Using Tangent’s New ‘Warp Engine’ To Accelerate DaVinci Resolve

October 22, 2024

Learn how to use the Tangent Warp Engine to map any control, on any Tangent panel, to DaVinci Resolve—including ColorSlice and HDR wheels.


This Insight is both an article and a video

This article has many details about Resolve’s native mapping capabilities and the expansion to Tangent control surfaces due to Tangent’s new “Warp Engine” interface-to-control-surface software mapper. It also explains the rationale for using the Warp Engine with Tangent panels instead of the Blackmagic Resolve-specific control surfaces. It also shows how I’ve started mapping my Tangent Elements to DaVinci Resolve 19.

For more details on the Tangent Elements, read Patrick’s unboxing Insight or his Getting Started Insight, which were written when these panels were in their heyday for DaVinci Resolve users.

About the embedded video

In addition to the article, there’s a 15-minute video showing how I’ve mapped a full set of Tangent Elements to Resolve 19. You’ll see the Warp Engine capabilities in action, controlling the HDR Wheels and the Resolve 19 Color Slice panels while I’m grading a shot – without ever touching a mouse. At the end, you’ll get a quick demo showing how simple it is to map a Tangent control surface using the Warp Engine app.

Is it time to dust off (or buy) your trusty Tangent Element control surfaces when working with DaVinci Resolve?

In this Insight I’m looking at a new software extension to the Tangent Hub, the Warp Engine. Here’s how Tangent explains it on their website:

The latest release of the Tangent Hub now has an updated Warp Engine with a record feature. So you no longer need to write scripts by hand. Warp Engine allows you to map any control, on any of your Tangent panels, to any application. This is done through assigning scripts to controls to emulate mouse clicks, drags, scrolls and keypresses.

How good is Resolve’s native mapping for the Tangent control surfaces?

Let’s begin this Insight by commenting on DaVinci Resolve’s current native mapping for the Tangent Element panels (their other, smaller panels are similarly mapped). These mappings date from Resolve 12’ish or so.

More importantly, Blackmagic hasn’t updated these mappings since they were originally created. According to staffers I inquired with at NAB 2024, BMD is unlikely to update them.

The list of supported control panels in DaVinci Resolve 19.
The list of supported control panels in DaVinci Resolve 19.

For this reason, none of the software enhancements released in the past decade are mapped in any other hardware than one of the BlackMagic panels, and this has been very frustrating for Tangent owners.

It could be argued that the wide adoption of Blackmagic control surfaces is partly due to the woefully out-of-date panel mappings for competing hardware control surfaces. With each new version of Resolve, those mappings become increasingly out-of-date.

The Color Page tools natively mapped to the Elements panel in Resolve 19

Here’s a mostly comprehensive list of Resolve’s native mapping for the standard 4-panel Tangent Element set. You’ll see it does cover most of the basic operations. However, when you start working with it, it’s oddly designed regarding how you get to most of its controls.

Primary wheel controls include:

  • Temp/Tint
  • Contrast
  • Pivot
  • Lum Mix
  • Saturation
  • Hue
  • Red, Green, and Blue Offset
  • Master Offset
  • Highlights/Shadows
  • Color Boost
  • Mid Detail

Now add Log wheels, with:

  • R, G, and B Offset
  • Master Offset
  • Contrast
  • Pivot
  • Saturation
  • Hue
  • Low/High Range

Input Sizing controls …

  • Pan
  • Tilt
  • Zoom
  • Rotate
  • Width
  • Height
  • Horizontal/Vertical Flip

And yes, we have Curves, Power Window, Blur, Version, Gallery, navigation, keyframing, and Node operations. Essentially, most functions in DaVinci Resolve v12 or earlier are mapped.

So, an Elements panel in Resolve, with ‘native’ BlackMagic mapping, can do quite a bit.

But all the cool new toys … um … TOOLS! … since v12 is NOT mapped – and probably won’t ever be.

What does the Tangent Warp Engine do for us?

The Tangent Warp Engine is a new software mapping tool that extends the Tangent Hub mapping software to new levels of customization. The Warp Engine allows users to create very simple and complex mappings in any software application – not just DaVinci Resolve. This is most often done by recording mouse and keyboard actions.

The Tangent Warp Engine Mapping Interface
The Tangent Warp Engine software lists Warp scripts I’ve already created.

If your mouse actions can be repeated – then the Warp Engine can record and playback those actions while assigning them to buttons, knobs, trackballs, and rings.

In addition to Tangent Elements, the Warp Engine works for the Wave 2 and Ripple panels as well.

Why haven’t I switched to a BlackMagic control surface in Resolve?

I’ve kept my Tangent Elements all these years because I constantly switch between Resolve and the Adobe “ecosystem.” On the Adobe side, I work with Premiere Pro, AfterEffects, Audition, and MediaEncoder. And I can map the Hades out of my Tangent Elements panel for all kinds of things in Adobe apps, not just color.

But the Resolve panel? Nothing. It’s just a doorstop when I’m working on Adobe products. So, I’ve opted to stick with the Tangent hardware.

What about other post production or VFX software?

Some of you may work in Nuke or … an entire array of alternate video or audio post applications. Using a control panel is also a huge benefit to your workflow.

If that’s you, this Insight applies. Because even if the Tangent Hub mapper doesn’t have the API calls available to map tools for your specific apps, you may be able to use the Warp Engine to create useful mappings.

Sidebar: What Warp Engine mapping do I use in Adobe Apps?

In Adobe apps, all Tangent panels are “Swiss Army Knife” tools. Because Adobe has a wide-ranging set of API “calls” that they share with any and all hardware makers. So, in Premiere Pro, the “native” Tangent Hub mapper can be set to use nearly any tool or function.

The Tangent panels are not “just a color panel” in Adobe apps.

Audio control and mixing? Yep! The knobs can be mapped for the Audio Track mixer. Volume/level, pan, and setting “touch” or read/write modes.

But knobs can also be used to set spin or rotation, size, and position! So, any screen item, whether it’s part of a graphic or even a clip itself, can be sized, rotated, and positioned. In graphics and basic editing, nearly everything you do in Premiere Pro can be mapped to a Tangent panel.

Another nitpick: BlackMagic panels ONLY work with specific Resolve pages

If we dig deeper, BlackMagic panels only work on specific pages in Resolve. They are craft-specific control surfaces.

The Advanced, Mini, and Micro panels are all beautiful-looking control surfaces. But they’re not much help on the Edit or Fairlight pages and useless on the Fusion page. And the Speed Editor, Editor Keyboard, and Replay Editor? Again, these are task-specific control panels that the end-user can’t customize for any other tasks.

If you’re a full-time Davinci Resolve colorist or editor, they make sense. But when new tools get added to the software, like Resolve 19’s Color Slice tool, even Blackmagic’s hardware panels struggle to fully support those features.

BUT – with Tangent’s new Warp Engine mapper, you can control Resolve 19’s new Color Slicer with far more dexterity on the Elements knobs panel than on any other hardware that Blackmagic builds (except for maybe the $29,000 Advanced Panel). Plus, if you want to revise the hardware mapping – you can do that with Tangent’s solution. Blackmagic offers no end-user customization of its hardware panels.

But wait, there’s one more Warp Engine thing: Macros!

There is something else about the Warp Engine mapper that gives even more added value … the ability to map macro-type actions to a button. Which is a feature I’m only now starting to explore.

After an Insight by Patrick a few years back, I got a Razer Orbweaver “button box.” I bought it primarily to create macros and use Auto Hotkey for some more complex command chains. But with the ability to create macros in Warp, will I be dumping my button box at some point? Maybe. I’m testing this out.

I know that for Joey, Robbie, Pat, and all you others running multiple Streamdecks, this might be a nearly blasphemous statement: But hey, if the Warp Engine allows me to keep my desktop uncluttered and within the Tangent Elements setup, then I’ll ditch those StreamDecks in a minute!  

What are the more interesting controls to add using the Warp Engine?

Personally, I’m absolutely in love with using the HDR Palette as my normal set of “wheels”, for SDR work. I love the granularity, the specific targeting of work, that is so easily available. And note that I don’t actually do any HDR for deliverables.

So far, I’ve mapped the HDR Palette to a mix of the wheels and the knobs. Along with mapping the Color Slice palette to multiple banks of the Knobs section. For both tools, this is really slick.

Did I mention mouse-emulation mode?

And since you can use the wheels of a Tangent panel in “mouse emulation mode,” you can even map mouse work to your panel! So you can do what I have done in Adobe apps: Set the panel to a Mouse emulation mode, with the left wheel being the “fast” moving mouse and the right wheel being the fine-control mouse. The reset buttons are left/right mouse buttons, and the ring is mouse scrolling.

This means, for example, you can create Curves with numerous added control points without ever leaving the panel. Without touching your mouse or pen! And you can map the knobs and buttons to be used to set the Curves option controls like YRGB values, the Soft Clip settings … again, without leaving the panel to touch a mouse.

Color Warper is another tool you could map for use, if you use Mouse Emulation on the Wheels. With knobs and buttons mapped to the Tools and Range settings.

And of course, Blur would be a natural to map to the Knobs section.

But… no Fairlight Audio or Fusion 😞

The Warp Engine really needs a setting box where you can change values by scrubbing sideways with a mouse. Or where a keyboard shortcut can be set to do something. So the Fairlight audio page and the Fusion graphics page simply don’t have enough scrubbable tools to be worth mapping to a panel.

So even as I complain that a Blackmagic control surface doesn’t work in Fairlight or Fusion – the Tangent panels with Warp Engine aren’t an upgrade in that regard.

What do my mappings look like?

You can look through the pics below and see the various groupings I’ve got at this time. These shots are of the Heads Up panels on the Elements. Everything you see is completely customizable and adjustable. You can set it to show a number or percentage change while you are working on a tool.

HDR Palette controls in the HDR Palette Mode – Bank A

Tangent Element Trackballs mapped for HDR Black, Dark, and Shadow controls
The ‘Shadow’ side of my three left-side HDR Palette wheels controls. Black, Dark, and Shadow. The top option in each set is the tonal ring, the bottom two are mapped to the trackballs.
The 'Light' color wheels of the HDR Palette in Resolve.
This is the ‘Highight’ side, which has the three lighter control sets: Light, Highlight, and Specular, mapped as above.

Now we go to the Knobs section when the panel is set to the HDR Palette Mode I created …and here I have multiple banks of knobs. So I’ll start with Bank 1 …

The top three across are:

  • The Global wheel’s tonal ‘ring’ value
  • HDR Contrast control
  • HDR Global saturation.

The second row down are:

  • HDR Black Offset
  • HDR Pivot
  • Mid Detail

Then I set the individual channels of the HDR for Saturation to the six lower knobs, matching the Wheels arrangement.

HDR Palette Bank 1 Knobs mapping in Resolve.
These are my Global HDR controls for contrast, saturation, black offset, pivot, and Mid Detail

Notice all the HDR controls I have without paging through the display, as I’d have to do on a Resolve Mini Panel. And I can choose which controls are most important to me and re-arrange accordingly.

HDR Palette controls in the HDR Palette Mode – Bank B

Now, simply tapping the B button at the bottom of the Knobs panel takes me to Bank 2 in my HDR Wheels mode, I get access to these controls:

HDR Temp, Tint, and Hue across the top, then HDR Black Offset, Pivot, and Mid detail.
HDR Temp, Tint, and Hue across the top, then HDR Black Offset, Pivot, and Mid detail.

My Color Slice mapping across three banks

I’ve assigned mostly the Knobs panel for Color Slice. In Color Slice, each color channel has four controls:

  • Center
  • Hue
  • Density
  • Saturation

I map each channel to one vertical grouping of four knobs, three color slices “wide”.

Color Slices on Bank 1 are set around Skin Tones:

  • Red Slice
  • Skin Slice
  • Yellow Slice
Color Slice Bank 1 Knobs mapping in Resolve.
Color Slice Bank 1 Knobs mapping in Resolve.

The Color Slices on Bank 2:

  • Green
  • Cyan
  • Blue
Bank 2 is set around Green, Cyan, and Blue
Bank 2 is set around Green, Cyan, and Blue

Color Slice bank 3 of the knobs panel fills out the Magenta and Global controls:

  • The Magenta channel is on the left
  • The global Color Slice controls fill out the rest of bank 3
  • Density
  • Density Depth
  • Saturation
  • Saturation Balance
  • Saturation Depth
  • Hue main control
Bank 3 is set around Magenta and global saturation/density controls
Bank 3 is set around Magenta and global saturation/density controls

Resolve navigation mappings: The Buttons panel

I did rebuild the standard navigation controls in the Warp Engine – mostly for convenience and quicker access.

Resolve navigation controls
Resolve navigation controls

As you can see, this allows the creation of serial and parallel nodes, jumping between them, enabling/disabling them, deleting them, and bypassing the grade. I need to add grabbing a still, but that’s easy to do.

I’ve got more mappings to add over time, but that’s where I am now. Again, it’s 100% customizable to how your brain thinks.

The Warp Engine mapping process

It’s quite easy to map the Warp Engine. Most of the time, you will do nothing but use the mouse to select and click on things on the Resolve screen and maybe do keyboard shortcuts. At the end of the video for this Insight, I demonstrate the basic mapping process.

External Links

I can’t seem to directly link to this page, so for further information, go to the TangentWave.co.uk website and navigate to:

  • the Support page
  • select the Elements panel
  • then Blackmagic Davinci Resolve
  • and then scroll down for the software download options

Tangent’s website has instructions including several tutorial videos showing how to work the mapping process.

Team Tangent mentions a few caveats …

On their Support page are these disclosures:

  • Not all controls in Resolve are mapped to the panels in the Warp Engine – For more details of what is mapped, please see the configuration and mapping documents.
  • Resolve on Linux only supports Blackmagic Design panels – Tangent is unable to provide a Linux version of the Tangent Hub.
  • Resolve requires the Element-Bt panel if you have the Element-Kb panel – The mapping of Resolve by Blackmagic uses the Element-Bt panel to select what the Element-Kb panel is controlling. If you do not have the Element-Bt panel you will not be able to use the Element-Kb.

More On Mixing Light

Questions or Comments? Are you using Tangent color surfaces?

Mixing Light Premium, All-Access, and Discover+ members: Are you using Tangent control surfaces with the Warp Engine? I’d love to see and hear how you’re mapping your panels. What’s working for you? What’s not? Let’s get a discussion going and learn from each other.

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