1080p TIMELINE with 4K CLIPS mantaining all your EDITS, zooms, Facecam Ecc and restore 4K after edit

[Gabby16bit]

Is it possibile to edit in a 1080p time line with 4k clips (to make the pc lag less) and then scale all the edits without losing quality as had be done in a 4k timeline? It works with nesting, but i think you will lose quality. From what i'm aware Finalcut permits such a workflow. Is it possibile to have it on premiere pro? It will save me some hassle. I know there are proxies but i hate to wait.

[Mike Dziennik]

Use the 'Scale motion effects proportionally when changing frame size" option in the sequence settings. Start in HD then change to 4K.

Do a bit of testing, there are ways to break it depending on what effects etc. you're using but it should do the bulk of the work for you.

[Gabby16bit]

I have seen that disabling it will mantain the zooms correctly, when activated it breaks. Thanks for the tip! unfortunately it seems that it doesn't autoscale a 4k clip automatically when switching to the 4k timeline. Funny thing I made it work once, but now it doesn't work anymore, maybe i'm doing something wrong, will do some testing

[Averdahl]

...unfortunately it seems that it doesn't autoscale a 4k clip automatically when switching to the 4k timeline. Funny thing I made it work once, but now it doesn't work anymore, maybe i'm doing something wrong, will do some testing

By @Gabby16bit

If you go to Edit > Preferences > Media you can set Default Media Scaling to Set to frame size. This will then autoscale your 4K footage down to 1080 when you place it on a 1080 timeline. (Or autoscale 1080 footage when placed on a 4K timeline.)

[Gabby16bit]

I tried but didn't work in some testings. Maybe i bugged out something, i will keep in mind from now on that is the correct way. Thanks!

[Warren Heaton]

 You can continue to work in Premiere Pro while the proxy files are being created, but if you're experiencing lag with the 4K clips to begin with then you'll likely want to wait until they're done being created.

Just select all of the Full Resolution 4K clips in the Project tab or Bin tab, right-click, and then choose Proxy > Create Proxies.  Choose Window > Progress to open the Progress tab and view the status.

Final Cut Pro classic allowed us to use Media Manager to generate a new project with a copy Sequence with a smaller frame size and transcode copies (or proxies) of source footage to a smaller frame size and then media manage that back to the original frames size project with an original frame size Sequence and then reconnect to the original frame size media; however, that's been discontinued since 2013.  Also, it was 1080 down to 480 and back up again.  2160 required custom settings and was never supported.

Final Cut Pro X offers the same thing as Premiere Pro.  It's called "Optimized/Original" and "Proxy" in FCP X instead of "Full Resolution" and "Proxy".  Like Premiere Pro you're still in a Full Resolution Timeline (only FCP X calls it a "Project" instead of a "Sequence") and in FCP X you use the View pop-up menu in the upper right of the Viewer to toggle between Optimized and Proxy instead of the Toggle Proxies button with the buttons of the Source tab and the Program tab. 

Ingest and Proxy Workflow in Adobe Premiere Pro

[Gabby16bit]

Thanks, i will probably give another try to the proxy workflow, but still i wonder if what i asked on this topic is technically possibile even in some future. It will in a way eliminate the use for proxies for 4k or 8k files if you can do all the edit in 1080 and then simply upscale the file with no quality loss. Maybe with the help of AI, which by the way adobe should implement more and more in my opinion. So many nice things you can do with that.

[Baffy19]

DaVinci supports this scenario outcome. You can work with 4K frames on a 1080p timeline, and at the end of the process, before exporting, scale back the timeline to 4K. This is the best process.

And in Premiere, either Proxy, or reduce the preview quality in the sequence settings at the very bottom from 4k to 1280p and your work will be more productive, since the video will not be rendered in full quality, but only in HD quality. So you will reduce the load on the system.

[Warren Heaton]

@Baffy19 

Best practice in any non-linear editor is to edit in a Timeline with settings (frame size, frame rate, scan method, compression type) that match the the settings required for the finished edit with source footage being a match or higher.

Then there are few questions to be answered for workflow as follows: 

Is the timeline playing back, just a little too slowly?

• Premiere Pro:  Reduce the Playback Resolution
• Resolve:  Use Timeline Proxy Mode

Do you need help playing back a few clips in real time that have heavy effects applied?

• Premiere Pro:  Render (Effects In to Out, In to Out, or Selection)
• Resolve:  Cache Clip

Do you need help playing back all of the source media in real time?

• Premiere Pro:  Full Resolution using a mezzanine CODEC (ProRes, DNxHD, Cineform)
• Resolve:  Optmized Media using an optimized media format (ProRes, DNxHD)

Do you need help playing back all Full Resolution/Optmized media in real time?

• Premiere Pro:  Proxy Workflow
• Resolve:  Proxy Media

[Baffy19]

@Warren Heaton  

I know all this. I tried to help with advice @Gabby16bit , who indicated that he did not want to use a Proxy. Therefore, my advice was to find alternative ways to solve playback in high resolution.

@Warren Heaton who said that lowering the resolution of the timeline for high files is not recommended? How will this affect the frame rate, the scanning method, the type of compression during playback? We are talking about lowering the resolution, and the source structure itself does not change. We lower the resolution and nothing more.

[Warren Heaton]

Best practices, Baffy 19.  Best practices.

[Baffy19]

In the film industry, these practices are sometimes violated to give their own method of providing a frame for the viewer. For example, close-ups of plans that follow one after another and which violates the CUT rules. Here you need to go the way it works best.