FYI: Rendering

NOTE: This is a post I created for the Intro class, so if anything is redundant here, now you know why. Enjoy!

To hand in your projects, I am requesting that you render it out as an H.264 MP4 file and drop it into the Student Drop folder. To render out of AE, make sure you have the comp you want to render selected in the timeline and use the keyboard shortcut Command+Shift+/ for Mac (Control+Shift+/ for PC) or select "Add To Render Queue" from the Composition menu. You should see this menu (click it to enlarge):

Your settings may be different. To change them to what I have in the image, first click the arrow button to the right of where it says "Render Settings." Select "Best Settings." Then click the arrow button next to "Output Module." Select "H.264" (outputting as H.264 will result in an MP4 file). Now click on the yellow text that reads "Not Yet Specified" to the right of "Output To:." This will let you specify where you want your render to go. The default name of the rendered file will be whatever your comp is named. You can change it if you need to before rendering.

Once you've finished setting all this up, go ahead and click the "Render" button. Now all you have to do is wait for it to finish. When it finishes rendering, AE will play a flourish sound to alert you.

If for some reason you can't recall where you sent the file, you can twist open the "Output Module" and you'll then see a filepath to where the rendered file was sent. Click on the filepath name and it will open Finder in the directory that you specified. Isn't that awesome? You betcha.