After Effects CS5.5 RAM Preview Issues

[Erik Waluska]

Be sure the “from current time” option in the preview panel is unchecked or it will ignore the work area you’ve set. HTH

[Frank Brown]

Or Right mouse click near the ending point – “Trim comp to work area” and then hit preview button.

[John Obrien]

Hi Dave:

I have CS5.5 on a windows Tower with 16gb ram. In a composition with 8 tracks of audio AE complains that it can’t do 10 seconds of audio. Do you understand this as normal or acceptable? Yes there are effects on the audio but I remember doing more than this with my old MAC g5…

1950objuan@gmail.com

[Randy Cates]

It seems to me I used to get better RAM previews in the past than we get now too. Even purging the RAM and lowering the comps layers to draft and the resolution to 1/3rd I still can’t get a smooth playback (and I only have 1 track of audio).

One trick you might try (in addition to the above) is to solo only the layers you really need to see, turn off any effects you aren’t testing and RAM preview that.

I seriously believe a fragmented hard drive might play a role in this but is that even an issue anymore? I’m on an iMac and don’t see any utility for defragging my drive. Is this done automatically by the OS these days or are we required to purchase 3rd party software?

I’m looking into this and will report back.

Randy Cates
Video Production/Motion Graphics

[Randy Cates]

No. I have 8GB installed, 2GB reserved for other applications leaving 6GB allocated to AE.

What I find confusing is, when rendering I see (at the bottom of the render Que) only ~2GB being used for AE. Am I missing something? Is there a way for AE to access all available RAM? When I render files I make it a point to turn everything but Outlook off for maximum RAM availability but it doesn’t seem to be using it (or needing it).

One last thing. Maximum RAM will give me “longer” previews but whatever is loaded into RAM should play smoothly. This is my issue.

Thank you
RC

Randy Cates
Video Production/Motion Graphics