Adobe After Effects rendering on another computer

[Walter Soyka]

[Pece Zdravkovski] “I make my Adobe After Effects on my PC, but for rendering I’d like to use my another PC so I can continue work on my main computer. How do I do that, since the project and it’s files are saved on the main pc ? “

With Lloyd Alvarez’s excellent BG Renderer script [link], you can render directly to a movie or image sequence in the background while you continue to work on your same PC, with all kinds of options available.

With Ae CS6 and higher, you can cache your comp to disk in the background while you work on the same computer. Composition > Cache work area in background, or Ctrl+Return.

With Adobe Media Encoder CS6 and higher, you can drag and drop your Ae comp into AME (or File > Import After Effects Composition…) and use that to render and encode in the background.

If you want to render on a separate computer, you must network the two computers together and make sure the AEP project file and assets are shared. You can then use any of these methods as well as the usual GUI if you have a second license of Ae.

You could also use Network rendering with watch folders and render engines [link] to automatically render on your second machine. This method would also allow you to use both computers to assist in the render. You are permitted any number of render-only installs along with your regular Ae license.

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
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[Pece Zdravkovski]

Thanks you helped me a lot. I think I’ll choose the 2nd option.

[Mike Tyler]

I know this is an older topic, but was asking myself the same question right now..

Do I need all the video files for rendering ? Or is it somehow possible to export just a file for Media Encoder with which I could then render all my project at once on a different (faster) computer..

[Guillaume D’harcourt]

I didn’t try, but it seems logic for me that you’ll need all the original video files to render your project, as AME “read” the original file to render your project.

So if you want to render on a different computer, you should put all your files on a usb stick and transfert to the second computer.

(Message from a french guy, sorry if some mistakes)

[Mike Tyler]

ye, that’s my thinking as well.

Just wanted to see, if by any chance there’s some solution for ‘external’ rendering..