To Gather Files For Rendering Or Archiving - Adobe AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 Manual

Removes all unused footage items and compositions from the collected files when the following
Reduce Project
options are chosen in the Collect Source Files pop-up menu: For All Comps, For Selected Comps, and For Queued
Comps.
Change Render Output To
folder. This option ensures that you have access to your rendered files when you're rendering the project from
another system. Note that the rendering status must be valid (Queued, Unqueued, or Will Continue) for the output
modules to render files to this folder.
Enable 'Watch Folder' Render (Pro only)
folder and then initiate watch-folder rendering over a network. After Effects also includes a render control file called
[project name]_RCF.txt, which signals to watching systems that the project is available for rendering. After Effects
and any installed render engines can then render the project together across a network. (See "To set up watch-folder
rendering (Pro only)" on page 628.)
Maximum Number Of Machines (Pro only)
Effects that you want to allocate to render the collected project. Below this option, After Effects reports how many
items in the project will be rendered using more than one computer.
Note: If rendering time is unusually slow, you may have set Maximum Number Of Machines too high, and the network
overhead required to track rendering progress among all computers is out of proportion to the time spent actually
rendering frames. The optimal number depends on many variables related to the network configuration and the
computers on it; experiment to determine the optimal number for your network.

To gather files for rendering or archiving

Choose File > Collect Files.
1
2 In the Collect Files dialog box, choose an appropriate option for Collect Source Files.
Select appropriate options, as needed. (See "Collecting files in one location" on page 598.)
3
To add your own information to the report that will be generated, click Comments, type your notes, and click OK.
4
The comments appear at the end of the report.
Click Collect. Name the folder and specify a location for your collected files.
5
The options for Collect Source Files include the following:
Collects all footage files, including unused footage and proxies.
All
Collects all footage files and proxies used in any project compositions.
For All Comps
Collects all footage files and proxies used in compositions currently selected in the Project
For Selected Comps
panel.
Collects all footage files and proxies used directly or indirectly in any of the compositions with
For Queued Comps
a valid rendering status in the Render Queue panel.
Copies the project to a new location without collecting any source footage.
None
Once you start the file collection, After Effects creates the folder and copies the specified files to it. The folder
hierarchy is the same as the hierarchy of folders and footage in your project. The new folder includes a (Footage)
folder and may include an output folder (if you selected Change Render Output To).
The names of these folders appear in parentheses to signal to any attending render engines that they should not
search these folders for projects (Professional edition only).
Use to redirect the output modules to render files to a named folder in the collected files
You can use the Collect Files command to save projects to a specified watch
Use to specify the number of render engines or licensed copies of After
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