Motion is constantly crashing when exporting a huge project

Question

Hi Folks,
I just started with Motion a few weeks ago.
After making a lot of rookie mistakes, I think I got the basics now.
Motion opened up a new world of working with videos for me.
But I reached a point, where playing around does not help any more.
I need some advise from a skilled Motion designer.
My question:
Generally - What are the limits of a Motion 4 project regarding size and complexity and how I can expand it.
In particular - How can I produce a video of my really big motion project.
My small problem:
When working in Motion, I have to watch the memory usage (I use "istat menus" for this).
When memory becomes almost used up, I save the project then close and re-open Motion.
In the meantime, I have a detailed knowledge of the actions that I should avoid to maximize
the time between the close & re-open actions.
This helps reducing Motion crashes. I think Motion has a bug with memory handling somehow.
Although working with Motion this way is exhausting, this is only my small problem.
My big problem:
Motion does not export (render) my project. I don't mind waiting 24 hours for the result, but there is no result.
Motion 4 always crashes after some time. Typically after 4 to 5 hours. The whole computer gets stuck,
the only thing I can do is recycle power. I can not show the result of my work. All I can do is blame "the software".
For this I need a solution, and I need it ASAP!
What I did so far:
I tried everything. Really…
I do not run any other software parallel with Motion. No Mail, no Safari, no nothing -> this helps a lot while editing !
Disabling render options motion blur, shadows, reflections and DOF helped in the beginning when the project was not finished.
Reducing quality helped in the beginning but I did not tried it again because the results are unusable.
Trashing preferences with "option-CMD Park+Ride" did not help.
Deleting the preference file did help making the software more responsive. Almost no beachballs after that.
Repairing permissions…. Checking filesystem… playing with preferences… nothing helped.
Then I was at a point, where I was mentally prepared for the ultimate step:
I wiped the hard-drive and installed Snow Leopard and FCP from the original DVDs.
Did not help. (BTW this takes a whole working day and half of the night).
Of course, I always apply the latest updates and patches.
Last night, I ordered a new iMAC (27", Quadcore, 8GB Ram) to be sure it is not a hardware defect.
Unfortunately its ETA is 2 weeks.
The machine I am actually using: 24" iMac 3,06MHz core2 duo with 4GB of RAM and GT130.
About my project:
length: 42 seconds
Format: 720p50
Contents: approximately 10 greenscreen videoclips 720p50 ( 10 to 20 seconds long) with Primate RT filter, 100 images (PDF), 500 rectangles.
Camera: one camera with 8 non-overlapping framing behaviors.
plugins: some filters from noise industries and FxFactory. No dubious untested 3-rd party plugins.
Untested ideas:
- Output parts of the project and assemble them in final cut. (I got this idea 1 second ago while writing this post). Anyone tried this?
- Single-stepping through the project and capturing a screenshot of every single frame (42*50 = 2100 oh my god!) Maybe by using a macro?
- Using a new computer with faster graphic-board and more RAM. As far as I know, Motion is a 32bit application and can not address more than 4 GByte of RAM. Also it will not use more than one CPU core. Will it help anyway?
- Installing some secret Pro-App beta-patches to fix Motion. Are there any? If so, how to get them?
- Searching for some hidden file that lists the filter, action or object that caused the last crash. Maybe I only have to rearrange or remove something to make it work perfectly.
Anyone out there who has experience with complex Motion-projects ?
Byebye and Tschüß
Manfred

Answer 1

I gave it a try and replaced all *.pdf files by *.psd or *.jpg files, keyed all video clips outside of Motion and replaced the original footage with the assigned keyers, despillers and color-correctors by ready-to-use ProRes4444 files. If this changed anything, then it was very subtle. Without "shadow", "reflections" and "depth of field" applied, I can export the project. This takes 40 minutes or so.
With this three things checked, Motion crashes (see below). The final export also needs to have lights enabled and maybe motion blur.
My big hope is, that the 27" iMac can handle it because of its 8GB Ram and the 4870 Graphics (arrives on Feb,10 thumbs up). The iMac I am using now has only GT130 and 4GB Ram, maybe this is too weak? Otherwise I have to split the project into pieces an assemble them in final cut. There are no cuts, the whole thing is one flow which makes this idea difficult.
Here the latest crash report (although I dont think it makes any sense to anyone but hope dies last):
Process: Motion [436]
Path: /Applications/Motion.app/Contents/MacOS/Motion
Identifier: com.apple.motion
Version: 4.0.1 (698)
Build Info: Motion-6980000~14
Code Type: X86 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [125]
Date/Time: 2010-01-27 00:00:36.955 +0100
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.6.2 (10C540)
Report Version: 6
Interval Since Last Report: 373471 sec
Crashes Since Last Report: 5
Per-App Interval Since Last Report: 58356 sec
Per-App Crashes Since Last Report: 3
Anonymous UUID: 0F1AA23E-656B-43EC-B8C6-F16DBE334461
Exception Type: EXCBADACCESS (SIGBUS)
Exception Codes: KERNPROTECTIONFAILURE at 0x0000000000000000
Crashed Thread: 0 Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
Thread 0 Crashed: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x900b4413 CFQSortArray + 259
1 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x900c77ec __CFRunLoopDoObservers + 1020
2 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x900843e2 __CFRunLoopRun + 1154
3 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x90083864 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 452
4 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x90083691 CFRunLoopRunInMode + 97
5 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x9030ef0c RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 392
6 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x9030ecc3 ReceiveNextEventCommon + 354
7 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x9030eb48 BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInMode + 81
8 com.apple.AppKit 0x96a7aac5 _DPSNextEvent + 847
9 com.apple.AppKit 0x96a7a306 -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 156
10 com.apple.AppKit 0x96cf1335 -[NSApplication _realDoModalLoop:peek:] + 720
11 com.apple.AppKit 0x96cf0ab1 -[NSApplication runModalForWindow:] + 273
12 com.apple.ozone.framework 0x00a4b21e -[OZExportProgressController openDialog:withTitle:windowTitle:withDoneMsg:startFrame:lastFrame:] + 366
13 com.apple.ozone.framework 0x00a49660 -[OZExportManager initRender:nodeIndex:range:] + 1088
14 com.apple.ozone.framework 0x00a43ef3 -[OZExportManager initRender:] + 275
15 com.apple.ozone.framework 0x00a3d400 -[OZExportController _exportDidEnd:returnCode:contextInfo:] + 416
16 com.apple.AppKit 0x96f839f6 -[NSSavePanel _didEndSheet:returnCode:contextInfo:] + 295
... many lines removed here ....
Model: iMac9,1, BootROM IM91.008D.B08, 2 processors, Intel Core 2 Duo, 3.06 GHz, 4 GB, SMC 1.45f0
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 130, NVIDIA GeForce GT 130, PCIe, 512 MB
Memory Module: global_name
AirPort: spairportwireless_card_type_airportextreme (0x14E4, 0x8E), Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.91.26)
Bluetooth: Version 2.2.4f3, 2 service, 1 devices, 1 incoming serial ports
Network Service: Ethernet, Ethernet, en0
Serial ATA Device: WDC WD1001FALS-40K1B0, 931,51 GB
Serial ATA Device: OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5670S
USB Device: USB2.0 Hub, 0x05e3 (Genesys Logic, Inc.), 0x0608, 0x24100000
USB Device: Composite Device, 0x1604, 0x8007, 0x24140000
USB Device: USB2.0 Hub, 0x05e3 (Genesys Logic, Inc.), 0x0608, 0x24130000
USB Device: Built-in iSight, 0x05ac (Apple Inc.), 0x8502, 0x24400000
USB Device: IR Receiver, 0x05ac (Apple Inc.), 0x8242, 0x04500000
USB Device: BRCM2046 Hub, 0x0a5c (Broadcom Corp.), 0x4500, 0x06100000
USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller, 0x05ac (Apple Inc.), 0x8215, 0x06110000
FireWire Device: d2 quadra (button), LaCie, Up to 800 Mb/sec
FireWire Device: d2 quadra (button), LaCie, Up to 800 Mb/sec
FireWire Device: d2 quadra (button), LaCie, Up to 800 Mb/sec
FireWire Device: d2 quadra (button), LaCie, Up to 800 Mb/sec