AE Proxy Workflow Issues – No Live Update?? 100+ Layers!!

[Walter Soyka]

[John McIntosh] “I am working on a HUGE composite in both res and file size… 4K PSD with 100+ Layers! Yikes :P”

I regularly work on ultra-widescreen comps well beyond 4k resolution, and as you’ve discovered, proxies are a critical part of the workflow.

[John McIntosh] “Problem 1: The problem is that now anytime I make a change to a layer (layer visibility/effects/etc) there no live update!? Instead I get the red proxy bar across the bottom the (same as caps lock disabling refresh) Now I have to turn off proxy to see the change? How is this helpful??”

This is exactly how proxies SHOULD work. The whole point is use a piece of media instead of the layers in the timeline to speed up your workflow.

[John McIntosh] “Solution 2 / Problem 2: Manually select every layer (100+) and create a proxy for each (which seems to solve problem #1).”

I’ve never proxied every individual source layer of a comp — I can only imagine how maddening that would get.

I would suspect you’d be able to get a whole bunch of related layers together, pre-compose them, animate them within their precomps, and then use proxies on a much more manageable number of pre-comps.

When we work with really large comps like you’re doing now, we create storyboards and animatics ahead of time. Because of the render constraints of keeping everything live, we have to plan ahead instead of just diving in and playing around, so we separate the creative decisions from the actual implementation.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
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