GridIron Nucleo Pro Review
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Publisher: GridIron Software Demo Downloads: Click Here Review Date: December 15, 2006 Reprinted with permission from MicroFilmmaker Magazine Final Score: 9.5 |
It’s pretty hard these days to get away from motion graphics. Even the simple graphics on TV have a little push or a pull on the font. That’s where it starts, then before you know it, you need to add a little blur, then you’re compositing two shots together, pushing, pulling, blurring, motion tracking, adding a little old film noise, and the list goes on. Well that’s where it started with me the first time I ventured to open up Adobe After Effects. I kept experimenting and my videos kept getting better and my render time kept going up. So as soon as I could, I got a faster computer, then I got more RAM. Then, earlier this year, I went crazy and bought a Quad Processor G5. This would be the end-all; no more network rendering, no more waiting overnight to see if my work was perfect or not.
Well, no. It was better, but not that 2000% I was expecting.
Enter a little program called Nucleo from GridIron Software. I was first introduced to it at NAB earlier this year. What this program is designed to do is to work with the After Effects render engine and helps it fill out the capacity of all the processors in multi processor machines. Then a little while later its big brother Nucleo Pro hit the scene. When I first installed this on my machine I was a little skeptical, but after testing a couple of renders, I was blown away. Because of how much faster it was, it ruined my podcast listening schedule that I had previously gotten used to while waiting for renders to go through. Now I can actually go home and watch other people’s motion graphics on TV, rather than babysitting After Effects at my studio. And I can do that without a million-dollar render farm or 6 weeks of not being able to use my computer.
The basic concept behind both versions of the Nucleo software is pretty simple. This software duplicates the After Effects render module to every processor of a multi processor computer, which basically creates a mini render farm. With Nucleo Pro, the main added feature is you can continue working in After Effects while your program renders in the background. Wow! Now that is a feature that you can’t put a price on.
Ease of Use
When I began testing Nucleo Pro, I began, as I always do, by working through several sequences that need to be done for a project. I finished the first graphic, added it to the queue, then rather than move on to the next sequence, I went ahead and hit the render button. About 40 minutes later, the render was done! I wasn’t even finished with the next sequence. Before I left that night, I turned Nucleo Pro off and rendered the old fashioned way. Coming back in the morning the same sequence took over 3 hours to render! You really can’t get any easier to use than that. Once you have activated Nucleo Pro, you continue to use After Effects as usual and Nucleo only takes over when you hit the render button.
Depth of Options
There aren’t too many options that you can mess with in Nucleo Pro, which is a good thing. I find that a lot of plug-ins overdo it with options, which often slows down the performance of the plug-in and makes it hard to use. Nucleo doesn’t fall into this trap. It’s a performance tool and the developers have done a wonderful job in integrating it into After Effects seamlessly so you get the maximum benefit with the least interference with your workflow in After Effects.
The main Render Tool, which is the core of Nucleo Pro’s power, is in and of itself worth the price of purchasing Nucleo Pro. This part of the program is the same in both Nucleo and Nucleo Pro. The additional features of Nucleo Pro are just as impressive but personally I found them a little less useful for the workflow habits I am used to.
With that said, let’s break down the other features that separate Nucleo Pro from its more basic sibling:
Fast Preview – This uses all your system resources to create a RAM preview. The RAM previews happen fast and just as easily as the render engine. However, when it comes to RAM previews, I really need to see the comp window as it updates. That way, if there is a problem with my animation, I see it as it happens. I typically only do RAM previews of 1 or 2 seconds of video at a time. Now, I did find this useful for doing a final preview before sending the comp to the render queue.
Spec Preview and Spec Render – This is a pretty powerful feature if you work linearly through a comp. The basic idea behind these features is that Nucleo Pro will render or preview the frames up to the point you are working on in the background. I don’t really work linearly myself, as I work from the background to the foreground so often that I find myself jumping all around the comp, without usually working from beginning to end. (Side Note: If you’re an After Effects user and you don’t subscribe to Creative Cow’s After Effects video training podcast, you should do it. They did a couple of podcasts on nesting and precomposing recently that gave me some ideas that might allow me to make better use of these features.)
Performance
While the performance is really impressive, with improvement speeds in the range of 450% for my Quad G5, there are a few setbacks to Nucleo Pro.
For example, you can only use one feature of Nucleo Pro at a time. If you are doing a background render you, can’t use the fast preview feature. While this might seem like a really negative issue, I would rather keep performance speeds up rather than divide system resource up too much.
In regards to background renders in general, when I was doing processor-intense effects I did notice minor slow down in After Effects performance while background renders were being performed. As I am using a Quad G5, I would guess this would be a little more pronounced if you are using a dual processor machine.
Finally, though this is a very minor issue, if you are used to being able to watch the video as the render progresses, Nucleo Pro doesn’t allow you to view the video during render. It might take you a little getting used to, but, honestly, if you continue working during the render process, why would you even want to watch it?
Value
The original Nucleo’s priced very reasonably at only $149.95, while Nucleo Pro is $395.95, which is a little harder to swallow for a microfilmmaker with small budget. If you already have a dual or quad processor and use After Effects, then the time you save using Nucleo Pro will be worth it in one day. Now, when it comes to Nucleo Pro you may need to weigh your workflow needs a little more. In my case, time is of the essence. I need to push through a lot of compositions in a short amount of time, so I find the added features worth the additional cost. If you just aren’t sure, you can always upgrade to pro at a later date.
Final Comments
Before I installed Nucleo Pro on my system, the process of creating a comp in After Effects often became frustrating somewhere in the middle of the work process. Then there was this long wait to see if your work paid off when you insert it into your film. After only a few hours of using Nucleo Pro I felt freed up to begin experimenting with effects and ideas and still get projects done in with a tight timeframe. It brought the joy of using After Effects back for me. I have started experimenting with it in a way I hadn’t since I was just using it for fun. That joy in turn has translated not only into make more creative motion graphics, but also in making my clients happier when they get something better than expected. Plus, I don’t lose out by spending more time than necessary on a program, which in turn gives me time to go home and watch some TV or a new film, so I can come back with some new ideas that will take my work to new heights the next day.
