Basics Of Rendering And Exporting - Adobe 12040118 - After Effects Standard Tutorial

Basics of rendering and exporting

Rendering and exporting overview
Supported output formats
Render and export with the Render Queue panel
Collect files in one location
Specify filenames and locations for rendered output
Render settings
Output modules and output module settings
Encoding and compression options for movies
QuickTime (MOV) encoding and compression settings
Post-render actions
Render with OpenGL
Rendering and exporting overview
Rendering is the creation of the frames of a movie from a composition. The rendering of a frame is the creation of a composited two-dimensional
image from all of the layers, settings, and other information in a composition that make up the model for that image. The rendering of a movie is
the frame-by-frame rendering of each of the frames that make up the movie. For more information on how each frame is rendered, see Render
order and collapsing transformations.
Though it is common to speak of rendering as if this term only applies to final output, the processes of creating previews to show in the Footage,
Layer, and Composition panels are also kinds of rendering. In fact, it is possible to save a RAM preview as a movie and use that as your final
output. (See Preview video and audio.)
After a composition is rendered for final output, it is processed by one or more output modules that encode the rendered frames into one or more
output files. This process of encoding rendered frames into files for output is one kind of exporting.
Note: Some kinds of exporting don't involve rendering and are for intermediate stages in a workflow, not for final output. For example, you can
export a project as an Adobe Premiere Pro project by choosing File > Export > Adobe Premiere Pro Project. The project information is saved
without rendering. In general, data transferred through Dynamic Link is not rendered.
A movie can be made into a single output file (such as a movie in an F4V or FLV container) that contains all of the rendered frames, or it can be
made into a sequence of still images (as you would do when creating output for a film recorder).
Aharon Rabinowitz provides an introduction to rendering in his "What is Rendering?" video tutorial—part of the Multimedia 101 series on the
Creative COW website.
The Render Queue panel
The primary way of rendering and exporting movies from After Effects is through the Render Queue panel. (See Render and export with the
Render Queue panel.)
Important: You do not need to render a movie multiple times to export it to multiple formats with the same render settings. You can export
multiple versions of the same rendered movie by adding output modules to a render item in the Render Queue panel.
In the Render Queue panel, you can manage several render items at once, each with its own render settings and output module settings. Render
settings determine such characteristics as output frame rate, duration, resolution, and layer quality. Output module settings—which are applied
after render settings—determine such post-rendering characteristics as output format, compression options, cropping, and whether to embed a link
to the project in the output file. You can create templates that contain commonly used render settings and output module settings.
Using the Render Queue panel, you can render the same composition to different formats or with different settings, all with one click of the Render
button:
You can output to a sequence of still images, such as a Cineon sequence, which you can then transfer to film for cinema projection.
You can output using lossless compression (or no compression) to a QuickTime container for transfer to a non-linear editing (NLE) system
for video editing.
You can output to H.264 or another highly compressed format for playback on mobile devices such as mobile phones or the Apple iPod.
You can output to MPEG-2 for playback from DVD.
Note: To transfer the output rendered from After Effects to film or video, you must have the proper hardware for film or video transfer, or have
access to a service bureau that can provide transfer services.
The Adobe Media Encoder
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