Blackmagic Forum

I've created some timelines in a project, and I want to create a new timeline that consists only of Text, Generator, Fusion, and other synthetic sources. It seems like there's no way to create an empty timeline in a project once any other timelines exist.

If not, why the heck not? If so, how?

Davinci Resolve 17.0 Build 39

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your problem, but you can create an empty timeline by pressing Ctrl-N or right clicking an empty space in your Media Pool. It's definitely possible to have a timeline with only generators in it.

atmosfar wrote:Maybe I'm misunderstanding your problem, but you can create an empty timeline by pressing Ctrl-N or right clicking an empty space in your Media Pool. It's definitely possible to have a timeline with only generators in it.

I've tried that. Nothing happens. Have you installed the newly released version 17?

I'm using 17.0 Studio Build 39 on Windows 10.

atmosfar wrote:I'm using 17.0 Studio Build 39 on Windows 10.

I can create new timelines in a completely empty project. What I cannot do is create a project with some timelines that are based on media, and then, later, decide I want to create a new timeline consisting only of non-media elements. THAT is the problem.

Michael Tiemann wrote:It seems like there's no way to create an empty timeline in a project once any other timelines exist.

Using File > New Timeline... works for me in V17.0. Creates an empty timeline. I have five other (non-empty) timelines in the project already.

There are options to not create an empty timeline, which I think takes selected clips from the currently-open timeline to fill the new timeline, though I haven't tried that.

File>New Timeline (Command-N) is grayed out for me. What could possibly cause that to happen? Did Blackmagic Design run out of Timelines because of supply chain issues related to COVID-19?

Which page are you on Michael?

Shrinivas Ramani wrote:Which page are you on Michael?

Media Page.

Can you create a timeline from the Edit page or the Cut page? Either from the app menu or from a media pool context click?

This has been a problem for long time.
If you create timeline from just Resolve generated elements (bars, text, ramp, etc.) and go to Delivery page you can't export it. Such a timeline has no "duration" visible by Resolve internal engine.

Shrinivas Ramani wrote:Can you create a timeline from the Edit page or the Cut page? Either from the app menu or from a media pool context click?

Ahhh... inconsistent but it does explain the difference for me.

If I am in Media or Deliver, New Timeline... is grayed out. In Edit or Cut it's not grayed out.

Andrew Kolakowski wrote:This has been a problem for long time.
If you create timeline from just Resolve generated elements (bars, text, ramp, etc.) and go to Delivery page you can't export it. Such a timeline has no "duration" visible by Resolve internal engine.

I just created a new timeline and dragged color bars and a title into it and it lets me Deliver and renders out properly. The timeline's clips are visible in Deliver's timeline display, but I don't see any content in Deliver's Viewer.

So even in v17 there's a residue of not-working-as-expected in Deliver. Though it does render properly, so may be different from what you've experienced in the past?

In order for it not to render, do you have to create the timeline from Media-Bin elements? Or maybe it's just Fusion items? (I believe the titles, etc, are actually Fusion under the hood, but maybe there's a difference if you create.a Fusion clip and do Fusion stuff versus dragging Fusion-based Generators and Titles while remaining in Edit.

(Or maybe it's mostly fixed in v17?)

The Deliver page does have a somewhat confusing UI. Iirc it shows you the mute/solo buttons on audio tracks but won't let you click them... same with show/hide track visibility buttons.

wfolta wrote:

Andrew Kolakowski wrote:This has been a problem for long time.
If you create timeline from just Resolve generated elements (bars, text, ramp, etc.) and go to Delivery page you can't export it. Such a timeline has no "duration" visible by Resolve internal engine.

I just created a new timeline and dragged color bars and a title into it and it lets me Deliver and renders out properly. The timeline's clips are visible in Deliver's timeline display, but I don't see any content in Deliver's Viewer.

So even in v17 there's a residue of not-working-as-expected in Deliver. Though it does render properly, so may be different from what you've experienced in the past?

In order for it not to render, do you have to create the timeline from Media-Bin elements? Or maybe it's just Fusion items? (I believe the titles, etc, are actually Fusion under the hood, but maybe there's a difference if you create.a Fusion clip and do Fusion stuff versus dragging Fusion-based Generators and Titles while remaining in Edit.
(Or maybe it's mostly fixed in v17?)

You are right. Very latest 17 version does export. It doesn't show any data in preview window in Delivery page though.
It doesn't show in Color page at all either, so it's all mess.

I see the output in the viewer on both the Deliver page and the Color page, unless I'm misunderstanding your issues.

xunile wrote:I see the output in the viewer on both the Deliver page and the Color page, unless I'm misunderstanding your issues.

You're understanding correctly. In my example, I put one title and one grayscale in Edit Track 1, and I see only a black window in both Color and Deliver. Though Deliver does in fact Deliver. Also, the clip window, where it shows the clips, above the timeline in Color, has no clips in it.

Not sure if it's because I have only in track V1 or if solid color works differently from grayscale bars or what.

Probably solid colour is a different element than bars/ramp/text...