Compression Preview Plugin Review for After Effects
Compression Preview is a plugin for Adobe After Effects that allows you to preview your compression settings live in your compositions before committing to them at render. It’s a fast and easy way to check whether your compression settings will give you an output that’s acceptable, saving you lots of time and hassle. Let’s take a look:
Features:
- Compresses a frame range directly inside After Effects for previewing based on settings
- Estimate approximate final size in AE
- Helps counter banding artifacts and color shifts
- Available for Windows & Mac
- Price: $49
This is going to be a short review simply because the plugin itself is so simple. Basically, set a frame range, enter in a bitrate, maybe tweak a few additional options, and just examine. You keep doing this until your results look acceptable, and the plugin spits out some handy file size information. That’s it. It’s simple, it works, and it seems to be pretty accurate.
The only minor flaw with this is that the plugin isn’t available for Premiere at the moment. I almost never render with compression in After Effects because I do all that final prep in Premiere, so this plugin isn’t being utilized at the max for my own use. If you’re constantly pumping out shots in AE and not rendering lossless (or very close to it), than this plugin is definitely for you.
Compression Preview is also great for beginners to visually see what bitrate works, as I remember trying to pick an appropriate bitrate which lead to multiple painful re-renders when first starting out. This plugin is a timesaver and helps you reduce render mistakes before rendering. Although the lack of Premiere support is disappointing, the plugin works well as advertised, and for the price, you’re getting a fair bargain.