Dynamic Link with After Effects

[Steve Burke]

I currently export my sub-timeline to an .avi file on the HDD. I then create a new Comp in AE and import the .avi into it. I then apply whatever corrections I need, eg Grain Removal etc. I then save the .aep project to HDD. I close AE and from PPro, use the Dynamic Link to import the AE comp. When I place the AE comp onto the timeline, scrubbing the timeline in monitor is very slow, even though I have a duo-core 3GHz CPU with 1GB memory. The work round I have is to place the .aep into a new timeline and export this back out as a separate .avi file. Re-import of this .avi is then ok while scrubbing. This extra stage seems to make the dynamic link feature useless. Any ideas how to make scrubbing the timeline faster and useable? I tried exporting the file straight out of AE, but this appears overall 'dark', as per my earlier post - no relies to that either yet!! ( export as DV-Pal, 25fps, Best Qual )

Thanks in advance.

Steve

[Bart Walczak]

Dynamic Link tries to render your imported composition each time you scrub. Have you tried rendering the sequence? I think it would help.

BTW, 1 GB for Premiere and Dynamic Link is really, really not enough. I'd recommend at least 2, but preferably 3 or 4 (and Win 64). The program has to run Premiere, After Effects rendering Engine, Photoshop rendering engine (for importing stills and titler I presume?) and they all together take more than 700 MB not including your project or system.

[Steve Burke]

Thanks for the reply, Bart.

Yes, I have tried rendering, and it works fine, but I thought the advantage of the Dynamic Link feature was to view 'real time' from the timeline??? Having to render takes as long as creating a new timeline .avi segment and just as long as exporting an .avi straight from After Effects, so I dont see the advantage of the Dynamic Link feature????? May as well just export the .avi and bring it back into the timeline. It scrubs fine then in real time. What am I missing here?

Thanks for the advice on the memory..... Maybe if I had larger memory, it would make the scrub quicker?? Do you think this is the problem preventing me utilising the Dynamic Link feature to full advantage?

All comments welcome.

Cheers

Steve

[Bart Walczak]

Well, I'm affraid my answer will be a disappointment. But this is because I am myself disappointed with Dynamic Link.

IMHO the only good thing that comes from Dynamic Link is that you can update the sequences and see the changes "on the fly".

However

The slightest change you make in the comp will force you to render the whole composition anyway but this time in Premiere. Which means: no half-resolution, no RAM-preview, no other time-saving options that AE has, and Premiere doesn't. If your computer is not strong enough to play your composition in real-time, which is true for 99% of stuff that I do in AE, then for real-time you have to render anyway.

It is also my impression that Premiere renders things more slowly than AE.

Also, since I use daily backups and the filename is changed every day to include the date, I would have to relink compostions for it to work.

I used to be a big fan of Dynamic Link when it appeared at first. Now I don't use it almost at all except for some simple subtitles. I render my comps anyway.

Maybe there are people who have more positive experience with DL.

[Steve Burke]

Thanks for your reply, Bart.

Thank you for confirming my exact thoughts. Dynamic Link, IMHO, is not much use. Even for looking at the comp 'on-the-fly', it wont allow you to scrub to even see what the comp is like, nevermind being able to add transitions to other clips etc.

I agree with your comments on rendering. May as well view in RAM preview or reduced quality resolution, in AE.

The only advantage to me at present is if I import into PPro, then render and export out the .avi, all is fine. If I render and export from AE directly ( DV-PAL, 25fps, Best Qual ), I get an .avi that is darker than the original AE preview, after a simple Grain Removal.... no-one has yet come back to me on this forum with any suggestions what I am doing wrong ( if anything?? ). The avi made from PPRo is fine and resembeles the original minus the Grain... fantastic grain removal tool that is, by the way.

Ah well, thank you for confirming my thoughts.

okrzyki, na zdrowie!

Steve

[Steven Gotz]

I am having a different experience with Dynamic Link. Perhaps because I have a reasonably up-to-date PC. Dual Core 6800 chip with 4GB RAM.

I create a comp in AE, link to Premiere Pro, and play it in realtime without rendering the majority of the time.

Yes, rendering is slower in Premiere Pro. But even if I rendered out a file in AE to use temporarily, I would still want to use Dynamic Link for the final to avoid the quality loss of an extra generation. Unless I was to use an uncompressed file for the transfer. But that can be a bit of a hassle with large files.

[Steve Burke]

Thanks for your reply, Steven.

I currently run 2xPCs, both dual core 3GHz, but only 1GB RAM in each. Not Render networked at present. ( Maybe something I should investigate with the AE render engine?? )

Looks like the extra RAM you have makes the difference, so I may just splash out and get some more for mine. ( The spec for DLink says 512k min 1G recommended...... ??? )

I think you may have answered my original question regarding why my AE avi when imported into PPro looks dark - the loss of 'quality' due to the extra generation. ( exported avi as DV-Pal, 25fps, Best Quality ). I only use DLink so that I dont get this darkening of the picture, but due to my 1GB RAM, I cannot use DLink to its full advantage, as it wont scrub the timeline in real time, even tho the spec says 1G recommended?????


Many thanks for your input and advice - much appreciated.

Steve

[Steven Gotz]

The advantage of the 4GB is that I can have AE and PPro open at the same time. The advantage of two monitors is that I can see both at one time.

I am primarily a hobbyist who does some corporate and training work. But even a hobbyist needs to have a good experience using the tools.

[Steve Burke]

Thanks, Steve.

With my 1GB, I can open both PPro and AE at the same time. Changing between the two is a little slow ( prob till windows sorts it's page file out ), but once the active window is in memory, all is fine. I guess the faster the CPU, the faster the page swapping takes place. ( I have dual 3GHz's, but the swap is noticable )

Is there still a limit on the windows op system of 2MB???? I seem to remember reading something somewhere that said if you had 6MB RAM, 2GB was the effective, due to the 2MB virtual address space limit. Does this still apply to the latest versions????? How do you map the full 4MB in a 32 bit system?

I have the dual monitor setup, but much prefer to have each application spread across both monitors, to allow a larger timeline to work with, and all the other bits in their separate panels.

Must say, Steve, I think your website is absolutley fantastic and packed with some great information!!! Many thanks.

Cheers

Steve

[Bart Walczak]

I run Dual-Core 6600, 4 GB of RAM, which I guess is pretty up-to-date system :)

Dynamic Link is fine for simple AE compositions, as I already mentioned, but for any more complex work I still need to render. Especially if I work in HD.

This whole discussion made me think about another type of workflow though.

Thanks

[Bart Walczak]

Originally Posted by Steve Burke

Is there still a limit on the windows op system of 2MB???? I seem to remember reading something somewhere that said if you had 6MB RAM, 2GB was the effective, due to the 2MB virtual address space limit. Does this still apply to the latest versions????? How do you map the full 4MB in a 32 bit system?

Win XP will only see up to 3GB.

I have Win64, and it sees 4 GB without any problems.

I know people have different user experience with Win 64, but myself I had experienced no problems at all.

[Steve Burke]

Originally Posted by Bart Walczak

I run Dual-Core 6600, 4 GB of RAM, which I guess is pretty up-to-date system :)

Dynamic Link is fine for simple AE compositions, as I already mentioned, but for any more complex work I still need to render. Especially if I work in HD.

Win XP will only see up to 3GB.

I have Win64, and it sees 4 GB without any problems.

Thanks for clearing the memory issue up, Bart.

Originally Posted by Bart Walczak

This whole discussion made me think about another type of workflow though.

Do you want to tell us what that was? :-)