Rendering issue

[John Nelson]

Sorry. Haven’t done picture posting very much. Thanks.

https://www.omproductions.net

[Michael Sisko]

What resolution is your comp, also are you running in 64bit mode in the os. If you are having ram issues try to flush the cache prior to rendering and check you preferences to make sure you have enough ram allocated to ae.

[John Nelson]

Hi Michael,
Not running 64 bit. But I am exporting to an external via firewire 800. Could that be the problem? Here are the settings:

https://www.omproductions.net

[John Nelson]

Thanks Dave,
I tried one of my ‘work-arounds’ which meant cutting the project in half and rendering each separately. Seemed to work. Ran the .mov’s into FCP and got a final product. Total AE size was over 7gb which was maybe why it was choking on the whole thing. Lots of stuff going on inside. Tomorrow I’ll try you suggestion since I’ve found several areas that need to be tweaked.

I mistakenly thought that buying this big horse would solve all my rendering ‘challenges’…

Thanks again. Will report back on the suggestions.

https://www.omproductions.net

[Walter Soyka]

[John Nelson] “Total AE size was over 7gb which was maybe why it was choking on the whole thing.”

The size of the output file it not the problem — AE doesn’t attempt to hold that whole thing in RAM.

The problem was that AE couldn’t free up enough RAM to create an image buffer — a virtual screen to paint in.

Dave’s advice to leave more CPUs for other applications is spot on. Right now, you have 28 GB spread out over 16 processes — that’s not enough. By lowering the number of CPUs After Effects will use and leaving the memory the same, you’ll actually raise the amount of RAM each individual process can use.

(Actually, you might even consider allocating just a little more RAM to other apps: maybe 8 GB instead of 6 GB.)

[John Nelson] “I mistakenly thought that buying this big horse would solve all my rendering ‘challenges’…”

One big problem you have right now is that you’re still running AE CS4.

CS4 is still a 32-bit application, meaning it can access a maximum of 4 GB per process (closer to 3.5 GB for the foreground process on a Mac). This makes it very easy to run out of RAM while rendering.

CS5 and up are 64-bit, and are capable of addressing all the RAM in your system. The “unable to allocate space for a WxH image buffer” error is easily avoided on a 64-bit system.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[John Nelson]

Thanks Walter,
Haven’t checked yet but is there a screen allowing the reduction of cores? And would it be better doing that rather than raising the size for other programs?

I’ve been shopping around for newer AE software but am on a smaller budget now, especially after making the plunge for the ‘big horse’. Hope springs eternal.

Thanks again.

https://www.omproductions.net

[Walter Soyka]

[John Nelson] “Haven’t checked yet but is there a screen allowing the reduction of cores?”

The option is in Memory and Multiprocessing, and it’s called “CPUs to leave for other applications.” Your screenshot above shows it set to zero.

[John Nelson] ” And would it be better doing that rather than raising the size for other programs?”

I would definitely leave some CPUs for other applications, and I would experiment with leaving more RAM for other applications, too.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events