[Walter Soyka]

To use a proxy with an image sequence:

• Right-click the precomp in the Project panel that you intend to proxy, and select Create proxy > Movie.
• In the render queue, choose the “Multi-machine Settings” for the render settings, and choose “Multi-machine Sequence” for the output module. (This will render a best-quality PSD sequence at full resolution, and pre-set all the options for resuming a render in case of a crash. If it does crash, you just need to re-queue the item in the render queue.)
• After you render, AE will set the image sequence as a proxy for your precomp.
• When you render your master comp, make sure you adjust its render settings in the render queue. Set proxy use to “Use comp proxies.”

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[mathew lisett] “well the reason i needed to pre render in sections was becuase ae kept crashing, but with smaller amounts it was fine. how ever after the inital first selected area, it wont pre render from when i want it to.”

Use image sequences instead of movies. With an image sequence, you can allow AE to resume renders where it left off after a crash if you enable the “Skip existing frames” checkbox in the render settings.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

Pre-rendering doesn’t work on specific sections of the timeline. Pre-render works on compositions. AE will render the selected comp, import the rendered footage, and replace the comp with the rendered footage in any other comps that use it.

Personally, I prefer to use high-quality proxies instead, because I think they make it easier to manage changes; just don’t forget to change your render settings in the render queue to use proxies.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Franco Bogino] “I have had one response on another forum stating that the stitch time for merging the multiple segments of the render does offset the faster render time. This means that there is a sweet point where the time gained is more than the stitching time. The poster suggested that with hour long sequences you really see the difference. I’m waiting to see if anyone else confirms this.”

It might not just be stitching; do you see a performance change if you set Compressor > Preferences… Cluster Options to “Never copy…”? (This would break over a networked cluster, but should work on a virtual quick cluster.)

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Michael Szalapski] “After Effects treats any precomposition as if it were a video clip. So when things are outside the comp window; they will not show up when that layer is nested in another comp.”

Agreed.

I’d think the solution would be to apply the position expression to the precomp itself in the master comp (instead of the layers with the precomps).

If you must keep the expression within the precomp, you must keep all layers within the bounds of the precomp (either by modifying the expression to limit movement, or enlarging the precomp).

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Franco Bogino] “Can anyone shed some light on the benefits of using Virtual Clusters with Compressor & Qmaster? I set up a virtual cluster on a Mac Pro ‘Nehalem’ Quad core, instructing Compressor to use 4 instances. I tested it out on a 3min HVD clip, transcoding to ProRes. The cluster setup took 3 min 45 sec, while the normal render took 1 min 57 sec. “

Virtual clusters are supposed to speed up your encodes, but it sounds like you are pushing your system too hard. If you set it to use four instances on a quad-core machine, you risk overscheduling your processors. Try turning it down to 2 or 3 instances and see if that helps. For example, I use 6 instances on my 8-core machine.

RAM starvation is another possibility; how much RAM do you have?

[Franco Bogino] “Is it something to do with ‘stitching time’, and does this mean that clusters only save time when dealing with footage over a certain length?”

Stitching does add time to the encode, but hopefully that will be offset by the decrease in processing time.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Jack Sewell] “It will be played back on a Mac Pro, fed to a Spyder and then to the projectors……”

Are you using Playback Pro?

ProRes will probably be your best bet. Perhaps you’re seeing some gamma shift on your ProRes encodes out of AE?

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

You might try asking about this in the COW’s Blender forum. There are a few people there with Blender to AE workflows.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

What is your intended delivery? Are there specific requirements on format, resolution, and codec?

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Jack Sewell] “ve bounced using ProRes 422, and it’s good. But still doesn’t come close to the presence, in terms of light and sharpness, of the Animation codec which I’d really like to retain, as these videos are for a big exhibition and will be played on enormous HD projectors.”

The playback device will determine what your delivery codec should be. What will feed the signal to the switchers and projectors?

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events