After Effects FAQ

• 1 After Effects FAQ
  • 1.1 Which versions of After Effects are supported by Deadline?
  • 1.2 Can I use After Effects Standard Edition with Deadline?
  • 1.3 Does network rendering with After Effects require a full After Effects license?
  • 1.4 Rendering through Deadline seems to take longer than rendering through After Effects locally.
  • 1.5 When rendering a job, only the images from the first task are saved, and subsequent tasks just seem to overwrite those initial image files.
  • 1.6 I get an error when I try to view error reports for After Effects jobs in the Deadline Monitor.
  • 1.7 I get the error that the specified comp cannot be found when rendering, but it is in the render queue.

Which versions of After Effects are supported by Deadline?

After Effects (Professional) 7.x, and 8.x are supported by Deadline.

Can I use After Effects Standard Edition with Deadline?

No. Deadline requires the scripting and netrendering features which are only included in the Professional Edition.

Does network rendering with After Effects require a full After Effects license?

No. Deadline uses After Effects command line renderering application 'aerender.exe', which starts After Effects in network render mode.

Rendering through Deadline seems to take longer than rendering through After Effects locally.

After Effects needs to be restarted at the beginning of each frame, and this loading time results in the render taking longer than expected. If you know ahead of time that your frames will render quickly, it is recommended to submit your frames in groups of 5 or 10. This way, After Effects will only load at the beginning of each group of frames, instead of at the beginning of every frame.

When rendering a job, only the images from the first task are saved, and subsequent tasks just seem to overwrite those initial image files.

In the comp's Output Module Settings, make sure that the "Use Comp Frame Number" checkbox is checked. Check out step 1 here for complete details.

I get an error when I try to view error reports for After Effects jobs in the Deadline Monitor.

Sometimes After Effects prints out symbols in its error messages that causes conflicts when try to convert them to html. This issue should be fixed in Deadline 2.6 and later.

I get the error that the specified comp cannot be found when rendering, but it is in the render queue.

This can occur for a number of reasons, most of which are related to the name of the comp. Examples are names with to spaces next to each other, or names with apostrophes in them. Try using only alphanumeric characters and underscores in comp names and output paths to see if that resolves the issue.