Re: After Effects keeps crashing on 9000 frames! Urgent!

[Daniel Bolstad] "...when I export it it crashes on 9000-9900 frames no matter what format."

The first thing to ask yourself is this: what is happening in my comp at that time to cause that? Here's a list of BASIC things that could be responsible:

• Native HDV, MPEG1, MPEG2, mp4, m2t, H.261 or H.264 footage, no matter where it appears in the comp -- convert it to a codec that doesn't use interframe compression. Something lossless, preferably.
• Some of Photoshop's Layer Modes simply don't work in AE. Flatten the Photoshop document if you can.
• Open GL: the most overrated feature in AE. If you're using it, TURN IT OFF RIGHT NOW! Yes, Adobe promises the fix for Open GL is just around the corner. Adobe also promised a fix for always-problematic Mp3 files about two versions ago, and they STILL don't work.
• Mp3 files: if you use any in your comp, save yourself the grief right now and change them to an uncompressed format like aiff or wav.

Other things to do:
• Forget that the process of exporting in AE even exists for the time being. Render -- don't export -- using the Render Queue.
• Go into AE's Secret Preferences (shift>After Effects>Preferences) and set it to do a Purge after a given number of frames. If you're having problems at 9000 frames, think about purging at about 4500-5000 frames.
• Render an Image Sequence. If problems occur, you can pick up where you left off. If you absolutely must have a movie, import the rendered sequence back into AE and then render the sequence. All the heavy lifting will be done, and the render will blaze along.

Other people may chime in with additional advice.

Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV (ABC) Cedar Rapids, IA