How To Export After Effects To Mp4 [Complete Guide]

There are many benefits to saving your Composition in MP4, one of the most widely used video formats, including the format’s worldwide compatibility. However, since Adobe discontinued H.264 or H.265-based MP4 choices in After Effects CC 2014 & later versions, you must do more than export an MP4 movie from After Effects. You can now learn how to export after effects to mp4.

You can Directly export the MP4 from After Effects using Adobe Media Encoder (AME). The easy and most straightforward method is using AME. By applying this, you will know How to export after effects to mp4.

Step-by-Step Guide: Exporting After Effects to MP4 Without Media Encoder:

Go to Composition> Add to Render Queue
Customize render settings in After Effects
Start exporting After Effects to MOV
Load the MOV file in VideoProc Converter
Set MP4 as the output format
Click RUN to start exporting MP4

In this guide, the article discusses how to export After Effects to mp4 and export video in after effects. Read and continue to learn more.

Table of Contents

How To Use Media Encoder to Export After Effects To MP4?

According to Adobe, After Effects are exported to MP4 using Media Encoder, a separate program with Creative Cloud services and membership. AEP can export after effects to mp4. It turns your file into nearly any format you can think of and works in tandem with all Adobe Creative products.

Launch After Effects and open the arrangement you wish to export.
Select “Add into Adobe Media Encoder Queue from the Composition menu.”
Expand the Format tab by clicking on it, then choose H.264 from the dropdown menu.
Press “Play” in the green to launch rendering.

Pros

Adobe’s native file compression program is called Media Encoder.
Media Encoder is quite simple to use.
Users can return to Adobe AE during rendering and carry on their work.

Cons

There is no alternative to fixing crashes, which it occasionally does.
It takes longer than After Effects could previously handle by itself.
Users of After Effects’ standalone app must pay an additional fee.

After Effects MP4 Export Without Media Encode

Depending on the price and potential crashes, uploading videos without using Media Encoder may be wise. Adobe Media Encoder costs extra for those who don’t have an Adobe Creative Suite subscription.

Using VideoProc Converter is an alternative for people without Media Encoder or having issues exporting with Media Encoder. You can export your video as an intermediary file format and then use a reputable video transcoder, such as VideoProc Converter, to convert this intermediary file to MP4.

Cons

Not native Adobe software, even with dedicated and knowledgeable tech support.

Pros

It runs without a hitch on both Windows and Mac.
Includes MOV and AVI among the more than 420+ formats it supports.
High-speed video/audio conversion using hardware acceleration.
It allows for batch MP4 conversion of MOV and AVI files.
It includes essential editing tools and a downloader and recorder built right in.

Why Can’t After Effects Directly Export An MP4?

Adobe made the decision. However, Adobe removed the function from After Effects CC since it was “challenging” to maintain across various programs.

They wanted all users to export their creations to yet another program so that it could render everything into the desired format, MP4, for the benefit of the users. The name of this extra program is Media Encoder.

How To Export After Effects To MP4 Video?

Here’s a quick diversion on exporting anything / a video from After Effects to define how to export video in after effects. It’s a simple concept that you may have already figured out. When your project is complete, add it to the Render Queue before exporting it to any file format.

How to export videos from after effects? Click the “Render” button. Effects proceed individually through the Compositions in the Render Queue that you can define & add to.

There are three ways to add your Composition to the After Effects Render Queue:

You are using the Menu. You use a Hotkey; Press “CTRL+M” in your active Composition. Move a composition by dragging it.
By selecting items in the project window & dragging & dropping them into Render Queue Window, you can add one or more compositions to the Render Queue at once.
By pressing the hotkey “CTRL+ALT+0”. Or by selecting “Enable” from the “Window”-Menu, you can open the render queue window. You only need to choose your preferred output Format & Video Codec (among other settings you may adjust) and press “Render” now that your compositions that need to be rendered are in the render queue.

Many formats are available, from AVI to Quicktime to other Image Sequence Formats.

Pros

It is so widely used that practically every hardware and software supports it.
It permits the MP4 Container to contain data other than just a video & audio stream, such as metadata.

Cons

Due to their robust compression capabilities, the codecs inside an MP4 Container require much processing power to decode.
It lacks built-in copy protection and is easily copied, transformed, and indiscriminately spread.
Because containing Codecs is “lossy,” the quality degrades as you compress them more tightly.

FAQs

How can I save an after effects intro video?

Generally speaking, After Effects needs to provide a consistent file format for saving your intro video or anything else made with this program. The actual issue is that. You created a brief video clip for YouTube but cannot save or export it in a common format like mp4 or anything similar.

What are after effects, and how does it work?

After Effects users are expected to render their compositions into a middle-ground (less-compressed) codec and finish their videos in Premiere Pro before using Media Encoder to export them for delivery.

Is MPEG4 equivalent to MP4?

No. MP4 is a storage format, whereas MPEG4 is a video codec. Utilizing video & audio codecs for compression, MP4 contains a video and audio stream.

How can I change.mov to MP4?

You can instantly convert from.mov to.mp4 using a variety of online converters. You can also utilize offline software like Adobe MediaEncoder for Handbrake's no-cost media conversion tool.

How can I use After Effects to output an AVI?

After Effects can export AVI files directly in output module settings, Place your Composition in the render queue & choose the the.AVI format you want. You're done when you click Render.

In After Effects CC, how do you acquire h.264?

You can activate 'deprecated File Formats' in earlier versions of After Effects in your user options. The H.264 Codec and MP4 Container are not natively supported by newer After Effects versions. However, in your Render Queue's Output Format Settings, you can use the .mov Container with the H.264 Codec.

How do I export After Effects to MOV?

In the After Effects Output Module Format Menu in the Render Queue, you will see the QuickTime option if QuickTime is installed. To render to the.mov container format, select this option & your preferred codec.

Conclusion

It was all about exporting after effects to mp4 and saving after effects as mp4. We hope this helps you and you will like it. To access output formats like MP4, you must now send the After Effects composition to Media Encoder. Adobe Media Encoder (AME) is a go-to option for exporting after effects to mp4.

Carly Earl

Carly Earl, Guardian Australia’s pic editor, was a photographer and pic editor in Sydney for 8 yrs. She worked for The Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph.