Adobe After Effects - Manual (Page 749)

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Lloyd Alvarez provides a script on his After Effects Scripts website that takes items that are ready to render in the render queue and sends them to
render in the background using aerender.
Network rendering with watch folders and render engines
You can render one or more compositions from a project using multiple computers over a network in a fraction of the time that a single computer
would require. Network rendering involves copying the project and source files to a networked folder, and then rendering the project. (A network of
computers used together to render a single composition is sometimes called a render farm.) You can set this up to work with render-only versions
of After Effects called render engines.
You install render engines in the same manner as the full version of the application. You run the render engine using the Adobe After Effects
Render Engine shortcut in the Adobe After Effects CS5 folder. (See Setup and installation.)
After Effects CS5.5 had to be serialized on render-only machines (e.g., in a render farm) due to licensing issues. In After Effects CS6 and later,
you can now run aerender or use Watch Folder in a non-royalty bearing mode, so serialization not required.
To enable non-royalty bearing mode, place a blank file named ae_render_only_node.txt into one of the following locations, depending on the user
account type:
1. Install After Effects on the render-only machine.
2. Place a blank file named ae_render_only_node.txt into one of the following locations, depending on the user account type:
Mac locations:
/Users/<username>/Documents/
/Users/Shared/Adobe/
–log log_file_path log_file_path is a file path or URI specifying the location
of the log file. If this argument is not used, aerender uses
standard output (stdout).
–sound sound_flag If sound_flag is ON, a sound is played when rendering is
complete. Default is OFF.
–close close_flag close_flag specifies whether or not to close the project
when rendering is complete, and whether or not to save
changes:
DO_NOT_SAVE_CHANGES : (default) The project is closed
without saving changes.
SAVE_CHANGES : The project is closed and changes are
saved.
DO_NOT_CLOSE : The project is left open if using an already-
running instance of After Effects. (New instances of After
Effects must always quit when done.)
-rqindex index_in_render_queue -rqindex works just like -comp, except that it won’t create a
render item from the composition automatically.
-mp Additional processes may be created to render multiple
frames simultaneously, depending on system configuration
and preference settings. (See Memory & Multiprocessing
preferences.)
-continueOnMissingFootage The render operation continues even if a source footage item
is missing.
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