Premiere Pro CS6 having some serious issues with NVIDIA GTX 285

I started on a job today shot on a 5D and didn’t have time to convert to ProRES, so I decided to cut it in Premiere Pro CS6 to save conversion time, plus since I have a compatible PluralEyes to sync off camera audio. It took a bit of time to do the sync, but after I watched my footage and then began cutting, but Premiere Pro could not have been more unstable. I crashed over and over, and was losing time and work. So much that I tried exporting to quicktime, but it was just going to take too long to render the timeline so I could edit.

I found this thread on the Adobe Forums, and found my exact problem.

I’m on a MacPro 4,1, Lion 10.7.4, CS6.0.1, 32GB RAM, GTX 285 with the latest nVidia and CUDA drivers.  I am seeing 2 primary issues:

 

Lots of Serious Error crashes.  This happens without any noticeable pattern – sometimes with the title tool, trim monitor, or simply just scrubbing the timeline.  It seems to happen more frequently with Dynamic Links in the timeline.  Also, I believe it is happening more often (or maybe exclusively)  with the MPE GPU option enabled.  I think in Software Only mode, it may not be present, although further testing required.

 

Also, I am having an issue where Pr will display black only in the source and program monitors, unless I click around the timeline and will get flashes of images.  This is remedied by changing over to Software Only for the MPE.  It seems to be worse if Safari is running.

I was having the same issues exactly, and have the same system setup, but with only 24 GB of RAM, and am running Mountain Lion 10.8.0. I kept having to trash my prefs which worked for about 5 minutes before I crashed again.

So I decided to remove the GTC285 and put in my QUADRO FX 4800. It is old and slow, but still pretty decent. I installed it about 2 hours ago, and Premiere Pro has been rock solid afterwards.

This shows it is either an NVIDIA driver or CUDA issue, or something in the Premiere Code with the GTX 285, as with the QUADRO FX 4800 it is running like a dream.

Adobe and NVIDIA need to fix this fast, because this is a major issue. If it was not for me having a spare video card I would have been SOL, as I have to finish this project and fast!

UPDATE: Had one crash after 3 and a half hours, but I have been saving now, back to the old paranoid saving all the time. Still unbelievable the difference with the different video card!

UPDATE AGAIN: And crashed again! OK, so not rock solid, but still much better than it was with the GTX 285.

Red Giant has released Trapcode Suite 12

Trapcode Suite 12 from Red Giant on Vimeo.

Check it out at Red Giant, where it is $899 or between $99-$499 for an upgrade.

The new upgrade includes Trapcode Mir a brand new motion design tool.

Trapcode Mir from Red Giant on Vimeo.

It now includes 105 Particular/Shine Guru Presets from MoGraph artist David Vinson.

And maintenance updates for Lux, Echospace, Particular and Form.

The Guru presets help, but this doesn’t seem like much of an overall suite upgrade for the price, especially if you already have the guru presets! I mean a new app, that you may or may not use, and no update to the rest of the suite, and the upgrade costs the same as buying the app. Red Giant obviously included the Guru presets to make this seem more worthwhile, but at $99, it seems a bit much when all you get is a maintenance release for all the apps you know and love.

Zaxwerks releases 3D Invigorator Pro V6

3D Invigorator Prto

Zaxwerks has finally upgraded 3D Invigorator Pro to Version 6. And it had better be a whopper of an upgrade now that After Effects CS6 has Ray Traced Extruded Text and Shapes.

New features for Invigorator Pro include:

▪ Ray-Trace Reflectivity & Shadows! (NEW)
▪ Ultra Realistic Shadows with Ambient Occulusion (NEW)
▪ Create Glass or Water with Refraction (NEW)
▪ Super Easy Grid Creator (NEW)
▪ Increased Number of Sets and Layer Maps (NEW)

Here is what they have to say:

Our new Ray Trace renderer produces ultra-cool pictures, with reflections of objects in other objects, smooth realistic shadows, and glass refractions. Mmmmm. Sweet, sweet pictures.
New workflow features include the ability to trace pictures then map the picture back onto the object with one click; the ability to turn whole folders of images into 3D objects; and the ability to collect all project related files if you have to move the project from one computer to another. If you’re not a 3D-techie this means it’s now easier than ever to turn client artwork into flying 3D objects.
Best of all in version 6 are the new Object Fragmentation features. This set of features lets you slice, chop or crack your 3D objects into little fragments. Big deal, most 3D programs can do this, right? Not even close. What ProAnimator does is to turn fragmentation into a design tool where you can change your mind as the design evolves. Slice your logos into planks, strips, cubes, chips, chunks or shards. No pre-planning required. Change the fragmentation, change the text getting fragmented, change the bevels, change the color, change anything at anytime for the greatest flexibility imaginable.
ProAnimator 6 has also added more animation controls especially designed to take advantage of the thousands of pieces generated by the fragmentation features. So now you can take your thousands of fragments and spin, tumble, whip and cascade them in cooler, fresher and more eye-catching ways than before. Spill the fragments into the screen and watch them assemble into your logo. Drop the fragments and watch one word turn into another. This can be done with any text, logo or imported 3D object.
Stop for a moment and realize that now you can design on the fly with fragments as easily as full objects. It’s like a particle system that’s easy and fun to control and completely real-time and interactive. It’s all waiting at your fingertips to give your work an exciting edge over your competition.

It is $399 or $99 for an upgrade from 5.0.

VideoCopilot has released Element 3D

Element3D

VideoCopilot has finally released it’s long teased Element 3D plug in for After Effects for $149.95. or $195.50 with Pro Shaders, $249.50 with Motion Design Pack and Pro Shaders or $495 including all 6 3D packs and over 500 in 3D models to use with it.

Looks pretty damn cool actually and I would love to give it a try! Been watching videos for some time, and it looks really damn powerful without having to have extensive 3D skills.

Looks like you can do particle effects with real 3D elements, very very cool. I have some ideas just from looking at the footage.

Biscardi Creative FCP to CS6 Part 3

Biscardi Creative has posted part 3 of it’s switch to CS6 from Final Cut Pro 7. A good read with interesting points.

•Because of Native editing, they their render time is basically down to realtime render, so a 30 minute show has around a 30 minute render! That is a huge change!

•It requires more setup before hand, and it is smart to organize everything before import.

•Still using FCP 7 for videotape ingest!

•Use Davinci Resolve for grading, though it does not support all the files that Premiere Pro does, so a flattened ProRes Quicktime file is created from final timeline and use resolve’s scene detect tool!

There is of course more, and this is a must read for switchers!

Had issues with CUDA and After Effects CS6 11.0.1 Update but FIXED THEM

After updating to After Effects CS6 11.01 I started getting an error message about CUDA not working.
AE-CudaWarning
Strangely CUDA was still working fine in Premiere Pro CS6, so it had to be the AE Update.

And I am running the latest CUDA.
CUDA
The thing is it just wasn’t showing up in After Effects and was using CPU instead of CPU for CUDA.
AE-Cuda

I tried trashing After Effects preferences, but that didn’t work, so I found and downloaded the standalone 11.01 update installer and that fixed the issue for now.