Compress After Effects Render Files for Review and the Web

Keep your master, then make a smaller copy. The render queue in After Effects is built for masters such as ProRes; a viewing copy is a second encode, which you can do in Adobe Media Encoder or by dropping the master into Smol. Smol writes a new file and leaves the original alone by default.

The reason the master is huge is the codec, not your comp. Apple publishes target data rates for ProRes at 1920 × 1080 and 29.97 fps: about 45 Mbps for 422 Proxy, 147 Mbps for 422 and 220 Mbps for 422 HQ (Apple Support, read 11 October 2026). Divide by eight and you get megabytes a second: 147 Mbps is about 18 MB/s, or 1.1 GB a minute. A two-minute ProRes 422 spot is over 2 GB before 4K or a higher frame rate.

The per-minute column is our arithmetic from Apple’s rates. Test a few seconds of your own piece before you batch a whole project.

Drop the ProRes .mov into Smol, choose Compress, set the output to MP4 and the codec to H.264, then check the result. Use Compress rather than Convert so the quality setting applies and the file shrinks instead of just changing its container.

Choose the codec by who opens it. H.264 plays nearly everywhere, so it is the safer choice for a client you have never sent to. H.265 (Smol’s default) gives smaller files but does not open in every browser and viewer; see H.265 vs H.264 for the support picture. If the clip only ever goes to people on Macs, H.265 saves the most bytes.

Two warnings. An H.264 MP4 is not the place for transparency, so if the client needs an alpha channel, keep the ProRes file and ship a flattened MP4 only for viewing. And if the only thing that has to change is the container, converting MOV to MP4 without re-encoding is a different job from shrinking a ProRes master.

An H.264 MP4 at 1080p or lower, with the audio kept. Compatibility matters more than the last bit of efficiency, because the client may open it on any phone or browser. Mind the caps: Gmail allows 25 MB on a personal account and Slack says files up to 1 GB (read 11 October 2026).

Our video test gives the scale of savings, with its conditions. On a 10-second 1080p clip of about 30 MB, Smol’s default High setting (CRF 24) produced 6,111,954 bytes, 80.1% smaller, and Web (CRF 28) produced 3,201,900 bytes, 89.6% smaller. Those outputs were H.265, and they came from one live-action test clip, so treat them as a sense of scale; your animation will differ, and the method is in how to compress a video on Mac.

These are starting points, not measured thresholds for your piece. Smol sets quality and resolution, not output bytes, so it will not promise a 25 MB file. Check the size when the job finishes and run the file again lower if it misses.

A GIF is too large because it stores every frame as an indexed 256-color image with no real motion compression. A video codec only stores what changes between frames. For motion work, replace the GIF with an MP4 or WebM.

In our GIF to MP4 test, a 4-second 480 × 320 photographic pan was 8,687,717 bytes as a GIF and 259,669 bytes as H.264 at CRF 23, encoded with ffmpeg. A flat UI recording changed less: 183,238 bytes as a GIF and 72,948 as H.264. The more your animation looks like a photograph or a gradient, the more a GIF costs you.

If a platform insists on a real GIF, shorten the loop, cut the frame rate and shrink the pixel dimensions in After Effects before you export. Each of those multiplies, so halving the width alone cuts the pixel count to a quarter.

Match the file to the size it displays at, drop the audio from silent loops, and pick the codec the page can play. A hero loop shown 1280 pixels wide does not need a 3840-pixel master behind it.

• Output width: set it to the largest size the animation is displayed at, doubled only if the design must stay sharp on high-density screens.
• Audio: remove it for background loops. Smol has a switch for that.
• Codec: H.264 MP4 plays everywhere; WebM is a second source for browsers that support it. Smol outputs both, and the trade-offs are in converting MP4 to WebM.
• Stills from the same project: compress the poster frames and previews too, since image weight counts toward page speed; compress images for web covers that.

Developers handling the page can read web agencies and image optimization for what happens after your files are handed over, and video production delivery covers sending finished cuts.

1. 1

   Render the master and keep it

   Export your ProRes master from After Effects as usual. Never compress the only copy.

2. 2

   Drag the .mov into Smol

   A whole folder of shots works, and you can mix in stills and PDFs in the same batch.

3. 3

   Set output MP4, H.264, quality High

   Lower the output width if the cut runs long. Remove audio for silent loops.

4. 4

   Run it and read the sizes

   Smol shows per-file results. If a file is over the cap, run it again at Web or a smaller width.

5. 5

   Watch it once, full screen

   Scrub the hardest moment. Banding in gradients or soft type means go up one quality step.

6. 6

   Send the compressed copy

   The output sits beside the original with a _compressed suffix. Upload that one.

For a whole delivery of many shots, batch compressing videos shows the folder approach, and a Finder Quick Action puts the same job in the right-click menu.

If you already have Media Encoder open, use it. The HandBrake alternatives page lays out where each tool fits. Smol earns its place when you want the same job as a drag-and-drop on a folder of shots, with no queue to build.

• You need an exact output size such as 15.0 MB for video. Smol has no byte target for video; a two-pass bitrate encode in another tool is the answer.
• You need to keep an alpha channel in the delivery file. Keep the ProRes 4444 master and do not flatten it.
• You need a lossless or intermediate file for the next editor. Compressing makes a delivery copy; do not use it as a master.
• You have an animated GIF and no source. Smol did not convert an animated GIF in our test, so re-render from the project or use another tool.
• You want a Lottie or vector export. Smol works on raster and video files, not vector animation formats.