How to optimize preview playback for still images, zooms and pans?

[XilburQost]

I have a multimedia background but am relatively new to video production and Adobe Premiere Pro. I'm loving Premiere and am using it to combine high-resolution (6000 to 8000 pixels, 8bit) still images with a music track. So far so good, however the preview playback is choppy and inconsistent when rendering motion effects (Position and Scale) on the still images. This obliges me to export the project (as an MP4) in order to fully evaluate these transistions; unfortunately, exporting is time-consuming.

Is there a way to optimize playback for better previews? 

I've set the playback resolution to 1/4, but results are still choppy.

Thanks.

Adobe Premiere Pro 14.8.0 (Build 39)

Windows 10 Home v2004

Intel Core i7-5820K Haswell-E 6-Core 3.30 GHz (no overclock)
ASUS X99-A Motherboard / Crystal Sound 2 audio
32GB (4 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200)
ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8GB ROG STRIX v461.09
850w Power Supply
Monitor: Dell UltraSharp 27 QHD U2715H
Resolution: 2560x1440 (monitor native)

[R Neil Haugen]

Premiere will struggle with massive pixel counts. Remember, a still image app deals with one image at a time. For Premiere, any image on a sequence is not just one image ... it's that image at the frame-rate of the sequence, so that image 29.97 times per second or whatever. It's creating that image 29.97 times per second it's displayed on the timeline.

How much "zoom" do you really need? It is recommended as a practical issue to keep your pixel count for stills to not more than 3-4x the sequence frame-size. And anything requiring more than "4k" or UDH pixel counts is going to need both something above 32GB of RAM and a high-RAM GPU card also.

Neil

[XilburQost]

Thank you for the reply, Neil. This high-ram requirement is a little new to me. I just changed my video driver to NVIDIA Studio Driver v460.89 and that seems to help. Also, I'm sticking with 1080p for the time being until I get a better feel for what my system is capable of. 🙂

Walt

[R Neil Haugen · Accepted solution]

Video post requires a lot more system RAM and GPU-RAM than stills work. And where it really is needed is "high k-count" media. Anything above FHD, "full high-def" which is 1920x1080 will require proportionately higher RAM amounts.

I work a lot with colorists working with up to 8K RED files. They consider 128GB of system RAM a light-weight machine.

Yea ...

Neil

[John T Smith]

>relatively new to video production and Adobe Premiere Pro

Some Tutorials to help you get started
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/get-started.html
https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro/premiere-pro-tutorial/td-p/10974406?page=1
https://community.adobe.com/t5/video-lounge/tips-amp-tricks-to-become-a-premiere-pro-power-user-with...
https://community.adobe.com/t5/video-lounge/video-series-real-premiere-pro-secrets-by-cut-to-the-poi...
https://community.adobe.com/t5/video-lounge/podcast-art-of-the-cut-coup-53-editor-walter-murch-ace/t...
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/how-to/premiere-pro-nesting-sequence-cc.html

[Michael Grenadier]

and you might try doing your still animation in AfterEffects...

[XilburQost]

Thanks mgrenadier. I haven't opened AfterEffects yet, but I'm thinking about it. I'm presuming there are lots of things AfterEffects can do that Premiere doesn't, and making the animation a video clip would offload that labor from Premiere.