In this After Effects tutorial I’ll show you how to render and export from After Effects to different video format, obviously there is a lot of ways to render for specific medium so I am going to keep me straight forward and show you the render settings that are the most used.

Below are the are multiple render options you might be interested in, just click on the one you need.

Note: When you render make sure you export/save the file on your computer first, do not render on a server or external hard drive it will delay your rendering.

Send your composition to the render queue panel.

For the beginners below an animated screenshot of  how I send  my finished composition to the render queue window.
1 – Select your composition
2 – Drag your composition to the Render Queue Window Panel. You can also go to File > Export > Add to Render Queue.

Render Keyboard shortcut
Select you composition then use the shortcut below
MAC: shift + command + /
PC: shift + ctrl + /

export-composition-to-render-queue


How to render a high resolution video in After Effects ?

Once your are done with your After Effects animation sometime video editors or production company require you to send a high-res of your animation.

Below I will show the best After Effects render setting for 1080p video with no loss in quality.

Note: Make sure you have enough space on your hard drive before you render (the video will take a lot of space.).

1 – Drag your Composition to the Render Queue Window.
2 – Click on Lossless

3 – On the Format choose Quicktime

4 – In the video Output area click on Format Option 

5 – Now Select Animation and hit the OK button

6 – Do you need sound or not ? click on the audio output if you need the sound off

7 – Click OK again to close the output module setting window.
8 – Now select your destination folder by clicking on Comp1

9 – Click on the Render button

Note: Instead of “Animation” you can also render in Apple ProRes 422 (LT) or Apple ProRes 4444 ( include alpha channel) but you will need a Mac computer, base on my past experience Animation format works 99% of the time with client.

How to Render in After Effect with a Transparent Background

Render with a transparent is fairly easy, you just need to make sure that no background or layers are interfering.

Follow the steps below

1 – First check your composition and make sure it has a transparent background by clicking on this icon:

2 – Drag your Composition to the Render Queue Window.
3 – Click on Lossless

3 – On the Format choose Quicktime

4 – In the video Output area click on Format Option 

5 – Now Select Animation and hit the OK button

6 – In Channels drop down menu choose RGB + Alpha (this will make your video with an Alpha Channel/Transparent)

7 – Do you need sound or not ? click on the audio output if you need the sound off

8 – Click OK again to close the output module setting window.
9 – Now select your destination folder by clicking on Comp1

10 – Click on the Render button

Note: “Animation” or “Apple ProRes 4444” are able to render with an Alpha Channel.
You can’t render an MP4 with an alpha channel.


How to render from After Effects to MP4

Believe it or not the latest After Effects render queue can’t render directly to an MP4 file!
In After Effects you will have to export to Adobe media encoder or use another software to convert video file to an MP4 video.

Below are 2 options to export your After Effects composition to an mp4 video format.

Option 1 – Adobe Media EncoderM

1. Make sure you have Adobe Media Encoder installed from your Adobe Cloud Account or download the free trial version.

2. In After Effects, select your desired Composition in the Project panel window

3. Then click on File >  Export > Add to Adobe Media Encoder Queue… 
Or use the shortcut below
Win:   Ctrl + Alt + M
MAC:  Option+Command+M

4. You should see this opening Adobe Media Encoder Screen starting

5. Now in the Queue panel your composition should appear.
Adobe Encoder Window panel mp4

6. Make sure the Format is dropdown set to H.264, these are the specific settings should have,
obviously you can edit and optimize it to reduce the mp4 file size.

7. Click on the green play button icon to render to mp4 video format.
Adobe Encoder Window panel mp4

Option 2 – HandBrake

Now if you want to convert any video to mp4 for free, HandBrake is a pretty awesome software that allow you to convert your videos.
The best of all is that it is for both MAC or PC download it here

1. First in After Effects render your composition to an Quicktime mov file, if you don’t know how I have explained it above in detail click here 

2. Now that you have your mov file ready, start HandBrake

3. Once you have dragged your mov file you should see this

4. By default the format drop down should be MP4,
5. Simply click on browse to define where to save your mp4
6. Click on Start Encode
7. Done! you should have your mp4 video ready to upload anywhere!

Conclusion

Knowing how to render in After Effects is one of the most important part of a project, you can have the most beautiful animation but if the rendering part is done incorrectly you might end up with a video that have glitches, blurriness and grain and pixelization. If you have any rendering question please drop a comment below.