- Posts: 157
- Joined: Mon Apr 12, 2021 4:32 pm
- Real Name: Gabriel Stevens
Fri May 13, 2022 1:08 pm
Hi guys,
first of all - thank you so much for this wonderful tool. Davinci Resolve is the most versatile post production tool out there and it's getting better with every version.
In my 20 years of experience, I've been working on Avid, FCP, Premiere, Edius and Vegas. I am mentioning this to make it clear that I can adapt to many different ways of getting the job done. So please spare me with comments like "Oh, with Davinci you just going to have to rethink editing" or "Oh, just avoid doing that" or "Davinci is just different, get used to it". I really have no problem whatsoever to adapt, trust me. And there's many wonderful and more efficient ways to do things in Davinci. However, there are a few things missing in the edit page that need to get done in order to attract professional full time editors that handle big projects with big timelines and many sequences. I know that I am not alone with this. Many of my colleagues feel the same way and would like to switch to Davinci but don't, mainly because of the things mentioned below.
So let's get started.
1 - track patching
The way Davinci handles track patching is not good. We need to be able to patch every audio and video track of the source to any audio and video track of the sequence. Premiere and Avid handle this very well.
Example: You have a source with 6 audio tracks but you only need v1 and the lav mic on a6. In my sequence I need the lav mic on a1 and v2 on v3.
The functionality has been discussed already in this thread (and even a few more): viewtopic.php?f=21&t=87084
2 - timeline view of the source monitor
This is a very powerful thing that Avid does. Let's say I've made a sequence with my selects. Could be anything from a multicam clip to a regular sequence. I need to be able to switch the timeline view from the record to the source clip to set ins and outs more precisely by zooming in and viewing the waveform of the source clip. I know that Davinci gives me the option to swap timeline and source viewer but it's very confusing. Avid indicates the switch by changing the color of the playhead. Combined with real track patching that I've mentioned above, this is a very effective and fast way of editing.
This functionality has also been discussed in the above mentioned thread: viewtopic.php?f=21&t=87084
3 - alignment of track properties/selectors
There's a few buttons in the track panel like the "lock", "track selectors", "enable/disable", "mute" and "solo". The problem is that once you resize one track, these buttons are not aligned anymore. The way Davinci handles this does save some space and it certainly looks nice but it's not practical. It's very hard to read in one gaze and certainly makes it impossible to select/deselect a few buttons in one swipe (pressing shift). And yes, I could just make all tracks the same size but most of the time that's not what you would want or need.
4 - auto track selectors vs. magnets and track targeting
Okay, I think that Davinci was looking to simplify things by combining track selecting and sync locks into one "auto track selector" button. A lot of times this would work nicely but there's also a lot of times where you need them separately. Sometimes it's important to keep a few tracks in sync and have functions like for example "move to next edit" react to one specific track. Currently, this is not possible. It's also not possible to deselect one track in order to detach it from the synced tracks. Even with the "auto track selector" deselected, the other tracks would react to changes in this specific track. The only way is to deactivate the sync of all tracks to prevent Davinci from doing this. While there's a few ways of optimizing this, I like how Avid calls the sync locks "magnets". If one track is not magnetized, the others won't react to it.
5 - snapping
Two things about snapping. First: It would be great to have a function that would snap to the last frame before the edit. Many times that's what you need to set an OUT in the timeline because you don't want to include the first frame after the cut.
Second: Please let us use the modifier keys for snapping. It's easier because you don't have to look down at your keyboard to find these buttons. Obviously, this is just possible if you change the behavior where snapping would only happen while the key is pressed. That's the way it works in Avid and how it worked in FCP7 (not sure about FCPX). Premiere let's you choose between the two and you can snap to last and first frame by pressing shift:
This issue has already been discussed in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=33&t=139326
6 - cut/copy into source
This would only work in combination with the real track patching mentioned in point 1 above. Avid gives me the option to select something in the timeline and cut/copy it to the source monitor. This is very cool because once it's in the source I can decide via track patching where I would want to put it in my record timeline. I can somehow influence this via the auto track selectors in Davinci but it's very limited.
7 - set time for play around edit in trim mode and show frame changes in active trim
In Avid you can adjust the length of pre- and postroll in trim mode right underneath the monitors. Since this is something you might want to change swiftly - depending on the cut that you are working on - I think it's better to have it there instead of the preference pane. Avid also shows you how many frames you've moved the cut from its original timing. What's also nice is that most NLEs go straight into "play around edit mode" once you are in trim mode and selected a cut.
It's well explained in this video:
Nice to have: Sometimes you need to do very complex bidirectional trims where you select the trim point for each track manually. This happens a lot when doing small changes in very complex sequences. So option-click trim mode would allow you to put the editor back in trim mode and into the selection that was last used. Big time saver!
--
This is it for now. I hope you will be able to review this list thoroughly and think about if or how you want to implement this into Davinci. Maybe there are also different ways of implementing these things than the way I suggested but surely, the edit page needs an overhaul. The cut page is interesting and very handy for a handful of scenarios but also very limited in its own way.
If there's already a way of doing the things I've mentioned, please let me know! Always keen to learn new stuff
first of all - thank you so much for this wonderful tool. Davinci Resolve is the most versatile post production tool out there and it's getting better with every version.
In my 20 years of experience, I've been working on Avid, FCP, Premiere, Edius and Vegas. I am mentioning this to make it clear that I can adapt to many different ways of getting the job done. So please spare me with comments like "Oh, with Davinci you just going to have to rethink editing" or "Oh, just avoid doing that" or "Davinci is just different, get used to it". I really have no problem whatsoever to adapt, trust me. And there's many wonderful and more efficient ways to do things in Davinci. However, there are a few things missing in the edit page that need to get done in order to attract professional full time editors that handle big projects with big timelines and many sequences. I know that I am not alone with this. Many of my colleagues feel the same way and would like to switch to Davinci but don't, mainly because of the things mentioned below.
So let's get started.
1 - track patching
The way Davinci handles track patching is not good. We need to be able to patch every audio and video track of the source to any audio and video track of the sequence. Premiere and Avid handle this very well.
Example: You have a source with 6 audio tracks but you only need v1 and the lav mic on a6. In my sequence I need the lav mic on a1 and v2 on v3.
The functionality has been discussed already in this thread (and even a few more): viewtopic.php?f=21&t=87084
2 - timeline view of the source monitor
This is a very powerful thing that Avid does. Let's say I've made a sequence with my selects. Could be anything from a multicam clip to a regular sequence. I need to be able to switch the timeline view from the record to the source clip to set ins and outs more precisely by zooming in and viewing the waveform of the source clip. I know that Davinci gives me the option to swap timeline and source viewer but it's very confusing. Avid indicates the switch by changing the color of the playhead. Combined with real track patching that I've mentioned above, this is a very effective and fast way of editing.
This functionality has also been discussed in the above mentioned thread: viewtopic.php?f=21&t=87084
3 - alignment of track properties/selectors
There's a few buttons in the track panel like the "lock", "track selectors", "enable/disable", "mute" and "solo". The problem is that once you resize one track, these buttons are not aligned anymore. The way Davinci handles this does save some space and it certainly looks nice but it's not practical. It's very hard to read in one gaze and certainly makes it impossible to select/deselect a few buttons in one swipe (pressing shift). And yes, I could just make all tracks the same size but most of the time that's not what you would want or need.
4 - auto track selectors vs. magnets and track targeting
Okay, I think that Davinci was looking to simplify things by combining track selecting and sync locks into one "auto track selector" button. A lot of times this would work nicely but there's also a lot of times where you need them separately. Sometimes it's important to keep a few tracks in sync and have functions like for example "move to next edit" react to one specific track. Currently, this is not possible. It's also not possible to deselect one track in order to detach it from the synced tracks. Even with the "auto track selector" deselected, the other tracks would react to changes in this specific track. The only way is to deactivate the sync of all tracks to prevent Davinci from doing this. While there's a few ways of optimizing this, I like how Avid calls the sync locks "magnets". If one track is not magnetized, the others won't react to it.
5 - snapping
Two things about snapping. First: It would be great to have a function that would snap to the last frame before the edit. Many times that's what you need to set an OUT in the timeline because you don't want to include the first frame after the cut.
Second: Please let us use the modifier keys for snapping. It's easier because you don't have to look down at your keyboard to find these buttons. Obviously, this is just possible if you change the behavior where snapping would only happen while the key is pressed. That's the way it works in Avid and how it worked in FCP7 (not sure about FCPX). Premiere let's you choose between the two and you can snap to last and first frame by pressing shift:
This issue has already been discussed in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=33&t=139326
6 - cut/copy into source
This would only work in combination with the real track patching mentioned in point 1 above. Avid gives me the option to select something in the timeline and cut/copy it to the source monitor. This is very cool because once it's in the source I can decide via track patching where I would want to put it in my record timeline. I can somehow influence this via the auto track selectors in Davinci but it's very limited.
7 - set time for play around edit in trim mode and show frame changes in active trim
In Avid you can adjust the length of pre- and postroll in trim mode right underneath the monitors. Since this is something you might want to change swiftly - depending on the cut that you are working on - I think it's better to have it there instead of the preference pane. Avid also shows you how many frames you've moved the cut from its original timing. What's also nice is that most NLEs go straight into "play around edit mode" once you are in trim mode and selected a cut.
It's well explained in this video:
Nice to have: Sometimes you need to do very complex bidirectional trims where you select the trim point for each track manually. This happens a lot when doing small changes in very complex sequences. So option-click trim mode would allow you to put the editor back in trim mode and into the selection that was last used. Big time saver!
--
This is it for now. I hope you will be able to review this list thoroughly and think about if or how you want to implement this into Davinci. Maybe there are also different ways of implementing these things than the way I suggested but surely, the edit page needs an overhaul. The cut page is interesting and very handy for a handful of scenarios but also very limited in its own way.
If there's already a way of doing the things I've mentioned, please let me know! Always keen to learn new stuff
Last edited by gabe67 on Tue May 17, 2022 2:10 pm, edited 10 times in total.
Davinci Resolve Studio 18.5, MacOS Ventura, Macbook Pro M1 Max
