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isaiahc74232757
Participant
May 29, 2018
Question

My Time Bar keeps resetting ?

  • May 29, 2018
  • 4 replies
  • 6766 views

I can't play through my sequence in Adobe After Effects my time bar keeps resetting mid session when I try to preview.

    4 replies

    E
    Elliot Frahs
    Participating Frequently
    October 26, 2023

    I am having a similar issue in AE 24.0.1, with 128GB installed RAM.

     

    Expected behavior (present in older version of AE): Hit Spacebar, playback begins caching frames as the playhead crawls through the composition timeline, until the playhead reaches the end of the composition. 

     

    Actual behavior: Hit Spacebar, playhead begins caching frames as playhead crawls through the composition timeline, until stopping at an arbitrary point and restarting from the start of the composition. This leaves a portion of the composition uncached unless I scrub the playhead and hit Spacebar again.

      E
      Elliot Frahs
      Participating Frequently
      October 26, 2023

      I must emphasize how the range that gets cached before playback restarts from the beginning seems truly arbitrary.

        A
        Airweb_AE
        Legend
        February 13, 2024

        I use this configuration without encountering any issues.

        1. Cache Before Playback is enabled.
        2. Set a reasonable Work Area starting at 5 seconds or less and then increase it gradually to find the limit.
        3. Regularly clear caches.

         

         

          Warren Heaton
          Community Expert
          Warren HeatonCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          October 23, 2022

          Try lowering the Composition Resolution (View > Full, Half, Third, Quarter, and Custom) and/or skipping frames (Preview panel, set "Skip" to "1").  If the default Preview options have not been changed, pressing Shift + Numberpad 0 automatically sets the Resolution to the current Magnification level of the Comp and skips 1 frame.

           

          A lower Resolution means longer previews at lower image quality while skipping frames means longer previews that are not as smooth.

           

          After Effects provides several options for previewing that make various tradeoffs between speed and fidelity.  For more information, go to After Effects User Guide, Previewing, then scroll down to "Preview modes and Viewer Quality preferences".

           

           

          Joost van der Hoeven
          Community Expert
          Joost van der HoevenCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          August 11, 2022

          I'm guessing your computer is low on RAM for the comp you are trying to playback. Can you share some tech info? Like OS and version, CPU, RAM, GPU vRAM, Ae version? Thanks. Also a screen grab of your issue will be helpful.

          FAQ: What information should I provide when asking a question on this forum?
          https://community.adobe.com/t5/after-effects-discussions/faq-what-information-should-i-provide-when-asking-a-question-on-this-forum/m-p/3928960#M3238

            R
            Community Expert
            Rick GerardCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            May 29, 2018

            Probably normal behavior. You can't learn AE by just poking around in the app. Start here: Basic AE

            Ram Preview depends on available system resources and your composition. This is one of the most typical complaints of folks that have not taken the time to learn anything about the app.

            If you happen to be experienced and are having this problem then we need workflow and system details down to the last decimal point.

              I
              isaiahc74232757Author
              Participant
              May 29, 2018

              I got Adobe Effects yesterday.

              So my RAM is what's making the Time Bar Reset and not play through ?

              There is no setting to fix it ?

                P.M.B
                P.M.B
                Legend
                May 29, 2018

                We really don't know what you mean when you say your "time bar keeps resetting".

                One of the problems with trying to use After Effects without spending some time to properly learn

                the basics (like how previewing works and how to set up your preview preferences)

                is an inability to articulate issues.

                Playback varies depending what key you're using to stop and start playback.

                These settings are determined in the preview panel.

                These setting could be set to only play cached frames (green bar)

                It could also be you're out of RAM

                or that your cache is full

                And it could also be that your work space doesn't extend to the end of you "sequence".

                I strongly suggest getting some free or premium screen capture software,

                opening a Vimeo or Youtube account and start uploading videos of the inevitable problems you are going to run into which

                you can then embed in your posts here.  At least until you learn enough to be able clearly articulate the problems you're having.

                ~Gutterfish
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