• Adobe After Effects

  Client Review and Approval before Rendering

  Posted by Mauricio Gonzalez on July 27, 2012 at 11:19 pm

  Hi everyone, hopefully someone has an answer to this. (MacbookPro, Cs4, 4gb Ram, 2.66 dual core)

  My job requires a lot of aftereffects work, nothing major but when it comes time to seek approval from the bosses i run into some patience issues.

  The heads at my company are too busy to sit and wait through a RAM preview in after effects, but when i render out a all AE 30 minute video (about a 6 hour render) they come back with changes and expect a immediate turnaround, which id like to provide but it requires applying the changes and then re-renderin for 6 more hrs.

  My only solution would be to render out at a very low quality sending it to them like that.
  my current understanding is that no matter what i do, rendering is inevitable.

  Any tips, solutions, upgrades needed, format suggestions, etc. ?

  Thanks

  Mauricio Gonzalez replied 14 years, 2 months ago 2 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  Angelo Lorenzo

  July 28, 2012 at 3:05 am

  There are a few things to consider:

  – Upgrade your system and get CS6. The newest version of After Effects has some performance updates that make it speedier than the previous 5.5 release. Expensive but probably the biggest gain in performance.

  – What file types are you using? It may be worth looking into an intermediate file format like ProRes or Cineform to take some of the burden off of your CPU

  – Are you rendering onto the same hard drive as you’re reading off of? It may make a small render time improvement to render to a second drive separate from your footage drive.

  – Look at your projects and plan out which precomps and other items you can pre-render as proxy footage. This can speed up future renders and help with client sit-ins. https://help.adobe.com/en_US/aftereffects/cs/using/WS619F56A5-4D32-4b44-A229-27433A8FF02Ea.html#WSB356ACD2-AF59-4604-B378-31D687DB5ACCa

  – Change the way you work. If you can, along with pre-rendering, try showing things changing by using shape layers to represent anything you may really have to animate later on. A previs basically.

  – Beyond that, set realistic expectations with your bosses. If they have an issue with how long things take, then ask them to invest in a system for you, if you’re an in-house employee.

  Angelo Lorenzo
  Fallen Empire Digital Production Services – Los Angeles
  RED transcoding, on-set DIT, and RED Epic rental services
  Fallen Empire – The Blog
  A blog dedicated to filmmaking, the RED workflow, and DIT tips and tricks
• 

  Mauricio Gonzalez

  July 30, 2012 at 9:45 pm

  Thanks for your response, I figured all of this was a factor but non industry employers dont always understand the technical barriers that we often times come across.

  I did upgrade CS6 as paid for by my Employer, Also an upgrade in Hardware is in the works, so that will help.

  I do use Apple ProRes quite often, it does really help out the render time. (side question, I was once told Apple Pro Res was a great final format, is that not true, you said “intermediate” in your post. What would you reccomend as a a final format output, Ive used H.264?)

  Also I have been using the same harddrive for reading and rendering, ill switch that up thank you.
  And ill also look into using the PreVis technique.

  Thank you for your help.

  Mauricio Gonzalez

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