Short Cuts #8 & 9 Save Time Rendering Video

Save Time Rendering Video Pt 1

In this 2 part series of Short Cuts, we’re going to teach you about rendering video and reconfiguring footage in Lightworks 2023.

Rendering video is a fantastic way of speeding up your editing when working with VFX. As you add effects to your footage, you may notice the playback of your timeline becomes less than optimal. This is because your computer is trying to process these effects in real-time, and they can be very taxing on your system. Rendering allows you to essentially bake these effects into your clip, and get your playback back to being nice and smooth.

It’s a very simple process. You just right-click on your clip, select ‘Render’ and then choose your settings from the pop-up. Once you’re done, click Start, and Lightworks will start your rendering video process in the background while you carry on working. There’s nothing else to do now — simply wait for the render bar to finish going up, and that’s it! You’ve rendered your clip. Playback your timeline now and you’ll see things are back to business as usual. 

Save Time Rendering Video Pt 2

There is one side effect to this, however. You can no longer edit the effects on your clip. There’s a quick and easy way around this called ‘Reconfiguring’. Just right click on the rendered clip in your timeline, and select ‘Reconfigure’. This will essentially undo your render so your effects become active again. Once you’re done tweaking, follow the rendering steps again and you’re good to go. 

If you decide you liked the clip how it was, don’t worry — you haven’t got to waste time rendering again. The rendered clip you made before will be inside your clips folder in Lightworks. Anytime you render, Lightworks will create another new clip for you.

There we go! It’s simple once you know how, and now you do! Give it a go and let us know how you get on in the YouTube comments.