[Todd Kopriva]

Kevin and I are mind-melded, but he types faster. 😉

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
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If a page of After Effects Help answers your question, please consider rating it. If you have a tip, technique, or link to share—or if there is something that you’d like to see added or improved—please leave a comment.

[Todd Kopriva]

7.5 seconds x ~30 fps = ~225 frames

Each frame takes a few megabytes. Let’s say 6MB/frame (SD-sized layers in a 16-bpc project with some effects like some blurs or glows that expand the frame buffer).

So, ~6MB/frame x ~ 225 frames… That’s about 1.5GB.

Now read this page and the comment at the bottom for an explanation of how much RAM is available for the RAM cache (the cache that holds frames for RAM previews).

Having 16GB of RAM in your computer does _not_ give you 16GB of RAM preview. It gives your more RAM available for speedier rendering using Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
———————————————————————————————————
If a page of After Effects Help answers your question, please consider rating it. If you have a tip, technique, or link to share—or if there is something that you’d like to see added or improved—please leave a comment.

[Todd Kopriva]

Remember, all keyboard shortcuts are here.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
———————————————————————————————————
If a page of After Effects Help answers your question, please consider rating it. If you have a tip, technique, or link to share—or if there is something that you’d like to see added or improved—please leave a comment.

[Todd Kopriva]

Trapcode Soundkeys is great for converting audio to values that you can use to drive animation of any property.

Satya Meka shows how to do something similar with a tutorial and animation preset linked to from this page.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
———————————————————————————————————
If a page of After Effects Help answers your question, please consider rating it. If you have a tip, technique, or link to share—or if there is something that you’d like to see added or improved—please leave a comment.

[Todd Kopriva]

I recommend working your way through the items under the “Getting started” heading on this page. I think that Video Copilot is great, but I think that it’s better for intermediate users than for beginners.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
———————————————————————————————————
If a page of After Effects Help answers your question, please consider rating it. If you have a tip, technique, or link to share—or if there is something that you’d like to see added or improved—please leave a comment.

[Todd Kopriva]

One thing to keep in mind is that Keylight is really best for color keying. Keying out white isn’t really color keying, per se, since you’re not using hues as much as brightness. And, as you’ve noticed, a similarly bright face or piece of clothing is also keyed out when you key out white. I’m sure that you’ve already tried, but are you not able to narrow the key down to just the background using the threshold and tolerance properties of the Luma Key effect?

If the collar of the actor is the same color as the background, you’re going to end up doing some rotoscoping.

You should also consider using a hold-out matte for the collar so that you don’t have to rotoscope the whole person but can do keying for the parts that keying works OK for.

This is one of those cases in which you realize just how valuable it is to plan ahead for these sorts of shoots.

There are some additional keying tips and links to other keying resources here.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
———————————————————————————————————
If a page of After Effects Help answers your question, please consider rating it. If you have a tip, technique, or link to share—or if there is something that you’d like to see added or improved—please leave a comment.

[Todd Kopriva]

If you’re working with interlaced footage in After Effects, be sure to separate fields.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
———————————————————————————————————
If a page of After Effects Help answers your question, please consider rating it. If you have a tip, technique, or link to share—or if there is something that you’d like to see added or improved—please leave a comment.

[Todd Kopriva]

Installing more RAM will not make your RAM previews longer.

Installing more RAM will allow you to use more RAM per processor for rendering when using Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously.

It’s that simple.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
———————————————————————————————————
If a page of After Effects Help answers your question, please consider rating it. If you have a tip, technique, or link to share—or if there is something that you’d like to see added or improved—please leave a comment.

[Todd Kopriva]

You asked a similar question recently, and I responded that you should read this page, including the comment at the bottom. I again recommend that. It explains how much RAM can be used for the RAM cache (the RAM in which the frames are stored for RAM preview).

Also, if your concern is the length of the RAM preview, then make sure that the Longer RAM Preview / Faster Rendering slider is all the way to the left, which allocates the most possible memory to the foreground process (which holds the RAM cache). See “Memory & Multiprocessing preferences”.

I think that you might be expecting the wrong thing from RAM previews. You are not going to be able to use RAM previews to quickly create full-resolution, large-frame, full-duration previews of an entire HD movie. If you’re just checking timing, then use a low resolution; if you’re checking the precise appearance of images, then preview a small duration. Make sure that you pre-render as much as possible. Consider using proxies. And so on. Improving performance is not just about finding the right settings for RAM and processor use.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
———————————————————————————————————
If a page of After Effects Help answers your question, please consider rating it. If you have a tip, technique, or link to share—or if there is something that you’d like to see added or improved—please leave a comment.

[Todd Kopriva]

I suggest contacting Adobe Customer Service. They’re the only ones who can help with licensing and activation issues.

https://www.adobe.com/support/contact/

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
———————————————————————————————————
If a page of After Effects Help answers your question, please consider rating it. If you have a tip, technique, or link to share—or if there is something that you’d like to see added or improved—please leave a comment.