Return-Path: Received: from omr14.networksolutionsemail.com ([205.178.146.64] verified) by media-motion.tv (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 4.2.10) with ESMTP-TLS id 4636780 for AE-List@media-motion.tv; Sat, 25 Feb 2012 01:05:54 +0100 Received: from cm-omr9 (mail.networksolutionsemail.com [205.178.146.50]) by omr14.networksolutionsemail.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id q1P0CRYT010842 for ; Fri, 24 Feb 2012 19:12:27 -0500 Authentication-Results: cm-omr9 smtp.user=chris@chriszwar.com; auth=pass (LOGIN) X-Authenticated-UID: chris@chriszwar.com Received: from [58.104.23.56] ([58.104.23.56:49874] helo=[10.1.1.5]) by cm-omr9 (envelope-from ) (ecelerity 2.2.2.41 r(31179/31189)) with ESMTPA id 54/58-06809-967284F4; Fri, 24 Feb 2012 19:12:27 -0500 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1084) Subject: Re: [AE] Fastest way to render image sequence as mov From: Chris Zwar In-Reply-To: Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2012 11:12:24 +1100 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Message-Id: References: To: "After Effects Mail List" X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1084) Just some more notes...=20 I'm on this project for almost two months so I have plenty of time to = test! (BTW the image sequence I'm using has been edited down a little, it's = now 27,000 frames at 1920x896. It represents 16GB data in image = sequence form) On 23/02/2012, at 10:04 PM, Tobias Lind wrote: > I never compress the movie when rendering in AE. > Always render uncompressed or in prores to use Quicktime Pro (or = Handbrake) to compress This is what I do too. Maybe I should point out that I have no trouble = compressing quicktimes in general, it's not like I don't know what I'm = doing. I'm just looking at all the options I have and want to find the = fastest. The situation I'm in - working with a long image sequence - = presents some challenges I haven't had before. On 24/02/2012, at 3:43 AM, Evan Fotis wrote: > Didn't follow this thread from the beginning so perhaps this has been = addressed already but ..how about good ole mpeg streamclip? MPEG Streamclip has exactly the same problem as Quicktime Pro - it takes = AGES to open the sequence, before you even begin compressing. I tried = opening the sequence I have on a freshly rebooted Mac and started = timing. I stopped paying attention after 15minutes, so I don't know = exactly how long it took, but it was too long for my liking. I noted = the other night that Quicktime Pro took about 30 minutes just to open = the sequence. It's possible that MPEG Streamclip was faster, but not by = much. On 24/02/2012, at 4:58 AM, Steve Oakley wrote: > huh ? sounds like it just wasn't installed then. production suites / = master collection all have PP. the only way you would not is if you got = something like design suite and AE was done as a point product, or = something wierd along those lines Most probably. This is a design studio with enough Macs that it makes = economic sense for them to be clever about what they install and where. = I checked a few of the other freelancer Macs and they're all the same. = There are full-time IT guys that are often juggling licences and plugins = so I guess they only buy what they have to. At least it's all legit. On 22/02/2012, at 10:30 AM, Lloyd Alvarez wrote: > ffmpeg. And since you can run it from the command line you can queue = it as a job on your farm so that it happens as soon as the sequence is = done rendering. With Lloyd's help I got ffmpeg running from the command line. It looks = promising, and what I like about it is that it begins compressing = instantly. However it settled down to a very steady 5fps, for a total = compression time of roughly 90 minutes. A kernel panic halted my tests = (nothing to do with ffmpeg) but it was obvious that the default settings = I tried were only using 1 processor. I was a little dissapointed, but = maybe if I did deeper and try different encoders I'll be able to get = better performance. I've only scratched the surface here... Unfortunately, AE with multiprocessing turned ON is still the fastest, = despite the fact that it slows down dramatically. Perhaps another = option is to try rendering from AE in 5 minute chunks and then paste = them together in Quicktime Pro... It takes 9 minutes to copy the 16GB sequence onto my local drive, and = I've determined that having the files locally doesn't make the encoding = faster - the network is not a bottleneck. I'd like to think that a = modern, multi-processing aware program could compress the sequence in = something approaching real-time. Next week I'll track down a Mac with Compressor on - I can try it in = Final Cut too, and I'll see how Sorrenson Squeeze compares as well. -Chris