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Chapter 57 Rendering and Video Processing Settings 901
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Video Render Status Bars
The color of the video render status bar above the Timeline ruler indicates the real-time
or render status of segments in your sequence.
Bar color Render status Description
Dark gray None No rendering is required.
Blue-gray Rendered The material has already been rendered.
Dark green Full Indicates a real-time effect that’s capable of playback and output to
video at full quality with no rendering required.
Green Preview The media does not need rendering and will play on the computer
screen in real time, but not at full quality.
Yellow Proxy The effect you see during real-time playback is an approximation
(proxy) of the effect you’ve specified. Effects indicated by yellow
render bars may ignore some filter parameter controls (for
example, Edge Softness) in order to show you a real-time preview.
To get the true final effect, you must render these clips. The final
effect is displayed when playback is stopped or when scrubbing.
For example, you may have added a wipe transition and set the
angle to 37 degrees. Depending on your selected effects quality,
Final Cut Express may only be able to display the wipe angle at
45 degrees in real time, so you see an approximation during
real-time playback. You can still see the effect as you specified it
(the 37-degree angle) by placing the playhead over a frame of the
effect in the Canvas or Timeline, or by rendering the effect before
playing it back.
Dark yellow Rendered
Proxy
Indicates that an effect has been rendered at a lower frame
rate or quality than currently specified in the Frame Rate and
Resolution pop-up menus in the Render Control tab of the
Sequence Settings window. These render files are preserved even
if these settings are changed back to 100 percent. This render
status bar color appears when you render a proxy effect (see the
entry above for more information).
Orange Unlimited Indicates effects that exceed your computer’s real-time playback
capabilities but are enabled anyway because Unlimited RT is
selected in the RT pop-up menu in the Timeline. Unlimited real-time
playback lets you play more effects but increases the chances that
your sequence will drop frames during playback. This mode is useful
for getting a real-time preview of complex effects compositions.
Red Needs Render The real-time capabilities of Final Cut Express have been exceeded
and the material must be rendered before playback or output
to tape.