Hi,

We're also looking into use aerender through Thinkbox's Deadline to render after effects files on the renderfarm.  I've tried to find some decent information anywhere on the adobe website regarding licensing for network rendering and have so far come up with very little information.  Am I to understand that in order to run AE on a renderfarm I need a full license for every machine?  If so this seems pretty ridiculous.

From experimentation with previous versions of AE I was under the impression it just worked without a license?

Nick

So does that mean I need full licenses to run the render nodes? Or do I use the license we already have for the workstation machines?

Nick

To be perfectly frank that's ridiculous! We've already paid thousands of pounds for the Production Premium Suite.  I could understand maybe if there was a render license but nowhere does it say that you've changed your rules to prevent people from using the software on a renderfarm.  This makes it a totally uneconomic and useless feature!

To the folks at Adobe -- this licensing requirement has NOT always been a part of AE. Please review the text in any manual from CS4 or earlier: the network rendering engine is free to use on as many nodes as one wishes. So, stop with the revisionist history, please. And consider a _reasonably_ priced render license option for the people who keep you in business.

thanks,

Jeff B.

Todd, I'm pleased you're all taking a look at the situation.

My memory certainly is not perfect, and I wouldn't expect yours to be; but here's a cut and paste from pg. 625 of the CS3 user guide:

"You can render one or more compositions from a project using multiple computers over a network in a fraction of the time that a single compute rwould require. Network rendering involves copying the project and source files to a networked folder, and then rendering the project.If you have a full licensed copy of After Effects, you can set it up to work with render-only versions of After Effects called render engines. Your license entitles you to install as many copies of the render engine as you want on your network, as long as one activated copy of After Effects is installed on that network."

-Jeff

So -- it was always that way, then it was never that way 'till now? You can't have it both ways. And Adobe has had an incorrect understanding of licensing for about 18 years? (whenever Adobe bought AE from CoSA, or MPEG was introduced)?

Steve F's text indicate this is a new issue: OK, things happen. But trying to slide it past the users with no notice, and only obfuscation, gets people steamed. Rightly so, in my opinion. I think the somewhat crude phrase is "don't piss on us and tell us it's raining."

Todd.

I just had a chat with Adobe support on this issue with CS5.5 and the support told me that with my master collection I have only 2 nodes for rendering. Is this the truth? If it is I´m really shocked! The free network-rendering was a major feature that had big influence on my decision to switch to AE.

Does this limitation still apply to CS6?

I think you have to understand the angryness regarding to this - I really am! So many people spent money in their renderfarm - and now they cannot use it. Noone told me that something changed. I just spent 600 bucks for a new machine and BAM - worthless... - ...and I really have to struggle for the bucks...

If MPEG is the problem, then just block it for aerender! I only do image-sequences via renderfarm and I´m sure most people do so. The final compiling to MPEG is done in the Media Encoder. And please do this for CS5.5 also, because I cannot upgrade to CS6 or spend the extra money for the cloud.

Hope something´s moving here.

Kind regards.

Sascha

Hi Jeff.

The AE CS6 help tells something different:

After Effects CS5.5 had to be serialized on render-only machines (e.g., in a render farm) due to licensing issues. In After Effects CS6, you can now run aerender or use Watch Folder in a non-royalty bearing mode, so serialization not required.  To enable non-royalty bearing mode:�Place a blank file named ae_render_only_node.txt into one of the following locations, depending on the user account type:��  Install After Effects on the render-only machine.  Place a blank file named ae_render_only_node.txt into one of the following locations, depending on the user account type:  Mac locations:  /Users//Documents/  /Users/Shared/Adobe/  Windows locations:  C:\Users\\Documents  C:\Users\Public\Documents\Adobe

?

Do you use CS6?