ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0
User Guide
638
Simple ways to improve performance
Improving performance before starting After Effects
You can achieve significant performance improvements by preparing your system before you start After Effects. Do
any of the following before you start After Effects:
Make sure that you’ve installed the current version of After Effects, including any available updates.
Visit the Adobe website for details.
Make sure that you’ve installed the latest versions of drivers and plug-ins.
To download updates for drivers and plug-ins, visit the provider’s website.
Quit applications that are not necessary for your work.
This may include some applications that start automatically during startup of the operating system.
Make sure that your system includes a display card that supports OpenGL 1.5 or later (2.0 recommended).
Though After Effects can function without it, OpenGL accelerates various types of rendering, including rendering
to the screen for previews. (See “Supported OpenGL features” on page 140.)
Adjust the size of the virtual memory paging file (Windows only).
Virtual memory enables the system to use hard-disk space to store information normally stored in RAM. Windows
manages virtual memory using a paging file. To improve performance in After Effects, adjust the size of the paging
file to a maximum of twice the amount of installed RAM—the default in Windows XP. (See Windows Help.)
Defragment all hard disks regularly.
See the documentation for your operating system for details.
Make sure that your system has enough RAM.
See the documentation for your operating system and computer for details on how to check the amount of installed
RAM and how to install RAM.
Improving performance when using effects
Some effects, such as blurs and distortions, require large amounts of memory and processor resources. By being
selective about when and how you apply these effects, you can greatly improve overall performance.
Do any of the following:
Apply memory-intensive and processor-intensive effects later.
Animate your layers and do other work that requires real-time previews before you apply memory-intensive or
processor-intensive effects (such as blurs), which may make previews slower than real time.
Temporarily turn off effects to increase the speed of previews.
See “To temporarily turn off effects” on page 349.
Limit the number of particles that are generated by the Particle Playground effect.
See “Improving performance with Particle Playground (Pro only)” on page 514.
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