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temp and delta files
I was wondering if anyone could help me with this question. We run after effects over a network, with most of our footage material being held at a central server. When After effects imports this footage into the application how does it keep it cached on an individual station? Is it writing a temp or delta file? Does it just read it directly off the server through the network? The reason I ask is because we are planning on putting more after effects stations in that would all read off of the server and I don’t want to overload the server with duplicate temp files or fry the network with too much traffic. I know the question is bit out of the ordinary but thought I would try here first.
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8 Replies
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AE doesn’t import the footage, it creates a link to the footage at the source. When it has to render a frame for viewing or when making a movie, it creates those desired frames in RAM on the user’s machine or on disk at the choice of the user.
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So in a sense I am reliant on our bandwidth here to be able to cycle through frames in a comp that is comprised of footage imported from a server. There are no temp files created even momentarily for ram previews or renders? Just trying to make sure we have adequate equipment and drive space here.
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Operating any video file-based system over an underpowered or inappropriately setup network is asking for trouble. Big trouble. Access privileges, simultaneous read-write attempts, server caching, server collisions, server priority compatibilities, check-in and check-out functions and current versioning are all going to be far more trouble than you can imagine. Just wait til one of your geeks decides to invoke the network rendering engine in AE!
You need a dedicated SAN, NAS, xSAN or xServer type of operation and you need a dedicated network wonk.
We keep lots of stuff on a server but we always download locally to do any work. Uploading and tracking new versions require zero-tolerance to an established workflow paradigm. No one can be bothered with such rigidity so we just flail.
bogiesan
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Interesting. Well that does bring up some good points, I’ll discuss it with our IT guys and ask again if I have any other questions.
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AE doesn’t make temp files on disk.
I can’t say what sort of thing gets stored in RAM when you make RAM previews, but that relates to adequate RAM space on the user’s machine, not the server.
Yes, you are dependent on bandwidth for reading source frames (as they are needed) and if you are rendering frames to the server when making a movie.
Temp files created when making a movie? No, the rendered movie file just gets bigger (at the chosen render destination) as the render progresses.
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Thank you as well Mr. Roberts, ill check over all these items you guys ahave mentioned.
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Let us know what you end up doing — your experience could help others in the future. 🙂
Good luck,
Steve -
Well, we decided on making a staging storage space specifically for work that will pass through after effects users. All other users will have their own staging areas as well. A SAN will be the main form of connection between the staging area and AE users who will copy any material they need locally, render locally, and it will be retrieved later by coordinating operators. This is the easiest solution we could come up with without making any major refinments or outfitting a huge asset management system
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