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More Power?
I’m attempting to key some HD footage (formerly DVCProHD, converted to QT Animation to use in AE7 on a Windows PC). However it takes between 3 seconds (at quarter resolution) and 5-10 seconds (at full) just to preview a frame, so scrubbing is impossible, and render times are up around 40+ hours for 8 minutes of footage. My workstation specs are: nvidia quadro fx3450, AMD Athlon x64 dual core 2.2Ghz, ASUS A8N-SLI, 2 x Sata 250Gb (striped), 2Gb RAM. Other than more RAM (which isn’t reaching max during render anyway), and possible another couple of striped drives, I’m not sure what I can do on the hardware side. I don’t have the original TC so down converting the footage to DV for offline edits to get reduced exact footage to key isn’t really an option. Should I look at a different codec perhaps that still preserves sufficient color information for the key? If anyone has any ideas of how to viably work with this footage in AE on my machine – would be epically grateful.
Thanks in advance for your help in this.
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3 Replies
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I have an x2 4400 and similar specs in my workstation and I work with 1920×1080 uncompressed footage all day… most of my source footage is 3072×2048… The preview delays you describe are normal for me as well, and I dont think I have ever been able to scrub non-cached 1080 comps…. I don’t think its a matter of codecs, it just takes a lot of power to push around so many pixels… An 8 processor Opteron system with 16gb of Ram will certainly be much quicker but it will also drain your wallet very quickly… I just got used to the delays… I do most RAM previews at one half or one quarter res with the preview window matching the res percentage…. Its not so bad once you get used to it…
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Thanks for your reply. Is there a way to make the cache non volatile? i.e. continue to use the RAM/Disk cache built from the initial state, even though you’re making changes to the layers, – so basically tell After Effects to keep the cache until you explicitly purge it? also, do you know of a way to write a full low res cache to disk, associated with a composition/project so that you can use it in the another after effects session (e.g. after a reboot)?
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In reading the above post(s) I think I would try to use proxies for design, and the playing around part of the job, then when pleased with that render out the full HD resolution.
Would this be a good use for proxies? If so—could someone explain the workflow when using proxies in a situation like this?
Jay Thompson
Thompson Visual Design & Storytelling
7 Marjean Ct.
Kirkwood, MO 63122
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