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Problem Rrendering Large PSP file in AE7
I have tried every combination I can think of to achieve a visable rendered file of a very large Photoshop file. The rendered files are all black with one exception… but, the file would only partially render.
Rather and than describe what has failed (besides, a post describing the failures would be a novel length post if I did)… I will describe what has been partially successful.
The PSP CS2 file is a large 3200×2280 file with 16 text layers only. The PSP file has NO background. The text for all layers are White.
The PSP file is brought into AE7 … and, the resulting imported PSP file is added to a 22 second long AE composition (…layers are not added to the AE comp…but, rather only the resulting AE/PSP composition created during the importing process is added). A Camera Layer is added and a number of keyframes are added to create a pan and zoom camera movement on the large Photoshop file.
The render of this project’s composition in All instances results in black only rendered file… except, for a PARTIAL render that is Based on the following setup:
Best Quality Full Resolution 3200X2280 size Read Only Disk Cache Video fo Windows Movie No Compression RGB+ALPHA Color STRAIGHT Final size 3200X2280 Time Span: Work Area Only
This rendered file becomes all black at 7 seconds…up until that point, the file is working just fine.
My first guess was that this partial render was a memory limit (…and, all full render file sizes remain at 18G in size… which is pretty much the same size for ANY rendered filed format using any lossless output). So, (as a solution) I shortened the render size of the composition into smaller segments of 5 seconds… and, I got full black only render on ALL segments using the same render method that had partially worked for a full 22 second sized render. This doesn’t make sense.
(Note: Using a Time span of Comp Length did not work… however, Comp Length of Work Area Only did partially work for the full render but not segmented render of project).
Any idea as to how to make this AE project render completely? As best I can tell I have ran out of options to try just short of making the PSP file smaller… but, that would ruin the effect I am attempting (and, quit frankly I am not sure making the PSP file smaller will help).
Joe
System specs. – WinXP, Asus A8N32 SLI Delx Mobo, AMD2.6Ghz Opteron 2X32bit-w/ 1 Meg L2 cache, 2G Kingston Prem.RAM (low lat, 440 DDR2), NVIDIA GeForce 7950GT PCIe(512m), Pioneer DVR-710 DVD, Realtek AC97 Aud., 3xHD SATA 16mb cache 7200, video editor software Avid Liquid 7.2 v.4296, 2×20″Samsung204t
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3 Replies
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[Joe Moya] “and, quit frankly I am not sure making the PSP file smaller will help”
One question for ya: do you mean PSD or PSB file? I’m not familiar with PSP… unless we’re talking about a mobile gaming platform (;
You will definitely see a benefit from breaking the large layer into several small layers. AE renders a frame one layer at a time, if there isn’t room in available RAM to render a layer then the render fails. For example, AE can render 12 300×300 layers much more reliably than 1 3600×3600. Read more about AE’s memory & cache usage here:
https://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/AfterEffects/8.0/WS9F936D13-E76A-41e4-BF8F-577132AB4723.html
And here:
https://generalspecialist.com/2006/11/avoiding-after-effects-error-could-not.asp
Darby Edelen
Designer
Left Coast Digital
Santa Cruz, CA -
PSP = PSD
duh… I meant PSD… I think I was thinking Paint Shop Pro when I was typing.
At any rate, It took me many hours to figure this one out…
But… as I expected,… this was a combination of problems… which are usually the most difficult one’s to figure out.
Basically, it was a memory/file size problem… however, rendering the project in smaller segments should work in solving most file size/render problems… EXCEPT… when the link between Photoshop and AE is corrupted.
It appears that for some reason… AE does not always recognize a Photoshop when you have large files that may cause a failure in render. …Which also seems to only effect White colored text lettering with no background… now, THAT seems strange.
The solution was to re-save the original Photoshop file… then, re-import the file into AE. That works well for a few renders… then for some reason the file needs to be re-saved and re-imported into AE. I am sure this a memory issue/cache clearing issue.
This explains why the same rending format did not always work… it was not the render settings (…unless, you tried to render to much of the project composition at once)… but, rather it was a loss of the link of the file between AE and Photoshop (re-saving solves this problem).
A complicated but simple solution… things like this make me pull my hair out and can be VERY time consuming.
In AE there were only two tracks… camera and a single PSD composition (photoshop layers in one comp).
Thanks for your solution, but I had already thought about that in the process.
In Photoshop there were numerous layers, but those layers were never put into the project… but, rather they were combined into one comp. The render time was slow because of the size of the work area and not so much because of excessive layers. The memory issue was likely because of the size of work area in AE… but, the failure to hold a link for White Text with no background is probably an issue associated with memory useage, saving and rendering large files.
Joe
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[Joe Moya] “I am sure this a memory issue/cache clearing issue.”
You can clear your image cache pre-render with Edit > Purge > Image Cache. This may solve your issue.
[Joe Moya] “In Photoshop there were numerous layers, but those layers were never put into the project… but, rather they were combined into one comp. The render time was slow because of the size of the work area and not so much because of excessive layers.”
It sounds like you didn’t read either of the links. I highly recommend that you do.
[Joe Moya] “The memory issue was likely because of the size of work area in AE… but, the failure to hold a link for White Text with no background is probably an issue associated with memory useage, saving and rendering large files.”
The work area should only become an issue when your rendered file will be larger than your available space on your hard drive.
AE does not render the entire frame at once, it renders one layer in the frame at a time and composites them together to form the frame. You can avoid many render errors by importing your PSD as a Composition with Cropped Layers as this reduces the amount of information that AE needs to cache at any given time.
You should also check to make sure you have optimal Memory & Cache settings. The smaller your Image Cache is the less often you will experience memory fragmentation, this is ideal you generally don’t want your Image Cache any larger than 60%. However, if you don’t have enough available RAM to cache a large and/or complicated layer then your render will fail.
You may not have been experiencing the precise symptoms I’ve describing here, but I highly recommend you check the links in my previous post for more information on the way AE works with memory & caching. It’s incredibly valuable information when you’re having any memory related problems.
Darby Edelen
Designer
Left Coast Digital
Santa Cruz, CA
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