Nesting - retain size

Is there a way to use a clip or sequence of clips in a "nest" through a compound clip, timeline, fusion comp etc, that retains it's original size.

I'm trying to add a deNoise in the color page, nest the clip that's 4K into a 4k nest, place that file into a 1080 timeline, and when I animate zoom in edit or in fusion, it keeps it's 4K resolution so I can animate between a scale of .5 and 1.

I have yet to find a combination that allows me to do this. The compound clip inherits the dimensions of the timeline it's placed into, which is not what I want to accomplish.

Great question. A timeline has a working resolution and an output resolution. Usually those two are the same. What I've found is that you must set the timeline resolution to whatever your largest media dimensions are and then your output resolution to your 1080 FHD (in your case). So timeline in 4K with output set to 1080 (FHD).

So in project settings, Master Settings > Timeline resolution - set to 4K and then in project settings, Image Scaling > Output Scaling, uncheck 'Match timeline settings' and set the output scaling to 1920x1080. Also switch to 'Center crop no resizing' for mismatched resolution. This output scaling works as a keyhole into your 4K timeline working resolution.

Let me know if this works for you because after all these years of fighting this, I only discovered this approach about a month ago and I really haven't worked with it enough to see if there is an obvious shortcoming.

Cheers

Steve, you're coming through with all my questions this week. Thanks again!

When using the "windowed" approach with a 4K timeline, and output set to 1080, the scaling can work but unfortunately I'm finding the same issues, of not being able to nest at native resolution.

Both Compound Clips and Fusion Clip loose resolution once you go past "1" in scale. So scaling up and down, must happen inside the Compound Clip and Fusion Clip, but once you do that, you're windowed view of the final composition is not represented as your final inside the "nests"

Edit: Since there's a windowed view into the 4K timeline, Setting the source clip to 1 inside the Compound or Fusion Clip, which to the program monitor is zoomed in and unable to see final positioning. We can retain the scale data of the Fusion Clip and Compound Clip to .5 and we retain the information as we scale down. This is the first time I've been able to make this happen as expected.

Unfortunately, all transforms that are done inside the fusion page will require a background node set to your output sizing, and use that as reference for what you'll see in the final timeline.

The biggest downfall of the way this is implemented currently, is that there's no real way to know where scaling and sizing is happening. I certainly would be able to keep track of it in an edit, but when doing a collaborative workflow, it's a lot of digging to figure out what's actually happening.

I'll put in a feature request, but it would be extremely convenient to have true nesting, with retained frame sizes that match output settings for these types of workflows.

Edit: Since there's a windowed view into the 4K timeline, Setting the source clip to 1 inside the Compound or Fusion Clip, which to the program monitor is zoomed in and unable to see final positioning. We can retain the scale data of the Fusion Clip and Compound Clip to .5 and we retain the information as we scale down. This is the first time I've been able to make this happen as expected.

This is the benefit of this approach, yes.

Unfortunately, all transforms that are done inside the fusion page will require a background node set to your output sizing, and use that as reference for what you'll see in the final timeline.

Yes. I first discovered this approach when trying to place a horizontal UHD timeline into a 1080x1920 vertical timeline. The intent was not to scale the UHD timeline nested into the vertical timeline, just to pan the nested timeline to maintain focus on the subject.

What isn't clear to me is where you need to disable the resizing method. You can do it at the timeline level for both output and timeline (separate settings) and you can also do it at the clip level (and again within the nested clip - in other words, if you open a compound clip 'in timeline' you can modify the resizing algorithm within those nested clip as well). As you observed, it can be difficult to keep track of.

I'm glad I'm not the only one trying to make nesting work like we'd expect from years of AE use. In no way do I think resolve should conform to the ways I'm used to working. It'd be nice though to have a easy workflow when trying to put larger source media inside nests and use that extra resolution.

I at least have a working alternative that I didn't before, thanks Steve, appreciate your knowledge.