I am creating 15 second looping motion backgrounds using After Effects CS5 and exporting using Media Encoder. WMV is the only format that is compatible with the programme my clients are using to play them - this is mainly a niche market being churches using EasyWorship, which utilises Windows Media Player to play all videos from, but doesn't support any other codec that WMV.
I am using ccParticle world to produce the particles, using both the default particles (i.e. shaded sphere etc.) and my own either brought in from Photoshop or basic shapes created on After Effects.
I am using fractal noise to give the background layers more depth and texture.
I have made all my looping backgrounds so far using all the features above, making both a HD version and an SD version in After Effects. Some of the backgrounds have exported fine in both formats, whereas a lot, both SD and HD versions have distortion/pixelation at the start lasting for a few seconds.
1080p version export
WIndows media video, 720p - changed the frame rate from 24fps to 25.
SD version export
Windows media video, PAL to high quality version
It is a bit hit and miss whether the backgrounds have this distortion at the start or not... apart from the arrangement and properties of the particles and colour themes everything is the same for all my backgrounds and I am using the same exporting properties every time.
Once again I am probably missing something...
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Many thanks