File size 20 times larger?

Question

When I export a 2-minute long MP4 file in 1620x1080 (with audio) using a different 2D animation software, the file size is 9 MB. The video is crisp and sharp, and it sounds great.
 
When I export a 2-minute long MP4 file in 1620x1080 from PP the file size is 176 MB, nearly 20 times larger. It won't even stream from my company's SharePoint site.
 
If I use "Adaptive Low Bitrate" to Export from PP, it drops it down to 166 MB.  
 
The file size as exported from Character Animator (the source) is 213 MB in size at "High Quality." When I drop it down to "Medium Quality," the file size shrinks down to about 40% of "High Quality." 
 
Can someone please explain how I can retain a crisp, sharp picture and end up with a small file size? (Like that other animation software I use.)
 
Thank you!

Kevin-Monahan · Accepted Answer

My apologies, @Tim27898261hm38. I misread your post. I thought you had found a solution. I unmarked it as correct for now. I hope the community can help you solve this one.

As Matt said, if you want to use a specific frame size and codec, you need to adjust the bitrate. You can try a bitrate lower than the preset provided and then test the results.

You can also set a limit for file size. Here's a tutorial:

If you can, please report back with any results. Sorry for the hassle. Have a great weekend!

Thanks,
Kevin

mattchristensen · Answer

Hello, @Tim27898261hm38,Thanks for the post. The first question is – which codec is your other 2D software exporting to? You mentioned MP4, but that can contain either:H.264 aka AVC – older, will have larger files for a given visual qualityH.265 aka HEVC – newer, will have smaller files for a given visual quality Open the video in Premiere Pro and right click > Properties to see this, or check in QuickTime player or some other media player app. This is important because H.265/HEVC can get a similar visual quality to H.264 with roughly half the file size. So if your 2D software is exporting H.265/HEVC and in Premiere Pro you are exporting H.264, it's not a fair comparison. Once you've settled on which codec you're using, the main lever you have to control file size is the bitrate. Smaller bitrate means smaller file size but also less visual quality. You mentioned some of the presets in Premiere Pro that do change the bitrate, but you can dig into the video export settings (click the More...) button, and get down to an actual slider for the bitrate control. So, it's possible the bitrates you have been exporting from Premiere Pro are just way too high for the type of content you have (animation can often get away with lower bitrates than real-world footage). I hope that helps – let me know what you find! Sorry for the frustration. Thank you.

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