Ok I've done every possible thing known to man in order to eliminate these render crashes that I have been getting, ( the dreaded crash that happens 10 minutes into a render )and it's still happening!!!
- I've set AE to render only around the time in the timeline that it crashes
- I've Done test renders
- I've played around with the "openGL" settings and now I don't know which setting I had in the first place to set it back.
I'm so irritated by this. I spent over 2 hours trying to trouble shoot this thing when I could have been editing. HELP!!!!
Re: Still Getting Render Crashes >:( by Francesco Capone on Aug 26, 2008 at 3:30:22 pm
mac pro quad core 2.4ghz with 32Gb RAM. Quite different systems. I really don't know what to do with this problem!
I think I'll try to format it and reinstall AfterEffects as first software then install other software and test compatibility with AE at every installation.
Gosh...
Re: Still Getting Render Crashes >:( by Matthew Woods on Aug 26, 2008 at 7:21:05 pm
Have you guys tried trashing the preferences? Sometimes those can get corrupted and can cause frequent crashes. Trashing them is easier than reinstalling. I keep a backup copy of my AE prefs. Corrupt media can also cause AE to crash. In Michaels case it sounds like this may be the case because it seems to be crashing at the same point in the timeline. I had some problems with a corrupt quicktime clip once that played fine in QT player, but caused AE to crash. Simply re-exporting it from quicktime pro as lossless animation solved the problem.
Re: Still Getting Render Crashes >:( by Kevin Camp on Aug 26, 2008 at 8:48:58 pm
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).
Re: Still Getting Render Crashes >:( by Kevin Camp on Aug 28, 2008 at 3:20:13 am
yes.
after effects will create a new one with all the same files the next time you run it.
however, i would probably just move it to the desktop to see if recreating it has any positive effect in after effects, rather than delete it. that way, if it doesn't help, you won't have to go back and reset all your settings, you can just replace the new 8.0 folder with the old one that had all your settings.
Re: Still Getting Render Crashes >:( by Tim Garber on Sep 17, 2008 at 2:56:45 pm
Dude you saved my life! I had a comp that would fail 62 frames in due to that unable to render error. I set my secret menu purge to 50 frames and got through it without a hitch. THANK YOU!
Re: Still Getting Render Crashes >:( by Darby Edelen on Aug 26, 2008 at 11:10:58 pm
Have you updated QuickTime to the latest version? Do that :) Also you should set Maximum Memory Usage to about 120%. Leave your Maximum RAM Cache Size at 45%.
Re: Still Getting Render Crashes >:( by Kevin Camp on Aug 28, 2008 at 3:27:17 am
you might also run the disk utility (applications>utilities) and repair permissions and check the disk for errors.
since it sounds like it may be a permissions problem. do you have multiple users on you system? and do you have more than one drive (like a boot drive and drive for your media)?
if so, you can set any non-boot drive to not use permissions in the get info panel from the finder. i would recommend this even if you are the only user.
Re: Still Getting Render Crashes >:( by Darby Edelen on Aug 28, 2008 at 5:06:33 am
Repairing permissions under OS X will only affect system files, which have their correct default permissions stored in receipts. It's still a good thing to do occasionally, but I don't think it will help in these circumstances.
I'm almost positive, based on the error message and on the description of 'the dreaded crash that happens 10 minutes into a render,' that the original poster is using an older version of QuickTime. I don't recall the version number that caused this problem (7.5.1?) but I know that it had something to do with iTunes/Apple TV rentals and permissions and that it was fixed in the next release (7.5.2?).
Re: Still Getting Render Crashes >:( by Tim Garber on Aug 28, 2008 at 6:47:55 pm
I have a question. Does it crash on the same frame and/or the same source every time? I just spent time with the same or very similar issue. Mine crashed on the same frame every time. My error mentioned the Color Correction plug-in "LEVELS" So I removed that effect and tested. Still crashed but the message became generic, "After effects can't continue: sorry, After Effects crashed." (0::42) I discovered that the source file had several bad frames in it. Fortunately for me the source file was a copy and the original was good.
