Help with Multi Frame Rendering

Report · Dec 17, 2021

Yesterday I tried out the new v22.11 version of AFX to benefit from Multi Frame Rendering as I was so ready to not have to wait more than 4 hours to export a 3 minute video.

The results were immediately fantastic, with my render time going down to 45 minutes! I was amazed and incredibly relieved - I could now get the most out of my CPU and get a TON more done, This is what my CPU looked like at the time:

Today, I go back to my project (still open and running from yesterday) and amended a single text layer (and literally nothing else) before re-exporting with the same settings (duplicated the render queue entry). To be clear, the text is the only thing I changed. It's now gone back to taking over 4 hours to render out, and despite MFR being enabled and the progress details telling me it's rendering 7 (sometimes 16) concurrent frames, this is what my CPU looks like today:

It looks like it's only fully utilising one core again? And the overall usage barely goes over 35%. How can I get it to slam my CPU again? That was brilliant!

I've tried restarting, enabling GPU acceleration, clearing cache among some other things I can't remember rn and I just can't get it to slam my CPU in the same way it did yesterday.

Anyone else got any ideas?

You can see my specs in the screenshots, export settings are default 'best' quality and Quicktime ProRes 442, plenty of memory on the SSD I'm writing to.

Thanks in advance.

Report · Dec 17, 2021

I would try saving the project, then start a new Project and Import your saved project instead of opening it. There may be some kind of a glitch in the AEP caused by the change.

The only other thing I can think of would be a corrupted font.

Report · Dec 17, 2021

Thanks for your suggestion Rick

At first I thought it had worked, as the initial frames (roughly the first 5 seconds of the video) seemsed to go pretty fast and my remaining time said 1 hour. But it's gradually gotten slower and slower since, to the point it's now saying it'll be 3 hours (and going up). I noticed it was saying about .2 seconds per frame which has also gone up now to 2.09 seconds per frame. CPU usage gradually going down too, having started at arounf 50% CPU to now hanging around the 20% mark.

I think I'll try a reinstall.

Report · Dec 17, 2021

Update after last message:

Reinstall didn't work. Time remaining 4 hours, no inital speed up. still looks like it's only using the one core/processor.

I would LOVE to know how to get it to go as quick as it did again, I feel like a junkie haha.

Thanks for yout help.

Report · Dec 17, 2021

Hi Ben,

That's not ideal!

Did you change a font in the project or just the text? What happens if you revert the changes you did and try to export again? Also, try exporting in a different format.

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks,

Nishu

Report · Dec 17, 2021

Hi Nishu

Thanks for the reply

No fonts changed, only the contents of a text layer (replaced the word) - I possibly changed the font size, but can't remember for sure. Sadly, I cannot get the project to the state it was in when it worked as intended, as I have since saved over it.

Are we sure the format could be the problem? Shouldn't the system use of all resources available regardless of format when multiframe rendering is enabled? Ie, shouldn't it always try to use 100% cpu and all cores no matter the format? Further, with my current render settings it did work fine the first time I tried, indicating the format is ok?

One intersting observation - It currently says 2 seconds time per frame and 6 frames rendering concurrently. I just observed the progress showing that I was on frame 3430 of 6600 and exactly 12 seconds later (6 frames x 2 seconds) the progress increased to 3436 of 6600. I would say this serves as proof that AFX currently is not rendering frames concurrently at all, as this is no different to rendering one frame at a time every 2 seconds. Alternatively it shows that the is rendering frames concurrently, but only using one core to do so, making the output the same.

For the next video I export, I'll try other formats. Do you have any recommendations of which format combinations strike a good balance between quality, render speed and disk space?

Thanks for you help

Report · Dec 18, 2021

Quick update, other formats and entire new (and basic) projects make no differece. The system appaears to only use a single core whether MFR is enabled or not. If disabled, its as it was before. If enabled, it waits for say, 7 frames to render then dumps them all in at once -net result is the same amount of resource and time is taken.

I'm now convinced this is broken for me, which is a shame as I was very much looking forward tot he productivity increase. I just can't work out what went wrong.

Report · Aug 18, 2022

Hey there, half a year later, but I've got exactly the same issue, using version 22.5 on Windows 10. Things start out great, but after 50 frames or so, the amount of frames getting rendered simultaneously goes down until I'm left with only one frame rendering at any time, i.e. MFR isn't working anymore.

Are there any updates from Adobe on this? MFR is the headline feature of these new AE releases and it really should be working, as I rely on quick turnaround rendering all the time, to meet my deadlines. Would be good to have a fix for this asap.

Report · Aug 31, 2022

Same issue like other users here! macOS on M1 Pro, last version of AE, no other apps open: after a couple of secs it is stuck on 1 frame simultaneous and with very high rendering time! WHY???

Report · Sep 02, 2022

same AE 22.6 / M1 Mac chip rendering to png

Report · Feb 17, 2023

Same issue here on AE 23.1 with Windows 11. Initially starts with multi frame rendering and very quickly goes down to 1 frame, where it stays for the remainder of the render. This didn't happen to last week's video, it just started now.

Here's a bunch of other dudes having the same problem:

https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/44724691-multi-frame-rende...

My CPU activity looks just like yours now whereas last week, everything was being utilised

Report · Jun 08, 2023

I just picked up a M1 Ultra Mac Studio, and a multi frame rendering said it would take almost 2 hours. It rendered on my MacBook Pro M1 Max laptop in 2 hours, 48 minutes. I turned off multiframe rendering, and the render time dropped to 10 minutes. I'm not sure what the Adobe software engineers are doing, but it's very clear that they are not optimizing their software properly, or the switch has the opposite effect of what it's supposed to have.