Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Introduction
If you’re like me, you can’t stand being slowed
Get rid of your themes
down – either when creating initially or when
It took me a long time to finally get rid of my
‘waiting for the cake to bake’ in the final
beloved XP gray theme and make Windows look
rendering process.
‘ugly’ again. But when I did, I was amazed at
the speed increase, especially in opening things
With the help of many friends, books, videos
like folders, files, browsers etc.
and web resources I’ve assembled my favorite
ways of cutting time in the production and
To do this:
creation process of using After Effects.
1. Right click on a blank area of your
I’ve organized my tips into three general areas:
desktop and choose ‘Properties’.
2. Click the Appearance tab.
• Supersonic SetUp
3. Choose “Windows Classic Style” from
• Supersonic workflow
the ‘Windows and Buttons’ drop down
• Supersonic Rendering
4. Choose “Windows Standard” from the
• Supersonic Network -Rendering
‘Sub Design’ drop down.
Supersonic Setup
First things first – your hardware and operating
system software will have a lot to do with the
speed in which you work. Surprisingly, most
documents on completely ignore this area of
optimization. It is a huge subject that changes
fairly frequently, however I will give you a few of
my favorite techniques for speeding up even my
slowest machines.
Windows
Note – Adjust these settings with care. Microsoft creates
some crazy software – therefore, I don’t accept any
responsibility for any weirdness that may occur :-P
Get rid of those silly effects Give After Effects the boost it deserves
These I don’t miss. And the process of turning 1. CTRL Alt Delete
these off will vary depending on operating 2. Select the Processes Tab
systems – but it generally goes something like: 3. Right click on AE
4. Set Priority>High (NOT Realtime)
1. From the Appearance tab you accessed
above, choose Effects.
2. Turn off everything
3. Close
Supersonic Workflow
Freeze a background
Use Proxies
If you have a part that you don’t need to be Ever use Proxies before? Me neither.
moving while you work – you can temporarily Well – that is until AE 5.5 made making them
freeze it. super easy and super quick.
Follow me for one of the more advanced ways to
1. Select Layer>Enable Time Remapping speed your workflow.
2. Add a keyframe a representative frame in
the movie Typical Uses for Proxies
3. Remove all other keyframes • Talking Heads
4. Remember to Disable remapping before • Complex backgrounds – create a still
the final render proxy
• Comp Proxies and Footage Proxies
Create your drop shadows, glows etc. in
Photoshop Note: Unfortunately, you can’t make a proxy
If you’re not animating these, why render them out of a layer – only a Comp – except in AE 6.5
24 to 30 times per second in After Effects? – which will make the comp and then proxy for
Instead, create them in Photoshop, flatten them you!
and import them into After Effect. After Effects
only renders the file once. Two Methods
1. Select the Comp in the Project Window
To Flatten Layer Styles: (special thanks to and right click.
Richard Harrington!) 2. Choose File>Set Proxy –
1. Create your layer – add the Layer Styles 3. Navigate to where the file that you want
you wish – such as drop shadows, bevels to use as the proxy is located.
etc.
2. Create a blank layer above that Or,
3. Select the new blank layer 1. Render Comp – Select the comp in the
4. Link it to the layer with the Layer Style Project Window, right click and choose
5. Hit Ctrl+e to merge/flatten the effect. File>Create Proxy>still or movie. This
(Ctrl+Alt+e will copy the merged layers automatically selects ‘Set Proxy’ as the
and leave the original intact. (this is what Post-Render-Action and renders out a
I usually do so that I always have the ‘draft’ quality version of the comp. You
source layer to modify at a later point.) can choose a QuickTime with jpg
compression.
Enable Hardware Acceleration for Open GL.
Enter a value that equals about 50% to 80% of
your display card’s VRAM in the Texture Memory
text box in the OpenGL settings dialog box of
the Previews Preferences. OpenGL is buggy – no
doubt about it. Many AE users have found many
of their odd errors go away by never using it.
Simplify it
Hold down ALT while scrubbing to preview
in wireframe
In both cases a black-box will show up next to
the comp in the Project Window indicating you
are now using a Proxy. You can toggle this
usage on and off by clicking on the black box.
Use Selected Area RAM Previews
A great way to minimize your RAM-Previews is
to ONLY preview the area of your video that you
need to see changes in. I used this all the time
to fine tune and finesse. When you select the
box you can click and drag a box around the
area that you want rendered.
That’s it!
Your done and ready to start saving time while
you work on animating other elements!
Customized Shift-RAM Previews
In the Time Controls tab, select the Submenu
Working Note: arrow and choose “Show Shift+RAM-Preview
Just in case you come to a part in the Options”
animation where you need to reference the
original background footage instead of the If I’m working on a particularly complex
still or low-res proxy – simply click the black composition (as I’m oft to do) I’ll set the number
box to deselect it. Your footage will be of frames that AE skips to higher. Sometimes I’d
returned to the original footage. Click it prefer a higher image quality than a semi jerky
again to return to using the proxy. frame rate. Sometimes all I need to do is get the
Pretty simple! timing right. Skipping 2 or even 4 frames saves
a TON of time in RAM-Previews.
All Content is Internationally Copyright 2005 by Jayse Hansen
All Rights Reserved. Please contact classes@jayse.us for reproduction and other information.
AE - Supersonic Rendering and Workflow by Jayse Hansen -- http://training.jayse.us
Page 7 of 14
Supersonic Rendering
Beware the Status twirlie
Use it to see where your slowest effects are – Use source files on local drives
but close it to speed up your render Networked files or files from CD’s/DVD’s etc. will
slow you to a crawl.
Close the Comp Window while rendering
~ Or turn on the Caps lock key to disable your Import Multiple AE files to render while you
preview from updating while rendering. This sleep
saves about 4 seconds on a 2 minute render – You can set multiple AE projects to render in a
which could add up row by simply importing all of them into a new,
blank AE document.
Render stills if possible
QuickTime can preview incrementally and, if To do this:
your machine crashes during rendering – you 1. Set up your project files as you want them.
can pick up where you left off. 2. Add them to the render queue and specify the
settings you want.
3. Save the projects.
Make Templates
4. Create a new blank document and save it.
Instead of resetting your render options
5. Choose File>Import>File (or hit Ctrl+I)
everytime you render, learn how to create 6. Select each of the other projects that you
templates and set them as your default. want to render
7. Check the Render Queue to make sure the
Render many outputs at the same time output paths are still valid.
You don’t need to render again and again and 8. Save this new “Master Project”
again simply because you want different 9. Click Render and go to sleep!
versions of your movie. That would be a huge,
huge, huge waste of time. If you need your E-mail notifications
movie at different resolutions, compression 1. Open up your General Preferences check the
“Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access
settings, field settings etc. the solution is
Network”
simple: Output Modules.
2. Add your files to the Render Queue like normal.
3. Choose File > Run Script >
To use these: render_and_email.jsx, you will now be
1. Highlight the movie you’re rendering prompted for your email settings.
in the Render Queue 4. Enter server smtp address: typically
2. Choose Composition>Add Output mail.yourserver.com, click OK
Module 5. Enter the reply to address: such as the email
3. Modify this new module as you need you want to use to send the message.
6. If your server required log-in (most do), click
4. Name the new file
YES and enter your ID and password. Click OK.
5. Click Render
7. Enter the recipients email address. Click OK
8. An email with the subject “AE Render complete”
will be sent when the queue is finished.
Have any old computers laying around – to how much data can be passed
perhaps just getting dusty in your closet? Put back and forth between machines.
those suckahs to work! Even a slow machine will You can check to see if you’re
perform better than using your work computer having network traffic issues by
to do your rendering – leaving you with nothing looking in the ‘Show Details’ area
to do but stare at the screen or watch Oprah. of the Render Queue. If it takes a
long time to write the file – the
The basics of Network Rendering are slowdown is in the network, not
pretty simple: the render machine.
• If you are using more than one
1. They must be networked – (or use a hot- other machine to render your film,
swappable hard drive to transfer files you’ll need to render to an Image
from one computer to another. Sequence rather than one
2. When you’re ready for the big render – QuickTime or AVI file. (Although
all the files get copied to your slave there IS a work around: You can
machine. (AE makes this pretty easy with split the render into multiple
the ‘Collect’ feature.) chunks and assemble them later
3. The other machine(s) are constantly in an editing program.)
watching a certain folder for stuff to
render. Once they see something, they Prepping your Render Box
get excited and immediately start
crunching through your render while you 1. Drag that old computer out of
are free to keep working on other, more your closet
important things such as chatting to your 2. Dust it off
girlfriend and posting on 3. Network it – or prepare a portable
www.CreativeCow.com forums. drive for it (on a USB 2 or Firewire
connection)
4. ReInstall your operating system on
Here are a few tips to set up your it, if possible. A clean install will
networked machines: really speed the thing up.
5. Install the AE render engine on it
• Max out their RAM. This will really 6. Install any plugins, fonts etc.
help them perform better. If your
machine is older the RAM for it
will most likely be extremely
cheap. Using Mac Mini’s?
• Install the fastest hard-drive raid
With the new affordable Mac Mini’s out, a lot of people
you can afford. These greatly are considering buying a few to use in a render farm.
affect render times. Practically This could work well, keeping in mind that their RAM
speaking, 15k rpm drives in a raid is limited to 1GB and they only have 100Mbit LAN.
will speed your renders to almost
twice as fast as 7200rpm drives. If you only need 1 to 4 machines for a small farm,
• Get the fastest network you this may be viable – but if you’re looking for more
can. There’s really no limit as to power and less admin work – check out the Xserve
how many machines can all be cluster nodes. They may save you money and
headaches in the long run. Still – for a small home
working on your render, however
render farm these Mini’s look quite attractive.
there ARE network limitations as
Supersonic Appendix
Useful Speedy Rendering Keyboard QuickTime Resources:
Shortcuts (Special thanks to Chris Rogers)
PC Mac • Free QT
Ctrl = Command http://www.apple.com/quicktime/products/qt/
Alt = Option
Shift = Shift • QT Pro (recommend)
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/buy/
• How to remove QT
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60
• Shift+/ = Render Que – For 341
Adding Multiple Compositions to the
Queue
• Older versions of QT
http://www.info.apple.com/usen/quicktime/
• Ctrl (CMD)+M = Make Movie –
Opens Render Queue – for
adding one composition
• CTRL+ALT+S = Render a still
• B = Begin of Work Area in
timeline
• N = end of Work Area in
timeline
• 0 (on numeric keyboard) =
RAM-Preview
• shift+0 (on numeric keyboard)
= Shift-RAM-Preview – a
preview that drops frames etc.
based on your preferences
• Add CTRL (CMD) to the above
to also save the preview as a
rendered file.
• Add ALT (Option) to the above
to preview a wireframe
• ALT+STOP in the render queue
– a new output will be added to
pick up where you left off
Other Resources:
After Effects Help – Contents>Managing
Projects Effectively>Techniques for
Learn a heck-of-a-lot
more with:
• Chelsea - <333
• Steve Kilisky
• Richard Harrington
• Ron and Kathlyn at www.creativecow.net
• Chris Rogers
• Rachel Max
• Trish and Chris Meyer
• Dave Nagel with Creative Mac
• Richard Lawler http://www.well.com/~richardl
• Angie Taylor
• J.J. Marshall and Zed Saeed
• Angie Malouf and George Barton at
Alienware.com
• Way too many others to mention
• All my friends and family!