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In using AE, is it best to copy footage onto internal hard drive?
Hi folks,
I’m brand new to AE, so please forgive my ignorance. This may be a simple/dumb question:
I understand that AE only references media files (as opposed to importing the file into AE) so as to keep AE files smaller. Fair enough.
However, since I’m using FCE4, and the footage is stored on its own external media hard drive, should I copy the specific footage file(s) I’m using for AE projects onto my computer’s main hard drive? Or, can I simply reference the files from the external drive (so that AE would reference the files the same way that FCE4 does)?
Thanks very much.
Vic -
4 Replies
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Use the drive that will provide the fastest data transfer, so if the external is faster than your internal drive, then is better to use that, if not, copy all you use on your local drive.
Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist -
Todd Kopriva has produced a series of free video tutorials on optimizing performance for After Effects.
Here is on on Hard Disks.
https://www.video2brain.com/en/videos-5353.htm
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Thanks, Brian. Much of what’s in those tutorials goes over my head, though, I do get the gist of it. Basically, one needs to apply common sense in terms of data flow. You can’t (or shouldn’t) have data flowing to and from a drive simultaneously. Hence, you need to give some thought to what happens, and when, and specify drives accordingly. I will do my best to do just that. Thanks again.
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Thanks, “Ted”. Makes sense. Actually, I just have one external drive for all media storage and render files (plus a second drive for TimeMachine). I’m thinking that, eventually, I should pick up another drive so that I have one for reading and one for writing. Only problem there is, I’m working on a laptop which has a limited number of firewire connections. As it is right now, my system seems to work pretty well. But, since I just acquired After Effects, and have never used it, I’m a complete neophyte when it comes to data flow issues. In the beginning (i.e. when I first got into digital video), I read that a dedicated external drive for media files was recommended. The process was fairly simple when I was using just one program (i.e FCE4), and I just followed that recommendation and let the computer do the work. Now, in using After Effects, I’m somewhat boggled as to how I should store/render data in terms of efficiency as well as finding the media files I’m using in projects. I’ll just start using AE, and see how it goes.
Thanks for your help.
Vic
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