When Adobe released CS6 in 2012, I was more exited for the addition of the Global Performance Cache than anything else.
I was in love instantly. No really, instantly. The first time I toggled a layer off and back on again without having to re-RAM Preview was a spectacular moment. I’ve been using After Effects since 2002 with version 5.5 and I have spent LOTS of time with it since.
The introduction of text layers in version 6 and the new UI in 7 were great and welcome additions, yet media caching changed more than reducing redundant rendering while working. I no longer had to be hesitant to make changes, shift a layer in time, etc. It just felt good. Ok, maybe I’m making it sound like a bigger deal than it was whilst simultaneously removing all doubt to my geekiness. Either way, at the least the cache stuff was nice.
Now that my ode to AE’s disk caches is over, here’s some free ideas how to use it. (In no particular order)
Actually enable the cache. Doesn’t do much good if it’s turned off.
Set the maximum size to biggish. If you have the resources, try putting it on an external Solid State drive.
Clear it often, or at least when your done with a project. This will leave space for stuff you are actually working on, not to mention your drive will breathe better.
Pay attention to where you store project files in relation to media in relation to cache files, as well as final renders (especially the big ones). Don’t have it all running from the same place, this will slow things way down.
While I’m at it, here’s my two cents on AutoSaving. Take it or leave it, it’s just some dude rambling anyway:
I set mine to save every 5 minutes with tons project versions. Every so often I go in and .zip them all together. This saves a ton of space and makes archiving much easier. They are all organized by project and date so retrieving an old project version is really smooth.
There, I’m done, I just thought I’d write this up just in case someone someday might find it useful. Enjoy.
