Spotlight/Launchbar style OFX search in Color page node view

One of Fusion's best UI features is the Spotlight/Launchbar-esque "Select Tool" dialog, which lets you press Shift-Space, then simply type in the name of the effect you're looking for, then hit Enter to apply that effect as a new node. For example, searching for all Blur effects in Fusion:




It's a HUGE timesaver, and I would love to see this brought to the Node view in the Color page, because nothing feels slower to me than having to open up the OFX panel, click on the search field, type the name of the effect, then dragging it onto the node.

There are OFX effects that I find myself constantly having to use on almost every job, and while there is a "Favorites" tab in the OFX panel, you still have to open up the OFX panel to get to them. If you could just press Shift-Space, type in a few letters of the effect you're looking for, then press Enter to apply it to the selected node (or multiple nodes), you probably wouldn't even need to ever use the OFX Favorites tab, since calling it up via the "Select Tool" dialog would be way faster.

Here's another use case:

Let's say that you tend to always add a node to the end of your grades that neutralizes Blacks, using Log mode and a restricted "Low Range" setting. It would be great if you could save a Node "favorite" (not just a simple OFX filter), then use the "Select Tool" (or whatever it would be called in the Color page) to instantly recall and apply that Node preset to the node tree in the Color page.

And if you're one of those people who believes in creating pre-built node tree structures, you could instantly apply them to a new grade in the same way.

I really love Launchbar/Spotlight/Alfred/Quicksilver "quick launcher" style UIs for instantly performing actions or finding things on macOS. When people see me use my Mac they are simultaneously befuddled and impressed at how fast I am, because I'm effectively using Launchbar as a replacement for Finder, and I rarely have to use the mouse to click around to do basic stuff.

I'd love for this kind of thing to be added to the Color page, especially knowing that it's already there in the Fusion page!

Just following up to myself...

I've been doing a lot of work in AE, and remembered that there are two great AE scripts that bring this style of UI to the AE interface, and I find it indispensable for productivity:

QuickMenu 2: https://aescripts.com/quick-menu/

Videocopilot fxConsole:

Here's an example of me using fxConsole in AE. In the first invocation of the fxConsole, I search for "Gauss" to bring up all effects containing that string, then I use the keyboard to select the one I want, then hit Enter to apply. In the second invocation, I simply hit the "1" key to apply an instance of the Mocha Pro effect to the layer, without even having to search for it first.

https://d.pr/v/6yvmY0

Add here's my preferences, where I've mapped number keys to specific effects that I always use. This way I don't even have to type in the search terms. Once I invoke the fxConsole search window, I just have to hit the corresponding number on the keyboard, and that effect is automatically applied to the selected layer.



This type of UI is like discovering a new religion. Before you use it, you don't understand the hype. But once you do start using it, you can't live without it.

+1 for adding a SHIFT+SPACE search effect dialog in the Edit Page and the Color Page.

Also suggested here: viewtopic.php?f=33&t=110316

Kind regards.

There is now an extension called "Excalibur", which also brings this type of UI to Premiere Pro!

So it just occurred to me, why not just use Launchbar itself if I want "Spotlight/Launchbar style" control over things I commonly do in Resolve?

So here's a proof-of-concept video of using Launchbar Actions to trigger some of my existing Keyboard Maestro macros for Resolve. This is macOS only, of course.

As of Resolve 16 (and 17beta), there is no official way to map "Lock/Unlock Node", "Convert to Corrector", "Save as Shared Node" or "Grab All Stills From First/Middle Frame". I previously used Keyboard Maestro macros that I built for these functions, but had to map them to a keyboard shortcut or to a button on my X-Keys XK-60 or Streamdeck panel.

But I just remembered that I can use Launchbar to trigger AppleScripts, which in turn can trigger Keyboard Maestro macros. It turns out this works pretty well, albeit with a bit of time consuming overhead, as far as setup is concerned. It would be nice if Resolve would make this a native part of the UI (especially considering that Fusion can already do this), but this is a decent workaround for the time being.

I'll probably make these Actions & Macros available on my GitHub page when I build out a more complete set of Actions.