Ridley Walker
Forum Replies Created
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Its easy to duplicate one Comp in a nested series and neglect to duplicate another which quickly leads byzantine comp confusion.
Tudor is correct, you’ve really got to follow the connections in the original template project.
This has saved my bacon many times:
https://aescripts.com/true-comp-duplicator/
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[Alexis Vx] “1) Do I really need SSD for cache?”
It does make a significant difference. Prior to using an SSD for a cache I used a 7,200rpm drive for the cache in my MacPro. Installing a 120GB SSD for the cache sped up the process significantly. I don’t have firm benchmarks to back this up, but I wouldn’t go back to the spinning platter drive.[Alexis Vx] “2) What size drive should I get for cache?”
Depends on the sort of work done on the system. I get by with 120GB and rarely use it all. My primary work in HD motion graphics with shorter video clips (~ 2-3 minutes). If I were working on longer sequences with 4k footage I’m sure that I’d need much more space for the cache.[Alexis Vx] “3) Will Thunderbolt make a big difference from USB3?”
Thunderbolt does offer a theoretical doubling of speed over USB3, but in practice I’ve used a USB3 drive with an SSD on my MacBook Pro and its OK. Still not as fast as my MacPro, but very useable.A USB3 case is around $20, a bare bones 120GB SSD is $100 or so. The Thunderbolt drives will be faster. Note that they may require a Thunderbolt cable sold separately at a cost up to $50.
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I’m not familiar with a workflow that allows you to save an animation preset as a Favorite in Bridge. Favorites in Bridge are frequently accessed files or folders that can be stored in Bridge’s Favorites Panel.
The most common method of storing animation presets is to select the animated properties in the Timeline and select “Save Animation Preset…” from the Animation menu. You can then choose where to save the preset, typically in the User Presets directory on your computer. Saved presets are accessed from the Effects and Presets panel in After Effects.
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I’m happy you found a solution. This may be a permissions problem, next time this occurs try using Disk Utility to repair the permissions on your drive.
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You can try deleting the application preferences.
To do this you hold down the Command+Option+Shift keys when you launch the application. You should see a dialog asking whether you want to reset the preferences to their defaults.
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[Walter Soyka] “[Ridley Walker] “Ideally you have media on one drive, renders to another and cache on a 3rd.”
I don’t think splitting the media onto one drive and renders onto another is always necessary. The only time this will give you a concrete improvement is when your renders are disk-bound (when reading/writing takes longer than computation). I’d recommend going for a fast RAID if budget allows before I’d recommend separate drives.”
In an ideal world we would have infinite amounts of RAM as well. As Walter points out, the real world is a different place.
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I agree with Dave. There’s no real benefit in partitioning the internal HD. Get an external SSD for the media cache and set it up via preferences > media and disk cache.
Ideally you have media on one drive, renders to another and cache on a 3rd.
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[Alexis Vx] “Can I then go back to my original question, if I decide to go for Mac it looks like an iMac with an external SSD would do the job more than enough, what do you think?
“I think it would.
BTW the Geekbench score of my MacPro is 21439.
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[Paul Stevenson] “I built a PC for around £1k, it blew the socks off everything Apple had and for half the price. I then overclocked it and it’s still faster than anything Apple produces and it’s nearly two years old.
“Just out of curiosity, what is its Geekbench score? I’m considering building a PC.
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Choosing between a MacPro and an iMac for After Effects work requires some knowledge of the work to be produced. There are the obvious cost differences, and some not so obvious hardware considerations that may or may not impact your future ability to expand and upgrade the computer.
The iMac is less flexible going forward, you can add more drives and devices vis USB and Thunderbolt, but there are fewer options for expansion. The MacPro can take 5 internal drives, additional PCIe cards and much more RAM. If the animations are all created in After Effects and Photoshop, the iMac and 32GB should be more than adequate. If you’re planning to edit HD video, additional hard drive(s) may be necessary.
In any case, the ATI cards available for the MacPro don’t support 3D Ray Tracing, the nVidia in the iMac does. You can purchase an nVidia card for the MacPro but currently Apple does not have a BTO option with one. I consider an SSD for the cache essential, if you get the iMac, the SSD would need to be external in a USB3 or Thunderbolt case.
The current MacPro design is nearly 3 years old (I have one) though the processors got a speed bump last year, nothing else has changed, no Thunderbolt and no USB3 on them. Last year Tim Cook promised “Something for the professional market” in 2013, many are anticipating a new MacPro with more bells and whistles or something better to replace it.
You might consider waiting a few weeks until after Apple’s developer conference in June, typically one of the occasions when they announce new products.
