Working on the Death Star lightsaber battle now... This is what I got so far.

It's a really good balance!

Thank you! Someone told me it looks a bit too "bleak", so maybe I'm re-adding some blues since I de-saturated the blues.

I think there's something to it because it looks better when I remove the de-saturation.




Maybe it's a little oversaturated now, but overall I think it looks decent.

So... I started on the export.

But...



It is going to take 12 days! Yeah, I am not going to do that. It is like this because it is a software export. Hardware exports tend to crash[/dash]a lot. All my previous exports were software exports, but never have they been twelve days.

So I have been attempting to solve the crash problem. First I tried reducing the load by pre-exporting the After Effects sequences instead of relying on Dynamic Link. But then I found out that prolonged NESTED SEQUENCES cause the hardware export to crash. So now I must un-nest all my nested sequences. Very tedious indeed.

Additionally, this has caused me to research video editors. Apparently, Premiere Pro is the most flexible, but as a result prone to problems. Avid Media Composer is the most reliable, but very tedious to work with. Da Vinci Resolve is somewhere in the middle. Indeed, I might switch to Resolve if I ever edit any videos again after this. I like the work-flow in Premiere, the timeline is snappy, but the problems are numerous and the color grading is inefficient.

While working on these very time-consuming issues, I keep finding minute improvements I can make to the edit itself. I have improved the dialogue, the soundtrack, but most of all the color grading is something that can endlessly be improved. As such I have resolved to only eliminate the most problematic instances of said color grading. The main problem is that some parts look too purple, but in a manner that is very difficult to eliminate. Because of the persistent purplenesses I have applied adjustment layers throughout the entire edit, but I had gone way too far in doing so, dulling the colors, and still purple sequences remained. More recently, I have been dialing back the effects of the adjustment layers, but it is truly a terrible process that drains me of life. Hence once again: Da Vinci Resolve. No More "Lumetri Color"!

I'm sorry to hear of these woes. it sounds like a real headache.
I don't know if it's the same as resolve, but I think those adjustment layers may be the culprit of your long render time. I know that as you add complexity to each frame in resolve it just makes things spiral. I find it's better to keep an edit as flat as possible.

Thank you for your sympathy.
I think you're right. Ah well, hopefully I'll be able to do a hardware export soon! And it'll be done in a day, maybe two.

Update. I finally managed a complete hardware export. I managed this by pre-rendering all After Effects sequences, un-nesting nearly all sequences, and updating to Premiere Pro 2025. I can now do the full 4K export in about 5 hours, which is of course an incredible improvement over 300+ hours.

Switching to hardware export does introduce problems, however. Many of the transitions between slowed down shots have become glitched and some of the effects render in a different manner.

More interestingly, perhaps, I also found out that hardware export utilizes a simplified codec. Software encoders use more sophisticated analysis, allowing for better processing of details. Hardware encoders tend to be more aggressive with de-noising and smoothing to hit their speed targets. In professional production software exports are always used.

Nevertheless, I think the export looks good. For all the doubts I've had, I am actually quite satisfied with my color regrade. I watched through the edit yesterday for quality control. I have to fix 35 glitches or so. I am also considering cutting out two scenes in act 1 that don't particularly add much, and perhaps just make the edit confusing and slow the pacing.

It is going to take a while to make these final adjustments, but the end is in sight. It is a big relief that at least the export itself will be swift. Once it is finished I will also have to put together some sort of a trailer before I can release it, but I don't expect that to take too long. Furthermore, since I pre-rendered most of my special effects now, I intend to make them publicly available for others to use in their edits.

oh is this rendering with the GPU? I wish I had cottoned on to that sooner because I knew about the issues with gpu encoding. my apologies for not paying attention, I could have saved you some trouble.

well done for getting there anyhow! it's been rather a large headache for you hasn't it.

Yes! It is indeed about rendering with the GPU, which I think I'll do from now on, just simply because of how much faster it is. Do you usually export with the CPU?

Thank you! It really has been SUCH a large headache! But it had to be done.

WhillsConsortium wrote:
Yes! It is indeed about rendering with the GPU, which I think I'll do from now on, just simply because of how much faster it is. Do you usually export with the CPU? Thank you! It really has been SUCH ...

I would never export with gpu, due to the errors it produces. Cpu rendering is required for visual quality and clarity. I understand why you ask this though, the render time you were given was insane.
I presume your cpu is not terrible though, so that's down to, either Premier has issues, or it was to do with the layering of effects, etc.  I did one send my render time sky high, that was when I tried to add film grain to a film that didn't need it.