Error 86 :: 1 when importing large jpg to After Effects

Report · Jan 24, 2019

Am getting an error when trying to load a hig-res jpg into After Effects.

Error 86::1
Then I get an error that the file is corrupt or damaged

I can open the jpgs in PS and Photo viewer.

Files vary a bit in size but the one I used for testing is 21941x16360 (all are RGB 8-bit)

If I save the file as a png from PS it will import. But if I use SAVE AS to create a new jpg, then it will not, UNLESS I reduce the image size to 18500px width. Then it's happy. (I tried lots of incremental decreases in size until I found one that works.)

New 185000 jpg is 150MB, but the png that works at full res is 371MB.

I can import other jpgs from this scanner, but on closer look I think they are all under 18500px wide.

I have to do a long animated zoom into 100% in a 4K comp, hence the gigantic dimensions of the scans.
I would prefer not to convert all these scans to png files as I have over 30 and it takes roughly 5min to save each giant file. But mostly I'm curious as to why AE doesn't like a jpg that size. Adobe says it will accept up to 30,000x30,000 images.

AE 2019 16.0.1
Windows 10
cleared my caches and have 57.7GB RAM allocated for AE

Report · Jan 24, 2019

Make sure your version of AE is up to date. There were some bugs with jpeg files.

When working with very large image sizes it is almost always a good idea to break those up into smaller images that are suited to your design. For example, you want to start showing an entire document that is 20,000 pixels wide, but then push in until you are at an effective 100% scale. I would open the large file in Photoshop, make two or three copies of it. Size the first one to double the comp width (approx 8000 pixels for 4K), Crop the last copy to about 2 X the comp width framed up so you can center on the hero framing, then scale and crop the other copies so that you can start a move on each of them at about 30% to 50% scale push in and frame up until you get to 100% scale, then seamlessly transition to the next image. With a little planning you can end up with a completely seamless zoom, your comp will be easier to work on, and the render times will go way down, each image in the project will be at or near an effective 100% scale at some point in the composition, and you won't be asking After Effects to do a good job interpolating pixels at 5% scale. That is all part of an efficient workflow. I do this kind of thing often and the time it takes to prepare the images in Photoshop is way less than the time wasted in AE trying to manipulate huge images.

Report · Jan 24, 2019

Thanks. DEFINITELY agree that working with massive files is not going to be pretty and would like to avoid it if possible. I've been trying to figure out if I can do the sort of workflow you describe with this project. The complication is that rather than using just one still image as a base, I need these 30+ images to cross dissolve at various rates and possibly have other layers of animation going on within a comp that is zooming in from (let's make the math easy) 25% to 100% (where 100% is 4K which means I'd need a 16000px starting comp)

So I'd have to:

- make three copies of each of the 30 images at big, med, small sizes (taking framing into account as you describe)

- make three different comps at the three different sizes with the exact same animation in each comp so when the transition happens the animation isn't interrupted

- line them all up perfectly so they'd transition seamlessly during the zoom

Not impossible if it's just cross dissolving between the images, but a lot of variables that could go wrong. Or maybe there's a easier way? I certainly would like to avoid a 16000px wide comp!

Is there an actual term for this sort of nested zooming technique you describe, btw?