FInal Cut X Rendering (how to render all projects within a folder

[Andy Neil]

According to what others have said here, it’s actually faster if you DON’T render your timeline before export. It’s counter-intuitive to what you’d do in FCP7, I know, but apparently, rendering during export involves the graphics card as well as the processor. Rendering in the timeline is done with the processor only.

FCPX doesn’t have a batch export yet, so the only real “workaround” is to open each sequence and choose the Send to Compressor option under the Share menu. Then copy/paste each job into a single job where you can export all the sequences with Compressor.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Lawrence Eaton]

Andy,

It’s the best workaround there is, without a shadow of a doubt. My only problem with that is that I often find sending projects to compressor via the ‘Share” pulldown in FCPX, bogs down Compressor and FCPX.

I wait for FCPX to finish rumbling away in the background then CMD+E out; go to Compressor & encode from there.

A Batch Produce facility is sorely needed, please….

Lawrence

[Adam Chesbrough]

okay, just did some testing in the name of science/procrastination (what I thought was true held…true):
-Media: 15 second clip, H264 (5D)
-effect: FCPX loops_glory
-computer: MBP 2011 17″, 8GB RAM, 2.66GHz i7, NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 512 MB
-software OS Lion, FCPX 10.0.3
-Encode settings: 1080 sharing preset

Processes
1. While in FCX, send project to compressor X and encode
Total Time: 12 minutes
2. Render in FCPX, export as contained/current settings (time is marginal), encode in compressor X.
Total Time: 4:40 (2:20 render and 2:20 encode)

okay, this might have something to do with the effect being graphics intensive (albeit nothing compared to some of the stuff that I use) and my graphics card is weak. I would be interested to see what times other people are getting with these two processes. I learned that the second was far faster in FCP7 on a blog awhile back and have never used process 1 again. This was only a 15 second clip!!! Also, having a render timeline is nice as I like to export as contained prores so that I can use the edited footage in another project later.Basically FCPX continues to disappoint on all levels with the exception of organization which is far superior, so much so that I am forcing myself to use it. It would be great if I could create a macro to run process #2, BUT THAT SHOULD BE APPLE’S JOB. Below is a link to download the clip I used if anyone else wants to give the test ago and share their results (I used the first 15 seconds)…faster GPU anyone?https://dl.dropbox.com/u/605116/MVI_9428.mov.zip

macbook pro 17″ i7, 8GB RAM
2 RAID 0 esata external HD 7200RPM

[Andy Neil]

[adam chesbrough] “2. Render in FCPX, export as contained/current settings (time is marginal), encode in compressor X.
Total Time: 4:40 (2:20 render and 2:20 encode)”

You list three processes and only give times for two.

1. Render in timeline
2. Export current settings
3. Encode in Compressor.

Is the export part of the 2:20 render? How long was the actual export once the render was completed?

The experiment you did seems to support what I said since Compressor doesn’t use the graphics card at all, but FCPX export does. What others have said on this forum is that you can further speed up the export out of FCPX if you don’t pre-render the timeline. In other words, just export the timeline with all the orange render indicators.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Jerry Hofmann]

Compressing a single file (exported as a self contained movie of your project from any app) will always encode faster than a reference movie file from any app. After all the computer only has to source ONE file, not tons o’ clips…

Also if you run Compressor stand alone it seems to me that it’s always been faster than sending from FCP. I think the reason revolves around the fact that Compressor and FCP have to talk to each other during the process when you’ve just sent from FCP to C, where if it’s running by itself, Compressor doesn’t need to do that so it’s just plain faster. Remember in 7, FCP got completely tied up if you sent to compressor…

Jerry

Apple Certified Trainer, Producer, Writer, Director Editor, Gun for Hire and other things. I ski. My Blog: https://blogs.creativecow.net/Jerry-Hofmann

Current DVD:
https://store.creativecow.net/p/81/jerry_hofmanns_final_cut_system_setup

8-Core 3.0 Intel Mac Pro, Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D, AJA Io HD, 17″ MBP, Matrox MXO2 with MAX – Cinema Displays I have a 22″ that I paid 4k for still working. G4 with Kona SD card, and SCSI card.

[Adam Chesbrough]

Process=workflow

1. I did 0 prerendering in this workflow…very simple: I added the clip to the timeline, added the effect (now has orange bar), send to compressor, after 12 minutes I have a H264, .mov to upload to the internet.

2. After the timeline is rendered (took 2:20) the export (with current settings…cmd E) takes about 6 seconds (or as I mentioned in the post “marginal” ie not worth even considering since this second workflow is so drastically faster). That exported file is a ProRes file and needs to then be encoded with compressor (which took another 2:20.

macbook pro 17″ i7, 8GB RAM
2 RAID 0 esata external HD 7200RPM

[Andy Neil]

Then perform one more test.

Go into your preferences and turn off background rendering. Then add the clip and effect. Then export (while the orange render bar still sits above your footage). How long does it take until you have a finished clip?

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Adam Chesbrough]

Background rendering was off. It crushes my computer to keep that one.

macbook pro 17″ i7, 8GB RAM
2 RAID 0 esata external HD 7200RPM