20 second clip takin 2 hours to render

Try exporting the Comp with the After Effect Render Queue using the Best Settings Render Settings template and Lossless Output Module template or High Quality Output Module template.  It will be a large file, but that's why it should render faster.  Then add the resulting movie file to the AME Queue.  If you find that this is working better, you can set an AME Watch Folder to automatically transcode your AE renders.   

Also, are you using the newest version of After Effects with Multi-frame Rendering?  That should render faster in either AE or AME.  It also has a Render Time pane that can be shown in the Timeline panel to see exactly how much time each Layer is taking to render.  The button to show/hide Render time is in the lower left of the Timeline panel.

Hi petahmike,

Sorry to hear about this. Let us know more about the complexity of the After Effects project & the effects/plugins that you have used in the comp. We're here to help, just need more info.

Thanks,

Sumeet