When using After Effects, many users seem to find certain aspects of it, unclear or hard to understand. The one I will be covering today is render settings for Youtube. Any people hoping to provide good quality content will at least want to know the basics of this, so here is how its done:

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Note: This tutorial is applicable in one way or another to all versions of AAE from CS4 and newer!
In the tutorial I will be using AAE CC as my platform of demonstration.

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Composition Settings!

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Right from the get go, when you first open After Effects, before you even doing anything, you should(as good practice) make a composition straight away with the right settings pertaining to what you will be making(in this case a Youtube video). To do this simply follow these steps:

Step 1:
Go to Composition>New composition(or CTRL + N)
Step 2:
This is where you choose the dimensions of your project and input the frame-rate, this part is important as it will effect the end render resolution on Youtube.

Dimensions-
The dimensions of your composition and or video affect the quality at which your video can be viewed at. The most common dimensions used today are 1280x720 this equates to 720p on Youtube and is the standard good quality video you will find, but today there are growing needs for more resolution so here are some dimensions you can now use on Youtube to improve your quality:

Resolution guide!
Frame rate-
The frame rate of a video is how many frames per-second are shown, the more frames, the better quality and the smoother the video will be. The maximum frame rate Youtube currently accepts is 60fps aka 59.94fps in real-time but you can also use lower settings if you like.

For this example I will be using these settings:


Click "Ok" then begin to make your project, add videos, music, effects and colour corrections to your liking and when your done proceed with the rest of the tutorial!

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Render settings!

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At this stage your project should be complete and ready to render!
To begin the process of rendering you must first add it to the render queue, this can be done simply by following this path:
Composition>Add to render queue(or CTRL + M)

Now you will be able to access the render queue tab, in here you will be presented with 3 different editable settings, Render settings, output module and output to, there are settings to change for all of these.

Render settings-
Ensure the quality is on best, the resolution is on full and you are using the compositions frame rate:


Output module-
Ensure the video and audio output are on and then select your preferred format of render, in this example im using AVI with H.264:


Output to-
Ensure it outputs to your desired file location in the correct format, with the file name you have provided it:


And thats it! hit this bad boy:

And your rendering!
when its done its ready for youtube upload in HD

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TIP: Put your caps lock on during your render and the preview box will not display the render, making it easier for your computer to handle and enabling the render to go faster!

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