seperate forum for newbies?

i can understand the comment('s) made in some posts regarding the influx of us newbies, be it from vegas, or other prosumer nle's, into a well established and seriously professional colour grading forum. however, since our conversion has been more or less down to bm not only developing resolve into a fully blown editor as well as grader, and the fact that they are giving it away for free, it should come as no surprise to those 'complaining'...

it reminds me of those old pubs back in london in the 70/80's that suddenly changed their decor and attracted a different 'class' of customer. yes, there were some rowdy types who seriously upset everyone, some wankers who seemed to think the world revolved around them and upset the old patrons, but the vast majority of newcomers simply enjoyed the new environment and went on to become regulars.

i can certainly see that serious graders need a place to exchange professional views and tips, and that some of our naive questions might seem rather childish, but i'm sure i speak for many of us in that we want to learn how to use resolve in a professional manner.

if bm decide to split this forum into grader / editor or some such separation i could certainly understand it, but personally i would miss many of the old patrons throwing in their knowledge and help, and of eavesdropping on their exchanges in the hope of learning indirectly from them.

so, for those of you who feel put out by our arrival, please bear in mind we have to start somewhere, and at least many of us are already professionals albeit at a lower / different level and hopefully will do our best to come up to speed asap

Well said, Leslie

Piotr

please bear in mind we have to start somewhere,

Was wondering what I missed...

There are other websites that have split the discussion, but the headings are ignored anyway.

Reminds me of a graphics & animation class I audited a few years ago... with a mix of experienced students, some of whom groaned (literally) at us "non-coders." The professor scrawled some Latin on the chalkboard to wit, Let those who don't know, learn, and those who do, reminisce. Wish I could find that translation.

I am going to put down "Discendo Discimus." (Ignore the length of my beard) and no, that's not what it means.

If I have learned anything at all over the years, it does take some experience to sort out what is truly fundamental. And I don't mean merely basic.

jPo, CSI

I don't mind Newby questions, what I mind is:

" I want an answer now, I want it to solve my problem that is the most important in the universe, and I don't need to do any homework because I know everything and you're are only trained monkeys that are at my services"

Have I ever sounded like that, Walter?

If I did, I never meant to - sorry. And I'm constantly doing my homework very diligently. And in another thread, I mentioned you as one of those several experienced people here who are always helpful. Thanks.

Piotr

" I want an answer now, I want it to solve my problem that is the most important in the universe, and I don't need to do any homework because I know everything and you're are only trained monkeys that are at my services"

you're the man i'm looking for

Have I ever sounded like that, Walter?

If I did, I never meant to - sorry. And I'm constantly doing my homework very diligently. And in another thread, I mentioned you as one of those several experienced people here who are always helpful. Thanks.

Piotr

not really, occasionally you jump to your own conclusions and it is difficult to troubleshoot an issue

" I want an answer now, I want it to solve my problem that is the most important in the universe, and I don't need to do any homework because I know everything and you're are only trained monkeys that are at my services"

you're the man i'm looking for

I'm on it!

I am going to put down "Discendo Discimus."

I'm almost positive that was a killing curse from the Harry Potter books.

To the O.P.: Peter Chamberlain has a pinned message that advises all newcomers to first read the last few months of messages before posting a new message, and do a search to make sure this is a question that hasn't been asked before. (That's a pretty good general rule for all discussion forums on the net.)

It's amazing how often three things come up:

1) somebody is having performance problems with H.264 footage (and the solution is to transcode it to a less-compressed format)

2) some has a laptop or self-contained computer with performance problems, and generally the cause lies in inadequate GPUs, which are specified in BMD's published configuration specifications

3) or somebody has a problem trying to figure out a certain mode or control, which can be solved by reading the manual or going through tutorials.

If it's outside #1, #2, or #3, I get the need to ask questions -- particularly if something is failing, or they don't know how to accomplish a certain effect. Nobody here knows everything (especially me), and as the great Will Rogers once said, "everybody is ignorant... only on different subjects."

Didn't they try splitting the Resolve forum on Creative Cow into a newbie section and it didn't work?

I am going to put down "Discendo Discimus." (Ignore the length of my beard) and no, that's not what it means.

It's funny that Wikipedia would literally translate this name of the oldest Dutch chess club as "Through learning we learn" - what would be a much better translation for the sake of this thread is "Through teaching we learn".

Piotr

... since our conversion has been more or less down to bm not only developing resolve into a fully blown editor as well as grader, and the fact that they are giving it away for free, it should come as no surprise to those 'complaining'...

It's no surprise at all. I just think it is becoming difficult to help people and I thought it may be useful to have more appropriate forum headings so people could get faster and more relevant answers.

However I do find it amusing that the less 'pro' users may think that 'pro's' are put out by newbies. I have NO issues with new users posting however they want to post. I'm just seeing the same issues being posted over and over because it's hard to find older topics when the number of posts pushes them down the topic list. In this "Information Age" I think smart organising of information is important.

I think both groups of users would benefit.

i think that RTFM should be a prerequisite to any posting - but in my (original) case - importing stills with consecutive numbers not showing individually but as an animation - the manual was very vague. and yes, the same question / problem has been asked numerous times since so after RTFM the next port of call should be search....

... since our conversion has been more or less down to bm not only developing resolve into a fully blown editor as well as grader, and the fact that they are giving it away for free, it should come as no surprise to those 'complaining'...

It's no surprise at all. I just think it is becoming difficult to help people and I thought it may be useful to have more appropriate forum headings so people could get faster and more relevant answers.

However I do find it amusing that the less 'pro' users may think that 'pro's' are put out by newbies. I have NO issues with new users posting however they want to post. I'm just seeing the same issues being posted over and over because it's hard to find older topics when the number of posts pushes them down the topic list. In this "Information Age" I think smart organising of information is important.

I think both groups of users would benefit.

To better find the information (and avoid duplicates): Perhaps the webmaster could add at the bottom of the page hypertext links "Related topics" of the current thread ?

Just to make clear: I like very much helping newcomers with their issues, no matter how simple they are.

But I agree that a certain optimization could be achieved with simple actions which would benefit everyone.

Two suggestions:

1 - a sticky topic excplicitly aimed at newbies recomending to not to use the forum as a replacement for the manual and suggesting searching the forum before posting to check if the question was not already answered. Or at least to maintain similar questions together.

2 - BM could add tags to the topic in order to gather posts with similar subjects. Steakunderwater has just implemented this functionality and I think this could be very helpful here.

I don't mind Newby questions, what I mind is:

" I want an answer now, I want it to solve my problem that is the most important in the universe, and I don't need to do any homework because I know everything and you're are only trained monkeys that are at my services"

don't forget I want it free!

Didn't they try splitting the Resolve forum on Creative Cow into a newbie section and it didn't work?

It had a very modest effect, and the same arguments were explored. From a statistical viewpoint, its the same sample base. They tried to separate User issues from Configuration ones -- but of course, virtually no one believes there could be any problem with their system if it can play back some kooky clip under QT or VLC, but Resolve baulks at it. Nope, obviously bad software.

jPo

I totally agree - At least start a new "Resolve for Newbies" under Other Topics for us Newbies to exchange thoughts and ideas.
I think I have tried all major NLEs over the years but Resolve was a "Hollywood" program famous for its color correction, etc., needed lots of PC power, expensive, and just plain out of my league.

Blackmagic decided to upgrade it and market it as a full blown NLE. It has come a long way, is super powerful, but hardly intuitive. Great news for me is that I can can now (12.5.3) grade and edit HD and UHD on my "home PC" and even a laptop since they added support for Intel Graphics and proxy editing (optimized media) - and I can try it free!
Due to it's history I understand that this forum was made up of professionals from studios who may be justifiably annoyed by the influx of we newbies lacking the formal training and years of experience. Video non-linear editing has come a long since I was blown away by my first Sony DV tape camera and Premier 4 on a 386 PC in 1994 - to now when I can shoot reasonable UHD/4k on my DSLR, GoPro, and a DJi Mavic Drone - and edit on my PC. It's not professional stuff, but it looks pretty good on a big screen UHD Tv. This is "mind blowing technology" to me - but hardly professional.

So, as a newbie to Resolve, I don't use raw or other pro formats and don't have a pro studio workflow using multiple programs and a professional team in a post-production workflow. Mine is a non-profit DIY interest. I don't intend to become a Resolve expert but I do like it, and am very impressed with output quality and really want to get a good basic working knowledge.

I assume there are many other newbies out there like me who have seen Resolve advertised and want to try it - and exchange thoughts and ideas with others without worrying the Pros with "stupid questions".

Marc Wielage -your comment above is valid but
"Peter Chamberlain has a pinned message that advises all newcomers to first read the last few months of messages before posting a new message" means that I will never post a new message as most are obviously from Pros to Pros and I don't even understand them - any more than I understand Quantum Mechanics or String Theory.
"It's amazing how often three things come up:
1) somebody is having performance problems with H.264 footage (and the solution is to transcode it to a less-compressed format)
2) some has a laptop or self-contained computer with performance problems, and generally the cause lies in inadequate GPUs, which are specified in BMD's published configuration specifications
3) or somebody has a problem trying to figure out a certain mode or control, which can be solved by reading the manual or going through tutorials."

I can understand why they annoy you but here's why they come up
1) Because our "amateur cameras" capture in highly compressed formats like H.264 mp4 which are not edit friendly. Edit friendly, intermediate codecs like Cineform, DnxHD, HQX etc were proprietary and very expensive to license until recently but are now free - and many of us are not familiar them or the concept of proxy editing or transcoding using these codecs for edit - and as output formats are of not much value to most of us. See link below.
2) Many of us Newbies don't have dual Xeon workstations with multiple GPUs costing $10k+. I wish I did, and my early attempts at Resolve failed because it died on my PC.
Now, it runs great on my i5 with 16Gb and No GPU card for two reasons:
First, Intel recently worked with Blackmagic and added Intel Graphics Quick Sync support (see link below).
Second, I found the Optimize befor edit in Resolve and I can now smoothly edit HD and even UHD with excellent preview quality. (see link below)
3) Unfortunately, many of us who use other NLEs still work on "If all else fails, read the instructions" - but your point is valid. Resolve is extremely powerful but, for me, not intuitive.

So far I can't use Resolve as my main edit program for two easy to fix reasons - Input and Output

For those of you who have used other NLEs like Premiere, Vegas, etc here is a very objective Resolve comparison from a company who sells them all:
EDIUS Vs Premiere, Avid, Vegas and Resolve
http://www.dvc.uk.com/acatalog/Edius_Premiere_Pro.html

Quote from link above:

"One of DaVinci Resolve's biggest weaknesses is the inability to load many formats. Blackmagic claim on their website that it imports nearly every kind of footage, which you could argue is true if you only look at the kind of formats that people are likely to use for high end grading, which was DaVinci's original purpose, but not true for general editing use."

"The second major area in Resolve which is poor is the output options. For most formats you will probably have to make a movie and then encode the file in something else. Resolve will not even export MP4 files. It exports some MOV files including Grass Valley HQ/HQX and Avid DNxHD/HR, as well as a variety of uncompressed formats and H.264 MOV files, which you would use to publish to YouTube. It does not do MPEG 2 files for DVD, and a whole variety of other formats we use constantly."

They added export to YouTube but no option to export to the most common format on all NLEs H.264 mp4 which is viewable on most devices. You have to use a third-party converter. I export as Cineform, import into free GoPro Studio which uses Cineform, and use GPStudio to output to a variety of formats. There is no quality loss as this is what Cineform was designed for.

Faster Editing in DaVinci Resolve 12.5 Using Optimized Media
http://www.4kshooters.net/2016/06/08/faster-editing-in-davinci-resolve-12-5-using-optimized-media/


Blackmagic and Iris™ Graphics: A Match Made at Intel®

nice video (the Intel one)!

Have I ever sounded like that, Walter?

If I did, I never meant to - sorry. And I'm constantly doing my homework very diligently. And in another thread, I mentioned you as one of those several experienced people here who are always helpful. Thanks.

Piotr

not really, occasionally you jump to your own conclusions and it is difficult to troubleshoot an issue

I agree with Walter here. This something I too have noticed a bit especially with Piotr, although it may be unfair to point fingers... :p

It's always a good idea to know or believe that you don't really know much hence you consider yourself a newbie and take the conversation from there. If you think you're a newbie yet believe that you know everything or at least pretend, the two worlds collides. Walter can be tough on people every now and then but I understand where he's coming from. He's one of the most helpful guys in this forums. I sometimes wonder how and where he finds the time or the patience... But I also understand the frustration when people are too lazy to read the basics in the manual or at least do a simple forum search.

I even see people asking how to import media, I mean come on.....

It takes ages to master the craft and even then there's so much more to learn as the science of it all keep changing. I really don't think a newbie section will help much because the likes of Walter probably wouldn't even browse that section. I've been grading features for the past four years and yet I still consider myself an infant. Even I probably wouldn't browse the newbie section. Most newbie questions are answered in Resolve tutorial videos by the likes of Alexis. If you do have a newbie section I would imagine that one would loose out on much sort after advice from the experts.

Din

Dinindu
Thanks - I agree in principle and appreciate all the help forum members offer but guys like Walter are professionals with technical and creative skills which I will never acquire. I didn't even know there was such a profession as a "Colourist".

I'm an amateur (non-profit) video enthusiast who is disappointed with consumer level software like Power Director. My interest is to have a fundamental end-to-end understanding of how to use Resolve and the tools it offers. Resolve is fairly new in the editing software world and many seem to be trying it - some with a view of using Resolve to replace software like Premiere Pro CC.

To save the Pro's time and possible annoyance maybe a newbie section called "Resolve for Beginners" or "Resolve for New Users" that starts with suggested training videos etc.. and where new users can exchange thoughts, ideas, how-to, compare to their existing software etc.

Piotr Wozniacki recently posted
Nice Resolve tutorials from RedShark
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmfIuj%20...%20WO3KujmVFw

Which helped me but probably not too useful experienced pro users.

Here are some more from David Clarke which have also helped me.
Editing in Resolve 12.5
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... -sXNhcVMd1

Hi there,

Excuse me, TL;DR the whole thread comments, but I know I surely missed something : where is the idea of a separate forum considered ? Here around ?

I'm an amateur (non-profit) video enthusiast who is disappointed with consumer level software like Power Director. My interest is to have a fundamental end-to-end understanding of how to use Resolve and the tools it offers.

There are three very good Resolve tutorials out there:

Alexis Van Hurkman's Resolve Tutorials:
http://www.rippletraining.com/categorie ... i-resolve/

Patrick Inhofer's Mixing Light Resolve Tutorial:
https://mixinglight.com/color-correctio ... tutorials/

Warren Eagles' FXPHD Resolve Tutorials:
https://www.fxphd.com/store/fastforward ... damentals/

I like all three for different reasons: Alexis' is very thorough and technical; Warren is very down-to-earth and provides practical examples; and Patrick goes into the basics and touches on non-obvious extras. Each does a very good job. I have not been as impressed by the other tutorials on the web, frequently done by people with dubious credentials.

Alexis' book is also very good:

Alexis Van Hurkman's Color Correction Handbook:
http://www.amazon.com/Color-Correction- ... TQ12DRM6BZ

Patrick Inhofer's "Tao of Color" newsletter and website are also informative resources:
http://www.taoofcolor.com

The LiftGammaGain website is also informative and has many hundreds of professional colorists as members:

http://liftgammagain.com/forum/index.php

The BMD Resolve v12.5 manual (also written by Alexis Van Hurkman) is also very informative, but you need time to go through all 1200 pages and try out every menu, every panel, every control, and every mode.

One problem with "free" tutorials: my opinion is that 99% are worth what you pay for them. Anything good is rarely free, and vice-versa.

100% valid points, Marc - thanks for the links.

That said, I'd say more than just 1% of free tutorials are worth their "price" (i.e. nothing) - I'm just going though this excellent series of 111 short lessons here (Goat's Eye View):

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... jIzRcJp3b0

Not as good Alexis Van Hurkman's (or other paid courses you have linked to), but not too bad. Thanks Jean-Claude for the link!

Piotr

Thanks Marc and Piotr,
I was up till 2am last night looking through the 1200 page user manual and was simply overwhelmed.
The courses mentioned are not unreasonably priced (Piotr's link was not working).
I don't know how to put this, and sincerely hope I don't offend anyone, but I, as a newbie will never possess the skills to use everything Resolve offers to professional colorists - which I understand is what Resolve is renowned for, and used extensively for in professional video studios and the movie industry. I have the greatest respect for the professionals in the industry and am continually amazed by what they do. I always viewed Resolve in a post production workflow program running on large servers or powerful multi CPU/GPU workstations using specialised hardware devices from BlackMagic, Grass Valley, etc.

I'm now looking at the free version as a complete video editor to use on a PC to basically organize and load clips, trim, crop, color correct, stabilize, edit using layers, effects, transitions (simple), speed adjust, use motion tracking, add sound, titles, credits etc and render out. I have used Premiere, Vegas, Edius, Lightworks and even Hitfilm. There are many thousands of us with varying skill levels now looking at Resolve and comparing it to other products.
Many are Newbies to Resolve as it has only been recently offered as a complete editor so we are starting from "scratch" in an attempt to understand the overall workflow and how it does things we are familiar with and how it performs and if we can use it in preference to other products. Many are looking at it to replace Premiere Pro cc and After Effects now that Resolve is integrated with Fusion.

I'm suggesting, assuming other Newbies share my perspective, that most Newbies are starting with little formal training, little, or no previous experience using it, and are not likely to pay for training courses until we decide to use it in preference to other software. That process will will involve a lot of basic questions from unskilled users which could understandably annoy existing forum users.

To quote Leslie in the first post of this thread
"i can understand the comment('s) made in some posts regarding the influx of us newbies, be it from vegas, or other prosumer nle's, into a well established and seriously professional colour grading forum. however, since our conversion has been more or less down to bm not only developing resolve into a fully blown editor as well as grader, and the fact that they are giving it away for free, it should come as no surprise to those 'complaining'..."

So, once again, I ask that a new forum topic be created for the Newbie invasion where we can ask stupid questions and exchange ideas without interfering with, or trashing, the existing forum. Hopefully the pros will look at it occasionally and contribute as well.

Just my thoughts.

I'm totally with Marc, et al, when he says (and takes the trouble to provide links) that there are many great tutorials out there and that if you want to get to a working level (you decide what that means on a personal requirements level) you just use a tutorial. I get so frustrated when the same requests come up time and again when a quick check in the manual would give the answer. Ok it's long but you only have to check the relevant section for a specific answer, and the whole thing is well written. It's so obvious these days that people don't take the time to RTFM, instead just hit the keyboard and expect someone to do it for them, while at the same time clogging up great forums like this.

I don't think a newbie section would be the answer. Instead, a sticky list of recommended tutorials, from beginner and up would probably answer 99% of the questions most people want. If the program isn't responding as you think it should, and you've bothered to RTFM, that's when you should seek help. IMHO.

Hi there,

Excuse me, TL;DR the whole thread comments, but I know I surely missed something : where is the idea of a separate forum considered ? Here around ?

Ok... THX everybody for your 0 answer (actually I had already decided not to follow this thread)
Bye

Hi there,

Excuse me, TL;DR the whole thread comments, but I know I surely missed something : where is the idea of a separate forum considered ? Here around ?

Ok... THX everybody for your 0 answer (actually I had already decided not to follow this thread)
Bye

Sam, you are showing "exactly" the issue with newbies:

"TLDR, i want my answer now you idiots. "

without doing one inch of homework.

a newbie separate forum will not work because the like of you will still came in the advance forum to ask the same questions that can be answered with a little homework.

I was up till 2am last night looking through the 1200 page user manual and was simply overwhelmed.

So this is part of the problem. Er. Challenge.. Opportunity?

This goes some distance explaining why there are a bazillion tutorials, some of them resembling that parable about the blind sages extrapolating what an elephant looks like by feeling one part of it.

Yes, its big. It can be a long journey.
I, for one (although its unavoidable to a certain extent) don't really care what's going on inside of something in order to take it for a ride. Correct, or grade-me-if I'm wrong, you don't need to know every last detail or function, because it would be rare for anyone to have to use the entire application and every mode all the time.

Just as it is kind of ridiculous to over-complicate a grade with an incomprehensible node tree where you cannot figure out where that chroma noise is coming from, K.I.S.S. (copyright 1960, US Navy).

As far as I am concerned, this forum is the newbie section, and I am a newbie every time I open a project. That's the fun.

No plan survives contact with the enemy. That's what keeps this job description interesting, because every clip is a little puzzle that you have to solve -- in the context of its internal structure, its relationship to the imagery around it, the scene's significance inside a narrative arc, and its presentation environment. To reduce the practice to arbitrarily shuffling around RGB values is kind of an insult.

A couple of million feet of OCN dailies used to be a good start, with the ground rule being... primary corrections only, no qualifications, secondaries, nothing. If you couldn't achieve a useful image for editorial and also complimentary (and communicative) to the dP, then you were not going to the next level.
We don't have that anymore. Everybody just gets dropped into what used to be a master grade, with random levels of background knowledge concerning image design and structure, whether inside an overall production workflow or from the standpoint of optical image creation. By that last, understanding some lens physics and image-forming math - and then making the intuitive leap that pleases the eyeball.

The manual could easily be an encyclopedia if you wanted to cover the field, and then it would be 24 volumes of 1200 pages each. And at that, it would still only be the gospel according to daVinci.

jPo, CSI

Hi there,

Excuse me, TL;DR the whole thread comments, but I know I surely missed something : where is the idea of a separate forum considered ? Here around ?

Ok... THX everybody for your 0 answer (actually I had already decided not to follow this thread)
Bye

Sam, you are showing "exactly" the issue with newbies:

"TLDR, i want my answer now you idiots. "

without doing one inch of homework.

a newbie separate forum will not work because the like of you will still came in the advance forum to ask the same questions that can be answered with a little homework.

Maybe...
I can understand your answer in this context, except (1) I'm no newbie at all even if this is not the point, (2) I always help as long as requested/needed when I have the answers and time to write these answers (and don't give up even if bored) and (3) my question was the more basic ever : the thread's title is "separate forum for newbies" > after more than 3 weeks super busy, I click on it > I read considerations I can understand without understanding where this idea could come from > I ask the question... (where did this idea come from ? Was BMD part of the suggestion ? Is there any real need for this [cos I'm philosophically not ok for some serious reasons] ? and so on...)... > .......... I'm the wanker I've been disliking for ever ?

Come on... I just wanna know how come this idea of separate forum could occur... So far I'm more into Hue vs Sat on a complex project than arguing for nothing...
If any punk told me "a guy asked for, it was there", it would have been more than ok, please don't behave like it's not as simple as that...

The ransom of glory: it is better to address God than to his saints. And BMD "gives" his software to have more saints. (And I was one of the first to enjoy it)

I understand you the experts: you have the impression to help in loss. Since the same questions come back, come back (often the same ones) and feel that the lessons are not retained.

A simple search in this extraordinary that is the forum can very often bring an answer before approaching the solution without addressing all the parameters.

I understand you and understand that to discuss topics it is better to have prior knowledge. This is true whatever the trade.

For SAM STETI: the substance of the subject came out partly from these questions. But not only ! (read post near 20 NOV...)

Now, what do I do? I go back to my timelines ... I confess I do not know too much whether it disturbs or not whatever feeling to help or penalize if I post an answer. There will always be a "more expert" who will smile: still a response from newbies.

For SAM STETI: the substance of the subject came out partly from these questions. But not only ! (read post near 20 NOV...)

This was the only thing I wanted to know...

I understand you the experts: you have the impression to help in loss. Since the same questions come back, come back (often the same ones) and feel that the lessons are not retained

not at all, it feel like the poster did not do any homework and is lazy.

there is a search button, use it FFS.

Ok... THX everybody for your 0 answer (actually I had already decided not to follow this thread)
Bye

Sam, you are showing "exactly" the issue with newbies:

"TLDR, i want my answer now you idiots. "

without doing one inch of homework.

a newbie separate forum will not work because the like of you will still came in the advance forum to ask the same questions that can be answered with a little homework.

Maybe...
I can understand your answer in this context, except (1) I'm no newbie at all even if this is not the point, (2) I always help as long as requested/needed when I have the answers and time to write these answers (and don't give up even if bored) and (3) my question was the more basic ever : the thread's title is "separate forum for newbies" > after more than 3 weeks super busy, I click on it > I read considerations I can understand without understanding where this idea could come from > I ask the question... (where did this idea come from ? Was BMD part of the suggestion ? Is there any real need for this [cos I'm philosophically not ok for some serious reasons] ? and so on...)... > .......... I'm the wanker I've been disliking for ever ?

Come on... I just wanna know how come this idea of separate forum could occur... So far I'm more into Hue vs Sat on a complex project than arguing for nothing...
If any punk told me "a guy asked for, it was there", it would have been more than ok, please don't behave like it's not as simple as that...

Sam, i know that you're not a newbie, but your answer was showing exceptionally well sone of the "newbie" attitude.

i think a user posted the idea a while ago.

IMHO, it will not work: whoever will look for an answer will go to the advance user group anyway, and the "pro" will less likely post answer to the basic UG.

Hey Sam,
I posted a footnote in the topic "Quick White balance" and Leslie started this topic in response.
I responded to Leslie earlier in this topic.

My full post:

Offset control is most useful when there is a color imbalance that is consistent from black through white i.e. warm whites and blacks. Gain control is best when blacks are already neutral but whites are not correct.
The main issues people face is their lack of understanding of how the scopes will give feedback on where the color needs to be adjusted and then selecting the most appropriate control to make the desired correction.
Resolve software comes from the professional industry where the technical knowledge of the operator is high and the toolset reflects this. I would recommend doing a training course to learn more.

I think it's time for a new forum here that is for users who are new to Resolve as I find this Resolve forum is changing from being a useful interchange of sophisticated ideas & solutions to a forum full of inexperienced users struggling with the software due their lack of technical understanding.

I'm too busy grading to be on the forum very often, so I sincerely apologise for the delay in getting you the answer you were looking for. I hope it helps your Resolve work.

I have no interest in pursuing the discussion as it was only a footnote with reference to the other topic.

I don't know how to put this, and sincerely hope I don't offend anyone, but I, as a newbie will never possess the skills to use everything Resolve offers to professional colorists - which I understand is what Resolve is renowned for, and used extensively for in professional video studios and the movie industry. I have the greatest respect for the professionals in the industry and am continually amazed by what they do. I always viewed Resolve in a post production workflow program running on large servers or powerful multi CPU/GPU workstations using specialised hardware devices from BlackMagic, Grass Valley, etc.

In its own way, being a colorist is nearly as difficult as being a cinematographer, in that you have to have people skills, technical skills, artistic skills, and also the ability to have the judgement when to use one knob or control over another. It took me more than 10 years of being a colorist to appreciate how much lighting factors into it, and just understanding what the gaffer and DP do, how lenses work, and how different cameras operate has radically changed the way I work today from the way I worked decades ago.

I think the four jobs of being an editor, a sound mixer, a colorist, and a VFX artist all have some overlapping territory, and there are people who are absolute maters at one but not the other three, and there are also people who can kind of "muddle through" all four and get a simple job done. If you sit down for (say) three days and go through one of the video tutorials mentioned above, you will be able to start a project, bring in material, do some basic color correction, export the file, and either bring it into an editing program for the finish or finish directly in Resolve and hand it off to a client.

But you don't get good at any of these jobs in a day or a month or even a year. I go with the "10,000 hour rule" (or the 1,000,000 feet of film rule cited by Joe above). You have to spend a certain amount of time floundering before you become an expert. Can you get by by just being an amateur? Sure, to a point, but it starts with some training, some practice, some reading, and some trial & error work.

The beauty of Resolve -- like a lot of complex programs -- is that many people barely scratch the surface on what it can do. It's a very, very deep program that can do a ton of stuff, and I think a huge portion of users are lucky to even get 30% or 40% into some of its really tricky modes and features. Many expert users still make discoveries and encounter "wow, I didn't know that!" moments. I find when I get a new and different job thrown at me, the only way I ever would've known how to handle it is that I seek out new training whenever I have a little downtime, just so I can consider that maybe there's another, better way of doing something I already do now. It's kind of like taking a different route on a long trip you've made many times; sometimes you discover an exciting new shortcut, sometimes you wind up driving off the road, and sometimes you encounter a more scenic route than you had expected. If it works, you remember that; if it doesn't, you throw that away and move on.

There are some "quickstart" Resolve tutorials floating around out there on the net, and you can try those if you want to jump into the deep end first. Me personally, I'd rather have some experience swimming before getting dragged into 30 feet of water with a heavy lead weight around my neck.

Hi there,

Excuse me, TL;DR the whole thread comments, but I know I surely missed something : where is the idea of a separate forum considered ? Here around ?

Ok... THX everybody for your 0 answer (actually I had already decided not to follow this thread)
Bye

Sam, you are showing "exactly" the issue with newbies:

"TLDR, i want my answer now you idiots. "

without doing one inch of homework.

a newbie separate forum will not work because the like of you will still came in the advance forum to ask the same questions that can be answered with a little homework.

Walter - In all fairness a new Topic (not a new Forum) for beginners with references to training vids as stickys must be better than having newbies with free software diving into the main forum with the type of questions that are obviously annoying you professionals.
You have two choices - a new forum topic called "DaVinci Resolve - New Users PLEASE Start Here" - or suffer the consequences. They are not going to read the 1200 page manual before they start and may not even have it as it doesn't download with the software. It's not going to change and will probably get worse. We are trying propose a solution to help you - and us. You may assume "it won't work" but you won't know unless we try it - or you can suggest an alternative.

Your forum has been invaded because BlackMagic has decided to expand their horizons and promote Resolve as a complete editing solution - and it's free to try and use.
I don't see many alternative options. You can
1) Try it
2) Ban new users from the forum.
3) Get Blackmagic to stop offering it and stick to the professional market.
3) Stop complaining

Peter Cave wrote
"I think it's time for a new forum here that is for users who are new to Resolve as I find this Resolve forum is changing from being a useful interchange of sophisticated ideas & solutions to a forum full of inexperienced users struggling with the software due their lack of technical understanding."

I agree

Hey Sam,
I posted a footnote in the topic "Quick White balance" and Leslie started this topic in response.
I responded to Leslie earlier in this topic.

Ok, thank you. Didn't expect such a revolution and just wanted to grab this quick info (this was the reason why I didn't read the rest, only the source on which Leslie founded his post was my request)...

I can therefore understand my "quick question expecting a quick/short answer" looked like a newbie question who doesn't make any effort to collect basics before asking (even though I insist I'm not ), and this is what you can read & find on almost any forum... and what is regularly discouraging... I generally write my opinion down in this case, a sort of packed RTFM which intend to turn the thread upside down on good tracks again.

Despite all this, I'm still not supportive of this separate forum idea, it may splatter good infos for anyone into pieces and places less comfortable to find. The more that would be appropriate for me may be a couple of divided forum, such as EDIT-DELIVER section, specific GRADING and maybe a third "anything connected with plug-ins or external pieces of software"... This way may guarantee you could find relevant threads in the grading section I think.
But it still mixes posts, in order to find all kind of considerations you just have to avoid if not interested, better than experience vs rookie which is not constructive ihmo.

I will stay on my first idea: the webmaster could add at the bottom of the page hypertext links "Related topics" of the current thread to encourage cross-search.

God, what a thread !

What is interesting in the "old pub metaphor" given in the first post is that usually when you come in a new place like that you don't get very quickly to know the old man, you get introduced slowely to him by someone who has arrived few weeks before you. I don't know if my idea is very clear but what is, I think, exciting for a lot of new comers in Resolve world and in this forum is the feeling that they can have answers straight from big colorists (combined with the odd reflex to want everything NOW as it is mostly the case online).

So the term " homework" used by Walter is good. I personally have my little notebook where I litteraly note all the tips I see everywhere (about everything)...and it is very likely that when a problem occurs, a research on the manuel, then on the forum, then on Google, and some time just playing with Resolve, will solve it.

That being said : maybe only a pinned thread that would
1/ list the tutorials and tips (I know it is all over the forum but it could be centralized in one place)
2/ where people that are curently learning Resolve (aka newbies) could share : a problem they had and the solution they found to solve it (1 problem = 1 solution)
It could be a good place to start (I'm pretty sure that the list of problems occuring to beginers is short), and a way also for the sharing to happen in both ways (not only from the big guys to the new ones, but also from the new ones to the very new ones)....


Anyway. It is amazing to see people knowing so well the soft and the color world spending so much time to share there knowledge ! And this is precious.
Thanks to all,

Alex

i like the idea of a pinned post with link to training resources and a common list of issue.

although i saw in a thread an answer that was roughly "I'm not going to spend money on training because I'm an amateur that work for free, but i need this answer".

as i said, i don't mind answer newbie questions, as long as the user does some homework.

and no. i don't have all the answers. especially for hardware.

as i said, i don't mind answer newbie questions, as long as the user does some homework.
and no. i don't have all the answers. especially for hardware.

that's indeed a very nice and realistic guiding principle.

in general i'm not so much convinced, that stupid questions and self inflicted passivity on the amateurs/newbies side, should be seen as the main burden of this forum. there are very similar symptoms noticeable when it comes to real questions, technical expertize and necessary improvements on a more advanced level. if the community/owners of a forum/support platform are not able to handle more advanced topics in a exemplary manner, the whole climate of open exchange and level of expertize will fade away in the long run.

the referred intel video is IMHO a very well exampled for this real issue -- questions, that wouldn't find a plausible answer here in the forum. (the same happens all the time, when it comes to an objective assessment concerning video compression, inappropriate export solutions, equal multiplatform support etc.)

the referred intel video is IMHO a very well exampled for this real issue -- questions, that wouldn't find a plausible answer here in the forum. (the same happens all the time, when it comes to an objective assessment concerning video compression, inappropriate export solutions, etc.)

Yeah, and it is also a good example of the tension between amateur and pro users (and amateur is not pejorative in my mind). As they say in the short film/commercial, the purpose is to bring DaVinci to the masses. So it is basically like giving a race car (or let say the knight rider's car for those who remember, because there are a lot of buttons and it is fun ) to someone who doesn't have a licence. She/he will probably will not how to get from one point to another because he/she has seen people drive before....but we will cross many lines and won't know the purpose of doing this or that...
And I personnaly think that it's okay. The great idea of BMD was to make that possible and to allow different uses of the same tool...

But there is a real issue if you are doing something for free and don't have the time to make some research, and learn...it should be the opposite actually...(and IMHO there is enough free tutorials here and there if it is to put your video on youtube).

This discussion is inconvenient to me. All this (?) Because of a few people who you (the pro ) were unbearable. Since the situation seems blocked: well the newbies who have been making video for over 30 years (PINNACLE LIQUID EDITION PRO => AVID LIQUID PRO => MEDIA COMPOSER 4/5/6/7/8 => recently Davinci Resolve Studio) : i say good night and stop coming in this forum to take my head! good courage between you.

I'm going to drink a good Bourgogne wine (my favorite) and watch a good rugby match
tonight : FRANCE-NEW ZEALAND!

Hi Jean Claude,
I'll have a beer but we will watch the same rugby game for sure !
and I hope that France will not lose in the same way than the last time

I get your point. I'm pretty new myself in the color-grading world (I come from the editing side of the business). I watched this forum for a while before posting anything (and very few times), but I never felt anyone unwelcoming when I had a question.

So I guess the goal of this thread is just to provide a more efficient help to those who need quick tips.

Bon match !

Okay,
the french team lost the rugby game, so I made this, which seems to look like a draft for a tutorials compilation that should answer a lot of questions :

https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=54139

Feel free to tell me if you think it is worthless or irrelevant, or to add you grain of salt to improve it.

Maybe when it is more complete (I'm ready to edit it with any suggestion), it could be pinned to be more easily seen...

Cheers,
Alex

They are not going to read the 1200 page manual before they start and may not even have it as it doesn't download with the software.

The manual downloads with the software and is available from the help menu. Where do people get these weird ideas from?

Anyway, I have changed my mind about a newbie forum. I will gladly let the noobs have this entire Resolve forum, and suggest a new forum called "Advanced Resolve Techniques" for us so-called "pro users" who are looking for solutions to complex creative requirements and technical issues.

I reiterate; I have NO issues with noobs asking simple questions. I just think the Resolve forum is becoming less useful, as finding interesting and relevant topics is becoming difficult with so many more posts about basic information pushing important topics off the first page. I do NOT want to alienate the noobs, after all, we were ALL noobs at some point! I just want the Resolve forum to be easier to use for EVERYONE.

i like the idea of a pinned post with link to training resources and a common list of issue.

I think that's a great idea. I also wish there was a "Troubleshooting" part of the manual that maybe dealt with 10 or 20 common malfunctions or situations and provided some diagnoses. And I'd like to see some pages that list all the common error messages in the program and a brief explanation of why they happen.

although i saw in a thread an answer that was roughly "I'm not going to spend money on training because I'm an amateur that work for free, but i need this answer".

That's kinda like the guy who goes in for art lessons in the morning and says, "I need to learn how to paint, quickly! Can we make this snappy? I only have until 5PM."

I reiterate; I have NO issues with noobs asking simple questions. I just think the Resolve forum is becoming less useful, as finding interesting and relevant topics is becoming difficult with so many more posts about basic information pushing important topics off the first page. I do NOT want to alienate the noobs, after all, we were ALL noobs at some point! I just want the Resolve forum to be easier to use for EVERYONE.

Blackmagic has recently said there are over 1,000,000 Resolve users worldwide -- or, perhaps better said, over 1 million downloads and sales of the software -- so it would make sense that there are hundreds of thousands of people in the world who are perplexed by certain issues.

But all of us are still scratching in the dirt, we're still human, we still make mistakes, and we all fumble around in some situations. When you've been doing it long enough, you just grit your teeth and say, "OK, I'm gonna try four or five different things and hopefully one of those will solve the problem. And if that doesn't work, I'll ask online."

Don't forget that Blackmagic also offers very good telephone support on weekdays. I have asked several times if they would consider doing a 24-hour paid support for subscribing customers, but so far, they're not interested in getting into that business.

Interesting discussion, guys. The only thing I could add from myself is this:

When I need to learn and exchange opinions on a "new thing" in my life (be it advanced software like Resolve, or simply a new car or camera I've just bought), I always register with a relevant forum. I realize that for the first couple of days/weeks/monts (depending on the subject complexity), my questions my be coming as lame to those more advanced - but I guess the only real and working way to make up for this is for me to start helping those newbies who are coming after me. Doing that I sort of pay up my debt with anyone who helped me when I was starting myself...

Lets just try and adopt the same approach here, and all will be good

Piotr