The short version
Speed comes from structure decided before production, not from working faster during it.
What is really going on
Rebuilding the same element three times is the most common invisible cost in a campaign.
Rendering in layers turns a colour note from a re-render into a composite tweak.
Templated versioning turns twenty cutdowns from a week into an afternoon.
How to handle it
Build one hero asset properly, then derive every variation from it.
Render in passes with alpha so late notes are handled in comp.
Set up aspect-ratio variants at the start, not after the master is approved.
The takeaway
Every hour of pipeline setup on a multi-deliverable project buys back several hours in versioning.