Is AE CS3 ready for HD?

[Brian Berneker]

I’m working with 1080p in AE with no render problems whatsoever, and with some pretty complex comps.

I’m guessing that LaRonde’s standard answer to video rendering problems might apply here, but I’ll just suggest you try rendering your source footage to another format that AE recognizes more readily and work with that..

I’ve seen some clips die simply because they don’t decode properly and AE craps out. If you have the hard drive space, use the Animation codec, or if you’re feeling ambitious and want to spend a few bucks, get Microcosm which is the same quality as uncompressed, but with smaller files.

YMMV: I’m using OSX Tiger on a 2.33 Core2Duo with 4GB RAM.

Brian

[Brian Berneker]

Considering that it works ok with non-fast-moving objects doesn’t make much sense. I can’t say for sure it’s a codec issue after all, but possibly… what codec are you rendering to? Maybe if you try test rendering to animation, you can at least eliminate that as a factor. If it works, then it’s a codec issue.

Another concern could be memory settings running out of RAM to process the frames? Does anyone have those standard memory settings handy – I’m away from my AE machine? There are other posts in the forum about memory settings.

Brian

[Tim Garber]

The codec doesn’t matter. Even the RAM preview set at 1/4 will not render. Turned the bluring down to 2 samples without result. In my latest example the comp renders until just before the y rotation reaches 90°.

Shared the project with another editor who questioned the machine. He also experienced the same problem with this comp. I am wondering if I have something set up wrong & since it seems consistent with me & the problem can easily be seen by others when they load my project. Yet no one seems to be bitching but me.

Been through the usual “fixes” that are generally effective in SD including memory & Open GL. After Effects seems broken in HD. I’d be glad to share a simplified version of the project that demostrates how a simple 3D text layer with a 2 keyframe, 15 frame, y rotation will render out all the way until just prior to 90°. There are no sources in this & no solids, just text, a light, & a camera. It is just one one a long line of render issues I’ve had with HD in AE, but maybe they are all related.

[Thad Ciechanowski]

If you are using XP SP2 you can use 3GB of RAM.

Right Click on “My Computer”
“Properties”
“Advanced”
Under Startup and recovery click the settings tab
Click on “edit”
Notebook will open your boot.ini file.
This is your boot.ini file. SAVE A COPY FIRST!

Then on the last line add “3GB” at the end so your file looks like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional” /noexecute=optin /fastdetect/3GB

Then when you restart your machine, AE will use 3GB instead of 2GB.

Good luck

[Mike Bohatch]

Hey there,

Try some of these suggestions

https://www.eyesofchaos.com/Tutorials/after_effects_render_tips.html

I work on HD footage (1920×1080) with less ram than you (at the moment) so these settings may help

Mike
Nightmare Kinetics

https://www.nightmarekinetics.com

[Brian Berneker]

Maybe you can post a link to the project file. I’d like to see how my system responds to it…

Brian

[David Bogie]

The term “HD footage” is meaningless without the codec in use. What’s your source?
If it’s some odd codec, transcoding to a lossless codec like Animation or an intermediate might be a solution. That your buddy had the same issue on his machien with yoru project suggests media issues, not AE.

AE has always been resolution and timebase independent up to 4k. 1080 is only 25% of that image size and pixel density and presents no real issues for the application or the rendering engine.

I’ve been working in 1080i at 30fps with 720 degrees of shutter for motion blur and depth of field active for cameras in 3d for many months without a single hickup.

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[Tim Garber]

My apologies. I see your confusion. I should have said HD comp if i didn’t. I rarely use footage in my work. Mostly my workflow involves psd square pixel files, text layers, solids, & various other image files. When I do use footage it is exclusively either Animation codec or some flavor of Avid.

The comp in question has no footage in it. As stated it contains only a 24mm camera, 1 spot light, & a 3D text layer rotating on the Y axis.

I’ve been using After Effect intensively for 5 years now so I’m well versed in the “frigging’ manual”. That is why I stated that I have tried all of the tricks I’ve read. Now being that AE is very deep I admit something is very likely wrong & I’m missing it. I will soon provide a link to the project. Its reduced so it is tiny.

[Brendan Coots]

After Effects is absolutely HD capable, dating back to After Effects 5.0. It really comes down to the machine, not the software.

Here’s a few things to try:

– If you only RAM preview the last portion of the comp with the spinning text, does it still fail? If so, this isn’t a RAM issue.

– Is it possible that the text is spinning so fast that it is intersecting with itself, causing AE to tweak out? When I say self-intersecting, I mean that the motion blur trails may intersect with the object itself (like a dog catching up with its own tail) and this can cause glitches just as any 3d layer intersections in AE can. To test, you could slow the spinning down just slightly to see if this helps.

– When actually rendering this sequence (not RAM previews) does it fail? If so, what error message does it give upon failure?

– Try clearing the cache before renders, both RAM and output. It could be that, when scrubbing through the spinning portion of your comp, AE has stored one or two frames of the spin and isn’t clearing those out, so when it pieces it all together the jumbling of these frames gives errors. To clear the cache, go to edit>purge>all.

Aside from those tests, it should be mentioned that the Dell 4600 is a single processor, Pentium4 machine. While that’s not horrible per se, it IS a 5 year old machine and single-core processors are all but extinct in the post production world. To make the point, the Dell 4600 sells for a whopping $99 on Craigslist/Ebay right now. Not exactly the makings of a post-production workhorse!

You should consider upgrading if you want to handle HD work, whether your current issue is related to the machine or not. You will find it difficult and painfully slow to deal with anything but the most basic of projects in HD with your current setup.

Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com

[Tim Garber]

Wow, I have been too busy to get back to this since April. Just to respond to the comment about the machine I was using… Dell has continued to update that model along the way. This machine was purchased in December 2007 – not 5 years ago, it IS a quad core, and has 4GB of RAM, and runs XP Pro 32bit. That said, let me close this topic out. My problems were solved through another question posted around that same time. It turns out my AE was only accessing 2GB of the RAM until some wise and kind soul shared the deep secret of increasing XP Pro’s memory access from the default of 2GB to the max of 3GB.

This solved all my rendering issues, well nearly all. You see AE divides up the available RAM to each core. So while those extra cores are speeding the render up they are fighting for RAM. In an effect heavy HD comp with blurring, BCC effects, 3D, and lights I still have to pre-render here and there. Fortunately not very often.

My advice is to buy a Mac (since I can’t see using Vista.) The OS allows AE to access 4GB of RAM. The biggest eye-opener for me was that even if you have 10GB of RAM After Effects will never use more than 3 on Windows and 4 on Mac. So save your money if you’re buying extra RAM for AE.

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/2/867951