Relinking to previous render files

Hi there.

I'm sure this must have been discussed before but is there a way to restore lost render files?

Thanks

No, and more importantly, why would you? What would be the goal?

The goal is massive and time related. Eg if you make any change on a timeline with an adjustment layer or graphic throughout you lose the complete render which at this point is taking an hour to do.

I undo but it still does not solve how to not lose whole renders with some small changes being made.

I rarely have to render anything on a timeline, but I can see that being an issue for some folks. The problem I can see is a ton of render files being saved, referenced, and eating up tons of drive space. Sine you're only rendering small segments of a timeline, whatever you're working on at the moment, and it doesn't remove renders for the entire timeline, only the clip(s) you're working on... I dunno... Fuzzy issue.

Videopixels wrote: The goal is massive and time related. Eg if you make any change on a timeline with an adjustment layer or graphic throughout you lose the complete render which at this point is taking an hour to do...

I don't see exactly that behavior. With an adjustment layer covering the entire timeline, I can make many edits to the timeline which only invalidate a portion of the render files.

E.g, if I change color, exposure or scale on a clip in the primary storyline, secondary storyline or a connected clip, it only invalidates the render files for that one small clip. Likewise if I trim a connected clip or secondary storyline, only that one clip's render files are affected. If I move a main storyline clip, or connected clip it only affects that clip length plus the former clip's location length.

If I trim the main storyline it invalidates from that point to the end, which is larger but it doesn't affect the complete render.

This is on 10.3.4 on Sierra 10.12.6 and 4k H264 8-bit 4:2:0 100 mbps material from various cameras. Whether proxy or original files are used makes no difference. I use the default render codec which is ProRes 422.

Can you be more specific about what version you are using, what effect is on the adjustment layer and what specific actions invalidate the entire timeline render files?

Like Ben I almost never render the timeline before export. I may render one clip having a special affect to better perceive how it's working, e.g, stabilization, but only cases like that. However the main point is I don't see the entire timeline render files being invalidated from changes to single clips.

The issues I had were with several clips of newspaper clippings animating together with motion blur added amongst other things. It was a high paced project so did not want to leave FCP for it, in hind sight I should have just left the most intense animations in AE and exported as footage. Anyway will next time.

Thanks for the feedback.

Hi all the latest versions of FCP and Apple OS.

The example I am referring to is for example if you have an adjustment layer with a vignette at the top level and you make a change underneath, because a "change" has occurred in the one long "clip" of the title adjustment layer the entire render is lost.

Another example is if you complete the SEQ but find the adjustment layer is just too short after all the changes have been made, extend the adjustment layer slightly and the entire SEQ render is lost.

At your own risk, you can export ranges, re-import them and replace the original clips. Means unnecessary recompression, means theoretical quality loss, and all of that is mentioned in many textbooks. Anyone here who never did this? A macro doing all of the above with one keystroke was a top priority feature request for Commandline (f.k.a. "FCP Hacks"). Tells me something.

I'd say that a vignette is nothing you'd need a realtime preview for. You need realtime for retiming (of course) and for judgment of (i.e.) keyframed animations. Do these things first, render selected (if necessary at all), then apply CC and vignettes and other not so much time-related stuff. The frame the playhead is on is visible unrendered in full quality. That's all that counts.

Videopixels wrote: ...if you have an adjustment layer with a vignette at the top level and you make a change underneath, because a "change" has occurred in the one long "clip" of the title adjustment layer the entire render is lost....

I don't see that happening. Obviously if you change the adjustment layer itself, everything must be re-rendered. But if you change a clip beneath the adjustment layer, in most cases only that one clip requires re-rendering. The exception is if you trim the storyline, from that point to the end must be re-rendered.

If instead of changing one timeline clip, you have another full-length title beneath the adjustment layer, that is effectively one long clip. Changing that is no different than having a storyline composed of a single long clip and changing that or changing the adjustment layer above it. In that case you've changed something that spans the entire timeline so the whole thing must be re-rendered -- assuming you choose that or need it for some reason.

In most cases you can do most of your editing without rendering the timeline. However if you have very compute-intensive effects such as Neat Video, animations and 3D titles, etc. those can be very slow. In that case it's not render files being "lost" or requiring re-link, but you have invalidated the render files which are no longer accurate.

I think the render files are the exact, flattened representation of all layers and effects for a given span of the timeline. Notice the render "dots" are always range-based over all layers. The are not rendered and non-rendered clips (although we speak of them this way), there are rendered and non-rendered timeline ranges. I don't think the render files are clip-based. IOW it apparently doesn't keep separate render files for different layers of stacked clips -- the render files are a composited flattened representation of a given span of the timeline. Thus there is no way to render just one layer and not render the spanned range of layers beneath or above.

If you export a timeline clip with compute-intensive effects such as Neat Video, then re-import that and replace the original clip, it will still be rendered if you adjust the clip above. The effect is no longer there -- it's now "baked in" so the computations won't happen but the clip itself will be rendered. It just happens faster so you don't notice it.

Changing anything on any layer which affects layers below or above that requires those to be re-rendered, for the span and duration of the changed clip. In this case maybe you changed a title layer that spans the entire timeline?

Testing and here's what I'm finding. I place an Adjustment Layer effect over a full timeline. I render the full timeline, no render dots anywhere. I make a change to that adjustment layer clip, render dots show up, for the full duration of the adjustment layer clip. I execute an Undo command, the change is undone, plus my render dot go away, returning to the state the timeline was in before the change.

I do the same again, except make the change to a clip in the primary storyline, below the adjustment layer clip. Render dots show up, but only over that specific clip. I execute an Undo command the the change is reverted, and my render dots disappear, returning the clip and timeline to the full rendered state it was in before making a change to that clip.

Make two changes, Undo two times, render files active again, as above.

So I'm NOT getting the behavior the OP is explaining. I do get the render files "relinking" as it were. I've always seen FCPX behave this way with renders.

macOS 10.13, FCPX 10.4, iMac Pro.

Yes, thank you.

I generally disable the tracks before I am ready to export, it was just this one painful project. After exporting some ranges of complex movement and animation the agency and client would come back and make changes at the last minute which was frustrating, the clips were all there just disabled but time consuming.