BG Renderer

lloydalvarez · **Posted:** Thu Nov 30, 2006 8:29 pm

You can download the script here: http://aescripts.com/tag/bg-renderer/
Note: Script requires After Effects 7.0 or higher

This script takes whatever items are queued and ready to render in the render queue and sends them to render in the background using aerender in a new Terminal (mac) or Command (pc) window where the render progress can be monitored.

It also had the added advanced feature to launch more than 1 instance at a time. If you have a multi-processor machine, you can launch as many instances as you have cpu's. In my testing, this cut render times in half on a Quad G5 using 4 intances. (having at least 1 GB of ram per instance launched is recommended).

There's lots of error checking behind the scenes so I did some beta testing to make sure it doesn't have any bugs, but as always please share anything (good or bad) that you encounter.

The script has lots of built in help to clear things up.

Enjoy!

-Lloyd

nab · **Posted:** Thu Nov 30, 2006 10:35 pm

Great work Lloyd !

For the Windows version, you should add 5 units to the height of the "Refresh", "Show Queued.." and "Set.." buttons (and they'll appear like on your screenshot).

I don't know exactly what is wrong with your scheduleTask stuff (to remove the .bat file) but if you put this snippet at the end of the createTerm function, this should do the trick (at least during my test).

Code:

var i = 0;
while(i < 1000000) i++; 
termfile.remove();

Anyway, very nice script !

lloydalvarez · **Posted:** Fri Dec 01, 2006 4:51 am

Thanks for that nab.. but since the .bat file is in the temp directory and it's < 1k i wasn't too worried about it. :wink:

pc2099 · **Joined:** Tue Dec 05, 2006 4:41 am **Posts:** 2

Ive been waiting for Gridiron to release a nucleo pro type product for Premiere Pro. Given dual core is the norm now and most are moving to quad, some kind of background rendering app for this NLE would be awsome.

Just wondering if its possable to modify your plug in or write a new one to enable this in Ppro or if its not possable?

Cheers

Pablo

lloydalvarez · **Posted:** Tue Dec 05, 2006 1:52 pm

pc2099 wrote:

Ive been waiting for Gridiron to release a nucleo pro type product for Premiere Pro. Given dual core is the norm now and most are moving to quad, some kind of background rendering app for this NLE would be awsome.

Just wondering if its possable to modify your plug in or write a new one to enable this in Ppro or if its not possable?

Cheers

Pablo

not sure. it depends on whether premiere can be controlled from the command line. I am on mac so i have not worked with PPro. If PPro can be controlled from the command line then it might be possible to write a BG rendering script.

-Lloyd

pc2099 · **Joined:** Tue Dec 05, 2006 4:41 am **Posts:** 2

Hmmm - no idea if it can or not. Will have to find out. Out of curiosity - do you know if background render is possable on FCP or if somethign could be written for it?

Cheers

Pablo

PS - did you see Grtidioron has knocked $100 of their nucleo pro... do you think you scared them with your free app here or just a coincidence? ;-)

pants · **Joined:** Fri Oct 08, 2004 8:35 am **Posts:** 21

thanks for this scripts. way cool.

i'm trying it out now. and i have it working in the bg now and i quit after effects (7.0). then i did some work in another ap but i wanted to launch ae again and it won't launch now.

is this normal? is any one else getting this? the bg renderer is still going and doing fine though.

i'm on a mac os x 10.4.8 3gb ram, dual 2.0 g5 if that helps.

thanks

lloydalvarez · **Posted:** Fri Dec 08, 2006 1:46 pm

pants wrote:

thanks for this scripts. way cool.

i'm trying it out now. and i have it working in the bg now and i quit after effects (7.0). then i did some work in another ap but i wanted to launch ae again and it won't launch now.

is this normal? is any one else getting this? the bg renderer is still going and doing fine though.

i'm on a mac os x 10.4.8 3gb ram, dual 2.0 g5 if that helps.

thanks

Hi Pants,

This is a known bug with After Effects on the mac (this is not an issue on windows). That's why I put the Important Note message right on the script dialog box:

The workaround is to not quit AE if you plan on re-using it or to quit the background render, launch AE and re-send the bg render.

The After Effects team is aware of this bug.

-Lloyd

yogert909 · **Posted:** Fri Dec 08, 2006 4:55 pm

HUGE! Thank you!

is it possible to pause or stop the renderer through the terminal?

Thanks again.

pants · **Joined:** Fri Oct 08, 2004 8:35 am **Posts:** 21

DOH!

i'm so blind, i didn't even see that.

thanks again

lloydalvarez · **Posted:** Sat Dec 09, 2006 10:31 am

yogert909 wrote:

HUGE! Thank you!

is it possible to pause or stop the renderer through the terminal?

Thanks again.

You can't pause the render. To stop it you can just close the terminal window. Alternately you can type CTRL-C in the window and it will stop the render as well. Please be aware though, that if you are rendering to a Quicktime it might not close it properly. What I do is I duplicate the quicktime, open the copy to make sure it's OK, then I stop the render.

-Lloyd

ldgarza · **Posted:** Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:20 pm

Seems like this will only work as long as you are continuing work in the same project file as the script loaded in the render queue...?

..you can't load a new project and work on that while the previous script is rendering , yes, no ?

I haven't tested..crazy times...

..would be terrific if you could load a new project while the previous one cooked..

..not likely?

lloydalvarez · **Posted:** Fri Dec 22, 2006 7:06 am

ldgarza wrote:

..would be terrific if you could load a new project while the previous one cooked..

You can definitely load new projects

, you don't have to stay in the same project in which you launched the script. The render basically happens in another application so you are free to do anything you want while the render happens in the background.

-lloyd

ldgarza · **Posted:** Fri Dec 22, 2006 11:24 pm

Wonderful!...have loaded her up and early runs show great promise!

Super Job!!...don't know how you do it but I'm glad you do it!

Thanks, Lloyd.... and Merry Christmas!

salvazalvi · **Joined:** Tue Sep 21, 2004 7:29 am **Posts:** 36

Hi,

I'm trying your script and it seem quite usefull but I use expressions and the default AE is set to french, so expression don't work. Where do I modify your script to tell him to launch english version of AE ?

Thanks,

Salvador Zalvidea

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BG Renderer

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