H264 After Effects 2020

Learn how to create H.264, MPEG-2, and WMV videos using Adobe Media Encoder

Jun 04, 2020 Premiere Pro has supported H.264/H.265 hardware encoding for a long time, but it was limited to Intel CPUs that supported Quicksync. In the new 14.2 version, Adobe has added GPU-based hardware encoding that supports most modern GPUs from both NVIDIA and AMD. #AfterEffects #H.264 #Videoeditingtricks Update:For all of you who are still having the same issue, kindly watch the latest tutorial and I hope this might he.

After Effects CC 2014 (13.0) and later do not include exporters for creating H.264, MPEG-2, and WMV videos directly from the render queue. To create videos in these formats, you can use Adobe Media Encoder.

Solved: In After Effects version 15.1, Quicktime H.264 codec is missing and according to Adobe as of this version it is no longer support H.624 on Windows.

Note:

You can still import videos in these formats into After Effects.

Adobe Media Encoder is effective for creating files in final delivery formats because of its Preset Browser and easy-to-use system for creating, saving, sharing, and applying encoding presets. Using the Effects tab settings, you can automatically add watermarks, timecode overlays, and so on. You have two primary options for using Adobe Media Encoder with After Effects to create videos in H.264, MPEG-2, and WMV formats:

Render and export a losslessly encoded master file out of After Effects to a watch folder monitored by Adobe Media Encoder.
Send the composition directly to Adobe Media Encoder from After Effects (Composition > Add To Adobe Media Encoder Queue).

Note:

If you still need to create videos in these formats from the After Effects render queue, install After Effects CC (12.2.1) alongside After Effects CC 2014 (13.0) or later, and use the previous version for these specific output tasks.

Render and export a losslessly encoded master file

The fastest way to create videos in these formats is to use the After Effects render queue to export a losslessly encoded master file (for example, using the PNG video codec in a QuickTime .mov container file) to a watch folder that Adobe Media Encoder monitors. You can assign encoding presets to a watch folder in Adobe Media Encoder so that it automatically encodes using whichever settings you specify.

Advantage: This method uses After Effects performance features for rendering (such as GPU acceleration and multiprocessing where applicable) and Adobe Media Encoder performance features for encoding (such as parallel encoding).
Disadvantage: This method occupies the main After Effects application for the entire rendering operation, during which time you can’t use After Effects for anything else.

Send the composition directly to Adobe Media Encoder

Another method to create videos in these formats is to directly add the composition from After Effects to the Adobe Media Encoder queue. This method allows you to continue working in After Effects while the rendering and encoding takes place, since the rendering is performed by a background instance of After Effects. The rendering phase may be slower in some cases (compared with using the After Effects render queue) because the headless version of After Effects rendering in the background does not have access to GPU acceleration and multiprocessing features.

Note:

If you place an After Effects project (.aep) file in a watch folder that is being monitored by Adobe Media Encoder, the compositions at the top level in the project (i.e., those not in folders in the Project panel) will automatically be added to the Adobe Media Encoder encoding queue.

Part 2: How to Export After Effects as H.264 Video

What should be the best alternative if you cannot export After Effects project to MP4 directly? Whether you render to QuickTime format and use H.264 for the codec, or render it normally in AVI format, you can convert the video files to MP4 videos.

Step 1 When you have made the creation, you can head to the Composition menu and choose the Add to Render Queue option to export the projects of Adobe Effects to H.264 videos.

Step 2 Click the blue text to open the Output Module option. After that, you can change the Format as QuickTime. Open the Format Options menu list. Under the Video tab, change the Video Codec to H.264 and set Quality to 100.

Step 3 Now you can name the project file and choose the destination folder before clicking the Save button. Click the Render button to render After Effects project to H.264 movies to QuickTime instead of MP4.

Note: If you have already installed the Adobe Media Encoder, you can choose the same H.264 files to MP4 files. Actually, both MOV and MP4 enables you to playback the After Effects videos on your iPhone.

You may need: How to convert MOV to MP4

Part 3: Best Method to Convert After Effects Output to MP4

Even if you use the Adobe Media Encoder, you might not able to export MP4 in After Effects as desired. In order to customize the MP4 videos for your device, such as Xbox, Samsung Galaxy or other, Tipard Mac Video Converter Ultimate is the desired MP4 converter that enables you to convert the video formats, tweak the parameters and editing the videos with ease.

1. Convert the After Effects output files to MP4, Android phone and more.
2. Basic video editing features to rotate, clip, merge and apply video effects.
3. Support converting video to 4K MP4 and 1080P MP4 with high quality.
4. Provide different method to enhance the video quality during conversion.

Step 1 Download and install the MP4 converter, launch the program on your MacBook. Click the Add File button to load the After Effects exported videos you want to convert into the program.

Step 2 Choose the MP4, 4K MP4 or even the device type from the Profile menu. When you want to convert After Effects videos to a desired MP4, you can click the Settings to tweak the parameters.

Step 3 Of course, you can also trim the video, merge different clips and even apply effects. When you get a satisfied output file, you can click the Convert button to convert the output of After Effects to MP4.

Part 4: FAQs about Export MP4 in After Effects

Why Media Encoder Not a Nice Option to Export MP4 in After Effects?

If you have already installed the Adobe Media Encoder, you might not able to export MP4 in After Effects for a certain device. When you have another conversion for the rendered MP4, it might lose more video quality. Moreover, your Android phone or iPhone might not able to play the MP4 files from the Media Encoder.

What are the Differences between MP4 and H.264?

H.264 is only a video codec, which is different from the MP4 video container. Of course, the codec is directly related to the video quality. The H.264 video codec can be used in an MP4, MOV, as well as other popular video files. When you want to save After Effects project as MP4, H.264 is a nice choice you can take into consideration.

Why It Takes Forever to Render After Effects to MP4?

When there is not enough RAM for your computer, it might take a long time to render After Effects to MP4. Here are some tips to render the files with ease, clean out the cache, render intermediates to native codec, render individual layers and combine to master, and you can also convert the videos with Tipard Video Converter Ultimate or other video converters.