install Render Engine or not?

[Matt Larson]

THink of Render Engine as a completely stripped down version of AE, and all it is there for is for the Watch Folder feature. If you have multiple computers networked together, you can install Render Engine on all of them and use it to set up a render farm.

I actually use it all the time because you can set up a Comp to Render in Render Engine while you continue working in the Full version of After Effects on the same computer (if you are on a Dual processor mac, which you are.)

Now as for why that’s coming up instead of the Full version of AE? How are you opening After Effects? Are you double clicking on a project file? Because that can be associated with the wrong application. Go into The Applications folder and into the AfterEffects folder and there should be one version of the Application that has an RE after it, that’s the render engine version. So you want to double Click the other application. If not, try doing a search for After Effets and see if you can find 2 applications.

Hope that helps

[Walter Biscardi]

[Matt Larson] “Go into The Applications folder and into the AfterEffects folder and there should be one version of the Application that has an RE after it, that’s the render engine version. So you want to double Click the other application. If not, try doing a search for After Effets and see if you can find 2 applications.”

That’s the problem, ONLY the After Effects RE version is in the After Effects Folder. There is no other copy of AE 7 anywhere on the computer. The only way I can get the thing to install correctly is to leave the Render Engine Un-checked.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Director, “The Rough Cut”
https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

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[Barend Onneweer]

Hi Walter,

You get two options: the full application (which also includes the render engine, otherwise you couldn’t render), OR only the render engine.

So if you install the full app, you don’t need to check the render engine separately.

The render engine only install is necessary when you want to create rendernodes without UI. The render engine doesn’t need a serial number, so can be installed on as many machines as you need.

In short, if you want to install AE on a workstation, just install the full version.

Bar3nd

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[Walter Biscardi]

[Barend Onneweer] “The render engine only install is necessary when you want to create rendernodes without UI. The render engine doesn’t need a serial number, so can be installed on as many machines as you need.”

Thanks for the clarification. It sure is confusing especially since they don’t mention anything about it in the manual. Heck even the folks in tech support didn’t tell me that one when I called. They didn’t know what the AE Render Engine was.

Also, I don’t see a way to install just the Render Engine. It wants to run the full installation procedure including entering the serial numbers. But now that I know what it is, I won’t worry about it.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Director, “The Rough Cut”
https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

Now Posting “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters