long render

[Ronny Courtens]

How long you need to render depends on the complexity of your composition and the horsepower of your computer. If you experience very long renders on a clip, it also may have something to do with the kind of filters or plugins you use on that clip. Neat video, as an example, takes ages to render.

The question is: do you really need to render the clip every time you ake an adjustment? You could make adjustments as much as you wish, and only render the clip as a final check when you have achieved the result you were looking for. I do assume you have Background Rendering turned off because that’s what you should do when you constantly make adjustments to a certain clip.

As to curved masks, they are called Draw Masks in FCP X and you can find the Draw Mask under Filters > Masks.

– Ronny

[Kyrina Bluerose]

Thanks, Ronny!

Still pretty new. Computer is likely smaller than my projects. Plus, I don’t know about ” background render on/off” so I shall look into that. I assume it was set for on since that was what showed in the background tasks window. I turned it off for now. Is there a shortcut to render a clip when I’ve made adjustments, or do you do this at the end of each day, for example – or just when you’ve finished the project?

Thanks for the directions to the draw mask effect – I’ve definitely used it, but never in conjunction with using curves while color correcting. The options I have found are “add shape mask” and “add color mask”. (have not had any success using color mask; it seems to screw up everything) How do you use the draw mask when doing color correction in curves?

Forgive my ignorance; it is really frustrating to try to troubleshoot via how-to’s, and so helpful to be able to ask questions.

Much appreciation for your sharing your admirable knowledge!

[Ronny Courtens]

Hi Kyrina,

To use the Draw Mask together with Curves: duplicate the clip on the timeline, apply the Draw Mask to the top clip and adjust Curves. Only the area inside the mask (unless you Invert the Mask) will be affected by your adjustment. The attached pic shows an exaggerated correction using Curves inside a Draw Mask.

I would advise leaving Background rendering Off in your workflow because it creates lots of duplicate unused render files when you constantly work on the same clip. You can manually render a clip any time you wish by pressing CTRL+R (Render Selection) or render the entire timeline by pressing SHIFT+CTRL+R (Render All).

– Ronny

[Kyrina Bluerose]

Thank you so much!!!

I am doing that now, but still running into some problems. I can only chalk it up to my computer being too small to handle the project I’m trying to create. Since I’m a relative beginner I never expected that, but here I am. Example: I switch from proxy to optimized view in order to share with the composer. After a very long render (as shown by the dots, and by the background tasks progress), I play to double-check – and playback is sluggish, jagged of video (audio playback seems fine.) Playhead jumping ahead and stopping approximately every 15 – 30 frames. No evidence of rendering still present, but acting like it. Then I spent an entire overnight opening, allowing render start, render get stuck at a different % of render complete, force quit, repeat. So many secrets behind doing a project.

Thanks again.

[Joby Anthony jr]

Consider too Kyrina that it might not only be a slower/older/smaller computer, but other factors too such as the type of harddrive connection, the type of video codec, framerate, resolution, etc. All variables that can have an impact on render times, playback smoothness, etc. For example, depending on the age of your computer, a harddrive connected at USB 2.0 speeds would be very painful to edit with.

With regards to rendering a project during the edit, it is generally individual preference, but turning off background rendering can help free up computer resources and minimize impact on harddrive space. But if a project is pre-rendered prior to export it can help speed up the export, if you’re exporting to the project rendering codec (usually ProRes). If you’re exporting an .mp4, that can take a lot longer to do since it has re-render everything. Generally, it’s a good idea to export a high quality master (e.g., ProRes), and then use another program like Compressor to make smaller, compressed versions for distribution, such as creating an .mp4.

Maybe all of this you already know, but figured I’d throw it out there since you mentioned still learning about all the puzzle pieces that have to come together for an edit (and editor) to work well.

Joby.

[Kyrina Bluerose]

wow, thank you so much for your generous replies, Joby and Ronny!

Yes, I am totally still learning – on my own with Lynda and Macprovideo. They teach how to use the program, and naturally a beginner is trying to learn about what they can do to their project, and there isn’t much mentioned about any of this technical stuff except in passing as if everyone knows it already. Thank you for helping to fill me in on the mysteries in the background! No, I don’t know anything about it and I’m grateful for your shining a light. I have compressor but haven’t looked at it yet. Now I have a reason ☺

You rock!

[Joby Anthony jr]

You’re welcome! To your list of learning resources, I would add:

Larry Jordan (https://larryjordan.com/)
Ripple Training (https://www.rippletraining.com/)

Both have free and paid resources. Of course there are many others, but over the years I’ve relied heavily on these two, especially Larry Jordan.

Joby.