Frequently Asked Questions About Projector

Not in Projector. Here's why.

When you create a video composition within Adobe After Effects (AE), you can immediately render that comp into a finished video. This AE functionality is sometimes referred to as exporting.

When you produce Autografs Video template authored with Templater and ready for user-provided elements from a data source, you have more options:

• You can render separate Autografs.
• You can create Autograf replicates within your AEP (After Effects Project) file.
• You can create separate AEP file replicates from each Autograf. An AEP replicate is a versioned duplicate of the original After Effects project file configured for Templater. It is an authored document rather than a rendered video file.

You can use Projector to:

• Transcode a finished After Effects video or rendered Autograf into one or more new video files.
• Export versioned file replicates and render them into finished Autografs. Export and render are two separate steps in Projector, so the terms are not interchangeable.

There are times when you might want to do this. For example, video producer Maya renders 500 short promotional videos from the same composition. Maya personalizes 499 of them. She will send them to individual customers as part of an email campaign. But she also plans to stream a non-personalized version on her Vimeo channel. She will promote that link in a social media campaign.

Maya needs to split this into two payloads. She knows her customers are most likely to view videos on a mobile device. The personalized campaign will be transcoded with that in mind. Maya also wants to create a GIF clip for the campaign. Finally, she'll use a personalized video frame as the poster to increase engagement.

The non-personalized video will be transcoded for optimized streaming on Vimeo. She won't need a GIF clip, and will use a different frame for her thumbnail poster.

From her data source, Maya can easily choose which videos to include in each payload.

The most common video codec is H.264, which the MP4 video format uses. It's optimized for streaming and results in good quality videos. This holds true even when the viewer is using an older or less powerful device. Other formats are available. You may want to choose something different if you're creating very high-definition videos.

Bitrate refers to the speed at which your video streams to the viewer's device. It is also linked to FPS Frames per second, a measure of video quality. Most video for viewing on a computer is 30 FPS. and video definition. To some extent, your streaming service decides these. Most major services can handle videos of 24 to 60 FPS. Most also support viewing on a mobile device, a computer monitor (1080p), in high-definition, or in 4K.

The most common choice for web video viewed on a computer monitor is 30 FPS. In these cases, bitrate should generally fall between 3,500 to 6,000 Kbps.

The bitrate you choose will be a bit of a trade-off. Why? Higher bitrates result in better quality audio and video but also in larger files. Lower bitrates reduce file size but also lower the quality of the video. So choose a bitrate that gives you acceptable quality and manageable file size. If you're new to streaming, you may need to experiment within the recommended ranges to determine what's best for you.

If you know how your users typically watch videos, adjusting video size might improve their experience. For example, does most of your audience watch videos on a standard desktop monitor? Then you might want to choose a common monitor resolution. What if you're not sure, or if your users might watch your content on a variety of devices? Then you might opt not to specify sizing at all. Keep in mind that increasing video dimensions also increases file size. Larger files can add to costs for upload, delivery, and bandwidth.

Image quality is another production element that involves weighing several factors. It takes time for Projector to extract a still image and convert the image format for each mission. If you're producing hundreds of videos, lower image quality can save time. But that might not offer the viewer experience you want. Configure the best quality image possible while still controlling production time.

If you use the storage service feature in Projector, you must provide an AWS user account to interact with your S3 bucket.

This account can be either a root user or an IAM user with public read permissions to the S3 bucket you use with Projector.

If you don't manage your own AWS infrastructure, ask your AWS administrator to set this up for you.

These steps assume you manage your own AWS account. If it's a company account that you don't manage, ask your AWS administrator for the values that you need to complete this task.

1. Log in to your AWS account.

2. Go to Identity and Access Management (IAM).

3. On the IAM Dashboard, click your account and make a note of your access secret and key.

4. Go to S3 Buckets. Make a note of the name of the bucket you want to use and the availability zone the bucket is in.

Vimeo and JW Player are industry-leading streaming services. Either can help your videos reach the audiences you want. The primary difference between the two is the type of video creator they're designed for.

Vimeo is very user-friendly and consumer-focused. It caters primarily to businesses and individuals who want to make video easily available but don't have a lot of web development experience. Their primary business is not usually video production. This can make it easier for those who are new to customized video, who produce fewer than 1,000 videos at a time, or who only produce video occasionally.

JW Player is designed for enterprise-level video producers. It caters primarily to broadcasters, publishers, and others for whom video is their main business. It offers a high level of personalization and white label options. It's a great choice for video production houses, large corporate users, and others who regularly produce a high volume of customized video on a consistent basis.

JW Player lets you create one or more web players with your own branding and preferences. These players are used when viewers stream your videos from the JW Player platform. You can also embed them in your own or other websites.

To use an existing player with Projector:

1. Go to the Players page in your JW Player account.
2. Find the player you want to use in the list of all your web players.
3. Copy the ID for that player.

If you don't have a web player for JW Player, or don't want to use any of your existing players, you can create a new one. You'll find more information in the JW Player documentation.

You must have an API key to use JW Player with Projector. If you have Admin permissions for your JW Player account, you can create one yourself. If you don't manage your company's JW Player account, talk to your account administrator to obtain an API key and secret.

1. In the JW Player Dashboard, go to Settings > API Credentials.
2. In the v2 API Credentials section, click Add.
3. For Name, enter a value. You should choose a name that makes it clear what API the key is for, such as Projector.
4. Select a User Role from the drop-down.
5. Click Add New API Key.

You can find this information in the Vimeo developer space for your account. If you don't have this access, ask the person who manages your company's Vimeo for the client ID and client secret. If you do have developer access, follow these steps.

1. If you are not already signed in to your Vimeo account, sign in now.
2. Go to developer.vimeo.com.
3. Click your avatar and then click API Apps.
4. Click the API application you created to use with Projector. The client ID and client secret display on the page of information about the app.

Vimeo lets you create one or more embed presets. These are web players with your own branding and preferences. Your presets are always used when viewers stream from a player embedded in your website. They are only used for Unlisted videos streamed from Vimeo. Public and password-protected videos streamed on Vimeo always use the default appearance settings.

To find the names of your existing presets:

1. Log in to your Vimeo account.
2. Click Settings.
3. In the left column, click Video and then click Embed presets.
4. Find the preset you want to use.
5. Copy the name for that preset.

If you don't have any presets for Vimeo, or don't want to use any of your existing presets, you can create a new one. You'll find more information in the Vimeo documentation.

These columns are always required:

• render-status
• stream-status

If you use AEP rendering, these columns are also required:

• target
• aep

Mission Control provides a graphical representation of each mission's status. If your payload includes a few short missions, it may complete quickly. In fact, you may feel that you blinked and missed Mission Control!

However, Mission Control becomes more valuable in any of these situations:

• Your payload consists of many missions.
• You're working with longer videos.
• Your payload takes advantage of multiple capabilities offered by Projector.
• You need to let someone else see the Projection progress of the payload (simply take a screenshot of Mission Control).
• You're trying to manage other tasks at the same time you produce and deploy your videos.

When Projection finishes deploying a mission, it writes metadata back to its data source from the streaming service.the storage service.the streaming service, the storage service, or both.