Adobe 65008009 - After Effects CS4 Using Manual page 736

Last updated 12/21/2009
7 Select Enable Watch Folder Render, click Collect, and name the Collect Files folder.
Save the Collect Files folder to a networked computer, preferably to a networked server.
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Monitor the progress of the render engines by using a web browser to view HTML pages saved in the watch folder.
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After Effects generates these pages automatically when the rendering begins. Click the Reload button in your
browser to see the updated status. These HTML pages describe any errors that occur.
After Effects renders the item to the specified destination folder and, if necessary, to the overflow volumes you have
specified in the Output preferences (see
finishes rendering all of the queued items in a given project, it closes that project without saving it and then scans the
watch folder for new projects to render. Because it doesn't save the project, After Effects ignores any Post-Render
Actions in the Output Module settings dialog box that specify to import the item when it is rendered.
Track dependencies of a watch-folder render
You can track render dependencies when you render over a network by setting Post-Render Action options. When
you set these options, After Effects confirms that all of the items that it needs to render are ready and available. For
example, if one item depends on another to render, and the first has not finished rendering or has received an error,
the second does not render.
You can use this process to render a single QuickTime or AVI movie from a watch-folder render. The movie is actually
created on only one computer.
Note: This procedure assumes that you have already created a multiple-computer watch-folder.
In the Render Queue panel, drag the output module to the Project panel. After Effects creates a placeholder for that
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item's output.
2 Drag the placeholder back to the Render Queue panel.
Set the render settings and output module settings for the placeholder, and click Render.
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Start in watch-folder mode
Watch-folder mode applies only to rendering from a folder on your local computer.
• To start After Effects in watch-folder mode automatically, save a project with the filename Watch This Folder.aep.
After Effects watches the folder containing the project if you open that project.
• 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
CS4\Support Files\afterfx.exe" -wf C:\[temp]
To start the After Effects render engine rather than the full version of After Effects, use the -re option with the
command.
Note: You can also use this command line in batch files.
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.
"Overflow volumes and segment
USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4
Rendering and exporting
settings" on page 731). When After Effects
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