How to Save Animations in Blender

Juraj asked a question on the falling snow tutorial about how to savean animation in Blender. This is basically a 2-step process, and it’s very simple.

Step 1: Tell Blender to Save Video Files

By default, if you render an animation Blender will save it as hundreds of separate images. You can only play it back using the PLAY button in Blender.

But most of the time you want others to see it using Windows Media Player or QuickTime. Blender makes it easy to do this. Here’s how you can save your animation into different formats.

(First go to the Scene Window F10)

To let others watch using QuickTime:

1. Find the dropdown menu currently labeled Jpeg.
   
2. Click it and select Quicktime.
   
3. In the pop-up, select H.264 as the Compression type. (NOTE: If Blender crashes when you render, try unchecking the top two boxes or select a different codec-H.263 or Sorensen Video.)
   
4. You can use the Quality slider to set how large the final file is. (Higher value=better quality=bigger file size)
5. Press ANIM to render your animation.
   

To let others watch using Windows Media Player:

1. Find the dropdown menu currently labeled Jpeg.
   
2. Click it and select Avi Codec.
   
3. In the pop-up, select Microsoft Video 1 as the Compressor.
   
4. You can use the Compression Quality slider to set how large the final file is. (Higher value=better quality=bigger file size)
5. Press ANIM to render your animation.

Step 2: Tell Blender Where to Save Rendered Files

By default Blender saves rendered images and videos into the C:\tmp folder(in Windows). Go there now and you will probably see all the images you have rendered so far.

I keep this at the default and simply Copy->Paste images out of the folder.

However, if you want to change this:

1. Press the folder icon beside /tmp\.
   
2. Select the directory you want to save your images/vids to.

(This step is optional)