Rendering a 2 hour long video

[benn25106859]

I'm trying to render a 2 hour long audio visualisation video for my friend on YouTube however I have encountered a few problems. Firstly I've already rendered 50 mins roughly of it and that has taken over 20 hours, which I believe is way too long. In addition, the 50 mins that I have done has a file size of over 250GB and it's only in 720p. I am fairly new so go easy however I really need help to sort this out. Also I am using trapcode particlular 2.6.0 within the project. If you need any further details please ask and I would appreciate if you didn't just direct me to the adobe help for beginners page as I have already throughly scouted through it.

Thanks

[Dave_LaRonde]

Find the info you need to supply for diagnostic purposes here:

FAQ: What information should I provide when asking a question on this forum?

And find out why your file size is so big here:

FAQ: Why is my output file huge, and why doesn't it play back smoothly in a media player?

[benn25106859]

Version of After Effects:

14.0.1.5, with all the latest updates installed

​Version of Windows:

Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1607 for x64-based Systems (KB3213986)

Error Message:

No

What were you doing before the problem occured:

I was half way through rendering my 2 hour video - 20 hours in, and I stopped it as it was taking too long. I checked the file size and it was over 250GB; for only 51 mins of footage

Has this ever worked before:

I have only done small less than 10 min videos and I mainly used Media encoder with H.264 selected, along with the Youtube 1080p option

Computer Hardware:

i5-6500K Quad core running at 3.2GHz

8GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR4 Ram

AMD Radeon Sapphire RX480 8GB GPU

1 Monitor

After Effects running from a 240GB SSD and Exporting the video onto a 2 TB Caviar Blue HHD

Drivers:

I have the latest drivers install for my GPU and CPU however not sure what version specically

Third Party Software:

Trapcode Particular 2.6.0

Source Footage:

From a template I found online so if you want more information I have attached a screenshot of the workspace and I'll find what is needed and give details

Quicktime Installed:

Yes, version 7.7.9

Other software running:

No while it was rendering, it was the only thing open

OpenGL:

Yes

Final Output or Ram Preview:

It runs far from real time at roughly 1 fps or lower in the ram preview. In the final output (only the 51 mins of it) it can run fine in VLC, sometimes glitches out a bit.

Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing

No

Ray-Traced 3D Render:

No I'm using Classic 3D

Output Settings:

See screenshots

So basically I want it to be a low file size, still with good quality however one that won't take over 20 hours like the last time. I read up from those links and I think it would be best if I used H.264 with the Youtube setting. Can you let me know if this is a good idea and if not what should do. I would prefere it to be in 1080p however on the last one, the file size was just way to big and I couldn't export it due to lack of space. I am fine exporting it to my SSD this time as long as it fits in the 120GB I have left.

Many thanks!

[Roei Tzoref · Accepted solution]

So basically I want it to be a low file size, still with good quality however one that won't take over 20 hours like the last time.

• 2 hours is a very long time. 20 hours to render this type of video or even 50 hours is not that long considering you got particular working on the CPU and can't use multiple threads of CPU.
• Avi Compression is a bad choice for a codec. QT Animation is better but still 1 minutes of 1080HD video could be about 5GB file size so do the math. when you are editing long movies, having Terabytes of file space is a common necessity.
• remember that QT Animation is a lossless version of your file - it is not intended for playback or uploading but only for further editing and further compression i.e you take this version and use AME to create your H.264 mp4 file.
• Ae is for creating shots, not editing movies so if  there is a repeat of frames/animation during this whole composition of 2 hours, you could save time by rendering just the original part you need in Ae (use QT Animation) and then use Premiere to place this animation on loop a few times and render this as an H.264 mp4.
• if there isn't, and every single part of this animation is new every frame then you need to make enough space and render your QT Animation, then use that file for AME.
• the other option would be to render straight to AME by choosing "Queue in AME" in the render queue. it will encode your file directly from AE, it will take longer, but the file size will be small.

[benn25106859]

OK thank you, I think I will take it into AME and encode it as H.264 mp4. Would it make a considerable difference to time or file size, if I choose 720p Youtube preset or is it not worth and I should just carry on with the 1080p preset?

[Roei Tzoref]

Would it make a considerable difference to time or file size, if I choose 720p Youtube preset or is it not worth and I should just carry on with the 1080p preset?

time - it will take a while. can't be sure. size - your size will be much much smaller. you can have an estimation in the bottom part of your video settings in AME.

it might be a good idea to also check the requirements in the youtube page Recommended upload encoding settings - YouTube Help

[benn25106859]

Ok just started it, 23 hours to go! I appreciate your help

[Roei Tzoref]

not too bad! send us a link at the end so we can dazzle by this wondrous 2 hour clip

[benn25106859]

Haha, will do!!

[Dave_LaRonde]

I looked screen shots over & read the stuff.  Some observations:

There's a nested comp called Audio that's 3D -- any reason why it has to be 3D?

I wouldn't resize the comp in the Output Module.  I'd nest the big comp in a 1280x720 comp.

I bet you don't need to link to the project.

You don't need Open GL.  It's useless in AE.

You could segment your comp, render out smaller chunks, and assemble the pieces in Premiere.  It's easy to do.

Roei's right about using AME... AND about using AE to make a 2-hour file!

And depending on the number of particles, Particular can just be stinkin' SLOW.  No way around it.

[benn25106859]

Ahh ok I'll consider that next time when using particular, thanks for the advice though!