collapsing seems to apply effects after collapse rather than before?

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

[Scott] “(collapsing is necessary for whatever reason, esp rendering time).”

Collapsing is only neccesary if it helps in speeding up rendering WITHOUT affecting your brain cells – obviously that would be difficult to put into any manual.

Collapsing Transformation results in a re-wiring of AE’s Render Pipeline. instead of the usual Mask, Effects, Transform sequence; AE goes into a Transform, Mask, Effects rendering order.

[Scott] “why does this happen? and how can i fix this problem so that i can apply a 2px or 5px blur or whatever, and still collapse my comp?”

The moral of the story is NOT to Collapse Transform to speed up rendering. Only use Collapse Transformation to enable a feature/function not otherwise available without Collapse Transformation. There are other bits of information missing from your post that will allow me to provide a snapshot, one click answer.

I suggest that you re-think the use of the Collapse Transformation switch. The way I have read your post, it looks like things will work out if you do not Collapse Transformation.

HTH
Roland Kahlenberg
broadcastGEMs
customizable animated backdrops with Adobe After Effects project files

[Scott G]

Hey Roland,

Well, that makes sense, unfortuneately I don’t know if not collapsing is a viable option. I have a very large comp (approx 7000 x 5000px) of a world map that I need to zoom in and out of, while arrows and water currents animate.
Collapsing gives me a render time of 8 hours, enough for me to go home and sleep and come back.
Uncollapsing, the thing just about refuses to render. Unpredictable. Sometimes it gets a certain amount of the way through and then chokes, other times it chugs along but could conntinue to do so for days. Network rendering is not an option due to the lack of other computer and a network in this office.

I’ve compromised by removing the blur entirely, which means that the arrows / water currents are a little too crisp to look like they’re part of a “living” 1950’s war map, but what else can I do?

Thanks for the advice. If you have anything further to add, I would welcome suggestions…

Regards,
Scott.

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

OK. So it looks like you’ve got a pretty large precomp? Cos’ if it’s a final comp to be rendered, then I must tell you that Imaxaxaurus hasn’t been invented yet. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

There may be more than one way to solve this problemosaurus but without looking at the AEP, it’s still kinda hard.

I suggest that you use an Adjustment Layer in the final composition to apply the blur effect. Other considerations are to pre-render certain elements to lessen the load on the final composition.

If these still do not work for you then I suggest that you spell out the actual workflow, compositions and precomps and their sizes with details on the pertinent layers involved.

Pertinent Layers are defined as those that are much larger than the composition size and/or those that have effects applied to them. You should include layers or precomps that have the Continuously Rasterized switched to on.

HTH
Roland Kahlenberg
broadcastGEMs
customizable animated backdrops with Adobe After Effects project files