Video for mobile devices

 Things to consider when shooting video for mobile devices

• Tight shots are better. It's hard to see a face on a tiny screen unless it's shot in relative close-up.
• Light your subjects well, and keep them separated from the background; the colors and values between background and subject should not be too similar.
• Avoid excessive zooming and rolling, which hinder temporal compression schemes. Panning is less of a problem.
   

Author: Adobe

 Things to do within After Effects when making movies for mobile devices

• Use a relatively low frame rate (15-22 fps) for mobile devices.
• Use motion-stabilization tools and noise-reduction or blur effects before rendering to final output, to aid the compressor in reducing file size.
• Match the color palette to the mobile devices that you are targeting. Mobile devices, in general, have a limited color gamut. Previewing in Adobe Device Central can help determine if the colors used are optimal for an individual device or range of devices.
• Use Format Options presets available through the output module in the Render Queue panel. Presets are available for 3GPP mobile devices, iPod video, PlayStation Portable, and other devices.

For more information, see the "Planning for playback on computer monitors and mobile devices" section of After Effects Help.

 

Author: Adobe

 Make the movie as small as possible

• Remove any extraneous content, especially empty frames. Many actions can be done pre-encoding to limit file size. Some of them apply to shooting techniques, while others (for instance, using motion-stabilization tools in After Effects or applying a noise-reduction or blur effect) are post-production tasks that facilitate the compression portion of the encoder. _For tips on making movies smaller, see the online Help for After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro._
   

Author: Adobe

 Match the color palette to the correct mobile devices

• Mobile devices, in general, have a limited color range. Previewing in Device Central can help determine if the colors used are optimal for an individual device or range of devices.

Author: Adobe

 Adjust clips in grayscale

• Grayscale view is helpful to compare values.

Author: Adobe

 Use the presets available in Adobe Media Encoder

• Several presets are designed for export to 3GPP mobile devices in Adobe Media Encoder. 3GPP presets come in standard sizes: 176 x 144 (QCIF), 320 x 240, and 352 x 288. 

Author: Adobe

 Crop wisely

• A common practice is to work at standard DV project settings and output to a combination of DV, DVD, Flash, WMV and mobile 3GPP. Use the usual presets, but at encoding time manage the difference between 4:3 or 16:9 video and the 11:9 aspect ratio of mobile 3GPP. The AME crop tool allows constraint to arbitrary proportions in the same manner as the Photoshop Crop tool and adds an 11:9 constraint preset to the existing 4:3 and 16:9.

Author: Adobe

 Work at an aspect ratio consistent with mobile output

• New project presets (available only on Windows) make this easy. The frame dimensions are larger than the ultimate output size (working at 176 x 144 can be difficult, for example, for titling), but they match the output-frame aspect ratio to facilitate easy encoding. Each Windows project preset renders to uncompressed video, but most computers can manage the data rate at these reduced frame sizes and halved frame rates. (This process is for projects where the only output is for mobile devices.) Two frame aspect ratios account for the majority of support in mobile devices: 4:3 (QVGA, VGA etc.) and 11:9 (CIF, QCIF, Sub-QCIF). These two common project settings are included in the Adobe Media Encoder "Mobile & Presets" folder.
   

Author: Adobe

 Do not use the device data in Device Central to determine how to configure a custom preset

• Device Central does not have information about video or audio support (frame sizes, codecs, bit rates, and so on). The frame size data in Device Central refers to screen size and wallpaper and screen saver sizes, which are different from video sizes.
   

Author: Adobe