Best export format for importing into After Effects or even back into Premiere

Please look at this video, work in progress.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49_wbdKALQk
The opening, featuring a ribbon of videos, was created in After Effects, using Digieffects Freeform.
The issue is the poor quality of the videos that are featured in the opening -- compared to the high quality of videos from the original Premiere project., which you can see at the end of the clip.
To create the After Effects project, I exported a series of video clips from Premiere to mp4.
Then I imported them into AfterEffects.
The bottom line, and the purpose of this question, is I am thinking that MP4 was not the best choice for the Adobe Premiere export.
What is the best format to export video from in Premiere Pro CS5 to import into after effects, or to import into any other editing program, incuding importing right back into Adobe Premiere, if that is eever needed.
AVI?
MOV
MP4
And any other settings that will result with the highest qualiity videos for importing.
Thanks

Okay, here's where I stand at this point regarding exporting and/or dynamic linking between AfterEffects and Premiere.
I'm in After Effects. I create a composition I like. So I first tried the old fashioned way. I exported it into a MOV file with the animation preset. Millions of colors. Same frame rate as my Premiere project, which also uses MOV files with no problem.
Howver when I import the MOV file created by After effects, the NEW MOV file section of the premier project plays sluggish. And it also causes the videos that follow to play sluggish. And they are all MOV files at the same frame rate.
The same thing happens when I do a dynamic link between the two projects. A sluggish response starting with the After Effects dynamic link and affecting the MOV video files that follow.
It's a very short After Effects composition. About 3 second slong.
I have a very powerful computer built especially for CS5 and premiere --so that should not be an issue -- recently was in the top ten of the benchmark list.
Up to this point my video files have played perfectly layer upon layer with no problems.
Is there something I am not considering?
Thanks.
Rowby

Similar Messages

What is the best video format for importing into After Effects CS5

Please look at this video, work in progress.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49_wbdKALQk
The opening, featuring a ribbon of videos, was created in After Effects, using Digieffects Freeform.
The issue is the poor quality of the videos that are featured in the opening -- compared to the higher quality of videos from the original Premiere project., which you can see at the end of the clip.
To create the After Effects project, I exported a series of video clips from Premiere to mp4.
Then I imported them into AfterEffects.
The bottom line, and the purpose of this question, is I am thinking that MP4 was not the best choice for the Adobe Premiere export.
What is the best format to export video from in Premiere Pro CS5 to import into after effects, or to import into any other editing program, incuding importing right back into Adobe Premiere, if that is eever needed.
AVI?
MOV
MP4
And any other settings that will result with the highest qualiity videos for importing.
Thanks

To follow on with Wade's suggestion...
There are lots of ways to get movies and projects and other things back and forth between After Effects and Premiere Pro. This page outlines them:
"Working with Premiere Pro and After Effects"
If you must render and export a movie out of one application to bring it into another, there is a very basic piece of video workflow advice that you need to keep in mind (which applies to _all_ video software, not just After Effects and Premiere Pro):
If you're creating a movie to be used in the next step of a post-production pipeline, you _never_ want to use a format that does lossy compression. You either use no compression or (preferable) lossless compression. Examples of codecs that provide lossless compression are the Animation codec and PNG codec at the highest quality settings; these can be used in a QuickTime container, for example. Never compress a movie with lossy compression except at the very end of your pipeline, when you're creating the final movie for distribution.
MP4 (MPEG-4) is a lossy codec. The quality loss is acceptable for the last stage in the pipeline, but it's not acceptable for an intermediate file.
It seems that you would benefit from reading this and and working your way through this.

Line Drawing best file format for import in InDesign

i was wondering what is the accepted and recommended file format for files to be imported in InDesign. I was under the impression that AI files should be saved as EPS but I just read an article that says that Adobe's Dov Isaacs said that eps will be shortly obsolete.What should I do. I work on curriculum that contains both photographs and line drawing and we use tiff for the former and eps for the latter. Most of our line drawing is done in AI. Howeverwe have a cartoonist that sends us files in jpg format. What would be the best file format for him and for us as we draw in AI?
Article link: http://www.prepressure.com/library/file-formats/eps
The future of the EPS file format
EPS is rapidly becoming an outdated file format which is being replaced by PDF just like PostScript itself is also being phased out and replaced by PDF. Don’t just take my word on this. Here is what Dov Isaacs from Adobe said in a discussion on a PrintPlanet forum about the future of PostScript: “ …Adobe will continue to support EPS as a legacy graphics format for import of non-color managed, opaque graphical data into Adobe applications (such as InDesign and Illustrator). Although we certain do not recommend that new graphical content be stored in EPS format (except to satisfy the need to import data into page layout programs that aren’t quite PDF-centric — no need to mention names here!), our user base should feel comfortable that there is no need to worry about a need to convert their very sizable libraries of EPS-based graphic assets.”

Yes, I drag the AI file in.
If after it's in place I need to change I can just right click and chose edit original make the changes and save and the illustration in inDesign will reflect the changes.
On the other hand I can make changes to the original and all iterations of the file will automatically update, say if I used the illustration in several documents.
As an example I had completed a set of documents for a new company, i.e., biz cards, brochures, product labeling, stationery, etc. and in their wisdom they decided to make changes in their logo, which, of course, is on everything. I opened the AI file with the logo made the changes saved and all the documents then reflected the changes. The only caveat to do this seamlessly is to make sure that your file logo size is the same as the original or you might have to tweak placement in the other documents
It is this interoperability that to me makes the Creative Suite so much more than the sum of their parts.
Craig

HDV: best export format for client viewing?

I am working on a project in HDV 1080i (1440).
What is the best export format to create a sample for a client to view- one that will give the proper aspect ratio.
I've tried everything I can think of, and the export is still squashed 1440 and not full 1920
I am a pretty experienced Motion user.....please give me the video and the output settings.
thanks!

hemmster- thanks I really appreciate the specific info
I dont mean to be dense but....I don't see those buttons anywhere in Motion 4. When I go to File>export what I see is:
Export: (quicktime)
Use: set to current project
When I click on the "options" button I am taken to the export options window with 2 tabs: "Video/audio" and "output"
Can you please translate your settings into those parameters....? I am assuming that under "video/audio" that compressor is H.264. The advanced button lets me set the data rate.
The Output tab lets you choose from a full range of resolutions. I could select "Custom" and set to 1280. No options for deinterlacing to be seen. Interlacing is a big problem with this project....
I have read the complete manual (twice) and the peachpit books. There is little info on this subject to be found there, so I am depending on the kindness of strangers
Thanks, you are awesome........!

Best export format for iDVD

I am compiling a movie in QT Pro from lots of various different iMovie projects. This will then be imported to iDVD. Is the best export setting from iMovie "large", or is there something better I should use?
(I have QT Pro) and have tried QT export with "compressor:none" and the files are great quality but unfeasible large).

I'll be honest .... I'm still shooting MiniDv tape on an old Sony 3 chip TRV900 and importing into iMovie as well as FCP via Firewire. I guess my age is starting to show. I have not yet taken the AVCHD plunge so the advice I can offer you is limited.
Anyway, so essentially you are shooting in AVCHD with the final objective of burning that to a Dvd. Is this correct? Per apple's help menu at least .... this format should work. I'm sure you've read it but I will post it here for reference purposes only.

Best export format for viewing on external TV?

I have a small project that I'd like to show via hooking my laptop up to a TV. What's the best Quicktime format/setting for exporting for doing this? Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Kristin.

Hi(Bonjour)!
The problem relies on the application that you will use to output your movie to the TV monitor.
If you use iDVD in full screen, outputed to TV set, simply burn your movie with iDVD and play it.
If you use quicktime player, in full screen mode,the image may be outputed to TV (I do not know).
May be with a presentation softwares like Keynote or powerpoint ?
TV format is NTSC interlaced 29.97 fps ( or PAL in Europe), but even if you export to this format, how will you play it on TV ?
Michel Boissonneault

Best file format for PS and Illustrator files to be placed into ID

I'm writing a proposal using InDesign. It will be output to PDF for circulation among the team members; I imagine they will view it on a variety of screens and some will print it out on various desktop printers.
I have a variety of images, all in color, done in InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator that need to be placed into the propsal. Sizes range from 5x7 to 2x2. Some are quite complex with fine detail.
I've just viewed the proposal in ID Overprint Preview / High Quality Display. The images don't look great. Lots of ragged lines.
I usually save everything to JPEG with a quality of 80-90...but that is just a habit, I have no reason or justification for this practice.
I'm wondering if I should go back into the original ID, PS and AI files and resave them as something else before and then place them again.
Does anyone have any recommmendations or thoughts to offer?
I'm using CS4 on a MAC. My computer is a little bit underpowered for the project at hand, but I'm willing to put up with a bit of slow performance and lag if it results in a better end product.

Jagged lines is a hallmark of low resolution, not file type, or a lower quality screen preview than you think you are using. Check the Display performace settings again to be sure they really are correct, and if they're set to allow object level settings, you'll need to verify that each object is also set correctly.
Beond that, saving as .jpeg is always destructive. For the web, that's fine, but for print you should never use anything, in my opinion, but the highest quality settings for saving jpegs, and I advise again using jpeg at all. If you image is all raster data (pixels) save as .psd or .tif. If it has live type or other vector content, save as Photoshop PDF. In Illustrator save as .ai or PDF with Illustrator editing capability. If you change the extension of the Photoshop PDFs to PDP they will open in Photoshop instead of Acrobat when you use Edit Original.
As I said, the jaggies are a hallmark of low resolution. We often have people tell us that the file is 300 ppi, but it turns out that's at some very small dimension and the imaga has been scaled up in ID. Both the Links panel and Info panel can show you the resolution information for your images. There will be two numbers, actual and effective. Effective resolution is the only number that matters. For printing on a desktop printer I like to see a minimum of 150 ppi, but you might get away with as low as 90 for a non-critical image. For press 300 ppi would be the rule of thumb, and dropping below 200 is asking for trouble.
How the file looks in ID is not nearly as informative as how a PDF exported from the file looks, or prints. For a high-res image in ID you are still looking at a lower resolution screen preview, not the actual image as it will be output. Export settings that downsample too far or apply too much compression to reduce file size can also turn a good document into a clunker.

Best exporting format for mobile me publishing

Hi all,
Every time I publish a movie to my mobileme site I get notes from folks with PC's complaining they cannot watch my movies without downloading QT. Does anyone have an export choice that might solve this dilemma, and will there eventually be an export format that will work with both platforms?
Thanks

+"Does anyone have an export choice that might solve this dilemma, and will there eventually be an export format that will work with both platforms?"+
Not if you want to post to MobileMe. You would have to post to YouTube, Vimeo or some other video hosting site.

What is the best file format for importing photos into Imovie?

What is the best format to save photos in before bringing into Imovie? What is the best resolution for them and what is the best size? These will eventually be ported over to IDVD. It seems that as jpgs Imovie didn't recognize them, but as psds it did.
Dick

hi Richard:
Just a personal preference, but if I intend on using the photos for printing I keep them in the PSD form. When adding to imovie, however, I use .pict
Sue

What's the best export format for Keynote to iMovie?

Okay, here is the situation, I have a lengthy Keynote presentation which I plan to export via QuickTime so it can be imported in to iMovie in order to do voice-overs. The question I have is what the best format is to use to export from Keynote in order to import in to iMovie. I am obviously looking for the format which is the smoothest, doesn't lose any quality, and will look clear once imported in to iMovie. Also, there is no reason to use H.264 since size during the transfer doesn't really matter to me, besides, H.264 seems to be somewhat jerky with Keynote exports (or maybe it's just my computer) as I am using some of the graphics intensive transitions and effects.
Also, I know that when you send movies directly from Keynote to iDVD or from iMovie to iDVD, it uses a format which is directly compatible and there is no conversion that takes place, is there a format which will work this way from Keynote to iMovie or does it always have to do the conversion.
Finally, the other thing you should know is that I created the presentation in Keynote using 1280x720 in order to achieve the true widescreen aspect ratio. Now, I am NOT looking to keep this in HD, once I import it in to iMovie, I only need the standard DV Widescreen resolution since I will eventually transfer it to iDVD to burn it as a widescreen DVD. So, I would also appreciate some sort of input as to whether I should export the QuickTime file out of Keynote as the full 1280x720 and then let iMovie do the down-sampling, or should I export it directly out of Keynote using the standard definition widescreen resolution? Please, I would appreciate ANY help on this!!!

Hi Cornelius,
this is the workflow I had which worked fine for me:
My situation was that I had two existing movies in different formats, which a had to filet, add keynote foiles at the beginning (like "Confidemus presents" and so on), between chapters and at the end.
The best way to stick all this together was indeed to export to Qicktime and there to choose the highest resolution. There are several options. The most important point was to have all transitions within foils in keynote approprately defined, because after export it is not possible to do something in iMovie with it.
After having edited the movie in iMovie (that means adding transitions), next I will use Garageband to add sound. So you see that is the point where I'm standing at the moment. I have one time edited sound with iMovie, but Garageband seems to be more sufficient to do that. I have done a little radio play together with my daughter with Garageband and I found it very nice and - of course - easy to use. There are more effects in it and when you are familiar with this editing scheme in Garageband you will love it.
All the best
Fernando

What's the best export format for television from FCE?

Hi,
I'm working in HD in FCE and need to export a short (40-sec) clip for the local cable station. To get the highest quality, I exported as a QuickTime Movie (self-contained), and burned a CD copy of the file and hand delivered it to them. Unfortunately, they couldn't open it (they said there were codec problems). So, I need to do it differently. I've been experimenting, and thus far it seems best if I do this:
Export to QuickTime Conversion
Settings: QuickTime Movie, compress with MPEG-4 Video, keyframe rate = 24, bitrate = 5000 kbps, dimensions 1280x720.
The result is "okay", but that's all. Anyone have any suggestions as to how I can get a television-quality clip out of FCE (using QuickTime Conversion)?
Thanks!
Vic

I should've been a little more detailed...
The cable station broadcasts ads for real estate agents. Hence, they use mostly still images. Lately, they are getting a little more into full-motion video. The two guys that run that division are not exactly video savvy. For that matter, neither am I. I do videos for the web (real estate videos). I want to promote my service to other agents, so would like to show some short sample clips on TV to attract attention and draw new business. Previously, I e-mailed Flash video to the cable station and it worked fairly well; but, as you can imagine it was far from television quality (it was jittery and pixelated). They tell me that they use MPEG-2 format to broadcast their video clips. FCE won't allow me to export that format. They tell me that, if I bring them some other format, they can convert. As I mentioned, I burned QuickTime format clips (about a half gig each) to a CD and brought those to them. They were unable to open the files. Now, I'm lost. I'm wondering if there's a format I can output from FCE that will be of high enough quality. The guys at the cable station suggested .avi, but isn't that a web format?
Any output formats/parameters you can think of that might work for me?
Thanks very much!
Vic

Best export format for encoding & burning Blu-ray with toast?

Hi!
Have a 1 hour and fifteen minutes program which I burn to Blu-Ray with Toast 10/HD. The problem is the time it takes, about 25 hours. Is this resonable really?
Maybe it´s depending on the format I put out from Final Cut - H.264, 1920 x 1080 (1888 x 1062)Stereo (L R), 48,000 kHz
Does anyone know if there is a better export setting in Final Cut to get the process work faster in Toast?
Best / Urban

I've never used toast to burn a BluRay however I have used encore and I export 10 bit uncompressed out of FCP and compress that. If your over an hour of program you'll have to scale back the data rate to make it fit, a 90 minute feature looks good content wise, but any text on it will show signs of the reduced data rate. the encode typically takes about 8 hours to build the disk image on an 8 core mac then about 45 minutes to burn from the image. I burn first to a rewritable in case of issues, then if it passes muster I'll burn the master

Best Export Format for iDVD to cut down on multiplexing and processing

My processor is what it is and my Ram has been optimized. Is there some video/audio format/ bit rate that will require less time to convert and process?
I understand that MPEG2, mpeg4, H.264, avi, and all seem to take far too long. I prefer using FCPX and Wondershare to do my converting.
Also whenever I have a random burning error its almost always a “multiplexing error” so maybe if I make the “multiplexing” a little easier maybe I can prevent that headache.
Any thoughts about inve$ting in the fastest burners available? Isn’t the actual “burn” process the very last step that usually only takes about 2 minutes anyway?
Thank you in advance!

KidVid wrote:
My processor is what it is and my Ram has been optimized. Is there some video/audio format/ bit rate that will require less time to convert and process?
All depends on what format you need for what purpose. If you need a DVD it'll have to be MPEG-2 or for web use it'll have to be h.264. Other than that there are tons of codecs and containers available. All conversion takes time and to cut down on that time you will need a faster machine.
KidVid wrote:
Also whenever I have a random burning error its almost always a “multiplexing error” so maybe if I make the “multiplexing” a little easier maybe I can prevent that headache.
To avoid burn errors in iDVD create a disk image of your project, test that image file with DVD Player, and, if satisfied, burn with any dedicated disc burning app at no more than 4x to avoid errors.
KidVid wrote:
Any thoughts about inve$ting in the fastest burners available? Isn’t the actual “burn” process the very last step that usually only takes about 2 minutes anyway?
See the speed limit above.

Low quality video after import from After Effects in FCP 7, but not FCP5

Hi everyone,
I trying to export a video from final cut pro. This video has motion graphics I built in After Effects, as well as footage from my T2i camera. I then took it into FCP to drop in audio and edit all my elements together.
When I exported a 30 second preview a few days ago in FCP5, the .mov file retained the quality of the export from AE and looked great - no quality lost, smooth animations, high quality video.
However, I then upgraded to FCP7, and now the quality is lower and the video components are a bit grainy when I export using the same settings. I've tried tweaking the settings, different ways of compression, but nothing is giving me the same clean export. I've even tried changing the sequence settings and putting my footage back down.
The only other thing that's different is I compressed my T2i footage to ProRes422 before taking it into After Effects, however even the 15 seconds of original footage I didn't compress is grainy now (and so is the original and new graphic work) so I don't think that's it. When I change the timeline sequence settings, I can get it looking good in the preview - but as soon as I render it or send it to compressor it loses quality again.
The ONLY differently between the two exports was upgrade Final Cut, but that doesn't make any sense to me. I've even tried reopening the preview FCP file (which then asks me to update the file to FCP7) and when I do it exports grainy as well - and NOTHING else has changed in that file or the export settings since my initial export of a 30 seconds preview.
Does anyone have any suggestions on what the issue may be? Or, what settings I can use to retain the quality when exporting?
Thanks,
Lauren
Message was edited by: kiwikiwi

Thank you so much! Although it's not exporting quite as clear as before, it's much, MUCH better now that I've corrected the timeline dominance - I'd say 95% better; and it will be re-compressed by my clients for web streaming so it doesn't need to be perfect - but the initial quality was garbage.
I suspect when I exported my T2i footage as a ProRes file, than imported into After Effects, then back into FCP something happened along the way that messed up the quality slightly. Although the only difference in my method between FCP5 and 7 was converting to ProRes; which I only did for editing purposes as the native T2i footage needs to be rendered... which ended up being redundant as all my After Effects work needed to be rendered anyway. Ho hum.
Do you think the ProRes conversion could account for the quality loss? It wasn't just the footage that was grainy/fuzzy, it was also the After Effects graphic work, which is why I didn't think the converstion could be the culprit. Hm. I'll have to look into this more!
Thanks again - and so sorry for my delayed reply, I went on vacation shortly after I posted that message and only just got back to this project now
Message was edited by: kiwikiwi

Best Quality Export From Final Cut Pro Into After Effects?

So I converted all my footage into Apple Pro Res 422 (24 p, 1280 x 720) for use in FCP and want to export edited parts into After Effects. What is the best quality export to bring into After Effects and also export from After Effects back into FCP?

zikade wrote:
Depending on your storage and what you're up to with your footage I'd recommend uncompressed. Large files but you won't loose any quality. Animation is also lossless if you want to compress your footage. If your drives are not fast enough, go for ProRes HQ from FCP to AE, and Animation the way back...
Since you've converted to 422, stick with that. You cannot gain anything by exporting from FCP to a codec that has a higher bandwidth such as PRHQ or Animation. You just don't want to go down.
Rendering out of After Effects going back to FCP jsut use the same base codec. Again, you will gain nothing by using a higher quality codec. However, you may want to use PR4444 or even Animation if you must have an alpha channel. PR4444 uses trillions of colors and you will get an interesting warning when you try to render to it. You can dismiss the warning.
PR4444 has the distinct advantage of being realtime in FCP7 and X. Animation requires rendering back in teh FCP timeline.
bogiesan

Best export format for importing into After Effects or even back into Premiere

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