How to render in After Effects^®

The first step may seem obvious, but we’ve included it in case you still need to download After Effects^® to your current operating system for any reason. If you’re ready to export via After Effects^®, download the latest version to get started.

Go to the After Effects^® download page

Begin the process of rendering in After Effects^®. To render in After Effects^® – which lets you adjust the duration, resolution, output frame rate, and layer quality of your project – check out the top menu and locate Composition. Composition is the dropdown to remember for your rendering, encoding, and exporting needs. Once you click the dropdown, you’ll see several options – select Add to Render Queue in After Effects^®.

The Render Queue is a window at the bottom of your screen that lets you adjust Render Settings, set your Output Module, and choose where you want to export your video (by clicking Output To). Before you render the video in After Effects^®, take a minute to explore these settings.

Note that you can also navigate to the Render Queue by clicking File, Export, and Render Queue as well.

For beginners and most people in general, Best Settings are called best for a reason. Unless you have specific rendering needs, then leave this as it is.

And for the Output Module, you can leave it on Lossless if you’re looking to export the highest quality video file. Or you can click Custom in the dropdown and select details like the codec, color range, and audio-related settings.

Now that you know how to render video in After Effects^®, it’s time to export video out of After Effects^®.

Click the dropdown arrow next to the Output To text, and press the plus sign if you want to render and export multiple versions with different settings. Choose where on your computer you’d like your new video exported, and once it’s complete you’ll be able to access it at that location.

This is the fastest way to export a composition in After Effects^®. And if you’re curious about how to render in After Effects^® without using the Render Queue, you can try rendering your composition using Adobe^®’s Media Encoder. While not technically the same application, Media Encoder comes included If you download and pay for Adobe^® After Effects^® ($20.99 / month), and you’re even able to access the encoder tool from within After Effects^®.

One of the benefits of the encoder is that using it to render compositions lets you continue to work within Adobe^® After Effects^®, whereas rendering video in After Effects^® stops you from working on your composition until the render is complete. If you’re busy using AE and don’t want to interrupt your work with bulk rendering, try Adobe^® Media Encoder instead.