13 replies to this topic

[rovino]

So... I know AE scripts has this already, however with some help from a buddy at work, we figured out how to create a .cmd script to run mulitple copies of BG render thus taking advantage of the multi processors on the Z800. And adding .cmd to the text file makes it rather easy to edit and launch..
So my question is... does Mac OS have an equivelant to adding a .cmd to create a command line launcher?

[rovino]

After some research I found RenderQ.. seems very promising. hope it can launch multiple copies to render with multiple cores.

[Aaron Scott]

OSX has shell script that essentially serve the same purpose as batch/cmd files.

That said, I'm not quite sure what you're trying to do. If you launch the background renderer with multiprocessing enabled it'll automatically launch one instance of the renderer on each core until it hits the memory/core cap you have set. The functionality you're looking for is essentially the only thing AE's multiprocessing can do.

[rovino]

OSX has shell script that essentially serve the same purpose as batch/cmd files.

That said, I'm not quite sure what you're trying to do. If you launch the background renderer with multiprocessing enabled it'll automatically launch one instance of the renderer on each core until it hits the memory/core cap you have set. The functionality you're looking for is essentially the only thing AE's multiprocessing can do.

Well see I wonder about this, because heres my script in a nutshell. In note pad.. I wrote this.

START "" "\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS5\Support Files\aerender" -project “project file path here”
pause
(used colors to split it up for description purposes only)
then saved it with .cmd at the end, from what I understand.
Part 1 - green: allows the script to Run as a separate program. the Quotes are part of START. It's just a title, so I left it blank, Quotes are still needed however.
Part 2 - red: is the AErender location in your computer, basically where the Support files folder is at. to know where that program is.. If you did a standard install it should look just like this..the only thing to watch out for is the "CS" part are you running 3, 4, 5, 5.5, 6?
Part 3 - black: AE render command -project the only thing not in Quotes basically says Render everything in the the following file's render cue.
part 4 - blue: the path location of your file you know all that "C:/nnnn/nnnn/nnn/file,aec" stuff

So you have to make sure you are rendering in a seq. and under Render settings you click the box in options that skips existing files (allows for multi machine rendering)

then.. in the .cmd script you can copy and paste that line as many times as you want, save and close, then double click it will open and run that many AErenders..

example:


START "" "\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS5\Support Files\aerender" -project “project file path here”
START "" "\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS5\Support Files\aerender" -project “project file path here”
START "" "\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS5\Support Files\aerender" -project “project file path here”
START "" "\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS5\Support Files\aerender" -project “project file path here”

pause (you dont really need the pause)

and 4 copies of AE render open up.. and each start rendering the next available frame in your animations.
Now when I did this with 6 start lines on a 720p 4 min slide show it rendered in 17 mins.

I then tried it straight out of AE from the render cue and it looked like all the ram and cores were running but it could only process 1 image at a time.
it took 28 mins,

I then tried the same script with 1 start line..and although it was cool having it run in the BG render.. I finally stopped it after 30 mins at more than 60% complete.

I was just wondering if a Mac can allow for multiple start lines. meaning more than 1 copy of AE render running. Keep in mind you I pretty sure there is a limit to how many start lines you can have running before diminishing returns starts taking affect.

I really hope that makes sense.

Edited by rovino, 12 April 2012 - 04:59 AM.

[Aaron Scott]

Do you have multiprocessing enabled in AE? Or are you using some effect that forces multiprocessing off? There's no reason that multiple instances of aerender would render faster than just rendering in AE with multiprocessing on -- it's essentially the same thing. Sure, there's always a little variation, but there shouldn't be anything as drastic as what you're seeing.

Try running only one instance of aerender, but add the -mp flag (in addition to -project). That tells it to automatically opens up as many instances of AE as your RAM will allow, but they all report to the same window -- I think that's essentially what you're looking for.

That said, what you're doing works. It's just not that different from what AE does normally. The downside to your method -- besides spawning a bunch of windows -- is that it would grind to a halt if you're rendering to a network under most circumstances, since AE has a problem with skipping existing files on a network.

[rovino]

Do you have multiprocessing enabled in AE? Or are you using some effect that forces multiprocessing off? There's no reason that multiple instances of aerender would render faster than just rendering in AE with multiprocessing on -- it's essentially the same thing. Sure, there's always a little variation, but there shouldn't be anything as drastic as what you're seeing.

Try running only one instance of aerender, but add the -mp flag (in addition to -project). That tells it to automatically opens up as many instances of AE as your RAM will allow, but they all report to the same window -- I think that's essentially what you're looking for.

That said, what you're doing works. It's just not that different from what AE does normally. The downside to your method -- besides spawning a bunch of windows -- is that it would grind to a halt if you're rendering to a network under most circumstances, since AE has a problem with skipping existing files on a network.

Thanks Aaron..
I wasnt in the office today to check it out.. but I will as soon as I go in tomorrow.

[JamesDohertyEsq]

So maybe you guys already know this, but I didn't, but RenderQ also supports C4D, Nuke and a whole slew of other programs

http://www.andrewand...25/labs-renderq

Really useful. (If it also did drag and drop batch quicktime conversions it'd be even more convenient)

Sorry for bringing up an old thread but thought some people might have missed it.


J
-----------------
www.greeble.tv

[dan_hin]

Maybe a stupid question: have you guys thought of using AME? The CS6 version is pretty good.

@James it'll do QT conversions too..

Edited by dan_hin, 18 July 2012 - 02:41 PM.

[rovino]

Ok so not up on my acronyms. What's AME? Honestly RenderQ has been great. Plus I did just find out this weekend. It does support c4d I haven't tried it maybe I'll test something tonight.

[dan_hin]

Adobe media encoder..

[rovino]

Adobe media encoder..

Oh so you mean just drag the project file in to media encoder? interesting

[JamesDohertyEsq]

Haven't tried that in a while but it gave me problems before, might give it another shot when I get onto CS6..
Occasionally use the render engine with a watched folder but yeah AME definitely makes more sense than that

[levante]

I was just wondering if a Mac can allow for multiple start lines. meaning more than 1 copy of AE render running.

Yes it is possible. I'm doing this all the time using the BG Render Script (though i just hit start BG Render in AE multiple times to do so). Problem with AEs built in MP option is that it often chokes on RAM (and thereby slows down the whole system to a crawl) and there is also no way to alter the amount of cores during a render. By manually starting multiple BG Renders, one can easily add or remove render threads during rendering, according to the amount of RAM and CPU power needed for other tasks.

Edited by levante, 19 July 2012 - 11:11 AM.

[dan_hin]

@levante Yeah pretty much, although you'd be better off dragging the comp in there instead... You can manage the amount of cores/RAM used in the app as well.

Edited by dan_hin, 19 July 2012 - 01:25 PM.