Resolve Feature Requests

[jake blackstone]

Jake and Peter,

Thank you both for both The suggestion to use it (Jake) and the link for Baselight for Avid(Peter). I went through the interface and saw all of the controls and parameters and was like "WTF" this thing is great!!!.

I had added a few "Operators" on top of the default "operators".When I pressed "F6" and "F5" to go back an forth between two clips on my Avid Media composer timeline for grading, the "Operators" that I added for one clip weren't in the list of "operators" for the next clips. How can I use the same set of "Operators" (example "truelight","Video grade", "hue shift", "curve grade", "Sharpen", "Six vector"...etc.) for every clip without having to add them to every new clip. Still reading the user manual but will probably run across the answer eventually.

Add the operator, click on a gear, it will save that set as a standard preset and viola it's done...

 

[rand thompson]

Add the operator, click on a gear, it will save that set as a standard preset and viola it's done...

Thanks very much Jake!

 

[Marc Wielage]

BTW, Nucoda is cheaper, way cheaper than Linux Resolve, with all software and hardware included, so there goes your argument, that it's expensive.

Show me a detailed Nucoda price list.

I think, At most, I will use up to 10 nodes. Some will have up to 5 corrections and some only about 1 or 3 but on average I only use about 5 nodes. I'm still a "Newbie" to resolve and I need to work on my node usages and organizational skills.

Yes, this is one of those things that the manual only hints at. You can experiment with a lot of different approaches, but what's interesting is to look over the shoulder of very experienced colorists and get an idea as to different working philosophies. Everybody is different, but I've often been surprised by how many people hit upon a very similar idea at about the same time, particularly on things like number of nodes and the order of operations. I would not be surprised if MixingLight covers this at some point in the future, because I think it's a critical part of color correction that a lot of people don't think about enough.

I was going to see what it was about and its workflow differences between resolve and its basic color grading philosophy differences . I currently still wouldn't be able to afford anything near its price

I think all of the top color-correction programs out there have a mixture of good things and bad. None of them is 100% perfect. If I ever get a chance, I wanted to post some shots of the Resolve 8 manual from 2008, and it's pretty shocking how awful the program looked, and that doesn't even get a glimpse as to how slow and creaky the program worked. It's a rocket now compared to what it was.

If cost was no object, you can make some very good arguments for Baselight or Nucoda or Pablo or Lustre or a lot of different programs out there. Stuff like Lustre is incredibly powerful, particularly if you have an assistant station where a guy's doing conform tasks, and a Flame station where another guy is doing VFX fixes and clean-up for you. But I agree with you, Rand, that purely from a value point of view, Resolve makes the most sense for a lot of freelance colorists. It's not perfect for every task, but there are often workarounds to make it do damned near anything, including minor compositing and restoration tasks. When you add some plug-ins (like Boris or Sapphire), Resolve gets fairly powerful very quickly.

 

[rand thompson]

Show me a detailed Nucoda price list.


Yes, this is one of those things that the manual only hints at. You can experiment with a lot of different approaches, but what's interesting is to look over the shoulder of very experienced colorists and get an idea as to different working philosophies. Everybody is different, but I've often been surprised by how many people hit upon a very similar idea at about the same time, particularly on things like number of nodes and the order of operations. I would not be surprised if MixingLight covers this at some point in the future, because I think it's a critical part of color correction that a lot of people don't think about enough.


I think all of the top color-correction programs out there have a mixture of good things and bad. None of them is 100% perfect. If I ever get a chance, I wanted to post some shots of the Resolve 8 manual from 2008, and it's pretty shocking how awful the program looked, and that doesn't even get a glimpse as to how slow and creaky the program worked. It's a rocket now compared to what it was.

If cost was no object, you can make some very good arguments for Baselight or Nucoda or Pablo or Lustre or a lot of different programs out there. Stuff like Lustre is incredibly powerful, particularly if you have an assistant station where a guy's doing conform tasks, and a Flame station where another guy is doing VFX fixes and clean-up for you. But I agree with you, Rand, that purely from a value point of view, Resolve makes the most sense for a lot of freelance colorists. It's not perfect for every task, but there are often workarounds to make it do damned near anything, including minor compositing and restoration tasks. When you add some plug-ins (like Boris or Sapphire), Resolve gets fairly powerful very quickly.

Marc,

I'm trying now to get as proficient on Baselight for Avid as I am on Resolve. Like you've said there is no one perfect answer to grading. I'm finding that I like some features better in Baselight than I did in Resolve and I am missing some of the features from Resolve. I usually choose tools based on how they match my thinking process, how they go about doing certain tasks and how they go about solving problems. I think learning how to approach different problems with different tools and philosophies can only make you a better creative professional.

I've found that its best not to tie yourself to one way of doing things. Back a few years ago, when a buddy and myself were starting to learn the different compositing programs, we use to get into debates about which program was better Autodesk Combustion or Apple Shake. I was learning Combustion and he was really good with Shake now they are both gone. Now I love avid media composer, but I'm also getting familiar with adobe premiere, both of which I have a subscription to, and also learning to edit in resolve more.


To reach the level of color grading that I believe both you and Jake are currently in your carreers, will require me to adapt more professional organizational, preparational, and Philosophical skills.

 

[Dermot Shane]

Show me a detailed Nucoda price list.

the software is about7k, compared to Resolve the hardware requirments are much less GPU dependant, but need alot of fast disks

when i priced Resolve + color/transport +z820 + GPU's + disks + BCC, and compared it to Nucoda + z820 + GPU + disks + elements, they were not very far apart - Daylight with slate is in the same $ ballpark., on a otherwise pretty useless fleabay trashcan (wish it was ported to windoze), then amort that 15- 22k over 3 years... $400 ->$ 600/mo

Now build a room with monitoring, support computer, NAS, scopes, spare parts, cabeling, probe, cal software, chairs, sofa, lamps, UPS, expresso machine for another 30-35k or so, again amort that over 3 years... $800/mo

add in depreacation, rent, taxes, overhead, banking charges, paying yourself, maybe 10k/mo

ends up around the same number no matter if you ended up on the lower end of machine and software (Resolve/Color) or the higher end (Daylight/Slate), maybe a 5% diff in ROI needed after the dust settles..

In this case you would need to bill 11.2k/mo to have your cleints in a room with Resolve + Color -or- bill 11.4k/mo and have Daylight + Slate -or- Nucoda + Elements on offer...

 

[jake blackstone]

I have a bit different and simpler take on the subject of comparing prices for the two systems.
$6,7k for Nucoda software vs $30k for Linux Resolve with the panel (you need their panel with Linux resolve), about the same price for the computer hardware and about $4k for the Nucoda panel- Tangent Elements, which actually is a much better deal even if the panel prices were the same. Nucoda's implementation of Tangent Mapper blows Resolve's big panel out of the water and it can be used with whole bunch of other software, including Resolve So, I'd say a single Nucoda installation is way cheaper, around $19k less to be more precise, than Resolve Linux installation. Or to put it another way, you can have three Nucodas for the price of a single Linux Resolve And while at it, pray, that you know how to administer Linux, because otherwise, you'll need to budget for a very expensive engineer. And did I mention a need for a NAS? Yes, Linux Resolve is pretty much designed to be used with StoreNext NAS, which is VERY expensive. Getting stuff in and out of Linux Resolve is not that simple and requires some serious network and storage infrastructure. On the other hand, using Nucoda is not that much different from using Resolve on Windows, except it does write Prores
Anyway, you get the picture...

 

[Josh Wilkinson]

I would love the ability to export full resolution stills out without having to change projects settings.

Also A.D.D. out of resolve would be nice.

 

[Marc Wielage]

I would love the ability to export full resolution stills out without having to change projects settings. Also A.D.D. out of resolve would be nice.

ADD? Attention deficit disorder?

I have routinely exported full-res 5K/6K stills on some feature projects that wound up as poster art, so the quality held up very well. You can work in full rez while still monitoring in HD or 4K if you want. A lot depends on output settings and decoding settings. If you really wanted to, you could save a copy of any project and permanently change the resolution and use that as a still source... but I know of very few people that want to deal with still files that huge. Often, when a client asks for stills what they want is light-duty JPEGs at (at best) HD resolution.

I have a bit different and simpler take on the subject of comparing prices for the two systems. $6,7k for Nucoda software vs $30k for Linux Resolve with the panel (you need their panel with Linux resolve), about the same price for the computer hardware and about $4k for the Nucoda panel- Tangent Elements, which actually is a much better deal even if the panel prices were the same.

I would argue that if you're going to get Nucoda, you might as well get the full complement of Nucoda DVO plug-ins: Clarity, Grain, Sharpen, Aperture, Regrain, Alias, and Brickwall. What's the price for all of those? Again, they don't make it easy to see on their website. (Heck, I'd go all the way and install a Phoenix restoration system down the hall for shots that need some extra help.)

What's the cost of the Precision panels? I suspect if you got all the plug-ins, the Precision panels, and an 8xGPU system, it would be about the same as a similarly-equipped Resolve. I would honestly like to see an "out the door" line item budget breakdown for both systems. I have it on good authority from one of their competitors that this company doesn't like to be pinned down on published prices because of global market exchange rates, and -- particularly when you're spending north of $50K or $150K -- it does affect their profit margin.

It's interesting the number of post houses around LA that have multiple systems. Even eFilm has Lustre/Flame and Resolve; Fotokem has Resolve, Mistika, and Pablo (and their Keep Me Posted division is all Nucoda); Technicolor has Baselight and Lustre and Resolve; Encore has Baselight and Resolve; CO3 is Resolve but I think has a Mistika system for 3D jobs (and there's several 3D conversion firms I know of using Mistika). It's a tricky business deciding which platform to invest in, and I think you can make money on any of them assuming the sales and talent are there.

 

[Aaron michaels]

Did they fix the issue with RED ROCKET cards in 12.5??? I saw a post that it wouldn't work.

 

[Josh Wilkinson]

ADD? Attention deficit disorder?

I have routinely exported full-res 5K/6K stills on some feature projects that wound up as poster art, so the quality held up very well. You can work in full rez while still monitoring in HD or 4K if you want. A lot depends on output settings and decoding settings. If you really wanted to, you could save a copy of any project and permanently change the resolution and use that as a still source... but I know of very few people that want to deal with still files that huge. Often, when a client asks for stills what they want is light-duty JPEGs at (at best) HD resolution.


I would argue that if you're going to get Nucoda, you might as well get the full complement of Nucoda DVO plug-ins: Clarity, Grain, Sharpen, Aperture, Regrain, Alias, and Brickwall. What's the price for all of those? Again, they don't make it easy to see on their website. (Heck, I'd go all the way and install a Phoenix restoration system down the hall for shots that need some extra help.)

What's the cost of the Precision panels? I suspect if you got all the plug-ins, the Precision panels, and an 8xGPU system, it would be about the same as a similarly-equipped Resolve. I would honestly like to see an "out the door" line item budget breakdown for both systems. I have it on good authority from one of their competitors that this company doesn't like to be pinned down on published prices because of global market exchange rates, and -- particularly when you're spending north of $50K or $150K -- it does affect their profit margin.

It's interesting the number of post houses around LA that have multiple systems. Even eFilm has Lustre/Flame and Resolve; Fotokem has Resolve, Mistika, and Pablo (and their Keep Me Posted division is all Nucoda); Technicolor has Baselight and Lustre and Resolve; Encore has Baselight and Resolve; CO3 is Resolve but I think has a Mistika system for 3D jobs (and there's several 3D conversion firms I know of using Mistika). It's a tricky business deciding which platform to invest in, and I think you can make money on any of them assuming the sales and talent are there.

Advanced Dragon Debayer, its a setting you can export out of Redcine-X that greatly increases the details of still files.

Its not hard or complicated to get full rez out, its just a bunch of tedious extra steps. I get asked for full rez stills regularly for my fashion and music video work. That is often why I get hired over others.

 

[Peter Moretti]

MORE TIMECODE DISPLAY CHOICES

MORE TIMECODE DISPLAY CHOICES

More Timecode Display Choices

It would be nice to have the following timecode choices to display:

1. Source window clip duration.

2. Selected timeline clip duration.

3. Source timecode displaying and updating while playing the timeline. This is important for when investigating match frame edits/through edits and small jump cut edits. If I can see the source tc updating while playing/moving on the timeline I can see by how many frames the source tc jumps when I move across a cut on the sequence.

 

[jake blackstone]

ADD?
I would argue that if you're going to get Nucoda, you might as well get the full complement of Nucoda DVO plug-ins: Clarity, Grain, Sharpen, Aperture, Regrain, Alias, and Brickwall. What's the price for all of those? Again, they don't make it easy to see on their website. (Heck, I'd go all the way and install a Phoenix restoration system down the hall for shots that need some extra help.)

What's the cost of the Precision panels? I suspect if you got all the plug-ins, the Precision panels, and an 8xGPU system, it would be about the same as a similarly-equipped Resolve. I would honestly like to see an "out the door" line item budget breakdown for both systems. I have it on good authority from one of their competitors that this company doesn't like to be pinned down on published prices because of global market exchange rates, and -- particularly when you're spending north of $50K or $150K -- it does affect their profit margin.

It's interesting the number of post houses around LA that have multiple systems. Even eFilm has Lustre/Flame and Resolve; Fotokem has Resolve, Mistika, and Pablo (and their Keep Me Posted division is all Nucoda); Technicolor has Baselight and Lustre and Resolve; Encore has Baselight and Resolve; CO3 is Resolve but I think has a Mistika system for 3D jobs (and there's several 3D conversion firms I know of using Mistika). It's a tricky business deciding which platform to invest in, and I think you can make money on any of them assuming the sales and talent are there.

You can argue this until second coming, the fact is a standard Nucoda already comes with the basic DVO Classic package, that will blow the doors off equivalent Resolve tools any day. And that doesn't even address your point, that you might as well buy more DVOs... Well, then you might as well get a theater with it. After all, you'll be grading features on it, right. This constant drumbeat of erroneous information got to stop. Repeat after me Marc- you can run Nucoda beautifully without the additional DVO tools, you can run Linux Resolve without a panel and finally, that's a good one, that you just love to repeat, you don't need a specialized hardware to instal and run Linux Resolve. So, knock it off Marc, the fact of the matter, you can get three perfectly capable Nucodas with Tangent Elements for the price of one Linux Resolve. End of story...

 

[Marc Wielage]

More Timecode Display Choices It would be nice to have the following timecode choices to display:

1. Source window clip duration. 2. Selected timeline clip duration.

I'm in 100% agreement here, and this is all doable.

You can argue this until second coming, the fact is a standard Nucoda already comes with the basic DVO Classic package, that will blow the doors off equivalent Resolve tools any day. And that doesn't even address your point, that you might as well buy more DVOs...

I'd just like to see a price list from Digital Vision of what everything costs, to get an idea in my head of what a fully-loaded system will cost. I already know the numbers for Baselight and Resolve and Pablo.

When Nucoda had an LA office over on Lankershim about five years ago, a company I freelanced for asked them to install a test system for purchase in 30 days. They dropped it off, promised to help install it... and the company was never able to get it to work. Nucoda never answered any calls. It took three months for them to send somebody over to pick up the non-working equipment. The North Hollywood office closed. The post house moved on, got Resolve up and running in a couple of days, and immediately started doing billable work. I would assume that since Digital Vision reorganized 5-6 years ago, their new people provide much better sales and support.

I'll make it a point to ask Digital Vision for a full Nucoda price list if I can get away to NAB this year.

 

[ScottMcIntyre]

Wondering whether this will be called DaVinci Resolve 13? Or something different for superstition reasons.
On a serious note, the XML import dialog would be great with a 'flatten all multi-cam clip'. When importing a hour reality tv show that is all multi-cam you need to go through and select all multi-cam clip and flatten manually. If there a mix of regular clips and multi-cam the dialog box will be greyed out. The other pitfall when you do this is some of the clips shift by a frame when you flatten, so a difference overlay is required to ensure the frames don't shift.

The other feature that would be helpful for new HDR workflows, is an HDR option when a new project is created to specify HDR or SDR so it loads your SDR preset, or HDR preset from the project settings, and sets the first node to HDR by default.

 

[Peter Moretti]

ABILITY TO VERTICALLY RESIZE PANES ON COLOR PAGE

ABILITY TO VERTICALLY RESIZE PANES ON COLOR PAGE

Ability to Vertically Resize Panes on the Color Page

On the Media, Edit, and Deliver pages, there is a horizontal split that can be used to resize the relative vertical heights apportioned to the viewers vs the tools sections of the page.

But the Color page doesn't have this horizontal split which can be moved up and down.

Here's a YouTube vid:

https://youtu.be/LQmql1NTLg8

 

[Marc Wielage]

The other feature that would be helpful for new HDR workflows, is an HDR option when a new project is created to specify HDR or SDR so it loads your SDR preset, or HDR preset from the project settings, and sets the first node to HDR by default.

Some good suggestions, Scott.

In this case, I would create a dummy project as a template with HDR or SDR preconfigured, then when you bring in the timeline, do a global ripple in Node #1 and change it to HDR at the very start of the session.

 

[David Battistella]

This is more of a bug fix, but if you have a Compound clip in the timeline (of say a retimed shot) and you try to change the project settings from project to clip, it crashes the entire program.

David

 

[Patrick Tresch]

Collapse nodes : if you have 4 nodes (sometimes you want to switch on and off the nodes to see de diference) that don't act against each other (hue change, saturation, curve, secondary,...) and you want to simplify your tree it could be useful to collapse them in 1 node.
Add 1 : Copy 1 node and Paste it to multiple clips without replacing the existing nodes in the clips.
CTRL bar : on the UI a bar that contains all color grading events from your clip (Hue, sat, curve, mask,...) symbolised by an Icon that you can turn on off by clicking on it for previsualisation. Click right could open the control page of the grading event and node (shortcut to curve for example)

 

[Dermot Shane]

Marc;

What's the cost of the Precision panels? I suspect if you got all the plug-ins, the Precision panels, and an 8xGPU system, it would be about the same as a similarly-equipped Resolve.

Elements is pretty much the equlivent to the advanced panel in Resolve, only better as it can be mapped to suit one's style, Precision is not the step up from Elements that Advanced represents in Resolve.

Nucoda needs / uses one GPU, the basic plug-in's are included in the package

To get similar preformance (Rt denoise @ 4k) i admit you will need something like 8x Titans in Resolve, but one will do the job in Nucoda...

Nucoda needs fast disks, and leans on the CPU more than Resolve, so you put your resources where they are best utilsed, one great GPU, and dual CPU's, and a fast disk array

Resolve also needs BCC at a minimum to be even in the same city as Nucoda with DVO classic, much less the same ball park, and the plug-in's are not mapped to any panel under Resolve, so alot of mosueing, where DVO's are mapped to Elements

End game? Maybe give it another look once you buy your shinny new z840 in three months ;-)

Haveing both tools is a great answer for a working colorist, and then you can pick a tool for the best overall workflow.... make your clients happy and diffrentate yourself from a zilion colorists with Resolve on a garbage machine with computer monitor in their mom's basement

Cost of the software is not a deal breaker anyway if you have a reasonable return on your investments, and one machine with Elements can run both

 

[Dermot Shane]

Collapse nodes : if you have 4 nodes (sometimes you want to switch on and off the nodes to see de diference) that don't act against each other (hue change, saturation, curve, secondary,...) and you want to simplify your tree it could be useful to collapse them in 1 node.

there is a colapse/expand node option, unfortunalty it's not able to be grabbed by the copy command

Add 1 : Copy 1 node and Paste it to multiple clips without replacing the existing nodes in the clips.

if i understand you correctly, append node does this function....

I have copy maped to my artist transport sk5, and paste mapped to sk6, append node mapped to Shift + Sk6,

So for me it's pretty simple to copy a node (press sk5), select c-mode sort (Sk2) go to next clip (Tsk 7) select the needed clips (press sk1) + hold either shift (wacom sk3) for a range, or ctl (wacom sk2) for individual clips , press shift + Sk6 and the copied node is appended onto the end of each node's tree, press sk2 again to get back to A mode sort, all without moveing my hands from the controler

This is one more example of why it would be a good thing if the Advanced panel and Elements could gain what Artist Color /Transport has and be mappable , and one of many reasons why i'm vastly faster with Artist Color /Transport than i am with Advanced or Elements panels, only due to how flexiable the surface becomes when one can map macro's and kb shortcuts

an Icon that you can turn on off by clicking on it for previsualisation. Click right could open the control page of the grading event and node (shortcut to curve for example)

bypass by individuale operation in a stack or layer is something i like and use when working in Nucoda and Baselight... but the software has the control page open already in both of those to get to the bypass button anyway, and under Resolve i have ui menu's already mapped to Artst Color's sk, flick of a finger to see what i want already, Advanced and Elements offer the same functionality, only with a few more button pushes and reach across the surface to get there