Auto-Apply Dailies Node Structures to Locked Edit?

Hello,

Is there a way to automatically apply the node structures produced during DIT dailies to a locked edit on another timeline within the same project? (And in my case, an imported XML?)

Here's my workflow:
1. The DIT imports all original camera footage into Resolve, colors all clips, and exports colored proxies.
2. The Editor edits the proxies in Premiere Pro and exports an XML of the final edit.
3. The Colorist imports the editor's XML of the final edit back into Resolve to grade (relinking back to the original camera footage).
4. What I would like to do: Automatically apply the node structures (which the DIT already built) to all the clips that made it into the locked cut of the film. This would be for the colorist to use as a starting point.

Is there a tool built in to Resolve that would let me achieve this? I know I could flag each clip with a specific color and do it manually by making stills and applying them to all clips with the same flag color. But I feel like there should be a way for Resolve to just do this automatically.

It seems like a no-brainer feature for people who create colored dailies and create their final grades within the same software suite.

(And in case this wasn't obvious, we're working in the same project as the DIT was, so all the colored clips with their node structures are already there, just on other timelines).

Is this possible to do?

Thanks,

[Peter Chamberlain]

Have a look in the user guide for Automatic ColorTrace.
When color tracing to the dailies grades select the project that had all the dailies timelines if there is more than one timeline (some make a timeline string-out per day)

Have a look in the user guide for Automatic ColorTrace.
When color tracing to the dailies grades select the project that had all the dailies timelines if there is more than one timeline (some make a timeline string-out per day)

Peter, thanks so much for your reply! I read the Automatic ColorTrace section in the user guide, but it appears there is no way to ColorTrace from more than one timeline, unless I'm just totally missing it. If I try to just select a whole project, the "continue" button is greyed out. It only becomes selectable once I've clicked on a specific timeline to copy grades from. I've been playing around with the feature, and it looks like a great solution for copying grades from a single timeline, but I just can't figure out how I'd use ColorTrace to apply the grades from multiple timelines. Our DIT project has at least one timeline per day for a 30-day production, so we have quite a lot of timelines. Am I just overlooking the setting that enables ColorTrace to grab grades from multiple timelines at once?

Have the DIT use remote grades, and have checked the project option for new timelines to use remote grades.

Then pull the XML from the editor into the same project, without importing any additional media—relink to what’s already in the project. Then, you’d probably want to copy the whole timeline’s remote grades to local and then use local grades to grade the timeline.


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Have the DIT use remote grades, and have checked the project option for new timelines to use remote grades.

Then pull the XML from the editor into the same project, without importing any additional media—relink to what’s already in the project. Then, you’d probably want to copy the whole timeline’s remote grades to local and then use local grades to grade the timeline.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This sounds like a complex solution to something that should have a solution as simple as clicking one button. BUT, it also sounds like it might just work. I'll give it a try! Thanks for the reply, Seth!

Is there a way to automatically apply the node structures produced during DIT dailies to a locked edit on another timeline within the same project? (And in my case, an imported XML?)

My workaround would go two ways:

1) grab some stills of the approved dailies grade and just apply those manually as required

2) compare the edited timeline to a lower-res reference movie of the final edit using the Reference Wipe and see how close it is. I do this all the time for features & TV projects and just manually use that as a starting point, except in cases where it didn't work for the dailies and we just start over. It's also handy during correction just to be able to turn to the client and say, "this is where you were in dailies; here's where we are now."

There is also a way to do this with CDL's, and this is outlined in the Resolve 14 manual ("Importing CDL Data using ColorTrace," page 970-972). In truth, I think any decent colorist should be able to match the dailies look in seconds, but there are exceptions, particularly if a complex LUT was involved.

[Peter Chamberlain]

Have a look in the user guide for Automatic ColorTrace.
When color tracing to the dailies grades select the project that had all the dailies timelines if there is more than one timeline (some make a timeline string-out per day)

Peter, thanks so much for your reply! I read the Automatic ColorTrace section in the user guide, but it appears there is no way to ColorTrace from more than one timeline, unless I'm just totally missing it. If I try to just select a whole project, the "continue" button is greyed out. It only becomes selectable once I've clicked on a specific timeline to copy grades from. I've been playing around with the feature, and it looks like a great solution for copying grades from a single timeline, but I just can't figure out how I'd use ColorTrace to apply the grades from multiple timelines. Our DIT project has at least one timeline per day for a 30-day production, so we have quite a lot of timelines. Am I just overlooking the setting that enables ColorTrace to grab grades from multiple timelines at once?

Ah, Select the database not the project. If u started a new DB for the job it should be clean colortrace.

Thanks for all the responses! I'll try out each of these methods and figure out which works best. The ColorTrace one would be the most ideal if I can get that working. I'll try a new database! Thanks again.

Have the DIT use remote grades, and have checked the project option for new timelines to use remote grades.

Then pull the XML from the editor into the same project, without importing any additional media—relink to what’s already in the project. Then, you’d probably want to copy the whole timeline’s remote grades to local and then use local grades to grade the timeline.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Seth, just wanted to thank you for this suggestion. I couldn't ever get Peter's ColorTrace idea to work, but this remote grade workflow DID work! Thank you so much! We'll be doing exactly what you suggested.