Add back rendering support for H264 codec directly out of AE
Around 2012 you removed the option for rendering a .mp4 file directly out of AE. Please add it back. The work around is to either render in a different codec and compress that in media encoder, or to launch the render directly from media encoder from AE (which is extremely slow and cumbersome, especially when you have large/complex project files). Not sure why removing functionality seemed like a good idea at the time...?

51 comments
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Corey Dimond commented
Please, add back a simple light codec like h264. Preferably h264. AME is garbage and I would never use it except I have to now. The decision to remove this was ludicrous. No here we are 8 years later. Clients and studios still ask for h264. I have to wait for AME to get its **** together. It’s slow. It’s awkward. The default settings are trash. It feels like a 30 year old program. Just let me render from the render queue and trim the fat for crissakes. Get all of those effects and codecs no one uses out of there.
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Daniel Martin commented
As Adobe Media Encoder doesn't render the same way After Effects does this is a critical feature. If whatever causes AME to render differently than after effects was fixed I would be OK with just using Adobe Media Encoder.
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sam yousefian commented
SERIOUSLY!!! PLEASE ADD IT BACK!
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Yair Katznelson commented
H264 is still the most widely used codec & the lack of exporting it straight from AE is hallucinatory,
There is a free AE plugin similar to After codecs called voukoder which evolves quickly & contains many HW acceleration encodings.
https://www.voukoder.org/ -
Yeah commented
Looks like Adobe needs some advanced AI algorithms to bring it back.... or maybe they spent all their money on Tiffany Haddish wage and have no more budget for this. :P
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Ferdi Kubin commented
Hey Antoine, yes, I have! I think it's a great plugin, but I don't really see why I have to spend extra money to use a basic export feature.
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Antoine (Autokroma.com) commented
Ferdi did you have a look at AfterCodecs ? https://autokroma.com/AfterCodecs/
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Ferdi Kubin commented
While it's true that you should not use H264 as a production format, in the real world you share preview renders with clients and superiors that don't need to be excellent quality. Quick H264 export from After Effects was perfect for this. Now, if you just want your art director to take a look at an edit of ******-quality playblasts, you need to render them lossless - totall overkill - and compress them afterwards. Super annoying extra step.
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Adam Barton commented
Please return direct export to H264. It's a working tool for me. Thanks!
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Corey Dimond commented
Adobe you are absolutely blowing it. I’m at a major studio and am trying to render and I can’t because of this. We can’t update to the latest AE because the studio isn’t able to update to windows 10 for some probably very legitimate reasons. Now I hear you are implementing some sort of legal thing where you can sue for using older versions of software? Unbelievable.
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Sergio Bástian Bishop commented
In CS6 we had the H.264 MP4 option, it was BEAUTIFUL. I just compared a H264 MP4 from CS6 with a Quicktime MOV H264 in CC 2017, and MP4 was reaaaallly better quality and size.
Now in CC 2018 we have not even Quicktime H264... Frustrating.
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Sergio Bástian Bishop commented
Yes, I want the H.264 MP4 NOT Quicktime back. It's annoying to use Media Encoder.
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Pissed off AE User commented
I'm seriously looking for and alternative to the whole suite, this codec issue has been going on for years, Support has no clue how to fix and they just leave you hanging, I can't export .mov files without the h.264 codec preset for quicktime, this is so frustrating
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John Myers commented
Please add H264 back, your awful AME barely works half the time with connection errors or simply hanging interminably on renders. Your PROFESSIONAL USERS need these basic output options in order to circumvent the highly unstable AME.
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Michael commented
Adobe with every version tries hard to users leave adobe suite. This is most stupid thing i've ever seen. Oh, no! the most stupid thing in AE for example was not support professional graphics cards and not follow standards in graphic industry. Sick leftist minds!
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Prowl commented
What people don't seem to get that is if you export to the ME Render Queue you can carry on working...
There are some features in the AE queue that are missing from the ME - Queue I think.
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Elnatan Rodrigues commented
Por favor, habilitem o codec H.264 no After Effects, o Dynamic Link vive dando problemas, e eu acabo tendo que renderizar duas vezes meu vídeo (uma em .mov no After e outra em .MP4 no Premiere). Esse Dynamic Link presta para nada, ao transferir o vídeo para o Media Encoder, o Dynamic Link fica carregando e não funciona a renderização! Esse bug está atrasando minha vida, seria mil vezes melhor ter o codec H.A64 no After para renderizar direot em .mp4
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David Sapadin commented
No H.264 in AE Render Engine anymore? Whaddya nuts????
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Janne Wolterbeek commented
Media Encoder workflow from AE works fine for me now, just need getting used to a bit.
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Lachlan Phillips commented
Adobe should buy out After Codecs and integrate it. This is like showing up to a 5 star restaurant and finding out that it's BYO cutlery...