Adobe After Effects - Manual (Page 751)

Note:
Note:
Does the license agreement for the plug-in allow installing multiple copies on a network for the purposes of rendering?
Are there any other limitations or tips that apply to using the plug-in for network rendering?
Collect Files folder considerations
When you use the File > Collect Files command, files relevant to a project are copied to a single folder. This folder includes a copy of the project
file, a render control file (RCF), and other files, depending on the options you choose in the Collect Files dialog box. If you save the Collect Files
folder to a networked computer other than a server, don’t run a render engine on that computer. Avoid saving the Collect Files folder to a local
disk, the root level of a disk (such as C: in Windows or the Macintosh HD in Mac OS), or a shared folder, all of which can signify different locations
to each render engine. All render engines must interpret the path in the same way.
Once the collected files appear in the watch folder, all monitoring render engines start rendering automatically. If you prefer, you can use the
Collect Files command to store compositions and their source footage to a specified location and then initiate the watch-folder rendering
process later. Doing so renders the projects in alphabetical order, rather than the order in which they were saved to the location.
Set up watch-folder rendering
1. Install the After Effects render engine on as many computers as you want to involve in network rendering. (For information on installing After
Effects as a render engine, see Setup and installation.)
If rendering time is unusually slow, you may be rendering to too many computers, and the network overhead required to track
rendering progress among all computers is out of proportion to the time spent actually rendering frames. The optimal number depends on
many variables related to the network configuration and the computers on it; experiment to determine the optimal number for your network.
2. Create a watch folder called AE Watch Folder on a computer that’s accessible to all of the After Effects render engines on your network.
3. In each render engine, choose File > Watch Folder, and select the watch folder that you’ve created.
4. Create your projects and compositions, and set them up in the render queue with the render settings and output modules you want to use.
(All render items in the project must have output names; otherwise the Enable Watch Folder Render option in the Collect Files dialog box
isn’t available.)
5. Choose File > Collect Files to copy completed projects to your specified watch folder. Once you choose Collect Files, After Effects copies
the project or composition and all source files to the watch folder.
After Effects can’t copy source files that are larger than 2 GB using the Collect Files command: you must copy them manually to the
(Footage) folder in the Collect Files folder.
6. Choose For Queued Comps from the Collect Source Files menu (unless you’re manually moving source files), and then select Change
Render Output To. This option creates a folder on the networked server for rendered files—all of the render engines need access to this
folder to complete their rendering tasks.
7. Select Enable Watch Folder Render, click Collect, and name the Collect Files folder.
8. Save the Collect Files folder to a networked computer, preferably to a networked server.
9. Monitor the progress of the render engines by using a web browser to view HTML pages saved in the watch folder. After Effects generates
these pages automatically when the rendering begins. Click the Reload button in your browser to see the updated status. These HTML
pages describe any errors that occur.
After Effects renders the item to the specified destination folder. When After Effects finishes rendering all of the queued items in a given
project, it closes that project without saving it and then scans the watch folder for new projects to render. Because it doesn’t save the
project, After Effects ignores any Post-Render Actions in the Output Module settings dialog box that specify to import the item when it is
rendered.
747