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Background process won't shut down

New Here ,
Mar 30, 2018 Mar 30, 2018

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We just got through a huge project where we have been using After Effects and Character Animator to produce several animations involving multiple scenes from Character Animator in each one. We haven't been running into any issues up until now.

After I've opened After Effects and rendered out the animation using Adobe Media Encoder I've encountered a problem when I've shut both programs down. One of the background processes for Character Animator remains running and will not shut down. I've tried ending the task but nothing happens. I've gone to the process itself and tried the same but I'm told access denied. If I try to open either Character Animator or the file we've been working on in After Effects, both programs stall out and I have to force quit them. Once that's done the Character Animator process remains in the background.

I've even tried a restart of the computer—and this is where things get weird—but it won't. My computer won't restart. I have to do a hard boot to reset everything. Once this is done the Character Animator is gone. I don't like having to force my computer to shut down.

Can anyone help me?

What info do you need from me?

Windows 10 Professional

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New Here ,
Dec 13, 2019 Dec 13, 2019

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I'm experiencing the same issue on a Mac.  It's also showing a different language on some of the prompts.  The processes (Adobe Ch Headless) are using a fair amount of RAM.  The issue seems to have come about suddenly, and it's really slowing down my machine in a way I haven't experienced before with Character Animator.

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Community Expert ,
Jul 12, 2021 Jul 12, 2021

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its 2021, and I am also experiencing the same issue. Character Animator won't quit, not even using the Terminal. Frustrating

Consulting | Design | Motion | Training>headTrix, Inc. | Adobe Certified Training & Consulting<br />Consulting | Design | Development | Training

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Adobe Employee ,
Jul 13, 2021 Jul 13, 2021

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Sorry to hear this. The CH Headless process is the way CH connects with other apps like Premiere, After Effects, or Media Encoder. I've always heard that if you close CH and wait 30 seconds, it should go away - but if I look at my Activity Monitor now, I see AE and PR headless instances running. Restarting my computer seemed to make them go away.

 

If restarting doesn't remove them and this persists please let us know and we'll take a closer look.

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Community Expert ,
Jul 15, 2021 Jul 15, 2021

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Hi Dave!

Thanks for the reply. Yes, this has been an issue for me for MONTHS. And you are right, I guess it happens when I dynamically link Ch into Premiere, and as I am going back and forth from Photoshop to Premiere to Ch is usually when this happens. If I press Command + Tab to to cycle basck to Ch it wont work. If I press the Ch icon to open Ch it doesnt work. And I have to hide all other apps to see Ch usually waiting with a spinning ball which makes me have to force quit, which doesnt always work. When force quit doesnt work, then I try the terminal (and there are 4 Ch Headless processes that I try to delete as if I am playing Wack-a-Mole!, then I have to try to restart. But the computer will not restart since it thinks Ch is still open with those processes running. Then I have to force start my entire Mac to get back up and running.  I was chatting with Kevin Monahan 4 months ago about this. 

 

is this just happening to me? Any ideas?

thanks so much!

hope all is well!
mark

Consulting | Design | Motion | Training>headTrix, Inc. | Adobe Certified Training & Consulting<br />Consulting | Design | Development | Training

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Adobe Employee ,
Jul 15, 2021 Jul 15, 2021

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Hey Mark, thanks for the info. Two followups as we try to dig into things:

1. What versions of CH and PR are you using?

2. What are your OS specs?

Thanks!

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Community Expert ,
Jul 15, 2021 Jul 15, 2021

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sure thing!

So all my apps according to Creative Cloud app are "Up to Date"

 

Premiere Pro - Version 15.2.0 (Build 35)

Character Animator - Version  4.2 (Build 34)

 

My OS Specs

Mac OS Catalina Version 10.15.7

MacBook Pro 2018

2.3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5

16GB Memory 2133 MHz

Graphics: 

Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 1536 MB

 

Do I need a new computer??? 😞

 

cheers,

mark

Consulting | Design | Motion | Training>headTrix, Inc. | Adobe Certified Training & Consulting<br />Consulting | Design | Development | Training

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Adobe Employee ,
Jul 16, 2021 Jul 16, 2021

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Thanks Mark. From the team:

"Is he quitting Premiere?  The CH headless processes will hang around, but should close if you open a new PR project or close the one that uses CH sources. If not, that sounds like a bug."

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Community Expert ,
Jul 16, 2021 Jul 16, 2021

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thanks for the follow up! I am only qutting Premiere when Character Animator freezes, and I have to shut down my computer in order to get back up and running.

 

It's happened rather consistently.... and if you scroll above it looks like others have had similar issues. Although if this was happening to everyone I would think you would have heard about it much more. 


I know you use Premiere with Ch, I assume you arent having this issue, huh?

 

thanks!

mark

Consulting | Design | Motion | Training>headTrix, Inc. | Adobe Certified Training & Consulting<br />Consulting | Design | Development | Training

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Adobe Employee ,
Jul 16, 2021 Jul 16, 2021

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Thanks. Our best guess is that some resource like RAM is overrunning, and swapping between programs can sometimes cause this sort of thing. Typically how long is a CH scene you're linking with? Longer scenes may require more memory. In a worst case scenario you could do a PNG sequence and WAV export from CH instead - not as easy to work with, but a backup if you want to avoid issues. It's very possible this is a bug somewhere in the mix that a select few people seem to be running into.

 

I do dynamic link with CH often, but personally I use AE more than PR with CH - still, that should be more or less the same system, and I haven't seen this issue on my machine before.

 

 

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Community Expert ,
Jul 20, 2021 Jul 20, 2021

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Okay, I guess that is possible.... but I have had a lot more Adobe applicaitons open as once.

 

My scenes are less then a minute, but I do have multiple scenes imported. PNG wont work, since I like being able to update the character in Ps or the animation in Ch an dhave it all update in Pr.

 

Hopefully this bug can get worked out! Would also be nice to be able to HOLD a frame in a cycled layer for a specified duration. Now I have to just keep duplicating layers in Photoshop which makes the files super large and then causes the RAM issue I bet! It would be a nice feature sort of like the animated GIF timeline in Photoshop.

 

cheers,

mark

Consulting | Design | Motion | Training>headTrix, Inc. | Adobe Certified Training & Consulting<br />Consulting | Design | Development | Training

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Adobe Employee ,
Jul 21, 2021 Jul 21, 2021

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You actually can hold layers with the "Cycle Pause" tag! Just tag the layer you want to hold on. Then when you activate the trigger again, it will continue. It does mean you have to manually hit the trigger instead of waiting for a predetermined amount, but hopefully that helps a little.

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Community Expert ,
Jul 21, 2021 Jul 21, 2021

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I see... that can work for a hold... but I was talking about timing within an animation, so I can have some layers go fast and some go at .02 seconds, and have some hold for .5 seconds, etc. But still a neat feature you mentioned above. I will have to check it out.

 

thanks Dave!

Consulting | Design | Motion | Training>headTrix, Inc. | Adobe Certified Training & Consulting<br />Consulting | Design | Development | Training

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