Sure, sometimes you need to pan across a giant graphic or matte painting in a single shot. Huge Photoshop files, in particular, will kill render speed. More resolution is always better, until it’s squandered at render time.
Anything from a portable USB3 RAID to a server-attached array on an optimized gigabit (or better) network will be way faster than keeping the files on a hard disk drive that’s already running the system (if that’s all you have). It doesn’t have to be on an SSD, but the equivalent of a fast-attached RAID (like you would use for editing) is great for After Effects. If not, add an SSD with low latency just to house the Disk Cache, and go to Preferences > Media & Disk Cache to set the maximum size and choose the location.
So make sure your startup disk is an SSD with at least 50GB free just for the cache. The green line you see above the Timeline stack is frames being added to RAM. As that line becomes blue, those frames have been moved to the cache.īy default, After Effects uses the startup disk. Rendered frames and layers are identified and stored and recalled way faster than rewriting frames from scratch-especially if you have a Solid State Drive to house the cache. RAM wasn’t enough for After Effects, so it was redeveloped to extend what had been RAM-only playback memory to the Disk Cache.
If things get slow, and a graphics or video application like Cinema 4D, Maya, or Final Cut Pro X is open, try closing them. For any of the other Adobe apps listed and shown after “RAM available for…” you are also fine they don’t fight each other for that available memory. Preferences > Memory allows you to set how much RAM is reserved for other applications. If you’re just running the system, a browser, and so on, the default setting of 5GB is fine. That’s fine on a standard 4-core system (like an iMac or Macbook Pro) you need 2-4GB more for each additional core (the current Mac Pro can have 4, 6, 8, or 12). On a system with 16GB of memory, that leaves 11GB for After Effects. Have enough RAMĪfter Effects makes intensive use of physical memory (RAM). The system itself (OSX or Windows) needs 4 or 5 GB without any other graphics applications open, so 16GB is minimal.
Beyond After Effects itself, make sure third-party plug-ins and system drivers (in particular, for the GPU) are up to date. If you’re stubbornly holding on to that copy of After Effects CS6, that’s that. With a Creative Cloud subscription, updates are waiting in the menu bar. Update the system, software, drivers, and plug-ins There’s even one official Adobe recommendation I disagree with (see number 7). Most of them matter a lot less than just a few presented here. We’ll focus on the essentials that will get your preview renders, and final output moving faster so you can finish earlier. Let’s make After Effects faster by making sure your system itself is optimized, and by eliminating common slowdowns in a given project.Īdobe provides thorough information on this topic, but there are way more than 12 steps for recovery of speed on that page.
I will update after I get my new iMac if my results are different from stated.Maybe you have the sense that After Effects could be… speedier. GPUs that meet certain minimums (support CUDA, OpenCL and have more than 1G RAM) will be utilized for hardware acceleration. Adobe states they will not have the time to certify all the GPUs. When it come to Premiere Pro - it is a similar situation. Not sure about a specific GPU? Look up the specs on the manufacturer's site. Therefore, you can be sure the GPUs in the iMac 5K can be utilized for the functions listed above by After Effects. Looking at the AMD site for the line of GPUs AMD Radeon R9, you can see this whole family supports OpenGL. Personally, I was concerned with the GPUs in the iMac 5K as this what I just purchased (happy dance). See Render with OpenGL.Īdobe doesn't need to certify if a GPU supports OpenGL, it does or it doesn't. In After Effects CC and CS6, OpenGL and the GPU are important for new features, such as Ray-Traced 3D rendering on the GPU, Fast Draft previews, faster blitting to the screen, and a GPU enhanced Cartoon effect.Though After Effects can function without it, OpenGL accelerates various types of rendering, including rendering to the screen for previews. Make sure that your system includes a display card that supports OpenGL 2.0 or later.All types of rendering will be improved by GPU processing. So to say it only impact Ray Tracing is incorrect. The Adobe help document on Improving Performance for After Effects states that GPU can be used for other processes besides Ray Tracing. Supported AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards for GPU acceleration