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Tracking discrepancies and load-sharing (Mac OS only)
With After Effects for Mac OS, you can use Finder labels to track discrepancies and load-
sharing when rendering with multiple systems. When the After Effects application is given
a Finder label, it renders each frame with the same label. If you give each copy of After
Effects a different label, you can track single frames to a particular copy of the application.
For example, if you discover a discrepancy in a certain frame created with network
rendering, you can adjust options in the copy of After Effects that rendered the frame. You
can also view the difference in rendering speed between the networked systems by
counting the number of frames for each label, and then make any necessary adjustments
to balance the workload.
To give the After Effects program a Finder label:
1 Quit After Effects.
2 Select the After Effects icon, and then choose a label from the Finder's Label menu.
Starting After Effects in watch-folder mode (PB only)
You can start After Effects in watch-folder mode automatically. Simply save a project called
Watch This Folder.aep. After Effects will watch the folder containing the project if you open
that project. To start After Effects in watch-folder mode when you start your Windows or
Mac OS 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).
If you're running a Windows system, you can also launch After Effects in watch-folder
mode using a command-line option. Choose Start > Run, type "C:\Program
Files\Adobe\After Effects\afterfx.exe" -wf C:\temp (adjust the application path as
needed to reflect the exact folder name where you installed After Effects, and replace
C:\temp with the path to your watch folder), and press Enter. You can also use this
command line in batch files.
Using multiple machines to render plug-in effects (PB only)
When a composition contains layers that use a plug-in effect, the plug-in that created the
effect must be present on all of the machines that will render the composition.
When you install an After Effects render engine on a machine, it contains all the plug-ins
included with the After Effects Production Bundle. If a composition uses a plug-in from
another manufacturer, that plug-in must be present on all machines that will render the
composition. However, support for network rendering varies among plug-in manufac-
turers. Before you set up a network to render effects created by third-party plug-ins, see
your plug-in's documentation or contact the plug-in manufacturer and get answers to the
following questions:
Does the plug-in's license agreement allow installing multiple copies on a network for
•
the purposes of rendering?
Are there any other limitations or tips that apply to using that plug-in for network
•
rendering?
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Rendering a Movie
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