We cannot tell you that Adobe Media Encoder is faster than rendering inside After Effects, because our documentation makes no such claim and we are not going to invent one. What we can tell you is what Templater does when you send a batch to Adobe Media Encoder, how to set it up so it works the first time, and which situations make the hand-off worth the extra moving part.
If you landed here asking whether Media Encoder is faster than After Effects, the honest answer is that it depends on your project, your machines, and your batch, and none of those can be answered from a help page. The useful question is a different one. What does moving the render out of the After Effects session change about how your batch runs? That question has a real answer, and the rest of this article gives it.
What sending replicas to Media Encoder actually does
When you render with Templater in the usual way, After Effects does everything. Templater takes a row from your data source, versions the target composition with that row’s values, and After Effects renders the result. Then it moves to the next row.
Replication works differently. Templater still takes each row and versions the project, but instead of rendering the video itself it saves a replica of the project, a separate project file with that row’s values baked in. Adobe Media Encoder picks up those replica files and renders them. That is the whole idea. Templater prepares, Media Encoder renders.
Two things follow from that split, and both are worth understanding before you choose it.
First, the machine running After Effects and the machine, or process, doing the encode can be doing different work at the same time. While Media Encoder renders one replica, Templater can be preparing the next. We want to be careful here. Our documentation does not publish a speed figure for this, and the benefit depends on how long preparation takes compared with rendering for your template. A template that is cheap to render and slow to version gains little. A template that is heavy to render and quick to version gains the most. That is reasoning from how the process is built, not a measurement, and you should test it on your own project before you commit a deadline to it.
Second, a replica is a separate project file. It also carries requirements with it, such as fonts and drive mappings, and we will cover those below because they can cause failures.
Two ways in, one result
Our support documentation describes two routes to the same place. One uses the Bot. The other uses the Replicate button in the Templater panel, which you press yourself for a batch you choose. In our view, the Bot route suits ongoing work and the panel button suits a batch you start yourself.
Both end with Adobe Media Encoder watching a folder and rendering whatever shows up in it. So the part that has to be right is the same: the watch folder, the preference, and the data.
Setting it up step by step
Before you start
Check the foundations first, because Media Encoder will not fix a project that was never set up for Templater. Every layer that should change from job to job needs the Templater Settings effect applied. The column names or property keys in your data source need to match the names of the dynamic layers. And the Batch Assets section of the Templater panel needs a data source, a footage folder, and an output folder entered.
If any of those three is missing, the batch will not produce what you expect, and you will be looking at Media Encoder when the cause is upstream. Spend two minutes confirming them. It is the cheapest debugging you will do all week.
The preference that makes it happen
In the Templater panel, click Preferences. Under Replication, tick the checkbox named Send replicates to Adobe Media Encoder. The Media Encoder hand-off depends on this setting.
If you plan to run the Bot, also open Bot Settings and tick the Replicate checkbox. Replicate is the one that matters for this workflow.
The watch folder, and the folder trap
Open Adobe Media Encoder and add a new watch folder in its panel. Point the watch folder at the output folder you set in the Templater panel. That is the folder where the replica projects land, and it is the folder Media Encoder will keep an eye on.
Here is the single most important warning in the documentation. Do not use a cloud-based sync folder for this. Using one can cause errors when Media Encoder is your render engine. Use a local folder or a networked folder instead. The documentation gives the warning without a longer explanation, and we are passing it on as written. Choose a local or network drive.
Running it with the Bot
With the preferences set and the watch folder in place, connect your data source to your After Effects project and enable the Bot. From then on, the Bot processes your data and sends replicas to Media Encoder, which renders them. If your data lives in a Google Sheet, our Google Sheets reference covers that side.
As Templater works through your data it deletes each replica from the project folder when it is done with it. This is on purpose. Templater clears them out to conserve space on your hard drive.
Running it with the Replicate button
If you are starting a batch yourself, set the range first. Under Transport in the Templater panel, enter the rows you want. The numbering has a detail that trips people up. For Google Sheets and tab-delimited files, the start row must be greater than 1, because row 1 holds the column names. For JSON object arrays, the start row must be greater than 0. In every case the end row must be greater than or equal to the start row.
Then click Replicate. Switch to Adobe Media Encoder and confirm it is actually processing the versioned replicas that appear in the watch folder. That last check matters. If nothing shows up, check the three setup items above first: the preference, the watch folder, or the folder type.
What goes wrong, and what to do about it
Fonts and drive mappings on the encoding machine
If Media Encoder runs on a different computer from the one where you built the project, that computer must have the same drive mappings and the same fonts. The replica points to footage and fonts by where they live. If the encoding machine has a different drive layout or a missing font, the replica may not render successfully. Our documentation states this requirement in plain terms, and it is the first thing to check when a replica renders fine on one machine and not another. We wrote more on this in managing linked footage and dynamic assets when a project renders on another Mac.
Media Encoder on a machine without Templater
Sometimes the Media Encoder machine has no Templater Rig, Templater Pro, or Templater Bot installed. For this situation Templater has a checkbox in Preferences called Remove Templater Settings from replica’s layers.
The checkbox solves the problem and costs you two things. Our documentation warns that it slows down the replication process. It also fills the After Effects File > Open Recent menu with paths to the replica projects. You should know about both before you turn it on for a large batch. If the Media Encoder machine has Templater installed, you can leave the checkbox alone.
Unused footage and the master project file
When Templater sends replicates to Media Encoder, it removes any unused footage references from your project and saves the master project file after each replication. Read that twice. Your master project is being modified and saved during the batch. If you keep the only copy of a project and you rely on an unused footage item staying in it, you may be surprised. Work from a copy, or at least keep a backup before a long run.
Shell scripts and timing
If you have registered shell scripts to Templater events, such as a script that notifies another system when a job completes, know this. When Templater sends compositions to Media Encoder, those shell scripts run after the target composition is versioned in After Effects. They do not wait for Media Encoder to finish rendering. A script that expects a finished video will run too early and find nothing. If you need to react to a completed encode, look at Media Encoder’s side, not at the Templater event.
Before you blame the renderer: make the project lighter
If your real question is how to make a batch finish sooner, changing the render engine is only one lever. A cheaper one is the project itself. Our own article on speeding up After Effects exports makes the point that After Effects is not known for fast exports with complex compositions, and then lists what to change.
Templater does not skip layers. It evaluates every layer in a project. So an old, unused layer, effect, or composition is extra work for Templater to evaluate. Go through the project and delete what you do not use. Pre-compose layers that are scaled down a long way or only partly visible, and crop the pre-composition to the size you need, so After Effects handles fewer pixels. Understand how After Effects caching works and set it for your workflow. Use proxies for heavy footage while you work. Choose export settings that fit the purpose of the video.
We would expect these to apply whichever engine does the final render, since a lighter project gives either engine less to do. Our article on the render time costs of After Effects techniques at scale goes through which techniques cost the most when you multiply them across a batch.
Another way to use more of the machine
Media Encoder is not the only route to rendering more at once. Projector, our app for automating rendering and distribution of videos made with Templater, can use the After Effects rendering engine in parallel, based on the number of cores in your machine. It can also distribute finished videos automatically and has an integrated transcoder for other formats. If your goal is throughput, compare that route with the Media Encoder route for your own setup rather than assuming one wins.
For bigger planning questions, such as how many machines a deadline calls for, read how to size a render farm for unpredictable, deadline-sensitive volume. And if you are still deciding what batch rendering even involves, what is batch rendering in After Effects starts from the beginning.
A walk through one batch
Picture a team with one Mac for design and a second machine that sits in a corner and renders. The designer finishes the template, tags the dynamic layers with the Templater Settings effect, and checks that the spreadsheet columns match the layer names. The render machine has a local drive, so the output folder goes there, and Media Encoder gets a watch folder pointed at it. The designer ticks Send replicates to Adobe Media Encoder, sets Transport to rows 2 through 51, and clicks Replicate. Fifty replicas appear in the watch folder, and Media Encoder works through them while the designer opens the next project. If the render machine lacks Templater, one extra checkbox covers it, and a font check comes first. Each step in that story is a documented one, and none of it needed a clever trick.
Who should use this, and who should not
Send replicas to Media Encoder when you want rendering to happen outside your working After Effects session, when you have a separate machine ready to encode, or when you already use Media Encoder in your pipeline and want Templater’s output to join it. It fits a team that has a machine for rendering and a set of people who design on other machines.
Skip it if your batch is small, your machine is single, and you have no particular reason to change how rendering happens. The setup adds a watch folder, a preference, and a set of requirements about fonts and drive mappings. For ten videos that may be more overhead than benefit. Skip it too if your only available storage is a cloud sync folder, because that combination is the one the documentation warns against.
Be wary of the idea that it is automatically a speed upgrade. Maybe it is for your template. We do not have a number to give you, and a vendor who offers one without seeing your project is guessing. Run a test batch both ways, with the same rows, on your own hardware, and keep the one that finishes sooner.
The bottom line is simple. Media Encoder is an option for where the rendering happens, not a guaranteed shortcut. Set the preference, point the watch folder at a local or network drive, match fonts and drives on the encoding machine, and test it against rendering inside After Effects with your own project before you rely on it for a deadline.
Here are the questions that come up most often when people try this for the first time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Adobe Media Encoder faster than rendering in After Effects with Templater?
Our documentation does not make that claim, so we will not either. Replication splits the work, with Templater preparing project replicas and Media Encoder rendering them, and that can help depending on your template. The only reliable answer comes from running the same rows both ways on your own hardware and comparing the finish time.
Which setting sends Templater output to Media Encoder?
In Templater Preferences, under Replication, tick Send replicates to Adobe Media Encoder. If you use the Bot, also tick Replicate in Bot Settings. Then add a watch folder in Media Encoder that points at the output folder you entered in the Templater panel. The hand-off depends on this preference.
Can I use Dropbox or another cloud folder as the output folder?
We advise against it. Our documentation warns that a cloud-based sync folder can cause errors when Media Encoder is the render engine. Use a local folder or a networked folder instead.
What does the Remove Templater Settings from replica’s layers option do?
It strips the Templater Settings effect from the layers in each replica. You need it when Media Encoder runs on a machine without Templater Rig, Pro, or Bot installed. It slows replication down and adds replica project paths to the After Effects Open Recent menu, so leave it off if Templater is installed on the encoding machine.
What start row should I enter for a Google Sheet?
The start row must be greater than 1, because row 1 holds your column names. The same applies to tab-delimited files. For JSON object arrays, the start row must be greater than 0. The end row must always be greater than or equal to the start row. Enter these under Transport in the Templater panel before clicking Replicate.
Why did a replica fail on the Media Encoder machine?
Check drive mappings and fonts first. The machine running Media Encoder must have the same drive mappings and fonts as the machine that created the project, or the replica cannot render correctly. Then check that the output folder is local or networked, not a cloud sync folder, and that the Send replicates to Adobe Media Encoder preference is ticked.
Do my Templater shell scripts wait for Media Encoder to finish?
No. When Templater sends compositions to Media Encoder, shell scripts run after the target composition is versioned in After Effects. They do not run when Media Encoder finishes rendering. If you need an action to happen once a video is done, build that step on the Media Encoder side or in the system that collects the output.
