PP to AE dynamic link loses all clip sources

[Rob MacFarlane]

I've been wrestling with sending a clip from the premiere pro timeline over to after effects via the Replace with After Effects Composition (which is supposed to create a dynamic link) - and this works for the first 2 to 6 clips (it varies), and then the 3rd (or 7th) clip so processed will cause all dynamic link clips in premiere pro to suddenly replace the clips with only the last processed clip - e.g., in the timeline I can detect which clips are dynamic links (they have a purple color) yet each clip when played is showing the video and audio from the last clip processed. And then there is no way to go backwards and re-link to the correct after effects project (relink media menu selection is grayed out). Closing and re-opining premiere pro asks me to select the missing media, I do, and the same last clip continues to replace all dynamic link clips,

Any help on the above would be most appreciated.

I'm running Premiere Pro CS5.5.2 (003 (MC:258762)), After Effects CS5.5 v 10.5.0.253 on a Windows 7 service pack 1 64 bit Dell Precision M4600 with 4 cores and 16GB ram.

I have replicated this four times now, the most recent has me saving off a copy of the original PP project, and then linking to AE, using the warp stabilizer on the clip, saving the AE project, exiting AE project, going back to PP and verifying the clip is there, saving the PP project, then do a save as PP project to generate a new PP project, then proceed on with the next clip and repeat. So I have a PP project named warp_link_2.prpoj that works, an AE project named warp_link_2.aep that works, and a matching set of warp_link_3.prpoj that fails and the AE project named warp_link_3.aep containing the warp stabilized clip.

Note that each clip I'm starting with in the original PP timeline is a subclip of a larger clip - the footage is of elephant seals on a beach, and each clip is quite long. I pulled out as subclips portions of the long clips that were most interesting, and am attempting to 'stabilize' them.

Given that the first two subclips run through AE via a dynamic link worked, and it was the next subclip that caused the problem, I'm suspecting a bug in the dynamic link mechanism; note that depending on the order in which I send links across sometimes a particular subclip will work correctly, and sometimes that same subclip with break the PP dynamic links.

So all quite frustrating, and I'm trying to sort out where the problem lies - and then take this over to Adobe and find out what's going on.

Any help, suggestions, things to check, are most appreciated!

- rob

[Jim Allan]

This may be a workaround, but it seems to work with me. When you start a PP project, create a folder for that project on your OS drive(the drive your Adobe Suite is installed on), Premiere will do the auto save and create all the sub folders in this folder as well as store your PP project file, then set your scratch disk to the drive where all of your assets are (this should be a separate hard drive i.e. external e-SATA RAID-0).

When you are Dynamically linking an AE project and plan on replacing multiple clips with AE comps, leave AE open while you are editing. When you are prompted to save the AE project, save it in the root of the folder you saved your PP project in. Now when you are finished with the first clip in AE, just hit CTRL S, to save and shift focus back over to PP leaving AE open. Now when you are ready to replace another clip with an AE comp, it will just make another comp in AE within that same AE project.

I was having somewhat the same kind of problems and I started using this protocol and haven't had any problems. Don't know if this will fix your issue, but it may be something to try.

Good luck!

[Rob MacFarlane]

Thanks very much for the idea, I tried it out last night with success on my machine.

I don't like the idea that I'm writing project files onto the C: that contains the applications, and I also don't understand if it works because I'm now using a single AE project to store all the linked clips, if it is working because the project directory is on the same drive as CS5.5, or if it is working because the AE and PP projects are co-located in one directory.

Tonight I will create the project again, with a single AE project located on a third drive, to see if I can narrow down what is going on. (so internal C: drive = application files, external SATA drive = video source files, external USB drive for project files).

At least I'm moving forward - so thank you very much for the approach, it's great to see the application working again and doing what I want it to do!

- rob

[Jim Allan]

I don't think it has so much to do with where you store the AE file as much as it does not having multiple AE projects linked to one PP project. I just like to make a habit of storing all needed save files in one directory so if I have to move the project to another machine I can just copy the the project save folder with all of the AE, Audition and any other project save files associated with the PP project. I don't even think that it needs to be on the OS (C:) drive, just helps to have it stored together from an organizational standpoint.

Anyways, glad that I could get things moving in the right direction for you.

[Bart Walczak]

However, once you get to more than 50 comps per AE file, the responsiveness drops significantly, and I would suggest then creating another project for them.