5 Replies Latest reply on Jan 25, 2011 1:36 PM by Dave LaRonde

    New to AE- Compositions and rendering?

    happy_flower_973 Level 1
    happy_flower_973 Jan 22, 2011 11:50 AM

      I am making a video that is going to be projected at my school, on a large screen. It's going to be projected, not played on a screen. It needs to be playable in Itunes or Quicktime. Here is the thing, I have no idea what settings is best for this. What composition settings should be used, and what render settings? My past attempts have either resulted in a file size that is really big, or the quality is really poor.

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        • 1. Re: New to AE- Compositions and rendering?
          Todd_Kopriva Level 8
          Todd_Kopriva Employee Jan 22, 2011 12:10 PM (in response to happy_flower_973)

          For an overview of planning a project, see "Planning your work".

           

          First, find out what the dimensions (in pixels) the projected movie needs to be. 1920x1080? 720x480? Something else? Whatever the answer, make your composition dimensions match the required dimensions for the output.

           

          Next, find out what is going to be used to play the movie. You mentioned QuickTime Player. So, you'll probably want to render and export to a QuickTime (.mov) container. The H.264 video codec has pretty good compression to keep your file size down, so that might work. Try it.

           

          I'll repeat that last sentence: Try it.

           

          Render and export test movies and try them on the exact equipment that will be used on the big day. That is by far the best way to be sure. It eliminates all guesswork and speculation. You don't need to test with your finished movie. You can test with something representative, like an animated test pattern or a piece of stock footage that you have transcoded to your required specifications.

          • 2. Re: New to AE- Compositions and rendering?
            happy_flower_973 Level 1
            happy_flower_973 Jan 22, 2011 12:20 PM (in response to Todd_Kopriva)

            I tried redering with the H.264 format, and the file size was good, but when played in quicktime, it was just a black screen. I tried it with another comp, and it was pixelized and the colors were completely off.

            • 3. Re: New to AE- Compositions and rendering?
              Todd_Kopriva Level 8
              Todd_Kopriva Employee Jan 22, 2011 12:21 PM (in response to happy_flower_973)

              Then try something else.

              • 4. Re: New to AE- Compositions and rendering?
                Andrew Yoole MVP & Adobe Community Professional
                Andrew Yoole Jan 22, 2011 6:56 PM (in response to happy_flower_973)

                Determine the native resolution of your projector.  Make sure the playback computer is set to that resolution.  Render your content to the same resolution.

                 

                As mentioned in your other thread, please post more information about your comp settings and output settings for an assessment of your output problems.

                • 5. Re: New to AE- Compositions and rendering?
                  Dave LaRonde Level 6
                  Dave LaRonde Jan 25, 2011 1:36 PM (in response to happy_flower_973)

                  To add to what the other folks have said, the limitations of your playback device determine the size of your AE comp.

                  Does this projector have a limitation on size, or a preferred size?  You need to find out.

                  Does the playback software have a specified or preferred codec?  You need to find that out.

                   

                  The size of the screen a projector uses has no bearing on the size of your comp.  Think about this: you can watch a movie on a normal hand-held DVD player.  You can play that same DVD through a projector, and see it on the side of a house.  In either case, the DVD hasn't changed one bit: it's still 720x480 video.