After Effects Exporting HD Video for YouTube

The fun part of creating videos in After Effects is uploading them to YouTube and other social networking sites. In this tutorial, we will export our finished book app trailer for uploading to YouTube.

We will use the most common HD resolution settings supported by these sites which are 1280 x 720 (16:9 aspect ratio). You probably have used a frame rate of 30 to shoot your video. If you have use an even higher frame rate for shooting your video, you should still use the 30 FPS frame rate when exporting your finished project.

As for the most common audio settings, you will want to use the AAC-LC Advanced Audio Codec and a data rate of 320 kbps for your audio.

Open After Effects^R CS6

Click Composition - Composition Settings.
In the Composition Settings dialog box, verify the following settings.

Preset: HDV/HDTV 720 29.97
Width: 1280
Height: 720
Pixel Aspect Ratio: Square Pixels
Frame Rate: 29.97 (or same as the frame rate used to shot the video)

Once we have these settings for our comp, we can export the video for viewing.
Click Composition - Add to Render Queue.

You will see a few links in the Render Queue panel.
Click the Output Module: Lossless link to open the Output Module Settings dialog box.
On the Main Options tab, set the Format to H.264. This is the suggested format for YouTube and Vimeo.
At the bottom of the dialog box, put a check in the box next to Audio Output. If you forget to do this, your video will export without any sound.
Set the Audio Output to 44.1 kHz
Click the Format Options button to open the H.264 Options dialog box and set the following values.

Multiplexer Tab

Multiplexing: MP4
Stream Compatibility: Standard

Video Tab

Profile: High
Level: 3.1
Bitrate Encoding: VBR, 1 Pass
Target Bitrate: 4 Mbps
Maximum Bitrate: 5 Mbps
Set Key Frame Distance: Checked
Key Frame Distance: 30 frames (or same as the Frame Rate for your comp settings)

Audio Tab

Codec: AAC
Audio Quality: High
Bitrate: 320 kbps

Finished book app trailer

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