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.

Similar Messages

  • 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

  • What is the "best" video format to import into Aftereffects (for keylight plugin)

    Hello All,
    I
    have various choices in Adobe Premiere (CS4) for exporting.
    The top choices seem to be
    Microsoft AVI
    Avi uncompressed (this i assume is much better than just Microsoft AVI -- for greencreen keylight work?)
    And Quicktime.
    So I assume my best choices would be Quicktime or AVI Uncompressed.
    Any reason to choose Quicktime over AVI uncompressed?  Or visa versa?
    Thanks
    Rowby

    The best starts with the camera and recording system. Any system that gives you 4:2:2 color at 10 bit as original at a high data rate is best. Well almost best. Best is 4:4:4 color at 32bit, but you must have a pile of cash to capture this way.
    The worst modern acquisition formats are the mpeg systems used by phones and some digital still cameras. For cameras that independent film makers can afford, let's say under $10K, I'd say that the best, meaning highest color depth and least compression goes something like this. There may be some room for debate on the order of the  Panasonic and Sony P2/XDCAM but the new AVC-Intra format is, for now, at the top:
    Panasonic AVC-Intra (the replacement for P2)
    Sony XDCAM and HDCAM SR (new generation)
    Panasonic P2 DVCPRO
    HDV
    DVC Pro 100 SD
    DVC Pro 50 SD
    AVCHD (though this is a HD format I've put it below sd formats because of compression)
    DV
    I've left off analogue formats because they require specialized capture cards. I also left off the Red and the Canon and Nikon still cameras that capture HD because the Red is too expensive for the list and the still cameras use a compression scheme that I haven't played with yet. I think that the Canon 5D Mark II may produce footage that will key quite well but don't know where to put it in the list.
    Once you have the original footage you can either work with the native formats or transcode to your favorite lossless format. I prefer Animation Codec Quicktime because it is universally available to and simple to transfer between platforms. Also good are sequential tiff or even png formats. Many folks use jpg compressed Quicktimes. I don't know many pros that use avi's because uncompressed are so huge and the compressed avi's are pretty messy.
    For the production pipeline to keep working you almost always have to stray from the native codecs because they do not support alpha channels. If you choose to work with P2 (MXF) files, which AE CS4 handles just fine, then you will have to render to a codec that supports alpha channels or render separate alpha channels to bring your footage into a NLE or Flash and with transparency preserved.
    I hope that answers your question. You can't easily fix a poor quality original by simply transcoding to a lossless format.

  • HT3290 what is the best video format for iMovie?

    I'm a basic newbe on imac compiuters.  Although I like it the transition is a bit painful.
    I download stuff from my  (cheep) video cameras BUT after closing the oniginal window I can't find the vids OR pictures I just downloaded from the devices.
    I am hsving a difficult time figuring out what is the BEST video promat to record in that can be used in imovie AND final cut pro.
    I'd appreciate any assoistance at this point.
    All tips appreciated,
    :-) Cheers

    iMovie is friendly with .mp4, .mov, .m4v etc video formats. Here this article about iMovie supported video formats may help you.

  • What is the best video format for 50+ year movie storage?

    Objective:  In what video format should I store my family movies on an external drive?  I want these family movies to be viewable by future generations in 50 - 70 years, so what video format / type is recommended?
    Background:  I have an iMac, OS X 10.7.5.  I use IMovie '11, version 9.0.8.  My iMac has an internal DVD player and burner and iDVD is installed.
    I have dozens of family movies (total 80+ hours) dating back nearly 70 years.  All these films have been digitized and I have imported many of them into iMove as events, then I edit them with title pages, transitions, music, etc.  When a "project" is completed (Between 1.5 - 2.0 hours or less) I share the project to iDVD where I burn it to a DVD.  Within iMovie I save each of these projects (on the internal Mac HD, which consumes very little space) and on an external drive I save for each project:
    - a disc image (DVD.img) whose size is about 4.5 GB
    - a copy of the iMovie project, whose size is about 60 MB (the original project is in iMovie, in the Mac internal drive)
    - the original digitized raw movies imported into iMovie as events and are formatted as .mov (these are large size at 8 GB - 20 GB each)
    - the finalized and fully edited iDVD which is formatted as DVD.dvdproj (these are very large size at 20 - 24 GB each)
    As you can see with all these disc images, projects, events and DVD projects stored on my external drive I am at nearly 1 TB of storage, on my way to 1.75 before I comple editing all movies.
    While I manage pretty well the editing my movies within iMovie, and how to create an iDVD project and then burn a DVD, I have no understanding of the technical aspects of the multitude of different movie formats in the market nor of Quick Time and its format.
    I am told that DVDs will only last 10 - 15 years and then begin to deteriorate.  And iMovie '11 won't be arond 50 years from now.  Nor will the current / recent versions of iDVD.  Thus, for posterity:
    1.  In what format should I store my family movies on an external drive so they can be viewed by family members 50 - 70 years from now? (best chance for viewing, since we don't know what formats they will have then)
    2.  How do I convert from what I have (disc image, iMovie project, DVD project) to your recommended format?
    Thank you,
    HDP

    There is no such format for movies or even Photographs. Frankly we can't guarantee the persistence of any format past the next 10 years, not to mind 50 - 70.
    Codecs are being improved and created all the time, and this process will continue. In 50 years time we may still have .mov and .avi files, but the codecs that create the movies within will have changed.
    One thing is reasonably sure: DVD will be as deader than floppy disks are now. Ditto Blue Ray. They're on the way out now, and in 10 years they'll be curiosities.
    So, what's the solution:
    Best I can suggest is to keep your movies on volatile media like Hard Disks (with back ups on other disks, or course). Progress will be evolutionary - as new formats come along there will be the option to migrate older data to these newer formats, and that's the trick. As always, when it comes to migration, the more data available the better the likely result, so keeping your movies in the least compressed versions possible seems a good approach.
    That and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee someplaces, but nowhere fashionable.
    Regards
    TD

  • 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 is the best video format for a Mac?

    I use my MacBook Pro (Mountain Lion) to project videos to my class. If I'm converting them, what is the best format to use?

    An unwritten standard is MP4,...  avi files are questionably a close second.

  • What is the best video format for logic X

    It used to be that .DV was the way to go. Although the files were huge, it was a much smaller load on the processor because there wasn't any encoding and decoding going on.
    Now LogicX / Mavericks doesn't support .DV anymore. What is the best format. dvcpro?
    Best,
    W

    Don't know if it's the best, but until now I do not have issues with QT H.264 format.
    Cheers!

  • What's the best video format for DVD burning?

    I need a recomendation; I've been turning some video files into mpeg4's for burning onto DVD. The files look fairly decent, but I'm wondering if AVI or DV or something else would look better. Any suggestions?

    Hi Severian,
    iM works internally (as the camcorder) with dv as compressor; that is highest quality possible with iM.
    that can directly exported to iDVD (which will convert that directly into mpeg2)
    any "in between" conversion, esp, into lossy formats as any mpeg-codec (which comes in many flavors as 1/2/4/h263/h264/...) means a dramatic loss of quality! the mp4 looks nice on your Mac, after second convcersion into a lossy format it will ... nogood on TV.
    don't do that, don't fumble the workflow, let the apps do their jobs.... just hit "iDVD" in iM... Boom!Done....

  • What is the best video format for streaming video in Captivate 6 for html5 output?

    I'm guessing it's h.264 mp4, but I haven't been able to get it to stream. Can you stream mp4s from Amazon S3?

    Hi Rod,
    That link is from the Captivate help file:
    You could also find this documented in the help file link:
    http://helpx.adobe.com/pdf/captivate_reference.pdf
    Look under the topic "Unsupported objects in HTML5 output".
    Thanks!

  • For iPhone and Android, what is the best file format for watching videos?

    For iPhone and Android, what is the best file format for watching videos?

    You can try these setting. They are from CS5.5 but should work in CS4.
    Make sure you check Use Max. Render Quality.

  • What is the best video format/codec?

    Greeting Video Producers
    Please tell me what is the best video format/codec overall? And please list them from best to worse.
    MPEG 4
    MPEG 2
    AVI
    DVI
    QUICKTIME MOV
    WMV
    THANK YOU

    DVI isn't a format or codec; it is a digital signal protocol used for video display. DVI = Digital Video Interface.
    Please define what "best" means in your context ... "best" for what?
    WMV is one of the best in terms of viewer compatibility for web video, but it is not any good for DVD delivery.
    MPEG-2 is one of the best for broadcast server-based playback and is required for DVD-Video delivery, but it is one of the worst for editing.
    MPEG-4 is a more efficient codec than MPEG-2, but isn't as compatible for web delivery as WMV or Flash.
    AVI is a container.
    MOV is a container.
    -DH

  • What is the best video converter for DVD to iMovie? Either free or to purchase.

    What is the best video converter for DVD to iMovie? Either free or to purchase.  And one that is 'fool-proof' and very easy to use.  Many thanks, anyone who can advise.

    You want to 'reverse engineer' the compressed mpeg2 DVD file back to something iMovie can use?
    You need to convert the VOB files in the TS-Folder of the DVD back to DV which iMovie is designed to handle. For that you need mpegStreamclip:
    http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html
    which is free, but you must also have the  Apple mpeg2 plugin :
    http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/
    (unless you are running Lion in which case see below))
    which is a mere $20.
    Another possibility is to use DVDxDV:
    http://www.dvdxdv.com/NewFolderLookSite/Products/DVDxDV.overview.htm
    which costs $25.
    For the benefit of others who may read this thread:
    Obviously the foregoing only applies to DVDs you have made yourself, or other home-made DVDs that have been given to you. It will NOT work on copy-protected commercial DVDs, which in any case would be illegal.
    And from the TOU of these forums:
    Keep within the Law
    No material may be submitted that is intended to promote or commit an illegal act.
    Do not submit software or descriptions of processes that break or otherwise ‘work around’ digital rights management software or hardware. This includes conversations about ‘ripping’ DVDs or working around FairPlay software used on the iTunes Store.
    If you are running Lion:
    From the MPEG Streamclip homepage
    The installer of the MPEG-2 Playback Component may refuse to install the component in Lion. Apple states the component is unnecessary in Lion, however MPEG Streamclip still needs it.
    To install the component in Lion, please download MPEG Streamclip 1.9.3b7 beta above; inside the disk image you will find the Utility MPEG2 Component Lion: use it to install the MPEG-2 Playback Component in Lion. The original installer's disk image (QuickTimeMPEG2.dmg) is required.
    The current versions of MPEG Streamclip cannot take advantage of the built-in MPEG-2 functionality of Lion. For MPEG-2 files you still need to install the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component, which is not preinstalled in Lion. You don't have to install QuickTime 7.

  • What is the best video converter for high quality MPEG-4 for Apple TV?

    What is the best video converter for high quality MPEG-4 for Apple TV?

    Handbrake won't convert AVI files, But there are many more than those mentioned that will
    The choice of conversion software is a personal choice, I have around a dozen applications that will tackle AVI's, however VisualHub is not one of them, not because there is anything wrong with it but rather I have enough such applications in my arsenal already.
    I would use mpegstreamclip in most scenarios for what you are wanting to do but maybe not always. It is a good idea to have a few applications to choose from as not all do the same thing. mpegstreamclip has a few more options than some bog standard applications without becoming overburdening with choices.
    You might want to try a few applications yourself before deciding on the software for you. isquint is a free limited version of visualhub, you might want to give that a whirl to get a feeling for visualhub.
    Be aware though that quality conversions do not happen quickly, claims of being faster than other applications may well be correct, but are usually a trade off against quality. Again you need to choose your software to reflect your preferred balance between speed and quality.
    Here's how I use mpegstreamclip, http://web.me.com/gartside1104/z008/Mpegstreamclip.html but your AVI's may well be low quality, you shouldn't set the bitrate any higher than your source file and likely lower, you shouldn't increase the frame size either.
    Message was edited by: Winston Churchill

  • What is the best video converter for iPhone?

    My last question was deleted I guess because I was not specific enough. I have a Sony DCR-DVD108 DVD Handycam® Camcorder which writes everything onto mini DVDs. I am looking for a good video converter to convert my home movies with. I am using Roxio Crunch, but it doesn't do as good of a job as I had hoped. What is the best video converter to use?
    P.S. Please don't delete my question again Apple.

    It was probably deleted because you said that it was in violation of the TOU, which I have read. I own all rights to DVDs which I myself have created, and I give myself permission to copy said DVDs for whatever reasons I wish. I am in no way violating the TOU: "Do not submit software or descriptions of processes that break or otherwise ‘work around’ digital rights management software or hardware. This includes conversations about ‘ripping’ DVDs or working around FairPlay software used on the iTunes Store" because I am in no way trying to "work around" any sort of DRM, and I created the home movies and in no way was the iTunes Store involved; that is unless somehow a movie of my nephew's birthday is now available on iTunes. And I don't own an iPod video, I own an iPhone, which is why the question says "What is the best video converter FOR IPHONE?" and is why I am in an iPhone forum.
    Message was edited by: supermanguy87
    Message was edited by: supermanguy87

Maybe you are looking for