Re: should i delete my render files and re-render to free up disk space?

i thought i'd add to this post instead of create a new one since it's related. i needed to free up space and my "Additional Render Files" folder in my render manager was at like 12 GB, which seemed really large. but i was in a bit of a rush, and i checkmarked that folder to be cleaned out.

and now it's completely ruined the video on 80% of my film. instead of showing the picture it shows like a rainbow of pixels. and it says that it's missing "film-FIN-000004d4 (.mov1 through .mov5) and "film-FIN-000004d5 (.mov1 through .mov5)" when i'm loading up the sequence. those files, by the way, still show up in my Render Files folder, and i try to connect them back but it doesn't do anything.

now, when i double click on the individual clips it brings them up fine in my viewer. what can i do, i'm really worried and have deadlines coming up very soon?

i have this option, but it will take forever: i have a back-up copy of the movie that plays fine, but it's before color correction, so i'd have to go through and paste each individual CC setting from the messed-up movie into the back-up one, and then bring that all in to my regular sequence.

if you have any insight, please let me know, i'd really appreciate it. i was waiting for some disaster-level thing to happen to the film as i was editing it, and it didn't happen until the very end. thank you very much

adam

by the way, i just want to add that i didn't put any files in that Render folder, it seems like it was all something FCP did on its own.

ok, i just did something accidentally that has provided some insight. i cut the Color Correction settings out of one of the messed up clips, and suddenly it was fine (albeit without C.C.). and when i pasted the settings back in the clip, it was back to the way it should be. so this isn't the end of the world, apparently, but it still will take forever to do, so if anyone has a better idea than repeating this process for every clip, please let me know. thanks again

First, you should always start a new thread instead of trying to piggy-back on an old one. Nobody but the moderators, and people who happen to be subscribed to the old thread, will see your message.

Second, I'm not sure why Final Cut isn't properly handling the deletion of the render files, but you should be able to "trick" it into forgetting them for you. Just toggle off all your audio and video tracks. You may see a warning that says something like "this will spike your undo, moron." That's good, because that's precisely what you want to do in this case. Just toggle off your tracks and then toggle them back on, the re-render your whole timeline. That should clear it up for you.

> i didn't put any files in that Render folder, it seems like it was all something FCP did on its
> own.

FCP doesn't do that "on its own". It sends render files to wherever you had set the Scratch Disk to. Are you familiar at all with FCP's file-management system? If not, you really should read up on that before you attempt anything involving capturing or rendering.

> and now it's completely ruined the video on 80% of my film. instead of showing the picture it
> shows like a rainbow of pixels. and it says that it's missing "film-FIN-000004d4 (.mov1
> through .mov5) and "film-FIN-000004d5 (.mov1 through .mov5)"

That usually happens if you used non-self-contained movie files ("reference" movies) in your cut. See Joe's posting above. Did you export something and then import it back?

> when i'm loading up the sequence. those files, by the way, still show up in my Render Files
> folder, and i try to connect them back but it doesn't do anything.

Render files are notoriously unreliable. I usually consider them impossible to reconnect to. And besides, render files are supposed to be temporary; if you lose them, you re-render. But your possible use of reference movie files may have created problems.

You might want to consider bringing in a knowledgeable FCP operator. While it's possible for us to talk you through some things, this is one of those problems that would be much more easily fixable if we could actually see your entire project -- the project file, backups, file management at the OS level, everything.

Unfortunately, I think you may have had a "bull in a China shop" dilemma. You weren't familiar enough with exactly what you did to create your work, but you purged the render files in one fell swoop anyway. This is exactly what I was warning about before when I said "It's easy for us to say, but you have to know yourself". You didn't delete a handful of render files at a time as I'd advised, did you? If you had, you may have been able to just have to fix one small portion, instead of your whole film.

> i have a back-up copy of the movie that plays fine, but it's before color correction, so i'd have
> to go through and paste each individual CC setting from the messed-up movie into the back-
> up one

In a normal situation, when you lock picture, what you should have done is this:

1. Backup the project file, date- and time-stamp it, put it in a safe place out of reach of the current editing station.
2. Render, Audio Mixdown, export the timeline as-is, self-contained QuickTime movie at maximum quality, without colour correction. Usually also good to export another copy of that movie file with a timecode burn -- very useful for finishing. Backup both of those into another disk location for safe keeping.
3. Make a smaller version of that movie file for portable purposes.
4. For colour correction, you can either do it to the individual clips or to the movie file of the whole cut. Either way, you start a new project file, import the necessary elements (Sequences with locked picture, movie file, etc.) and go from there, rather than use your original editing project file, so that you can preserve the editing.
5. As you correct, you do as you do in editing -- frequent manual backups with date- and time-stamps. When you have accomplished a considerable amount, export as a self-contained movie file, as an insurance.
6. If you had done the above steps correctly, then even if the current colour-correction project file started to fail, you could have gone back to a multitude of steps and been able to do a simple media reconnection, rather than repeat any colour-correction work.


www.derekmok.com

> i just did something accidentally that has provided some insight. i cut the Color Correction
> settings out of one of the messed up clips, and suddenly it was fine (albeit without C.C.)

If it's simply a corruption in the renders, then you can usually achieve the same thing by selecting all the clips, turning them off (CONTROL-B -- Clip Enable/Disable), then back on (CONTROL-B again). Backup your project file first, though.

That would make the "film-FIN-000004d5 (.mov1 through .mov5)" message strange. They usually appear when you have non-self-contained media missing dependent elements, not when you have a simple render-file disconnect. Maybe you got lucky.

If you've backed up the project file, another thing to try (if Clip Enable/Disable doesn't work) is to disconnect the media, then reconnect it. That tends to "flush" the clips and the render files so you can end up with a clean slate. If that gets botched for any reason, you simply discard the project file without saving, and go back to the backup.


www.derekmok.com

Thank you both very much, i know it was really careless of me. but toggling of the tracks on and off worked, so everything is alright. i appreciate those tips for the future too, derek, thanks!

BACKUP!


www.derekmok.com

I never use the Media Manager, just don't trust it, but as was said render files can get funky. However, I usually will render out various effects and stuff before a project is finished and so, to address part of the initial question, once I am finished with the sequence, I delete all render files using the Render manager and re render the project. This frees up much of the space taken up by previous, and now unnecessary renders.
Steve

steve-sharksdelight