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USP7064825
USP7064825
Participant
June 23, 2017
Answered

Best system for rendering

  • June 23, 2017
  • 4 replies
  • 2817 views

We are looking for a  system that is the fastest possible render

Currently we have

i7 3.6Ghz, 32GB RAM, Geforece 1070 4GB, 1TB SSD

In After effects we are rendering mainly text based, shape based, transitions and character compositions encoded to media encoder.

A short video is taking in excess of 20 hours to render. We have updated the NVIDIA drivers from their website and update adobe

We do need to get more systems, so what would be recommended for the fastest possible render in after effects?

Thanks for your help

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Andrew Yoole

Thanks for posting back, this helps a lot.

The project described is actually reasonably complicated, in the scheme of things.  Lighting and shadows adds hugely to render times in After Effects, especially when there are multiple lights.  The Particle World plugin can be a real render hog, as well.

GPU-based effects like Optical Flares and Element 3D can cause efficiency issues in the render pipeline occasionally, because CPU based effects on the same layer may have to "wait" for the GPU component of the render to be buffered before processing.

I'd suggest the the render times you're seeing are not unrealistic, given your description.  So what can you do to improve render times?

As has been mentioned in posts above, the very best way to improve render times is to learn ways that simplify or reduce the render load.  Identify shadow renders that could be done with a simple drop shadow plugin or dark solid, rather than a true 3D rendered shadow.  Apply non-animated effects like blurs and colour correction to still graphics in Photoshop, rather than rendering on every frame in After Effects.  Pre-render components of your composition if possible.  Etc etc.

But, on a purely hardware level, I'd say your priorities are, in order of importance:

1 - CPU - get the fastest CPU you can afford.

2 - More RAM.  Get 64Gb of RAM

3 - GPU - get the best GPU you can afford.  Check its features are of value to both After Effects, and to Element 3D.

4 replies

Warren Heaton
Community Expert
Warren HeatonCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 25, 2017

Heya USP:

Take a closer look at everything everyone's recommended in this thread.

And...

Consider rendering to Best Settings / Lossless first.  Then use the resulting .avi in Media Encoder to encode to H264.  With this approach, you're rendering to a format that doesn't compress between the frames nor within each frame first and encoding to a format that does compress between the frames second.

As you add more workstations, consider rendering your Comp in segments on each workstation at Best Settings / Lossless.  If you had a one minute Comp running at 24fps, workstation 1 could render the first 400 frames (0000 to 00359, the first 15 second segment) while workstation 2 renders the second 400 frames (00400 to 00719, the second 15 second segment) and so forth.  In this example, you'll have four 15 second segments that can be encoded to H264 using Media Encoder's Stitch feature (it allows you to add more than one file to the Source for the encode - not to be confused with "stitching" VR panels).

Also, if your budget allows for it when you purchase additional workstations, go with faster i7 processors (3.6GHz is good, but faster is, well, faster) or i9 processors, more RAM, and more VRAM.  You could also consider RAID storage based on SSD drives instead of just a single SSD drive.

Andrew Yoole
Andrew Yoole
Inspiring
June 23, 2017

Hard to judge your project requirements without more specific info about what you are rendering.

Ideally, post a copy of a project file that we can analyse and test on other systems.  If that's not possible, answer some questions:

What is the duration of the final project?  How long does it take to render?

What is the resolution and output format/codec you are rendering to?

How many layers in the project?  Lots of 3D?   Lighting and shadows?

What plugins are being used?  Chromakey?  Third party plugins?

What expressions are being used?

Which Renderer?  Standard, Cinema 4D?  Any C4D layers?

    USP7064825
    USP7064825Author
    Participant
    June 27, 2017

    Thanks, these are the answers to your above questions that our production guys have come back with:

    It took 10 hours to render a 2:30 minutes video with CC environment, Lens Flare, 100 layers mostly in 3D space with a camera.

    Resolution and output format -  almost all the time 1920x1080, usually mov h264 but might be in png codec, 8, 16 and 32 bit depending on the project

    Layers in the project - around 100 layers, 1-2 cameras, 4-6 lights, some text, mostly video and images, mostly in 3D space with lights and shadows.

    Plugins - Optical flares, element 3d, eventually REG GIANT trapcode, and I use usually camera tracker, levels, fast blur, particular world, key, but I might use the plugins that come with AE sometimes

    Expression - Usually simple expression, wiggle, time, but I work with some templates full of expression to change the color, change the number of the layer (animation character rigging 2D) EX: Pixity Land

    Andrew Yoole
    Andrew YooleCorrect answer
    Inspiring
    June 27, 2017

    Thanks for posting back, this helps a lot.

    The project described is actually reasonably complicated, in the scheme of things.  Lighting and shadows adds hugely to render times in After Effects, especially when there are multiple lights.  The Particle World plugin can be a real render hog, as well.

    GPU-based effects like Optical Flares and Element 3D can cause efficiency issues in the render pipeline occasionally, because CPU based effects on the same layer may have to "wait" for the GPU component of the render to be buffered before processing.

    I'd suggest the the render times you're seeing are not unrealistic, given your description.  So what can you do to improve render times?

    As has been mentioned in posts above, the very best way to improve render times is to learn ways that simplify or reduce the render load.  Identify shadow renders that could be done with a simple drop shadow plugin or dark solid, rather than a true 3D rendered shadow.  Apply non-animated effects like blurs and colour correction to still graphics in Photoshop, rather than rendering on every frame in After Effects.  Pre-render components of your composition if possible.  Etc etc.

    But, on a purely hardware level, I'd say your priorities are, in order of importance:

    1 - CPU - get the fastest CPU you can afford.

    2 - More RAM.  Get 64Gb of RAM

    3 - GPU - get the best GPU you can afford.  Check its features are of value to both After Effects, and to Element 3D.

      Warren Heaton
      Community Expert
      Warren HeatonCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      June 23, 2017

      I have some suggestions to speed things up, but a quick question first: What is the duration of the Comp that's taking 20 hours encode to H264?  Ten seconds?  One minute?  One hour?

      -Warren

      Mylenium
      Mylenium
      Legend
      June 23, 2017

      Well, to be blunt, this discussion is utterly pointless because it has nothing to do with hardware. Rather than looking to solve the problem with more processing power you might want to optimize your compositions. otherwise AE will still render slow, just on more machines. Sorry, but you simply haven't provided any sensible information like exact details about your comps, screenshots, render settings. for al we know, you could use a specific efect or enable a certain option and when it's turned off your redners will fly. Your system has plenty of juice, you're just screwing yourself by using an odd combination of things, presumably. Getting a hundred new machines won't help then because they'd all suffer from the same issues.

      Mylenium

      USP7064825
      USP7064825Author
      Participant
      June 23, 2017

      Have asked our production and has said these are what they render with

      Comps -  At least 1920x1080

      Render Setting - Most commonly, HDTV 30 frames, Mov h264, png, aac .

      P.M.B
      P.M.B
      Legend
      June 23, 2017

      Updating your "nvidia" drivers didn't help?!   Sounds like you guys need to make some changes in your IT department.

      ~Gutterfish
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