Rendering a file at a compressed size without sacraficing quality?

Question

So as the title suggests I am trying to render out videos on AE in HD quality (720p at least) but for a simple 25 minute video is rendering out at over 500GB (simple video with an audio track overlayed). I need a way to render the video out in a format that will compress the video to a smaller file size but won't lose the desired quality. Using AE with Creative Cloud on a Windows 8.1 OS. Even if the solution requires the use of Adobe's Media Encoder or something similar I am simply looking for a way to shrink file size while maintaining quality, any help anyone can give is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I usually render an intermediate file (as it sounds like you did) and then use that file in the Adobe Media Encoder to create my deliverable (h.264, etc.)
The great thing about this is that I can try different compression settings to try to dial in the quality vs. file size balance without having to re-render a complex AE composition over and over.
However, if you want to, you can just toss your AE comp straight into AME without the intermediate step. Some people I know do that so they can keep working on the next project in AE while the AME renders the previous one in the background. This is only useful once you've figured out what settings in AME work for your workflow though.