How to more efficiently load many point features with GEOlayers? (Performance Q)

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
March 2, 2021
2 replies
1719 views

I was having trouble loading a few thousand point features into After Effects without AE crashing. GEOlayers gives me the warning that says "You're trying to draw 3484 features with 3484." After I loaded the features in, After Effects became unresponsive, I got the spinning wheel of death and I had to force quit.

How can I more efficiently load these 3484 points into After Effects with GEOlayers? I then need to continue editing. These are the things that I have tried so far:

1. I have allocated as much RAM as possible to After Effects. Currently I have 6.5 GB available for AE.
2. I have closed all other applications running on my Mac.
3. I have reduced the resolution to "quarter."
4. I am using my fastest external harddrive for the disk
cache folder.
5. My project AE file is on the external harddrive.
6. I am using "Simplify Geometry (Current Zoom)"

After I tried all these things I was able to load the point features without crashing AE, but I am not able to do any editing because AE is too slow.

What more can I do short of installing more RAM? (I'm on a work computer)

R

Rick Gerard

Community Expert

Adobe likes even multiples of ram allocated. 6.5 is probably actually increasing the likelihood of problems. Try changing it to 6 GB and leave 2 for other apps. I'm assuming you have 8 available.

I also am assuming that you are using GEOlayers from AE scripts and that you have the latest version. The most likely cause of the problem is loading too many points. You may be stuck with a redesign and cutting between comps. It's hard to say. You might consider contacting the developer.

Roland Kahlenberg

Legend

1) create a Support Ticket at GEOLayers' page at aescripts.com

2) break up the project into manageable AEPs - perhaps 5% sections, and one AEP just for the background.

Very Advanced After Effects Training | Adaptive & Responsive Toolkits | Intelligent Design Assets (IDAs) | MoGraph Design System DEV

A

Alex5E85Author

New Participant

Thanks so much, could you point me to any resources on how to break up AEPs
into more manageable projects? Would I create shorter videos, of each data
viz for example, and then stitch them together in a separate AEP?

Roland Kahlenberg

Legend

The bottleneck you're facing seems more likely related to the number of points/layers rather than duration although this too could be an issue. But as a starting point, I'd look at reducing an AEP based on the number of datapoints each AEP has; keeping the duration as per the original. I've not had hands-on with GEOLayers so I'm not certain if the datapoints reside in the Project+Comp Panels or as datapoints within an Effects Control Panel.

If the datapoints are in the form of layers in the Project+Comp Panels, then remove those layers you want to cull from the existing AEP. Repeat the removal process with each iteration meant to cull out a different set; keeping only layers that are differentiated from the layers in the other newly created AEPs. Ensure the background is separated and on its own AEP. Once all layers are separated into their AEPs, you would render them individually and then combine these rendered movies together with the background in another AEP.

Your first task is to ensure that culling all but 10 or 5% of the total layers works as per your expectationss in terms of performance. Once the first test is done, you can adjust the %/number of layers to suit your comfort level in terms of interactive performance while working with AE.

HTH

Very Advanced After Effects Training | Adaptive & Responsive Toolkits | Intelligent Design Assets (IDAs) | MoGraph Design System DEV

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