Resolve 15 New Color Page Features

April 16, 2018

In this Insight, colorist Joey D'Anna, fresh off demoing Resolve 15 at the Blackmagic booth at NAB 2018, shares his thoughts on the top new features that benefit the dedicated colorist the most in Resolve 15.


DaVinci Resolve 15 Public Beta – Focusing On New Features For The Colorist

As I’m sure you all know already, last week was the annual NAB show, and Blackmagic Design announced a major new release of DaVinci Resolve – Version 15. The headline of this release was that BMD has fully integrated Fusion, their powerful node-based VFX, motion graphics and compositing application, into Resolve

I had the pleasure of spending the week in Las Vegas on the Blackmagic booth as a demo artist showing off this new release – and I left incredibly impressed. Even at this early public beta stage, Fusion works very well, and the way they have integrated it into Resolve is very slick.

Obviously, the potential for fusion is huge. Not just for colorists, but for editors, motion graphic artists, compositors, and especially any production working with teams that need to collaborate and want a more streamlined workflow.

Killer New Features for Colorists in Resolve 15 (that aren’t Fusion!)

While we are definitely going to be digging into Fusion a lot more in the future, this Insight isn’t about Fusion in specific, because this release isn’t only about Fusion. Resolve 15 also adds hundreds of new features across the software. Editing, color grading, and audio mixing all got a lot of love this release.

So, to kick off our series on Resolve 15, in this video Insight, I’m going to walk you through a few of my favorite new features for colorists.

Improved Node Graph Interaction

Resolve 15 has huge improvements making the node tree much more interactive and faster to use.

This is a case where I think Fusion has really rubbed off onto the color page in a great way. Resolve 15’s node graph has been majorly improved over previous versions and is now easier to navigate and use than ever. Connections can be dragged and dropped onto new nodes in a single move, and multiple selected nodes can be enabled/disabled at the same time. New indicators for keyframes provide a visual indication of what is animated at a glance, and blending modes now live preview. Altogether the node tree is a much more enjoyable experience in Resolve 15.

Gallery Enhancements

The stills viewer has gotten a new LUT gallery, featuring live previews of every LUT in your system. These live previews also carry over to the gallery and power grades, allowing you to preview any saved grade onto your current shot without clicking, or applying it. Also new is a “timelines” section of the gallery, which allows you to pull grades or nodes from any timeline in your project, or even any project in your database – without ever losing your place in the current timeline you are grading. These grade management features are ones I’m going to be using every day.

Shared Nodes

Shared nodes are a powerful new grouping tool, which can be used both on their own or in conjunction with the traditional grouping functionality to really speed up your grading.

Shared nodes are a fantastic new way of linking grades together. Like grouping, but more flexible – shared nodes can be used on their own or in conjunction with groups to make managing complex scenes and timelines way easier. You can have as many shared nodes in a project that you want, and use them anywhere you want. Whether you are isolating a group within a group for finer control, linking multiple groups together, or using shared nodes to link different shots easily – shared nodes can be a huge time saver.

Native IMF/DCP Support

Resolve Studio 15 now supports natively encoding and decoding DCP and IMF packages. Up until now, this was mainly the domain of expensive software or services.

This is a big one – Resolve Studio can now both playback and export unencrypted DCP and IMF packages without any additional software. Resolve handles the XYZ colorspace conversion, JPEG2000 encoding, and packaging. DCP and IMF have always been out of reach for some independent filmmakers and colorists, due to the high cost of software or services to create them. This simple cost-saving will be a game changer if you haven’t dug into DCP creation due to the price.

Closing Thoughts

I know I’ve sort of glossed-over the biggest headline in Resolve 15, and that is Fusion. Trust me, Fusion is a major enhancement, and the integration into Resolve has been handled in a very clever and powerful way. We will definitely be digging into that in further Insights.

The reason I wanted to start with something more colorist-specific, is that I want to get across my feeling that this release is way more than simply adding Fusion. Every page of the software – Media, Edit, Fusion, Color, and Fairlight – have all had major features added in Resolve 15. This is a major release for everyone, especially colorists, even if you may not be using Fusion immediately in your day to day work.

Questions or more to add the discussion? Please use the comments below.

-Joey


Comments

Homepage Forums Resolve 15 New Color Page Features

  • Revisiting and comparing green screen and rotoscoping in fusion may be nice. I know Dan did a series on it.


  • Jose Santos
    Member

    So hyped with this new update!!

    I’d love to get an overview on fusion: I think a fusion course would be awesome! Just like your other practice courses that are separate from the subscription!


  • Willian Aleman
    Guest

    Joey, thanks a lot for the detailed and insightful summary on the new color grading aspect of Davinci Resolve 15.

    I would like to see an in-depth insight on the workflow of IMF/DCP and the new Dolby HDR MCU software implementation in DR15.
    In addition, how to not only monitoring HDR and SDR simultaneously under DR15, but outputting HDR and SDR deliveries within the same Timeline, if possible.


  • Patrick Inhofer
    Guest

    We are working on that. Part of the question we’re asking ourselves: The final version of Fusion in Resolve 15.0 is likely to have significant differences in how it works compared to Fusion in Resolve 15.0b1… so when is the right time to step into it? My take, wait for at least one more Public Beta before delving into a stand-alone course.

    In the meantime, we’ll get a few Fusion Insights out to help you get started.


  • Patrick Inhofer
    Guest

    Thanks Greg. Definitely a topic we want to hit.


  • Patrick Inhofer
    Guest

    Willian – Oh, you KNOW we’ll be digging into this. We consider this to be one of the biggest features that didn’t make the headlines.


  • Willian Aleman
    Guest

    Patrick, thanks for your always prompt response. I agree. And the current 3D stereo “hack” version or workaround for simultanous HDR and SDR, documented know in Resolve Manual, it is not an elegant solution because it demands too many steps to accomplish these two tasks. I’m glad to hear that there are many others interested on the subject too.


  • Robbie Carman
    Guest

    I can’t share much at this point and keep in mind the development is not done yet. But I can share a few things:

    1. Software CMU is in the very very very early stages of development. Literally no aspect of it works yet – including mastering monitor selection, targets etc

    2. Hardware CMU obviously lets you monitor HDR and SDR as I’ve detailed in articles here on ML. How that will work in R15 to my knowledge has not be determined or if it has has not be implemented at all. I’d be surprised if it was implemented as the stereo hack.

    3. If you look at the hardware CMU what’s possible with it is due to multiple I/O cards being used (AJA Kona Cards). It might be possible to implement simultaneous HDR/SDR on a single BMD I/O device or it might require two – but again as far as I know that is not yet figured out or at least public.


  • Evan Anthony
    Member

    This is a great video! Thank you! Any info on a update to make the audio export of multi channels (+8) better? It has really been a pain. I would be great to have a “direct out” option like Avid does. in v14.3 it did get better but not when you need more then 8 tracks.


  • Evan Anthony
    Member

    Agree! And for us that are looking for a Fusion for Colorist type insight would be great. I would love to learn basic “clone” stuff to remove a static or moving object. Also Roto work would also be great.


  • Willian Aleman
    Guest

    Robbie, thanks for sharing with us aspects of the development and state of HDR in general and particular in DR15.

    Right on time for this conversation, ARRI just published their Part 5/5 of “ARRI Academy HDR Masterclass” on their Youtube channel. In this part, leading HDR/SDR technician: DIT, Daniele Siragusano, DI, Andres Minuth, senior colorist, Florian “Itsi” Martin and Cinematographer, Karl Walter Lindenlaub ASC, among others, seems to conclude that the best alternative for monitoring and color grading HDR and SDR is not to do it simultaneously.

    The solution to the dilemma seems to be to color grade for one format first and then the next, preferable starting with HDR. Then, it seems to be that asking to have SDR/HDR in DaVinci Resolve or any other application with the solo purpose of simultaneously grading in both formats would end up as an optional poor choice.

    Regarding Dolby: The issue with Dolby hardware and their famous proprietary license prices is that it demands the studio to have a clientele and amount of work to support the investment. This is a fact that I’m assuming the majority of the members and lurkers participating here can not afford nor justify. This is the reason why an alternative to Dolby system in the filmmaking industry has become a need, touching all levels of the production from preproduction to distribution.

    Being able to color grade and delivery from start to finish in both formats from the same timeline in Davinci Resolve as separate grade, (trimming) without having to use a second application for metadata entry, is a very welcomed and appreciated set feature to have. The future looks very promising.

    Link to Part 5/5 of “ARRI Academy HDR Masterclass
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxxB_yriFUw


  • Sherwin Lau
    Member

    Wow Joey, back from NAB and straight to another tutorial video? You are a hard-workin’ dude!

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