FAQ: What is Smart Rendering?

[Kevin-Monahan]

Smart Rendering is a "workflow" to export files 20 times faster by using your preview files to assist the export.

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.

Editing and rendering previews

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?

[Michael Grenadier]

One of the advantages of shooting in 4k when mastering and delivering in 1080 is that you can zoom in, animate, reframe your material without losing any quality.  If you transcode to 1080 before editing you'll lose this ability...  Otherwise this is great advice.    

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hey, good comment, mgrenadier. I usually keep my 4K transcodes at full raster for reframing purposes, then just render them back to ProRes in the Timeline. I should have make that clearer. Thank you!

By the way, these techniques are not widely known and I'm experimenting with better and faster workflows, especially for social media.

Let's keep this conversation going. Cheers.

Regards,
Kevin Monahan

[Kevin-Monahan]

Article on Smart Rendering by Larry Jordan with links to this article.

Premiere Pro: Export Faster with Smart Render

[Anijealou]

This has been fantastic. However I chose the DN720 for my codec (probably where I went wrong) And this exported a .MXF file. I then open Media Encoder to encode it to MP4 720p and the file exports really quick, but the file can't be opened, with various numbers as the extension in the file. What have I done wrong?

[Michael Grenadier]

In my experience, MXF files can be tricky to work with. 

Try bringing your exported mxf file back in to premiere.  If that works, you should be able to export this file to another more usable format...  but there might be some loss in quality in this workflow so have a close look at the resulting file.

You might need to change your preview format in your sequence settings which of course will eliminate your time savings in this case but should help going forward...

[Jedley]

Thanks for your remarks. I am a new Premiere Pro 2020 user, and when Adobe Media Encoder comes up, I see the files in blue but there's no start button, which I'm hearing I should see. It must be something simple or I wouldn't ask. Thanks, Jed [personal info deleted by mod]

(I am also not pleased by the Mac Pro 2019)

[default8tj5y5d1h8z8]

hi kevin 

thank you 

i used it for short clips that was good but for long ones dosn't differ a lot (i guess the system causes this )

 i was thinking if i set sequence setting matching the source then check preview and use match source setting in export (h.264) it should be faster as it doesnt change the source a lot 

 is it possible to set preview setting match ...?

and  do you think it is faster ?

thank you

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi,

H.264 export with hardware encoding (and decoding) is way faster these days, so Hardware Encoding is almost as fast for a one off export. A ProRes export comes in handy for producing multiple exports faster, though.

Smart rendering is also a secret weapon for doing 4K with underpowered systems. A lot of people are in this predicament right now and will be using smart rendering for that purpose, not rendering speed.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Kevin-Monahan]

September of 2021: Update on Smart Rendering

I think it's still a valuable technique to know and use for many situations, especially those that are having trouble with their exports.

• Problems exporting: If you can't complete an export, try a smart rendering pass to see if you can at least generate a ProRes master (or the smart rendering codec of your choice). 
• Problems with playback of export: Working with a file that has been transcoded or rendered to an intraframe codec like ProRes can make for better, and higher quality exports. Since the source footage's Long GOP artifacts are removed after they are rendered into the new codec, you won't experience any strange frames, or playback freezing up in the exported file. 
• No support for Hardware Encoding: Some computers that have AMD or Xeon CPUs do not support Quick Sync for H.264 footage, and therefore, no access to Hardware Encoding. In that regard, a smart rendering codec might be the better way to go over editing with H.264 footage. This category is in flux and could change the next time I update this article.
• Many changes: If you have a workflow which is senstitive to last minute changes, smart rendering can often save time in generating masters with the fixes included more quickly than with a pure H.264 workflow.

Smart Rendering vs. Hardware Encoding in 2021

If you have a newer Intel CPU that features smart rendering and a GPU that supports hardware encoding, with H.264 fooage, an export which uses "Hardware Encoding" and 1 pass VBR may be fast enough to be satisfactory for most editors.

You may wish to do a speed test between the H.264 and the ProRes (or what have you) to see if there is any advantage using one workflow over the other.

[Editor1961]

Hi Kevin, I have a question. 

When I follow your workflow in the article above and export as you describe above, I still have to sit and watch Premiere encode the sequence. I was under the impression that if the sequence video previews are set to ProRes 422, the sequence has been rendered and the export settings are set to match the sequence, the codec is ProRes 422 and I have the Use Previews checkbox checked - it should export relatively quickly - like it's exporting straight ProRes 422 media. Am I wrong? I still have to watch it render the effects every time. I have the "green line" like it's fully rendered.

[JonesVid]

Hi Editor 1961

I used to use Smart Rendering a lot - then came Version 23 and 24 of Adobe Premiere and basically Smart Rendering is now broken

See my latest post - I am also banging the drum with Adobe Support on this as this is such a core and fundemental issue that has not been fixed for two releases.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro-bugs/pro-res-previews-broken-in-premiere-pro-for-nearly-...

I have found two elements that are broken -

1) My ProRes422 Preview Renders are randomly lost if I close down the Windows PC or simply close the project then re-open.

Some are located, others are not on re-opening.

Not sure if you have that issue but it does it on both my Windows PC machines. One on W11 Pro another on Windows 10 Pro.

The worst loss of renders is closing the PC down for the night. Its random rendered  files that are lost.

The Previews are all still there in Premiere Video Previews Folder - Premiere has a bug (my view)  which loses the indexes of where these files are - so a previously Green Timeline over a Rendered file turns red again.

2) The 'Use Previews on Export' tick box  no longer works. So even if you have all ProRes 422 Preview rendered files ready to go - Premiere simply ignores them when you export the Media.

That explains what you are seeing - you have to wait for a complete re-render of all parts of the timeline requiring rendering which can take a long time if you do not have a fast GPU.

Both the above make Smart Rendering non functional.

I have alerted Kevin Monahan about this as well, so he is aware.

I'm on a mission to get this fixed as it is so fundamental.

Report it as well if you want. Use the 'Report Bug' Tab in the Premiere Pro Community.

[Editor1961]

Hey! Thanks for the reply. I hadn't gotten a reply to this issue and was beginning to feel like I maybe i hadn't  explained my issue well enough.  Either that or it was something on my end. 

In response to your issues:

1) I'm on a Mac and no, I haven't had that problem. Thankfully. I'm working on a 1 1/2 hour documentary with a lot of video layers and so having to re render to get a good playback as I work would be an issue. I'm sorry you haven't gotten an answer for it on PC.

2) This is the one that has been plaguing me. I have a lot of effets and some of them are relatively long renders for just a couple of seconds. So exporting the show takes a lot longer than it should when it seems like it is rendering everything again on export. I know it's re-rendering because I can see it slow down as it hits those sections of the show. 

Thanks for "bird dogging" this and since I see that I'm not the only one with the issue, I'll do the same.

Thanks again for the reply and let's hope this gets resolved....preferably before I have to finish this show!

[Michael Grenadier]

Render and replace might get you over the hump. I’ve found it very useful

[Editor1961]

Hi Michael, yeah, I feel like it should too but it still has to re-render everything on export even though I've prerendered it all. The sequence matches the export settings, so I don't know what 's off.

[JonesVid]

I had a look at Render and Replace from Michael Grenadier's post.

This looks as if it could be useful in some situations, but appears to have some limitations acccording to Adobe's Help page on this :

The following effects cannot be rendered:

• Intrinsic Opacity and Time Remapping effects
• Transition effects between clips
• Audio effects

I am using (from time to time) overlay transition effects between clips - haven't tested this yet but looks as if this may not work.

Audio Effects - I'm using EQ on quite a few clips to improve sound, Reverb, Dialogue Enhance etc so again not sure if this is not supported?.

In situations where I could create a Flat ProRes 422 File for all rendered and complete parts of the project this would be useful.

I'll try a few test scenarios out. Thanks for the tip.

Unfortunately though, this doesn't get around the fact though we are masking how Premiere really should be working and finally fix the problems I have highlighted above.

I never had any issues on 2020 and 2021 versions.

Adobe Help page on Render & Replace :

https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/premiere-pro/using/render-replace-effects-compositions.html

[Editor1961]

I'm using time posterization effects, which are render time intensive. I pre-render the whole sequence but it still seems to need to render those effects again. If Time Posterization falls into the category of Time Remapping, then that may be the problem.  Thanks for helping with this.

Also, I have not tried the render and replace feature. That didn't occur to me for some reason. I'm going to try it and report back.

[Michael Grenadier]

Here's my suggestion.  Export those clips at full resolution, and place above the clips with effects in the timeline...  That way you're ready to go when it's time to export.  I also usually send complex effects to after effects and output from AE and place above the ae comp in the premiere timeline...    

[Editor1961]

Hi Michael, that is a solution for sure. I've done that and it does help, however, at this point the project isn't locked yet. It's still pretty fluid with changes and adjustments coming in from the producer on a daily basis. With that said, it is the best solution yet but one that shouldn't be THE solution. (That was for Adobe's ear). Thanks again, Michael

[Editor1961]

Hi JonesVid, I tried Render & Replace on one of those heavily effected clips. I have an Adjustment layer over 3 clips or media. The adjustment layer has a Posterize Time effect and Noise/Grain effect. It doesn't give me the option to render and replace - it's grayed out.. It's probably the Posterize Time effect that's hanging it up. However, if I export to After Effects and then R&R the Linked file in PP, it works. It's a bit of a workaround but it works.

[JonesVid]

Hi Editor 1961, Thanks for that info.

Its crazy how we have to jump through hoops on this.

I hope I have some time tomorrow to try out Render and Replace on my current project (to investigate) to see what restrictions I encounter.

At the end of the day though I have to continue my 'quest' to get some common sense out of Adobe Support on this.

I'll post any useful information I find here as the issues are centric to Smart Rendering being totally broken.

[Editor1961]

That's great! I hope we get somewhere with this.

[Michael Grenadier]

gotta say adjusting and tweaking parameters on complex effects and previewing them is much easier in AE rather than Premiere...  And rendering out your comp and placing the render ontop fo the AE comp in the Premiere timeline allows you to adjust things if necessary...  Just looked at a restoration of a film I worked on 5 years ago before I updated my system...  Most of the stabilization etc was done in AE...    much easier than trying to get this to work in Premiere...  bwdik..

[Editor1961]

I have to agree Michael. Just getting motion blur on a quick move requires a lot of jumping through hoops in Premiere. And I don't like how hard it is to fine tune the curve on a push / resize of an asset. AE is much easier. I've always resisted "sending to AE", though. Don't know why.

[Michael Grenadier]

well send to AE can be tricky...  but if you're rigorous about ae project naming, it is pretty dependable