render takes too long.

[TheSus]

Hello. i am rendering a 30 second video. and it says it need 8 hours. and the file is already at 100GB. i tried every solution to reduce time and file size nothing works.i tried media encoder it still needs hours to render. is this normal? 
GTX 1660
Ryzen 5 3600

16gb 3200mhz

the file that only took 1 minutes to render only made a 3 second blank video with sound. is adobe premiere better?, can i use other application to render my video? thanks

[Rick Gerard]

Render time depends on the composition frame size, frame rate, the frame size and frame rate of source footage, the codec used for the source footage, and the effects you have applied. I routinely create visual effects compositions that take several seconds per frame to render. I also create a lot of compositions that render several frames a second. It all depends on what I am doing in the comp. 

Without knowing what you are doing in the comp, what your system is, and what versions of After Effects you are using it is pretty difficult to tell you if there is something drastically wrong. Thirty seconds is a very long composition. After Effects is not an NLE and should only be used when you cannot create the visual effects, motion graphics, or animations you need in an NLE like Premiere Pro. My average comp is one shot that is under seven seconds. Most of the videos that I produce are long-form. Some of them have dozens of effects shots per minute and some have only one or two effects shots in an hour. I also produce videos where every shot has been created in After Effects but I always create those comps one shot at a time, the composition is never longer than a sentence or phrase, and the final editing, sound mixing, and even color grading are always done in an NLE using visually lossless (never MP4) footage that I have rendered using After Effects.

Show us your timeline with the modified properties of the layers revealed (press 'uu') and describe what you are trying to do and we can tell you if the render time is unusually long. 

[TheSus]

2020 ae

64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

 

here are the effects 

is using adobe premiere better? 

[Rick Gerard · Accepted solution]

If you don't need After Effects, Premiere is faster. It is a non-linear editing app designed to edit movies. 

You have a lot of MP4 videos. MP4 is not a production format, always takes longer to decode and re-render than frame-based formats and could be causing some of the slowdowns. 

Your comps all seem to be 60 fps. Most of the time this high frame rate does nothing to improve the quality of a video, if you share the video on YouTube, Vimeo, or any of the social platforms it will probably be delivered at a maximum of 30 fps. Just changing the frame rate of the comps will cut your render time in half.

I have no idea what the frame size is of the comp. 

It looks like you have color composite, bulge and twirl applied to a couple of layers. I don't know how many layers you have in your comp or if the effects last for the entire 30 seconds. I don't know if there are any cuts between shots in the comp. I don't know if you are trying to edit a sequence. I see a couple of short layers but they look like they are past the end of the work area. Comp 2 is more than 7 minutes long, but the work area is about 30 seconds. 

Still don't know much about what you are trying to do. Are you following a tutorial? Do you have very much experience using After Effects?

[TheSus]

I am following a tutorial, and yes i just downloaded this program 2 days ago. ok i will reduce the fps TO 29,7 and cut unused effects im trying to edit a video with effects from youtube, i want to ask another question, my compostion is 2 hours, and my clip is only 30 seconds, do i need to remove the rest of unused compostion or will it smart render? i just moved from davinci to after effect because people say you can do more in after effects. thanks

[Rick Gerard]

What tutorial are you following? Most of the tutorials you find on YouTube are presented by enthusiasts and the workflows can be pretty inefficient.

Your composition should be as long as your shot. There is no need for extra time in the timeline. You can trim your comp to the work area.

You should also spend some time with the User Guide. It will help you figure out the basic UI and workflow. 

[TheSus]

i reduced the fps and trimmed my composition like you said and it reduced my rendering time from 7 hours rendering to 20 minutes, thanks sir

[P.M.B]

What is "smart render"?

[TheSus]

i meant media encoder will only render timeline that has video or audio and wont render the rest

[Joost van der Hoeven]

Can you please share your system info? Like OS and version, CPU, RAM, GPU vRAM, Ae version? Thanks. 

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-...