Abnormally long RAM Preview startup?

Something has happened in with my AE 9.0.2 / Mac OS X 10.5.7 that it's taking a very long time for RAM Previews to begin building.  I'm talking 30 seconds or more each time I press "0" on my numeric pad.  This is on both complex projects or very simple projects.
The Info palette tells me "Background Process Status: Loading Projects...." before it starts to render frames.
Any ideas what's causing this?

What Mylenium says is true: Once the background processes start up to take part in Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocssing, they should stay active until you quit After Effects...
> Yup, of course I'm using multi-processing.
There is one big caveat, though:
If you have turned on Render Mutliple Frames Simultaneously, but the background processes don't have enough RAM to render your frames, then they'll just shut back down again. And then they'll try to start the next time that you do a render (including render for previews). And then they'll just shut back down again. All of this wastes precious time.
The moral of the story: Don't think that checking the Render Multiple Frames Simultaneoulsy checkbox is the right thing to do in all cases. That's why it's an option, and that's why it defaults to being off. And make sure that you aren't starving the background processes of RAM.

Similar Messages

  • RAM Preview/Renders begin after long delay.

    This problem began last week. Suddenly, my RAM Previews and renders cause the spinning beach ball of death, which will last anywhere from 1-3 minutes before the actual RAM Preview or render process begins. The longest being 5 minutes, but that's only happened once.
    I'm using a Mac Pro with 8GB RAM, 2 x 3 GHz Quad-Core Intel, OSX is current build at 10.5.7. And, I'm using CS4 AE.
    So, what could be causing the atrocious delays before beginning the Previews and Renders?
    Under preferences, I enabled disk cache, with max at 3500MB. The folder is located on an external drive connected with 800 Firewire. It's been set like this for a while without problems...
    Conformed media cache is set for the same drive.
    For memory prefs, I have:
    Total AE mem usage at 6.5GB, other apps have 1.5.
    Render mult frames simultaneously is checked, the longer RAM preview/faster rendering knob is set around midway point.
    Hopefully I didn't leave anything out. Thanks for the help in advance.

    Yes, it does happen in all of my projects.
    The fonts are fine. I just created a new project, typed a regular text layer with a Times, and even that RAM preview took over a minute. The render was the same.
    Well, lookee there. Just unchecked the option for rendering multi frames simultaneously and it instantly begins both processes.
    Thanks for the help. Hopefully this doesn't crop up again.

  • Unable to create image buffer after RAM preview

    Running into an odd and frustrating error. Built a comp using the new Ray-traced 3D renderer and now I'm regretting being an early adopter big time with all the problems I've been encountering with it. The latest comes whenever I do a longer RAM preview in an attempt to watch the whole duration of my comp. It will get to about 170 frames or so, at which point I've interrupted by pressing spacebar because I don't need to see all the way to the end of my work area (around 220 frames). It'll play the RAM preview back fine, and even loop it, but as soon as I stop playback, I get this error message: "After Effects warning: Unable to create image buffer." There's only one button: "okay" and as soon as I click it the same error pops up again and it will never go away, forcing me to close AE from the task manager. I've taken to saving before every RAM preview like I used to do with Flash before previewing my buggy swfs for fear I'll lose all my work after previewing. Any ideas about what might be causing this?
    Some more details about my comp:
    1920x1080 @ 29.97
    Ray-traced 3D
    About 70 3D layers (I'm guessing this is my downfall - new renderer not designed for this many layers?)
    Running Windows 7 Professional
    i7 2600K
    32GB RAM
    2x GTX 570 video cards running latest driver (301.42, CUDA 4.2.1)
    508GB free on my 2TB internal drive where the project and cache lives
    From my GPU info window in case it's useful:
    Fast Draft:
    Available
    Texture Memory:
    600.00 MB
    Ray-tracing:
    GPU
    OpenGL
    Vendor:
    NVIDIA Corporation
    Device:
    GeForce GTX 570/PCIe/SSE2
    Version:
    3.0.0
    Total Memory:
    1.20 GB
    Shader Model:
    4.0 or later
    CUDA
    Driver Version:
    4.2
    Devices:
    2 (GeForce GTX 570, GeForce GTX 570)
    Current Usable Memory:
    1.04 GB (at application launch)
    Maximum Usable Memory:
    1.25 GB

    Yeah, some buffer is very likely not flushing when you interrupt the preview and then there is no more memory on the graphics hardware. Consider setting the work area and your preview options to use only the work area. if it finishes the preview "correctly", it may not suffer the issue. Beyond that - raytracing doesn't/ shouldn't care about the number of items. The math is such, that it makes no difference whether you render a million polygons or just one. Of course there are still limitations due to the GPU dependency, but I doubt you ever truly exhaust the cards' geometry buffers. Compared to pixel data that is a small amount...
    Mylenium

  • Unable to RAM Preview in CS6?

    Why I cannot RAM preview in CS6 with the same settings I've used in 5.5? In fact I can only RAM preview when I disable After Effects Multiprocessing.
    Am I missing something here?

    I'm having the same problem. It just stopped working mid-session. It was just after I'd been playing around with seeing how the image quality changed between Ray Traced and Classic, so I'm thinking maybe there is a bug there. If I start a new project, render a few frames of a test comp without MP, then switch MP back on, it works. However, if I load up the project where it originally stopped working, that doesn't work at all, no matter what I try. Might there be some sort of flag/setting in the project file that is to do with Ray Traced/Classic options that has become corrupted? I'm probably clutching at straws, but if there is a way to fix it, whether an official bug fix or tinkering around I'll give it a try to avoid re-building my project (or having to wait for long RAM previews...).
    Mac OS X 10.7.4
    3.39 GHz Intel Core i7
    16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM
    GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1536 MB

  • RAM Previews No Longer Real Time

    Work computer.   Mid 2010 Mac Pro with 64GB of RAM.  Running After Effects version 11.0.4.2.   Multiprocessing off.   AJA Control Panel v3.
    1920 x 1080 comps, 29.97 fps, no 3D.
    The Mac was running Mountain Lion and RAM previews were FINE.  Zero issues.             Ever.
    The computer was upgraded to Mavericks 10.9.5.      I use the term upgrade loosely, BTW.       Now  ...  RAM previews no longer play in real time.  Most I get - and it fluctuates - is 19, 20, 23 frames per second, never 29.97.    Sometimes it blasts all the way up to 40, 45, 47 like it’s playing catch-up, but that’s rare.
    - Restarted the computer. No change.
    - All projects.   Makes no difference, old legacy projects or new.
    - Even simple 1-layer projects with simple position animation, no effects - not real time.
    - 8 bit mode, not just 16 or 32 bit.
    - Color management both on and off.
    - Simulate output on and off.
    - Preferences -> Video Preview was set to AJA, so I tried Computer Monitor Only.  That doesn’t work either.
    - Full Rez, Half, Quarter. . .. . doesn’t matter.    Never real-time.
    I've seen others ask about this issue but none of the posts ever resulted in "you need to set 'this' to 'that'" etc.        Have any suggestions? 
    Thank you,
    Marc

    Marc Trzepla wrote:
    I am not a programmer but I've always run under the assumption that things "get faster", not slower.  The fact that what once worked flawlessly was crippled by an "upgrade" boggles me.     
    Mavericks and Yosemite have both have quite a number of issues when folks upgrade to them.
    Apple is really starting to bother me lately. First the attitude evident in the Final Cut debacle, then the Mac Pro annoyance, and now the OS upgrade issues... I know smartphones are making them boatloads of money, but they really seem to be neglecting their professional users who've been with them for years before iPhones were even a thing!

  • RAM Preview issue

    Hi,
    I'm wondering if anyone has seen this or can provide some direction for further investigation. This is on a new Mac Pro on which I have just installed FCS
    In some projects the RAM preview has no effect on playback performance. After generating a RAM preview, the project will play at the same speed (say 2 fps) and as soon as I pause playing, the green progress bar that indicates project is loaded in RAM disappears or becomes fragmented - without modifying the project in any way. When this happens it also becomes nearly impossible to do additional editing as every simple task (as simple as resetting the play range) can result in the spinning beachball. There was a recent thread on RAM preview issues (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12215113&#12215113) but it appears the problem there was due to a long HDV project. The projects I experience this on generally have a lot of particles or replicated elements, but are standard 720 x 486 resolution projects lasting less than 10 sec. System memory usage is relatively small, less than 4 GB.
    These issues arise on a recently purchased MacPro (3.33 GHz 6-Core, 16 GB RAM, ATI 5870). The boot disc is an OWC SSD, and user folders, scratch, etc are on separate hard drives. I installed the operating system on the SSD using the installation disc, and have manually installed all my programs from their original discs. (I initially used migration assistant to bring over applications, but that failed with some applications, so I wiped clean and started over). There have also been some past threads on how different hardware configurations can affect performance, but I don't seem to be doing anything abnormal here.
    What I have done:
    Tested ram using memtestosx
    Verified memory usage through activity monitor. The projects I have tested on use up less than 4 GB of system memory
    Before each test or comparison I reset preferences.
    I do not have this flakey behavior with an older MBP (17" 2.93 GHz Core 2 MBP with NVIDIA 9600) running the same OS (10.6.4) and motion version (4.0.3). Running the same project on the MBP will take longer for the RAM preview to complete, but when it does, the project plays at full frame rate.
    The upgrade to a MacPro was mainly for other CPU and RAM intensive applications unrelated to video or graphics, but I expected motion to show a nice performance boost over the MBP on this new machine. Anyhow, any insight or direction for further investigation that I should pursue will be appreciated.
    Thanks.

    I tried your project (nice, BTW), and yes, 20,000+ particles take some time to render. However, when I did a RAM Preview, I had no problems - after render it played at full speed.
    UNTIL...
    I selected the emitter. Then playback went to the pre-RAM-Preview speeds. As soon as I turned off overlays or made sure the emitter was not selected, the playback instantly sped back up to full speed. I believe this is because Motion needs to image the constantly changing outline of the emitter. This means it needs to be re-drawn every frame after Motion determines the extent/size of the 20,000 particles on their random journey.
    I think this is backed up by the fact that near the end of your project, there are only a few particles to keep track of and the playback appropriately speeds up. Also, CPU usage vastly increases when I turn on the overlays.
    Moral of the story? To ensure the quickest possible playback, turn off overlays (⌘/) or ensure that something like a particle emitter is not selected during playback.
    Patrick

  • RAM preview needs 2 or more frames to render playback - AE CC 2014

    Hi everyone,
    I'm having major issues with AE CC 2014 (13.0.0.214) on both Mac and Windows.
    The dreaded RAM preview bug has been appearing at my office and home computer spanning 4 computers in all (so far) and it's really impossible to work in AE CC 2014 for more than 20 minutes without having to restart the app. I use a couple of plugins and scripts on my work computer (none of which are active in the scenes), but the same bug happens on my coworkers' computers despite being barebone AE. It also occurs on my Windows 8 PC at home.
    What happens:
    My co-workers and I animate, often with illustrator files, shape layers, and text. I animate, RAM preview, and repeat. After a certain point I'm no longer able to RAM preview without the warning message appearing about RAM preview and 2 frames. In addition, scrubbing through the timeline is very slow.
    What I noticed:
    Watching my activity monitor my memory usage builds up as I do my RAM previews and stays at the that peak level. Each time I ram preview or scrub through it increases more. Once it reaches the allocated memory for the program, in this case, 12 gigs, the warning appears and I have to restart to RAM preview again. Purging memory does not work and my memory usage is still maxed out.
    More Info:
    It's happened on my Late 2014 MacPro, a 2013 MacPro, and 2012 MacPro. All running OS 10.9.4. And my i7 3770 16GB PC at home.
    My Specific work computer specs 3.7 GHZ Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5. 16GB 1867 MHz DDR3 ECC.AMD FirePro D700 6144 MB. OSX 10.9.4 (13E28)
    No firewalls running
    I've tested it with all other apps closed and still am able to reproduce it
    No issues with AE CC 12.2
    Not using Ray-trace 3D in any compositions
    Memory-multi-processing disabled. Although same thing happens when enabled for renders and when also enabled for RAM previews.
    Any help would greatly be appreciated.

    I'm having the same issue, with the same symptoms. My Mac is older, but still ran CC with no problems.
    AE CC 2014 (13.0.0.214)
    Early 2009 Mac pro (4,1)
    Processor  2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
    Memory  6 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC
    Graphics  NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512 MB
    OSX 10.8.5
    I have tried disabling all plugins and attempting a normal workflow of editing 720p footage together, and adding solids and custom shape layers. Basic effects like fast blur and some motion blur but nothing too crazy. A memory dump doesn't do anything to solve the preview issue, and after a program restart everything works fine for a few more RAM previews. I also had no issues with the previous version of after effects CC. I always keep multiprocessing off, no ray trace 3d and I still get the issue after a system reboot and no other applications started (even after removing all startup applications from my preferences).
    As a last ditch, I have removed any and all antivirus software and disabled all firewalls as I saw this as an answer to a previous but similar problem.
    I too would love some help, as this is beginning to be a costly time waster. Let me know if you receive an answer for this one.
    My apologies if this is in the wrong spot, I am new to the community.

  • AE CS4 - why such poor RAM preview on my FAST machine?

    Hi all, I just installed After Effects CS4 - I have a smokin fast mchine: quadcore Zeon 3.20 GHz, hyperthreading turned on, nvidia quadrofx 3800 with current driver, 12 GB DDR3 RAM, windows 7 64bit ... can you PLEASE help me troubleshoot a problem:  even on the simplest compositions, a moving picture or a moving piece of type, the RAM preview stutters along, the current time indicator hops along at a choppy pace, images in the frame dont look like they're moving smoothly, and all i get is about 6 seconds of RAM preview ... seems to me that I used to get better performance on a MUCH MUCH  slower machine under windows XP ... i have looked around the forums and seem the advice on multiprocessor options and the like, but nothing I do seems to help ... do any of you have any advice for me to improve my performance???  if you have any questions about my setup or preferences, let me know, I will be on this until I get what I expect out of my (otherwise incredibly fast) machine

    Hi Todd, thanks again for your reply ... FYI, I bought the FX3800 for Avid editing, for which it is the qualified video card, and supports distributed processing in the Avid along with my DX HD hardware BOB - I had hoped it would work well with After Effects, too, but I do understand the Adobe is very transparent about the fact that, as long as your card has OpenGL support, probably best to sink your $$$ into more RAM or faster CPU .. but to stay on topic, I am just  very stunned that I am not getting better playback with my system ... I have the most recent Nvidia drivers ... I have 2 NEC 2490WUXi2 each connected through DVI-D to my video card, each runnign at its native 1920x1200 res, 59 hertz ... the programs I have installed are Adobe CS4 Production Premium, Win7 64bit, MS Office 2007 Enterprise, latest version of Quick Time, Media Player version 11, and NERO 9 ... you dont think that one of these video player apps (like media player or QT) are messing with my screen performance do you?  what about Nero 9, have you heard any compatibility or display problems associated with this app?  would unistalling any of these programs be a troubleshooting technique that you'd attempt?
    Finally, when you say "an issue with a bottleneck of drawing to the screen" what do you mean exactly? 'cause this kinds sounds like a goood description of what I am seeing ... what might be the cause of such a bottleneck, I am willing to try anything ...
    Thanks, sir, for your reply!
    Derek Reid
    Trader Multimedia Inc.
    www.tradermm.com
    Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2010 21:46:43 -0600
    From: [email protected]
    To: [email protected]
    Subject: AE CS4 - why such poor RAM preview on my FAST machine?
    Just one thing to cut down a frequent misconception:
    Your nice graphics card doesn't do much for After Effects performance.In fact, trying to use OpenGL for rendering (including rendering of previews) can cause problems.
    I recommend turning OpenGL rendering off for all but interactions. I.e., choose the http://help.adobe.com/en_US/AfterEffects/9.0/WSAF696587-2D81-42e2-B248-4C5C2B7D3614a.html and turn off http://help.adobe.com/en_US/AfterEffects/9.0/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103a4f2dff7-79e8a.htm l. OpenGL is not compatible with Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing.
    I'm not saying that OpenGL is your problem. Rather, because you mentioned your nice graphics card, I just had to stress that you need to forget about that with regard to After Effects. It's not really relevant.
    It may be that the jerkiness is an issue with a bottleneck of drawing to the screen. (I don't know, but it's possible.)
    Your hard disk being too slow wouldn't be an issue with RAM previews, since the frames are all cached in RAM.
    >

  • After Effects CS6 error: RAM Preview needs 2 or more frames to playback - any ideas please?

    Hi everyone,
    I'm running After Effects CS6 (11.0.4.2) on a MacBook Pro 2.8Ghz with 16GB RAM (Mac OS 10.9.4)
    As a test, I created a 3 and a half minute Sequence in Adobe Premiere CS6, and then imported this into After Effects CS6, and placed it on the AE timeline.
    This footage involves a couple of 1920x1080p footage movies, some psds and a large number of JPGs exported from two videos arranged as a sequence in two layers in Premiere, one on top of the other. So all in all for a Premiere / After Effects file I'd say it's reasonably heavy.
    I then did a RAM Preview with Multiprocessing switched off - the 3 and a half minute sequence loaded into RAM, taking about 1min 30seconds, and played back in realtime at 25fps. This worked fine with 3,4,5 and 6 GB RAM available to other applications in the Memory Preferences. All things considered I think this is quite good. I can make changes, reclick the RAM Preview icon and my changes load into RAM and it previews ok.
    My only 'complaint' is how long the RAM Preview takes to load up the whole thing.
    I've been reading up on Multiprocessing and decided to try this to see if I can speed up the time it takes my RAM Preview to load up.
    So I looked at some recommendations from Adobe and read information on various forums including this one.
    My settings in the Memory Preferences are currently
    • 6GB reserved for other applications
    • Reduce cache size when system is low on memory - unticked
    • After Effects Multiprocessing - ticked
    • Installed CPUs (processor cores) - 8
    • CPUs reserved for other applications - 6
    • RAM allocation per background CPU - 3GB
    • Actual CPUs that will be used - 2
    This combination takes about 25 seconds to load up my 3 and a half minute sequence which I thought was pretty amazing.
    I then pressed the stop button and then the play button - so now just playing the sequence briefly.
    And also added a new layer - into the timeline - just a simple shape.
    Then I tried a RAM Preview again.
    I found I could load up part of the sequence but not load the whole thing into RAM.
    I kept trying to get a RAM Preview and got this message
    "After Effects error: RAM Preview needs 2 or more frames to playback" which seems to prevent RAM Preview from working.
    Eventually I quit and restarted After Effects and the problem went away temporarily and then came back when I tried again.
    I tried various changes to the Memory Preferences - trying 3GB available for other applications. This gave 13GB of my 16GB RAM to After Effects.
    This made it take slightly longer for the After Effects error to appear but it still appeared.
    I tried ticking Reduce Cache size in the Memory Prefs  - the After Effects error still appeared, so having read this is supposed to make the issue better I now leave it untucked, but as far as I can see ticked or untucked, it makes no difference, the problem remains.
    I've since tried -
    Making 2,3,4,5 and 6 CPUs available for other applications.
    Changing the Background RAM allocation per background CPU to 0.75GB, 1GB, 1.5GB, 2GB and 3GB
    Lots of combinations.
    But in the end, I always get the "After Effects error: RAM Preview needs 2 or more frames to playback" error.
    It might take less or more time for the message to show up, depending on the combination of settings, but in the end I always got the same message appearing.
    And I notice that I can RAM Preview less and less of the timeline. i.e. it becomes more blue than it does green and will load in only a small section of the timeline as opposed to the whole thing.
    Reading further, I tried Edit > Purge > Image Cache and Edit > Purge > All Memory but still get the error message.
    I also tried ensuring there were no other applications running e.g. Safari or Chrome or Firefox. And certainly not Photoshop or Premiere etc.
    Reading even further, I tried two Memory management applications - 'Memory Clean' and 'Purge.'
    Neither has had any effect - the After Effects error still appears.
    Then I went back into the Memory and Multiprocessing Preferences.
    I unticked Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously. And now the RAM Preview loads the whole 3 and half minute sequence in entirety, taking about 1 and half minutes to do so. It's working as perfectly as if I'd just quit and re-opened the application.
    Then I went back into the Memory and Multiprocessing Preferences.
    I reticked Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously.
    The chose Edit > Purge > All
    And tried a RAM Preview again. It loaded up in 25 seconds, but then, as previously, the error message came.
    I tried Edit > Purge All - no effect.
    And I tried going into the Media and Disk Cache Preferences and clicked Empty Disk Cache - still the problem remains.
    I understand from my reading that After Effects CS6 11.0.2 was intended to fix this issue but I'm on 11.0.4 and as far as I can tell, I still have it - assuming it's the same thing.
    As far as I can see, not using Multiprocessing allows me to work without these errors but take a bit longer to load the RAM Preview.
    However I'd like to be able to use Multiprocessing as it seems it can potentially speeds things up quite a lot. I realise I could just not use it and AE would work, but I'd rather be able to make use of a feature of the software if possible, especially if it will speed things up and make optimum use of the my computer's hardware.
    I've downloaded a trial copy of After Effects CC 2014. I'm still testing it but as far as I can see the RAM Preview error appears in this version of AE as well, but can take bit longer to show up in my experience.
    Thanks everyone - if anyone has any thoughts or advice I'd appreciate hearing your opinions.
    Kind regards,
    John

    You need to have much more RAM reserved for other applications and more CPUs reserved for other applications. Your current settings are crippling your performance.
    Read these:
    https://blogs.adobe.com/aftereffects/2009/12/performance-tip-dont-starve-yo.html
    http://blogs.adobe.com/aftereffects/2010/03/performance-tip-dont-oversched.html
    After you have adjusted your settings according to the recommendations on those pages, restart your computer and try again.

  • After effects cc RAM preview problem

    I recently bought a new rig 
    i7 4790K running at stock
    8gb 1866mhz corsair vengeance pro ram 2x4gb
    EVGA GTX 770 2gb superclocked
    WD Black 1TB 7200rpm
    Samsung 840 Pro 128gb
    Asus Z97-PRO motherboard
    I run AE and open a file and import my clip (59.94fps) and add twixtor and then hit ram preview to see if all is good and it either takes a little bit longer than it should
    or it would say "Rendering frame switching to foreground" When this happens all seems ok but after the preview I can not scroll through the timeline without lag and pixelation again like as if I havnt hit the ram preview. So it would have the green bar above the clips showing for the ram preview but once the preview is over I can scroll through the timeline for a second then the green bar goes away. I know that the pixelation is due to adaptive resolution
    but I have tried changing that to "fast draft" and the pixelation stops but still struggle to view in timeline. I have the preview resolution set to third or quarter.
    I thought that getting higher clocked ram would solve the problem atleast a little more. But not to much. So my main question is what am I doing wrong? Or how can I correctly setup AE or my computer to handle this?
    The main clip is actually 200fps but I go to File>Interperate footage>Main>Conform to framerate
    Changing it from 200fps to 59.94.
    My main frustration is I see videos of the kinds of clips I'm editing posted by kids that edited them and I think theres no way they have a pc as expensive as mine that would allow them to edit these clips. So Its gotta be something I'm doing wrong.
    Thank you to anyone that helps so much!

    Well, for starters, turn off MP rendering. That warning during RAM previews is a clear indication that you are using it and well, with just 8GB RAM it doesn't exactly make sense. The rest is too vague since you haven't provided any proper details about your source file, but suffice it to say that temporal mangling of any kind can have weird effects, even more so if your source files are compressed. Therefore the pertinent thing to do first would be to convert your file to an uncompressed intermediate format, including conforming it to your target framerate. In addition you may simply consider not using any fast previews or the disk cache at all. It is known to be flaky with temporal plug-ins. set your comp to Final quality to enforce software mode rendering.
    Mylenium

  • Multiprocessing works for RAM preview, extremely slow and aeselflink crashes when in Render Queue

    Hello all,
    System specs:
    Hackintosh
    OSX 10.9
    3.5Ghz (overclocked to 4.2Ghz) Core i7
    Geforce GTX 580 classified 3GB Cuda GPU
    AMD Radeon HD 6870 1GB Display GPU
    32 GB of RAM
    System SSD
    5 drive internal RAID
    After Effects CC 12.2.1.5
    Cuda drivers up to date
    I'm having a problem with the render queue and multiprocessing. I have a moderate sequence with several effects and 3D layers. When I'm working in the composition, everything goes great. I can RAM preview and all my CPU cores will kick up to 100% and render the composition in no time all; with full resolution with no skipped frames. It works fantastically.
    Then when I go to render the exact same composition with the same multiprocessing settings, AE will hang at the "initializing background processes" for at least 5-10 minutes, during which the CPU will ramp up to 100% but no frames will be rendered. AE still remains responsive, as I can hit the stop or pause buttons and the queue will be cancled. But then the aeselflink processes (up to 8 of them depending on my settings, I've tried several) will still continue at 100% cpu load even with AE not set to render anything. I will have to go into the activity monitor and force quit each process. If I leave it for 5-10 minutes, it will finally stop initalizing and start the render, but the CPU will still run at 100% but the frames will crawl slowly forward at about 1 frame per minute, with an estimated 28 hours to render frames that were rendering in under a minute during RAM preview.
    I have tried both reducing the number of cores AE will use, adjusting the allocated RAM, and disabling multiprocessing alltogether. When I disable multiprocessing, the render slows to a complete crawl, and it will render around 1 frame every 5-10 seconds. Again, this is on a composition that rendered in less than a minute on full resolution with RAM preview.
    The only way to get this composition to render is to export it to Media Encoder, which will render it (without multicore processing, unfortunately) in about 8 minutes, still not the blazing fast RAM preview but at least it finishes it in under 3.5 hours (the amount of time that the multiprocessing disabled render in AE will take).
    Here's the multiprocessing settings that have been very stable and carried me through other projects. Disk Cache is not enabled. The only other thing that is disabled is the "Disable Layer Cache" under the Secret menu as the plugins I'm using (Plexus 2 in this case) doesn't like to update when the camera moves so this option has been disabled to force it to reset each frame.
    Does anyone know what is going on?
    Also, please don't tell me that I should not use multiprocessing or instruct me on basic steps as to increase preformance on my machine. I have been tweaking my memory and multiprocessing settings for a long time now, and it is completely stable in everything but this setup. So please no answers saying "just don't use multiprocessing". It was made for a reason, it's effective, and it's needed. And please don't say that it's the hackintosh, either, as it's the most stable and powerful computer I've ever used. Sorry for the disclaimers, I just want to have constructive help.
    Thank you in advance for your ideas!

    Hi Rick, not sure if you saw the part where I said please don't reply with turning off Multiprocessing, and I did not say that it works and is effective in all areas. However, if you actally take the time to read my post, you will definately notice that RAM preview with multiprocessing takes under a minute to render a scene. Multiprocessing disabled and rendered in AE takes 3.5 hours. In Media Encoder it takes around 8 minutes. Clearly it IS working and IS effective for my case and my rig. Any vendettas against MP does not help my situation at all.

  • There's got to be a better way to do this (RAM preview frustration)

    I loaded a 1:20 second Full HD clip into after effects. I need to edit the video based on certain sounds in the video and see if I'm matching them up correctly by previewing it with sound.
    The problem is i'm getting frustrated due to After effects not behaving like Premiere. First who thought it was a good idea not to incorporate sound into after effects? Second, I have an i7 sandy bridge processor, and 16 gbs of ram, yet it still takes time to render the ram preview (with no effects on it yet).
    So ram preview is my only option for sound, but the problem is every time I hit ram preview it starts the video all the way from the beginning. This is frustrating as I want to start at a specific point. Imagine having a longer video where the editing needs to take place at the end.
    There are people out there doing a lot more complicated professional projects, what do you guys do to get around this?
    Why can't after effects do some basic things like premiere like render fast with sound? Is it due to Mercury engine and 64 bits?
    This is one of the best products on the market, surely there is a better way to do this right?

    but the problem is every time I hit ram preview it starts the video all the way from the beginning.
    Window --> Preview, enable the "From current time" option
    yet it still takes time to render the ram preview (with no effects on it yet).
    There is no magic button. If it is compressed, naturally it needs to be decompressed and decoded first. This can consume resources even on fast machines. Furthermore, drive speed matters a lot in such cases. This might actualyl multiply, if you use multiprocessing, so for this kind of simple setup it's usually better to not use it. If your harddrives are fragmented or simply generally slow, frames cannot be loaded as fast and neither will AE be able to use the disk cache. Ergo, convert the footage and move it to the fastest drive in your system.
    what do you guys do to get around this?
    We preview at reduced compo resolution to extend RAM previews and place markers while the RAM preview plays using the * key on the numpad.
    Mylenium

  • After Effects Ram Preview Drops Frames , Using Strangely Too Much Ram

    System Specs :
         CPU : Core i7 4770k
         Memory : 16 GB DDRIII
         Graphic Card : GTX 770 4GB RAM
         Storage : 256 GB SSD + 2 TB HDD
         OS : Windows 7 SP1
         Using After Effects CC 12.2.1.5
    NOTE : NOT ANY ADDITIONAL HARDWARE IS ATTACHED TO MY PC . NO SOUND RELATED EQUIPMENT NOR CAPTURE CARD NOR ANY THING ELSE
    Hi there
    As you Already Don't know I'm an After effects Specialist Using it for quite long time . There is an Ancient Problem with CS6 CC versions . I have a short Small size 1080p Video , about 8 MB , I drag it into project panel and then put it into timeline hence it creates a sequence . There are no Effects and nothing added to timeline , just a small simple video . The Strange Problem is when I click "0" for ram preview , The video starts playing and the green bar above timeline starts to fill . When Ram preview Finishes and plays the video from beginning I See there are several frames Between which are not being loaded to Ram ! The video plays RGB color bar instead of main video and when I check the Green bar above Timeline I see that those frames are being dropped and there is no Green bar above them !
    I have had this problem several times before but this time it is too important and the problem should be solved . What is obvious is that some frames are not being rendered or are being deleted after render !
    Another Strange problem is that when I open Task manager , It shows AE uses around 10 GB ! of RAM when I press "0" for Ram previewing this video !
    So there is a Logical explanation here , Somehow when I do ram preview this video it uses extra ordinary too much ram so AE is unable to load the full video (8 MB) into Ram and hence deletes some of frames .
    most of my videos have not this problem and use acceptable amount of ram .I've had this issue with some of my videos till now .
    Listen carefully : "This has nothing to do with AE preferences or low memory or plugins . because there is nothing wrong with any individual components of may hardware or software . I have far more than enough RAM for a 8MB video . My Memory has no hardware or software problem . I tested them and if there was any problem with memory or other hardware that should have affected other applications . I have the most recent AE version . I have the most Recent windows updates and drivers . I have a Clean virus free system , and as a computer engineer this strange AE problem is rarely caused by viruses , trust me . I have not any hardware instead of ones a normal PC has . I have not any problem with my whole entire system configuration because I have benchmarked my PC with several up to date softwares . I have tested my PC with almost any STRESS TESTING solutions available for really long period of time , 3 days by IDA64 . Not any driver conflict , dll missing , registry problem have been discovered , as I know perfectly how to solve them ."
    I asked some of my friend whom are expert in AE . I handed them my videos and Watched ALL OF THEM HAD THE SAME ISSUE ! So the problem isn't related to my Local PC . What i believe is that there is some malfunctioning or miss coded part in AE source code that decides to reserve such a huge strange amount of ram for such a tiny 8MB video . The point is that the AE works fine , no crash or any problem report . So the AE it Self decides to allocate such huge amount of ram and thinks it is correct ! So I think this is a work around that AE developers in adobe are using to bypass a problem or conflict ! by Using more amount of RAM . I think that there might be some miss understanding between the AE and my installed codec . I installed MEGA CODEC PACK on my PC to enable some new codec supports , and so are some of Windows default de/encoders changed to new ones . I think there shouldn't be any problem But there is something wrong between AE and de/encoder modules !
    Please any one with any suggestion , I really appreciate your advices .

    ###UPDATED###
    Well thank you guys for your patience ...
    as you considered I forgot to mention the codec itself and other stuff ...
    The video is in 1080p , 35 sec long , it is a green screen shot , this video is directly downloaded from YouTube and plays perfectly on all tested PCs . here are detailed info :
    Format                                   : MPEG-4
    Format profile                          : Base Media
    File size                                 : 8.55 MiB
    Duration                                 : 34s 993ms
    Overall bit rate mode                : Variable
    Overall bit rate                         : 2 050 Kbps
    VideoFormat                            : AVC
    Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
    Format profile                           : [email protected]
    Codec ID                                 : avc1
    Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
    Bit rate                                    : 1 927 Kbps
    Width                                      : 1 920 pixels
    Height                                     : 1 080 pixels
    Frame rate mode                      : Constant
    Frame rate                               : 30.000 fps
    Color space                              : YUV
    Chroma subsampling                 : 4:2:0
    Bit depth                                  : 8 bits
    Scan type                                 : Progressive
    NOTICE : This video is just for testing the lighting and etc , and so the Sampling and other specs are not considered for broadcast .
    I think you hit the point ! Thats K-lite codec pack installed on every machine which the video is tested on ! The point is whats wrong with it ?! I have had never ever any problem with this codec pack !!!
    The deadly question : So what are the alternative ways to work with codecs that AE doesn't support ?! because installing codec looks simple and sufficient !

  • RAM previewing and rendering not working correctly

    Hi,
    Today I was just about finished editing a video on CS6 and then when I'm about to add the last effect and render it it stuffs up on me:(. What happens is that while RAM previewing at some point during the loading of the preview it will stop loading, It will then proceed to play the ram preview on loop and when I press a button to stop it a small box pops up in the centre of my screen and the ram preview bar to show what has loaded (the one which shows green for parts that are loaded and blue for cached) turns black and sometimes other parts of after effects turn black. This has happened before and I fixed it by uninstalling and reinstalling After Effects about 6 times. I would do that this time though I would like to know the cause of it and any possible fixes as it is quite irritating. Another thing that may be happening is the RAM usage is slowly filling as I render. This has happened before on my laptop and I did not manage to fix it though it was not related to the first issue that time. The last time when it happened on my laptop the RAM usage eventually filled up to 100% and it would no longer render. I am not sure if it is happening this time as it is still currently rendering though I will update the thread if it does. Finally my render is going very slowly, I am not sure if this issue is realted to any of the above or if it is just the effects I am using though. My memory and multiprocessing settings are using 6 cores of 7 with 2 GB of ram allocated to each with multiprocessing on. My ram allocated for other programs is 6GB. To fix these Issues so far I have tried clearing the cache, purging the memory and image cache, restarting  my computer and reinstalling after effects. My specs are:
    i7 4770k non overclocked
    GTX 780
    G.Skill Ripjaws Z 2133mhz 32GB
    Samsung 840 pro
    Seagate Barracuda
    MSI Z87-G45
    H100i cooler
    Any reply is appreciated
    Thanks in advance
    Sam

    How much experience do you have with AE? Ram preview can be lengthened by adjusting the resolution of the composition window, different parts of the project can be previewed using the work area, and preview length and render time are both a function of composition frame size. Complex, memory intensive effects like particle systems will reduce the render time and the length of a ram preview. Without knowing the details of your composition it's hard to say if you are running into a bug, running out of resources, or experiencing normal behavior.

  • AE CC 2014.1.1 the plague of "ram preview needs 2 or more frames"

    As i said abot Premiere CC 2014.1, for me AE CC 2014.1.1 is the worst version of this sw ever on my system. Specs:
    i7980x
    GTX680 4GB
    24GB ram
    Asus P6T deluxe mobo
    2 SSD Intel, one for AE cache
    I'm experiencing continuos crash from AE. I'm on a big project, as always, and performance is terrible. After a bit of time of working AE became terribly slow. The "blu" bar under the preview window start load again and again. I move the mouse, loading, i scroll the window, loading, press caps lock to stop the preview....loading. This is the sympthon. After this kind of wierd performance i know that my ram preview will not start again. The infamous message will pop up and doesn't matters what i do, purge, format ram or whatever. the only way is to close AE and reopen it.
    Now...i'm using AI files or PSD files, so i've to run AE and Photoshop or AI all toghether....after some minutes...the bar loading, the performance slows down and the message pop up again.
    The ridicoulous fact is that when i render the project i have the ram usage at 19% and cpu usage at max 60%. So my renders are really long (about 10hr for 2 minutes of animations), but my system is sitting there doing nothing. Really odd...i can use 12GB of ram and half of the cores at this point, doesn't matter for AE performance...

    Right! It's got a little bit worse... After the 'RAM preview needs 2 or more frames' window I purged then restarted and all was back on track for about 5 minutes, then it happened again and then the following series of warnings have locked AE in a cycle of warnings...
    Below is the series of warnings I've just received followed by my memory and cache settings and then the memory left on my computer.
    then
    my memory settings
    my cache settings
    and the memory left on my computer
    The file is 'just' a series of After Effects solids with masks (about 40), rigged together with Duik IK (not the puppet tool thing just the one that links layers together) and some wavs for the sound file.
    Like I say I've probably done hours of lipsyncing over the last 15 years with far far heavier files (using HD footage and a far bigger comp with psd files) and I certainly haven't had this kind of persistent problem and it's only since I installed CC2014 last week...
    grrrr and arrrrgh

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