Can the MacBook Pros handle After Effects renders in HD?

[txdawg]

Hi all:

I'm trying to determine if the new MacBook Pros can handle AfterEffects renders in HD (1020x1980).

My Powerbook G4 has given out and I'm trying to decide between repair ($300) or replace ($3000). The one thing that it couldn't do was render After Effects projects if they were HD. (well, it could - but it would give an estimate of a 7 hour render for a pretty basic 10 second animation). With probably 80% of my work being in HD nowadays, if I knew the MacBook could handle that, it would seal the deal for me.

If it matters, I'm using AE CS3 because my desktop isn't compatible with CS4. I would also prefer a 15", but am fine going with the 2.8GHz/320GB/7200. (And would do the 17" if it is capable and the 15" isn't)

Thanks!

 

[CaptainChunk]

Well, the Intel C2D chips are significantly faster than the PPC G4s (as in multiple times faster, no kidding!). Doing just about anything HD on a G4 is painful. So, your render times will improve significantly. I render animations out in AE at 2K resolution (slightly higher than broadcast HD1080) all the time on both my MBP and my Mac Pro.

On my MBP (last-gen 2.6GHz, 4GB RAM), fairly complex 15 second sequences (with particle animation, lighting effects, smoke, etc.) take somewhere around an hour to render out to an external RAID-0 in Apple Animation codec. And that's in 2K film (2048x1556) resolution.

 

[txdawg]

Thanks for the info - that's great to know ...sounds like broadcast 1080 work shouldn't be a problem. Out of curiosity - any reason you're rendering out to an external? I'm assuming just for the sake of space - or is that necessary?

(I generally use my desktop for most of my work (a pre-intel G5), but I travel fairly often, and for travel not to be a work-stopper for HD projects would be a big boost and worth the investment.)

Thanks again - if anyone else has experiences out there, please still chime in with em!

 

[bigbossbmb]

when working with video/GFX, keep all assets on an external drive at all times. internal laptop drives are just not fast/big enough for video work.

just get an external with eSATA and an eSATA expresscard adapter. you'll be good to go.

 

[jrlcopy]

Hi all:

I'm trying to determine if the new MacBook Pros can handle AfterEffects renders in HD (1020x1980).

My Powerbook G4 has given out and I'm trying to decide between repair ($300) or replace ($3000). The one thing that it couldn't do was render After Effects projects if they were HD. (well, it could - but it would give an estimate of a 7 hour render for a pretty basic 10 second animation). With probably 80% of my work being in HD nowadays, if I knew the MacBook could handle that, it would seal the deal for me.

If it matters, I'm using AE CS3 because my desktop isn't compatible with CS4. I would also prefer a 15", but am fine going with the 2.8GHz/320GB/7200. (And would do the 17" if it is capable and the 15" isn't)

Thanks!

It depends the level of HD rendering that you are doing, Uncompressed, 4:2:2, 4:4:4, hdv, hdcamsr, etc... macbook pro is fine, you'll still be lagging through as you skim through the timeline. If you use aftereffects for a living, you should do a mac pro. if you like to go places and work and only do a couple animations here and there any 15" or 17" macbook pro will sufice, heck I do HD 1080 4:2:2 on my 1st gen macbook for a couple random animations.