AE render problem with RED footage

[AnthonyFaust]

Hello fellow RED users,

Tonight I tried to render a RED clip in a project and the AE render queue rendered 10 frames out of 67 and then the progress bar jumped all the way to the end and it stopped. I opened the movie and it had only rendered 10 frames.

It's almost as if I told AE to render 67 frames (by making a movie (command + M) and it said "nah, I'll only render 10 frames and then I'll just quit on you".

Is it because of lack of memory? The program didn't crash, it just decided to stop rendering the rest of the frames. I only have 3 gigs of RAM so I'm guessing that's it.

Thanks in advance,
Anthony

[Michael Romano]

I don't think your RAM is going to stop it like that. Try again, and try rendering to other formats. In fact, try rendering to a non-quicktime based format like an image sequence. That will narrow it down more quickly.

I would also go to frame 11 in RCX and check that it isn't corrupt. If there is a corrupt R3D frame you'll get VERY unpredictable results in Adobe software. I had a similar issue in PP recently which was the result of a bad copy from the RED media.

You might also watch the console (Clear it first) as you render, it may highlight a crashing or hanging process.

[Rob Ruffo]

Quicktime + PC = problems, and not just with Adobe - use something else as your codec.

[John Bannister]

3 gig of ram is on the low side for compositing and rendering in AE. I know in my system AE automatically reserves 2 gig simply for compositing and rendering within the application (Ram preview etc). I had 4 gig and suffered from the same issue from time to time, once I upgraded to 8gig, it was fine and I havent had a corrupt render since. Running Windows Ultimate 64ed. For what it's worth.

[Uli Plank]

Get at least 2 GB per core!

[John Bannister]

Get at least 2 GB per core!

Yep...running AMD quad at 4.2 ghz, 8 gig, smooth as butter...

[Joseph Coleman]

A good tip for working with After Effects and large comps it to hold SHIFT and and then go into your preferences, you will see a menu on the side that says "Secret". click it and set your Clear Cache to every 3 frames and that might help. Also Dont use the Make Movie to render just use the Add to render queue

[Jake Bastian]

Also Dont use the Make Movie to render just use the Add to render queue

Why does that matter?

[Jac Mulder]

If nothing works, try command line render...

On a Mac Type in a terminal:
cd /Applications/"Adobe After Effects CS5"
./aerender -project /Volumes/Raid/Project/Name/AEProjectDir/renderme.aep

Obviously replace version, directories and project names. I like to set the render parameters in After Effects, but clear the render cue and only focus on the one you want, "in's" "out's" formats are a must. Save the project and render that one from the command line...
This has saved my ass so many times, also it is SUUUUPPPPPPEEEEER fast, but close After Effects (obviously)...