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Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Tue Oct 09, 2018 6:50 pm
by Michael McCaffrey
Video says it all. There is a lot of room for improvement in the way that Resolve handles the creation of keyframes and the manipulation of keyframed parameters and the way it represents this information to the Colorist. When a single keyframe represents changes to any one or all of more than 20 to 50 parameters, and the colorist needs to adjust a few independently of eachother, things get messy really quick, because there is no way to tell what parameters are being adjusted or where. Anyway, see the videos :)

Problems with keyframes:


A small recommendation to improve the way keyframed data is represented:

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Wed Oct 10, 2018 6:59 am
by Marc Wielage
My advice: don't attempt to do ultra-precise work with a mouse and get a control surface. You can make much smaller adjustments with knobs than you can with a mouse. (Strictly my opinion -- and note there are skilled artists who use high-end software like Lustre entirely with a mouse.)

Another thing about window masks: you can often get better results with multiple small masks sharing one set of tracking keyframes than you can a single large mask.

A final suggestion: there are actually affordable VFX artists out there who will analyze footage, create precise external masks, and email them to you at a reasonable fee. Often, their masks are far more precise than anything you can draw by hand as a window. Rotomaker.com and TraceVFX.com are two companies I'd recommend.

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Wed Oct 10, 2018 7:16 am
by Hendrik Proosa
Blender is a good example for dope sheet and curve editor also, both are very flexible and besides the usual stuff allow some pretty obscure things like literally rotating curve keys and handles around arbitrary point in curve editor. Dope sheet allows changing keyframe diamond colors (sort of keyframe tagging) for separating important keys etc. Lots of nice little features there for inspiration. In Resolve I'd first lose these elongated diamond lines around keys, their sole use seems to be visual overload.

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Wed Oct 10, 2018 7:30 am
by Peter Fizgal
I agree with the OP that the dopesheet could use some fleshing out.
I recently had a very hard time with tracking and keyframing.

Perhaps it was user error, but in my instance the dopesheet did not show me each and every parameter nor keyframe. It seemed that some keyframes and parameters are tied in with the track path, and others can be set seperatly in the dopesheet.

I'd expect when doing a keyframe session and working in the dopesheet, that each and every parameter and keyframe is available in that window.. and not seperated between a dopesheet and a tracking window.
Also working with the keyframes in the tracking window is not very user friendly.

Again, maybe I'm missing something, but I did look very hard...

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Wed Oct 10, 2018 5:20 pm
by Michael McCaffrey
Marc Wielage wrote:My advice: don't attempt to do ultra-precise work with a mouse and get a control surface. You can make much smaller adjustments with knobs than you can with a mouse. (Strictly my opinion -- and note there are skilled artists who use high-end software like Lustre entirely with a mouse.)

Another thing about window masks: you can often get better results with multiple small masks sharing one set of tracking keyframes than you can a single large mask.

A final suggestion: there are actually affordable VFX artists out there who will analyze footage, create precise external masks, and email them to you at a reasonable fee. Often, their masks are far more precise than anything you can draw by hand as a window. Rotomaker.com and TraceVFX.com are two companies I'd recommend.


Thanks for the tips Marc. However I think you missed the point of the problem. It is not about the accuracy of placing the keyframes, its the accuracy of the placement being recorded by Resolve. They are jumping all over the place. i.e. in the third video I just posted.

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Wed Oct 10, 2018 5:22 pm
by Michael McCaffrey
More problems with unpredictable results when keyframing

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Wed Oct 10, 2018 7:14 pm
by Michael McCaffrey
Another problem with keyframes... When I copy a power grade window that has keyframes, and paste it into another node, the animation doesnt come with it :(

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Wed Oct 10, 2018 7:49 pm
by cemoz101
I feel your pain.

Rotoscoping on Resolve is a nightmare. I'm told use the tracker instead and switch to frame mode, but I'm still struggling to understand the logic. I'm sure others will say use Fusion, but Fusion is a compositing tool, and doing simple roto is part of modern day colour grading.

One should be able to add simple keyframes to windows and have the system interpolate correctly without quirks or glitches.

I've encountered the EXACT same issue today as in your video above Michael. It is not acceptable for a DI system in this day and age to have such fundamental keyframing issues.

I strongly believe the keyframing logic, both how it is presented in the UI and the fundamentals have to be rethought. Just the idea that you cannot set (or toggle) a keyframe in a sizing window (next to say zoom, tilt, pan), or say in the 'Defocus' section (a name which comes from the old 2K plus days and has no relevance anymore) for node opacity. Same can be done for colour tools, add a little icon next to saturation or offset so if you click it, it will add a keyframe just for that element. If there are 2 keyframes for the same element, have a simple linear interpolation. If the user then wants to change the animation curve to bezier or something else, they can do so via the graph.

Also, if you are working in dual display mode and your monitors are wide apart, it is very tiresome to have to move from one display to another since the keyframe viewer is on one display whereas the viewer is on another one. A customizable UI would help of course, but an option to have the keyframe editor to be underneath the viewer should be an option.

Thanks,

Cem

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Wed Oct 10, 2018 9:27 pm
by Spencer_Meyer
Using the tracker in Frame mode does a much better job, but if you attempt to track the window it will give you unpredictable jittery results. For usable results perform manual adjustments to the window when necessary. If you need to adjust a setting globally, like softness, switch back to Clip mode first. It can be kind of a pain having to switch back and forth between palettes and modes repeatedly, but that should give you the results you need. Also if you create a lot of keyframes with the keyframe palette the project size can ballon pretty quickly.

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Thu Oct 11, 2018 11:51 pm
by Michael McCaffrey
More issues with keyframes. Yay! :'(

When I have to keyframe a mask, I track it in first using keyframes (if the camera tracker doesnt work). Then the problem I run into after its locked in, is that I need to adjust the softness settings. And unfortunately, I have to do this for every single keyframe. Madness! Then when I get the softness of the border dialed in (for every keyframe), and I want to adjust the gain output or any other setting, I have to do it, for every single keyframe. More madness! Maybe the best way to do this is to get the shape, softness and opacity all dialed in first, then turn on keyframing and animate the position? That way, the softness and other settings dont need to be set for every single frame?

Keyframing over time 1:


Part 2:


Part 3: (suggestion to grab/move multiple mask points at once)

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Fri Oct 12, 2018 4:05 am
by Marc Wielage
Spencer_Meyer wrote:Using the tracker in Frame mode does a much better job, but if you attempt to track the window it will give you unpredictable jittery results. For usable results perform manual adjustments to the window when necessary. If you need to adjust a setting globally, like softness, switch back to Clip mode first. It can be kind of a pain having to switch back and forth between palettes and modes repeatedly, but that should give you the results you need. Also if you create a lot of keyframes with the keyframe palette the project size can ballon pretty quickly.

Yep, Spencer gets it -- very well said. This is my experience as well. Often, you have to have a specific philosophy in mind on how to get the tracking done, and there's a degree of thought and experimentation involved.

Note that there are dedicated buttons for Clip Mode and Frame Mode on several hardware panels, and you can also use a 3rd-party macro keyboard (like XKeys or the Elgato Streamdeck) to bring up these modes. A lot of what I think the o.p. is complaining about is that it's annoying to do all this stuff is a mouse -- and I agree with him. If you're going to be using Resolve 10-12 hours a day, get a professional control surface. Affordable ones are out there.

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 5:45 pm
by Michael McCaffrey
Marc Wielage wrote:
Spencer_Meyer wrote:Using the tracker in Frame mode does a much better job, but if you attempt to track the window it will give you unpredictable jittery results. For usable results perform manual adjustments to the window when necessary. If you need to adjust a setting globally, like softness, switch back to Clip mode first. It can be kind of a pain having to switch back and forth between palettes and modes repeatedly, but that should give you the results you need. Also if you create a lot of keyframes with the keyframe palette the project size can ballon pretty quickly.

Yep, Spencer gets it -- very well said. This is my experience as well. Often, you have to have a specific philosophy in mind on how to get the tracking done, and there's a degree of thought and experimentation involved.

Note that there are dedicated buttons for Clip Mode and Frame Mode on several hardware panels, and you can also use a 3rd-party macro keyboard (like XKeys or the Elgato Streamdeck) to bring up these modes. A lot of what I think the o.p. is complaining about is that it's annoying to do all this stuff is a mouse -- and I agree with him. If you're going to be using Resolve 10-12 hours a day, get a professional control surface. Affordable ones are out there.


My OP has nothing to do with any inaccuracies that come with mouse. I am using a mouse without any problems whatsoever in that regard. The problem, as I said earlier, has to do with Resolve not recording keyframes when it should, recording keyframes when it shouldnt, and have ghost keyframes set that I have absolutely no idea where they came from, which results in the jitters and totally unpredictable movements to which Spencer may be referring, as well as the inability to see or control keyframes for individual parameters such as inside and outside softness for polygon masks, mask size, node gain or any other parameter. Having them all locked to one keyframe is incredibly problematic.

So when you guys are talking about "frame mode," are you referring to the "interactive mode" in the tracker panel? I am not sure how to use that panel to keyframe nodes on a frame by frame basis, but even if I did, I dont know it would help me as sometimes I have various masks that need to move differently depending on the movement of the actors in the scene.

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 5:55 pm
by Michael McCaffrey
Ghost Keyframes. This is what Im talking about when I say that Resolve is creating keyframes (keyframing parameters) when there are no keyframes, :(


Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 6:10 pm
by Michael McCaffrey
*sigh* More issues. Polygon mask permanently gone after deleting one or two of its keyframes.


Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 7:17 pm
by Michael McCaffrey
So Ive tried to start using the tracking window more to align my masks. And I've discovered, that when in frame mode, Resolve STILL keyframes the parameters of the mask from the other window, such as size and softness etc!! What in the world!?! Am I the only who this makes no sense to?? So now parameters are being keyframed and there is ZERO indication anywhere in resolve that they are being keyframed other than my mask softness and size etc jumping around. This whole keyframing thing in Resolve needs a massive overhaul. imho. Very counter-intuitive and thereby, counter-productive :(

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 8:09 pm
by cemoz101
You're not crazy.

I completely agree with you.

The idea that you have to use the tracker module to roto is absurd. You cannot offset or slip a keyframe in frame mode (or at least I couldn't figure out a way) and there is no visual representation other than tightly spaced keyframes in the tiny tracker window. I cannot imagine how someone could grade a 10 minute+ long shot with multiple animated windows and roto without being able to zoom into the tracker window to edit keyframes.

I've also encountered issues where a keyframe was added to a 'half frame' in the tracker/frame mode so you were never able to select or delete it. If you went frame by frame, you can literally see the playhead jump over the keyframe. It was always there even if you clicked on clear all track data or keyframes.

As you say, it has nothing to do with tablets or mouses, it is the logic that is broken. I've used 3 other non-linear grading systems and all of them had keyframing that simply 'worked'. Before colour grading, I was also an online artist using Flame, so I know how masking should work.

The keyframing needs a total overhaul and quite possibly the windowing features too. To not be able to delete a 'default window' is silly. You end up disabling the window and adding a new window, which means that the data from the old/default window remains and is still lurking in the background of your project, leading to a less optimized project file.

I would gladly have a v16 with less 'new features' and an optimization of what is currently there.

C.

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 9:10 pm
by Michael McCaffrey
cemoz101 wrote:You're not crazy.

I completely agree with you.

The idea that you have to use the tracker module to roto is absurd. You cannot offset or slip a keyframe in frame mode (or at least I couldn't figure out a way) and there is no visual representation other than tightly spaced keyframes in the tiny tracker window. I cannot imagine how someone could grade a 10 minute+ long shot with multiple animated windows and roto without being able to zoom into the tracker window to edit keyframes.

I've also encountered issues where a keyframe was added to a 'half frame' in the tracker/frame mode so you were never able to select or delete it. If you went frame by frame, you can literally see the playhead jump over the keyframe. It was always there even if you clicked on clear all track data or keyframes.

As you say, it has nothing to do with tablets or mouses, it is the logic that is broken. I've used 3 other non-linear grading systems and all of them had keyframing that simply 'worked'. Before colour grading, I was also an online artist using Flame, so I know how masking should work.

The keyframing needs a total overhaul and quite possibly the windowing features too. To not be able to delete a 'default window' is silly. You end up disabling the window and adding a new window, which means that the data from the old/default window remains and is still lurking in the background of your project, leading to a less optimized project file.

I would gladly have a v16 with less 'new features' and an optimization of what is currently there.

C.


Absolutely agree. What other NLE systems did you use that "worked?"

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Tue Oct 16, 2018 3:00 am
by Marc Wielage
I have done plenty of projects with upwards of 10-12 tracking masks in some shots, and I've been able to manage.

A lot of the method involves kind of a Zen thing where you have to kind of accept the way Resolve works and just wrap your head around it and work with it, not fight it 100% of the time. It's not that hard. I had a shot some weeks ago where I had to work out multiple masks tracking different objects with a window in the background on a shot moving through 3D space and around the lead character, basically lighting the actor up but not lighting the other people. It took time, but the ultimate result was fine... and this was 4 windows in a single node, roughly a 90-second shot. Again, a combination of auto- and hand-roto tracking. I think it was a solid 15-20 minutes of work, but the results were worth it.

I am using a control panel, so I can just reach over and turn Clip or Frame on as needed, plus it's easy to delete extraneous keyframes without any problem. In animation situations, I tend to work every 2 frames unless it's a very tight mask, and there is a point where I'd rather just send the shot out and get somebody like Rotomaker create an external matte for me. But this is the same in many color-correction programs.

Dan Moran over on MixingLight has had some good thoughts on window and masking approaches, and he helped me out several years ago just with the idea of breaking down a large complex window into multiple smaller ones. So a lot of its effectiveness depends on how you tackle the problem, not the limitations within Resolve's tracker itself. Having access to previous/next keyframes and Delete Keyframe on a panel makes it vastly easier than trying to do it all with a mouse, but it all can work to a point. I also lean on the Opacity control to fade in or fade out windows and masks when needed, and that's a good tool (though I know of some people who use the Keyer control for this function instead).

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Tue Oct 16, 2018 3:52 am
by Dermot Shane
Michael McCaffrey wrote: What other NLE systems did you use that "worked?"


DS, Flame....

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Tue Oct 16, 2018 4:52 am
by waltervolpatto
my wish is to abandon the keyframe/ shape (or make it "classics") and implement the fusion one: shapes, keyframe, dope sheet, GROUPING, and the ability to import shapes directly from fusion.

Some love in the color module...

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Tue Oct 16, 2018 5:40 am
by Dermot Shane
and smoothing / regions in the dopesheet

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Mon Jun 08, 2020 9:32 pm
by BenBrix
Michael McCaffrey wrote:
cemoz101 wrote:You're not crazy.

I completely agree with you.

The idea that you have to use the tracker module to roto is absurd. You cannot offset or slip a keyframe in frame mode (or at least I couldn't figure out a way) and there is no visual representation other than tightly spaced keyframes in the tiny tracker window. I cannot imagine how someone could grade a 10 minute+ long shot with multiple animated windows and roto without being able to zoom into the tracker window to edit keyframes.

I've also encountered issues where a keyframe was added to a 'half frame' in the tracker/frame mode so you were never able to select or delete it. If you went frame by frame, you can literally see the playhead jump over the keyframe. It was always there even if you clicked on clear all track data or keyframes.

As you say, it has nothing to do with tablets or mouses, it is the logic that is broken. I've used 3 other non-linear grading systems and all of them had keyframing that simply 'worked'. Before colour grading, I was also an online artist using Flame, so I know how masking should work.

The keyframing needs a total overhaul and quite possibly the windowing features too. To not be able to delete a 'default window' is silly. You end up disabling the window and adding a new window, which means that the data from the old/default window remains and is still lurking in the background of your project, leading to a less optimized project file.

I would gladly have a v16 with less 'new features' and an optimization of what is currently there.

C.


Absolutely agree. What other NLE systems did you use that "worked?"


For me coming from Adobe After Effects and Premiere it's very painful to transit to Resolve even though I really like a lot of things about it. Sometimes I get the feeling they are limiting users on purpose. Same with the GUI that is basically not customisable. I just found this post cause I was just trying to change the softness of a mask without influencing the keyframes. I thought that's impossible that it's not working. So basic. Well but unfortunately that's not the first time I thought this. Not easy to abandon Adobe.

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Mon Jul 13, 2020 2:20 pm
by Yogendra Singh
keyframing and time remapping are very complicated in resolve, especially coming from premiere/AE.
I need to edit my keyframes several times to get desired results and resolve starts giving unexpected results after few tries. These features need to be developed again ground up.

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Wed Oct 07, 2020 2:51 pm
by Christoffer Glans
For the next version of Resolve, I would like to see a complete overhaul of the keyframe system that is up to the standards of literary every other software using keyframes, including Resolves own Fusion. *facepalm*

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Wed Oct 07, 2020 3:38 pm
by waltervolpatto
Christoffer Glans wrote:For the next version of Resolve, I would like to see a complete overhaul of the keyframe system that is up to the standards of literary every other software using keyframes, including Resolves own Fusion. *facepalm*


Yes, that was asked before but I’m not holding my breath.
The resolve (color) keyframe system seems very 1999.....

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Thu Oct 08, 2020 3:43 am
by Ian McGuffie
Keyframing: "These features need to be developed again ground up....."
Absolutely.
For me the biggest flaw in Resolve.

Michael - I watched your videos chuckling away - it was like deja-vu, me working on 1x20 sec shot last night for 2 hours thinking I was going bonkers.

Marcs approach is novel - akin to stepping back from the shot, taking 10 deep breaths, 5 minutes of meditation, 10 minutes of Tai-Chi, then tackle the shot in zen mode.

:)

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Thu Oct 08, 2020 5:13 am
by Singularity
Yogendra Singh wrote:keyframing and time remapping are very complicated in resolve, especially coming from premiere/AE.
I need to edit my keyframes several times to get desired results and resolve starts giving unexpected results after few tries. These features need to be developed again ground up.


100% agree. I do a lot of time-remapping and keyframing, and it's a constant struggle with resolve in both edit page and color page.
At first I thought I just didn't understand the software well enough, but even after reading the manual on those topics, I could never get a smooth workflow with predictable results.
It's probably my biggest frustration with the software at the moment.

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Sat Nov 14, 2020 3:55 pm
by Christoffer Glans
There's no debate in this, keyframes in Resolve sucks.

It has been awful for years and it never gets any important improvements between versions. BM just need to look at any other software that uses keyframes. Just download Blender and check how it's done there, check out After Effects... hell, just switch tabs and check how fusion does it.

It's mind-boggling that the keyframing is this bad. For version 18 of Resolve we need to see a totally reworked keyframing system that actually works fast and creatively. The one thing I keep doing for hours in the otherwise fast experience of Resolve is fixing keyframing issues like these.

BM needs to just fix it, it's bad, no questioning or debating around it, just fix it.

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Thu Jun 17, 2021 2:22 pm
by Adam Janz
@Michael McCaffrey you totally nailed it. Was attempting to use Resolve to do selective retouching on an actor where tracked power curves and power windows were involved. Having all parameters share the same keyframe channel is extremely counter-intuitive and counter-productive. Because of this huge limitation, I seriously doubt that Resolve can be utilized for any serious roto work where parameters are changed over time. A shame, since the program has all the potential to be great in this area. The keyframe handling absolutely MUST be separated into individual tracks. Currently, deleting keyframes set for opacity on a power window will ALSO delete the keys set by the tracking -- which makes no sense at all in a production environment.

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Thu Jun 17, 2021 3:02 pm
by Adam Janz
An interesting illogical behavior discovery. There are two power curves in a node. You select the 2nd power curve and using the 3 dot menu, you "copy window" and then paste into another node. From this 2nd node containing the 2nd power curve, you will notice that opacity keyframes set on the 1st power curve were also copied in (shown in the Keyframes window). You shift-select these keys and delete. You then return to the 1st node containing the 1st power curve. Surprisingly, the opacity keys here have also been deleted -- but the opacity animation data is still there (ghost keys)! Had you tried to delete the opacity keys from within the 1st node (where they exist) you would have also deleted the tracking keys for that 1st power curve (because Resolve incorrectly combines the data). However, because you deleted these keys in the 2nd node (where they should not have been copied over to begin with), you can now set new opacity or softness values GLOBALLY in the 1st node without affecting your tracking keys (provided you are in Clip mode, not Frame mode in the Tracker, a setting which technically should not even affect parameters in the Transform and Softness categories to begin with).

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Thu Jun 17, 2021 6:08 pm
by Jason Conrad
I've been saying it for a long time. This is my number one feature request; a complete overhaul of Resolve keyframing. The Color, Edit, and Fusion pages all work differently, and are all broken in different ways. At least the Fusion page has a dope sheet, hierarchical parameter access, visibility controls, and zoom-able curves (?!?!). But it still has artifacts and redraw issues, especially with anything needing subframe accuracy.

I think that BMD thinks of Fusion keyframing as the *advanced* way of doing it, and they need "simpler," dumbed-down versions for colorists and editors, or at least that's how they justify the current mess. This is the Adobe mindset, like Premiere's dumbed-down keyframing feature set, and it's a mistake.

Don't copy the competition when they're doing it wrong.

There ought to be ONE powerful curve/keyframe editor that works identically across all three pages. The media pool and scopes windows already pop out into extra instances. A unified keyframe/curve editor should do the same thing, and BE the same whether you're in Fusion, Edit, or Color.

I do understand that the Fusion and Color codebases came from separate acquisitions, but there's no excuse for the Edit page, and it's been long enough.

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Thu Jun 17, 2021 7:48 pm
by Chad Capeland
Christoffer Glans wrote:For the next version of Resolve, I would like to see a complete overhaul of the keyframe system that is up to the standards of literary every other software using keyframes, including Resolves own Fusion. *facepalm*


No need to completely overhaul anything. Should just use the Fusion animation/modifiers. Legacy projects can just use a "Resolve Classic" modifier for those who prefer the current system. But otherwise there's no reason for the application to have such different systems for keyframing. There's no benefit for the user.

Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Thu Jun 17, 2021 8:33 pm
by Jason Conrad
Chad Capeland wrote:
Christoffer Glans wrote:For the next version of Resolve, I would like to see a complete overhaul of the keyframe system that is up to the standards of literary every other software using keyframes, including Resolves own Fusion. *facepalm*


No need to completely overhaul anything. Should just use the Fusion animation/modifiers. Legacy projects can just use a "Resolve Classic" modifier for those who prefer the current system. But otherwise there's no reason for the application to have such different systems for keyframing. There's no benefit for the user.
Fusion would be a good place to start, but it needs improvement, too. Modifiers are a good example of an area that could use improvement. 1-There aren’t enough of them. 2-The relationship between modifier and modified is not clearly expressed. I.e.; it’s not clear whether a parameter is keyframed or modified at a glance. 3-tracker modifiers are different than tracker tool, with little disambiguation. 4-no simple presets. 5-keeping modifiers in a separate tab causes a lot of jumping back and forth between tabs, or equally cumbersome “pinning”

For a better example of how modifiers could be, see Apple Motion’s “behaviors”. They’re not much different, except Apple’s UI/UX is way better.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Fri Jun 18, 2021 2:34 am
by Adam Janz
Thanks Jason for your input. Breaking parameters into their own keyframe channel is clearly a much needed feature to take full advantage of Resolve's amazing power curves functionality. "The squeaky wheel gets the grease", as they say, so I hope more roto and comp artists will chime in here!

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Tue Jun 22, 2021 3:24 am
by Jason Conrad
Singularity wrote:time-remapping and keyframing, and it's a constant struggle with resolve in both edit page and color page.


I don't think time remapping on its own is that bad, but in combination with color page keyframes, it's a nightmare.

I just ran into a situation where I wanted to adjust motion blur as something played forwards, slowed, reversed, and played forwards more slowly than it did the first time. I don't think it's possible with the standard tools, without rendering in passes. On the color page, in the section where the edit timeline is reversed, the source playhead plays forwards while the keyframe playhead plays backwards, over top of keyframes you've already written. So there's no way to have 100% blur the first time and 50% blur the second time, because the keyframe playhead is in the same spot both times. W. T. F.

Seriously. Timelines have one job: Keep the past to the left, and the future to the right, and if you're going to screw that up anywhere, why would you screw it up on the one that controls THE FREAKING KEYFRAMES?!?!?

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Tue Jun 22, 2021 8:16 am
by George Deierling
me too is tired of struggling with erratic Bezier handle behavior. Power windows are just not designed for detailed and precision work, nor is the tracker.

My solution for the time being:
Using Mocha plugin and render out external masks. yes there are extra steps but overall much better for all but the most simple masks.

Re: Tired of Fighting Resolve for Control Over my Keyframes

PostPosted: Tue Jun 22, 2021 9:06 am
by Hendrik Proosa
Jason Conrad wrote:On the color page, in the section where the edit timeline is reversed, the source playhead plays forwards while the keyframe playhead plays backwards, over top of keyframes you've already written. So there's no way to have 100% blur the first time and 50% blur the second time, because the keyframe playhead is in the same spot both times. W. T. F.

I guess the reasoning was, ”why don’t we show the source frame with playhead position” but this is useful in just about 0.1% of cases. As if they have switched the axes on time-value curves, usually time curve x axis is timeline time and y axis is requested source frame pushed to output, and latter doesn’t affect the former because it is, well, a product of f(x).