Philip Tyrer wrote:
Thanks for that. Am I correct in assuming that method 2 (choose File > Add After Effects Composition) will always render the current state of a composition?
Yes but no. Or yes but with a very large caveat.
In this case, Adobe Media Encoder will be working from your original .aep file, not the snapshot temp file created when you use the Add to Adobe Media Encoder Queue command in After Effects. This does mean that any changes you save into the file will get picked up by Adobe Media Encoder.
However, there is a bug in Adobe Media Encoder: when the After Effects project is in active memory, Adobe Media Encoder does not automatically reload the project after you save changes to it.
By active memory, I mean that you have added an After Effects composition and then also asked Adobe Media Encoder to render frames, either by encoding to a file or even just opening the Export Settings dialog to view the preview. If you only load the project but do not do either of those things, the project won't yet be in active memory, and it will see changes you save into your project.
In other words, simply adding the composition to the queue won't cause this problem, but once you ask Adobe Media Encoder to render frames it reads the project once and then forgets to check it again if you make changes.
To get around this problem, Adobe Media Encoder has to purge the project from memory, so that the next time you render frames it has loaded the project fresh again. It will do this automatically if it thinks it needs the memory for something else. You can also force this state by closing Adobe Media Encoder, waiting about 5 seconds (enough time to ensure that the Dynamic Link processes have time to shut down) and starting again.
Again, this is a bug with Adobe Media Encoder only. This behavior doesn't happen when Premiere Pro reads an After Effects project. Our apologies about this bug. My recommendation remains the same as my previous message that your best workflow is to use the Add to Adobe Media Encoder Queue command in After Effects after each time you make changes to a composition that is in the Adobe Media Encoder queue.
I encourage you to file a bug report to the Adobe Media Encoder team for this if it is hampering your workflow: http://adobe.com/go/wish
