user1780: I've noticed After Effects has a render engine that works over the network: two computer run the engine at the same time on the same LAN, they have access to the same project and off they go.
I had a quick look at Adobe Media Encoder and couldn't find any info/command line arguments (like aerender does). Does it support encoding the same video with two different computers on the same LAN or not ?
What would be the most efficient way of rendering an After Effects projects to H.264+AAC using two MacBook Pro laptops on the same LAN ?

user1950: The most efficient way is to use the command line renderer in multi machine mode. That will mean each machine will render the next un-rendered frame independently. You need to set the output module to a frame sequence, like png sequence, JPEG sequence, etc. and you need to make sure that "skip existing frames" is on. Then in a command prompt, type /path/to/aerender -project ~/path/to/your/project.aep where /path/to/… is replaced with the path to the aerender executable, and your project (dragging the files onto the terminal is the easiest way to find the correct path). On my machine the executable is C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC 2019\Support Files\aerender.exe on a mac it will be /Applications/Adobe/Adobe After Effects CC 2019/aerender.
Alternatively use the render engine and set up a watch folder. This is slower than the CLI renderer, but doesn't involve any CLI use.
Media encoder doesn't do multi machine rendering. Probably because if you need rendering speed enough to use multiple machines you don't want to be rendering with it anyway. It's about 20% slower than the CLI renderer. 

1780: <p>I've noticed After Effects has a render engine that works over the network: two computer run the engine at the same time on the same LAN, they have access to the same project and off they go.</p>

<p>I had a quick look at Adobe Media Encoder and couldn't find any info/command line arguments (like <code>aerender</code> does). Does it support encoding the same video with two different computers on the same LAN or not ?</p>

<p>What would be the most efficient way of rendering an After Effects projects to H.264+AAC using two MacBook Pro laptops on the same LAN ?</p>
 1950: <p>The most efficient way is to use the command line renderer in multi machine mode. That will mean each machine will render the next un-rendered frame independently. You need to set the output module to a frame sequence, like png sequence, JPEG sequence, etc. and you need to make sure that "skip existing frames" is on. Then in a command prompt, type <code>/path/to/aerender -project ~/path/to/your/project.aep</code> where <code>/path/to/…</code> is replaced with the path to the aerender executable, and your project (dragging the files onto the terminal is the easiest way to find the correct path). On my machine the executable is <code>C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC 2019\Support Files\aerender.exe</code> on a mac it will be <code>/Applications/Adobe/Adobe After Effects CC 2019/aerender</code>.</p>

<p>Alternatively use the render engine and set up a watch folder. This is slower than the CLI renderer, but doesn't involve any CLI use.</p>

<p>Media encoder doesn't do multi machine rendering. Probably because if you need rendering speed enough to use multiple machines you don't want to be rendering with it anyway. It's about 20% slower than the CLI renderer. </p>
