Blackmagic Forum

We use powergrades to share looks and technical transforms between several rooms. How do we migrate these powergrade to a new database? We are not able to export the powergrades with stills as most of the grades are created on other workstations or even no longer existing workstations. All rooms can see the powergrade picons on the server but we are unable to move them into a new database. A lot of work has gone into the creation of more than 10 powergrade folders with custom tools and picons so I hope someone out there has a solution to our problem?

I'm a little confused.

If you have access to the PowerGrade album, then you should be able to right click on any Still and Export.

You're saying you can't?

Yes. It says the still is missing. I am not interested in the original high res stills that are missing but just to be able to move the powergrade with the associated thumbnail into a new database. This seems to be an impossible task and now a huge problem. If anyone knows what to do it would be a great help. Is it possible to retrieve the thumbnails from the SQL database as a workaround?

Has no one else come up against this problem? I don't see why it isn't simply a copy and paste operation between databases.

There is a copy and past function. While in the database you want to copy from, there is an "X" icon for the gallery view. It will give a window and show you the other project databases on the server. You can navigate to the database you want to copy to and highlight and drag your stills up to the new database powergrade.

However, if your getting a "missing still" notice, the actual link to the still might be broken. Which means you won't be able to view the image but you can still access the color information from the .drx file. If you right click on the still, go to still properties and it will give you the path the powergrade gallery is saved to. From there you can extract the .drx file which contains the node information.

Hope this helps!

Thank you for the suggestion. It doesn't really help me as most of the stills are no longer in their original location. I can see all the picons from the shared project server and that is all I need, but I can't have it for reasons known only to the programmers of the software. exporting drx files without stills and generating new stills and text is going to take us forever. I think this is overly complicated and a really bad workflow for the users of the software.

Rune Felix Holm wrote:Yes. It says the still is missing.

Ahhh.

That's not normal. How'd they get moved?

Rune Felix Holm wrote:We use powergrades to share looks and technical transforms between several rooms. How do we migrate these powergrade to a new database? We are not able to export the powergrades with stills as most of the grades are created on other workstations or even no longer existing workstations.

We do this all the time, and our method is this:

Because of the amount of freelance work I do around town, I made a PowerGrades folder that I throw on a thumbdrive and take along with me (assuming I can get USB access to the client computer). I can always restore these in a few minutes whenever I create a new Project Database.

I export each PowerGrade folder to its own similarly-named folder, and I also create an embedded graphic for each PowerGrade (and a label) so I can see at a glance what I have. Make sure you name each Gallery Still and also Name Each Node when you create the Powergrade. From inside the new Resolve system (or on another database), I create a new Powergrade folder and label it accordingly. Then I switch to "1 Still Per Scene" and import just the DRX files, which also brings along the associated still frame.



I have hundreds and hundreds of them (looks and fixes and node setups, oh my), so it helps to stay organized and have different folders for different looks or different projects (or different effects). Be aware that you can't move Powergrades -- or grades of any kind -- from 18.6 back to 18.5. You can always go up a version, but never down.

Jim Simon wrote:

Rune Felix Holm wrote:Yes. It says the still is missing.

Ahhh.

That's not normal. How'd they get moved?

Most of the stills were originally created on a machine that is no longer at our facility. We can see the shared powergrade picons in the powergrade folders but we cannot copy them to a new database for reasons known only to the developers. When 5-6 rooms share a database this must happen all the time. Machines get reinstalled, projects get deleted after completion and so on.

Rune Felix Holm wrote:When 5-6 rooms share a database

These are Network Libraries?

I would not expect any single machine besides the Server to hold those PowerGrade albums. But then, I've never used anything but Local Libraries.

Sorry I couldn't help.

Mr Mark, Good mOrning
i have a question
how you created the "embedded graphic for PowerGrade"

dkeefe wrote:There is a copy and paste function. While in the database you want to copy from, there is an "X" icon for the gallery view. It will give a window and show you the other project databases on the server. You can navigate to the database you want to copy to and highlight and drag your stills up to the new database powergrade.

This!! Don't overlook this answer. This is how you can drag and drop powergrades between databases. I use a network server for databases and it works. I also was having the same error message when exporting stills/grades as the OP, but this technique still works. Thank you dkeefe for figuring this out.

Mammifero wrote:Mr Mark, Good mOrning... i have a question... how you created the "embedded graphic for PowerGrade"

I go over to the Edit page and create a background with a Title that specifically names the node in easy-to-read Capital Letters. I go back to the Color page and grab the still in the PowerWindow bin (just the specific PowerGrade node and nothing else), and then name the still. Note that the Still not only has an embedded label, but also has an easy-to read Title burned into the frame, so you can see it at a distance.

There are a few companies selling PowerGrades, and they do the same thing so you can easily move around and organize the PowerGrades with whatever system you're using.

Four companies I'd recommend that sell PowerGrades:

https://pixeltoolspost.com/
https://www.demystify-color.com/
https://mononodes.com/
https://juanmelara.com.au/store

dkeefe wrote:There is a copy and past function. While in the database you want to copy from, there is an "X" icon for the gallery view. It will give a window and show you the other project databases on the server. You can navigate to the database you want to copy to and highlight and drag your stills up to the new database powergrade.

However, if your getting a "missing still" notice, the actual link to the still might be broken. Which means you won't be able to view the image but you can still access the color information from the .drx file. If you right click on the still, go to still properties and it will give you the path the powergrade gallery is saved to. From there you can extract the .drx file which contains the node information.

Hope this helps!

Great tip.

Marc Wielage wrote:

Rune Felix Holm wrote:We use powergrades to share looks and technical transforms between several rooms. How do we migrate these powergrade to a new database? We are not able to export the powergrades with stills as most of the grades are created on other workstations or even no longer existing workstations.

We do this all the time, and our method is this:

Because of the amount of freelance work I do around town, I made a PowerGrades folder that I throw on a thumbdrive and take along with me (assuming I can get USB access to the client computer). I can always restore these in a few minutes whenever I create a new Project Database.

I export each PowerGrade folder to its own similarly-named folder, and I also create an embedded graphic for each PowerGrade (and a label) so I can see at a glance what I have. Make sure you name each Gallery Still and also Name Each Node when you create the Powergrade. From inside the new Resolve system (or on another database), I create a new Powergrade folder and label it accordingly. Then I switch to "1 Still Per Scene" and import just the DRX files, which also brings along the associated still frame.



I have hundreds and hundreds of them (looks and fixes and node setups, oh my), so it helps to stay organized and have different folders for different looks or different projects (or different effects). Be aware that you can't move Powergrades -- or grades of any kind -- from 18.6 back to 18.5. You can always go up a version, but never down.

Thanks. I will keep this in mind as well.