Why is AE Motion Graphics Templates performance so bad in Premiere?

Report · May 24, 2018

Hi there! I have a nagging performance issue.

I created a motion graphics template in After Effects, that includes 6 to 8 video layers and also 2 text layers.

Most of these layers use expressions for various things:

Some turn on or off visibility by changing the opacity value.

Other expressions change positions in response to mograph controls.

Controls in my template determine how the expressions play out. But basically everything is quite simple. No wild calculations there.

Now in After Effects the template plays fast, even at at the highest resolution.

Also in Premiere, a sequence containing the AE mograph plays totally fine.

But it is insanely slow to render!

Without mographics, rendering takes 2 - 3mins. With the mographics it takes 1-2 hours!

Hardware acceleration is on.

Why is this? Is there a secret switch, like "make AE mograph templates render fast"? Or is it just in the nature of AE mograph templates to always be painfully slow?

Does anybody have a tip, what I could try to improve render time?

I use the latest version of CC, on a Windows 10/64 PC, latest Nvidia driver, fast cpu, 64gb ram

Report · May 25, 2018

Hi.

If your motion graphics template is so complex, 6 to 8 video layers and also 2 layers of text and expressions, you should consider exporting your title directly from AE.

Although there are similarities between Premiere and AE, it must be understood that they were conceived for different purposes.

Report · May 25, 2018

Thank you juanmario. But 6 to 8 video layers is not complex. In After Effects you easily ramp up hundreds of layers. I forgot to mention that even with 2 video layers rendering in premiere is terrible. This seems like a weird bug to me, and I was hoping anyone has tips how to improve performance specifically on motion graphics. This is a core feature of Premiere, isn't it?

Report · May 25, 2018

This is not a final solution, but i would never use AE Motion Graphic Templates and let Premiere Pro render them, since as you already has discovered takes too long time. It is based on Adobe Dynamic Link and has been plauged with long render times from day one.

Use the AE Motion Graphic Template, edit it to your liking in AE, render it out from AE to QT CineForm or QT Animation, import it to Premiere Pro and enjoy real time playback. If you want/need to do changes use the Edit Original command in Premiere Pro to open up the AE project, do the changes and render it out again. (It is already added to the Render Queue when using Edit Original.)

Dynamic Link was introduced ca 2006 and has always had issues such as looooong render times compared to AE.

Report · May 25, 2018

Thank you for your suggestion! Unfortunately prerendering is not useful in my case.

This template was made to speed up the process of creating daily videos. Prerendering all instances of the mograph would be overkill. Also my editors doesnt know how to use After Effects.

After all, mograph is supposed to streamline the video making process, not complicate it

Report · May 25, 2018

The .mogart according to my point of view, is the ability of the program to have a friendly interface for the creation of simple titles with their respective controls.

As for complicating it, everything depends on what the user of the program wants.

Report · Jun 24, 2019

How would it be possible to do this, after you exported the comp into a mov?

Averdahl skrev
If you want/need to do changes use the Edit Original command in Premiere Pro to open up the AE project, do the changes and render it out again. (It is already added to the Render Queue when using Edit Original.)

Report · Jun 24, 2019

How would it be possible to do this, after you exported the comp into a mov?

After Effects injects meta data into the .mov file about the specific After Effects project and the comp that created the file, so when you use the Edit Original command that meta data is used to open the correct After Effects project and and the specific AE comp that created the asset.

Try it:

Export a comp to .mov or .avi from an existing After Effects project. Save the project when done.
Import the exported file into Premiere Pro.
Select the file in Premiere Pro, either on the timeline or in the Project panel and use the Edit Original command. (Ctrl+E or Cmd+E)

Result:

After Effects pops up and load the correct project and open up the correct comp and add the comp to the Render Queue with the setting you used when you exported the file in the first place. This happens even if you save and close After Effects directly after the render. Do your changes to the comp, go to the Render Queue and start the render and click OK on "Do you really want to overwrite...". You want to overwrite since it is Edit Original we do here. When the render is done, switch over to Premiere Pro and you will find that the clip is updated magically in Premiere Pro.

Edit Original is a suite wide command. Let´s say that you have a Photoshop file in After Effects/Premiere Pro that you need to change. Just select the file and use the Edit Original command to open the file in Photoshop. The changes you do will be reflected in After Effects/Premiere Pro once you save the file in Photoshop. You can do the same thing with audio, etc, etc.

IMO, Edit Original is one of the most hidden treasure in Adobe Apps.

Report · Jun 25, 2019

Aaah great, thanks! I do know, though, that in 13.1.3 you will have the possibility to render and replace mogarts (in previous versions it doesn't work). 13.1.3 will be reales shortly. If I understand it correctly, that workflow would be even bitter right?

Regarding Photoshop, I use that all the time with psds, but are you saying that it would work with, say, a jpg or a png aswell?

Report · Jun 25, 2019

Regarding Photoshop, I use that all the time with psds, but are you saying that it would work with, say, a jpg or a png aswell?

Yes, it will work as long as .jpg and .png is set in the OS to open in Photoshop by default. I would not recommend it though since it will re-compress the .png and .jpg files for each change you do.

Report · Jun 26, 2019

Ah yeah, of course. Thanks!

And what do you think about my 13.1.3 "argument"?

Report · Jun 26, 2019

And what do you think about my 13.1.3 "argument"?

Use the workflow that fit your needs and personal preference. Try it and see if you like it.

I am so used to render out of directly from AE and organize the clips and will still use that workflow. By doing this i don´t have to worry about using incorrect preview codecs on the timeline and know were my files are four months later. My personal preference.

Report · Nov 05, 2018

Hi Manniac.

Are you using any pre-comps in your main comp?

i had the same problem when I was using about 8 pre-comps (with alot of expressions inside those comps with "turn on or off visibility by changing the opacity value" using checkboxes) inside my main comp.

What I did was pre-rendering everything I didn't need to modify into Targa seqs, and put everything inside my main comp and using no pre-comps. Performance increased 500%.