what are the "rules" regarding render files?

Question

Level 2

294 points

what are the "rules" regarding render files?

OK...one PO-ed user here, wondering *** is going on...

I've always said that FCP is about as weak as an early version of Media 100 when it comes to render files. You can search my posts (not that you'd want to...), and find that I've been complaining about every system I regularly work on losing render files like a 6 year old loses mittens.

However, it's hit the fan, thus this post. I work on a half-hour tv show. Let me mention that we shoot and edit in XDCAM EX 1080i60; this is notable as yes, I know, rendering in long-GOP codecs is slow. Oh, I know it...

Anyway, this past Tuesday I dilligently rendered my composite sequence, and the broadcast output sequence, and then exported the broadcast sequence for feed. All was well.

Today, I opened up the project so I could make final archives and web exports of the individual segments...and guess what? Gee, Wally, the entire sequence was, you guessed it, unrendered. Where did those pesky render files go? Well, I figured I'd try something I never try, and that was to reconnect them. Hopeless, right?

As it turns out, yes, hopeless...because when I navigated to the Render Files folder, there was a grand total of 11 render files for this particular project. Now, I don't change my System Settings at all...I like where things go, I have my media volumes set up, everything should be hunky-dory, no?

So to get to the heart of the matter...what process is tossing render files? Why are they disappearing from my hard drive?

I have folders from projects from 2 months ago that have some render files in them, but I don't have the render files my system (supposedly) created on Tuesday!

Anyone got any ideas?

Posted on Mar 15, 2013 2:08 PM

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Answer 1

D Gilmore

Level 4

3,525 points

Mar 15, 2013 2:30 PM in response to Mike Janowski

Do you have all the renders checked?

Click on the Sequence Menu, highlight Render Selection as well as Render All and see if everything on the right menu then has a check mark.

What's happening to you is not normal. I edit with XDcam sequences and when I re-open projects which have been rendered I do not have to re-render.

You may also think about trashing preferences and repairing permissions.

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Answer 2

Mike Janowski Author

Level 2

294 points

Mar 15, 2013 2:41 PM in response to D Gilmore

yes, everything is checked. As I mentioned, when I left Tuesday evening, all was rendered and well. What I didn't do was actually look at the render files folder for this particular project and note how many files there were, which is what I'm going to be doing religiously now...

The gensis of my question is this: on earlier versions of Media Composer, when rendering from within the Effects pallette, it would auto-delete the previous render file if you were re-rendering the same effect section. I've never heard of FCP automatically cleaning up any render files, but I wouldn't put it past them to sneak something like this in...

Thanks for replying...

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Answer 3

Mike Janowski Author

Level 2

294 points

Mar 15, 2013 2:44 PM in response to Mike Janowski

Yeah, I probably should just get a fresh deck of prefs on board...thanks again.

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Answer 4

Mike Janowski Author

Level 2

294 points

Mar 19, 2013 4:25 PM in response to Mike Janowski

OK, tossed prefs, no help.

And here's some more bad behavior. When I'm all finished editing, I place my sequence into another sequence, adding bars n tone on the front, and a Broadcast Safe filter on the video side, and a touch of compression on the audio side.

Occasionally, I find a lower third or some other small video thing that needs to be changed. I make the change on my edit sequence, then go back to the output sequence...OH OH, in addition to needing to render the small video section, a whole bunch of audio needs to be re-rendered as well.

Of course, I'm crying to Mr. Potter here, as Apple couldn't give less of a rodent's posterior about FCS any more...not enough money to be made here to make it right.

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Answer 5

Shane Ross

Level 8

43,110 points

Mar 19, 2013 5:53 PM in response to Mike Janowski

>When I'm all finished editing, I place my sequence into another sequence

How? Copy and paste? Or are you nesting...because it sounds like...

>I make the change on my edit sequence, then go back to the output sequence...OH OH, in addition to needing to render the small video section, a whole bunch of audio needs to be re-rendered as well.

...you're nesting. Don't do that. Bring over the sequence complete...copy and paste all the clips. And your "edit sequence" and "output sequence" should be the same thing. Why are they different? I might start out by editing things in small sections (Acts in my case), but when I combine them into the final sequence...any change I make I make to the final sequence. THAT is now the main and only thing I work on.

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Answer 6

Mike Janowski Author

Level 2

294 points

Mar 19, 2013 7:45 PM in response to Shane Ross

Hey, Shane, as soon as I saw you posted I began to get deja vu all over again, as we had a discussion about losing render files which, yes, caused me to stop nesting...for the most part. So yes, here we again have evidence that the "nesting behavior" coding team took off early the day they were supposed to be bug-fixing...but i digress.

I nest only when necessary...generally, we edit "packages" (your acts) and then I get em, do whatever audio and color correction time allows, and copy and past them into my complete program sequence.

However, when all is well, good, revised and approved, I "edit" that complete 22:10 sequence into my "BS" sequence (you might guess, Broadcast Safe), which has the bars n tone requested by the broadcast mothership, and where I apply a light Broadcast Safe filter and a touch of compression to the audio. So I guess my only question here it...are you suggesting that I just splat-A my edited sequence and apply the filters to the gazillion-odd clips individually?

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Answer 7

Shane Ross

Level 8

43,110 points

Mar 20, 2013 10:29 AM in response to Mike Janowski

>are you suggesting that I just splat-A my edited sequence and apply the filters to the gazillion-odd clips individually?

Yup. That's what I do, and have done for years.

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Answer 8

Mike Janowski Author

Level 2

294 points

Mar 21, 2013 8:19 AM in response to Shane Ross

OK, duly noted. But I guess this is getting away from my original query...which is, irrespective of the "why" render files become unlinked, the unlinking process doesn't trash the files, right? So they ought to still be there, on the volume where I send all my render files...and I ought to be able to see them.

so why does it seem when I open up said folder that something, somehow, seems to be cleaning up this folder for me? Unlike the prefs for the Attic bin (oh, sorry, "Autosave" folder), I've never found a setting to tell FCS how many render files to save before trashing, how many projects' worth of renders to keep before throwning away, etc. So that ought to mean that my render files (and audio render files) folder ought to just keep getting bigger and bigger until I empty it.

so am I missing something here?

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