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Render just stops, no error logged, just hangs forever
Hi all. So I’m trying to render out these videos, and the render seems to occasionally just stop. No render failed error message, no indication that the render has halted, aside from the fact that suddenly none of the indicators (time passed so far, frames rendered, time remaining, the length of the yellow render bar) are changing. I just had a render that stopped about 10 min, 30 sec in. It just kept saying 10 min, 30 sec had passed and that 8 minutes remained, but then it just hung like that, not advancing. I eventually stopped the render after it sat like that for an hour.
It’s a music video in HD with green-screened footage and some basic lighting and fractal noise smoke effects. Nothing crazy.
I’m running CS4 on Max OS X Version 10.6.2
Mac Spex:
Processor: 2 x 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Memory: 12 GB 1066 MHz DDR3Any help is appreciated thanks!
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5 Replies
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Okay, let’s go down the list and see what I already researched and tried before posting my problem:
* I got the free upgrade to AE 9.02 a week ago.
* I never have Open GL on for rendering.
* I am using multiprocessing, and I’m familiar with both of those articles. For my memory and multiprocessing settings I leave 2 GB of RAM free for other applications, and I have it set to 2 GB to use for minimum allocation per CPU, thus cutting the cores I’m actually using out of the 8 available down to 4, so I am neither starving my software of RAM or overscheduling all of my cores.
* I am using HD video, if my understanding of what HD and HDV refer to is correct, which it should be based on this article I read on the CC website: https://library.creativecow.net/articles/kolb_tim/hdv_vs_hd_primer.php I’m not sure what camera it was originally shot on (the footage was shipped to me on a drive from another country) but it has a 1920×1080 resolution, a color sampling of 4:2:2, and ProRes 422 codec. Whether it was shot originally on HDV tape and converted to the current codec I do not know, but it is currently in an HD frame-accurate format.So, if there is anybody out there who knows why my renders are mysteriously stopping without giving any error message, just freezing the time indicators and progress bar, I’d appreciate any constructive input. Thanks again.
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Dave gave you a comprehensive answer with the most common causes of your exact problem — I’m sure you saw in your research how often these answers help. Mentioning that you had already ruled these things out would have been a big help in trying to answer your problem.
As it is, we still don’t really have enough information to help.
Does the render hang at a particular frame, or is it different every time? If you run Activity Monitor, what happens to the CPU, RAM, and disk usage before and after the render hang? Have you tried rendering to an image sequence? If it hangs when rendering an image sequence, what happens if you re-render the image sequence with “Skip existing frames” checked?
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
My apologies for not listing every single element of my rendering setup in the post. I was thinking it might just be a common problem with an easy answer, and I wouldn’t need to make everyone read a novel. I was just trying to make the point that I did in fact try other options before posting my problem here, and am not in fact “lazy and/or clueless” as was inferred.
The render hangs at different frames every time, and it has happened to a few different comps I’ve tried to export that contain some similar effects, but it’s usually around 2/3rd of the way through the comp. It doesn’t happen all the time either, so I have been able to render out full comps some of the time, without changing anything. I’ve also rendered out tif sequences, with “skip existing frames” checked, and it has stopped and hung there, in which case I restarted it. I really don’t know what else to tell you, it just seems random. It only happens some of the time, it happens to multiple different comps. I could list all the effects I’m using if that would help.
-fractal noise
-knoll EZ light factory
-lens flares
-the “Bad TV” preset and all that that entails
-misfire
-Trapcode Lux
-Trapcode Shineand tons of the standard things, levels, curves, etc.
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If you run Activity Monitor, what happens to the CPU, RAM, and disk usage before and after the render hang? This information will help us know what’s going on when the render seems to stop.
Also, you might be a good candidate for the “Purge every x frames” feature in the Secret menu. Please be aware that mucking with this setting will have a big negative effect on render performance — but I have used it successfully for those times when a slow render is better than no render at all. Don’t forget to reset it when you’re done!
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
Answer is pretty simple. I dnt understand why it didnt cross anybody’s mind earlier. Just click on preview during the creation and placement of ur frames. This will give a pre render again and again. once ur render bar is green at the creation
time, You’ll easily be able to render in windows media mode. :)hope it helps
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