A workflow idea to cut render times

[Paul Cascio]

Not sure if this is standard procedure and I'm simply the last to figure it out, but I thought I'd share this.

I've waited as long as 12-23 hours many times for Vegas to complete an MPEG2 or MP4 render. As a result, I came up with this technique and it has cut render time tremendously. Here it is:

After I've completed most of my edits, I render the video to Cineform (you could got to uncompressed avi if you have the HD space and don't own Neo Scene) and place it on the top track, and I mute the other video tracks. It's sort of like 'flattening' Photoshop. Now, Vegas doesn't need to spend time rendering color correction,filters and transitions again. If II find a mistake, or need to make a change, I edit and re-render just that portion using the original tracks with the flattened top track muted.

I do something similar with audio (to WAV), but keep voice on a seperate track from music and sound effects.

All future renders are now made from only the top track.

To give you an idea of the time savings (Q6600 OC'ed to 3.2; 8 gb ram; Win7-64), this 1-hour video took 12 hours to render to MPEG2 (for DVDA; 720x480) The Cineform AVI render to create the top track took 5 hours. The final render to MPEG2 (for DVDA), from the trio of top video track took just over 1 hour.

I hope someone finds this helpful.

[Graham Bernard]

Yup, been doing this for years with Vegas. Apart from anything else I DO have a finished AVI ready for a re-edit, without needing to drill down back to the Parent Project.

But yes, here's my ruff workflow:

1] Capture footage

2] Audition footage

3] Colour Correct

4] Edit

5] RENDER TO AVI

6] Render to delivery format. Here that is MPGE2 and AC-3

Stage 6] is done in something faster than real time - bosh!

Grazie

[Don Bloom]

Yeah Gazie,
I do about the same thing. Since I'm not producing anything except SD finished product and I'm shooting SD footage it's a system I've been using since I started with Vegas way back when and while it might seem to take as long or longer because there is an extra step in the process, it actually is faster than rendering straight to MPG since Vegas has to read every single frame and as you know put any kind of FX to a clip and BAM! It can take a loooong time to render.
I've never timed it but I know my MPG/AC3 renders sure don't take 12 to 24 hours. Man, I'd never be able to take that.

[Richard Jones]

Isn't the rendering time down to the speed etc of the PC?

Some slight time-saving can be gained if you disconnect from the net, switch off all anti-virus software (don't forget to switch it back on again when you've finished), disable the option to watch the render in the preview window and exit from all other programmes. For myself I fnd my render times direct to MPEG2 vary between one and a half and twice the time of the project depending on the numberr and type of FXs with the AC3 render normally being a matter of ten minutes or so.

Richard

[Ian Slessor]

Not quite "getting" the workflow here.

But that could just be me.

Anybody have a link to a detailed version of this?

Thanks.

sincerely,


ian

[Don Bloom]

Everything I do has some sort of natural break point. If a wedding then it's simple, prep, preceremony, ceremony, postceremony, reception. If it's a seminar there is generally a break after an couple of hours maybe sooner so I can take each section put the footage I want in that section, do my edit; cut, color, audio etc then when I'm happy with that section I save it as a VEG then render to AVI. I do that for each section. Now when they're all done, I put all the AVIs on the timeline to get the total time of the entire project so I can set my bitrate. I then render each section (avi) to MPEG and AC3 using the proper bitrate for the total length of time. Now in DVDA I bring in each section, set the end actions to point to where I want it to go and make my DVDs.
While I know you are rendering 2 times the AVI doesn't lose any quality since Vegas is simply copying the footage to make the AVI and with the MPEG render, well, it's going to do what it's going to do but this way if I have to go back later to make any changes I have the VEG, the AVI and the MPEG and only need to render to MPEG the section I changed drop it back into DVDA and the smart render in DVDA takes care of the rest. So you're not re-rendering the entire thing.
HTHs

[Paul Cascio]

The whole idea was based on my discovery that's it's quicker to render to AVI, then to MPEG2/MPEG4 than to go directly from the timeline to MPEG2/4.

Cut render time by about 40% but requires lots of HD space for the AVI.