Really, it’s probably a little less common to make intermediate renders, just because computers are faster now, so I would say the answer is a qualified “Depends”. If I’m rendering a file that is going to take quite awhile, often I will render a small file(draft quality) to check the work, camera moves, lights…and hopefully spot anything that I don’t like before I do the final render.
Other times if I’m confident about the work, it’s not a long render, it’s a simple animation(lower thirds)… I’ll just render to my final format(Avid QT). I’ll import it into the Avid and check the work there and if it needs to be fixed go back and make the change. But that works on stuff that’s generally 5 minutes or less.
Bout a month ago, I did some animation where I made intermediates to check the moves, lights and overall flow of the animations. The animations were HD and about 15 seconds long and my computer didn’t have enough RAM to play the entire thing.
Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com
“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.