AFTER EFFECTS PLAYBACK ERROR

This is the troubleshooting workflow I have used for years.

1. Move the CTI (play head, current time indicator) to the frame where the project hangs up
2. Make sure no layers are selected in the main comp and press 'uu' to reveal all modified properties of all layers
3. If there are nested comps (pre-comps), open them and do the same thing so you can easily see all modified properties
4. Look for effects that eat up memory, like particle systems, retiming effects like Twixtor, or effects like Grow Bonds that expand layer size
5. Turn off those effects using the FX button in the timeline or the Effects Control Panel and see if one of the effects is causing the problem
6. When you find the effect, start resetting the parameters until the problem resolves itself
7. Start returning the problem property to its original value until you get the look you want, but AE will run a preview and render

That workflow has fixed hundreds of problem comps over the years. If you can't get it fixed using that troubleshooting workflow, and your Preferences/Memory and Performance has set memory available to other apps to 4, 8, or 12 GB, and your Disk Cache is set to a fairly small value like 40 GB and has been purged, then the comp is probably just eating up resources until it locks up. In that case, you can start fiddling with the Work Area and render the comp in sections that you can stick together in Premiere Pro or AE. 

All of the comps I create that take more than a couple of seconds a frame to render are always rendered to an Image sequence because you can go back and rerender ten frames if you need to. I can't even count the times I have had to change 10 or 20 frames to please a client or a director. Many of my complex compositing comps can take several hours to render, but if I use image sequences instead of movies, I can redo those 10 or 12 frames and render them in a few minutes. 

I hope these suggestions help. 

Hey Jabra,

I can understand how frustrating this must be. I have moved this thread to the discussions section for troubleshooting. Do you also see a low-memory warning banner in your composition preview? Please share the number of compositions, layers, bit depth, types of effects, and composition frame size of your project. This will help us better understand what you're working with. Please also share your current After Effects version (Help > About After Effects) and system specifications (OS, OS version, CPU, GPU).

Thanks,

Ishan