How To Render a Video in After Effects (Faster)

Are you ready to speed up your video renders in Adobe After Effects? This guide will walk you through the process of rendering your videos quickly with excellent results.

Whether you’re a newbie to After Effects, or migrating from other video editing software like Premiere Pro, we’re sure you’ll find these tips and tricks useful.

In the world of video production, time is of the essence. Faster rendering not only means quicker project turnarounds, but also smoother workflows and less problematic surprises.

If you’re working on projects like promo videos, social media shorts, animations, educational content, vlogs, or podcasts, timely and efficient rendering is crucial.

Before we dive into the rendering process, let’s make sure your After Effects project is optimized for speed.

First, delete any unnecessary layers in your After Effects composition. This could be anything from:

So go through your composition and delete any layers that are in there that you aren’t actually using. Also, trim layers down that don’t need to extend the full length of the video composition.

Next, clear out any unnecessary files you aren’t using that are in the Project Panel.

An easy way to do this is to use the Reduce Project function built into After Effects. Select the composition you are about to render out in the After Effects Project Panel. Then navigate to File > Dependencies > Reduce Project.

Finally, limit the use of resource-intensive effects or third-party plugins. All effects in After Effects are not created equal, some will render much slower than others. Camera Lens Blur is a notorious example. So be conscious of effects that render slowly and limit their use if you are on a tight time limit.

Now we need to add the video composition that you would like to render to the Render Queue.

First, open up the Render Queue by navigating to Window > Render Queue. Now simply drag and drop the composition you would like to render from the After Effects Project Panel to the Render Queue. Alternatively, you can select your composition in the Project Panel and navigate to File > Export > Add to Render Queue.

Now, let’s dial in our render settings for faster exports.

The first settings we need to explore are in the Output Module. Double-click on the Output Module to open up the settings. We will need to select an output video format.

Video formats with less compression will render faster. (More compression often means more time to render and export.) The only drawback is that less compressed video formats will result in large video files. (Often too large to upload.) “Lossless” video formats like AVI will have no compression, but again, they will result in the largest file size.

I recommend finding a balance and rendering in a format like Quicktime with a ProRes codec. This file format will have compression, but not nearly as much as formats like H.264.

When it comes to rendering, you have two options. You can render your video directly in After Effects or send your video to Adobe Media Encoder.

If you are trying to render your videos out the fastest, there is only one answer: Render directly in After Effects. This is because rendering in Adobe Media Encoder will use more resources than After Effects alone. (This makes sense because you are opening up a completely separate app to render along with After Effects.)

Adobe Media Encoder does offer plenty of benefits, but we are focusing on fast renders. For that goal, you would not want to use Adobe Media Encoder. This also means you will not want to continue to work in After Effects while you have a video rendering! You want After Effects to use all of its resources to render your video the fastest.

Take advantage of these tips to further speed up your After Effects renders. Slow renders are often a result of a system bottleneck. If you can identify the bottleneck in your workflow, you’ll drastically speed up your renders!

Enabling disk caching in After Effects will result in faster renders.

The disk cache effectively works by “pre-rendering” your video. It will also speed up your workflow and previews while you are working in After Effects.

Navigate to Edit > Preferences > Media & Disk Cache. Enable the Disk Cache and set the cache size. It is best to set your disk cache to an SSD and ideally a separate SSD from the one that After Effects and your working media files are installed on.

Enable multi-frame rendering in After Effects to render multiple frames simultaneously. This can significantly speed up the rendering process on multi-core CPUs. Navigate to Edit > Preferences > Memory & Performance.

Adjust the amount of RAM reserved for other applications while After Effects is running to optimize performance. You can allocate more RAM for After Effects to speed up the rendering process. Navigate to Edit > Preferences > Memory & Performance.

If your computer has a compatible GPU, enable GPU acceleration in After Effects. This can significantly boost rendering performance. Especially, for effects that leverage GPU processing. Navigate to File > Project Settings and then set the Video Rendering and Effects to use GPU Acceleration.

Using solid-state drives (SSD) for both your project files and rendered output can greatly improve rendering speed. SSDs offer faster read and write speeds compared to traditional HDDs.

As mentioned earlier, complex compositions with numerous layers and effects can slow down rendering. Simplify wherever possible. Trim and delete unused layers in your composition timeline.

With your project optimized and output settings selected, it’s time to export and render your video. Be sure to name your file and select a destination folder for your video to be rendered. (Again, rendering to and from SSDs will result in faster renders!) Finally, hit the Render button in the Render Queue window and watch.

Fast rendering in Adobe After Effects can make a world of difference in your video production workflow.

By optimizing your project composition, adjusting your preference settings, and utilizing the correct computer hardware, you can render your videos faster with fewer headaches. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned video creator, apply these techniques to speed up all of your After Effects renders!

While you’re here, check out this guide on how to animate a photo in After Effects or these Top 10 Creative After Effects Templates.