AWS Thinkbox Discussion Forums

AE job submission does not retain start frame data


I noticed that if you start a job from AfterEffects it does not appear to carry the (start frame number) or (range of frames to render) information correctly into deadline.

If you render a job using frames 0-400, deadline will correctly render and name the files in that sequence

If you render a job that is just frames 200-400, Deadline will correctly assign and render those frames, but the default file names will start at 0-200.

you can overide this in the Deadline submission window, but it would be nice if it didn't default to start at frame 0.

It would be nice to carry the correct frame number and name the individual images according to the frame number in the AE project.

thanks for the help...




Hi Matt,



You refering to the range specified in the Render Settings in the Render

Queue for the comp right? Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like the after

effects scripting language allows us to pull this date from here. It

does allow us to pull the date from the comp settings, which is what we

use. If you know of a way of pulling the data you want from the AE

project using the scripting language, let us know!



Cheers,

Thanks for the quick reply -



first - a quick correction to the original note above. Deadline is not rendering frames 200-400 and naming them frames 0-200 as I had thought. Deadline always starts rendering at frame 0 by default, regardless of the range specified in the AE comp (then correctly naming the rendered images imageName000- imageName200 in my example)





It seems that, in the previous deadline release, the range that was selected in the AE comp (and was reflected in the AE render que) would be correctly carried into Deadline by default.

I wanted to make sure that this was true and I will double check and make sure our users have the correct range specified in their comps and not just in the render que.





thanks again!








Ryan - I double checked the procedure that the motion graphics guys are using - they have the range correctly specified in the AE comp. Deadline is disregarding this info and always starting with frame 0. Deadline only correctly recognizes the length of the render segment (if they chose to render frames 200-400, Deadline would select 0-200)



The previous version of Deadline did grab this information correctly.



Could you please see if you can reproduce this problem?



thanks,


Hey Matt,



Quick question. What version of After Effects are you using?



Thanks!

AE is showing version 7.0.1.11



We are using the SubmitAEToDeadline.jsx script file supplied with the most recent release (27kb dated 11/4/06)



in that file I found the following lines where the start frame is calculated:



else

{

// After Effects 6.5 +

// In AE 6.5 and higher, the displayStartTime is the actual start time of

// the comp, so now we can set the frame range properly.

startFrame = Floor( displayStartTime / frameDuration );

endFrame = startFrame + Floor( app.project.renderQueue.item( i ).comp.workAreaDuration / frameDuration ) - 1;

}





the previous version used this line:

// get the start frame

startFrame = Floor( app.project.renderQueue.item( i ).timeSpanStart / frameDuration );





must be something there?






In AE 7, I create a new comp with a start time code of 0:00:00:10 and a

duration of 0:00:09:20. When I run the submission dialog, it sets the

frame range as 10-299. This seems to be correct, but please correct me

if I’m wrong. I want to get this problem fixed for you, but I just want

to make sure I’m completely understanding the problem because from my

perspective, it appears to be working properly.



Thanks!


thanks for checking this out - I think the problem we have is when (in your example) you need to tweak and re-render just a few frames in the middle - say starting at 0:00:00:20 and ending at 0:00:00:40 in your comp which acutally starts at 0:00:00:10 and ends at 0:00:09:20

Deadline will then interpret this as needing to render the frames from 0:00:00:10 to 0:00:00:30 (assuming your comp starts on :10)

I'm not sure if this is this the conditions you reproduced, just wanted to clarify!


thanks again!





Hi Matt,



I think this is a result of my minimal experience with After Effects,

but when you say you tweak the timeline to 0:00:00:20 to 0:00:00:40 in

your comp, where do you make this change?



I ran another test as follows:

  1. I created a comp with a range of 0:00:00:10 to 0:00:01:09. When I ran

    the submission script, it set the frame range to 10-39, which is

    correct. Deadline rendered the frames, and they matched up properly to

    the timeline, and used the correct padding (0010 to 0039).


  2. I then wanted to rerender the range 0:00:00:20 to 0:00:01:09, so I

    ran the submission script and manually set the range to 20-39, and the

    rendered frames again matched up properly to the timeline.



    From my understanding, in this case you would be specifying somewhere

    in the comp that you only want to render the range 0:00:00:20 to

    0:00:01:09, and the submission script isn’t automatically grabbing this

    range. I guess what I need from you is where you’re expecting Deadline

    to pull the new range from. If it’s from the comp settings in the render

    queue, I don’t think this is possible (limitation of the scripting

    language). If it’s from somewhere else, we’ll have to invesitigate if

    this is possible.



    I’ve also attached our current version of the submission script, which

    you can unzip and copy to \your\repository\submission\aftereffects

    (make a backup of the original files, just in case). There may be the

    possibility that there are some differences, so I want to make sure

    you’re using the same submission script I am.



    Cheers,

Thanks, Ryan!



It sounds like you have replicated the problem exactly! So my original not-very-clearly-stated question is when you had to “manually set the range to 20-39” in step 2: can this range be filled in automagically - I am looking to have Deadline read the “Start Frame” info from the AE Render Queue. But… it sounds like the answer is that it can’t.



Thanks for the attachment - I have made sure we’re running this most recent submission script.



I am attaching the OLD SCRIPT (we used with earlier Deadline release) that properly reads the information and fills in the correct range when using AE6.5 (I am guessing this bug has to do with AE7 since the functionality was there before)







thanks again,

Matt

Hi Matt,



Good, I’m glad we were able to get to the root of the problem. :slight_smile:



After playing around with all the different startTime, endTime, duration

options in the scripting language, I think I’ve come up with a way to

use the settings in the Render Queue instead of just using the original

comp settings. I’ve attached the new script here so you can test it out,

just follow the same installation instructions as above.



Let me know if this fixes the problem.



Cheers,

Thanks - it looks like this new submission script solved the problem!

Privacy | Site terms | Cookie preferences