forever to render

E

enrico

Well-known member
Does anyone know how or if it's possible to reduce rendering time on high resolution jpeg's ? Normally, I find rendering is very quick in FCP, but when I'm working with high resolution jpeg's for example, it just takes forever. I've tried using Motion2, but have found it unable to work efficiently on any lengthier work (ie. over 2 minutes). I'm using FCP 5.0.4 Studio with a G5 and an extra terrabyte Lacie hard drive, so memory shouldn't be an issue. Is this something I just have to live with or what?

Your feedback is much appreciated!
 
Depends on what sort of video format, how big the photos are and the speed of your processor.

Noah
 
I hope this helps. DV NTSC (Advanced pulldown removal for 24p) format, photos are about 2200x3500, and processor is Dual 2.3 GHz PowerPC G5. The resolution is large so I can zoom in and move around details of photo images.

Thanks.
 
Are you reducing the photos to 72 dpi? Once they hit video, they aren't going to gain anything from being at like 300 dpi (or any other print quality setting). That might help reduce file size to some extent.

One of the editor's in house here has been doing all his photo work in AE and then bringing that back into FCP. So if you have access to AE, perhaps try that. Not sure if its just going to be as problematic as the Motion workflow or not, but just thought I'd throw it out there.

cheers.
 
I'm not sure what the print settings (dpi) are for these jpeg's (they were downloaded from the net)...assuming they're quite high. How would I find out and then shrink em down to 72 dpi?
I don't have access to AE (After Effects?). Can this be done on iphoto...or using available mac software?

Thank you.
 
you might make sure you ahve unlimited RT on, do all your motion, sizing etc before you put on the filters. That is my process, and as long as the pic isnt too big (my dual 2.5Ghz G5 doesnt like huge JPG's either) you will be able to get a rough idea of what it looks like. Render the beast later, Unlimited RT is a great time saver. I have just found that high res pictures take a lot of time to render out completely.
 
Thanks, I'll try that now. I'm not clear still about finding out the dpi of the hi res image and shrinking it down to 72 dpi.
Also, has anyone else found that Motion doesn't take much before it gets too slow to be unreasonable for working with, or solved that?
 
DPI has nothing to do with it... the image will still be 2200x3500. With images that large, you will not have very fast render times, period. Take Tim's advice and do all motion first so that you can work with the images in the easiest and fastest way possible. Then go on to filters and everything else.
 
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Unless you are doing pans and/or zooms on the images you should resize them down to SD video size. If you are doing pans and zooms resize them as small as you can and still get the moves you need. That will help drop the render times significantly.


-A
 
adkimery said:
Unless you are doing pans and/or zooms on the images you should resize them down to SD video size. If you are doing pans and zooms resize them as small as you can and still get the moves you need. That will help drop the render times significantly.


-A
Click to expand...

Agreed. No need for the HUGE photos, unless you're constantly zooming way in, panning around the entire image, etc...
 
Ok, this is all new to me. I am zooming and panning like crazy; animating a journey to Orion matching a series of Nasa photos (which are incredibly detailed) and stars, of different distances, one to the next, till we get there from earth. As soon as I zoom in on the first jpeg, the work flow is slower than snail's pace, which affects my motion plan's.
First, are you guys all agreeing? If you are (here come the dum questions), what is SD and do you mean resizing a photo by shrinking the scale down...how would I zoom in?

thank you.
 
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hello again,

I'm assuming by the silence on my last questions that perhaps either I wasn't clear, or they're just dumb obvious questions that don't deserve an answer. Unfortunately, I'm still not able to continue working... all the time would be just forever rendering. So I'll try again, I'm new at this: together, how can I zoom in, pan, connect jpegs together that are high res without spending 90% of time waiting for the computer? Or, is it futile asking?

your feedback is most appreciated.
 
enrico said:
... what is SD and do you mean resizing a photo by shrinking the scale down...how would I zoom in?
Click to expand...
SD means standard definition, 720 x 486. You could scale down to SD if you didn't plan on doing any moves. Since you are doing moves on the images the resolution should be higher than SD. What the other posters are saying is that your images are too large. Try scaling them to 1100 x 1750 (half of the current size, 2200 x 3500). This should speed the renderin a little bit. But rendering large images takes a long time with any application (FCP, Avid, AE, etc), it's a lot of data to deal with so it takes a lot of time to process that data. It's a math thing: reduce amount of data being processed = reduced render time.

IMO, you're trying to use a screwdriver to pound in a nail. The type of effect your described would best be achieved using After Effects. With AE you can set up proxies (low res versions of the hi res images) and set up all your animation without choking the computer. Then when you render out you can replace the proxy with the high res originals. Oh yeah, render overnight. Yes I know you don't have AE. But it's a better hammer for this particular job.
 
When we say scale them down, we mean take them into an app like Photoshop, scale them down (cutting them down to half rez like milksac said is a good place to start), then import the smaller versions of the photos into Final Cut. If I'm working in SD w/images I typically make the images around HD size (1920x1080) and that usually gives me enough room to zoom w/o the renders taking forever and a day.

-A
 
Thank you very much for getting back and all the replies! Scaling the image res down is an amazing improvement on experimenting and time. And in combination with unlimited RT, leaving filters till the end, I can actually even preview stuff in a basic way. AE sounds like a dream, but it's great to be able to get started again...I really appreciate this forum, and seriously, your help!
 
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