Why does editing become so pixelated and laggy, and how can I solve it?

[Raeng]

Pixalated editing problem

Basically, whenever I try to edit or move something, my resolution gets really pixalated and editing is really choppy. I'm just editing vector shapes (using Rubberhose as well, though I had the problem prior as well). What's causing this? Any ideas?

I'm using the latest version of AE. Specs of machine are:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700K CPU @ 4.20GHz, 4201 MHz, 4 core, 8 processors
32GB RAM
NVIDIA GeFORCE GTX 1060 6gb

Any advice or tips would be welcomed.

[Martin_Ritter]

That's the adaptive resolution as it shows up in right top corner. You an switch it to "off" in the comp-window. In the bottom line, it's the icon which is currently blueish.

*Martin

[Raeng]

Cheers for the reply. I stopped using that feature after you mentioned it, but now my project is very slow. Any ideas on how I can speed it up? My machine is pretty good as I recall, do you have recommendations?

[Mohammad.Harb]

sometines this happens when while working on heavy projects, usuall I do the steps

Purge All memory and Disk Cache,

Edit -> Purge -> All memory and Disk Cache

and switching between Adaptive Resolution/Off ( Final Quality )

and sometimes I have to restart windows/Mac

[Raeng]

Ha! I actually have that action hotkeyed because I use it so much (purge). The full reset I tend to do sometimes. Weird that we have to do this.

[Mylenium]

Aside from what Martin said, try to go light on using expressions and all that stuff. Just looking at your screenshot it's clear that all those nifty panels apply a ton of expressions and extraneous keyframes and evaluating those will inevitably slow down things considerably even if the project otherwise seems easy/ light.

Mylenium

[Raeng]

Possible. I use a lot of plugins. Do unused plugins (so just their open windows) slow the software down as well?

[Martin_Ritter]

"Cheers for the reply. I stopped using that feature after you mentioned it, but now my project is very slow. Any ideas on how I can speed it up?"

Yes, you can activate adaptive resolution, because that's what it was build for. 🙂

I'm almost on the same machine as you but I have no clue how your project is setted up, I don't know your workflow. Working with IK, a lot of expressions and shape layers is always a slow down. If you provide more details about your project set up and workflow, we might find something which can be optimized.

*Martin

[Raeng]

Ha! Fair enough! Regarding my workflow. I make my illustrations first in Illustrator, which I then push to After Effects using Overlord. I connect these together (parents) to animate them. For limbs like legs and arms I use Rubberhose. And that's it really. Sometimes when I have to animate a complicated scene I use the Focus plugin to filter out uncessary elements temporarily. I use the Flow plugin to give my keyframes the easing they need.

NOTE: apparently Shift+Enter posts...okay.

[Martin_Ritter]

I keep the AI files and use DUIK for rigging. Works well for HD, but get's sloppy on 4k. For rubber-bends, I take the puppet tool.

Maybe you can try to work with smaller comps (1/2 HD or less) and scale them up in the main comp.

*Martin