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AE for high res print
I have a print retouching job where I have to create a large grid from about 20 retouched shots making a wall of hundreds of copies of these shots. My fear is that down the line, my client will say “can I change x on shot y for all those instances” so it would make sense for me to do this in AE where I can update them all automatically. The problem is that I will ultimately have to render out at about 10,000 pixels across (possibly more) and each original shot weighs in at 90Mb so I’m worried about setting this all up and then AE running out of memory.
I’ll set up proxies and when we have a finished output size specified I will use the proxy to render because I know I won’t need to use a 90Mb image, even at 10,000px across – there will be dozends of copies of it, maybe only 500px each. But if they decide to crop into a detail section of the image later and still want a 10,000px file, I have the flexibility to go back to the original 90Mb source. In theory this will work brilliantly, making AE function like Live Picture (remember that?)
But does anyone else have experience rendering at this scale from AE. I’ve done it a couple of times before but never with so many elements, am I asking for trouble? I have a G5 Dual 2.5Ghz with 4.5Gb RAM. I was thinking about getting one of the last Quad G5s to boost my power, or would I be better off with a Mac Pro? I know we’re under Rosetta then but at least I can stuff more RAM into it.
Any tips gratefully accepted…
Cheers
Rich -
10 Replies
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Forget about the MacPro. The Quad G5 is much faster. AE still has a RAM limitation (3GB) so even when you stuff the MacPro up to 16GB it’s no use. Save your money and invest in Nucleo. Much cheaper with much more result. With Nucleo you can benefit from all 4 processors and that’s something that really counts. Hold down caps lock when rendering so AE is not updating frames in the comp window when rendering but you probably already know that.
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Thanks, thought that may be the case on the Quad v Mac Pro. I have Nucleo Pro but I’m not sure how much it will help with this being 1 very high res frame. I think Nucleo really comes into it’s own in simultaneously rendering different frames to get faster render times where I need enough grunt to push one huge frame through.
I’ve actually started the job and AE’s been great at setting the file up, however it has choked on the render because it has to create an 11000 x 7500 image buffer! I thought that may happen so I have dropped the master into 2 new comps, cropped to half the width but it’s still trying to calculate the 11000 x 7500 image buffer. So I put a mask on the layer to ensure that the data outside the visible area is properly cropped but it’s still trying to calculate the original size. Is there a way around this?
Cheers,
Rich -
Nucleo does make a difference even with only 1 frame to render. It let’s you use all 4 processors instead of 1. As for the layer, have you tried to precomp it? Also keep in mind that AE has a maximum in canvas size. I can’t tell you how much because I’m not behind my machine but check the help files.
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It was precomped in effect because I dropped the large comp into a smaller one to render from but it still seems to address the data off the edge of the canvas. I’m surprised by what you say about Nucleo – my understanding (certainly with the older version) was that it was largely a slick way of doing the old trick of opening 2 or more copies of AE to render multiple frames on each processor.
Cheers,
Rich -
I think you got Nucleo and X-factor mixed up. X-factor is a multi machine solution but only work till AE 6.5. Nucleo works only under AE 7 and works with the amount of processors.
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Stolichnaya –
Not wanting to start a flame or anything, but I thought the MacPro was all that? I was just about to buy one. If you have experience with Nucleo or X-Factor and AE using eithe ror both platforms, please inform.
Thanx!
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Yes I know but I don’t think it turns AE into a program that uses all the processors. If you look at what it does, it’s speeding up workflow by getting AE to use redundant processors to render out different frames/RAM previews while you carry on working on the one processor AE can address. As I said, in the past (although it wasn’t officially supported) one could launch a duplicate of AE to render on a redundant processor but Nucleo has given us a much slicker way of handling this. It can’t direct all those processors to work on one frame though, I’m pretty sure about that.
Cheers,
Rich -
I think you’re talking about just one function of Nucleo Pro. For me, Nucleo maxed out the processors quite nicely.
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[LoopCorp] “In theory this will work brilliantly, making AE function like Live Picture (remember that?)”
Yes, I remember Live Picture, the one-time $4,995 photo/imaging program. It was a great imaging program. It ended up going through HSC Software and into a short stint as MetaTools Live Picture (later MetaCreations). Then John Sculley (who ran Apple in the mid-to-late 80s) took over the product and running the Live Picture company until it was bought by MGI Software (which was later acquired by Roxio in a bankruptcy auction, Roxio was then bought by Sonic Solutions). Today, Live Picture is now PhotoSuite and is a Windows-only program that is owned by Roxio/Sonic and is marketed as…
https://www.mgisoft.com/products/photosuite/index.asp
…for $29.99.
How the mighty have fallen.
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
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I had a quick look at the website – is that really based on Live Picture? It looks like they’ve ditched all the technology that made LP a great, unique program (where you could throw around 200 layers of 200Mb images under 64Mb of RAM) and replaced it with all the usual muppet features that can be found in every other amateur imaging app. Very sad.
Cheers,
Rich
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