Working with large Photoshop File

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Since you’re almost done with it, pay someone to render it for you. Save some money and get a better rig. If you want to fix it, you’re looking at messing about with each of the 200+ layers.

In the future, to ascertain how large you need a file to be (in pixels), scale it to the max size you need. Right click on the Scale property and select Edit Value. Then change the the Units reference from % to pixels.

HTH
RoRK

Intensive AE & Mocha Training in Singapore and Malaysia
Adobe ACE/ACI (version 7) & Imagineer Systems Inc Approved Mocha Trainer

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

If you already worked out the animation with the large image, I am afraid that all you can do is pre-render the elements that you can and then comp them back together for the final render. Ideally would have been to re-size the initial image to minimum possible size that would enable you to get a clean looking animation.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Stuart Samuels]

Thanks for the help.

That’s what I feared to be honest. At least I’ve learnt something for next time.

If I was to do it again would I scale down the original file in PS or import the large file into AE and simply scale down in there? I assume it’s the former but just want to check.

Thanks again.

Stuart.

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

You would need to determine the largest you need to have the image- or parts of it- in the frame and then resize accordingly. Also, make sure you work @ 72dpi – you do not need more for video. I usually prep my files in PSD – open up a HD frame (or whatever size my video will be)- copy over all the images (layers) that I will use and scale them here. Just make sure when you import you retain layer size.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Stuart Samuels]

Thanks.

That makes perfect sense. Can’t believe I didn’t think to do that first really.

Lesson well and truly learnt.

Thanks again.

Stuart

[Stuart Samuels]

Hi again.

I went back to the start and have tried reducing the original image size (scale and resolution) using the recommended setting (Bicubic Sharper) but the resulting image is terrible quality in comparison with the original, to a point where it’s pretty unworkable.

Here’s a screenshot of the image in Photoshop with the original size info visible.

Is there anything I can do with it to make it workable within AE or am I at a dead end?

My system specs are:
17″ Macbook Pro
Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6770M 1024 MB

Much thanks if you can offer anymore advise.

Stuart.

[Chris Buttacoli]

I wonder if there a way to crop each of the 200 layers so that each piece of the “puzzle” could be as small as possible for animating in AE? No need for them to be the same dimensions as the main photoshop file. Maybe there is a script that will take a PSD and auto size the individual bounding box for each layer….

Something like this!!! https://aescripts.com/pt_cropprecomps/

[Stuart Samuels]

The photoshop file is separated into all the different layers. The problem is the sheer amount of them combined with the large size of the image and high resolution (see my screen grab in my previous post for the exact details).

If you can think of a way around the problem that I’ve missed I’d be eternally greatfull!

Stuart

[Chris Buttacoli]

Even if a typical layer in your PSD is, let’s say, just a 10×10 pixel part of the nose, when you bring that into AE it will be a pre-composed layer of 3500×5000 pixel dimension – because that is the size of your PSD. So you are trying to work with 200 of these 3500x5000px layers – YIKES! I am interested to find out if running the crop script I linked to in the earlier post, which will cut out all of the unnecessary alpha and shrink the aforementioned layer down from 3500×5000 to 10×10, actually makes animation more efficient.

[Stuart Samuels]

I’ll give it a try later this week (got some shooting to do on Monday but should be able to get back to it on Tuesday) and will report back.

I’m beginning to understand the ins and outs a little more thanks to the help and explanations provided here, so thanks again for everything.

Stuart.