What computer?

[Pauli]

Hello again, I have been using my go to laptop for animating for some time and the exporting of animations no longer runs smoothly - the result is unstable. I am considering getting a dedicated laptop for animating and was wondering if anyone has any tips for a stable reliable system. I do this for fun and so I am not looking for a professional setup and so not too expensive! I have a dedicated music making system which has never been online and still works just as well as the day I got it some six years ago. I think that showing a computer to the web causes all kinds of functionality issues. Pauli.

[Greenlaw]

Here's some general info. Hope it helps:

First, I was wondering what you meant by "the exporting of animations no longer runs smoothly." Do you mean playback of any video file isn't smooth on that the computer renders video files that are less smooth when played back on any computer? Try playing back the files on a different computer. Knowing this may help you isolate where the problem is, i.e., disk fragmentation or other disk problems, poor choice of codec, conflicting software, etc. If it was fine before, try to retrace what's been done to the computer since then. Just some things to think about and try before you go shopping.

If you're going to get a new computer anyway, In general, ASP isn't too resource heavy so I think you have a lot of options.

I animated and rendered 'Hearts Like Fists' at 1080p mostly on a small HP tm2 computer, which was a five year old convertible laptop with only 4GB of RAM and the processor probably wasn't even an i5, but animating and exporting was pretty smooth. It didn't have the horsepower for final compositing for the job but it was fine for the ASP work. But I'm only mentioning this because this was adequate for my needs but probably too low-powered by today's and future HD standards. In other words, you'll want better specs than this.

I think the thing to look for is plenty of RAM (as much as you can afford) and a decent graphics chipset. My current mobile computer is on the high end for a tablet computer, a Wacom Cintiq Companion 2 with 16GB RAM and i7 processor. The graphics is Intel Iris 6100, which is pretty decent even for 3D work, but I would have preferred Nvidia if it was an option. It breezes through most ASP work, and can handle more processor intensive work, like 3D sculpting and rendering. This model was expensive but if you don't want a tablet, you can probably get a traditional laptop with similar or better specs for a lot less money. Also make sure it's a x64 bit system because x32 versions of production software is gradually being phased out by many developers; in fact, a lot of major programs haven't been available for x32 systems for a few years now.

As for web access, I think if you use the web responsibly and have reasonably decent virus/malware protection, your computer should be fine. We have about 10 computers on a small network at home, all of which technically have access to the web and they've been fine for rendering 2D and 3D animation for many years.

[Pauli]

Hi Greenlaw, thanks for your reply. What I meant by unstable exporting is that the animation works fine in the design process but when I export it, firstly the export view is not smooth (when you see the progress bar go from left to right) and the resulting animation is also stuttering or jerky you might say. I found that using half size function at export did help but this is not ideal. I did some really simple experimental animations just to test the functionality and even these were stumbling when exported. Strange thing is, I did a fairly complex animation not long ago with no issues at all. My computer plays video files generally without problems. I will try defragmentation.

[slowtiger]

Please always check video files frame by frame before you accuse AS of having rendered with errors. In most cases computers simply can't play high quality video files without problems, especially if these files are uncompressed for best quality. Also using a different video player might help in some cases.

[Pauli]

@Slowtiger - The issue has arrisen recently - I made a few animations without problems but then the stuttering started. The animations run fine in the design and replay stages it`s just when exporting that the problems arise. It does work better with compression but the image quality also suffers. I am puzzled that I managed to do uncompressed full size animations before but no longer. I am now defragging and trying to get my computer to run better. I suspect this is the issue. I was not accusing AS as you put it if you read my initial post.

So I am now trying exporting with compression quality set to 100. This may be an option for me so I will see how it goes. Thanks for all input!

[Greenlaw]

If you still have problems and you suspect you might not have enough RAM, try rendering out to frames (PNG) and then use another program to compile the sequence to a movie file. Ideally, you'd use a video editing program for this but some players can do this too. The idea is that separating the process into two separate tasks (1. rendering to frames from ASP and 2 compiling pre-rendered frames,) is a lot easier for the computer to handle under low RAM availability.

In fact, I sometimes have to do this with After Effects even when I have a lot of RAM--that is, render the complex comp to frames in one pass and then reload the frames to a new comp and render the final movie in a second pass.

[Pauli]

@greenlaw Does having a graphics card like Nvidia Geforce have any effect on rendering? My machine does not have such a card and only has intel HD Graphics. But I do have 8GB of RAM. I am just wondering how to make the whole process run more smoothly and get better overall quality.

[Greenlaw]

Does having a graphics card like Nvidia Geforce have any effect on rendering?

I don't think ASP uses the graphics chipset/card at all for final rendering, it's more for display speed and quality, which affects drawing, setup and animation. If you also use other programs like Photoshop or Painter for creating/editing art with ASP, and a compositing program and/or video editor for putting together final output, you definitely want good graphics capabilities.

For final renders, CPU speed and RAM is probably more important.

I confess I'm making a few assumptions about how ASP works though...maybe somebody more knowledgeable can confirm or correct this info.

[synthsin75]

The biggest limitation to playing uncompressed video is RAM and a capable player. If your computer has suddenly stopped playing uncompressed smoothly, then you probably need to check what is eating up your RAM. What other programs you may have running.