Should I get more memory for things like this?

[Andrew Wilson]

I don’t see much in that project that would tax a machine like that. Which OS are you running? I can’t remember the exact version or max number but isn’t there some deal that a 32 bit OS can only access 2 gigs of RAM max per application?

If you were still under 10.6 (maybe 10.5?) more ram won’t do Motion any good. Even then, you have a decent amount for a project that looks like this. No lights, no motion blur, no 3D…

How are your graphics being made? All inside Motion? Are they huge bitmapped files? Are you using 3D space (cause it doesn’t look like you need it)?

Can you upload your project file?

Andrew Wilson
WestView Digital Video & Design
http://www.westviewdigital.com

[Michael West]

Andrew:
Thanks for the prompt reply.
I have 10.6.8 Snow Leopard.
The bridge and text are made in motion.
The bridge is the “syrup”. I know because I made it first, using lines which were turned into Shape Style:Liquid:Ink Bleed 02 Taper (discovered this while playing around. No firm knowledge foundation).
I read someplace today that Type On may have been a better, and less resource heavy, way to go for each line.
How do I upload the file to you?
Thanks for helping.
Michael

[Andrew Wilson]

click reply and in the compos message window, the last icon is a disk. That will let you upload a file and provide a link to that file. You should zip it up… along with any bitmapped images used (like the cars?)

Don’t bother including fonts – I’ll just sub in something else.

Andrew Wilson
WestView Digital Video & Design
http://www.westviewdigital.com

[Jason Watson]

My guess is that the shape style in conjunction with all the individual line segments that is taxing the project. Each particle of the stroke is actually a little movie, and so when you have a lot of line segments with that shape style it’s not surprising that it’s dragging. Try setting all the shape styles to Basic Solid and see if there’s any improvement in the performance.

It’s sort of like in Illustrator- if you have a ton of little paths it will bring it to its knees.

[Andrew Wilson]

Oh yeah… Jason’s right. I read that and missed that you applied that style to it.

You could create a similar look by changing your line segment to airbrush and then opening the Stroke tab and adjusting the graph for WIDTH OVER STROKE to make it fatter in the middle. Then change your brush profile so it’s not so soft. Then under the style tab, animate your last point offset with keyframes or apply the write on behavior to make it draw on.

I’m sure you didn’t want to hear that… so back to your original question: would more ram help? a little but not appreciably so
would be my guess.

I don’t know if there’s a quick way to replace all your lines with the more efficient way I described – that’s not something I have experience with.

Andrew Wilson
WestView Digital Video & Design
http://www.westviewdigital.com

[Michael West]

Andrew & Jason:
Thanks so much for all the input.
The project has already been used, but I liked the look of it, and wanted to use something similar again.
As stated, I was diddling with brush strokes and came across the style.
I figured it was the hog, but thought maybe more memory would solve the issue.
I’ll play around with your suggestions and see what I can come up with.
Again, thanks to you, and Cow, for being here to help.
Michael

[Jason Watson]

No problem 🙂