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charliedane
charliedane
Participant
October 19, 2022
Question

Can't get composition to play in realtime

  • October 19, 2022
  • 1 reply
  • 290 views

For some reason I can never get my composition to playback in realtime. I'll play it all choppy to get the green RAM line, and then when I try to play it back at the start of the green line it should play back smooth but it never does. Also I have it in settings where it should be rendering while I'm paused but it never does. I've also gotten the entire length of the project with a green line and it still will play back incredibly choppy. 

 

I've tried all the solutions I've found through research:

-My monitoring and playback resolution are both set to quarter

-I've tried clearing my cache

-I've tried restarting

-My AE is up to date

-My computer storage is half full

-I've tried importing the AE file into premiere and rendering in to out, but for some reason this less-than-2min video takes almost a half hour to render in Premiere

-I've tried fast previews set to adaptive and set to off

 

Here are my computer specs:

MacBook Pro (16 inch, 2019)

Processor - 2.4Ghz 8-Core Intel Core i9

Memory - 64 GB 2667 MHz DDR4

Startup Disk - Macintosh HD

Graphics - AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8 GB

mosOS Monterey 12.4

AE version 23.0

 

My disk cache folder is set to my super fast external SSD drive (LaCie Rugged SSD Pro 1TB, half full)

 

My composition is 2 min but my work area ends at around 1:37

 

I have 65 layers, 20 of them being audio layers, the rest being a mixure of pngs, jpgs, mp4s a few solids and one null that most of the layers are parented to. 

 

Effects and keyframes are fairly simple, position/scale/opacity movements, only effects are a few CC light sweeps and 3 tiny clips, a few fast box blur, one mesh warp, and one lumeti color. Most layers have no effects.

 

Please help, I can't finish this project unless I can see it in realtime!!

 

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

nishu_kush
Community Manager
nishu_kushCommunity Manager
Community Manager
October 19, 2022

Hi shirlandchar,

 

Welcome to the community and thanks for creating the details post.

Is it happening in all the projects? Could you try on a new project? Also, do you mind sharing a screen recording of the issue with the Info panel expanded? It'll be helpful for us to understand the issue better.

Looking forward to your response.

 

Thanks,

Nishu

charliedane
charliedaneAuthor
Participant
October 20, 2022

I tried opening a different project, one with way more layers and movements, and the issue wasn't happening. It would play choppy and load the green line, and then I'd play it back perfectly. It seems to just be this project for some reason. Here is a screen recording with the info panel open. As you can see (and hear), even though the green line has loaded I still can't get it to play in real time. 

ShiveringCactus
Community Expert
ShiveringCactusCommunity Expert
Community Expert
October 20, 2022

As frustrating as this may seem, I think you're just expecting too much from AE.  Playback is always from the RAM, with that green line denoting which frames have been "rendered" for preview.  AE has to build these frames first, which is why it is choppy to begin with.

You're also trying to playback sound so AE to processing that live as it's playing from the RAM.

Add to that the number of layers in your comp, which AE is sortof monitoring for changes.

Add to that Text, which AE always seems to struggle with in previews.  At least it does for me.

Generally, if you're attempting to preview something like this, you're going to struggle in AE.  It's best to solo layers to check for animation timing. 

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