Insanely (and I mean insanely) slow render in AE

[Darby Edelen]

Are you using CS6? If so then make sure you’re not using the new ray-tracing feature. Go to Composition Settings > Advanced and check the Renderer field. Make sure it’s set to “Classic 3D” instead of “Ray-traced 3D.”

Darby Edelen

[Paul Roper]

If you DO need to use raytraced 3D, firstly make sure your composition’s raytracing quality (comp settings > Advanced > Options) is as low as you can tolerate. I think the default value is 4. This will make a huge difference to your render times. Then make sure your 3D layers have as much turned off as possible in the Material Options (eg. Casts Shadows, Accepts Shadows, etc.). If something’s shadow is not visible, turn it off. If the light hitting it is not adding anything to the look, turn off Accepts Lights. Just keep turning stuff off – hopefully you can get away with reducing some of the effort needed to render it without sacrificing noticeable image quality.

As I’m sure you’re aware, AE consumes vast amounts of RAM and processors for breakfast – the system you’re using is very underpowered. And raytraced 3D is really only feasible if you have a hugely powerful graphics card in your machine* (AE can then offload the rendering to the multiple GPUs on the card) which that MacBook Pro won’t have.

*Even then, it’s still painfully slow compared to a dedicated 3D app like Maya or Cinema 4D.

– Paul

[Vishesh Arora]

Shawn

As everyone said it would be because of Ray-Traced 3D option. You need a Good(by this I mean really GOOD) GPU to render even 2 Seconds of comp. I would prefer to give that file to someone with a good Graphic Card. Since its just 2 second comp, it would not take much time.

Or upload the .aep file so that someone would render it for you. Don’t compromise with the quality if it is for a client.

Vishesh Arora
3D and Motion Graphics Artist
Films Rajendra

Blog:
https://digieffects.wordpress.com

2011 3D Demo Reel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHPgIJU_BR8

[Shawn Hare]

Thanks so much to each of your for your responses — all very helpful. At the same time, I discovered that I’m more of an idiot than previously assumed: while I intended the comp to be 2 seconds, the settings actually were 2 minutes 🙁

At any rate, at least now I know where to look for advanced settings … even though the tab was staring at me the whole time. Interestingly enough, once I changed the settings to 2 seconds, it took about 1.5 minutes to render, which seemed more like what I’d been experiencing previously.

This comp is (one of several) for a class project of mine. Just for kicks and giggles, would any of you like to download it from me, to see how quickly it renders on your machine? I’m looking into purchasing a machine dedicated to editing, and most likely will go with a Windows based PC, as from what I’ve come to understand, that which I can get in a Windows will cost me about 3 times more in a Mac.

Let me know if any of you are willing to do the little rendering time test for me.
Thanks again, and I’m sorry for not paying attention to my settings better before asking a question.

Blessings.

[Vishesh Arora]

I’m looking into purchasing a machine dedicated to editing, and most likely will go with a Windows based PC, as from what I’ve come to understand, that which I can get in a Windows will cost me about 3 times more in a Mac.

Shawn

Check this link:

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/878520

Vishesh Arora
3D and Motion Graphics Artist
Films Rajendra

Blog:
https://digieffects.wordpress.com

2011 3D Demo Reel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHPgIJU_BR8

[Shawn Hare]

Thanks Vishesh!

[Vishesh Arora]

Glad to help

Vishesh Arora
3D and Motion Graphics Artist
Films Rajendra

Blog:
https://digieffects.wordpress.com

2011 3D Demo Reel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHPgIJU_BR8