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GridIron Software X-Factor
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The Stats
- Developer: GridIron Software
- Platforms: Windows
- Host Applications: Adobe After Effects
*no longer available*
Description
GridIron X-Factor is an extension for digital video production software that uses the power of grid computing technology to significantly improve productivity and streamline your creative workflow. X-Factor enhances the performance of Adobe After Effects Professional 6.5 by distributing the work ordinarily performed on a single workstation computer over several computers in your network to improve the speed of previewing and rendering. Because image processing and rendering take place in the background on other computers, your After Effects workstation is also freed up for you to use for other tasks.
Improved performance and background preview processing and rendering. Together, they allow you to do more with After Effects in less time. That's productivity multiplied. That's why it's called X-Factor!
Features
The Power of the Grid
Grid computing is an emerging technology that divides and distributes the work ordinarily performed on a single computer among several computers joined together in a network. Several small computers connected in this manner can collectively match or exceed the capability of a very large and expensive "supercomputer."
Traditionally used for high performance computing in science and engineering, X-Factor represents the first time this powerful new technology has been used to put the speed and power of a supercomputer into the hands of the digital video professional.
Fast...and Easy
All you need to do to begin using X-Factor is to download and install the X-Factor software extension on your Adobe After Effects Professional 6.5 workstation, and then install X-Factor and After Effects Render Engine on each computer that will assist with processing.
The AutoGrid intelligence built in to X-Factor allows your grid computers to discover each other and automatically set up a processing network, distribute work, and recover from failure.
Once you've installed the software, there's no further configuration, administration or network management required.
Free Download
Using X-Factor with Adobe After Effects Professional and just two additional CPUs can as much as double the speed of preview processing and rendering. That's a 100% performance improvement for FREE, simply by downloading and installing the Basic edition of GridIron X-Factor.
By upgrading to X-Factor Workstation license, you can create previews or renders without a watermark, allowing you to use every available CPU on your network to fully maximize the speed of preview processing. You can also take advantage of X-Factor to speed processing of compositions in your After Effects render queue.
X-Factor Plus 6-Pack License
An X-Factor for Adobe After Effects Plus 6-Pack license provides the serious After Effects professional with a total of 8 CPUs (2 CPUs from X-Factor for Adobe After Effects Basic and 6 additonal CPUs) to increase speed and productivity. With an X-Factor for Adobe After Effects Plus 6-Pack license you can create previews or renders without a watermark and use a total of 8 CPUs to speed preview processing and rendering of compositions in your After Effects Render Queue.
X-Factor Workstation License
An X-Factor for Adobe After Effects Workstation license provides the serious After Effects professional with maximum speed and productivity. With no restriction to the number of processors you can use from your After Effects workstation and all extra features provided for efficiently managing many remote computers, X-Factor for Adobe After Effects Workstation license delivers extreme performance to fully unleash your creativity and productivity.
While both X-Factor for Adobe After Effects Basic edition and the X-Factor for Adobe After Effects Workstation license provide you with exactly the same features and capabilities, there is one important difference: A watermark will be placed on each of your frames if you use X-Factor for Adobe After Effects Basic edition to process a preview using more than two CPUs or to process compositions in your After Effects render queue.
By purchasing an X-Factor for Adobe After Effects Workstation license, you can create previews or renders without a watermark, allowing you to:
Use every available CPU on your network to fully maximize the speed of preview processing and rendering; Use your X-Factor grid computers to speed processing of compositions in your After Effects Render Queue.
Some Important News About GridIron X-Factor for Adobe After Effects
From GridIron Software, November 6, 2006: For quite some time, many of our X-Factor users have been asking for news on support for After Effects 7.0. We have an update but unfortunately, it is not the answer most users have wanted to hear.
We will not be releasing an update to support After Effects 7.0. In fact, we have decided to discontinue the X-Factor product line and its support effective immediately.
We know that you may have been eagerly awaiting a release of X-Factor for Adobe After Effects 7, and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Why not support AE 7.0?
There are a number of factors that contributed to this decision, but the most significant, the one that's given us the most pause, is user experience. Over the past few years, as we have released new products and developed a good relationship with the motion graphics community, we have learned (and acknowledged) that the user experience with GridIron X-Factor for 6.5 was not always great or easy. Updating X-Factor to support After Effects 7 unfortunately does not make anything easier. In fact, it will make the user experience worse, and we can't in good conscience release a product that would be more difficult and unwieldy for our users to work with. We cannot release (and stand behind) a product that is going to be more frustrating than useful - to do so would be a huge disservice to our customers and potential new users.
Why cancel the product?
The main factor in our decision to discontinue X-Factor was performance. Simply put, with the adoption of new multi-core and multi-processor computers, many of our users are seeing better performance using their local and powerful workstations with GridIron Nucleo Pro than they have seen with X-Factor over a network. As new hardware gets faster and includes more processing power, we can see the divide between network render farms and local rendering beginning to widen - and widen in favour of the less complex local workstation solutions.
