Re: What to do when AE just won't render?

The blurring error can be a result of any of the following, listed in most to least likely culprit (in my experience):

-Lights casting shadows with shadow diffusion at a large percentage.
-Camera depth of field.
-Large complicated blurs (i've never actually seen the error using standard blur effects, but i assume it can happen).

Also, I suggest that you enable "Show Rendering Progress in Info Panel and Flowchart" in the 'Display' section of your preferences. Then RAM preview with the Info panel visible and make note of any layers that AE spends a long time on. Then consider reducing their impact on the memory overhead by any of the following: reducing size, simplifying effects, pre-rendering.

If you want some more ideas you can produce a report of effects used in your project by going to File > Collect Files... and selecting 'Generate Report Only' and then uploading that here.

Darby Edelen