Here’s another one… if you’re rendering from tiff sequences on Mac OS, the more tiff files you have in a directory, the longer it takes to read them in and hence to render…
In other words, don’t put all your image sequences in one folder, but instead make a separate directory for each render.
-felt.
And another… if you’re rendering a very heavy duty file, it may be worth splitting it into several renders and rendering it in several parts.
I’ve noticed lately that After Effects slows down considerably between the start of a render and the end of a render. I guess this will change when it goes true 64 bit. I guess it’s something to do with RAM leakage.
Also, has anyone else noticed that after a really big render, AE takes ages to get its act together. It seems to be doing something with RAM / disk cache. But how long can it take to get rid of a few TBs of data? My machine sometimes has a go slow for 10 minutes.
If I force quit all instances of the aerendercore, it’s back to normal in seconds with no apparent detriment to anything else.
-felt.
Also, has anyone else noticed that after a really big render, AE takes ages to get its act together. It seems to be doing something with RAM / disk cache. But how long can it take to get rid of a few TBs of data? My machine sometimes has a go slow for 10 minutes.
If I force quit all instances of the aerendercore, it’s back to normal in seconds with no apparent detriment to anything else.
-felt.
yeap I noticed that too… But for the big renders I use the same thing felt said. I divide project into scenes, and then add them separately to the rendering queue. Then simply import them into main comp, and render them out as one movie.
After Effects actually hates big projects in all sorts of ways. Elements’ advice is good advice.
I’d go even further and say use multiple smaller AE project files, instead of one almighty big one.
That tends to save the hair tearing out moment at 5.30am with 4 hours to go before your delivery deadline, when After Effects suddenly decides it’s not going to play ball anymore! 
-felt.
That tends to save the hair tearing out moment at 5.30am with 4 hours to go before your delivery deadline, when After Effects suddenly decides it's not going to play ball anymore! :D-felt.
hm… this sounds very very familiar
Also, has anyone else noticed that after a really big render, AE takes ages to get its act together. It seems to be doing something with RAM / disk cache. But how long can it take to get rid of a few TBs of data? My machine sometimes has a go slow for 10 minutes.
If I force quit all instances of the aerendercore, it’s back to normal in seconds with no apparent detriment to anything else.
-felt.
yeap I noticed that too… But for the big renders I use the same thing felt said. I divide project into scenes, and then add them separately to the rendering queue. Then simply import them into main comp, and render them out as one movie.
Do the same here. I’ve learned this from your tips Felt. I do tiffs now into different folders and then render the whole thing to the final video file.
Thanks for your comments!
That tends to save the hair tearing out moment at 5.30am with 4 hours to go before your delivery deadline, when After Effects suddenly decides it's not going to play ball anymore! :D-felt.
hm… this sounds very very familiar
same here… 
My fallback for tough renders is to render an uncompressed Targa sequence, then reimport the sequence and render using compression. It seems like trying to render and compress at the same time (MPEG, h264, etc) takes longer than if you do each independently.