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Exporting Feature Shot on RED Helium + RG Denoiser: will it be ready by 2030?
Jokes aside, as I enter the final stages of the extremely laborious, lonesome process of editing this bad boy on a computer that probably shouldn’t be undergoing such intensive rendering, I’m having some serious concerns regarding the final export.
First, the specs….
Quick rundown of the project: 100 minute independent feature film shot on RED Helium (8k, 7:1 compression, HDRx) with a Low Light Optimized Filter that sadly has enough noise to rival Queen’s Live AID performance. Blame it on the DP (aka me).
Quick Rundown of the Adobe PP CC 2021 Project Settings: Preview Frame Size: 5182×2160 (shot 2x anamorphic), Preview Format: Quicktime Apple ProRes 422 (max bit depth/render quality UNchecked), Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration (Metal), Video Layers -> v1: .R3D’s + .AE Linked Comps, v2: Lumetri Adjustments, v3: Red Giant Denoiser, v4: FilmConvert Nitrate, v5: REC709 Conversion (supplied by RED)
Quick rundown of the hardware: 2010 Mac Pro w/ 2 x 3.46 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeons, 96 GB DDR3 RAM, Radeon RX 580 8 GB GPU, 1 TB PCI SSD, 8 TB Ext. USB 3.0 Drive.
THE MAJOR CONCERN: while waiting for the final sound mix to come back, I decided to pre-render some of the timeline to clock how long this process would take, given the extremely slow time of the RG Denoiser III plug-in dealing with 8K footage. As expected, to render one minute of the timeline would take me roughly 36 hours.
THE BIG QUESTION: I guess the big Q here is….is there a possible workaround? Besides exposing the footage properly the first time, that is. I’ve followed this forum for years and y’all, unlike me, are a bunch of geniuses. Should I not export in 4K? Should I export an UNdenoised version first? Should I update some higher storage PCI SSD’s? Do I not HAVE to pre-render the timeline before exporting? Should I just hit export and wait for a year?
I’m thinking this is more of a RED/outdated computer problem, but it doesn’t hurt to ask the brilliant members of CC. If you have any possible workarounds/solutions, I’d love to hear them.
Thanks!
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29 Replies
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Uggh that is a lot to deal with.
Any chance of you testing it with Neat Video?
I do a ton in Resolve using RED plus others and do okay with features on a Mac Pro 2013 D700.
Just decent RAID setup nothing fancy.
Now keep in mind, I don’t have the FX node applied on the whole feature, just clips here and there.
Your numbers are 100x slower than mine, however.
Plus the fact you have way too much applied across PP and AE than most I know.
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Render out a master file without the noise reduction. Then bring that back in and render with denoiser.
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Great tip Tero, now curious about render speeds prior to denoiser 🙂
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I appreciate your empathy! Certainly plenty to work with.
I’ve considered Neat Video, but from my research, Denoiser III’s render times are allegedly faster (plus, I already own the software).
I’ve previously exported the entire timeline for my mixer (will of the aforementioned layers EXCEPT the Denoiser) with manageable times. Granted, it was only a 720p file, but still…I’m fairly certain the issue stems from the Denoiser.
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Hmmm. Interesting. I’m just starting to read about this workflow, especially regarding the feature world.
Do you have any experience with this? Obviously, quality must not be sacrificed, hence my worry of two exports.
Is there a particular codec that won’t sacrifice quality with the two renders/allow the Denoiser to work more efficiently?
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I would probably go for Prores4444 XQ. If I had a lot of space and fast drives then I’d probably go with an EXR sequence.
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Yikes. That’s a lot of timeline junk for Premiere to deal with 🙂
I would highly advise a Resolve roundtrip. Do the basic grade there. Use the noise reduction available within the raw control panel, as well as Resolve’s built-in noise reduction. Render source-resolution ProRes 4444 with handles. Then back in Premiere, add the FilmConvert Nitrate to taste.
You should also look at Neat for anything that’s still a noise issue after coming out of Resolve.
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I forgot to ask, the RED footage, was there anything in REDCINE to help with the noise prior to the current workflow?
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I was really, really hoping that someone would have a magic answer involving this. I’ll be the first to admit that the footage is SLIGHTLY underexposed, but should not warrant such a massive, unacceptable noise level that I’m currently dealing with.
I’ve researched the topic via RedCINE-X without much luck, hence my using RG Denoiser. But if someone knows that magical button I need to press in RCX, I’d be more than happy to press that sucker.
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I’d like to think of it more like timeline “treats,” just a massive overindulgence. Ha!
Maybe it’s just simply time for me to bite to Resolve bullet and see what everyone’s been talking about for the last ten years. Haha.
Resolve’s built-in noise reductions seems to work well from your experience?
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