OT: Video in After Effects like treacle!

organism_seven wrote on 4/25/2003, 5:19 AM

Hi,

Sorry for this being off topic, but I know a lot of you guys use a lot of different apps with Vegas for your video work. I'm hoping someone can shed a light for me.

I know Vegas is a fantastic piece of software, and I haven't touched Premiere since I first purchased a copy of Vegas 3.0. Amongst many other things, I was totally blown away with the silky smooth playback of video files. After considering buying hardware to achieve "real-time" feedback, I forgot all about such things after seeing what Vegas can do.
Yes, I realised that when FX are added it causes a slow down, but you still get a very good idea of what the final result will look like.
So now I am a total Vegas convert and preach its merits to anyone who will listen!

But no program can do everything required, and like most of you I look at and try out other programs to see what they can do.
Despite my leaving Premiere behind, I have always loved and use Adobe Photoshop.
I don't expect every piece of software produced by Adobe to match up to this superb application, but I regard them as a good software company.

Now, to get to my question about Adobe After Effects 5.5
I have tried to import video into this program and use some of the tools to see what can be produced.
I find it impossible to find this out because as soon as you hit the play button the video appears to playback at about 2fps!
It appears to be make a preview in RAM. Then depending on how much memory you have, will proceed to playback about 10-15 seconds OK, then crawls to a stop.
Now I don't expect this program to perform like Vegas, but this can't be right.
I must be missing something.
I experienced a similar problem when first using Premiere. This was solved by going into the General Options palette and unchecking "playback out to a DV camcorder device".
I cannot find any similar option in Adobe After Effects.
I can play video in a number of other software applications I have, and whilst none of them perform like Vegas, I can still use them to work with.
After Effects appears to be a very powerful program, but it is impossible for me to find out just how good it is until I can see video playing somewhat normally.

Does anybody have any ideas on this issue?

Any help appreciated

Regards
Organism Seven

organism7@NOSPAMblueyonder.co.uk
Remove NOSPAM from email address to reply.

Comments

videoman69 wrote on 4/25/2003, 8:44 AM

Thats normal for AE. Try previewing 50% at Half rez. AE is not
a realtime playback program. The more memory the better.
Try Adobe for tips on this issue.

organism_seven wrote on 4/28/2003, 6:44 PM

Hi,

So are you saying that its normal for straight untouched video to be unable to playback normally in After Effects?
Surely that can't be?
I can understand it having to render when effects have been applied.
Why wouldn't it play back straight DV video?
This is supposed to be a high-end application isn't it?

Sol M. wrote on 4/28/2003, 9:16 PM

AE is not an NLE, it's an effects/animation program which is highly specialized in frame-to-frame editing, etc.

While realtime playback is not possible in AE, one should not look at it as a lower end program, as it does its intended job, and does it better than almost anything out there, which is why it still remains on of the most used programs in effects/animation work in the industry. 99% of the movies you see in the theaters will have AE work in it, and most movie titles (meaning the film's intro, not just text on the screen) are done using AE.

There are other similar programs to AE such as Commotion and Combustion, as well as higher priced solutions such as flame,inferno, and flint. However, most of these programs also do not have realtime preview, but rather ram preview (except for the last 3 products which provide realtime playback in some instances as they run on much more expensive hardware).

I encourage anyone to look deeper than playback speed to determine a program's worth. Keep in mind that Windows Media player can play back video without problem, but it can't even do 1% of what AE can do.
Hope this sheds some light on the subject.

filmy wrote on 4/28/2003, 9:28 PM

For more detailed repsonses you might go to the Adobe forums.

My 2 cents on the FPS issue - you can set it up to preview to ram and it will render as many frmes as it can to ram and then loop it so you cna see a protion of the effect. The more ram, the longer the playback loop in real time. If you want output to a DV device I would highly recomend Echo Fire. With echo fire you can preivew a longer piece 'real time' by rendering out to hard drive and than it will playback via firewire. Keep in mind, as was already pointed out, After Effects is NOT an editing system. It was designed to do something else all together. After Effects is NOT for people who want somehting to happen in real time or instantly. More times than not just work on what you want and look at a few frames, if it is what you like - hit render, go out, eat some dinner, come home, go to sleep and maybe the next morning you can look at something. The program was built for quality, not speed.