After Effects CS5

Markers work as well, but I find it harder to sit there watching my NLE and take notes ("OK, at 01:02:22 that light needs to pulse") and then transfer that info to AE, particularly if there are several events to mark; I tend to function more visually though, and I can drag a little red box around in FCP until it's synched. I've done it with audio preview in AE but that feels like working half-blindfolded - I've done things in AE where 5 or 6 "events" had to align with a voiceover or music.

Funny thing with tips like these though - assign 10 photoshop people the same end result, and you'll find 10 different ways to get there.
 
Don't forget Nucleo Pro. It is a turbo charged background render-er. Not a fan of how they dropped network render from the old versions(apparently that was old-skool), but they claim super optimization for multi-core cpu's.
Another major point is getting your work-flow into a high performance codec. With disk space cheap as hell, opt for a high performance low cpu sucking non destructive codec. I'm always shocked when I hear folks trying to do their comps in their ultra compressed cam's codec. Ya, that will work smooth :thumbdown
As well as everyone has said: More RAM, lots of HDD's with a separation of program/scratch/data with RAID where needed.
Along these lines, I'm wanting to include SSD or multiple SSD's. Anyone have a thought out recommendation of the best way to use SSD's besides just a boot/Programs drive? Does an SSD make sense as a scratch disk drive?
 
cam123 said:
AE is a system sucker. I spent more than $2000 just to get a nice working system.
You need a good PSU, Corsair or Seasonic. Mine is Corsair 1000W
You need a lot of DDR3 memory you can afford. Mine is 16GB, i need to add more.
You need high end video card. Mine is GTX 470
You need to have multiple cores running. Core i7 @ 4.2 Ghz
You need SSD HardDrive. Intel X25 G2
Goes on and on.
Click to expand...

I'd like to interject my experiences just to clear up any confusion...

1) The power supply doesn't inherently matter, as long as it can power the hardware in your machine. I have a 650W power supply but even when rendering it only draws around 350W.

2) Yes, memory is important, buy as much fast memory as you can (after getting a good processor).

3) This myth that After Effects requires a fast video card has been perpetuating for ages. After Effects has very limited support for OpenGL hardware acceleration, is only useful is specific situations, is notoriously buggy, and is recommended by everyone I know to leave it off (which it is by default). Buy a fast card if your NLE or 3D software requires it, but if it's just for After Effects, get a cheap old GeForce.

4) Multiple cores: yes, your processor is a critical ingredient. Buy the fastest processor you can afford.

5) While hard drive speed is important for NLE's, it is much less so in After Effects. Most of your renders will be slower than real-time, which is plenty fast for any old hard drive to read in footage. Maybe if you dealt with lots of simultaneousness uncompressed footage (rare) you would slow down a little. But if you're creating graphics from scratch you will access your hard drive very little. Spend money on your processor first.

My machine is custom-built with:
- 650W power supply
- Core i7 920 2.6GHZ Quad
- 12GB of RAM
- 2x 500GB drives in RAID 0
- GeForce 9600GT (old card donated from a friend)

And I'm really happy with it. The whole build (minus monitors which I had) cost just over $1,000, and that was a year ago. So you can save a little money by focusing on your processor & RAM primarily.

Source: 7 years of experience using After Effects.
 
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