Bleating Render Que

[Steve Roberts]

The bleat means a render error. “No kidding”, you say. Or similar.

Hmm. I was just able to render a movie, then the comp that holds the movie, both lined up in the queue. There was no bleating, no reordering of items. I seem to recall that older versions of AE didn’t do that “look-for-a-replaced-file-and-and-use-it thing well. Which version are you using?

By the way, if you haven’t found the way to set up render templates, try this: Edit>templates … where you can set a default.

[Mike Clasby]

“Other apps remember the basic fact that “yes, I do want to render that same video the same way” ”

1) So are you having trouble making a Template?

For your comp named “render me”, “Ctrl M” means Render this Comp and opens the Render Que. Then in the dropdown “Output Module” you can choose a Template, “Lossless” is the default on a PC. Anyway, click the “Custom” at the bottom of the dropdown and then make the Render whatever you need, like QuickTime>Animation Codec>Spatial Quality:Hi(75), Depth:Millions of Color +, Audio Output: your settings… So you have your one render setup the way you want, then click “OK” at the bottom.

Now back in the main Render Queue, click the Output Module Drop Down Again, and choose “Make Template” From the bottom. Give it a name, like “render me Master”, then just choose “render me Master” from the drop down whenever you want to render “render me”.

2) I guess I don’t understand why you are rendering out the comp named “movie” every time you want to render “render me”. Can’t you just have the comp “movie” in the comp “render me” and let AE render the subcomp “movie” on it’s way to rendering “render me”?

[Mike Clasby]

So if you want to leave for lunch and render 2 versions of “render me” each with a different sub comp “movie”, you need to Duplicate “render me” and “movie” (in the project window).

Fix “movie” and “movie 1” so they are different. You can use the eyeballs on/off, or sub in footage, with Alt Dragging onto selected layers, whatever you need to get the difference you want.

Then open both, “render me” and “render me 2”.

Have “movie” in “render me”. Ctrl M and choose that template you made earlier.

Have “movie 1” in “render me 1”. Ctrl M, again, will give you a second item in the Render Que, use the same template. Both will be checked and run, when you click “Render” and enjoy your lunch.

When you come back you’ll have two different versions of “render me”.

Is that what you want?

If you really want to render out each QuickTime from “movie”, make a comp for each variation, render them, then sub them into separate instances of “render me” , then line all those up in the Render Queue to render while you’re gone. This way it’s a two step process but there’s no reason you can’t render out many variations each time.

[Atomic]

My “movie” comp has 3D elements in it and shadows. So it does not scrub very well even with full openGL acceleration. So I rendered it out as a quicktime movie.

Initially I simply dropped the “movie” comp into “render me”.
Then I did a test. I replaced the “movie” comp I dropped into “render me” with the pre-rendered quicktime version of “movie” and it reduced the render time for “render me” and improved scrub ability of render me.

I don’t need two versions of “render me” I simply need one version of “render me” But now it is dependent upon “movie”. So if changes are made in the “movie” comp, I have to also re-render “render me”.

I many cases quicktime versions of comps will render more quickly than the comp itself.

So no one has ever heard a bleat? It sounds like a lamb bleating.

I do understand how to use and setup presets for the render que. I use them daily.

So is my assumption about the render que correct?
Meaning: I should be able to add a comp to the que, then add another comp and and click render and After Effects will render them both in the correct sequence? In my case, I would add “movie” first to the render que, then add “render me” because “render me” is dependent upon “movie” being updated first.

I use AE version 7.

[Matt Hall]

Sound like maybe you should play with the “render and replace” option in the render settings. I don’t use it much – but i believe it does just what you are looking for.

[Steve Roberts]

Yes, rendering a comp that contains a Quicktime movie will be faster than rendering that comp with a subcomp inside, but that time savings may be negated because of the time it takes to render the subcomp first, then the main comp second.

The bleat is the AE sound for a failed render. I’ve only heard it a couple of times in ten years, probably because my renders have rarely failed in the way needed to activate the sound.

… meaning, I don’t know what’s special about an AE render failure that causes a bleat. That one is proving to be hard to find on the internet. 😉

As for your problem, I suspect it lies in the way the “movie” was rendered:
– was it rendered to Sorenson, or an interframe codec such as MPEG-2 (don’t flame me, just asking)
– maybe Quicktime Player was accessing the movie at the time you replaced it?
– have you tried queuing them both up, then unchecking “render me”, waiting until “movie” was done, then checking “render me” and rendering it?

I know you don’t need to waste a lot of time on this, but if you cut down the work areas, maybe we can get to the bottom of this without too much waiting. Let us know …

[Atomic]

I think I’ll look into render and replace. that is basically what I want.

I started re-reading the section on the render que in the manual as well.

I mainly wanted some affirmation that I wasn’t going crazy with my computer bleating at me. And also, that I had not become the victim of some bleating virus.

Thanks for the replys.

I have rendered it the old fashion way, one after the other and the video is out the door for now.