Getting Started

In Part 4, as you traveled through the symbolic maze, you worked with Animate to create graphics, video, and animation for the web. Now you are going to travel to the fourth and final junction point: Adobe Media Encoder CC. Here you discover how to export video and web graphics that are ready for your website when you reach Dreamweaver in Part 6. Refer to Figure 25-1 so that you can see where you are in the maze.

Media Encoder CC is a program in the Adobe Creative Cloud collection that is often overlooked when designing audio and video artwork for the web. When I think of video rendering programs, the following five come to mind: Premiere Pro, Premiere Rush, After Effects, Character Animator, and Prelude. Refer to Figure 25-2.

However, as you saw in Part 2, Photoshop can be used to render basic video with effects that are suitable for a website. And in Part 4, you briefly saw that Media Encoder and Animate CC can also render a MOV file that you can work with further in Media Encoder. So, from the perspective of beginner in working with video, if you have never done professional editing, learning what Media Encoder is capable of for your project is a good place to start. Besides basic edits to your video, Media Encoder can encode your media file in a variety of formats that your audience can watch on multiple devices. In addition, if you just need to separate some audio from a video file, rather than learning how to do this in Adobe Audition CC, you can do this it Media Encoder. Refer to Figure 25-3.

As you can see in the diagram shown in Figure 25-4, once the Animate video is rendered in Media Encoder, it can be used in a program like Dreamweaver for your website (you look at that in Part 6).

If you have never used Media Encoder before, it is not a difficult program to use. Unfortunately, since there is not a “Classroom in a Book” for beginners to this software, I recommend reading resources, such as the Adobe Help section ( https://helpx.adobe.com/media-encoder/using/whats-new.html ), as an overview of the program and many of its tools.

In Part 5, you are working with videos that have already been created and then saving them for the web in various formats. Refer to Figure 25-5 to see what sort of file formats you are working with throughout Part 5.

Let’s begin by opening Media Encoder CC. If you do not have it on your computer, but you do have the Creative Cloud console, click the Install button (see Figure 25-6) and follow the instructions on how to install the program.

In older versions of Creative Cloud, Media Encoder automatically installs along with Flash (now Animate CC); however, since you can use Media Encoder with several other programs, Adobe now regards it as a separate program, so you can choose whether to install it now or later. If you are working with Animate or Photoshop, however, I recommend that you install it at the same time as these programs.

Also, if you plan to render large files, make sure to have an external drive to render onto so that you do not crash your computer during the rendering.

If you already have Media Encoder CC installed on your computer, double-click the icon, or from the Creative Cloud console, click Open to launch the program, as seen in Figure 25-7.

I am using the 2018 and 2019 version.

Upon opening Media Encoder CC, you find that its layout is very different than what you have encountered so far in Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, and Animate CC. The workspace has been separated into four sections or panels, and there does not appear to be any Tools panel. So, you might be wondering how you should work with this layout to output video. Refer to Figure 25-8.

Looking at the Setup of Media Encoder CC and Queue

When you exported a video from Animate CC in Chapter 24, recall that there was a setting in the Convert the Video in Media Encoder dialog box. When the Export button was clicked, Media Encoder opened and the MOV file was in the Queue panel, so that you could adjust the setting for an MP4 (H.246) file format. Refer to Figure 25-9.

You’ll look at this panel in a moment, but first let’s look at an overview of the entire program.

When you open Animate, there are no files or size options for creating a new file from scratch. You can only add files that are already created via File ➤ Add Source. This is kind of like File ➤ Open. Refer to Figure 25-10.

If you had files that came from other Adobe programs, you could choose Add After Effects Composition or Add Premiere Pro Sequence. Any video from another source—Adobe program or not, you have to choose Add Source to add to the Queue panel.

Set up a Workspace

Unlike Photoshop, Illustrator, and Animate, there are no options for workspaces other than the default. This can be found in Workspaces ➤ Default Workspace. Refer to Figure 25-11.

This may be because there are only five panels to work with. You can rearrange the panels in any order that works for your workflow and create a new workspace; however, for now, you stay with the default workspace.

Adjusting Your Preferences

If you do not like working in a black program layout, you can adjust the appearance of the program in the Edit ➤ Preferences Appearance tab, as seen in Figure 25-12.

In the other Adobe programs, I prefer to work with a mid-gray background, but for video in Media Encoder, I prefer the brightness level to be set at darker. Feel free to adjust these settings while working on your projects; for now, just leave them at the default settings—including highlight color, interactive controls, focus indicators, and language—so that you can follow along.

Let’s review the other tabs.

• General: Settings for the queue (how it handles the encoding and alerts you), importing Premiere Pro Files, output, video renderer and color management. The video rendering is the GPU engine that comes with your computer processor. On my computer, I use Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration (Open CL); however, there may be a different one on your computer. Refer to Figure 25-13.

• Audio Hardware: Settings for the type of audio hardware that is being used. I am using Realtek Audio, which came with my computer, as the default output; but on your computer, it might be a different setting. Refer to Figure 25-14.

Sometimes your audio hardware settings or driver can affect whether you can extract audio out of certain video formats like AVI. Keep this in mind if you ever find that one of your imported video files does not extract the audio, and you are left with no sound after export.

• Media: Settings for media cache files and database, intermediate media timebase, captions on import, and accelerated decoding for H.264.

• Metadata: Writes a unique identifier to imported files that don’t already contain one. Also, settings for source and output template metadata that was added to the file.

• Memory: You may have to adjust the RAM for programs such as After Effects, Premiere Pro, Prelude, Photoshop, SpeedGrade, or Audition; otherwise, leave at the default settings. Refer to Figure 25-15.

• Sync Settings: If certain settings must remain in sync or synchronized within the program, they can be enabled or disabled here. They can be synchronized across multiple machines. You can upload preferences related to your workspace layouts. Also, there are keyboard shortcuts and presets to your Creative Cloud account. These settings could be downloaded and uploaded to other machines within your company. Refer to Figure 25-16.

Sync Settings can be cleared when you quit the application.

When you are done reviewing the preferences, if you have made changes, click OK in the lower right of the Preferences dialog box; otherwise, click Cancel to leave the settings at the default. Refer to Figure 25-17.

Now let’s look at each of the panels, moving clockwise within the default workspace.

Media Browser Panel

The Media Browser panel is much like choosing File ➤ Open or File ➤ Import as you would in Photoshop, Illustrator, or Animate. It allows you to preview the video and images that are within certain folders on your drive. As you navigate the media in your folders, you can easily select or drag-and-drop files into the Queue panel. Refer to Figure 25-18.

As with other panels, they possess menus that allow you to close, undock, or maximize panels if you need to move around. Refer to Figure 25-19.

Here you can look through various internal and external drives, including the Creative Cloud, and search for the folder that contains your media. If your media is several raster images (GIF, JPEG, or PNG), you can enable Import As Image Sequence. To revert panel settings, choose Window ➤ Workspaces ➤ Revert Workspace.

Clicking a video file in this panel lets you preview it. There is a hover scrub so that you can watch portions of the video when you hover over it or move the playhead when Enable Hover Scrub is checked (see Figures 25-19 and 25-20).

When you right-click the video, you can choose whether to import to the Queue panel, Stitch Clips Together (adds as group the queue), Add the Folder as a Watch Folder, Reveal in Explorer, or Add to Favorites. Refer to Figure 25-21.

The upper right area of the panel allows you to narrow the search of the files that you want to import into the queue. Refer to Figure 25-22.

You can search by file type. Refer to Figure 25-23.

By Directory viewers, depending upon your directory some of these locations may not be available to you. Refer to Figure 25-24.

Enter the name of the file in the search text box. Refer to Figure 25-25.

The lower half of the panel lets you alter your thumbnail view by image, list, or zoom. Refer to Figure 25-26.

Queue Panel

The Queue panel is where you set your export settings before you render and export. Refer to Figure 25-27.

You can add media sources to the queue by using the plus (+) symbol and remove it using the minus (–) symbol, as seen in Figure 25-28.

When you click, yes this removes the file from the Queue panel it does not delete it from the drive. Choosing the No button in the alert leaves the file in the Queue.

When a file is selected, you can also use the Add Output icon (the second icon) to add output of the same file after the first or the Duplicate icon (the fourth icon) to add a duplicate of the presets for that file so that you can output the same file again in a different format. Refer to Figure 25-29.

Auto-Encode Watch Folders automatically encodes all watch folders from the Watch Folders panel, as seen in Figure 25-30.

A watch folder is a set folder that you can place media into, and Media Encoder detects these files after a few minutes, depending on what time detection preferences you set, and then adds them to the queue and automatically starts rendering. I explain how this speeds up your workflow in more detail shortly.

Next to the Auto-Encode check box you will see two more icons when you are ready to encode all files with the new format, preset and output folder file location, the green triangle Play button can be clicked. This begins the encoding and rendering export process of your imported file. If you realize that you made a mistake, press the red Stop button square to stop the process. Your video renderer is listed in the lower right of the panel (see Figure 25-27), and you can change it from the drop-down menu should you choose to. For now, leave it at whatever default the program is currently using for your computer.

Format Options

You look at the Format column in more detail later. It refers to files for the web and other video projects. You can change the format by clicking the drop-down menu next to the format name and choosing a new one from the list. Refer to Figure 25-31.

When you click on the format name this opens the Export Settings dialog box. Refer to Figure 25-32.

This is a very advanced area that changes depending upon the format that is chosen. You look at it in more detail in Chapters 26, 27, and 28 when you export web formats.

For now, you can cancel to get out of this area and return to the Queue panel.

Preset Options

Preset type can be chosen when clicking the drop-down menu next to the name or by clicking the name and entering the Export Settings area. There are many options, depending on what format is chosen. You look at the ones related to the web in the next three chapters. Refer to Figure 25-33.

Output File Options

The Output File column allows you to choose the location (Save As) that you wish to output the final rendered file. Refer to Figure 25-34.

Interpret Footage

When a file is selected in the Queue panel, choose File ➤ Interpret Footage. Right-clicking the file also allows you to adjust to the frame rate pixel aspect ratio, field order, and alpha channel. Refer to Figure 25-35.

Much of this can be adjusted via the Export Settings dialog box for video, which you look at in more detail in Chapter 26. But if you need the footage to be interpreted differently because of alpha channels, you can adjust it here to match the setting of other files for your projects. Click Cancel to exit this dialog box.

Watch Folders Panel

This panel is found docked with the Queue panel to the right. It is very similar to adding a droplet/batch action, as you saw in Photoshop CC. Here you can add (+) or remove (–) a folder or add a final output folder. Refer to Figure 25-36.

Media Encoder detects the files present in the folder. Here files that appear within this watched folder alert Media Encoder that they need to be added to the queue and rendered based on format, preset, and output, which were set in the Watch Folders panel. If you have a lot of video that needs similar settings, this is a good option and allows you to speed up the rendering process; however, make sure to run a test with one file before you add more. In rendering image sequences, you may get more files than you expected.

Encoding Panel

The Encoding panel only has a preview of images in it when a file is being rendered; otherwise, it remains blank. For multiple outputs, the Encoding panel displays a thumbnail preview, progress bar, and the completion time estimate of each encoding output. When done, it moves on to the next file to encode until complete. Refer to Figure 25-37.

Preset Browser Panel

The Preset Browser panel lists all the presets that are currently available for Media encoder. There are many to choose from.

System Presets are organized into categories in a collapsible folder structure based on use and device. They are organized further by format, frame size, frame rate, target rate, and comments (notes on what to use the preset for). Refer to Figure 25-38.

In this book, you focus on presets that relate to your web files. You can either expand or collapse the menus to find the correct preset you want to use, or use the search area to search by name.

If you want to edit presets, the icons in the upper left above the user presets and groups allow you to create custom presets. The icons from left to right are New Preset, Delete Preset, Create New Preset Group, Preset Settings, Import Presets, and Export Presets. Refer to Figure 25-39.

Once created, then you can apply the presets by selecting and clicking the Apply button. This applies presets or groups to the files in the Queue panel, usually to a duplicate output. Alt+click allows you to apply to the watch folder. You can also access this area in Preset in the main menu. Settings are saved (exported) or imported as a video preset file (.epr).

Preset Menu Options

Many of these similar options can be accessed through the preset menu. Preset ➤ Settings… allows you to inspect the selected setting more in depth before adding it to the queue. Refer to Figures 25-40 and 25-41.

Figure 25-41 shows the detailed setting, but they vary by the format information.

To exit, click Save A Copy if you want to create a duplicate, or in this case, click Cancel.

At this point, you have looked at the primary areas of Media Encoder. You can close the program (File ➤ Exit) or keep it open for the next chapter, where you start working with the video files for export and render.

Summary

This chapter was an overview of the main panels in Media Encoder. You discovered that this program’s appearance is different from Photoshop, Illustrator, and Animate, but it is still an important part of the process for getting video files ready for the web.

In the next chapter, you encode your video files (.mov and .avi) as MP4 (H.246) files and look at two other web formats.