How to Use Color Trace in DaVinci Resolve – Part 2
If you haven’t watched it yet, be sure to check out Part 1: Introduction to Color Trace in DaVinci Resolve. In that Insight I explain the basic workflow of Color Trace and offer up a use-case where this function may be helpful.
In this Insight, I want to take it a step further.
Here in Part 2 we’re going to use Color Trace to copy grades from a 90 minute indie feature to a 5 minute cut down of that timeline. The complication? The full-length feature exists on a completely different database than the 5-minute cutdown.
The problem?
Color Trace only works within a single database. It can’t copy timelines that exist on different databases. In this Insight, I show you the simple fix for this.
Plus, this Insight offers a slightly more complicated examination of using Automatic Color Trace – with many more shots to confuse DaVinci Resolve that require our manual intervention.
One thing to notice: the key to working with Color Trace are the thumbnails, as is completely obvious in Parts 1 and 2 of this series. You’ll want to have the footage for both timelines on-line and accessible to DaVinci Resolve so that it can draw the thumbnails. Otherwise, if you have a half-dozen empty thumbnails, all with nearly identical starting time codes – Color Trace becomes more trouble than it’s worth. Just an FYI.
In an upcoming Insight I’ll wrap up my exploration of Color Trace with a demonstration of how and why we might be forced into using Color Trace in Manual mode.
