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How to work with smaller video sizes in After Effects to speed up processing?
Hi everyone,
Very new guy here. I’m working on a Macbook Pro early 2011, and I recently started using Premiere Pro to edit a music video.
There is a shot where I’d like to remove a black background from my subject – so I loaded up After Effects CC and found tutorials on using the “roto brush” to separate the subject from the background.
My issue is: the brush tool works fine, and tracks the outline very quickly and accurately for the first 100 frames or so, but then starts slowing down SIGNIFICANTLY. It slows to a crawl, and then clicking around the timeline takes 30 seconds to render each individual frame.
My video friend advised that if I compressed the video down from the original raw footage, it would be able to handle the processing easier.
I was wondering –– what’s the easiest way to pull this off? Will I need to export each clip independently from Premiere Pro, then import it into AE? Is there an easier way to compress the files as I’m moving them over to After Effects?
Thank you very much,
Michael
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6 Replies
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If you can, state the current format and resolution you’re working with. Also can you upload a SS of the clip so we could help judge if rotobrushing is the best option?
But anyway, if you want to just stick with your current workflow. Just split the clips into smaller ones and do it by parts. You can render the mattes and merge them later. As it is now you seem to be running into ram issues.
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Here is a screenshot of the settings – I think this is the info you were asking for? The file type of the original video is .MOV
I’ll also attach a SS of the clip. (I’m attempting to ROTO each of these faces separately – they’re each their own layer)
Thanks for your help!
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I should also mention that I am working on my internal HD – 1 TB that is NOT a solid state. Not sure how much of a difference that makes.
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To use rotobrush AE has to bring each frame to RAM memory and thats probably your current limitation, RAM. (Edit: When it slows its maybe because it starts to swap to disk, so changing to a SSD may speed things up, but not even close to just having more RAM)
.mov is a container that can hold several formats/codecs, you may convert to something more compressed but It would be better if you know what you’re currently working with. Keep in mind that compressing may cause loss of data and therefore detail that is preferable to keep while creating your mattes(see lossy and lossless compression).
Though I have to confess that I’m not sure if AE won’t hold the same frames in memory and since its resolution that matters, converting will have no effect on your system slowing down. A de-compressed 1080p is still 1920×1080.
So ill stick to my first advice, divide and conquer.
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Hmm, okay. I do have 16 GB of RAM installed, but maybe that’s not enough?
Found the codec information! Here it is:
Thanks again for your help man. I really appreciate it.
Michael
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