After Effects 5.5 Help

[SumDumGuy]

If anyone here is an After Effects guru, perhaps you can help me with a little problem I've run into. I found an article on the web that details how to double render speeds on dual processor machines by running After Effects and the Render Engine at the same time. Link

I've followed the instructions and set everything up right, but when I start the Render engine I get an error saying "You have at least one output module template that refers to a missing output plug-in. Please check your Output Module Templates". Since I'm an After Effects rookie, this is basically greek to me.

I can render fine from After Effects, but I'd really like to try this dual-render thing and speed up the process. Some renders just take too darn long!

 

[tjwett]

Wish I could help but I don't use this feature. You'd probably do much better over at the Adobe forums.

 

[SumDumGuy]

Problem solved!

Afer consulting members of the Adobe help forums, I found out what I was doing wrong. I didn't have the plug-in for the effect I was rendering installed (again) for the render engine to use. Duh! It works as advertised now...fast!

Now if I only had a quad processor machine....mmmmm, quad processor 970...droooool....

 

[hacurio1]

Re: Problem solved!

Originally posted by SumDumGuy
Afer consulting members of the Adobe help forums, I found out what I was doing wrong. I didn't have the plug-in for the effect I was rendering installed (again) for the render engine to use. Duh! It works as advertised now...fast!

Now if I only had a quad processor machine....mmmmm, quad processor 970...droooool....

Ok, sounds good, but I have a question. Do you need two plug-ins folders? Where did you put the other plug-ins folder? Isn’t there a preferences conflict, or does the system use the original preferences for the two copies of the plug-ins? Do you have to install the other plug-ins, or can you just duplicate the original plug-ins folder? Thanks

 

[SumDumGuy]

If you have the production bundle, here's what you do...

Insert CD, double click installer, click custom install, click to install the render engine and make sure you also check plug-ins, then locate where you want to install (Applications folder). After it is done, you may also have to re-install into that new plug-ins folder any other plug-ins (that weren't included with AE) that you may have. Then follow the procedure on the above link.

It really works! I'm so excited about this, it's halved my render times!

I also killed F@H on each processor and picked up MORE speed! This rocks!

 

[tjwett]

Okay, now I'm interested! I wasn't sure exactly what you were trying to do until now. I have the Production Bundle so I'm gonna give this a shot. Sounds great, I could use all the power I can get when working on the laptop. Glad it worked out for you.

 

[SumDumGuy]

Sorry tjwett, but I don't think this is going to help your render speeds unless you have a dual processor machine. This little trick lets After Effects run on one processor while the Render Engine runs on the other.

If you open Process Viewer while rendering, After Effects is using 100% (or so) of one processor and the Render Engine is using 100% of the other. On a single processor machine, I'm sure that After Effects already uses 100% of the processor power and adding the Render Engine to the mix wouldn't add power, but merely reallocate how the power was used (50% AE & 50% RE compared to dual processor 100% AE and 100% RE).

Of course, if you have two machines, setting up the Render Engine on the second machine and using it can only help your speeds!