After Effects Rendering Engine / Watch Folders

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Does anyone here use AfterEffect Watch folders for network rendering with AfterEffects?

 

I am trying to figure out if it is possible to render many AfterEffect frames across multiple computers? My gut says yes, but I can only seem to get render on one of the farmed computer at a time.

 

I have tried setting the number of computers to zero (like the note says,) but it does not seem to take. I have also tried setting the computer number to 6 machines, but that also does not seem to work.

[Nils Norgren]

I used the "Watch Folder" rendering in AE years ago (like 8 or 10 years ago), it was painful, it required collecting all the files to the watch folder. I tried to trick it with aliases, but the only way I got it to work was by collecting absolutely everything. The other main thing to do is to make sure that the output is sequential files and that "skip existing" is checked in rendering dialog. I haven't used it in years, these days if we need to render across a few machines, we set up the output, then open the .aep on multiple machines and render separate sections on each machine.

 

There are 3rd party render managers that will control AE, this is the solution that I hope to get installed here, one network render manager for all applications. We have not taken the plunge but I expect we will in the next year.

 

Hope this helps,

 

-Nils Norgren

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Thanks. I missed the changing render settings to multiple machines/skip existing frames option.

 

It is also working for without collecting source files. Maybe they changed it over the years?

 

I have 5 machines on the job now and the same job running on 1 machine. According to the feedback the 5 machines are only going to finish 60 to 65% faster than the 1 machine. Quite a bit faster, but not 5 times as fast.

 

We use the lowly Backburner for the farm manager. It gets the job done for us though. I have been meaning to try and add AE to it, but have never done the research on the process. I know there is a script that can supposedly submit AE jobs to Backburner through Max.

[Fooch]

Travis. Give this a try. Its not the best tip but this should shave some time off rendering.

 

Multimachines can be a pain because AE isnt sophisticated enough to assign frames. What I do on a rush deadline job is if there's just 1x final comp rendering , I break it down to segments. (Btw, we output to a final tga seq with no alpha)

 

So say a 3000 frame render:

Machine 1 would render from 0 - 3000

Machine 2 would render from 500 - 3000

Machine 3 would render from 1000 - 3000

(and so on)

 

What it means, if the first machine completes itself, it will go on to the other fwd frames (multimachines will skip the current frames done)

Speeds up the final large comps by a fair bit.

 

Plus here's what I do after a large comp is done.

After finishing all large renders, always arrange the sequence by size. If there's a file with 0 kbs, (its a crashed file) delete it and just render that frame / frames. I've wasted heaps of time with renders crashing overnight due to a dodgy frame. (AE doesnt detect it while but just crashes while outputting if there is a 0kb file in the seq)

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Multimachines can be a pain because AE isnt sophisticated enough to assign frames. What I do on a rush deadline job is if there's just 1x final comp rendering , I break it down to segments. (Btw, we output to a final tga seq with no alpha)

 

Not sure I follow you on this... I have been using the multimachine setting and the check for existing frames without much of a problem. I assign 8 machines to the job. Aftereffects sends the job to 8 machines. Once a frame is received on that machine it automatically create a frame file with 0k size. The other machines see this and skip that frame and pick up the next frame in the list. I typically have 8 or so files, so I am assuming it is using that many machines to render the job.

 

It could certainly use more options, but it is performing for me.

 

Maybe I can make a desktop video of how it is behaving sometime in the next handful of days.

Edited October 15, 2010 by Crazy Homeless Guy

[Fooch]

Yup, but the bad thing about AE is it doesnt preassign frames like backburner, rather skips frames that are already on the folder. Thats why with 5x machines, you cant get say 500% increase.

 

So by splitting the render up in AE, you get an overall faster render (if needed.. safed me for massive renders)

 

The 0kb bit fix/check = When AE crashes while rendering , it normally leaves a sequence file with 0kb (unlike say backburner which will not write a frame)

 

Hope thats clear. I'll write something up after finishing this deadline here.