- Posts: 32
- Joined: Wed Aug 22, 2012 4:40 am
Fri May 24, 2019 5:15 pm
First off, I’m going to say that as a colorist and post geek I love this new update, the ability to avoid re-rendering clips without changes is going to avoid some unnecessary re-processing, the per-system render cache in collaboration projects is going to make things easier, in general more flexibility with collaboration projects is appreciated, the timelines with different resolutions and speeds is going to simplify many projects, new scopes and histograms are great (it was about time!), better playback controls with in and out loop from color page (I’ve been waiting for this!), the ability to disable pages, all the changes in this version go in the right direction and are going to change and speed up things a lot for everyone, so a big thank you to the developing team of DaVinci Resolve 
But as always, user opinions are important for continuing in the right direction, so I’m going to detail some bugs, UX problems (that I just tested) and ideas for new features for DaVinci Resolve.
----- Things that need fixing or could make better sense -----
-- Split screen “Selected LUTs” option doesn’t apply OFX nodes:
Let’s say I have a grade which starts with an Alexa LogC to Rec709 LUT, continued by many correction nodes, and the last node is selected. I enable Split Screen on “Selected LUTs” option, select a grading LUT on the LUT gallery and I see two images: On the left, the current total grade and to its right the current grade PLUS the selected LUT.
If instead of using the Alexa LogC to Rec709 LUT on the first node I use a Color Space Transform OFX, the OFX is not applied to neither of the previews.
-- Split Screen LUTs order does not make sense:
When using the Split Screen “Selected Still Grades” option, the selected stills are displayed in the same order that they have on the gallery. After years of using it, I don’t understand the order of the “Selected LUT” option, the LUTs seem to be display in a random order making it difficult to identify the ones I like if I select more than 2 LUTs at the same time.
-- Exported Stills overwriting each other:
If I capture the first still from different timelines in the same stills page, they'll all be named 1.1.1, when exporting them they are overwritten so only one is left exported. Adding the labels to the name could improve this but I think Resolve should recognize this and add some kind of extra number for these cases.
-- Timeline grade is not maintained for nested sequences:
If you add a grade to a whole timeline creating a node in the Timeline mode and then insert that first timeline into a second timeline as a nested sequence, the Timeline grade is not maintained. It is also not shown when the timeline is played in the viewer as a clip.
-- There should be popup confirmatons for batch grading versions changes:
Some actions in Resolve are not undoable, like changing grading versions, and this is OK for me, but there are some items in the drop down menu of the Clips thumbnails that can cause irreparable damage if clicked by mistake.
In the same way that the "Delete all versions" option asks for confirmation, these items should ask too:
Copy Remote Grades to Local - Copy Local Grades to Remote - Use Local Grades - Use Remote Grades - Delete Unused Versions
-- Undo/Redo, switch version sometimes lose Fusion Output cache:
Switching the grading version for clips with Fusion Cache enabled deletes the cache (it is shown in red and needs to be rendered again).
-- Media Manager limits frame handles to 99 (Why?).
-- Color curves still need a way to be edited more precisely:
Holding shift or alt while click-and-holding a curve point should lock its movement horizontally or vertically.
There should be a way to add points to the curve without modifying it with the first click (maybe shift+click could add a point to the curve place closest to the cursor). I find myself creating points and then resetting the surrounding point’s Hue Rotate value to 0.
----- Ideas for new features -----
-- “3D LUT Creator” style curves:
I always thought 3D LUT Creator was a great tool but never used it much because the workflow was annoying, I had to export a still, load it in the software, create a LUT using its amazing controls and then export the LUT and load it in Resolve. I thought Resolve couldn’t have this feature because of patent or something alike, but recently I saw that Scratch copied this feature. I’d LOVE to see this on Resolve, it’s excellent for manipulating the colors with more precision, much better than the curves. It allows the user to make specific HSL changes to more detailed ranges.
-- Show the three new low-mid-high vectorscopes together at the same time.
Maybe add a new setup with the three vectorscopes circles together, or maybe let the user view more than one vectorscope at a time in the 4-scopes-view and select different settings for each.
-- Vectorscopes need more flexible arrangement.
The new scopes are great in quality but if my scopes monitor doesn’t match exactly the 16:9 or 4:3 ratio it doesn’t fit well, there should be a fullscreen mode with more polished arrangement settings.
-- Poster frame stills:
When sharing stills with clients for grading review, it’s great to select a “best” frame for each shot and always send the same image with the updated grading. I do this by creating timeline markers, and then use shift+down arrow and grab still for each marker.
It would be great to have something similar that doesn’t interfere with the editing markers, like:
On the color page, I go to a frame I like, I right click on the thumbnail and select “Set poster frame”.
Then I right click on the viewer and select Grab All Stills > Poster frames.
-- Shared nodes indicator on thumbnails:
I love the idea of shared nodes but they are still lacking an indicator in the thumbnails that shows other clips with the same shared node (similar to the red one that indicates that the remote grading version is in use in another clip in the same timeline, or the green one that indicates that the clip is in a group).
-- Shared node groups:
Shared nodes are great but I think they should have the potential of replacing the color groups. Mainly because the structure of the color groups is pre-defined, and shared nodes could be put in different positions in different clips, allowing to add a final (not shared) grading node to a clip that needs it, or any other node setup much more flexible than the groups. I think the next step in this direction is to make shared node groups, so when you use a shared node group in many clips, you could create new nodes inside the shared group and this new node would automatically be added to all those clips without the need to share it and then copy-paste it manually.
-- Pre-Clip-Post Group nodes stored in stills:
Currently it’s very complicated to share stills of projects created with groups, you have to store separate stills for pre and post gradings, and you have to somehow explain which shots are linked to which groups. This could be solved if the captured stills and exported DRXs had all the info from the pre to the post group nodes.
-- Clip filters need a more thorough update:
Clips with No marker (there's clip with no flags)
Modified clips in "Last 12 hours" (Half of the times I'm looking for the changes done in the same day, 6 hours might be too short and 24 hours probably shows clips I graded on the previous day).
Clips with no groups.
Clips under Timeline marks.
-- Please export a CDL format compatible with Nuke. Many composers asked me about this.
-- Export Stills could remember the last picture format used:
It could have an option to open the folder right after the stills are exported, to share them with more ease.
It could have an option disable exporting the DRX files.
-- Clip filter shortcuts:
There are some clip filters that I use frequently, like the one to show the clips with common source file. There could be an option to create a user shortcut for a filter, or maybe a toggle between all clips / last selected filter.
-- Checkboxes for multiple project file formats (XML, AAFs) on render page:
Sometimes when exporting projects in a rush it’s good to give the client many options to reconform the project, it would be easier to have checkboxes to enable fcpxml, xml and aaf exports within the render page.
-- More render speed options:
Render speed should have more options in the list, or be editable (with a number field) and maybe also have some kind of automatic “let the computer breathe” mode.
-- Make clip offline and show original XML/AAF metadata:
Sometimes when conforming projects some clips are wrongly linked to incorrect camera files and there’s no way to see which was the original metadata that came in that edit slot. It would be great to have an option to unlink the clip and just show it as “media offline”, and also an option to view the original metadata of the clip (file name, original duration and extents, etc).
That's all, for now!
Rodrigo Silvestri
But as always, user opinions are important for continuing in the right direction, so I’m going to detail some bugs, UX problems (that I just tested) and ideas for new features for DaVinci Resolve.
----- Things that need fixing or could make better sense -----
-- Split screen “Selected LUTs” option doesn’t apply OFX nodes:
Let’s say I have a grade which starts with an Alexa LogC to Rec709 LUT, continued by many correction nodes, and the last node is selected. I enable Split Screen on “Selected LUTs” option, select a grading LUT on the LUT gallery and I see two images: On the left, the current total grade and to its right the current grade PLUS the selected LUT.
If instead of using the Alexa LogC to Rec709 LUT on the first node I use a Color Space Transform OFX, the OFX is not applied to neither of the previews.
-- Split Screen LUTs order does not make sense:
When using the Split Screen “Selected Still Grades” option, the selected stills are displayed in the same order that they have on the gallery. After years of using it, I don’t understand the order of the “Selected LUT” option, the LUTs seem to be display in a random order making it difficult to identify the ones I like if I select more than 2 LUTs at the same time.
-- Exported Stills overwriting each other:
If I capture the first still from different timelines in the same stills page, they'll all be named 1.1.1, when exporting them they are overwritten so only one is left exported. Adding the labels to the name could improve this but I think Resolve should recognize this and add some kind of extra number for these cases.
-- Timeline grade is not maintained for nested sequences:
If you add a grade to a whole timeline creating a node in the Timeline mode and then insert that first timeline into a second timeline as a nested sequence, the Timeline grade is not maintained. It is also not shown when the timeline is played in the viewer as a clip.
-- There should be popup confirmatons for batch grading versions changes:
Some actions in Resolve are not undoable, like changing grading versions, and this is OK for me, but there are some items in the drop down menu of the Clips thumbnails that can cause irreparable damage if clicked by mistake.
In the same way that the "Delete all versions" option asks for confirmation, these items should ask too:
Copy Remote Grades to Local - Copy Local Grades to Remote - Use Local Grades - Use Remote Grades - Delete Unused Versions
-- Undo/Redo, switch version sometimes lose Fusion Output cache:
Switching the grading version for clips with Fusion Cache enabled deletes the cache (it is shown in red and needs to be rendered again).
-- Media Manager limits frame handles to 99 (Why?).
-- Color curves still need a way to be edited more precisely:
Holding shift or alt while click-and-holding a curve point should lock its movement horizontally or vertically.
There should be a way to add points to the curve without modifying it with the first click (maybe shift+click could add a point to the curve place closest to the cursor). I find myself creating points and then resetting the surrounding point’s Hue Rotate value to 0.
----- Ideas for new features -----
-- “3D LUT Creator” style curves:
I always thought 3D LUT Creator was a great tool but never used it much because the workflow was annoying, I had to export a still, load it in the software, create a LUT using its amazing controls and then export the LUT and load it in Resolve. I thought Resolve couldn’t have this feature because of patent or something alike, but recently I saw that Scratch copied this feature. I’d LOVE to see this on Resolve, it’s excellent for manipulating the colors with more precision, much better than the curves. It allows the user to make specific HSL changes to more detailed ranges.
-- Show the three new low-mid-high vectorscopes together at the same time.
Maybe add a new setup with the three vectorscopes circles together, or maybe let the user view more than one vectorscope at a time in the 4-scopes-view and select different settings for each.
-- Vectorscopes need more flexible arrangement.
The new scopes are great in quality but if my scopes monitor doesn’t match exactly the 16:9 or 4:3 ratio it doesn’t fit well, there should be a fullscreen mode with more polished arrangement settings.
-- Poster frame stills:
When sharing stills with clients for grading review, it’s great to select a “best” frame for each shot and always send the same image with the updated grading. I do this by creating timeline markers, and then use shift+down arrow and grab still for each marker.
It would be great to have something similar that doesn’t interfere with the editing markers, like:
On the color page, I go to a frame I like, I right click on the thumbnail and select “Set poster frame”.
Then I right click on the viewer and select Grab All Stills > Poster frames.
-- Shared nodes indicator on thumbnails:
I love the idea of shared nodes but they are still lacking an indicator in the thumbnails that shows other clips with the same shared node (similar to the red one that indicates that the remote grading version is in use in another clip in the same timeline, or the green one that indicates that the clip is in a group).
-- Shared node groups:
Shared nodes are great but I think they should have the potential of replacing the color groups. Mainly because the structure of the color groups is pre-defined, and shared nodes could be put in different positions in different clips, allowing to add a final (not shared) grading node to a clip that needs it, or any other node setup much more flexible than the groups. I think the next step in this direction is to make shared node groups, so when you use a shared node group in many clips, you could create new nodes inside the shared group and this new node would automatically be added to all those clips without the need to share it and then copy-paste it manually.
-- Pre-Clip-Post Group nodes stored in stills:
Currently it’s very complicated to share stills of projects created with groups, you have to store separate stills for pre and post gradings, and you have to somehow explain which shots are linked to which groups. This could be solved if the captured stills and exported DRXs had all the info from the pre to the post group nodes.
-- Clip filters need a more thorough update:
Clips with No marker (there's clip with no flags)
Modified clips in "Last 12 hours" (Half of the times I'm looking for the changes done in the same day, 6 hours might be too short and 24 hours probably shows clips I graded on the previous day).
Clips with no groups.
Clips under Timeline marks.
-- Please export a CDL format compatible with Nuke. Many composers asked me about this.
-- Export Stills could remember the last picture format used:
It could have an option to open the folder right after the stills are exported, to share them with more ease.
It could have an option disable exporting the DRX files.
-- Clip filter shortcuts:
There are some clip filters that I use frequently, like the one to show the clips with common source file. There could be an option to create a user shortcut for a filter, or maybe a toggle between all clips / last selected filter.
-- Checkboxes for multiple project file formats (XML, AAFs) on render page:
Sometimes when exporting projects in a rush it’s good to give the client many options to reconform the project, it would be easier to have checkboxes to enable fcpxml, xml and aaf exports within the render page.
-- More render speed options:
Render speed should have more options in the list, or be editable (with a number field) and maybe also have some kind of automatic “let the computer breathe” mode.
-- Make clip offline and show original XML/AAF metadata:
Sometimes when conforming projects some clips are wrongly linked to incorrect camera files and there’s no way to see which was the original metadata that came in that edit slot. It would be great to have an option to unlink the clip and just show it as “media offline”, and also an option to view the original metadata of the clip (file name, original duration and extents, etc).
That's all, for now!
Rodrigo Silvestri