Portfolio and showreel

Motion design reel hosting.
Flat colour, fine type and fast motion, kept as you exported them.

Motion design is close to the worst case for a platform re-encode: big flat fields, long gradients, thin type and fast moves are exactly what a starved encoder handles badly. Here is why, what to export, and how to host the reel as the file you rendered.

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Video hosting for filmmakers · 5 GB free · Paid plans from USD 9/month

By uncompressed.io · Updated September 2026

The short answer

Encode the reel once, yourself,
then serve that file, not a rendition of it.

For a motion design reel, choose a host that plays the file you exported instead of re-encoding it. Export one delivery file that treats flat colour, gradients and small type well, usually 10-bit HEVC or a high-bitrate H.264. Then test it on the machines your audience uses. Re-encoding platforms fit the reel into their own bitrate budget, and motion graphics are the frames that budget handles worst.

22 Mbps

Vimeo 4K H.264 maximum

published as a ceiling; output can be lower

16 Mbps

Vimeo 4K HDR and HEVC maximum

its published ceiling for that rendition

Always

YouTube re-encodes

its own help page, written for music partners

encode here

the one in your export dialog

Vimeo says each upload is re-encoded into several formats. It publishes the maximum bitrate of each one, and says a video could transcode at a lower bitrate “depending on the complexity of the image”. YouTube says it always re-encodes. Neither is a flaw in those services. A delivery ladder is built for mass audiences. A reel is judged frame by frame by people who make images for a living. If you want the mechanics, the video compression guide covers prediction, quantisation and chroma, and the banding diagnosis guide has a two-minute test that shows whether the steps are in your render or in the stream.

Why motion design breaks first

The frame you are proudest of
is the frame a codec finds hardest.

Live action hides compression in texture, grain and soft focus. A clean motion design frame has almost nowhere to hide it. Four things in a typical reel show the damage first.

Flat colour fields and long gradients

A background ramp between two brand colours has almost no detail to give up. When the bit budget tightens, the encoder rounds neighbouring values together and the ramp turns into stripes. MDN calls this posterization and names contouring, or colour banding, as the striped form of it.

Small type and thin strokes

Text is detail-heavy, and MDN notes that lost sharpness can make small text hard to read. It lists ringing, a halo of stray pixels around hard edges, as another artifact that makes text difficult to read. It also lists mosquito noise, a shimmer that follows hard edges from frame to frame. Captions, kinetic type and 1-pixel line work are the first to go soft.

Saturated colour edges

Delivery video carries less colour detail than brightness detail. In 4:2:0, the chroma format YouTube specifies for H.264 uploads, Microsoft defines colour as downsampled 2:1 both horizontally and vertically. A red title on a blue field depends on the colour channel exactly where it has the least detail. MDN also documents colour edging, spurious colours along the edges of coloured objects.

Fast moves, whip transitions and particles

MDN says that the more successive frames differ, the less effective compression is at avoiding artifacts. A full-frame wipe, a particle burst or a camera move across a pattern changes most of the frame at once. That is where a fixed budget gets spread thinnest, and MDN notes that motion compensation can add false edges along block borders.

What a tight re-encode does

Named in MDN's codec guide as

What helps in your export

Gradients,flat fields

Smooth ramps becomevisible steps

Posterizing,contouring (banding)

10-bit encode, light dither,a bitrate the ramp needs

Small type,line work

Edges soften, halosand shimmer appear

Ringing,mosquito noise

Deliver at the size it wasdesigned for; no upscale

Colour oncolour

Edges pick upstray colour

Colour edging

Keep chroma in the master;judge the 4:2:0 file before sending

Fastmotion

Detail drops whilethe frame changes

Motion compensationblock boundary artifacts

Constant frame rate,enough bitrate for the busiest shot

Artifact names and descriptions are from MDN's web video codec guide, fetched 17 September 2026. The right-hand column is export practice, not a guarantee: the viewer's decoder and display still apply.

What to export

One master,
one delivery file.

The reel needs two files: a master you keep, and one delivery encode you choose on purpose. Everything below is about that second file, because on a host that does not re-encode, it is the file people see.

Render a high-quality master from the comp

Render an intermediate you will never have to render again, and archive it. Every delivery file is encoded from it once. Never make a delivery file from a file that was already encoded for delivery: the steps and halos from the first encode stay in the picture and the second encode adds its own.

Pick the delivery codec for the viewer's decoder

For a 10-bit reel, HEVC in the Main10 profile at 4:2:0 is the configuration Microsoft's Windows HEVC decoder documents: its profile list is Main, Main Still Picture and Main10, and its only chroma format is 4:2:0. Where the widest compatibility matters more than bit depth, use H.264. The 10-bit hosting guide covers browser support in detail.

Keep the frame rate you animated at

YouTube asks for content encoded at the frame rate it was recorded at, and Vimeo tells uploaders to choose a constant frame rate over a variable one. Both apply to animation. Render at the comp's rate, constant, and let nothing conform it later. Nothing does here.

Set the bitrate for the busiest shot

With no second encode, your rate control is the last one the image goes through. Pick a quality-based setting or a bitrate that holds your hardest shot, often a particle burst or a full-frame gradient move, rather than a figure borrowed from a platform's upload page. Those pages exist to feed their own re-encode.

Check the gradients and type at 100 percent

Play the delivery file full screen on the display you designed on. Step through the darkest ramp and the smallest type. If the steps are in this file, they are in your export, and no host will remove them. The banding guide lists fixes in order.

Test on the machines that matter

Send the link to one person on the kind of machine your audience uses, before the reel goes on a site or into an application. Codec support, hardware and connection differ, and the only reliable test is the real one.

What the platform recommendations are for

Vimeo recommends H.264, ProRes 422 HQ or HEVC uploads, and a CRF of 18 or below. YouTube publishes upload bitrates and asks for 4:2:0 chroma on H.264 uploads. Those are recommendations for the file you send them, so their encoders have a good source. They are not the bitrate the viewer receives. On Vimeo, that is capped at the published rendition maximums above.

Hosting it at the exported bitrate

Your export stays
the only encode in the chain.

Browser playback uses your uploaded export without another platform re-encode. Codec, device and connection requirements still apply.

There is one file per film and no adaptive ladder. That has a cost: on a slow connection the reel buffers instead of dropping to a softer version. For a reel shown to art directors and producers, that is usually the right trade. If most of your audience watches on phones over cellular, it may not be. Unlimited video streaming is included, with no per-view or bandwidth overage charges. Storage and team-seat charges are separate. Up to 5 TB per file, within the storage your plan includes.

A reel page without platform chrome

The player shows your logo and accent colour, with no platform branding, ads or related videos. Each film gets a clean link under your username, and on your profile page you can tag it Hero (full width), Featured (half width) or Standard (three across). A profile setting can autoplay the Hero muted as the page opens.

An embed that fits a portfolio site

The embed is one iframe. Add autoplay=1 to start the reel muted, loop=1 to repeat it, controls=hover to let the film fill the frame with controls on hover, or controls=none for a clean looping background. bg=transparent lets the host page show around the film. The film keeps its own aspect ratio and is never cropped.

Recut without reissuing the link

Replace the file on the same film and the link, views, settings, embed and placement stay. The poster is not replaced automatically.

Downloads stay off unless you allow them

Original-file download is a per-film switch, off by default. Turning it off removes the download button. It does not stop a determined viewer from saving or screen recording a film that plays in a browser.

The page-building side is in the portfolio hosting guide, the recut workflow is in updating a showreel without changing the link, and the 10-bit decoder question is in the 10-bit hosting guide.

When this is the wrong tool

If the reel is for reach,
stay where the audience is.

If the goal is discovery, strangers finding your work through search and recommendations, YouTube and Vimeo offer reach that does not exist here, and a re-encoded reel that gets seen beats an untouched one that does not. If your audience is mostly on phones over unpredictable connections, an adaptive ladder is the better experience, and a host with one file per film will make some of those viewers wait. And if your delivery file is already a modest-bitrate H.264, most of the benefit here is the unbranded player, not the picture.

The case for hosting the reel as exported is narrower. It covers the reel you send to a studio, an agency or a creative director, and the one on your own portfolio site. That is where the viewer is judging your gradients, your type and your motion, and the file they see should be the one you rendered. 5 GB is enough to test that with one reel before you pay for anything.

Questions

Frequently asked

Should I upload my ProRes master as the reel?

Not as the browser reel. Supported camera originals and Vault playback use the compatible macOS app; they are not universally playable in web browsers. For the reel people click, upload an H.264, HEVC or AV1 export. If a studio asks for the master, host it as its own film and turn on its original-file download, which is off until you switch it on.

Will my reel look identical on every screen?

No host can promise that. The file is not re-encoded here, but each viewer's decoder, display, browser scaling and connection still apply. A 10-bit HEVC file needs a machine that decodes it, and a high bitrate needs a connection that sustains it. Send the link to the people who matter before the deadline and ask what they see.

Will a 60 fps reel play at 60 fps?

The file keeps the frame rate you rendered, because nothing converts it on upload. Whether playback is smooth depends on the viewer's decoder and connection, so test a high-frame-rate reel on the kind of machine your audience uses.

What does it cost to host one reel?

The free plan holds 5 GB and one film at a time, with no time limit. Delete it to upload another. Free accounts are cleared after 90 days of inactivity, with an email warning first. Active paid accounts are exempt from free-account inactivity cleanup, subject to the Terms. Lite is $9 a month for 100 GB hot and 100 GB archive, and holds more than one film. Unlimited video streaming is included, with no per-view or bandwidth overage charges. Storage and team-seat charges are separate.

Can I recut the reel without sending a new link?

Yes. Replace the file on the same film and the link, views, settings, embed and placement stay as they are; only the file changes. The poster is not replaced automatically, so pick a new frame if the opening changed.

Host the reel you rendered

Browser playback uses your uploaded export without another platform re-encode. Codec, device and connection requirements still apply. Unlimited video streaming is included, with no per-view or bandwidth overage charges. Storage and team-seat charges are separate. The free plan holds 5 GB and one film at a time, with no time limit. Delete it to upload another. Free accounts are cleared after 90 days of inactivity, with an email warning first. Active paid accounts are exempt from free-account inactivity cleanup, subject to the Terms.