double (2160x3840) and scaling down when encoding isn't solving it - the vectors are still blurring.

[kglad]

did you try different presets?

[Dazzer_21]

I've spent far too long trying far too many presets and the results are the same each time! I just want to hear it from someone who does this sort of thing all the time that there is a definitive set of presets they use that get consistently good results...

[kglad]

good luck.

[Mario_CR]

I just want to hear it from someone who does this sort of thing all the time...

I am that person and I can't reproduce the issue on my end, the resolution and framerate are based on the source, bitrate is 10-15Mbps which is more than enough for 1080p and I can confirm that the pixel density is correct with the aforementioned preset (Quicktime H.264 Match Source High Bitrate).

Could you share your file via google drive link to check and compare? If privacy is a concern you can send me a DM by clicking on my name.

[Dazzer_21]

I've dropped Media Encoder altogether now. I simply export video/media as a .mov file and drop it into Movavi and the end result is perfect. I don't know why ME had to prove to be so problematic. Animate could do with a complete UI overhaul as well.

[Mario_CR]

As mentioned earlier I would've liked to test this file to compare render results with different presets.

To me, the proposed solution doesn't make sense given that you're still exporting a video for transcoding and it's...unlikely you're getting a better result from an already rasterized source.