Prevent more than one aerender from running on each host.

	Currently there's a bug in AE6 where running more than one AERENDER process per machine crashes aerender, causing either process to fail, or both processes to hang. Under windows, the result is usually an 'Application Error' from AfterFX.EXE: Adobe is trying to fix this in a future release or update. This shows up on dual proc machines. This shows up on dual proc machines used for rendering. You need to prevent Rush from assigning both processors to an AfterFX render, or your comps will hang. Until Adobe fixes this, you can use the 'Ram' value in the submit-afterfx 'Advanced Options' to prevent more than one aerender from running on the machines. To do this, assuming your render farm is configured in Rush to have 2048 of ram on each machine, then submit your job to the farm with the 'Ram' value in the submit form set to 2047. This will prevent rush from starting more than 1 AERENDER process per host, because Rush will think the AfterFX job needs all of that ram to run each AERENDER process, preventing it from starting another AERENDER on the same box. You can then submit other kinds of renders (eg. maya) to these machines using a Ram value of 1, and they'll be able to get on because of the 1MB the afterfx job leaves behind (2048-2047=1MB available). Another way is to change the number of cpus in the rush hosts file to 1 for the dual proc machines, but that will affect non-afterfx renders as well (eg. maya), so this is not recommended unless you're using Rush exclusively for afterfx rendering. The most flexible solution is the RAM solution above.

	Only use one entry per comp in the AE6 Render Queue

	If you have two or more instances of the same comp in the AE6 Render Queue, AERENDER will only use the settings from the first one. To prevent confusion, it is advised you only have one instance per comp in the AE6 Render Queue. BUG NOTE: Even *un-checked* AE6 Render Queue items are recognized by the command line version of After Effects, so be sure to clean out your project's render queue before submitting it to Rush. (thanks to Kevin and Mark at The Orphanage)

	'Use storage overflow' & 'Skip existing frames'  should be un-checked in the AE6 Render Settings

	These two "Render Settings" should be un-checked if you're rendering specific comp sequences: 'Use storage overflow' and 'Skip existing frames': If 'Use Storage Overflow' is checked, it can cause confusion if there's a permission problem with the output directory; AE will indicate it rendered OK, but there will be nothing in the output directory because it's failing over to the alternate storage dir. If 'Skip existing frames' is checked, it will not render frames that already exist on disk, meaning it won't re-render frames. It is only useful to have 'Skip existing frames' checked *if* you submit the job with the 'Comp Name:' field blank, so AE6 can render only missing frames when running on multiple processors. (Thanks to Mark at The Orphanage for helping figure this one out)

	'Use Comp Frame Number'

	You should make sure 'Use Comp Frame Number' is checked in the output module settings, eg: If you don't, every frame in the rush job will try to write to frames numbered frame.0001.ext. Since this is an AE6 specific feature, any 5.5 project submitted to the render farm needs to be opened in AE6, have the box checked, and then be re-saved named proj_AE6rndr.aep. Warning: this file will not be backwards compatible with AE5.5, so appending the render suffix is crucial. (thanks to Kevin and Mark at The Orphanage)

	You can leave the 'Output Path' blank in the Rush Submit-AfterFX form.

	If you leave it blank, the output directory specified in your AEP scene file will be used, i.e. 'Render Queue | Output Module' The 'Output Path' field is only needed if you want to override the path you have specified in your AE6 Render Queue's 'Output Module' for the comp.

	Steps for submitting a job in Rush

	If you haven't already done so, take the latest version of the submit-afterfx.pl script from here, and follow the instructions in the README.txt file. Make a shortcut to the submit-afterfx.pl on your desktop to the script on your network drive, e.g. //server/some/where/rush-scripts/submit-afterfx.pl Double-click on the shortcut to bring up the submit interface. Optionally specify a Job Title. For the Scene Path, navigate to your AE project using the Browse button. If it is your first time submitting, you may have to manually type in //server/volume name in order to get a directory listing. Avoid using a mapped drive letter (z:/yada/yada) to get to your project, to avoid problems with UNC paths, eg. when people log out, and the drive maps disappear. Leave the 'Output Path' blank, unless you want to override the path specified in your AE6 Render Queue entry. Enter the exact 'Comp Name' that is queued to render. If you have more than one comp to render, you can submit separate rush submissions for each one. Or, you can leave the 'Comp Name' field blank to render everything configured in the AfterFX Render Queue. In which case, be sure to enable the 'Skip existing frames' flag in the Render Settings. For more info on leaving 'Comp Name' blank, click on the '?' for this field in the submit form. Set your batching to 5 or 10. This will render the comp in 5 frame increments and helps speed up the job by limiting the number of times AE has to start up. For "Cpus", enter the list of machines you intend to render on. Click on the "?" next to that field for a description of what can be entered here. To find out which hostgroups are available on your network, (+any=10, +farm=10, etc.), go into Irush, and in the menubar, click on Network | All Hostgroups. (Thanks to Kevin at The Orphanage for helping write this list)