[Jonny Webb]

Maybe one of the experts around here (at creative cow) could write an article on PPro (&AE) on a budget PC (min specs obviously), and all about optimization / getting the most out of your system. I know many people who’d appreciate that, especially those with a budget of 3 beans and some pocket fluff…

what i’ve found so far, for Win7x64 (with NO other software)…
changing the pagefile *size* = no gain, increased risk
moving pagefile to different drive (not partition) = a little gain
changing visual effects (system properties) = a little gain
other tweaks (stopping services) = negligable gain

using 2 primary drives in RAID 0 (via bios) = big gain

Partitioning:
1) C-drive for OS and programs
2) D-drive for Projects (as in Save Project to D-drive)
3) E-drive for scratch files
This means in PPro goto Edit-Preferences-Media and change Cache Files & database to E-drive. However i’ve read in many forums people have problems with “write XMP id to files…” once cache is moved. Im looking into this more.

Note: Other physical drives are for source files, outputs, backups, etc.

[Jonny Webb]

yeah. done.

The trick is…
when you’ve finished in AE, save and close your project.
go back over to PPro and File->Import->choose the AE project you’ve just done -> and PPro will show a list of compositions and let you choose one to import.
So as long as you used a sensible naming convention, you can import the ‘final’ composition.

It does seem odd that DynamicLink doesnt have any options/settings about which comp to bring back over, especially as the link names a project file “bla.aep”. And as i’ve just shown, PP does understand importing an AEP and gives a “which comp” window.

Notes: what i actually see in PPro is the low quality proxy i made in AE. But after editing the AE comp again, PPro showed the realthing. However this may simply be because i was in AE so long PP had time to ‘conform’….

[Jonny Webb]

After much reading it seems precomp is the only way to go. I think its a rather peculiar method that can add a lot of confusion and difficulty, until one has spend hours mastering it methodology!

With a comp, apply an effect. In my case warp stabilizer.
then drag the comp onto the new comp button and voila, a new comp.

this new comp, known as a precomp, shows up as a single item – ready for new effects, etc.

I could then add my scaling and rotations, precomp it again
Add another stabilizer (as warp is not as good as advertised!), precomp it again,
Add color and contrast fixes, precomp it,
etc etc.

Just be careful about adjusting previous comps – you have to remember what knock-on implications they can have…

++ As we’re all here, i guess we’re not all there ++

[Jonny Webb]

But i had finished with PP. The only thing left was to ‘fix’ one clip – the one replaced with AE.
I tried to export the AE comp (lossless, avi) and then import it into the PP project. But this had too many problems, such as much lower quality, my fades (opacity 0%) were coming up as black, etc.
It would be nice to use PP and AE as advertised.

I just need PP to accept the final comp from AE.

[Jonny Webb]

open your clip open in AE.
Either go Window -> Tracker and in the Tracker Panel choose Warp
or open the Effects and Presets Panel, find Warp, and drag it to your clip.

Now you will have the effect controls open.

If “analysing” has not started, you can click “analyse”

When you change a setting, AE should automatically apply the changes.

Tip: experiment with only a few seconds of footage – some of the changes require a lot of processing…

++ As we’re all here, i guess we’re not all there ++

[Jonny Webb]

hi, i’ve been using Warp Stab a lot lately and i’ve found it to be a tempermental beast. Sometimes its works really well, other times it sucks, and thats on the same clip!

I found that you need to fiddle with the settings a lot. In the Warp’s settings make sure you have “Smooth Motion”, and try turning up the smoothness from default 50% to say 70%.
your “method” needs to be “subspace warp”
“framing” is whatever suits your needs.

Also, try experiemnting with just a dozen or so seconds of footage as Warp can take a long time to calulate the changes.

Hope that helps, Jon

[Jonny Webb]

Thank you.
i just had the same question in CS6 and your method is quick and easy. One note: ctrl+v didnt work for some reason, but rightClick and Paste Attributes fixed that.
thanks again.

[Jonny Webb]

Thanks Guys,
i need to make a train on tracks scene.
A very simple train (bullet-ish) moving a dozen trainlengths.

As i have access to 3ds max, i’d like to use it. I’ve done a bit a few years back and enjoyed the program/interface/workflow/etc.

i guess i better research Max tutorials and libraries.
🙂

[Jonny Webb]

THanks alot guys. This is most helpful.
🙂

[Jonny Webb]

THanks for the replys,
i obviously needed to vent, and rant, and shout – always helps 🙂

My PC is an i5 3570K, with 12 GB Ram, couple of sata3 hard drives, and an Asus GeForce GTX 550 Ti.
I know the video card is rather low end, but as i keep hearing people running PPro and even AE on laptops without issue, i’d have thought my setup should be fine…

i have added my card to the supported card txt file, so i do get the Mercury option enabled. But is there more to it? i read in one site that i should put render quality to maximum. But isnt a lower setting faster?

In my simple project there is one sequence that was replaced with an AE comp that used Warp Stabilizer. And that seems to cause no end of problems. i think i’ll do away with that and see what happens.

Thanks again for the replies.