RenderPluginException - can anyone help me please

Deadline
1

Hi,
Having issues getting Deadline to render AE5.5 on two PC’s, sent from a Mac.
Simple projects work fine but something more complex falls over.

Deadline 5.1 (license free mode until I yet it working)
OSX 10.6.8
Render slaves are both Windows Server 2008 (yes I know its not supported by adobe).

If I open the AE Project on the render machines it loads perfectly.
The mac/pc path settings all work ok.

Below is the error report.

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Error Message

Exception during render: An error occurred in RenderTasks(): aerender ERROR: After Effects can not render for aerender. Another instance of aerender, or another script, may be running; or, AE may be waiting for response from a modal dialog, or for a render to complete. Try running aerender without the -reuse flag to invoke a separate instance of After Effects
at Deadline.Plugins.ScriptPlugin.RenderTasks(String taskId, Int32 startFrame, Int32 endFrame, String& outMessage)

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Slave Log

0: Task timeout is disabled.
0: Loaded job: TimmySeaside 3.aep - tt_mmenu_intro_w (999_100_999_6c3594a3)
0: INFO: StartJob: initializing script plugin AfterEffects
0: INFO: Any stdout that matches the regular expression “WARNING:(After Effects warning: .)" will be handled as appropriate
0: INFO: Any stdout that matches the regular expression "INFO:This project contains .” will be handled as appropriate
0: INFO: Any stdout that matches the regular expression “After Effects error: Unable to obtain a license." will be handled as appropriate
0: INFO: Any stdout that matches the regular expression “.Error:.” will be handled as appropriate
0: INFO: Any stdout that matches the regular expression "aerender ERROR.” will be handled as appropriate
0: INFO: Any stdout that matches the regular expression “INFO:(The following layer dependencies are missing)” will be handled as appropriate
0: INFO: Any stdout that matches the regular expression “PROGRESS: [0-9]+[:;][0-9][:;][0-9][:;][0-9]." will be handled as appropriate
0: INFO: Any stdout that matches the regular expression "PROGRESS:.” will be handled as appropriate
0: INFO: Any stdout that matches the regular expression “.*” will be handled as appropriate
0: INFO: Any stdout that matches the regular expression “.is using the same serial number.” will be handled as appropriate
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “Motion Sketch” will be ignored
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “The Smoother” will be ignored
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “Time Controls” will be ignored
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “Brush Tips” will be ignored
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “The Wiggler” will be ignored
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “Tracker Controls” will be ignored
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.After Effects.” will be handled by pressing “OK;Yes”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.On-line Registration.” will be handled by pressing “No”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “.Optical Flares License.” will be handled by pressing “panel”
0: INFO: Any popup windows with titles matching the regular expression “Tablet Version Mismatch” will be handled by pressing “OK”
0: INFO: About: After Effects Plugin for Deadline
0: Plugin rendering frame(s): 0-799
0: INFO: CheckPathMapping: Swapped “/Volumes/gfx_raid4/PROJECTS/2e/Timmy’s Seaside Rescue/ae/TimmySeaside 3.aep” with “\10.1.64.32\gfx_raid4\PROJECTS/2e/Timmy’s Seaside Rescue/ae/TimmySeaside 3.aep”
0: INFO: Stdout Handling Enabled: True
0: INFO: Popup Handling Enabled: True
0: INFO: Using Process Tree: True
0: INFO: Hiding DOS Window: True
0: INFO: Creating New Console: False
0: INFO: Render Executable: “C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS5.5\Support Files\aerender.exe”
0: INFO: CheckPathMapping: Swapped “/Volumes/gfx_raid4/temp/tt_mmenu_intro_w_[###].png” with “\10.1.64.32\gfx_raid4\temp/tt_mmenu_intro_w_[###].png”
0: INFO: Rendering to network drive
0: INFO: Render Argument: -project “\10.1.64.32\gfx_raid4\PROJECTS\2e\Timmy’s Seaside Rescue\ae\TimmySeaside 3.aep” -comp “tt_mmenu_intro_w” -s 0 -e 799 -output “\10.1.64.32\gfx_raid4\temp\tt_mmenu_intro_w_[###].png”
0: INFO: Startup Directory: “C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS5.5\Support Files”
0: INFO: Process Priority: BelowNormal
0: INFO: Process Affinity: default
0: INFO: Process is now running
0: STDOUT: Unable to execute script at line 1. Expected: )
0: STDOUT: aerender version 10.5x253
0: STDOUT: aerender ERROR: After Effects can not render for aerender. Another instance of aerender, or another script, may be running; or, AE may be waiting for response from a modal dialog, or for a render to complete. Try running aerender without the -reuse flag to invoke a separate instance of After Effects

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Error Type

RenderPluginException

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Error Stack Trace

at Deadline.Plugins.Plugin.RenderTask(String taskId, Int32 startFrame, Int32 endFrame)
at Deadline.Slaves.SlaveRenderThread.RenderCurrentTask(TaskLogWriter tlw)

2

It looks like Deadline might just be the messenger here, but to confirm, open the command prompt on one of the PC slaves and then run this command:

"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS5.5\Support Files\aerender.exe"  -project "\\10.1.64.32\gfx_raid4\PROJECTS\2e\Timmy's Seaside Rescue\ae\TimmySeaside 3.aep" -comp "tt_mmenu_intro_w" -s 0 -e 799 -output "\\10.1.64.32\gfx_raid4\temp\tt_mmenu_intro_w_[###].png"

This is the exact command that Deadline is running, so we’re testing to see if the problem occurs outside of Deadline as well.

I did some googling on that specific error message, and it seems like a common AE error. Some thoughts were that it is due to a specific AE plugin, and since your renders work with simple scenes but not with more complex ones, that could be the case. Maybe you could try stripping things out of the complex project until it goes through. That could help narrow down which plugin isn’t behaving properly.

Cheers,

  • Ryan