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Encode video with FFmpeg on Deadline Cloud - Deadline Cloud

Encode video with FFmpeg on Deadline Cloud

The ffmpeg_encode_video job bundle takes a directory of sequentially numbered image files and encodes them into an MP4 video using FFmpeg. The bundle is useful as a standalone utility for converting render output to video, or as a reference for adding a video encoding step to a multi-step render pipeline.

The bundle includes the following features:

  • Encodes numbered image sequences (PNG, EXR, JPEG, and others) into H.264 MP4 video.

  • Supports customizable frame rate, quality (CRF), and encoding speed presets.

  • Uses #### hash-mark patterns for input file naming, automatically converted to FFmpeg's printf-style %04d format.

  • Works with job attachments or shared file systems.

  • Produces broadcast-safe output with BT.709 color space and faststart for web streaming.

FFmpeg is not available from the deadline-cloud conda channel. To run this bundle on a service-managed fleet, use conda-forge as the CondaChannels parameter for the queue environment.

Submit the bundle:

deadline bundle submit ffmpeg_encode_video/ \
  -p InputDir=path-to-frames \
  -p InputFilePattern="render.####.png" \
  -p StartFrame=1 \
  -p EndFrame=250 \
  -p OutputDir=path-for-output \
  -p OutputFileName="my_video.mp4"

To add video encoding to an existing render job, copy the EncodeVideo step from this bundle's template into your own template, add a dependencies entry so the encode step runs after rendering, and add conda-forge to the CondaChannels parameter. For a complete multi-step pipeline example, see Render a turntable video with Maya and Arnold on Deadline Cloud.