HD files crash on render
by Janis Acampora
on
May 22, 2008 at 3:49:14 pm
Hi there,
Thanks in advance for your help.
So I'm currently working on a project that is all graphics, no footage, but no major effects or 3D layeres, in a 1920 x 1080 work space.
The specs of my computer are as follows:
8 core Mac Pro (2 - 3GHz quad core)
4 gigs of Ram
OS 10.5
and working with AE CS3
The issue I'm running into is that when I render this file as a QT uncompressed animation, it quits about 3/4 of the way through giving me a buffering error. We fiddled with the Memory and Cache preferences.
This isn't the first time it happened either. Earlier in the year we were working on an HD project where I used quite a bit of 3D layers as well as Keylight. AE didn't like it one bit. We had to render in chunks then sew it together in Avid.
Is there a fail safe system in dealing with this sort of issue? Always well into the 6th hour after waiting all night, AE gives up and I've wasted a full night's sleep.Is it just crazy to think I can render such a large file as a QT Animation, uncompressed?
Re: HD files crash on render by Dave LaRonde on May 22, 2008 at 7:05:55 pm
It may be hard to believe, but 4GB is on the light side of the RAM to do HD. Things go better with 8GB.
I'm still stuck in the world of 720x486, so I never encounter such problems... especially since I can draw on 8GB. However, those who have to work with 5 times as many pixels per frame most certainly do.
You can set up AE to purge after a given number of frames, thus freeing up RAM. The longer you can render without purging, the better, because it slows down renders. The setting might be in Render Settings, the Output Module settings, or in Preferences. You'd have to check. Sorry, I don't know offhand.
Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV (ABC) Cedar Rapids, IA
Re: HD files crash on render by Dave LaRonde on May 22, 2008 at 8:25:41 pm
On further reflection, the "Purge after X frames" command is located in AE's Secret Preferences. Hold down the shift key, then go to After Effects>Preferences. Voila! You now have AE's regular PLUS the Secret preferences.
Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV (ABC) Cedar Rapids, IA
Re: HD files crash on render by Janis Acampora on May 23, 2008 at 2:32:53 pm
Thats really interesting. Someone told me that AE doesn't even utilize more than 2 gigs of the system's RAM at one time, no matter how much is installed . Are they delusional to think that?
On another note, my boss who uses Avid, can render a full uncompressed HD file on 3 gigs of RAM and it plugs away with no problem. Is AE just a little more sensitive in that respect? Was it not designed to be a work horse like Avid is?
Re: HD files crash on render by Dave LaRonde on May 23, 2008 at 5:01:21 pm
[Janis Acampora]"Someone told me that AE doesn't even utilize more than 2 gigs of the system's RAM at one time, no matter how much is installed. Are they delusional to think that? "
I wouldn't say delusional, I'd say misinformed. When AE is in its Multiprocessing mode, it can utilize at least 2GB per processor. A third-party application, Nucleo Pro, can access up to 3GB per processor. Thus, AE can use all of an 8-core Mac Pro's 16 GB maximum.
"....my boss who uses Avid, can render a full uncompressed HD file on 3 gigs of RAM and it plugs away with no problem. Is AE just a little more sensitive in that respect? Was it not designed to be a work horse like Avid is? "
In order to REALLY sing, Avid relies on a LOT of proprietary hardware. There is no such thing as proprietary hardware in AE.
Furthermore, Avid is an EDITING application. AE is an effects and compositing application. You can't really compare the two, because they have two basically different functions. AE relies on huge volumes of RAM. Avid doesn't -- it has a lot of hardware, which is just dandy for rendering out HD video with an alpha-channeled lower third graphic animation on it.
I'd like to see an Avid animate and composite thirty layers of HD video, combined with Illustrator and Photoshop files. Then talk to me about render times.
Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV (ABC) Cedar Rapids, IA
Re: HD files crash on render by Jeremy Gray on May 22, 2008 at 8:54:08 pm
why not just render as individual frames, I was running into a crashing problem with some green screen work and I ended up rendering the individual frames as png then putting them back together. That way if i had a crash I could go to the specific frame then re-render it.
Re: HD files crash on render by Dave LaRonde on May 22, 2008 at 8:58:28 pm
Yup, rendering to an image sequence is a good idea. In addition, you can then import the completed sequence and render a movie. Because AE has already done the heavy lifting, the render goes as fast as a certain smelly, disgusting brown substance through a goose.
Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV (ABC) Cedar Rapids, IA
