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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 Install the software.)
    Note: 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.
    Note: 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 and, if necessary, to the overflow volumes you have specified in the Output preferences (see Overflow volumes and segment settings). 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.