Adobe AFTER EFFECTS CS3 PROFESSIONAL User Manual page 628

• To start After Effects in watch-folder mode when you start your computer, create a shortcut (Windows) or alias
(Mac OS) to the Watch This Folder.aep project and move it to your Startup folder (Windows) or your Startup
Items folder (Mac OS). After Effects watches the folder containing the project if you open that project.
• (Windows only) To start After Effects in watch-folder mode from the command line, choose Start > Run, and then
enter the following, modifying the application path to the exact name of the folder in which you installed After
Effects, and replacing C:\[temp] with the path to your watch folder: "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After
Effects CS3\Support Files\afterfx.exe" -wf C:\[temp]
Note: You can also use this command line in batch files.
See also
"Network rendering with watch folders" on page 618
Render a still-image sequence with multiple computers
Although the preferred method of rendering for multiple computers is using the Watch Folder feature, you can also
use multiple computers and multiple copies of After Effects to render a composition across a network. You can use
multiple computers to render only still-image sequences; you cannot use multiple computers to render a single
movie.
When you render a still-image sequence with multiple computers, rendering in each copy of After Effects starts at
approximately the same time. By specifying that each copy skip existing frames or frames in progress, multiple
computers can render the project simultaneously, writing the still-image sequence to a single folder.
There is no limit to the number of computers that you can use for rendering; in general, the more computers, the
faster the rendering. However, if too many computers are used across a busy network, network traffic may slow down
the entire process. You can detect network slowdown by observing the time spent in the Compressing & Writing
stage in the Current Render Details section of the Render Queue panel.
Note: Adobe does not provide technical support for general network configuration; consult your network administrator.
Install After Effects on each computer that will be used to render the project. Make sure that you have the same
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fonts installed on each computer.
Note: Do not share plug-ins across a network. Make sure that you have a copy of the plug-ins folder on each computer
that is running After Effects. When using third-party plug-ins, also be sure that the same plug-ins are available on all
computers and that you have sufficient licenses for the plug-ins.
2 Open the project on one computer, select the composition, and then choose Composition > Add To Render
Queue.
In the Render Queue panel, select Skip Existing Files in the Render Settings section so that multiple computers
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do not render the same frames. Make sure that Use Storage Overflow is not selected.
Specify a sequence format in the Output Module area, and specify a folder in the Output To area. This folder must
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be available for all the computers that are rendering.
Save the project on the computer where you opened it in step 2.
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6 On each computer that will be rendering, open and save the project. This ensures that After Effects records the
new relative paths to each computer in the following step.
Unless the network can handle large file transfers rapidly, copy the project file and all its source footage to each
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rendering computer.
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User Guide