FAQ: What is Smart Rendering?
How:
- Change the Sequence Settings to one of the following codecs for rendering preview files: ProRes, DNxHD/HR, or GoPro Cineform.
- Render previews of any clips with effects and clips that are not the same as the new smart rendering codec, as well.
- Export the sequence using the same codec you rendered previews with.
- Export a file with "Match Sequence Settings" enabled and the "Use Previews" box checked.
- The export goes 20x faster.
Changing Sequence Settings for smart rendering
Set up a "Custom" sequence setting to use for your footage, ideally before editing—but you can do so after you've gotten an edit going too.
- Choose Sequence > Sequence Settings > Editing Mode > Custom
- Scroll to the top of the list to find "Custom".
- Settings should match the footage precisely.
- You can set this up after working in the Sequence too, only you will be prompted to delete existing preview files—which you must do.
- Change the Preview File Format's codec for rendering Video Previews to a smart rendering aware codec (ProRes, DNxHD/HR, GoPro Cineform).
- Preview Settings should also match the footage's frame size.
- Click OK to save the Sequence Settings.
- Choose Project Settings > Scratch Disk to ensure you are rendering previews to a high speed disk, capable of playing back and storing large preview files.
- You'll need a lot of room to store these large files. These files are much larger than your source files.
- Later, you can recover this storage after deleting the preview files.
- Preview files are deleted after exporting to recover that storage.
Edit as you normally would but render the preview files as you go. Every time you walk away from the computer, render the timeline. You should see much better performance while editing in most cases since you're now editing with an intermediate codec in these rendered “green bar” sections. If you've already transcoded these files to ProRes or the like, these sections won't require a render (no bar).
Exporting a master
Now comes the export process. Render the timeline first from In to Out. If you've been rendering as you go, it should not take long.
- Choose File > Export > Media. Set the Export Settings in the Export Settings dialog box with "Match Sequence Settings" enabled. This will set up the export as a file encoded using ProRes, DNxHD, etc.
- Make sure to enable "Use Previews," to ensure the preview files will be used in the process.
- Click the Export button. The export process is very fast.
- Consider this your "master" file. It's a visually lossless copy that you can use to encode multiple versions of your sequence.
Creating a file for YouTube or Broadcast
- If you need web or other deliverables, import the Master you just created into Media Encoder and use the H.264 or H.265 presets for encoding. If you are doing that process over and over, you can also create a watch folder. You can also set up presets in Media Encoder to automatically upload to social sites.
- The time it takes to encode a flattened mezzanine file to a H.264 copy should be much faster than exporting in the standard way
- Note that it’s possible to simply upload the master to YouTube. Looks great, it just takes longer.
Even though there is some investment in time (and drive space) in rendering previews up front, there are lots of advantages to exporting files using this technique. Please try it and see if it helps improve export times.odd
Tip: Transcoding footage to a smart rendering codec before the editing process even begins can really speed up the export process by conforming odd frame rates, and frame sizes (especially, those served up by mobile devices). Other items can be added like a LUT for a one light color grade, or a watermark intended for social media. If you want to save even more time, acquire footage in one of these codecs at the shoot by using higher end cameras (or recorders like those from Atomos) right at the video shoot. Editing with this footage is also preferable since it is much more performant.
Back to the FAQ: How do I speed up rendering, exporting, or encoding?
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