Your first export
Getting a file out, and the three settings that actually matter.
Export turns your composition into a file. Most of the settings can be left alone; three of them decide whether the result is usable.
Exporting#
- Click Export.
- Pick a format. MP4 unless you have a specific reason not to.
- Set the resolution and frame rate.
- Render. It runs in the browser — leave the tab open.
Format#
- MP4 plays everywhere and every platform accepts it. It cannot carry transparency.
- WebM with alpha keeps transparency, for overlays a developer will composite. Support outside browsers is patchy.
- GIF for email and chat. 256 colours, large files, bands badly on gradients.
Frame rate#
30 is the safe default. 60 is visibly smoother for fast motion and roughly doubles the file. 24 reads as filmic and is the right choice for anything with a cinematic intent.
Pick it before you animate, not after. Timing that was tuned at 30 does not automatically feel right at 24.
Resolution#
Free exports at 1080p. Freelancer and Studio export up to 4K. Exporting larger than your source artwork does not add detail, it just makes a bigger file out of the same information.
It is almost always fine grain or heavy noise. Animated per-pixel noise is expensive to encode, and the encoder pays for it by softening everything else. Coarsen the grain or lower its amount before blaming the export.
Before you render#
- Watch it once at full speed, start to finish.
- Check the first and last frames — those are the ones a thumbnail and a loop point land on.
- If it loops, confirm the join. Anything driven by Spin needs a rate that completes whole turns over the composition length.