Make an AI Movie
AI Movie Export Settings: A Practical Delivery Guide
There is no single set of “best AI movie export settings.” AI footage becomes ordinary picture and sound once it reaches the finishing timeline, and the correct output depends on purpose. An archive master, a festival screener, a public video upload, a social cut, and a theatrical Digital Cinema Package solve different problems. The general principles are stable—preserve the intended frame rate, avoid needless transcoding, tag color correctly, keep audio intelligible, and inspect the delivered file—but codecs, bitrates, captions, channel layouts, and package rules belong to the destination. Build one approved master, then derive separate deliverables from it. Before exporting, obtain the current written specification from the platform, festival, broadcaster, distributor, or cinema and store it with the project. Public examples can guide a web copy, but they are not universal film standards: [YouTube's upload guidance](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1722171) and [Vimeo's compression guidance](https://help.vimeo.com/hc/en-us/articles/12426043233169-Video-and-audio-compression-guidelines) overlap on native frame rate while differing in accepted or suggested codecs and other details. When a contract conflicts with a preset, follow the contract.
Separate the master from delivery copies
General principle: Export a high-quality mezzanine master at the locked timeline's raster, frame rate, color space, and full program duration. Prefer an intraframe editing or mastering codec, or an image sequence plus uncompressed audio when the workflow requires it; preserve adequate bit depth and chroma information for the grade. Keep a textless picture and dialogue, music, and effects stems when future localization or licensing is plausible. This master is the source for later encodes, not necessarily the smallest file a viewer will play.
Delivery principle: Make a new copy for each destination and label it with title, version, language, raster, frame rate, audio layout, date, and revision. A compact H.264 or H.265 file may suit a web screener; a buyer may request a particular ProRes or IMF package; a cinema may require a professionally validated DCP. Do not rename one file and assume it serves every channel. Reopen and test the actual delivered copy because an export can fail even when the timeline and master are correct.
Set resolution, aspect ratio, and frame rate intentionally
General principle: Match the final raster to the approved composition and destination, use square pixels unless a specification says otherwise, and do not stretch the picture to fill a different shape. A 16:9 UHD web frame is 3840 × 2160; DCI cinema uses different container dimensions, and vertical or square campaigns need their own reframed versions. Letterbox or pillarbox only when the delivery specification or creative plan calls for it. Reframing is an editorial decision: subtitles, faces, titles, and action must be checked inside every aspect-ratio version.
Frame-rate principle: Export the creative timeline at its native, constant frame rate unless the destination explicitly requires a conversion. YouTube says uploaded content should retain the recorded frame rate and be progressive; Vimeo likewise recommends keeping the native frame rate and using a constant frame rate. For AI clips created at mixed rates, conform them deliberately inside the edit, inspect cadence and audio sync, and export one consistent timeline rate. Merely relabeling frames can cause judder, speed changes, duplicates, or drift.
Choose codec, bitrate, bit depth, and color
Codec and bitrate: Use a robust, high-quality codec for the master and an efficient codec accepted by the destination for viewing copies. Bitrate is a quality budget, not a universal quality score: required data rises with resolution, frame rate, grain, fast motion, and intricate texture. Variable bitrate is useful for file delivery when supported, while some live or contracted workflows require constant behavior. Avoid stacking several lossy encodes. Start from the master, follow the destination's current range, and inspect difficult scenes after its transcode rather than chasing one magic number.
Color and bit depth: For a conventional SDR release, keep the grade and export consistently tagged in the approved SDR color space, commonly Rec.709 in web and television workflows. Do not mark an SDR image as HDR or convert to HDR simply because an exporter offers the option. HDR is a separate mastering decision involving a suitable monitor, 10-bit-or-greater pipeline, transfer function, primaries, metadata, and destination support; YouTube's current HDR requirements are one platform example, not a generic prescription. Test tagged files in more than one managed player.
Deliver intelligible audio and usable captions
Audio principle: Keep the production and master at a consistent professional sample rate—48 kHz is common for video—and preserve an uncompressed, adequately deep master. Deliver stereo, 5.1, immersive, or multiple-language layouts only when they were deliberately mixed and the specification accepts them. Measure program loudness and true peak against the destination's stated target; do not apply a remembered streaming number to cinema, broadcast, or a distributor package. Listen to the export on headphones, speakers, and a small device for sync, clipping, phase, noise, and dialogue clarity.
Caption principle: Captions include meaningful non-speech audio and speaker information, while subtitles may translate or transcribe dialogue. Preserve a timed-text source and deliver the exact accepted format rather than burning text into every master. W3C identifies WebVTT as the most common web caption format and also notes SRT and TTML; a platform or broadcaster may require something else. Verify timebase, reading order, line breaks, names, punctuation, sound cues, and the final frame. Open captions require separate picture QC in every aspect ratio.
Validate the file and the destination
Export QC: Check the file with a media inspector, then watch it from first frame through the end. Confirm container, codec, raster, pixel aspect, scan type, constant frame rate, duration, color tags, bit depth, audio codec, sample rate, channels, and captions against the delivery sheet. Look for black or frozen frames, bad cuts, flash frames, banding, macroblocking, crushed or lifted levels, missing titles, clipped peaks, sync drift, and truncated credits. Calculate a checksum for important deliveries and keep an approval record tied to the exact filename.
Destination distinction: A web upload is usually transcoded by the platform, so its recommendations aim to give that transcode a strong source. A theatrical DCP is a defined package, not an ordinary UHD movie file: the DCI specification describes JPEG 2000 picture and MXF/XML packaging among its requirements. Festivals may accept simple screeners for selection but require another format for exhibition. Always confirm the latest venue or buyer spec, run an upload playback check, and arrange a cinema test for a consequential screening.
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