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Tag Archives: workflow

Improve Performance in After Effects

09 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by Jeff Riegel, Editor in After Effects Tips, Tutorials-Tuts

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Tags

adobe, AE, after effects, cache, Cavus Media, how-to, improve, jeff riegel, memory, Multiprocessing, optimize, performance, preferences, render, Work Load, workflow

by Adobe

You can improve performance by optimizing your computer system, After Effects, your project, and your workflow. Some of the suggestions here improve performance not by increasing rendering speed but by decreasing time that other operations require, such as opening a project.

Note: By far, the best way to improve performance overall is to plan ahead, run early tests of your workflow and output pipeline, and confirm that what you are delivering is what your client actually wants and expects. (See Planning your work.)

Improve performance before starting After Effects

  • Make sure that you’ve installed the current version of After Effects, including any available updates. To check for and install updates, choose Help > Updates.
  • Make sure that you’ve installed the latest versions of drivers and plug-ins, especially video card drivers. To download updates for drivers and plug-ins, go to the provider’s website.
  • Make sure that your system has enough RAM. Optimum performance is achieved with computer systems with at least 2 GB of installed RAM per processor core. See the documentation for your operating system and computer for details on how to check the amount of installed RAM and how to install RAM.
  • Quit applications that are not necessary for your work. If you run applications other than those with which After Effects shares a memory pool, and you don’t allocate adequate memory to other applications, performance can be greatly reduced when the operating system swaps RAM to the hard disk. (See Memory (RAM) usage in 64-bit After Effects.)For more information about improving performance by stopping software not necessary for your work, see this video on the video2brain website.
  • Stop or pause resource-intensive operations in other applications, such as video previews in Adobe Bridge.
  • Make sure that your system includes a display card that supports OpenGL 2.0 or later. Though After Effects can function without it, OpenGL accelerates various types of rendering, including rendering to the screen for previews. See Render with OpenGL.
  • When possible, keep the source footage files for your project on a fast local disk drive. If your source footage files are on a slow disk drive (or across a slow network connection), then performance will be poor. Ideally, use separate fast local disk drives for source footage files and rendered output. For more information, see this video on the video2brain website.
  • A separate fast disk (or disk array) to assign the disk cache folder to, is ideal. Because of their speed, SSDs work well for this function.

Improve performance by optimizing memory, cache, and multiprocessing settings

  • Allocate adequate memory for other applications.
  • Enable caching frames to disk for previews by selecting the Enable Disk Cache preference. In After Effects, assign as much space as possible to the Disk Cache folder (on a separate fast drive) for best performance. See Disk cache.

Todd Kopriva provides more information about optimum memory and processor settings on the Adobe website.

See Memory preferences for additional information.

Improve performance using Global Performance Cache | CC, CS6

Import projects from After Effects CS5.5 and earlier into After Effects to take advantage of the Global Performance Cache. For details, see Disk Cache.

Persistent disk cache improves performance by retaining frames stored in the disk cache between sessions, saving rendering time as you work on a project or other projects that might use the same cached frames.

 Improve performance by simplifying your project

By simplifying and dividing your project, you can prevent After Effects from using memory and other resources to process elements that you are not currently working with. Also, by controlling when After Effects performs certain processing, you can greatly improve overall performance. For example, you can avoid repeating an action that needs to happen only once, or you can postpone an action until it is more convenient for you.

  • Delete unused elements from your project. See Remove items from a project.
  • Divide complex projects into simpler projects, and then recombine them before you render the finished movie. To recombine projects, import all of the projects into a single project. See Import an After Effects project.
  • Before rendering, put all of your source footage files on a fast, local disk—not the one that you’re rendering and exporting to. A good way to do this is with the Collect Files command. See Collect files in one location.
  • Pre-render nested compositions. Render a completed composition as a movie so that After Effects doesn’t rerender the composition every time it is displayed. See Pre-render a nested composition.
  • Substitute a low-resolution or still-image proxy for a source item when not working directly with that item. See Placeholders and proxies.
  • Lower the resolution for the composition. See Resolution.
  • Isolate the layer you’re working on by using the Solo switch. See Solo a layer.

For more information about improving performance by isolating what you’re working on, see this video on the video2brain website.

Improve performance by modifying screen output

You can improve performance in many ways that don’t affect how After Effects treats your project data, only how output is drawn to the screen as you work. Although it is often useful to see certain items and information as you work, After Effects uses memory and processor resources to update this information, so be selective in what you choose to display as you work. You will likely need to see different aspects of your project at different points in your workflow, so you may apply the following suggestions in various combinations at various stages.

  • Turn off display color management and output simulation when not needed. See Simulate how colors will appear on a different output device. The speed and quality of color management for previews are controlled by the Viewer Quality preferences. See Viewer Quality preferences.
  • Enable hardware acceleration of previews, which uses the GPU to assist in drawing previews to the screen. Choose Edit > Preferences > Display (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences > Display (Mac OS), and select Hardware Accelerate Composition, Layer, And Footage Panels.
  • Close unneeded panels. After Effects must use memory and processor resources to update open panels, which may slow the work that you are doing in another panel.
  • Create a region of interest. If you are working on a small part of your composition, limit which portion of the composition is rendered to the screen during previews. See Region of interest (ROI).
  • Deselect Show Cache Indicators in the Timeline panel menu to prevent After Effects from displaying green and blue bars in the time ruler to indicate cached frames. See Caches: RAM cache, disk cache, and media cache.
  • Deselect the Show Rendering Progress In Info Panel And Flowchart preference to prevent the details of each render operation for each frame from being written to the screen. See Display preferences.
  • Hide Current Render Details in the Render Queue panel by clicking the triangle beside Current Render Details in the Render Queue panel. See Information shown for current render operations.
  • Press Caps Lock to prevent After Effects from updating Footage, Layer, or Composition panels. When you make a change that would otherwise appear in a panel, After Effects adds a red bar with a text reminder at the bottom of the panel. After Effects continues to update panel controls such as motion paths, anchor points, and mask outlines as you move them. To resume panel updates and display all changes, press Caps Lock again.

Note: Pressing Caps Lock suspends updates (disables refresh) of previews in viewers during rendering for final output, too, although no red reminder bar appears.

  • Lower the display quality of a layer to Draft. See Layer image quality and subpixel positioning.
  • Select Draft 3D in the Timeline panel menu, which disables all lights and shadows that fall on 3D layers. It also disables the depth-of-field blur for a camera.
  • Use fast draft mode while laying out and previewing a ray-traced 3D composition by selecting an option other than “Off” from the Fast Previews button.
  • Deselect Live Update in the Timeline panel menu to prevent After Effects from updating compositions dynamically. See Preview modes and Fast Previews preferences.
  • Display audio waveforms in the Timeline panel only when necessary. See Showing properties and groups in the Timeline panel (keyboard shortcuts).
  • Disable pixel aspect ratio correction by clicking the Toggle Pixel Aspect Ratio Correction button at the bottom of a Composition, Layer, or Footage panel. The speed and quality of pixel aspect ratio correction and other scaling for previews are controlled by the Viewer Quality preferences. See Viewer Quality preferences.
  • Deselect Mirror On Computer Monitor when previewing video on an external video monitor. See Preview on an external video monitor.
  • Hide layer controls, such as masks, 3D reference axes, and layer handles. See Show or hide layer controls in the Composition panel.
  • Lower the magnification for a composition. When After Effects displays the Composition, Layer, and Footage panels at magnifications greater than 100%, screen redraw speed decreases. (See Zoom an image for preview.)
  • Set the Resolution/Down Sample Factor value of the composition to Auto in the Composition panel, which prevents the unnecessary rendering of rows or columns of pixels that aren’t drawn to the screen at low zoom levels. See Resolution.

Improve performance when using effects

Some effects, such as blurs and distortions, require large amounts of memory and processor resources. By being selective about when and how you apply these effects, you can greatly improve overall performance.

Apply memory-intensive and processor-intensive effects later. Animate your layers and do other work that requires real-time previews before you apply memory-intensive or processor-intensive effects (such as glows and blurs), which may make previews slower than real time.

  • Temporarily turn off effects to increase the speed of previews. See Delete or disable effects and animation presets.
  • Limit the number of particles generated by particle effects. See Simulation effects.
  • Rather than apply the same effect with the same settings to multiple layers, apply the effect to an adjustment layer. When an effect is applied to an adjustment layer, it is processed once, on the composite of all of the layers beneath it. See Create an adjustment layer.
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16 Useful Expressions in After Effects

02 Friday Jun 2017

Posted by Jeff Riegel, Editor in After Effects Tips, Tutorials-Tuts

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Tags

AE, after effects, Cavus Media, expression, how-to, jeff riegel, tips, tricks, tut, tutorial, ukramedia, workflow

by

There is always a need for speed in this fast paced motion design world. It’s definitely something we can all agree on. You can always get more money, but you can’t get more time. That’s the truth. Everyday I look for ways to speed up my workflow, and there are so many ways to save time. I highly recommend checking out my tips and tricks tutorials here.

See timeline shortcuts on each of the 16 expressions here where you can see more of this article.

 

Adobe Updates All Their Media Applications

20 Thursday Apr 2017

Posted by Jeff Riegel, Editor in After Effects Tips, FCP-Premiere Editor Tips, Production News & Info.

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Tags

adobe, Adobe After Effects CC, Adobe Audition CC, Adobe Character Animator, Adobe Media Encoder CC, Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Cavus Media, collaboration, jeff riegel, larry jordan, nab, National Association of Broadcasters, team, update, workflow

by Larry Jordan

Yesterday, Adobe updated and released updates for:

  • Adobe Premiere Pro CC
  • Adobe After Effects CC
  • Adobe Audition CC
  • Adobe Media Encoder CC
  • Adobe Character Animator (beta)

OVERALL THEMES

Adobe has three “themes” for this update:

  • The Power to Create
  • Seamless Collaboration
  • Streamlined Workflow

As with past updates, Adobe continues to focus on Premiere as the hub of their media applications. That trend continues with more features, or more controls, from other applications migrating into Premiere.

Every one of these applications is available for download right now – free – via the Creative Cloud app. You can learn more about all these updates at Adobe’s website.

What’s New?  Read It Here.

The Essential Graphics panel appears in both Premiere and After Effects.

The Essential Graphics panel in After Effects provides more functions when creating templates, including the ability to specify which settings are controllable from within Premiere.

Storyboarding made simple

11 Tuesday Apr 2017

Posted by Jeff Riegel, Editor in General Graphics Tips, Production News & Info.

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Tags

boords.com, Cavus Media, collaboration, jeff riegel, online, storyboard, workflow

by

Helping creatives spend more time doing what they do best

The Boords story started as a conversation over a burger between Tom Judd and James Chambers, the co-founders of award winning London animation studio, Animade. Tom, complaining about the laborious and time-consuming process of storyboarding and James quietly taking it all on board… then the lightbulb moment occurred. Boords. Storyboarding made simple!

We know how frustrating it is to spend time fiddling with storyboard layouts when you could be focusing on the fun stuff. Boords has completely transformed our workflow and we hope it is something that will help other creatives save time, heartache… and the occasional desire to break a computer. Leaving you with more time for better things!

Shift Your Editing into Overdrive with These 5 Awesome Premiere Pro Tips

14 Tuesday Mar 2017

Posted by Jeff Riegel, Editor in FCP-Premiere Editor Tips, FREE!, Tutorials-Tuts

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Tags

adobe, Cavus Media, editing, footage, free, jeff riegel, PPro, premiere, Premiere Pro, presets, Shutterstock, tips, tricks, tutorial, video editing, video tutorial, workflow

By Caleb Ward, Premiumbeat

Post Cover

 5 Faster Editing Tips for Premiere Pro

Sometimes, even the slightest change in your workflow can save you dozens of hours on a project in Premiere Pro. Even if you’ve been using Premiere Pro for a while, you can surprise yourself by learning something new. Personally, I didn’t know about allocating memory until two years after I started editing in Premiere.

The following video from Cinecom.net takes a closer look at five distinct ways to increase your editing speed in Premiere Pro. If you’d rather read than watch, you can follow along with the tips below…

Read More 5 Faster Editing Tips for Premiere Pro.  Oh yeah, want to download some free video clips so you can try out these techniques? Simply click the link for a custom collection of footage.

Premiere & Resolve Round Trip Workflow

21 Wednesday Dec 2016

Posted by Jeff Riegel, Editor in FCP-Premiere Editor Tips, Tutorials-Tuts

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Tags

Cavus Media, color grade, grading, Ground Control, jeff riegel, premiere, Resolve, roundtrip, workflow

by Casey Faris, Ground Control

Here’s a quick tutorial on how Casey takes a finished project from Premiere into Resolve for grading then back into Premiere for final graphics and render! We hope it gives you a good overview of how we do things! I know it’s really short and fast, but hopefully it’ll give you a good overview of how I do things.

(FREE) Workflow plug-ins can be cool too!

11 Friday Nov 2016

Posted by Jeff Riegel, Editor in After Effects Tips, Plug-ins, Tutorials-Tuts

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Tags

AE, after effects, Andrew Kramer, Cavus Media, effects, free, fx, FX Console, Gallery, jeff riegel, Overrides, plug-in, Snapshot, tutorial, VCP, video copilot, workflow

by Video Copilot

The Video Copilot After Effects workflow plug-in is now available for free!

Speed up After Effects by making it work your way.  Manage the design progress with the new Snapshot tool and find the effects you need instantly.

Main Features:

  • Access FX & Presets quickly
  • Create FX Shortcuts
  • Create FX Overrides
  • Customize FX Search
  • Export Snapshot with PNG
  • Access Multiple Snapshots
  • Automatic Snapshot Tool & Gallery
  • Sample colors from Gallery
  • Re-import directly from Gallery
  • Dockable Panel & More!

Learn More | Download the FREE Video Copilot FX Console

https://i1.wp.com/www.toolfarm.com/images/uploads/featured_images/videocopilot_fxconsole_feat.jpg

http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/fx1.0.1-1.mp4

Tips for Better Editing in Premiere Pro

13 Tuesday Sep 2016

Posted by Jeff Riegel, Editor in FCP-Premiere Editor Tips

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Tags

adobe, Adobe Premiere Pro, after effects, Audition, Cavus Media, Dave Helmly, jeff riegel, Jonny Elwyn, Media Encoder, premiere, Premiere Pro, Premiere Pro CC, tips, tricks, workflow

by Jonny Elwyn

Jonny Elwyn – Film EditorPremiere Pro Tips for latest update

Adobe Premiere Pro continues to develop it’s powerful editing software in the most recent update (August 3rd 2016) which brings the version number to 2015.4. This essentially brings a welcome array of bug fixes and stability improvements to the new features that shipped in June 2016 (2015.3) and were initially announced at NAB 2016 in April.

For a detailed look at all of the new features in 2015.3, across Premiere Pro, Audition, Media Encoder and After Effects, jump to this previous post.

Read More…

Free Friday: Say Hello to Helios

19 Friday Aug 2016

Posted by Jeff Riegel, Editor in FREE!, Plug-ins

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Tags

Cavus Media, commands, free, Helios, jeff riegel, Maya, nulls, pivot, plug-in, python script, software, utility, workflow

by Thibault Houdon

Helios is a Maya utility that will speed up your workflow by allowing you to execute hundreds of commands just by typing them. For FREE!

Helios_01

Execute everything you want

Helios comes with hundreds of pre-built commands and it supports both Mel and Python. Not only can you create objects, you will also be able to open windows such as the UV Editor or the Outliner or enter any Maya tool (Multi Cut Tool, Create Polygonal Tool…).


Custom commands included

Helios comes with some commands which were built specifically to save you time. These commands are not available by default in Maya and are small python scripts that will help you work faster.

Some of the custom commands included are:

  • Fill Selection.
  • Move Pivot to Selected Vertices.
  • Create Joints from Nulls.
  • Snap Object to Center of the World.

Helios_03

Make Helios work the way you want

You can make Helios yours and custom it to your needs. All the commands are listed in an python dictionary that you can easily edit to change the name of the commands or add yours.

Click here for DOWNLOAD, download instructions and more information.

 


How To Roundtrip To Audition From Premiere

08 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by Jeff Riegel, Editor in FCP-Premiere Editor Tips, Tutorials-Tuts

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Tags

adobe, AU, Audition, Cavus Media, Dan Bernard Media, dynamic link, jeff riegel, premiere, roundtrip, transition, wavebrigade.com, workflow

by Dan Bernard Media

In this video, Dan Bernard Media shows you a few simple ways to use the powerful dynamic link system to seamlessly transition between Premiere and Audition so you can get your work done faster!

FREE SOUND EFFECTS: wavebrigade.com

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Since 2007, Cavus Media has been providing marketing and media services to satisfied clients including government agencies (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection), Fortune 100 companies (Volkswagen USA, FedEx), government contractors (SRA International, ArdentMC) and small and medium-size businesses (American Disposal Services, Clark Builders Group).

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