DaVinci Resolve, how good?

[Scott Crawley]

I have become a student of color grading and my comment is directed toward those of you who are interested to do the same.

Don't wait to begin your journey because you have set your sights on an expensive software tool. Resolve may no longer be the tool of choice for all of the top flight talent, but it is plenty capable and you can get your hands on it for free.

Finding someone to teach you the job is difficult. Few schools if any offer it and mentors are like needles in a hey stack. The latter isn't likely to take you on if you don't already have some kind of experience so go get some. Grab a copy of Resolve and any books on grading and color theory you can find and work with them.

There is much you can discover by doing and you don't need a top end finishing suite for this.

Here is another thought for you. Interns and assistants are useful to a shop because they can do the grunt work. Conforming is grunt work. Jake has pointed out that he often uses Resolve for it's strengths in conforming. Need I say more?

 

[Marcus Friedlander]

Excellent points! The best way to learn is to start learning!

 

[Wayne Morellini]

We also should not think of Resolve as being inadequate to use, or such forth, because who knows how much better it will be by the time you finish becoming good at it.

 

[Wayne Morellini]

I can tell you that what I looked at doing in the 90's with high latitude, high bit depth filming, and in the 80's in 3D, means that in future you can grade the who scene in 3D, meaning you can change lighting at will, and change the scene itself. I have had the technology for this for years waiting for development.

 

[Peter Moretti]

circle back to the orignal q... is Davinci a decent career choice for all the things it does?
and is it any good at these tasks?

i would split it into gradeing, editing and finishing, and deal with those one at a time... all the following are IMHO, but i do have some been there, done that t-shirt's in the closet

Gradeing? if you can grade well in Resolve then it's a short hop to better tools like Baselight & Nucoda... it's somewhat limited to a video gradeing thought system, lift / gamma / gain and pretty much nutt'n much else.. but you can get alot done, and done very well with only those tools... if oyu are going to learn to grade it's probbaly worth learning on.

Editing? pretty basic, clunky and anoying, the fanboyz will cut art with it, no one real is cutting anything with it, it's a pig like experince, might be better off to learn Avid, Pp, FCX... i would not touch it with a 1,000 pole as it stands (v12.2) as an standalone editor

Finshing? oh my gwad... it so baaaaaadddddd..... like really.... amazingly bad... Flame, Smoke,DS, Pablo, Mystika are finishing tools, Resolve is so very (VERY) far away from being a finishing tool as of v12.2 as to be more a joke than a tool... on a budget turn to Pp + AE, or Avid + BLE + Fusion link, maybe Smoke.. all have good training and tutorials, and you are bettter off learning on something that's not a bag of trouble + workarounds + missing and just plain messedup tools

Not sure what "processing" is about.... any pro level tools can render files (unless you have Resolve on a trashcan, then you can't reander anything atall)

Biggest advantage is a shear volume of tutorials, paid training and the 1000+ page manual on offer.. by comparision the Baselight manual is about 100 pages and assumes you have a brain and know how to use it, the Resolve manual seems to assume you know nothing, and need to hear it three times over to grasp anything..... not a bad thing if you really are starting from zero.... and need to hear something three time before it starts to sink in....

Dermot,

Are you sure you're not talking about Symphony instead of Resolve, LOL!? I mean Resolve's grading tools are much more than lift, gamma, gain. And while DS had a very nice all-in-one-box feature set, its grading capabilities are way behind what Resolve offers. Avid + BLE is a pretty clunky solution.

 

[jake blackstone]

Avid + BLE is a pretty clunky solution.

Please explain

 

[Dermot Shane]

i've delivered tons out of Resolve in the last few years, 2 pilots, 2 series, 2 MoW's and 5 Theatrical Features in 2015 alone. and that's just what i did in Resolve, not counting Nucoda or Baselight, or the zillions of commericals i did in DS last year.

But most everything goes through DS for finishing in my suite

i did not suggest using BLE for gradeing BTW, only to look at it as a possiable finshing solution when combined with Fusionlink, clunky? that's being polite... but for a tweak or two to get something through QC. or match a last min VFX shot drop in.. it can work.... gradeing a whole show in BLE?.. not for me, i tried it once ;-)

Resolve's tools are pretty basic once you get beyond LLG, or entirely non-existant, or if existing then broken...spend 5 min in front of Baselight on it's default first page and see how many of those tools exist in Resolve....

So use it for it's strengths, and learn what makes a scene hold together, then maybe it's worth looking beyond it, or maybe not if you get through the day, everyone walks away happy and the cheque clears the bank....

it's good tools, just not the best, or second best or even third best in my eyes, but somedays it's the right tool for the job, and i use it well.. and for a beginer.. a great way to get started, time spent learning gradeing in Resolve is not wasted.. time learning finishing in Resolve on the other hand.....

all IMHO, you mieage may vary!

 

[Michael Dalton]

Begrudgingly*, I use it and like the new version.

Especially now that its one of the few existing programs on Mac that support 10-bit display output to thunderbolt monitors.
The new version is more stable (crashes much less) and it's more memory efficient (more OFX filters at once w/ same vidcard ram).
It also transcodes/renders R3D raw files blazingly much faster then redcine-x (single digit mins vs hours).

It's also only $500 now on the Apple App Store.



*I have a strong dislike and mistrust for anything with "black magic design" written on it.

Haha, clearly you don't remember the days when software and hardware had 5 zeroes on the end of every number. BM has done wonders for price! The fact we are editing, finishing and outputting 4k on 500$ programs is a miracle.

For al the gripping in here, I'm going to stand up behind this program,. It's exciting where it's going.

 

[Dermot Shane]

Please explain

Jake;

i really did try to grade a show in BLE directly, and not being able to easly see the scene play down was frustrating (the Canadian politeness police stop me from going further)

a far cry from LENS +BLE + Basellght, that's elegance personified... oh la la

 

[Marc Wielage]

As a professional colorist, what do you look for most in a grading program? I'm just starting to learn color grading so the free version of Resolve was the obvious choice for me. However, if I start getting more serious about grading, I will probably want to upgrade to a more serious system, right?

Many colorists have had to learn multiple systems over time, as one system fades in popularity and a new system pops up to take its place. At the moment, I would say that Resolve dominates the post business at well over 50%. My opinion is that each color correction system more or less does the same things, but some do it more efficiently or provide a few more bells & whistles. For just learning, Resolve is perfectly fine. As a career, get ready to learn new stuff -- particularly VFX systems and editing software -- so you can handle those when necessary.

If you haven't read it already, Alexis Van Hurkman's Color Correction Handbook is very good and covers a wide range of topics and not necessarily just Resolve (though Van Hurkman did also write the 1100-page Resolve manual). The basic concepts of all color correction software is the same; in general, it's the interface that changes the most. I would also put understanding the basics of photography and lighting very high on that list, just so that you can communicate with the DP and address their on-set challenges.

 

[Marcus Friedlander]

Many colorists have had to learn multiple systems over time, as one system fades in popularity and a new system pops up to take its place. At the moment, I would say that Resolve dominates the post business at well over 50%. My opinion is that each color correction system more or less does the same things, but some do it more efficiently or provide a few more bells & whistles. For just learning, Resolve is perfectly fine. As a career, get ready to learn new stuff -- particularly VFX systems and editing software -- so you can handle those when necessary.

If you haven't read it already, Alexis Van Hurkman's Color Correction Handbook is very good and covers a wide range of topics and not necessarily just Resolve (though Van Hurkman did also write the 1100-page Resolve manual). The basic concepts of all color correction software is the same; in general, it's the interface that changes the most. I would also put understanding the basics of photography and lighting very high on that list, just so that you can communicate with the DP and address their on-set challenges.

Thank you for the detailed explanation! I've glanced through Alexis Van Hurkman's book but I will go back and study it intensely! Thanks again!

 

[Peter Moretti]

Please explain

Last time I used BLE, you could not use a separate client monitor to display the result of the grade, there was no concept of source side color correction and spanning a correction across clips was wonky b/c it was done through Avid's archaic Effects Editor interface. Now the power to grade an individual clip was absolutely amazing. But the idea of grading an entire program with BLE in MC seemed like a real PITA.

 

[jake blackstone]

Last time I used BLE, you could not use a separate client monitor to display the result of the grade,

You need to go back and try it again. Client monitor functions beautifully- grading is live on client monitor and when you push play, it plays, just like a monitor on a standard color grading system.

there was no concept of source side color correction

I don't know what that is

 

[jake blackstone]

Jake;

i really did try to grade a show in BLE directly, and not being able to easly see the scene play down was frustrating (the Canadian politeness police stop me from going further)

a far cry from LENS +BLE + Basellght, that's elegance personified... oh la la

Clearly, if you can't play the scene, what's the point? BLE on FCP was the first attempt and it was a real PIA to use. But more recent BLE on Avid is quite a bit nicer from the performance point of view. BLE on Avid now utilizes GPU to assist the render, resulting in a smooth playback on a client monitor, provided you don't have many layers. But on a TV show, why would you? Since it's initial introduction, BLE had seen quite a few improvements- real time playback, seamless clip navigation, introduction of a lens concept to name a few. Yes, absence of a still store is a problem, although for episodic work having 10 memories on MC Transport is pretty good, but still it doesn't replace the proper still store. My understanding it's coming soon. BLE concept constantly evolving and improving. Filmlight is pretty good at improving user experience and practical use. Introduction of a free BLE plugin is a good example of progressive thinking. I have no doubt, with time BLE will only get better and more useful.
Said that, for episodic work I would prefer to use Daylight pre-conform concept, that is perfectly demonstrated by Josh Petok in this video.
https://vimeo.com/152250438
After that, if needed, you can still use BLE for a final tweak here and there or free BLE for a final review and render.

 

[Peter Moretti]

You need to go back and try it again. Client monitor functions beautifully- grading is live on client monitor and when you push play, it plays, just like a monitor on a standard color grading system.

I don't know what that is

Source side color correction is when you can apply the grade to the master clip itself, and can then choose to have that grade ripple through instances of the master clip in the timeline.

Thank you for the other observations. I'll try giving it another looksey.

 

[jake blackstone]

Source side color correction is when you can apply the grade to the master clip itself, and can then choose to have that grade ripple through instances of the master clip in the timeline.

Thank you for the other observations. I'll try giving it another looksey.

It would be helpful, if you used proper nomenclature, when describing what it it that you're looking for. The translation for your description of "source side color correction" is called Remote Grades in Resolve parlance. It can actually be a bit detrimental, if the user doesn't fully understand the concept of interconnected grades. In case with tracked windows, Remote grades can get really messy in a hurry. On the other hand, Filmlight uses a more modern and advanced concept of rippling the grades, which is called Multi-paste. It avoids all the pitfalls of Remote grades, while preserving the power, flexibility and speed to quickly ripple/copy grades to the rest of the timeline.
Do a looksey into that as well...

 

[Darko Gavrilovic]

Would someone be willing to give me a copy of an older version of the free Resolve, if they have it? I am looking to install it on an older Mac Pro w/12G ram.

 

[Matt Hoover]

I agree with the 2nd hand dongle purchase idea, I just purchased one on eBay for $200 and it works perfectly on my Mac Pro tower. Users with 2 or more BM cameras usually want to unload one or more.

 

[Matt Hoover]

Would someone be willing to give me a copy of an older version of the free Resolve, if they have it? I am looking to install it on an older Mac Pro w/12G ram.

You don't need (or want) an older version - the new one (12.2) works the best out of any in the 12 series. Many bugs are fixed and it's really stable on a 3.1 Mac Pro (24 GB RAM).

 

[Daniel Reed]

yup, but thanks for the heads for anyone who may not now

however, w/ a loupe probe tool, they can be calibrated better then 90% there

Thus great for smart indie, but definitely a no go for BIG MONEY productions

I'll caution you that computer displays are not grading monitors, and if it's not calibrated to a known standard, you're in for a world of hurt. Trying to use a non-color-managed output -- like a thunderbolt connector -- is not a good idea for judging color. It's fine for the GUI, but you don't need 10-bit for that.

Jake makes a good argument elsewhere that it's fairly easy to find the full version of Resolve with dongle for less than $500 on eBay. And that gets support, updates, Mac/Windows version, supports 3rd party panels, and so on.