Sometimes I render a section, and then I cut a tiny section out but now I need to re-render everything in the clip even though I didn't change the clip. In FCP 7, you didn't need to re-render but in FCP X it seems you do. Any way around this?
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Is there any way to cut a piece without needing to re-render the entire clip in FCPX?
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In general FCPX does not require rendering the timeline for editing operations. You also don't need to have background rendering enabled in FCPX preferences, and it often works better if it's disabled.
If using compute-intensive effects it might occasionally be necessary to render a single clip to better observe the behavior.
What I'm doing is exporting these three hour interviews. Every now and then, I have it rendered and then need to make a small change and I end up having to re-render everything again. Kind of frustrating since I didnt have that problem in FCP 7but not the biggest problem.
Are you saying your entire three-hour interview is in one clip, and is rendered in its entirety when you start? That seems like an unusual workflow, but for sure one that shouldn't require rendering in FCP X just to play it back. What format/codec is your three-hour interview clip using?
Assuming all is as you say, could there be a simple workaround to break the really long clip up into manageable pieces prior to the very first rendering? That way any later re-render only applies to a short clip.
Assuming all is as you say, could there be a simple workaround to break the really long clip up into manageable pieces prior to the very first rendering? That way any later re-render only applies to a short clip.
With FCPX you normally don't need to render the timeline. You can disable the background rendering option in FCPX Preferences. When you finally do the export, it will then render the timeline and encode it for output.
If you are editing 4k H264, it's often best to use proxy files for this, which further diminishes any need to render the timeline. Just remember to set the Viewer back to Optimized/Original before final export, else the encoded file will be a proxy resolution.
Assuming the timeline is already rendered, re-rendering is normally only required for the changed clip. E.g, if you change the color, exposure or effects on a single clip, only that one clip will show render dots above it. If you edit or trim a connected clip or secondary storyline, only that one item will show render dots. However if you trim the main storyline, that will invalidate any existing render files from edit point to the end of the timeline. But as already stated, you normally don't need to worry about that or render the timeline before export anyway.
If you have an adjustment layer or title layer above the storyline and you change that, this invalidates the render files for all layers below it for the span of that changed layer. This is unavoidable since render files are apparently a flattened composite of all layers for a given span of the timeline. We may speak of or envision a clip being rendered but in actuality a range of the timeline (inc'l all layers) is rendered.
If your concern is export time for a three hour interview, in most cases the fastest export is using Master File>Settings>Computer, Video codec: H.264 Faster Encode.
If you have compute-intensive effects such as stabilization or Neat Video noise reduction it's best to defer applying those until the very last editing phase. That way it doesn't drag down the performance during most of your editing.