If you encounter any issues during the registration process of the creative template for use on the Shakr platform — such as failed initial tests, slow rendering of user videos, or rendering results that differ from the intended outcome — please try the following solutions.
Check Basic Requirements
Check if the template meets the recommended specifications for resolution, length, and file size
Shakr platform supports rendering videos in various aspect ratios and formats to meet customer requirements. Still, we recommend adhering to the following specifications when creating templates to ensure stable and fast rendering.
- The duration of the final rendered video (composition) should not exceed 1 minute.
- The final video (composition) pixel length of the shorter side (horizontal or vertical) should not exceed 1080px.
- The total file size of assets included in the template (before compressing into a zip file) should not exceed 500MB.
- The total number of files, excluding font files, should not exceed 50.
If any of the above conditions are not met, there is a chance that renders may become slow due to increased processing load, and result in failure due to timing out.
Check Assets Included in the Template
Check if the font files included in the template meet the requirements
Font files included in Shakr templates must meet the following requirements:
- File extensions: .ttf, .otf
Any other types of files not mentioned above are not officially supported.
- Unsupported extensions: .ttc, .eot, .woff
If the font in the rendered result does not appear as intended, even if you have included a TTF/OTF format file, there may be an issue with the font file. In such cases, please try to replace the font files with proper files.
Check if the media files included in the template meet the recommended specifications
If the file size or resolution of the video, image, or audio files used in the template is excessively large, it can cause problems during rendering.
- If you have used very long videos or audio files
- Example: 5 minutes
- If you have used very high-resolution videos or images
- Example: 1080p (1920×1080) or higher
- When each file has a very large file size
- Example: Individual video file size is over 150MB
If you have media files matching more than one of the above listed cases, the higher the likelihood of causing problems. For instance, if a template contains two 4K (3840x2160px) videos that are 5 minutes long, there is a very high chance that the rendering will not finish as it should.
To prevent these issues, please follow the optimization steps below during the finalization stage of the template:
- Trim/crop the images/videos to only include the areas used in the final output.
- Reduce the resolution of the images/videos to match the final composition size.
- Replace multiple layered videos with pre-rendered files to reduce the number of video files.
For detailed specifications of image, video, and audio files Shakr recommends to ensure smooth rendering, please refer to the sections below.
Check if the image files included in the template meet the recommended specifications (detailed)
Image files included in Shakr templates must meet the following requirements:
- File extensions: .png, .jpg
- Supported only in Legacy renderer (not supported in NGR): .ai, .psd
We do not officially support any other file types. Although some files may occasionally be processed correctly, they are not guaranteed to work reliably, so we don’t recommended to use them.
Below are some commonly used file types that Shakr does not support (thus you cannot use in templates):
- Unsupported file extensions: .tga, .gif, .tif
Additionally, for each image file, it is recommended to adhere to the following specifications:
- Resolution: The dimensions of the image assets included in the template should not exceed twice the width/height of the template
- e.g., if the template size is 1080x1080px, the maximum limit for the images within the template should be 2160x2160px.
- File size: Individual file sizes should not exceed 20MB.
If you need to use images that do not meet these specifications in the template, it is recommended to use external software to convert them to formats supported by Shakr before using them.
Convert image sequences included in the template to transparent videos
If the template includes an image sequence (a collection of multiple frame images in the form of 0001.png, 0002.png…), it is recommended to use transparent/opaque videos instead, as image sequences tend to be quite unstable when processing.
Check if the video files included in the template meet the required/recommended specifications (detailed)
Video files included in Shakr templates must meet the following requirements:
- File extensions: .mp4, .mov, .m4v
- Recommended codecs: H.264(AVC), H.265(HEVC)
- Additional supported codecs: HAP, Apple ProRes
If you need to use transparent videos (including alpha channels), the following conditions must be met:
- Codecs: HAP Alpha, ProRes 4444
- Alternatively, render alpha and matte separately and process them into opaque videos (encode with H.264 / H.265)
We do not officially support any other file types. Although some files may occasionally be processed correctly, they are not guaranteed to work reliably, so we don’t recommended to use them.
Below are some commonly used file types that Shakr does not support (thus you cannot use in templates):
- Unsupported file extensions: .webm, .mkv (not supported in After Effects), .avi, .wmv
- Unsupported codecs: vp8, vp9 (not supported in After Effects), qtrle
Additionally, we recommend that you follow these specifications for each video file:
- Resolution: The dimensions of the video assets included in the template should not exceed twice the width/height of the template
- e.g., if the template size is 1080x1080px, the maximum limit for the videos within the template should be 2160x2160px.
- Length: The length of the video assets included in the template should not exceed twice the duration of the entire template
- e.g., if the template is 1 minute long, the maximum limit for the video assets within the template should be 2 minutes.
- File size: Individual file sizes should not exceed 150MB.
If you need to use media that does not meet these specifications in the template, it is recommended to use external software to convert them to formats supported by Shakr before using them.
Check if the audio files included in the template meet the recommended specifications (Detailed)
Video files included in Shakr templates must meet the following requirements:
- File Extension: .mp3, .wav
We do not officially support any other file types. Although some files may occasionally be processed correctly, they are not guaranteed to work reliably, so we don’t recommended to use them.
Below are some commonly used file types that Shakr does not support (thus you cannot use in templates):
- Unsupported Extensions (not supported in After Effects): .flac, .ogg
- Other Unsupported Extensions: .m4a, .wma, .aac, .aiff (Apple Lossless)
If you need to use unsupported media in a template, try converting it to a format supported by Shakr using external software before using it.
Check Features/Effects used in the Template
Remove unsupported features/effects
If you use the following features in the template, the render will fail:
- Features that require external software such as Cinema 4D, Trapcode, etc.
Find the layers where these effects are used and either remove the effects or consider replacing them with “Pre-rendered Videos” as explained below.
Avoid using resource-intensive features or effects
The following effects or features are known to require heavy processing, which can lead to longer render times, that will sometimes exceed the time limit and ultimately cause the render to fail:
- Distort effects: Turbulent Displacement, Warp, Wave Warp, CC Blobbylize, etc.
- Keying effects: Linear Key, Keylight, etc.
- Some Stylize effects: Posterize, etc.
- Excessive use of 3D layers and camera layers
- Features that require AI, such as Content-aware Fill, Roto Brush, etc.
Even if you have used effects that are normally supported, in any one or combination of the following cases may result in longer render times or render failures due to time-out:
- Overlapping multiple effects
- Applying effects to high-resolution images
- Using effects and layer motion blur together
It’s helpful to always refer to the ‘Frame Render Time’ displayed in the bottom bar of After Effects window. If at any specific point in the template the Frame Render Time show a high value (over 100ms), it’s safe to say that Shakr system will also require longer time to render that section of the video.
To ensure smooth rendering, try to avoid using the mentioned effects or features as much as possible or consider replacing them with “Pre-rendered Videos” as explained below.
Replacing unsupported features/effects with pre-rendered videos
Even if an effect is not supported by the Shakr renderer, there may still be a way to use it.
If the effect you want to use only affects fixed visual elements in the final rendered output that the user cannot edit (in other words, is not ‘editable’), you can try replacing those layers with a pre-rendered video file by combining them into a single Pre-Comp. Since the Shakr system no longer needs to render those effects directly, in a way you will have used Shakr-unsupported effects in your template.
For example, Shakr does not support third-party plugin particle effects like Trapcode — but if you pre-render the effects and overlay the video on top of a text layer that the customer can edit, you can achieve the same visual result.
This pre-render strategy is beneficial even for effects that are normally supported by Shakr. By replacing effects with videos, Shakr system can avoid the repetitive task of processing the same parts for each video renders, significantly improving the overall video rendering speed of the template.
Still having trouble?
If the template meets all of the above requirements and you have tried all optimization strategies (such as using pre-renders), but you are still experiencing issues, please contact support for further assistance.