After Effects Supported Video and Image Formats

Adobe After Effects natively supports a wide range of video, container, and still image formats to provide seamless compositing and motion design workflows without requiring third-party codecs. This guide provides a direct reference to the native image and video file formats you can import and export directly within Adobe After Effects.

Natively Supported Video Formats and Containers

After Effects supports numerous video file formats and compression codecs natively. These files can be decoded on the timeline for editing and compositing:

  • QuickTime (.MOV): Widely used across macOS and Windows, supporting native codecs such as Apple ProRes (422, 4444, Proxy, etc.), Animation, Avid DNxHD/HR, and uncompressed video.
  • MPEG-4 (.MP4, .M4V): Natively supports H.264 (AVC) and H.265 (HEVC) encoded video for high-efficiency playback and rendering.
  • Material Exchange Format (.MXF): Supports MXF OP1a containers, including formats like Sony XAVC, Panasonic AVC-Intra, and Avid DNxHD/DNxHR.
  • Audio Video Interleave (.AVI): Uncompressed and natively encoded Windows video files.
  • MPEG-1 and MPEG-2: Common broadcast standards (.MPG, .MPE, .M2V).
  • Camera Raw Video Formats: Native decoding for professional cinema camera media, including REDCODE (.R3D), CinemaDNG, ARRIRAW (.ARI), and Sony RAW.

Natively Supported Still Image and Sequence Formats

After Effects treats multi-frame still image sequences as video footage and natively supports industry-standard raster and vector formats:

  • Adobe Native Assets:
    • Photoshop (.PSD): Fully supports layer preservation, blending modes, layer styles, and 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit color channels.
    • Illustrator (.AI, .EPS): Vector assets with the option to enable continuous rasterization for infinite resolution scaling.
  • OpenEXR (.EXR): Standard format for visual effects and 3D rendering; supports multi-channel layers, deep data, and 32-bit floating-point high dynamic range (HDR) color.
  • DPX and Cineon (.DPX, .CIN): 10-bit and 16-bit film scan formats commonly used in color grading and professional compositing.
  • TIFF (.TIF, .TIFF): Supports transparency (alpha channels) and up to 32-bit color depth per channel.
  • PNG (.PNG): Standard compressed raster format supporting 8-bit and 16-bit color, including 24-bit RGB with 8-bit alpha channels.
  • JPEG (.JPG, .JPEG): Standard lossy compressed 8-bit images.
  • Targa (.TGA): Uncompressed or RLE-compressed 24-bit images with optional 8-bit alpha channels.
  • BMP (.BMP, .RLE, .DIB): Standard uncompressed Windows bitmap files.
  • Radiance (.HDR): High dynamic range floating-point image files.

Native Export Formats via the Render Queue

While the integrated Adobe Media Encoder expands export possibilities to formats like WebM and modern MP4 presets, After Effects' native Render Queue is optimized for high-performance intermediate and master outputs:

  • QuickTime (.MOV): Apple ProRes, Animation, and DNxHR.
  • Video for Windows (.AVI): Uncompressed and standard DV.
  • MXF OP1a: DNxHD, DNxHR, and XDCAM.
  • Image Sequences: OpenEXR, TIFF, PNG, DPX, Targa, and JPEG sequences (with embedded alpha channels where applicable).