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BG Renderer CS 3
Version: 1.6 Sign up to be notified by email when a new version of this script is posted
This script has been replaced with BG Renderer which is compatible with CS3 upwards.
Takes whatever items are queued and ready in the render queue and sends them to render in the background allowing you to keep working in After Effects. This is the CS3 version of the BG Renderer. It now runs as an embedable panel that is saved as part of your workspace. It also utilizes the built in multiprocessing support that was added in CS3.
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- BG Renderer CS3 UI
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Troubleshooting:
- Make sure you don’t have any illegal characters in your path or your project file. Illegal characters include accents, apostrophe’s and eccentric punctuation.
- BG Renderer only runs in English, it will fail if you are running a different language.
version history:
v1.6 added pref to turn off render sound, changed temp file location to fix corrupted .term file bug
v1.5 CS4 compatible
v1.4 fixed additional issues with Leopard
v1.3 fixed issues with MacOS 10.5 Leopard
v1.2 fixed aerender path issue with Windows 64bit systems
v1.1 added terminal instructions, and MP Ram check and warning on Mac
v1.0 updated for CS3
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I’m looking at the BG renderer CS3, but don’t see where it can be downloaded. Where can I get it?
Thanks!
Hi Sean,
Just click on the word BG Renderer CS3 where is says Download above
My PC is WINDOWS.
How do I use it?
To cope with the tutorial, please.
thank you.
The steps are exactly the same on Mac and Windows. Just follow the tutorial as if it was on a PC.
script runs fine! thanx!!
I have a path problem. In the terminal it says that there is path problem. I have AECS3, an iMac intel dual core 20 inchs. The AE file is in an external drive. I wanted to render the movie on my desktop. Am I doing something wrong?
Ok I found (with the help of Lloyd Alvarez) the problem. I speak French. So I had a folder name with an accent. Without the accent, everything works fine.
Just a big thanks
title
Each time I attempt to render I am faced with:
Without Multi-Core
“Unable to execute script at line 1. Expected: )”
With Multi0Core
“ERROR: XML_ERROR_INVALID_TOKEN (313/14)
Unable to execute script at line 1. Expected: )
Running After Effects CS3 on 32bit Windows Vista operating system with administrator privileges enabled and UAC disabled.
Am I to presume vista simply isn’t supported?
P.s
Forgot to mention that I\’ve attempted to use AE under Windows XP SP2 compatibility mode.
Hi, I just install the BG render, works well but the window doesn’t fit in my workspace, looks like an older script version (like a windows window) floating arround.
can you give me a hand please? thanks.
by the way very nice scripts, keep going and we will love you
One of … if not the handiest plugins/addons ever.
great stuff … thank you.
Lloyd very kindly replied to my comment and resolved the issue I was having with my error codes, which had nothing to do with the fact I was using Vista or CS3.
It was simply to do with my project’s name which included illegal characters:
“Josh Pyke’s Fill You In – Music Video Showcase.aep”
I renamed the project abc.aep and all rendered as it should.
Thanks again Lloyd!
I hope my donation has made its way to you.
Great Script!
But it wont render any Format on my machine (Athlon DC 2400 GHz, 2Gb).
For example if i use illustrator Files in a Project it wont render and If i choose png as output Format.
Anyway, great work
Hi, i’ve downloaded the BG Render, script twice now and I’m pretty certain that it’s in the right place ie: ae/scripts/scriptUI panels, Opened up after effects and tried to use it but get the same error message every time. invalid path the one that say’s you may have illeagle characters. Please advise, is there a way around this problem?
thanks
John
Don’t forget to check the name of your project for illegal characters, not just the output path and folder… It took me a long time to figure it out
Thank you for a great script. Works like a charm!
I wonder if there is a way to execute this through another script? I’ve just made a multi render script and would like to use this new render method instead of AE’s own.
I can’t seem to dock the render into the Workspace as shown on the demo. I’m using After Effects CS3 on XP SP3. All I can get it to do is sit on top.
Please help.
To dock the panel you need to grab the left side of the tab (it has a bunch of dots on it) and drop it onto your workspace where you’d like it.
This script is great! I formerly used the console manually but this is way smoother.
Have you considered adding an email and/or sms notification to this script? I prefer to do ALL my heavy renders in the terminal using aerender. I find they have a much lower failure rate than through the AE GUI. This is why I am reluctant to just use the render_and_email.jsx script that AE ships with. That one addition would make this script absolutely perfect for my workflow as i have renders that regularly take between 2 and 12 hours.
I like the script, it saved me many lives. Thank you…
charisti
http://www.ninc.at
Thanks for the great script. I installed on my Mac Pro just as you did in the video but it does not show up as a choice in my window menu. Any ideas?
This looks great, but I don’t know how to use. The link to the tutorial movie crashes both Mozilla Firefox 3.01 and Internet Explorer 6. Any other way to get info on use? Is it as simple as making the folder and putting the file in it?
great and stable render method! love it!
I am getting a error message saying “error parsing properties list” whenever AE starts up and when i look at console it says ERROR: XML_ERROR_INVALID_TOKEN (3252/2).
I am working on a Mac OS 10.4.11 using CS3.
I have an odd error. I downloaded BG Renderer and installed it to the proper Adobe folder directory on my Windows XP SP2 PC. I created a comp called Comp1 and then rendered it as an uncompressed AVI using BG. Everything worked fine. Later I tried to render in Quicktime Photojpeg. This failed. The script asked if I should save the project file first. So I said yes and then it seemed to flash the Command window. The command window stays up for like 1/2 a second. It changes the render queue from “Queued” to “Unqueued” but no file is rendered. I switched to AVI again and now that failed in the same manner. I tried a few more file types – all w/the same results. I tried to make the script dockable and that made no difference. I closed AE, deleted the script files, added the script files back, and it failed in the same way. I restarted my computer and nothing will get it back to working like the first time. The only thing I can guess is that the script is launching the Command window but the script is not executing. Any ideas?
Thanks
I have the same problem. I tried QT JPEG on the first time and I have exactly the same problem. ANy solution??? Would love to use and pay some bucks to this script instead A LOT to Gridiron. But that script doesnt work for me.
So please. Any Solution?
Thanks
Hi,
I just found the BG Render Script for CS 3 and I was realy happy aboud it. Thanks for this realy helpul timsaving script.
But now it don´t works and i absolutly don´t know why or how i could fix the problem. Everytime i try to BG Render a Comp i get this masage: “BG_Renderer_temp_file.term” couldn´t open because it is damaged. Where is this file…where does ist come from and how can I restore it?
Hey Roland,
Apple must have changed something in the latest 10.5 upgrade but the fix is to go into the Settings tab in the Preferences in Terminal and select all the BG_Renderer_temp_file.term shells and hit the – (minus) button at the bottom to delete them. Things should start working again. Apparently Terminal stores all the shells now and it must reach some limit. I imagine you will need to do this every few months.
-Lloyd
Hi Lloyd, good script.
In m case it has a random behavior, sometimes when I click RENDER, it opens a DOS windows and tells me LICENSESTATE DISABLING, it does this for some seconds and so begins rendering till the end, maybe do you know the root of this problem??
Thanks in advance.
Hi Carlos,
I would suggest re-installing After Effects and see if you still see the problem. If you want to do a test before you re-install try running aerender in the command line. Goto START->RUN and type CMD then navigate to the After Effects folder where aerender.exe lives and run aerender.exe. If you get the same licensing issue then there is an issue with aerender and you will need to reinstall.
Hi and thanks for this great timesaver!
thing is, I have yet managed to get it working.
Setup: AECS3 WinXPproSP3.
Installed properly.
When I click BGR, a window pops up notifying that the projects must first be saved. Click OK, then a notepad dock opens, telling me that a bgrender.bak does not exist and if I want to create one. Click Ok.. and that is it.
Nothing happens, no bg process and the render queue item gets unchecked.
Any suggestions?
Hi I’m on Vista Home Premium 32Bit. Been getting this Error,
ERROR: XML_INVALID_tOKEN (313/10)
running AE CS3
any idea’s?
Excellent job. Thank you Lloyd !
Works fine but having the same problem as Jordi did on Febrary 21st (Hi, I just install the BG render, works well but the window doesn
@cameron – Please refer to the FAQ on how to install and run scripts: http://aescripts.com/faq/how-to-install-and-run-scripts/
Awesome script! I had a problem over the weekend with an 8 minute video sequence that I used the BG renderer for and after 4 minutes into the sequence the renderer just stalled on a single frame. I came in on Monday and it was sitting there with the cursor blinking on the 4 minute mark and doing Control – T worked, so it wasn’t a system crash. , . is there a limitation on how long the sequence can be? Thanks…
@Gershon – There are no limitation. What BG Renderer does is pass your project over to aerender, which is the After Effects command line renderer, so once rendering starts in the Terminal window any problems are After Effects related so feel free to file a bug directly with Adobe: http://adobe.com/go/wish
I’m also getting a “bg_renderer_temp_file corrupted” error. I delete the shells in the prefs, but i still get the error. I take it I’m alone in this issue, but I’m a little baffled as to how to troubleshoot this, though. Is there an actual file that I am looking for?
soooooooooooooooooooooooo
gooddddddd
Hi, I run BGrendererCS3 on my MacPro DualCore Intel Xeon 3GHz, 2 processors, 4 cores, 4GB memory. If I install extra 12GB memory, will I be able to render faster with BG renderer Multiprocessor ??
thanks
Hi,
I’m triyng to run BG render witch CS 3 and it don’t work.
I have this message:
The file »BG_render_temp_file.term» could not be opened because it is corrupt.
I tried to re-install it but I had the same message.
I have a MAC Pro early 2008 dual quad 2.8ghz
After FX CS 3 version 8.0.2.27
MAC OS 10.5.7
Please help me !!!!
@Frank Check the FAQ: http://aescripts.com/faq/bg_renderer_temp_file-is-damaged/
purchased BG Render earlier this week. Installed with no problems, worked immediately with no problems! Love it! We’ve now done several jobs with it and the script operates flawlessly. Highly recommend! Thanks!
–Ralph
1VIDeo Productions, LLC
Can the script be run multiple times simultaneously? I’m curious if I’m not using multi-processing and using an eight core machine with 16 GB of RAM – can I have 4-5 renderings going at the same time? Or is that asking for trouble? Thanks for the awesome script!!
@Chip – You can run as many instances as you want. I do it all the time. Just make sure you have at least 2 gb of ram per instance so for 16gb I would run a max of 8 instances but probably 6 or 7 to make sure the system has some ram left.
thank you
I am also getting the error message “The file »BG_render_temp_file.term» could not be opened because it is corrupt”, on Mac OS 10.5.8. I removed the BG_renderer shells from Terminal but the problem still remains. I used to run BG Renderer without any issues, but now I can’t use it anymore. Anybody else has this issue?
I need help! Where can I get a walk through on how to get this to work? I’m on a mac using CS3
@Pat – It’s very easy to use, just add whatever you want to render to your render queue and hit BG Render. That’s it.
Yes – last night a BG render saved my life!
This is the shizzle, Why have I not found this little Gem before?
Thanks for giving me back my life.
Oh hye hello, is there any original software for this, where can i get it and how much the price? Thank you.
To download the software you need to click on the “Add to Cart” button on the top right and then click on “Checkout”
Hi, so I downloaded your script and I have adobe cs4. I put it in the appropriate Scripts folder and then I ran it in ae. the cmd opens but it just says that i dont have quicktime (which shouldnt effect the render) and nothing else shows up…
do you kno what the problem might be?
Not sure why the render would not be proceeding but if you are getting an error that quicktime is missing it means aerender is successfully launching so the problem has to do with either your project or your installation of AE. The first thing I would try is installing quicktime and see if it renders.
How can I uninstall this? I get this message every time I start up Terminal:
[IMG]http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w134/navstar/Screenshot2010-03-04at40302PM.png[/IMG]
Problem was path related but in case anyone wants to know how to uninstall BG Renderer you just need to remove it from the scripts folder.
Hello, great script, one question. I have noticed an occasional problem where quicktime will render white dots on the screen throughout while using background render. The last time this happened I was using apple pro res codec. If I render the same comp with the same codec without background render the issue is gone. Any thoughts?
Sounds like it might be a licensing issue with a plugin. Some plugins watermark with white dots when they are not licensed. BG Renderer uses aerender to render which is a different render engine than the main app uses. Check to make sure all your plugins allow rendering using aerender. It is sometimes called a network rendering license since network rendering typically uses aerender as well.
Just to give my two cents…. I bought this little script for the suggested price of $20 and couldn’t be happier. This is an amazing little piece of productivity. I can’t believe that it’s not a built-in feature for AE. First off, it’s priceless to be able to render in the BG and keep working, but besides that, the renders themselves are WAY faster! I don’t know how that works, and I don’t care. This is making me a superhero at work – GREATLY increasing my ability to make it happen – not just a little bit. Rad.
This script is the S@%#! Rendering in AECS4 practically freezes my system and takes forever, while this runs quietly in the background kicking ass while I work. I hope there will be a version for CS5 once I finally upgrade. Good frackin’ job.
hi.. i got you script its amazing, but i lost the email with my purchase .. can you please re send it to me? I think i bought to the email above … thanks in advance )
Please contact support for help with this. You can reach support by clicking on the feedback tab on the right.
Hi there!
The script work just wonderful!…
I don’t know how the render process work, and I’m a bit curious to know if you can make changes to a Comp that is in Bg render. I mean the new changes will affect the Bg render?
Thanks!.
Yes, once the render is happening in the BG you can do anything you want to the foreground project and it will not affect the BG Render
Thanks again Lloyd!