Multi-Frame Rendering (Public Beta) FAQ

Multi-Frame Rendering allows After Effects to take advantage of multi-core CPUs by rendering in parallel. The current Beta provides Multi-Frame Rendering for faster exports via Render Queue.

The After Effects team has done extensive work to implement Multi-Frame Rendering and is seeing solid results on a wide range of test configurations.  Now we need your input to bring this to the finish line. There is no end to the combination of effects, transforms and file types that are possible in After Effects —that might even be why you use it, right?  We want to know how Multi-Frame Rendering is performing with your own compositions – and if you are  not yet experiencing speed improvements  with a particular project, please let us know  via the Beta forum.

The more cores in your CPU, the bigger the performance gains, but other factors come into play, including your GPU, RAM, the effects used, third-party plugins, and, potentially, the types of projects you work on.  

After Effects ships with 290 native and third-party effects. 200 of these have already been optimized for Multi-Frame Rendering. You can see the full list of effects, and their status for Multi-Frame rendering here. 

We are working with our technology partners to ensure their plugins are optimized for Multi-Frame Rendering.

Multi-Frame Rendering utilizes all of the cores in your CPU in parallel. It is a significant update to the After Effects architecture and the render pipeline has been optimized from end to end, enabling After Effects to use your system to its full potential. "Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously" (or Multiprocessing) was a different technology which ran multiple instances of After Effects, duplicating memory and CPU usage to speed up some processes in After Effects. After Effects no longer uses multiprocessing.

1. Go to Preferences > Memory and Performance.
2. Uncheck Enable Multi-Frame Rendering (Beta).

Install the After Effects Beta from the Beta tab in the Creative Cloud Desktop applications.

Watch How to install Beta Apps with Adobe Creative Cloud.

Yes, we have a benchmarking project you can use to test your own system with Multi-Frame Rendering. Visit the Beta forum to download the test project.

Visit the After Effects Beta forum to share your feedback.

No. Unless you give us permission, your project will remain confidential and will not be shared outside our product team. You should only share projects that you own or have permission to share with Adobe.

You can upload smaller projects (up to 48MB) directly to the Beta Forum page. For larger projects, visit the Beta Forum and send a direct message to the After Effects team with a download link (e.g. Dropbox or Creative Cloud folder). 

See detailed information for sharing projects in the last question below “What if my own project doesn’t render fast enough?”

If you are not seeing any speed improvements, we'd like to know more about your composition.

Please follow the steps below to help us learn more about your composition.

1. Test your export in Single-Frame and Multi-Frame Rendering modes
   1. Purge your disk and memory cache (Edit Menu > Purge > All Memory & Disk Cache).
   2. Go to Preferences > Memory & Performance.
   3. Uncheck the Performance > Enable Multi-Frame Rendering (Beta) checkbox. Click OK to close the preferences.
   4. Add your composition to the Render Queue and export using the Lossless preset. 
   5. Now repeat steps 1 through 4 but turn on the checkbox for Multi-Frame Rendering (Beta). 
   6. Note down the time it takes to render the composition in both single- and multi-frame rendering exports.

2.   Check to see if you are using effects that do not yet support Multi-Frame Rendering. Effects that do not support Multi-Frame Rendering display a yellow warning icon in the Effects Control Window.

3.  Share your information with us:

1. Open your After Effects project and select  File > Dependencies > Collect Files > Collect > Save As (Name Your Folder).
2. After Effects will store your .aep file, footage, and text report (file log).
3. Zip up your project and send it to us at mfrbeta@adobe.com (or send a link to it hosted on your Creative Cloud storage if it’s too large to email).

Include the following information with your comment:

• Your hardware specs: # cores in your CPU, GB of memory, GPU model and amount of VRAM
• Single-Frame render speed (Use “Render Time” noted in your status bar)
• Multi-Frame render speed
• Effects that are not supported by Multi-Frame Rendering