Composition window only showing wireframes

[vsvancara]

I seem to be having issues with a group of files I have been working on. It started with one, and now Im this issues with all of them. When I try to open the file, all I see are wireframes in composition window, no images (screenshot attached). When I try to preview I get the error message "Cached preview needs two or more frames to playback." And when I export to media encoder, it tends to stall and crash.

*On a side note, I AM able to view the images in the precomps. Just not in the main timeline.

The size of the working file is 6.9MB. There are also a lot of layered .psd links and around 11 precomps (not sure if that info is useful or helpful)

Computer Specs:

MAC OS High Sierra

Processor: 3.2 GHz

Memory: 8G

Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 M390 2048 MB

Software Specs:

After Effects CC 15.1.2

Media Encoder CC 12.1.2

Things I've tried:

- Restarts

- Removing and reinstalling After Effects and Media Encoder

- Checked for broken links

- Preview mode: full

- Empty Disk Cache

- Clean Database and Cache

- Set max memory to AE (6.5G to AE, 1.5 to other software)

- Composition > fit to window size

- Tried preview panel, as opposed to preview from timeline

Any thoughts on what the issue could be?

[Rick Gerard]

Check the comp panel preview settings at the bottom right of the panel.

[vsvancara]

It's currently set at Off (Final Quality). I tried the others - "adaptive resolution" and "fast draft" and didn't change anything.

[Mike_Abbott]

Create a new project and import your existing project into it. See if that helps.

[vsvancara]

I was hoping that would work, but still have blank comp window.

[Mike_Abbott]

I note above : - "Set max memory to AE (6.5G to AE, 1.5 to other software)"

Try reducing max memory and increasing memory for other software to 3GB. Could the OS be starved of memory?

[vsvancara]

Tried reducing max memory. No effect. Yeah it does seem like it's a memory issue.

[Dave_LaRonde]

You probably should know that 8 gigs of memory is not much for running AE.

[vsvancara]

Yeah that's what I'm thinking. It's running fine on my smaller projects.

[angie_taylor]

Just checking that you havent got the draft 3D button switched on?

[vsvancara]

3d button is off.

[vsvancara]

*update - I'm about to switch to another iMac with more ram at work (I believe it has 16G), so we'll see if this helps....

[Mike_Abbott]

Yes - mulit-layered PSD's + limited RAM... memory could well be the issue.

[Byron Cortez]

Are you tried this?

[vsvancara]

tried adaptive resolution and fast draft. no changes.

[Byron Cortez]

What effects are you applying?

[vsvancara]

CC Particle World, CC Scatterize, Wiggle- Position, Puppet and also using effects from the plugin, Mr Horse

[Byron Cortez]

Try changing the Mercury GPU Acceleration in Project Settings, try one by one.

[vsvancara]

Tried all three (Mercury and Mercury GPU's). No change.

[Byron Cortez]

Try now deleting preferences:

- Close Ae.

- Then when clicking to open Ae (not from a created project, preferable the icon of the application) immediately press Shft + Alt + Cmd (on Mac) and keep pressing these three keys until If you see a dialog box where you are asked if you want to delete the preferences, press OK.

[vsvancara]

Deleting preferences didn't work.

[Byron Cortez]

Within your Pre-compositions, exactly what files are you using? if they are videos, what architecture / container (MOV, AVI, MPEG, etc) and what codec are they?

[vsvancara]

The precomps consist of either psd layers or pngs. Each precomp has some animation or effects. I'm also using sound that i downloaded from a free sound site. It's in MP3 format (how would I check the codec on that?). The weird thing is that I CAN see my precomps when I click on them. It's just the main timeline which I cannot see anything.

[vsvancara]

So I've switched computers, I now have 16G ram. Still having the same issue with black comp window.

Also tried viewing file on coworker's computer--same thing.

So it has to do with the file.

[vsvancara · Accepted solution]

I wanted to follow up and share what I did to resolve this, in case anyone searching here has similar issues.

So what I did was create a new document. Then I imported my old AEP file (the one that was not working). I brought in each layer of the old file (one by one) and tested it, saving my new file along the way. I found that there was one png file that seemed to be corrupted so I recreated that one and imported it in. Once I had all layers and assets imported into the new document I saved it and then started to re-organize it so that preview would run more efficiently. I took my precomps that contained the animated .psd layers and rendered them into .mov's. Once I had the .mov's I brought those into the timeline. I grouped the rest of the layers in the timeline by precomposing them. I also made sure I was previewing on lower quality (half or quarter). Seems to be running much better now.

Thanks to everyone who responded!