Hi Jamestown,
Short answer: I wouldn’t do it that way. I will touch some points below about, but it is not the full story of course. Every material needs its own approach.
What works on YouTube:
https://support.google.com/youtube/topic/16547?hl=en&ref_topic=2676319
Formats:
https://support.google.com/youtube/troubleshooter/2888402?hl=en&ref_topic=2888648
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I have no idea what is installed on your PC. You have to check in the render settings if you have e.g., “h264” or other option at all. Check as well if you have the option for sound in your installation, it might vary. YouTube likes AAC.
The specification what works best on YouTube is changing from time to time, at least that is my observation over the years.
However, I certainly do not advice at all to do so. Why? Because to render out a single file has some downsides. If the renderer becomes interrupted—you have to start over. Which might be not that often case, but happens.
More often, you might have to re-render, as the quality of the compression is not sufficient or causes even artifacts. It might be even hard to tell if the render-settings causes the problem or the compression settings, another reason why I never compress video-output files. (Compress for web, I use Open EXR with a lose-less compression, which is different.
Render directly, means that any external post production is eliminated, and so no, e.g., motion blur or color correction. All has to be done in C4D, which is at least for me something that I do only for preview. Especially if the h264/mgeg4 format is used with perhaps a large Keyframe number. Pre-compressed footage can become really ugly if re-compressed even once. Note that YouTube certainly work on your file again.
More importantly, you export directly to 8bit/c in that way (as YouTube prefers to my knowledge h264, but that might change) and has no option to stay in broadcast 10bit/c, which is of course not something that is advised at all, again—my idea about.
The list might even way longer if you ask other people. So if you like to do yourself a favor, render in an image sequence, at least in 16bit/c, better 32bit/c of course. Then test your h264 compression on it, perhaps some noise is needed—or other tricks to overcome bandings etc.
Then use After-Effects, to get the sound you need, and render out a version. If that works nicely, apply a streaming track for YouTube (It works without, but some people might have problems getting your file.)
The easiest way is normally to use Adobe’s Media Encoder (or Apples Compressor on Mac) to get versions of the compression, they provide already presets for that. However, I normally use 100% quality to submit something. But it depends of course what you like to have with YouTube. I have mixed experience with the presets, and for a 10 minute file to render and then to notice that it might have a different setting is certainly testing your patience.
Each rendering has a different mix of challenges, and to say anything in general is certainly an indicator for a lower experience, so test things out carefully.
As a side note, the Picture Viewer has gotten nice features to do some kind of “post production” already, but anything that should have a special or just a rich “look” needs some real color grading/correction, e.g., with qualifiers or “power-windows” to get the quality you are after (perhaps). We life in a time where you get DaVinci Collor-correction software for free, and people have gotten used to a great finish of the “stuff” they watch on YouTube, which indicates to me that a good post production and finishing of your material should be considered, to get the effect that you might be after. Which needs a different lighting and rendering approach, but that is a longer story—and not part of your question.
I haven’t seen at all a request here (tutorial wise) for a post production series, but I would be more than happy to create one. I do such things since long and I’m happy to share. The 3D renderings are not really comparable with practical footage, which is since some years one of my themes to work out the differences.
So, long story short, check your output module in the render settings and if possible avoid any compression that causes a loss in the material.
Good luck
Sassi
