Re: Still Getting Render Crashes >:(

you can actually remove the entire folder that the preference file is kept in. it's in users/username/library/preferences/adobe/after effects, if you have cs3 the folder is called '8.0'.

additionally, you might try pulling out any quicktime components from library/quicktime and users/username/library/quicktime (usually leave the system/library/quicktime alone unless you know you manually installed third party codecs there). sometimes old codecs can cause crashes, though you'll usually see these at ae startup time.

you could also pull any third party effects/plugins from the plugins folder. there may also be some in library/application support/adobe/common/plugins. old effects can cause issues too.

if you determine that it is either a codec of plugin, try to find an update for it.

you could try changing the multiprocessing settings to see if it is an issue with multiprocessing. and, for the record, i would disable opengl in the preview settings, but i doubt that is your problem since the issue is with final rendering, not previewing, right?

when it renders, take note of the ram usage in the render queue. if it is crashing when the ram usage hits the max ram cache settings (preferences>memory & cache, default: 60%), then ae may be having issues clearing the ram cache. if this is the case, hold the shift-key and hold the mouse button down as you select preferences>general, then select the dropdown menu for prefences and at the bottom should be a secret pref. choose it and set the 'purge every xx frames' to a frame value that is less than the number of frames rendered prior to the crash (ie, if it crashes at frame 50, set it to 40).

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW