[Walter Soyka]

That might just be what it takes.

How are you keying? What does Task Manager or Resource Monitor look like during render?

Ultra Keyer in Premiere might be faster (at the expense of flexibility/quality).

[Walter Soyka]

Not all formats allow the user to specify arbitrary dimensions. Some adhere very strictly to standard video sizes, some allow you to use any size you like, and some impose restrictions on dimensions (like they must be multiples of 4 or 8).

What format are you trying to use?

[Walter Soyka]

Ae only thinks in pixels; if you’re using it for print, you have to do the math yourself.

Assuming this is 11in x 17in, and assuming a quarter inch of bleed all around, and assuming 300 dpi, that works out like this:

11.5in * 300dpi x 17.5in * 300dpi = 3450px x 5250px

(Of course, you’ll need to confirm units, bleed and print resolution to calculate the final pixel dimensions correctly.)

[Walter Soyka]

Both great ideas. You can file (and vote on) feature requests here:
https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects

[Walter Soyka]

Do you know how your SSDs connect internally? There’s a big performance difference between NVMe/M.2 and SATA.

Your cache should be on your fastest drive. If you have an NVMe drive, I’d put the cache there — even if it’s also your system drive.

[Walter Soyka]

Can you post a screenshot of your entire After Effects UI? That way, we can see what you’re seeing and identify if there’s anything amiss.

[Walter Soyka]

Migrating preferences shouldn’t have anything to do with being able to see your work. You might try first clearing your cache (Edit > Purge > All memory & disk cache…). Otherwise, if you could post a screenshot that shows your whole UI, maybe we can see if there’s anything else amiss.

[Walter Soyka]

You could try it, but I think AME will try to process the file and move it out of the watch folder as soon as it’s there.

[Walter Soyka]

It’s for the Orientation property.

[Walter Soyka]

Sure. toWorld is exactly what you want — it translates a point from a layer’s local space to world space.

This expression should point one layer at another, irrespective of their parenting chains (ancestry?):

lookAt(thisLayer.toWorld(thisLayer.transform.anchorPoint), thisComp.layer("Target").toWorld(thisComp.layer("Target").transform.anchorPoint));