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Beginning Adobe After Effects: Explainer 5 of 5

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Export the animated composition as an mp4 video

Overview

Name of explainer: Export the animated composition as an mp4 video

Creative theme: Beginning Adobe After Effects

Software used : Adobe After Effects

User level: BEGINNER

This is explainer 5 of 5 in this series

This series includes:

  • Tour the Adobe After Effects interface and create a new composition
  • Animate text using built-in animation presets
  • Animate text using keyframes and easy ease
  • Add an expression to make the video flicker, and animate a light flare
  • Export the animated composition as an mp4 video

This series is also available as a FREE, short online course!*

If you’d prefer to work through this series in a short online course format, where you can track your progress and receive a PDF certificate of completion, it will be available from December 2024* on our sister site pixelsofcourse.

Screenshot of a webpage from "Pixels of Course" showcasing free short courses: "Creating Microlearning using Rise 360" and "Beginning 3D Modeling with UModeler." Links to view each course are provided.
Screenshot of a webpage from “Pixels of Course” showcasing free short courses: “Creating Microlearning using Rise 360” and “Beginning 3D Modeling with UModeler.” Links to view each course are provided.

The Software

This series of explainers uses Adobe After Effects, an application designed for creating motion graphics:

After Effects is a PAID applications. A FREE trial is available, after which ongoing use will require an ongoing subscription. For the latest information and pricing, see Adobe’s current pricing information. If you’ve never used After Effects before, create a free account, download the trial and let’s get started!

What are motion graphics?

TV idents (like these classic idents from Channel 4 in the UK) are an example of motion graphics:

Animated movie and TV titles (like this example from the recent BBC series ‘Sherwood’) are motion graphics. This animated ‘Sherwood’ title text is similar to what we’ll create for a dystopian AI movie title sequence in this series.

Entire animations, like this amazing animated photo-movie are motion graphics…

…and we use After Effects to create the animations for the start of every video explainer:

Screenshot of Adobe After Effects interface with a project titled "01 Beginning After Effects: Create a Composition" displayed. The timeline and various tools are visible.
Screenshot of Adobe After Effects interface with a project titled “01 Beginning After Effects: Create a Composition” displayed. The timeline and various tools are visible.

How to generate video clips using LTX Studio

We used the online AI storyboarding tool LTX Studio to generate the short video clips for our trailer, including generating a soundtrack and voiceover. If you don’t have clips of your own this is a great way to create resources to fit your creative vision! Here are the main steps we followed in LTX Studio:

1: The LTX Studio dashboard shows options to start ‘with an idea’ or start ‘with a script’.

2: Enter the general ‘idea’ for the movie. We used an AI generated ‘voiceover’ from chatgpt as our idea prompt:

3: LTX Studio generates a storyboard with individual scenes and a thumbnail image for each. You can regenerate a scene by changing the prompt and shot-type at any time:

4: Select the shot editor tab at the top of the window to regenerate an individual video clip. Four candidates are generated to select between:

5: Add an appropriate soundtrack and a voiceover for the perfect cinematic experience!

6: Export the sequence of scenes as a single video file. The sequence is below (The audio was retimed in post to better match the duration of the sequence).

More motion graphics inspiration!

If you’re interested in the ‘story’ of motion graphics, here’s Adobe’s own introduction:

https://www.adobe.com/uk/creativecloud/animation/discover/motion-graphics.html

‘Best motion graphics in adverts 2024’:

https://www.yansmedia.com/blog/best-motion-graphics-ads-examples

More brilliant examples of motion graphics!

https://www.wyzowl.com/motion-graphics-videos

The animated trailer sequence at the end of this series

This is the movie trailer at the end of this explainer series. This is the FULL trailer which includes additional video clips (and a soundtrack) generated in LTX Studio (see section above). In this series we use After Effects to create the animated text sequence at the end of the trailer.

Screenshots taken from the start, middle and end of the title sequence. The movie title ‘Models’ zooms in over the video clip. As it comes to rest, the subtitle ‘Sentient Shadow’ flickers in below the main text:

The pre-requisities

This is a BEGINNER Adobe After Effects explainer series. After Effects is complex animation software and is not recommended for new computer users.

Why would I do this?

The animated composition needs to be rendered to use it outside of After Effects. Our animated movie title will be rendered to a 1080p video file, ready to be imported into a video editor and assembled into a full movie trailer for ‘Models: Sentient Shadow’.

Let’s do it!

Click the play icon to watch this explainer video. Subtitles are available – Click the settings cog at the bottom right for options. You can watch this video full-screen by clicking the full-screen icon at the bottom right.

Video Transcript

Here is the full transcript for explainer five in this series..


00:15
Welcome to you.


00:16
In this explainer, I’ll export my animated title sequence for the movie models to an MP 4 video and look at some of the great online resources you can use to continue your journey with After Effects.


00:28
Exporting a composition as a video is very similar to rendering a video in a video editor.

00:34
I’ll go to composition, add to render queue, switch to the render queue tab in the timeline panel.


00:42
This is a queue as you may have lots of short compositions in your project and you may want to render them all.


00:48
After Effects has defaulted to what it calls best settings, h 264 compression at 15 megabits a second, but the output file has not been specified.


00:58
Let’s work through these settings.


00:60
Start by clicking best settings.


01:03
The resolution option here includes options to render at half or quarter resolution, etcetera.


01:08
This may seem odd, but if you go on to incorporate lots of effects, 3 d layers, etcetera, you’re going to appreciate the option to render out low resolution previews.

01:18
Adding motion blur would mimic the motion blur that exists when fast moving objects are filmed using standard shutter speeds.

01:26
As my animation is quite slow and smooth, motion blur won’t really add anything to the final result, so I’m going to leave it off.

01:34
The time span settings can also be useful.

01:36
I know my animation will only last 10 seconds, so I’m going to render the full length.

01:41
If I just want to render a short part of a composition.

01:45
I can enter the start and end times here and click okay.

01:51
Next, I’ll look at the video compression options.


01:54
I’m going to leave it as h 264 compression for maximum compatibility with other software.

01:59
But there are numerous options here including exporting to a JPEG or PNG sequence.

02:05
These options save every single frame of a composition in a numbered sequence.

02:10
This can be really useful when you want to import animation sequences into other professional software.

02:16
I didn’t include sound in my composition, so I’m going to request that no audio is saved alongside the video.

02:22
I’m going to add my audio when I assemble my full trailer in a video editor later on and click okay.


02:29
Finally, I’ll click on not yet specified so I can enter a file name for the output video.

02:35
I’ll save it as models text titled to 10 80 p.

02:39
Now all the settings are complete.

02:41
The render button has become active.

02:44
Just click render to generate the 10 second video.

02:52
And here’s my rendered video file.

02:55
Of course, I could now go on to add any number of additional effects to my composition and render it out again.

03:01
If you do want to add audio directly inside After Effects, it’s as simple as dragging an audio file into the current project.

03:09
Dragging it into a composition will create a dedicated audio layer.

03:13
As you might expect, After Effects includes a range of quick effects and presets to apply to audio, including an equalizer and to play your sound backwards.

03:24
Lots of companies offer plugins and pregenerated compositions for after effects.


03:29
A good starting point is aescripts.com.

03:32
Here you’ll find lots of free and paid plugins for everything from animating human and animal movement to AI enhanced green screening.

03:42
If you’re looking for pre built compositions that you can customize and render, try videohive.net.

03:49
You’ll find thousands of paid resources here, and we also offer a limited number for free every month when you set up a free account.

04:00
Trailer voiceover: The future envisioned in science fiction is no longer a distant dream but a tantalizing reality.

04:08
Trailer voiceover: As we stand at the threshold of the AI driven era, the possibilities are limitless, and the prospects are exhilarating, or so we thought…

04:35
That’s the end of this introductory series. We look forward to seeing what you go on to create!

Good to know

Although After Effects can appear very similar to a video editing application, it is designed for assembling motion graphics rather than editing long-form video. Now the animated text, flicker and flare have been added to the video clip, the composition is exported as a video, ready for additional work in a dedicated video editor. We went on to assemble our full movie trailer in Vegas Pro, with the exported clip featuring at the end of the 27 second long sequence:

Video editing software interface displaying a timeline, video preview, and project files with animated character graphics.
Vegas Pro video editing software interface displaying a timeline, video preview, and project files with animated character graphics.

…and here’s the finalised, exported trailer:

As mentioned in the video, there are lots of websites offering free and paid After Effects templates and plug-ins. We regularly use these two resources:

Videohive.net offers thousands of After Effects assets from slideshow builders and photo-animators to transition packs and logo stings:

Screenshot of a webpage displaying video effect transitions and animations for sale on Envato Elements, featuring various product thumbnails, prices, and star ratings.
Screenshot of videohive displaying video effect transitions and animations for sale.

aescripts.com provides a carefully created range of After Effects tools and plugins from easy text animation generators to AI integrations:

A webpage featuring video editing software and plugins. Main banner advertises "Quick Depth 2 with Depth Anything 2" alongside other featured products below.
aescripts.com featuring video editing software and plugins. Main banner advertises “Quick Depth 2 with Depth Anything 2” alongside other featured products below.
A YouTube video thumbnail titled "Diffusae 2: Generative AI in After Effects" showing a colorful landscape with the text "Diffusae 2: Easier. Faster. Better.
A screenshot from aescripts.com showing a thumbnail titled “Diffusae 2: Generative AI in After Effects” showing a colorful landscape with the text “Diffusae 2: Easier. Faster. Better.

Where to next?

That’s the end of this beginning Adobe After Effects series! We’ve only scratched the surface of what After Effects can do, and you’ll find the basic workflows we’ve covered invaluable as you take your next steps!

In this series of five explainers, we’ve learnt to…

  • Create a composition from scratch, including setting duration and framerate
  • Add video assets to the project and add them to the timeline
  • Add a text layer and add, edit and animate text using built-in animation effects
  • Create and edit keyframes to manually edit a text animation
  • Add a simple expression to modify properties over time
  • Export a composition as an MP4 file, taking into consideration resolution, framerate and motion blur.

Here are three hand-picked videos you may find helpful as you continue your journey!

Notes and updates

There are no notes or advisories at this time. This video explainer was last updated in October 2024. This page was last updated in October 2024.

We at pixels.cool are not responsible for the content of any external webpages or software downloaded from third party sites. Any links are included in good faith at the time of writing. All explainer content is compiled in good faith using processes and methods used by the team. Modern software provides users with many ways to accomplish a task, and for reasons of clarity we choose not to refer to multiple options. All computer users must run up to date virus / security software at all times to minimise risks of data loss.


This is number 5 of 5 explainer videos in this series. Make sure you join us for the others!