Rendering

Rendering

The AI can work with After Effects' render queue the way you do, and it can also render in the background so After Effects stays usable.

Background renders

ae_render_background renders a comp, or a render queue item with its own settings, with aerender, After Effects' command-line renderer, in a separate process. After Effects stays usable while it runs.

• It renders the project as saved on disk. If the open project has unsaved changes, the AI must save it first (save: true), otherwise the render would not include them.
• It needs an output path for a comp, with an extension that matches the output module. Render-settings and output-module templates are the ones in your After Effects (ae_list_render_queue lists their names).
• A frame range can be set with startFrame and endFrame.
• It returns a job id. ae_render_jobs shows status and progress of the renders started in this session, and cancels one (cancel: "<id>").

In the Surehand panel (1.4), a running background render appears at the top of the feed as Rendering <comp> with a progress bar and percent; the wide layout also shows the time left.

Each render's log and status are kept in ~/.surehand/ae/renders/<id>.log and <id>.json, for the newest 50 renders.

Notes:

• Jobs are tracked by the server process that started them. If you restart the AI app, ae_render_jobs no longer lists earlier jobs; their files in renders/ remain.
• aerender uses its own memory and CPU next to After Effects. On a busy machine both slow down.
• The project must have been saved once. A comp is rendered by name, so its name must be unique in the project (otherwise use its render queue item). Without a frame range, the comp's work area is rendered.
• Permissions, as the code behaves today: a background render only reads the project inside After Effects, so it does not wait for approval in Ask mode, and in Read-only mode it is refused only when it would save the project first (save: true). It still writes the output file. If that matters for your setup, use Read-only mode with care or watch the panel's feed.

The render queue

Tool	What it does
ae_list_render_queue	Lists render queue items with status and output paths, and the render-settings and output-module templates available
ae_add_to_render_queue	Adds a comp with an output path and, optionally, templates by name
ae_get_render_settings	Reads every render setting and output-module setting of an item (resolution, quality, time span, frame rate, motion blur, color depth, format, codec, audio, resize, crop…) as editable key / value pairs
ae_set_render_settings	Changes those settings by the same keys, and returns the result
ae_render_queue_start	Renders everything queued, inside After Effects. After Effects is blocked until it finishes (default time limit 1 hour, up to 24 hours).
ae_queue_in_media_encoder	Sends queued items to Adobe Media Encoder, optionally starting the encode
ae_clear_render_queue	Removes all items, or only finished ones

ae_get_render_settings / ae_set_render_settings work on the exact values After Effects shows in the Render Settings and Output Module dialogs, so the AI can match a delivery spec setting by setting, then confirm by reading them back.

Speed, handoff and farms

• ae_render_profile shows where render time goes over the whole timeline and keeps a speed-up only when the picture is proven unchanged.
• ae_handoff_package collects the project for someone else with a manifest of what they need, and can prove the package renders the same.
• ae_farm lists what a render needs, checks a node against it, splits a render into chunks for local processes or other machines, and proves the chunks add up.

See Render speed, handoff and farms.

Checking the result

After a render, Preflight can check the rendered file against your delivery spec: codec, container, bit depth, chroma subsampling, alpha, field order, color tags, legal range, black and frozen frames, loudness and true peak, and a flash pre-check.

Single frames and contact sheets

For looking at work in progress, the AI doesn't need the render queue: ae_render_frame and ae_render_contact_sheet render previews through a temporary comp and leave no undo step. See What the AI can do.