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What do you use for After Effects

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Nickwell24

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 13, 2008
149
12
Yup, it's another gear discussion, but this time we're talking processing power! Currently i'm using my 2.5Ghz 13" Macbook Pro with the Intel HD4000 w/ 16GB Ram and 500GB SSD. For standard photoshop and lightroom it kicks butt. But, for any big photoshop files or creating Timelapses in After Effects it's dreadful.

I'm contemplating selling and upgrading to the Mac Daddy 15" Retina w/ discrete graphics. For only a few hundred extra it seems like the logical choice as discrete should have more processing power. Thoughts? Have any of you had this same debate and how'd you lane?
 
I use my MacBook Air. Not as powerful for after effects but for what i need it for, it does the job! Used to have 2 of the older Mac Pro's with mega RAM and Processing power. Great machines.
 
well, this thread is right up my alley

For the stuff you want to do, the MBPr sounds like the logical selection. If you want to do more complicated stuff in the future with plugins like element 3D, lights, cameras, expressions/scripts, camera tracking and so on and so forth, it won't be enough in the long run. Even though the MBPr is a powerul machine and can hold its own, please read what the guy who ran the WeWantANewMacPro campaign in response to a question I sent him about the MBPr.

  • December 3, 2013

  • 12/3, 12:15am


    We Want a New Macpro
    i'm having issues with my 2012 MBPr and Premiere and AE. The machine is definitely fast but it doesn't seem to play well with the Adobe apps. I don't know if the integrated graphics are the issue. I'm constantly quitting Premiere because video will just stop playing. Ae doesn't recognize the GPU as CUDA capable (and I've tried all the hacks). I've even had problems with Premiere when I have too many Safari tabs open!!!

    Not sure if these issues are OS problems or CC problems. I would bet its Adobe's fault though. Their coding seems to be geared towards the PC/Windows world and cobbled together for the Mac as an afterthought.

    Can't comment on C4D. I've done some renders in C4D but not enough to really know if it works well.

    FCPX and Motion work great but I haven't done too much there either.

    The 2013 might fare a bit better because the GPU chipset has been upgraded. Maybe Adobe CC will like this better.

    I guess it depends on what software you are running. I'm able to be productive on the MBPr and Adobe CC but I feel like Im constantly fighting with the software. I'm sure FCPX is airtight because its Apple software on Apple hardware and the Apple OS. Forget Avid. I don't know about the 2013 model.

    I'm going to wipe my harddirve again and reinstall to see if that eliminates the issues I'm having. I'll keep you posted.
Maybe these have been solved 2 years later.

Anyway, on a more general note, make sure to enable your disc cache in AE preferences.
If you're already getting nifty with AE, I would really suggest the following plugins & scripts

Scripts
ease and wizz (great for keying)
expression timeline
bg renderer

Plugins
trapcode particular
element 3d
rowbyte plexus
red giant color suite
zaxwerks 3d flag

i7-5930k 3.50Ghz (6core)
64gb ddr4 ram
gf gtx titan black 6gb ddr5
3 lg monitors
wacom tablet
ssds all over, mechanical for backups & archiving only
adobe software CC, not CC 2014 nor 2015 due to known issues
 

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Last edited:
needfx said:
well, this thread is right up my alley

For the stuff you want to do, the MBPr sounds like the logical selection. If you want to do more complicated stuff in the future with plugins like element 3D, lights, cameras, expressions/scripts, camera tracking and so on and so forth, it won't be enough in the long run. Even though the MBPr is a powerul machine and can hold its own, please read what the guy who ran the WeWantANewMacPro campaign in response to a question I sent him about the MBPr.

  • December 3, 2013

  • 12/3, 12:15am


    We Want a New Macpro
    i'm having issues with my 2012 MBPr and Premiere and AE. The machine is definitely fast but it doesn't seem to play well with the Adobe apps. I don't know if the integrated graphics are the issue. I'm constantly quitting Premiere because video will just stop playing. Ae doesn't recognize the GPU as CUDA capable (and I've tried all the hacks). I've even had problems with Premiere when I have too many Safari tabs open!!!

    Not sure if these issues are OS problems or CC problems. I would bet its Adobe's fault though. Their coding seems to be geared towards the PC/Windows world and cobbled together for the Mac as an afterthought.

    Can't comment on C4D. I've done some renders in C4D but not enough to really know if it works well.

    FCPX and Motion work great but I haven't done too much there either.

    The 2013 might fare a bit better because the GPU chipset has been upgraded. Maybe Adobe CC will like this better.

    I guess it depends on what software you are running. I'm able to be productive on the MBPr and Adobe CC but I feel like Im constantly fighting with the software. I'm sure FCPX is airtight because its Apple software on Apple hardware and the Apple OS. Forget Avid. I don't know about the 2013 model.

    I'm going to wipe my harddirve again and reinstall to see if that eliminates the issues I'm having. I'll keep you posted.
Maybe these have been solved 2 years later.

Anyway, on a more general note, make sure to enable your disc cache in AE preferences.
If you're already getting nifty with AE, I would really suggest the following plugins & scripts

Scripts
ease and wizz (great for keying)
expression timeline
bg renderer

Plugins
trapcode particular
element 3d
rowbyte plexus
red giant color suite
zaxwerks 3d flag

i7-5930k 3.50Ghz (6core)
64gb ddr4 ram
gf gtx titan black 6gb ddr5
3 lg monitors
wacom tablet
ssds all over, mechanical for backups & archiving only
adobe software CC, not CC 2014 nor 2015 due to known issues
Click to expand...

Thank you for your feedback. Fortunately my needs for After Effects lies mainly within Hyper Lapse and Time Lapse photography and generally the clips are only 15-20 seconds. With my current system it just seems to bottleneck as it has issues processing all raw photography files (6MB+) at 30fps without significant lag. I've actually considered looking at PCs as they have shown better performance/$ in regards to adobe (or so it seems), but being an OS X user for the last decade it's hard abandoning the Apple ecosystem.
 
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Nickwell24 said:
Thank you for your feedback. Fortunately my needs for After Effects lies mainly within Hyper Lapse and Time Lapse photography and generally the clips are only 15-20 seconds. With my current system it just seems to bottleneck as it has issues processing all raw photography files (6MB+) at 30fps without significant lag. I've actually considered looking at PCs as they have shown better performance/$ in regards to adobe (or so it seems), but being an OS X user for the last decade it's hard abandoning the Apple ecosystem.
Click to expand...

I would also suggest a pc if you're looking to become more proficient & prominent in all matters Adobe.
With the amount of money I spent on the pc in my original post, I would have hardly got a macpro with 16gb of ram, which is ridiculous.
I do have an MBA 11inch, 2nd gen, I have done some AE projects on the fly, but it does bottleneck quite easily, never tried a hyperlapse with RAW photos, but that would definitely create some stress to the machine.
 
AE relies heavily on the CPU and does not use the GPU, except for the 3D Raytracer, though with newer versions it MIGHT (unlikely, as the keyboard shortcut manager is still not existent in 2015) get support for Metal and thus the GPU.

Therefore you might not need the dedicated GPU model or can even live with a powerful Hackintosh if you want.
 
  • Like
Reactions: needfx
Gwendolini said:
AE relies heavily on the CPU and does not use the GPU, except for the 3D Raytracer, though with newer versions it MIGHT (unlikely, as the keyboard shortcut manager is still not existent in 2015) get support for Metal and thus the GPU.

Therefore you might not need the dedicated GPU model or can even live with a powerful Hackintosh if you want.
Click to expand...

great input which I neglected clarifying as I was basing it on my usage.

Using element 3D is also GPU demanding as it renders in viewport
 
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