Section 43. About Rendering the Timeline

43. About Rendering the Timeline

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

14 Add Media with the Adobe Media Downloader

33 Add or Move a Clip on the Timeline

SEE ALSO

18 About Troubleshooting Media Additions

44 About Transitions

58 About Preset Effects

In digital video editing, there arise various times that clips need rendering. This especially occurs at the time your movie is burned to a DVD, burned to a folder, or exported as one of the various file types. Rendering prepares the video to be written to file or disk with all its transitions, effects, edits, titles, and menus included.

During the time you are working on your project, Premiere Elements wants to build a preview of your changes. This preview might require various clips to be rendered for proper viewing in the Monitor. The necessity of rendering the clips depends on your computer system and the type of file or effect you are creating. Computers with faster processors, more RAM, and additional video memory do not have to render at all (or at least not as often). Even with a fast processor, lots of RAM, and lots of video memory, you might still have to render after adding certain video-intensive effects or saving to various file types, such as some MPEG files. Although Premiere Elements does a pseudo (or soft) render continuously, you might have to perform a final render to see a smooth video in the Monitor. This final render is called the hard render.

Premiere Elements wants to hard render under the following conditions:

• After adding a video file not captured by Premiere Elements. These file types include MPEG, MOV, AVI, and WMV files.

• After adding a still image.

• After adding a transition or effect to a clip or clips.

• After using the Time Stretch feature on a clip.

• After rotating a clip.

• After changing field options.

TIP

Premiere Elements does not request to render a clip it has captured until changes are made to the clip. That rule also applies to anything added with the Adobe Media Downloader.

If your computer has a slower processor or minimal RAM and video memory, the failure to hard render might result in one of the following: a jerky display in the Monitor, an inability to see the effect added to the clip, and possible audio or speed issues.

To keep things running smoothly, render the Timeline often. By doing so, you will always be aware of any potential problems with clips or the effects you add to them.

When Premiere Elements wants to render a file, it lets you know by placing a red line above the clip that should be rendered in the Timeline. The line covers only the section of the Timeline where rendering is needed (only the changed areas of the Timeline). If you undo the change, the red line goes away and the file reverts back to its condition before the change was madeeffectively to its already rendered state. To render the Timeline, simply press the Enter key.

TIP

After rendering the Timeline, the default action is to play the entire work area in the Monitor. This can get rather annoying after awhile, especially if the movie is more than a few minutes long. You can stop the video from playing by pressing the space bar or you can change the Preferences. Choose Edit, Preferences, General from the menu at the top of your screen. When the Preferences dialog box opens, disable the Play work area after rendering previews check box. Click OK to finish.