Render Error at High definition resolution

[Rhoel]

Encountered a problem which I have no idea what the cause is.

I was making a new Video Downdown clock in 1920*1080 format - I built it in Blender and output the images as a frame0001.png type file sequence.

The 675 images were brought into AS using the import image sequence: It fitted the camera frame 1:1 perfectly.

I added a new layer with the new logo which I planned to composite over the old one. Test render was perfect. I elected to output the stream as a new png sequence, so I can recompress into video with whatever codec I need.

The render went well until about frame 200 when suddenly, I started to see the "lost image" icon being added to the render - my background clock image was missing. Stop the render and start again, setting the render for 200 to 675, and the render is fine for another 200-300 frames when it failed again.

Eventually this stop-start technique gets me to the end and the the final convertion to video is A-ok.

I must assume that this is some kind of memory allocation problem. The machine I was using (XP) did not have a huge amount of memory or dual processors: It is like the RAM was full and the renderer could not load in more still images, the program inserted the "lost image" icon.

IF this is the case, then the renderer has to release memory before loading new material: HiDef is very memoryhard disc hungry.

It might also explain why I had to render a 1 minute 30 scene as 4 avi's clips as rendering in 1 chunk produced a corrupt file.

Rhoel

[rylleman]

I've had this troubles as well, and my conclusion is exactly the same as you've reached, Moho loads every image in memory but doesn't unload them even if they aren't used so the RAM get's full and aren't able to handle more images, therefore displaying the lost image icon.
The simplest fix to this problem is to have Moho flush the RAM after every rendered frame. Since this probably will make the overall render process slower I vote for an render option where you choose to flush or not flush the memory when rendering.

[bupaje]

I remember a php link directory program that use to allow incremental builds - maybe something similar? For example, if you are having a problem then a setting to build x amount of frames, clean memory, build the next x amout of frames? Hope this makes sense.

[rylleman]

...if you are having a problem then a setting to build x amount of frames, clean memory, build the next x amout of frames?...

That would be a good solution.

[Rhoel]

...if you are having a problem then a setting to build x amount of frames, clean memory, build the next x amout of frames?...

That would be a good solution.

in this thread, I mentioned I was testing the program to destruction: I have been using AS at HDTV and 4K resolutions (4096*3112 (2304 in 16:9)) to see what problems arise - commercial studios are now working in both, with 4K being used for film output on cinema projects. At HDTV, memory resident issues are a problem and when you get to 4k, how lines join are a problem: I'll post something about his later when I have finished the tests.

This "lost image" problem above is more understandable when you realise a scene render on just one machine takes all night, sometimes longer.

A work-around solution would be to use the batch renderer on the same scene - just render the same scene 1-150, 151-300, etc.

As for animating at 4K ... You can see ALL the mistakes and cheats. When I rendered the still from the thread above, at 4K, I discovered that had omitted to change the line colour on one of the bearings. You cannot see that error on HDTV.

If you plan to use 4K on a regular basis, then you might want to build into the budget a resident shrink to counter the mental breakdowns.

There is a lot to be said about only working on 3gp mobile phone content

Rhoel

[moorsel]

I've encountered the same problem. Therefore I use the command line rendering option in stead of rendering from the UI. This work around solved my issues, for me this approach has 2 advantages over rendering from the UI:

- when rendering from the command line it seeams th AS consumes less RAM
- whenever needed I create a batch file through which AS is called several times: the first call renders frame 1..x, the next x..y, the next y..z etc. As AS is removed from the memory between the calls, the memory used by the images is freeed as well (it more or less simulates your feature request??).

Gr,
Frank

[Lost Marble]

Anime Studio doesn't really have support for image sequences. The script that loads an "image sequence" kind of fakes it out by loading all the images as separate layers and using a switch layer. If Anime Studio "knew" what was going on, it could load just one image at a time, but as far as it knows, those layers could be used again at any time. That's why they don't get dropped from memory.

The real solution is to just create a movie file and load that as a layer. The intent of a movie file is clear, and Anime Studio handles the memory efficiently for movies. There are a variety of lossless compression choices available in QuickTime, so that doesn't need to be a concern either.

[rylleman]

The real solution is to just create a movie file and load that as a layer.

But the problem isn't just with large image sequences, it concern any scene with high resolution and a lot of large image parts.

[Lost Marble]

Sorry, I didn't read the whole thread - I just got the beginning about 675 1920x1080 pictures. That's definitely a lot of pixels. If people are running into problems with a more reasonable number of images, then it looks like more work may need to be done on memory management.

[J. Baker]

The machine I was using (XP) did not have a huge amount of memory or dual processors:

Just curious, how much memory does the machine have and what speed?

I have not had this problem yet with HD rendering but then again, they were only a few seconds long. Mainly for testing.

[moorsel]

I bump into this (my computer runs XP 2K with 2GByte RAM) whenever my animation contains more the a few (more or less hig res) png files. I didn't check but the last animation in which I saw this happening contained approx 100 png files. I also consider this as a problem of my personal workflow: every image I draw is drawn outside AS on "A4 size sheets" and from there exported as a png file 200 dpi to AS. When an animation contains 100 of such pngs there are indeed a lot of pixels that need to be processed (so I therefore I consider this actually as a result of my own proces rahter than a problem with AS).

On several ocasions I saw that the problem was not there at the beginning of the rendered movie but started after a few secs.

As said in a previous post I work around this problem using the command line rendering and whenever needed I render my animation bit by bit. For me this works fine (I am a fan of the command line rendering....).

Gr,
Frank