Shouldn't rendered timelines stay rendered?

Question

Level 1

40 points

Shouldn't rendered timelines stay rendered?

Late last night I rendered a timeline. It worked, and all the orange bar disappeared. I woke up this morning and opened FCPX. It opened to the same project, of course, but the orange bar indicating that the project was not rendered was present over the majority (but not all) of the project's timeline.

This particular project consists almost entirely of compound clips, if that matters. But I didn't edit anything, so I don't think it should matter. I rendered the timeline, exported the master file, closed FCPX, and went to sleep. This morning I opened FCPX and the saw much of the orange bar back.

What could cause this? I think I've seen this sort of thing happen before with other projects, but it was only a very small part of some timeline.

iMac (27-inch, Late 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9.1), i7 3.5 GHz, 32MB RAM, 4GB NVIDIA

Posted on Mar 8, 2014 9:34 AM

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Answer 1

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Mar 8, 2014 9:39 AM in response to JDLee

I haven't heard very much about this in quite some time. It used to be a problem in earlier versions, although I've never had it happen to me.

Why not try this: turn off BG Rendering; from the file menu, delete all project render files; do a manual render and see whether it sticks after you close and reopen.

Russ

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Answer 2

JDLee Author

Level 1

40 points

Mar 8, 2014 9:53 AM in response to Russ H

I already have background rendering set to off. I was going to delete the project render files, but I don't see an option for that in the file menu. The only thing I see is the option "Delete Event Render Files..." I don't even see the option to delete project render files at all in the File menu (not even grayed-out and unselectable).

Could that be because they are all compound clips?

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Answer 3

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Mar 8, 2014 10:42 AM in response to JDLee

It's a little different in 10.1 than it used to be. Select the project in the browser and the menu option should be available.

Russ

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Answer 4

JDLee Author

Level 1

40 points

Mar 8, 2014 11:32 AM in response to Russ H

Hi Russ-

I thought I had selected the project file, but I tried again and found the option and deleted the project render files. I then re-rendered the project. I closed FCPX and restarted, which was enough to lose almost all of the rendering before.

This time almost the entire timeline, which is about 7 1/2 minutes, stayed rendered. But one little 5-second section of one compound clip had the orange bar above it in the timeline. So I did Render All again, and it rendered immediately. I quit and relaunched FCPX, and that same little section had the orange bar above it again. That secion is part of a compound clip that consists of a basic generator with several basic titles in it. I cut and paste that compound clip from one project to another (it's some credits that I reuse frequently).

No matter how many times I re-render that section now, it remains unrendered when I close and reopen FCPX. This isn't a huge problem, but it's one of those nagging things I don't understand. I keep thinking that since this is a computer, the results should be reliably exact on something like this.

I don't know if it matters, but this is an updated project I began in an earlier version of FCPX.

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Answer 5

Maikell

Level 1

39 points

Jul 13, 2014 12:37 AM in response to JDLee

Same situation here (FCP X 10.1.2, Mavericks 10.9.4, MBP Retina 16 GB) - both with updates projects as well as entirely new projects. Like DJLee, I have lots of Compound Clips in my timeline. Some of them, although being rendered already, need to be re-rendered after restart, some not. Deleted all render files, unchecked "Render in Background", repaired permissions, vacuumed, did the dusting ... to no avail. Very frustrating and annoying.

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Answer 6

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,022 points

Jul 13, 2014 12:20 PM in response to Maikell

You really need to give a lot more information. What the project properties? What are the library properties? Where are the render files going? What's the media exactly? Did you repair permissions?

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Answer 7

Maikell

Level 1

39 points

Jul 14, 2014 12:15 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Tom,

Library sits on internal hard drive (SSD). FCP X lives there, too.

Project contains of just still images (jpg), titles, transitions and a piece of music (from Final Cut Pro Sound Effects). No video clips.

Project is 1080p HD 25p

All still images have been imported into the event.

Render files and caches go to the library.

No proxy files have been generated.

Thanks for taking the time to deal with my problem.

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Answer 8

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,022 points

Jul 14, 2014 1:40 AM in response to Maikell

SSwitch off background rendering and don't render. Do you need to render for playback? There are circumstances where you need to render inside the compound clip as well as in the project.

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Answer 9

Maikell

Level 1

39 points

Jul 14, 2014 3:17 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

As posted earlier, Background Rendering is switched off. I'm aware that I need to render inside compound clips, but after having done so and re-launching FCP X some of the require re-rendering. Generally, unrendered sequences would do for playback. But when it comes to maximum control I like to see all the details in full res.

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Answer 10

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,022 points

Jul 14, 2014 3:21 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

.

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Answer 11

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,022 points

Jul 14, 2014 3:22 AM in response to Maikell

WWhat are the compounds for? What's happening in the project? What are the specs of the media? Let's see if it's repeatable or machine/graphics card specific.

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Answer 12

Maikell

Level 1

39 points

Jul 14, 2014 7:16 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Compounds contain just images (jpg), Ken Burns effects, text effects (from the Final Cut library, no 3rd party stuff), transitions (mostly wipes from the FCP X library). Reason for compounds: each one tells a little story. In the main timeline, 10+ compounds and a few non-compounds plus transitions. (Non-compounds are title effects, two of them 3rd party, but they are not affected.)

Project contains of compound clips mentioned above plus an audio track (.m4a)

Media specs: JPG images, various resolutions. 99 % are 640 by 480, just a few are higher resolutions. 640 x 480 is fine since the images never go full screen.

Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000, NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M. MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD). "Automatic graphics switching" is unchecked.

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Answer 13

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,022 points

Jul 14, 2014 7:20 AM in response to Maikell

And everything has to re-render? OK I'll see if I can build something like that.

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Answer 14

Maikell

Level 1

39 points

Jul 14, 2014 7:35 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Thx.

Interesting detail: I just switched languages in the Finder (from German to English). The system rebooted, reopened all active applications including FCP X. In the timeline of my project approx. 90% of all clips showed the orange render bar. Before that they were like 50%.

I switched back to German, FCP X relaunched, and this time there are merely 30% of the orange bars left. (From 50 to 90 to 30%...)

Extremely mysterious. Maybe I should do that switching more often until all the render bars are gone... :-(

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Answer 15

itsKeef

Level 1

54 points

Dec 3, 2014 4:49 PM in response to JDLee

Hi and have you got it working? see my post, what you reck?

FCPX v10.1.4 the last 8 frames and losing render files?

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