Resolve 11 Top 5 Creative Features

Not too long ago I wrote a blog posting covering what I thought the top 5 creative features in DaVinci Resolve 10 would be.  After having worked as a demo artist at NAB 2013 I had a pretty good idea as what to expect and how to implement these features into my everyday work.

Now, less than a year later, it’s time to cover the newest Black Magic Design release, Resolve 11.  To me, it’s crazy how quickly these releases are coming out.  One right after the other!  I have only been working in Resolve 10 for about 9 months and now it’s already time to learn Resolve 11.  Unfortunately, I was unable to attend NAB 2014 due to a scheduling conflict so I don’t have as good of an isight as I did last time, but I was lucky enough to work on a private beta release.

So without further ado, my top 5 creative features in Resolve 11…

1. QUALIFIER MATTE FINESSE

HSL

I’m a big fan of the qualifier tab in Resolve.  It’s an incredibly powerful tool.  Quite frankly, I feel it’s a little under appreciated  and people tend to gravitate towards the fancier tracking tab.  To me, tracking is a last resort.  I almost always try to key before I track (obviously the situation has to be pertinent to the correction at hand).  If there are any options that I can have the will tighten up the accuracy of my HSL key then I’m going to be one happy camper.

2. GROUPING OPTIONS

Group

This brings me back to the days of Apple Color.  In my opinion, it was a great program that hardly got any love.  In their default UI there were tabs that were for pre color and post color corrections.  Granted, it was for individual clips, but the idea is the same.  By utilizing this function while having grouped clips a lot of time is going to be saved.  No more copy and pasting, just group and grade!  Quicker grades = happier clients.

3. RENDER CAHCE

Cache

I’m lucky enough to work on a fully loaded Linux system so caching has never really been an issue for me.  However, from time to time I grade at home on my laptop.  It’s far from ideal, but it gets the job done in a pinch.  With processor intensive functions like OFX and noise reduction I’m sure I’m going to utilize this option frequently.

4. CLEANER UI

UI

The first thing that I noticed is that there are now 4 tabs along the bottom of the UI rather than the 5 that existed in 10.  No more gallery tab (it’s now accessible within the color tab).  Just little things that make my life easier go a long way.  The bypass icon, the split screen icon on top of the viewer, and shrinking the timeline will all help clean up the interface greatly.  Nice and neat, just how I like it.

5. DUAL SCREEN

Dual

This kind of goes hand in hand with the cleaner interface and I know people have been asking for this feature for quite some time.  Frankly, I can’t wait to utilize this option.  Desktop space is always at a premium and this will surely help open up some space and allow for more neatly organized projects.

I have only been working on Resolve 11 for about a month now, and have yet to utilize it in an actual client supervised session, but as of now, these are the things that I find myself gravitating towards.  I’m sure some of my opinions will change as I get more comfortable with the new software.  They generally do.

Side note…

The collaboration between editor and colorist is a very impressive feature that I can see being a game changer for rolling edits.  There is nothing more frustrating than coloring a “locked” edit, only to find out that is not really the case.  While I’m not quite sure I’ll utilize this function, I can see it’s allure.  It will be interesting to see how many people actually adapt this new feature in Resolve 11.  I’ll be curious to hear what everyone has to say.

2 Comments

  1. hamid

    Thanks a lot for sharing useful info
    but i always have a problem when i am working with Qualifier, i don’t think there is tutorial on internet about qualifier that i didn’t watch 🙂
    But whenever i try to use qualifier, its not important how much i tried to finesse the area, there is always bouncing pixels in some part, any suggestion ?

    Reply
    • Rob Bessette

      Qualifiers can be tricky. They all depend on what kind footage you’re working with and what you’re trying to accomplish. For the most part I have luck using the HSL qualifiers and narrowing down the selection with the built in adjustments. If I have to pull a very specific key (such as completely changing a hue) then I make sure to switch into the high contrast view mode. That really helps me see how good (or bad) my key is.

      Also, make sure that the node in which you’re pulling the key from is the most effective node for what you’re trying to accomplish.

      I almost always make sure to blur the key so I don’t see any chattering edges and the new features in Resolve 11 mentioned in this posting also help out a lot.

      Reply

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