Weekly Video Tip: How to Export Videos for YouTube and Vimeo
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If you guys have been following along up until now, you should be awesome at shooting and editing videos. However, in order for the entire world to enjoy your visual genius and not just your grandma who comes over to your house every Friday for Canasta, you've gotta get those puppies up on the webernets. So without further ado, let's take a look at how you should export and compress your videos for YouTube and Vimeo.
Knowing how to export and optimize your videos for web streaming is probably one of the most overlooked steps in the video process for newbies like you. It's super important to do it the right way if you want your masterpiece to looks its best - whether it's played back on a phone, tablet or computer display. For the most part, you'll probably be uploading your vids to either YouTube or Vimeo, so we'll focus on the best settings for those two sites.
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When editing in software like Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro, you'll need to be familiar with the two programs they include for encoding and compressing video files. Compressor comes bundled w/ Final Cut and Adobe Media encoder comes w/ - you guessed it genius: Adobe Premiere! Both of these pieces of software do pretty much the same thing, but the workflow and settings you'll use very slightly from one to the other.
If you’re using Final Cut Pro remember, there are a couple different ways to get your final timeline exported, into Compressor and then compressed for YouTube or Vimeo. Here's the way we recommend doing it:
First, set in and out points on your timeline. Then go to File > Export Quicktime Movie and make sure to export a self-contained .mov file that has the same settings as your sequence. Now, open Compressor and either click Add File and navigate to the .mov you just exported or simply drag that same file into Compressor - you should now see it in the Preview window.
The next step is just as simple: Go to the Settings window (if you don't see it, just select it under the Windows dropdown menu) and open up the Web folder under Other Workflows. Towards the bottom, you should see a setting called YouTube Sharing - just drag that up to where it says "Drag Settings and Destination Here" - pretty simple right?
Now to keep things REALLY simple, we're going to keep the destination for your compressed file the same as the source - meaning, that your compressed version will end up wherever the full resolution copy you exported from FCP resides. Now just hit submit and submit again and your video will start compressing. Now just sit back pet your toy Chihuahua dog and give him or her a delicious treat and when Compressor finishes doing its thing, you'll have a file optimized for YouTube and Vimeo.
When you finish your edit in Adobe Premiere, the first thing you want to do is pull up the export window. You can do this by hitting command E. From there you'll have all different kinds of options like export entire sequence, sequence in and out, work area, and custom. Select the one that is appropriate for you and then hit the "Que" button to send your selection to Media Encoder. From there, on the right scroll down through the different presets in Web Video and choose either the YouTube or Vimeo setting that matches the resolution of your source footage. Once you've selected the appropriate setting, drag it over to the left. You will then see 2 different export settings associated with your export. You can delete the preset from Premiere and keep the settings you just placed there. Then, click where it says output to name and set the location of where you want your file to go. Now, simply push the play button and viola - your time-lapse of your grandma's bird feeder will be ready in no time!
Knowing how to use the right settings when exporting your video will not only render the best quality version for the Internet, it also creates the illusion that you know what you're doing. Always remember, if you know what you're doing on the technical side, it will ultimately help you on the creative side.
Stephen Schweickart is the co-founder of VScreen. For more information on this topic visit VScreen’s site at http://www.vscreen.com/video101.html.
Knowing how to export and optimize your videos for web streaming is probably one of the most overlooked steps in the video process for newbies like you. It's super important to do it the right way if you want your masterpiece to looks its best - whether it's played back on a phone, tablet or computer display. For the most part, you'll probably be uploading your vids to either YouTube or Vimeo, so we'll focus on the best settings for those two sites.
When editing in software like Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro, you'll need to be familiar with the two programs they include for encoding and compressing video files. Compressor comes bundled w/ Final Cut and Adobe Media encoder comes w/ - you guessed it genius: Adobe Premiere! Both of these pieces of software do pretty much the same thing, but the workflow and settings you'll use very slightly from one to the other.
If you’re using Final Cut Pro remember, there are a couple different ways to get your final timeline exported, into Compressor and then compressed for YouTube or Vimeo. Here's the way we recommend doing it:
First, set in and out points on your timeline. Then go to File > Export Quicktime Movie and make sure to export a self-contained .mov file that has the same settings as your sequence. Now, open Compressor and either click Add File and navigate to the .mov you just exported or simply drag that same file into Compressor - you should now see it in the Preview window.
The next step is just as simple: Go to the Settings window (if you don't see it, just select it under the Windows dropdown menu) and open up the Web folder under Other Workflows. Towards the bottom, you should see a setting called YouTube Sharing - just drag that up to where it says "Drag Settings and Destination Here" - pretty simple right?
Now to keep things REALLY simple, we're going to keep the destination for your compressed file the same as the source - meaning, that your compressed version will end up wherever the full resolution copy you exported from FCP resides. Now just hit submit and submit again and your video will start compressing. Now just sit back pet your toy Chihuahua dog and give him or her a delicious treat and when Compressor finishes doing its thing, you'll have a file optimized for YouTube and Vimeo.
When you finish your edit in Adobe Premiere, the first thing you want to do is pull up the export window. You can do this by hitting command E. From there you'll have all different kinds of options like export entire sequence, sequence in and out, work area, and custom. Select the one that is appropriate for you and then hit the "Que" button to send your selection to Media Encoder. From there, on the right scroll down through the different presets in Web Video and choose either the YouTube or Vimeo setting that matches the resolution of your source footage. Once you've selected the appropriate setting, drag it over to the left. You will then see 2 different export settings associated with your export. You can delete the preset from Premiere and keep the settings you just placed there. Then, click where it says output to name and set the location of where you want your file to go. Now, simply push the play button and viola - your time-lapse of your grandma's bird feeder will be ready in no time!
Knowing how to use the right settings when exporting your video will not only render the best quality version for the Internet, it also creates the illusion that you know what you're doing. Always remember, if you know what you're doing on the technical side, it will ultimately help you on the creative side.
Stephen Schweickart is the co-founder of VScreen. For more information on this topic visit VScreen’s site at http://www.vscreen.com/video101.html.
