Blackmagic Forum

Hello everyone,

I am new to this forum as well as I'm new to Davinci Resolve. I have edited in Premiere Pro in the past few years, however I have decided that I want to learn Davinci Resolve as well, in depth. I have found some of the certified training courses such as ones at mixinglight.com, rippletraining.com and fxphd.com. However I don't know what's the difference between these different trainings but there is a difference in price. So, which of the certified training courses would you recommend to someone who wants to thoroughly learn Resolve from the scratch?

Also, do I need a high end, color accurate monitor in order to properly complete these trainings?

Thank you all in advance.

This thread is a good start.

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=54139

You don't need a calibrated monitor for training only, you'll still see what you are doing.
But for serious production you'll need one.

Btw, welcome!

Uli Plank wrote:You don't need a calibrated monitor for training only, you'll still see what you are doing.

hmm -- unfortunately i can not really agree.

in most other video processing software, you can at least simply set standard display filters (or they are already active as the default behavior) to get a 'somehow' acceptable/realistic preview within the applications GUI windows on ordinary sRGB computer screens, but in case of resolve you need at least some kind of customized preview LUTs to realize even this minimalist requirement -- i.e. to see, what you will finally get as result resp. how it looks in another reliable video player. it's therefore much harder to get any useful results for beginners without additional equipment in this particular software than in case of most similar software.

Martin Schitter wrote:

Uli Plank wrote:You don't need a calibrated monitor for training only, you'll still see what you are doing.

hmm -- unfortunately i can not really agree.

in most other video processing software, you can at least simply set standard display filters (or they are already active as the default behavior) to get a 'somehow' acceptable/realistic preview within the applications GUI windows on ordinary sRGB computer screens, but in case of resolve you need at least some kind of customized preview LUTs to realize even this minimalist requirement -- i.e. to see, what you will finally get as result resp. how it looks in another reliable video player. it's therefore much harder to get any useful results for beginners without additional equipment in this particular software than in case of most similar software.

Martin, just to learn the basic he does not need a monitor, when you need to actually do some useful work, then yes..

waltervolpatto wrote:Martin, just to learn the basic he does not need a monitor, when you need to actually do some useful work, then yes..

yes, he could play around with some interesting new possibilities in an unfamiliar sand box, and this may be indeed instructive and opening new insights...

nevertheless it looks very natural to me, that he also wants to archive more satisfaying results by this practical efforts than in his old software. that's more a less an inevitable desire, because "learning" is in most cases motivated and driven by some kind of feedback, which should lead to increasingly more satisfaying results and let you become better and better in small -- but never the less "practical" -- steps.

i absolutely agree, that it doesn't make sense, to presuppose, that everybody has already access to all the necessary production means from day one -- to the contrary: i really respect and like this kind of interest, curiosity and open minded personal development -- but resolve and it's very unsatisfying support of exiting commodity hardware and computer screen preview capabilities in particular makes it unnecessary hard for beginners, to come close to at least moderate "useful" output resp. more satisfaying actual results without further hardware purchases. in this respect it looks much more unsatisfying and less practical useful for beginners than most similar software.

I found this to be an outstanding resource.

https://www.amazon.com/Definitive-Guide ... 0999391305

Thank you all for replying guys, it means a lot to me. Martin I was afraid that someone would give a similar answer like you did, thank you for being honest with me. This is exactly what keeps me from paying for these training courses in the first place, lack of equipment, especially the monitor.
However I can still say I am a amateur video editor, who wants to learn and maybe do this job for living. That is why I am interested in learning a software like Resolve, to expand my knowledge and make money of course. However I'm really not sure what should my next step be because, I do not know when will I be able to afford proper equipment for this software, and is it worth it to buy these courses now, when I have some basic equipment?

Also I would be happy if someone could suggest a budget monitor option, something that can get me started at least.

There are several Resolve video training courses out there, you may want to look into. Or if there is some film school nearby you that offers training, that may be even a better option. I'm taking an upcoming Advanced Resolve class at the Austin Film School this coming weekend.

One video course I bought which I think is pretty good, is from Warren Eagles.
https://www.fxphd.com/new-resolve-v14/

This book from Alexis Van Hurkman is also highly rated too, and goes over a lot of the technical aspect for color correction.
https://www.amazon.com/Color-Correction-Handbook-Professional-Techniques/dp/0321929667/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1531147891&sr=1-5&keywords=davinci+resolve

As you are just starting out and coming to this from an amateur standpoint, don't be lured into spending money on things that are not strictly necessary. Yes, a calibrated monitor is nice, but you can still work with a standard monitor. As for video editing, I am in the amateur camp producing video content for my YouTube channel. I have no problem working with a standard computer monitor when it comes to grading. Commercial content and paying clients would be a different story.
Best way to learn Resolve is look at some tutorials and then start editing some content. Though they use version 12, I found these to be particularly useful. https://www.youtube.com/user/goatseyeviewUK

Jim Simon wrote:I found this to be an outstanding resource.

https://www.amazon.com/Definitive-Guide ... 0999391305

I second that. It's an excellent guide, and BMD has some more in the works, to be released when v15 comes out of beta.

rueful wrote:Also I would be happy if someone could suggest a budget monitor option, something that can get me started at least.

Like Walter and Uli said, you can get quite far on the learning curve without a proper calibrated setup. You'll in the process probably end up learning why a properly calibrated setup is important, and as you learn you'll raise your standards... you'll know when you reach the point where you need a calibrated monitor.

In the interim, a reasonably good TV will work, and if you want an inexpensive way to get a full-screen preview of what you're working with look at a reasonable HD tv monitor and a BMD UltraStudio mini monitor or a Decklink card or similar, depending on what sort of machine you're using.

However... you can also build up your system gradually by starting with a TV connected over HDMI, adding a probe (preferably one that SpecraCal and Light Illusion support), and then later adding the LUTbox.

You'll have to get there eventually to do production work, but you don't have to rush into it. You can grow your system to a professional state gradually as you develop your skills and better understand what you need and why.

An I/O device is not (necessarily) a LUT box. Most of the cheap ones are not.

Rakesh Malik wrote:Like Walter and Uli said, you can get quite far on the learning curve without a proper calibrated setup. You'll in the process probably end up learning why a properly calibrated setup is important, and as you learn you'll raise your standards... you'll know when you reach the point where you need a calibrated monitor.

i wouldn't speak only about "calibrated monitors". a calibrated setup -- i.e. adequate 3D LUTs for an acceptable color rendition on common computer screens resp. resolves GUI -- looks like the most natural first step to me.

but it's really neccesary to master at least this significant hindrance, otherwise the visual representation on screen will unfortunatly look worse (=incorrect/unreliable) in resolve than in relative simple other applications (e.g. premiere)!

that's a very frustrating truth, because many resolve newcomers simply can not imagine, that a dedicated color grading application doesn't provide out of the box a much more adequate color rendition on screen than most simple NLEs and ordinary video players. but that's unfortunatly the case in practice!

BMD doesn't like this kind of more modern desktop video production on nowaydays computers and all their available grapics capabilites, because they are a hardware company and want to sell their own proprietary video-i/o solutions first of all. that's a well know fact, which unfortunatly makes resolve and it's actual usefulness on computer screens significant less satisfaying than possible.

Unfortunately that's true for Windows and Linux, while you can get along on the iMac with the right settings. I can understand that it's annoying for some, but it's BM's business model. We would not have a software like Resolve for free – not even for 299 – if they didn't sell some hardware too. I know what I'm speaking of, I'm currently testing a professional post-production system (focused on grading) that is considered comparatively 'cheap'. It doesn't have the features of Resolve (by far) and nevertheless costs much more. It's from a software only company…

To the OP:
If you are not on a Mac with a native screen, I'd suggest an older I/O solution from BM, some are only available second-hand by now, but really cheap. Then get a recent TV from LG or Samsung and connect it to that box. Most of these have decent Rec709 settings these days, but you may need to dive into the menus to switch off the crappy demo mode from the store.

Try https://filmsimplified.com/
It's fast and easy. Very user friendly and it has very good material.