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Davinci Resolve 12 – Flippin’ Fantastic Again

Well. Blackmagic Design has done it again – Davinci Resolve 12 is awesome!!!  I’ve been working with it for about 2 months now and I love all the new features.  Here a quick example:
This week I worked with a long time client who used a new high speed camera from Fastec to shoot an art project.  They were capturing all the footage at 600 fps in DNG raw files and then aiming for a 24p output.  Since this method leaves all the footage in image sequence folders it sometimes makes it a little tricky to review the files and work with them.   
Enter Resolve 12…
Resolve has long been able to read image sequences as clips automatically and then pop them into the media pool as needed.  In this project I simply double clicked each clip folder to load the clip into the source view and then reviewed the clip.  When we found a take we liked I’d pull it from the source viewer into the media pool.  After we found the hero shots I was able to throw them on a timeline and start editing.  BTW this is all in Resolve 12… All in RAW dng – no conversions or proxies.
Once the timelines were built, I went into grading mode and did a little cleanup shot by shot.  The client needed the clips mainly as proof of concept at this point so H264’s were fine.  I simply went to the delivery page, chose 264 and entire sequence, added the job to the render Q and was on my way.
The client had done an After Effects session with the footage to look at it earlier in the week but found that difficult to keep a creative focus as there we many steps to get to the end product.  This was so fast, from ingest to output, he now has great confidence about the project moving forward. 
I think the folks at Blackmagic Design have done it again.  This is a terrific step forward for all departments in the video world.

***UPDATE***

So the day after I posted this blog they released Resolve 12.1
Here’s the official feature scoop:  

Remote rendering on DaVinci Resolve Studio
Support for native display color profiles on OS X
Preferences option to enable 10-bit precision on viewers on OS X 10.11 El Capitan
Ability to select clips when in blade mode
Support for faders on generators and titles
Ability to extend freeze frames from the start of the edit  
Ability to media manage selected clips on a timeline
Ability to perform negative timecode offset in clip attributes
Improved support for sub-clips from FCP7 XML
Improved rendering of audio transitions (cross-fades) and audio faders
Auto scroll during timeline item resize
Improved sorting in media storage and media pool
Support for smart bin filtering based on clip type
Ability to move clips and timelines from a smart bin view
Support for moving files to the trash instead of deleting them permanently when using the media manager on both Mac and Windows systems
Ability to delete multiple projects and folders in project manager
Ability to decompose a compound node
Ability to grade nested timelines  
Ability to filter clips based on whether they have keyframes
Ability to manually keyframe power windows in frame mode even without tracking
Ability to freeze the current frame on an external matte
User option to copy flags and markers when performing ColorTrace
Improved ACEScc support
Support for stereo decision list (SDL) v0.25
Support for RED SDK v6.0.4
Support for embedding timecode in audio output

 

Until next time, good shooting and editing and grading,
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Premiere Pro CC 2014 Possable Smooth Playback Solution

Cuda setting in premier pro
Hi All,

Happy holidays.  So I just updated my PPro to the lasted version as I saw a news blast they had released an update this week to build 8.2.0.  I tried an earlier v8.1 pre build 65 version and it had really bad playback – very choppy.  All excited, I launched the new version… and……. CRAP!!!!!  same thing.  However, I did catch something that I maybe didn’t see before:  Once you have updated to the latest version it appears the playback engine defaults to OpenCL instead of CUDA for accelerated playback and rendering.

I created a new project and switched the settings at startup and voila… the new project was playing back perfectly.  I then closed that new project and re-opened my older project that was stuttering and now it was playing back nicely too.  

I also did a quick export with matching sequence settings and it went about 3x speed.  Conversion to H264 was pretty slow taking roughly 16 minutes for a 2 minute piece.  1920 x 1080 30p  5D/GoPro mixed footage.


Well, I hope this helps a little.  I was searching for a while for this and got close but never saw anything about the playback engine.  I did the rollback to 8.0.1 once last time but now I’ll stick with the newest version as it seems to be working =)

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays,

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Blackmagic Design Announces DaVinci Resolve 10.1

Fremont, CA – January 17, 2014 – Blackmagic Design today announced the release of DaVinci Resolve 10.1 software which adds new editing and 3D stereoscopic features as well as support for Final Cut Pro™ X 10.1. DaVinci Resolve 10.1 is available now for download free of charge for all existing DaVinci Resolve customers from the Blackmagic Design website.
The new DaVinci Resolve 10.1 update adds innovative editing features that includes allowing users to preview and align multiple camera takes while editing, so they can quickly switch between takes to show their clients shot options live from the timeline. Editors can now copy individual clips in the editing timeline with a simple drag and drop, making it easier to use the same footage in different parts of the edit.
The enhanced editing tools also include support for trimming frame based clips such as DNG and DPX that reduces time in transferring clips for even faster workflows, as well as Rich Text title support which allows every character’s size, position and color to be adjusted individually directly from the Edit page.
Also featured in DaVinci Resolve 10.1 are XML import enhancements for both FCP X 10.1 and FCP 7 customers. Compound clips from FCP X 10.1 with separate A/V elements are now split into individual clips and imported FCP 7 XML’s include font properties and timeline markers as well as being able to bring across sizing, cropping and composition parameters. Now shot reframing adjustments made during Final Cut Pro editing will translate even more accurately into the DaVinci Resolve timeline.
Customers with the full software license of DaVinci Resolve will get enhanced 3D stereoscopic tools including a full stereoscopic multi track editing timeline, enhanced convergence adjustments and automatic alignment.
“We are really excited to be adding even more advanced editing features so quickly after the release of DaVinci Resolve 10,” said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design. “Resolve 10 has been a massive update with over 50 new features including temporal processing, Open FX Plug-ins and powerful onset tools. The additional editing tools we are releasing today give customers more precise control over their projects from within the DaVinci Resolve timeline and improves integration with popular editing and visual effects software so that customers get the best workflow possible.”
Until next time, Good grading
TDTrey
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New DaVinci Resolve 10

So I downloaded the Lite version this week and started working with it on my grading tower.  So far very nice.  I’ll have more to report in a week or two but I wanted to put up a copy of the press release for your review asap. Enjoy =)

Fremont, CA – November 7, 2013 – Blackmagic Design today announced the release of DaVinci Resolve 10, available now for download free of charge for all existing DaVinci Resolve customers. DaVinci Resolve 10 is a major upgrade that includes innovative on set tools, new editing features, support for OpenFX plug-ins and more.  Also available for download is the free DaVinci Resolve Lite edition for both Mac OS X and Windows. DaVinci Resolve Lite now includes the addition of Ultra HD resolutions and additional GPU support. 

DaVinci Resolve 10 has been developed to simplify the integration of different software tools used in the film and television industry, allowing timelines to be moved into and out of DaVinci Resolve and other edit software such as Final Cut Pro, Avid and Premiere Pro.
As workflows have changed, more post production is now started on set during the shoot. Lighting and other aspects of the shoot are also often verified based on color correction checks and DaVinci Resolve 10 has new powerful tools to manage this process. The new Resolve Live feature allows color grading direct from the video input live with full creative power such as primaries, secondaries, power windows, custom curves and more. Grades can be stored and then relinked when the camera files are loaded.

DaVinci Resolve 10 includes enhanced editing features and allows online finishing of edits performed in other popular editing software. This means multiple users can submit scenes in large complex jobs from the applications they prefer to use, and DaVinci Resolve 10 can finish online from the original camera RAW files for dramatically better quality than would be available when finishing in a standard NLE software package. If any scene needs additional editing, it can be moved back to the NLE software letting editors use the tools they love.

New editing features include full multi track editing with 16 channels of audio per clip and unlimited video and audio tracks in the timeline. Audio can be synced or trimmed and dragged independently to the timeline. Other new editing features include extensive ripple, roll, slide and slip clip trimming support which display dynamically on the timeline and viewer. The viewer also allows split screen display to show in and out points of adjacent clips.

A good example of the online editing process is when an edit has been completed in Final Cut Pro X that includes mixed frame rates, mixed media types, multiple audio tracks and even color corrections. DaVinci Resolve 10 will support import of that project via XML and will online it including full translation of all these elements while rendering the master from the original RAW camera files. This means that Final Cut Pro X editors can use DaVinci Resolve 10 as the tool to online their work for cinema release and generate the Digital Cinema Package file directly from the camera RAW files.

Editing in DaVinci Resolve 10 also includes a powerful title tool with static, lower third, scroll and crawl titles with multiple fonts, size, drop shadow and XY positioning. Timelines in DaVinci Resolve 10 also include the support of compound clips with multiple elements including multiple video and audio tracks. Also, DaVinci Resolve 10 can be used for stereoscopic 3D projects with full support for left and right eye clips in the media pool and the edit timeline. Using timecode and reel name, DaVinci Resolve 10 will automatically associate the left and right eye of the stereoscopic clips.

Color correction features have been upgraded in DaVinci Resolve 10, including support for industry standard OpenFX plug ins with an unlimited number of plug ins per clip. There are now unlimited power windows per corrector node and the new Gradient PowerWindow™ lets colorists quickly add a gradient across the image. Other new color correction features include copy and paste of tracking data, motion effects including spatial and temporal noise reduction and motion blur effects.

For project delivery, DaVinci Resolve 10 includes full audio track visibility in the deliver window timeline as well as EasyDCP integration so users can render directly from their project timeline into a Digital Cinema Package for release to theaters. Because DaVinci Resolve 10 allows rendering from the camera RAW file directly to the Digital Cinema Package files in the highest quality 32 bit float, there is simply no better quality possible for a cinema release master. Customers simply need to purchase a license from EasyDCP to enable this feature.

DaVinci Resolve 10 also supports additional media types and continues to be the industry leader in file based workflows because it operates with virtually all video file types available. New formats include JPEG 2000 decoding and encoding, AVI clip decoding, playback and more.
“We’re extremely excited to be releasing DaVinci Resolve 10 today, which has been a massive update with the addition of new editing, temporal processing, OpenFX plug-ins and powerful onset tools,” said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design. “We have received incredibly positive feedback on this new release and some of the worlds leading post production facilities are now editing major work on DaVinci Resolve 10. With over 50 new features in DaVinci Resolve 10, this is the most exciting update in the entire 30 year history of DaVinci.”

About DaVinci Resolve

Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve is the world’s highest performance on set, editing and color correction solution for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux computers. DaVinci Resolve supports more real time color correction than any other system because it’s not limited by the performance of the computer it’s running on. DaVinci Resolve eliminates this performance barrier because it’s based on a cluster of high performance GPU cards, so all processing is always real time. DaVinci Resolve has the power of a true real time performance solution so handles complex color grades even when using dozens of primaries, secondaries, Power Windows™, multi point tracking, blurs, and more. DaVinci Resolve provides incredible performance in a low cost solution which can be easily upgraded by adding extra GPUs for supercomputer power to handle 4K resolutions, stereoscopic 3D and real time grading direct from raw camera files such as ARRI RAW, RED RAW and Sony RAW files which can be handled with ease.

Availability and Price

DaVinci Resolve 10 is available now for download from the Blackmagic Design web site free of charge for all DaVinci Resolve customers.

Until next time, Good shooting

TDTrey

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Blackmagic Design and Mavericks update

I was just notified by BMD that they have updates that now support Mavericks OS X 10.9:

  • The new updates include OS X Mavericks compatibility and interface enhancements for the new operating system and are immediately available for DeckLink, UltraStudio and Intensity Desktop Video products.
  • Customers can now download the Blackmagic Design software updates free of charge from the Blackmagic Design website.

    -Blackmagic Design

If you have been reading any of my recent posts regarding the saga of OS 10.8.5 and the never ending grey screen then you know I am very happy to hear I can move up to Mavericks and still continue using my BMD cards and software.

Please visit their web site to read the full press announcement from earlier this week.

Thanks for stopping by.

Until next time, Good shooting

TDTrey

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Update on Mavericks vs Mountain Lion 10.8.5

UPDATE:  I did the full download and re-install option from the recovery options when you boot in command+R.  It took a little less time than an hour total.

I’m letting my system come all the way up for about 15 minutes and then will try a restart after I back up a few things from today’s project.  The question is still there… Do I want to go to Mavericks as I have already done the big change from 10.6.8 or do I wait until a few weeks have passed and the tree has been shaken a little.  Time will tell I guess =)

Thanks for stopping by.

Until next time – Good shooting

TDTrey

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Mavericks update vs Mountain Lion 10.8.5

Well it looks like we have a new OSX.  And Apple has left the “big cat” naming convention behind…  Ironically I just gave them $20 for the last Mountain Lion version 10.8.5.  I slurped the Cool-aid last week and joined the Adode family with the Creative Cloud solution.  I’m a little ticked that the sales person said “sure, you can run CC in 10.6.8”  and you can – as long as you don’t work in the video or audio business…  So off to the app store I went and upgrade I did.  And, everything was going swimmingly until about an hour ago when I restarted and was met with a big grey screen on all my monitors.  The lovely shade of grey (just one) seem to permanently stick there forever.  

  • I gave it a few minutes and then powered off.  
  • Restart. 
  • Restart….
  • Shutdown….
  • Restart with P+R+command+option – no luck.  
  • Now Restart with command+R and go for a recovery…

I’m now in the last 20 minutes of reloading a whole new OS from the recovery options.  I’m hopeful…  If no joy I have a full back up I did last week and won’t really loose anything important.  I’ll just have to bump back down to 10.6.8 and then find a copy of 10.8.4 or jump to Mavericks…

So I’m open to thoughts and suggestions here.  I’m running most of the usual suspects from Adobe: Ps, Pr, Ae, Au, Ame.  I have been told by someone who was using the developers version of Mavericks that it’s awesome with CC. I have also had the last hour to read on blogs that people are having problems with their CS6 and Mavericks.  So I don’t know if I want to make the leap just yet…

I did have the Adobe Applications Manager auto update this morning on the CPU in question… so maybe that has something to do with it???

Anyway.  Just thought I would put this up as I have a little time to kill (5 minutes remaining)

Hope you all are doing well out there and having a great day.

Until next time – Good Shooting (and editing or at least computing)

TDTrey

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Blackmagic Design has big announcements from IBC

Some really cool stuff coming from Blackmagic Design at this year’s IBC.  Looks like the new Beta 10 version of DaVinci Resolve is now available for download at Blackmagic Design Support.  This is the all new version that was originally announced at NAB earlier this year.  Some of the cool new features are:
  • Resolve Live-live grading of the incoming video signal from the camera
  • Enhanced editing features
  • Multitrack editing with support for up to 16 tracks of audio per clip
  • Expanded support for more NLE’s via XML and EDL
  • Support for OpenFX plugins
  • Support for mixed frame rates and media types
  • Fantastic updated to limiting, qualifiers and power windows
  • Outstanding workflow features for window burns, file naming overlay and audio syncing of secondary tracks to picture
  • and much more
Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design was quoted saying:

 “We are extremely excited to have this public beta of DaVinci Resolve 10 ready for download from the Blackmagic Design web site,” said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design. “This is an important update for all DaVinci Resolve customers and dramatically boosts the ease of workflow in the television industry. This new public beta is available for high end DaVinci Resolve systems as well as the exciting free of charge DaVinci Resolve Lite edition which now includes support for UHD timelines and rendering. This is an exciting moment for DaVinci Resolve because its the biggest update to a DaVinci product line in 30 years!”

Another cool announcement was regarding the new Desktop Video version 10.  With the onset of 4K coming faster and faster BMD felt it was time to completely revamp the Desktop Video architecture from the ground up. Aimed at helping the UltraStudio 4K and the DeckLink 4 products, this upgrade will make the ever changing job of managing signals around the edit bay, design center, paint and color correction rooms a breeze.

Please check out all the new goodies at BlackmagicDesign.com

Until next time, Good Shooting
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ATOMOS Samurai Blade

So, the afternoon that the Samurai Blade was first in stock at B&H, I ordered it.  I had been waiting a while for it to be available and was happy it was finally on it’s way.
At CineGear I was able to check out quite a few recorders including the Atomos Samurai Blade and the Convergent Design Odyssey 7.  Both are excellent recorders.  Both have terrific feature sets.  Both are priced at $1295 USD. 
I went with the Blade.
      • It’s 5.5″ screen makes it a nice tiny recorder to hang on any rig.
      • It has a non proprietary storage media solution. (the Odyssey uses Convergent Design’s own SSDs to ensure compatibility with the recorder)
      • With the Blade, you can use SSDs or spinning 2.5″ hard drives right from your local computer store (as long as they meet the specs required by Atomos)  The fact that you can use spinning drives is one of the main reasons I went with the blade.  I can use a 500 gig laptop drive for tripod shoots and it will only cost me $60 or so and yields almost 5 hours of ProRes HQ.  For “run and gun” I’ll probably want to use SSDs because of the risk of shock to the drives.
      • I can run all day on a couple Sony NP-F970 batteries.
      • The Blade works well with both my EX3’s SDI out and my 5D3’s HDMI out.  For the HDMI from the Canon 5D3 I use the Atomos H2S converter.  It converts HDMI to HD-SDI and does 3:2 pulldown removal in real time.
      • The focus assist features work like my Zacuto EVF and SmallHD AC7 monitor.  I can see the focal plan coming my way as I roll through focus.
      • The waveform feature is very handy and pretty much a necessity these days on DSLR shoots.
        One of the other things I’ve been waiting for in a recorder is the ability to delay the audio coming into the recorder to compensate for the 5 frame LAG the Canon 5D3 has on it’s clean HDMI output.  When feeding the recorder audio directly you’ll end up with your picture behind your audio 5 frames.  Those clips will then need to be slipped back into sync on the timeline during editing.  However, (this was great) I wrote Atomos about the LAG and asked if there was anything in the works at Atomos to help.  The next day (at 3:02 am) Tech support sent me an e-mail saying they had released a new firmware update that morning and added an audio delay function and way better audio meters.  I was stoked as those were really the last 2 minor things that disappointed me about the Blade.

        The Convergent Design Odyssey 7 and 7Q look like excellent recorders as well.  At the time I needed my recorder the Odyssey units weren’t shipping and did not yet offer ProRes.  They are projected to ship a little later this year.  The 7Q will be able to do up to 4K resolutions  and also record in camera raw formats.
        All in all I think the Atomos Samurai Blade is a great choice for a flexible external field recorder and one that I will be able to use for some time to come.  As we all move ever closer to the 4K world new technology is going to keep sneaking up on us.  But for now HD recorders are a great way to go.

        Until next time – Good shooting

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        Adobe CS6 Production Suite and The Animated Fairytale

        Well, we just finished recording the narration for our new animated short – working title: “The Birthday Princess”.  It’s a cute story about a princess and her mother, the queen.  The princess learns many life lessons during one wonderful afternoon.

        We recorded at Stewart Sound in Santa Ana, California using ProTools as our DAW.  All the files are in straight AIFF.  Dave Myslek, “Wookie”, our engineer was awesome!!!  From there we will move almost completely into the Adobe Production Premium CS6 suite. We are editing the dialog in Adobe Audition for the rough cut.  We’ll also use Audition for the final sound design and mix out at the end of the project.  In the middle we will use a combination of Premiere Pro 6 and After Effects to bring the animation to life.
        Once the dialog is roughed in we will be giving it to our animators.  We’ll continue the sound design during the animation process and give them the final audio locked dialog + M&E tracks in the home stretch for fine tuning.  We’ll then use Premiere to do the final video edit and layback of the mix.  Output will be done with Adobe Media Encoder.
        We are using Smart Sound to create the music. Their product, Sonic Fire, is a fantastic tool to create an “almost” original score.  If you haven’t checked this software out yet, I highly recommend it.  You can create very original sounding pieces of music from their library and tailor the cues to meet and match your project.  Add hits, mood changes and even variations in side of one long piece of music.  We pulled our temp tracks while we were editing the narration selects – Very Cool.
        This is one of the new projects we are starting for 2013 at Polydactyl Pictures.  We hope to have good luck with it at the festivals.  It will also allow us to build “the machine” a little more before jumping into some of the larger projects we have on the horizon.

        I realized this piece sounds a lot like a sales pitch for many of the software companies – but I really just want to show a step by step of the process.  I want indie filmmakers have yet another road map to follow showing different kinds of projects and their workflows.  Indies (including ourselves) need to have resources at our fingertips to help keep us creative and forward thinking =)

        Stay tuned.  I’ll be posting our progress on “The Birthday Princess” as we go.  When we find out something cool (or problematic) I’ll give you an update and suggestions.

        Until next time, good shooting, editing, animating, mixing….