Just wanted to keep a list of all the container types in Resolve along with their behaviors for the purposes of discussions.
Timeline- Does have timeline settings.
- Does show up in the timeline's list.
- Can't be created in a timeline.
- Can have grades applied to the clips inside of them
- Can have timeline level grades.
- Can have clip grades applied to them in a parent timeline.
- Can contain video tracks.
- Can contain audio tracks.
- Contained audio tracks can be heard in parent timelines.
- Can contain adjustment clips.
- Contained adjustment clips do apply to parent timeline clips.
- Contained adjustment clips do get applied to other contained clips when view in a parent timeline.
- Can contain compositions.
- Contained compositions can be viewed from parent timelines.
- Can contain Fusion Clips.
- Contained Fusion Clipscan be viewed from parent timelines.
- Can be Decomposed in Place.
- Appears flattened to its Fusion composition.
Compound Clip- Does not have timeline settings
- Does not show up in the timeline's list.
- Can be created in a timeline.
- Can have grades applied to the clips inside of them
- Can't have timeline level grades.
- Can have clip grades applied to them in a parent timeline.
- Can contain video tracks.
- Can contain audio tracks.
- Contained audio tracks can be heard in parent timelines.
- Can contain adjustment clips.
- Can't be created with adjustment clips.
- Contained adjustment clips do apply to parent timeline clips.
- Contained adjustment clips do get applied to other contained clips when view in a parent timeline.
- Can contain compositions.
- Can be created with compositions.
- Contained compositions can be viewed from parent timelines.
- Can contain Fusion Clips.
- Can be created with Fusion Clips.
- Contained Fusion Clips can be viewed from parent timelines.
- Can be Decomposed in Place.
- Appears flattened to its Fusion composition.
Multicam Clip- Does not have timeline settings
- Does not show up in the timeline's list.
- Can't be created in a timeline.
- Can have grades applied to the clips inside of them
- Can't have timeline level grades.
- Can have clip grades applied to them in a parent timeline.
- Can contain video tracks.
- Can contain audio tracks.
- One of the contained audio tracks can be heard in parent timelines.
- Can contain adjustment clips.
- Can be created with adjustment clips but it breaks the multicam clip
- Contained adjustment clips do apply to parent timeline clips.
- Contained adjustment clips don't get applied to other contained clips when view in a parent timeline.
- Can contain compositions.
- Can be created with compositions but it breaks the multicam clip
- Contained compositions can be viewed from parent timelines.
- Can contain Fusion Clips.
- Can be created with Fusion clips but it breaks the multicam clip
- Contained Fusion clips can't be viewed from parent timelines.
- Can't be Decomposed in Place.
- Appears flattened to its Fusion composition.
Fusion Clip- Does not have timeline settings
- Does not show up in the timeline's list.
- Can be created in a timeline.
- Can have grades applied to the clips inside of them
- Can't have timeline level grades.
- Can have clip grades applied to them in a parent timeline.
- Can contain video tracks.
- Can contain audio tracks.
- Contained audio tracks can't be heard in parent timelines.
- Can contain adjustment clips.
- Can't be created with adjustment clips.
- Contained adjustment clips don't apply to parent timeline clips.
- Contained adjustment clips do get applied to other contained clips when view in a parent timeline.
- Can contain compositions.
- Can't be created with compositions.
- Contained compositions can't be viewed from parent timelines.
- Can contain Fusion Clips.
- Can be created with Fusion clips.
- Contained Fusion clips can't be viewed from parent timelines.
- Can't be Decomposed in Place.
- Appears de-composed to its Fusion composition.
- Contained compositions can't be viewed by it's Fusion composition.
- Contained Fusion clips can't be viewed by it's Fusion composition.
VFX Connect Clip- Does not have timeline settings
- Does not show up in the timeline's list.
- Can be created in a timeline.
- Can have grades applied to the clips inside of them
- Can't have timeline level grades.
- Can have clip grades applied to them in a parent timeline.
- Can contain video tracks.
- Can't contain audio tracks.
- Can't contain adjustment clips.
- Can't contain compositions.
- Can contain Fusion Clips.
- Can be created with Fusion clips.
- Contained Fusion clips can't be viewed from parent timelines.
- Can't be Decomposed in Place.
- Appears flattened to its Fusion composition.
In SummarySome obvious things here. Anything named "Clip" will not have Timeline settings or timeline grades because it isn't a timeline. Makes sense all the sense in the world. However you'd think if it were a clip then it would think something like a Compound Clip or Multicam Clip would just act like a clip container with all it's clips more or less acting as if they were decomposed to the parent timeline. Instead it kind of acts like a Pre-comp in After Effects with all the clips adopting the resolution of the timeline the container was created in or exists in. Both Compound and MultiCam can have transforms and grades applied to them and can both be de-composed or "flattened" but they lose the former when the latter happens. In theory, BMD could allow those transforms and effects to be push to an Adjustment Layer that gets created when either is de-composed or flattened. Alternatively, they could be appended to the grades of the individual flattened clips on the MultiCam Clip instead.
Fusion Clips are the Multicam Clips compositing equivalent. I personally have never liked them, really want them gone, and think they are the least needed container type in Resolve and this post made me dislike them more. They can technically contain pretty much every clip type can't actually make use of and won't acknowledge them in their parent timelines or compositions. There main intended benefit is that you can color grade and edit clips before they're exposed as tracks to the Fusion composition but you can't see the edit points in Fusion, you can only change their internal timeline when viewing them as timelines, and you can only access it's composition if you back out of that timeline. There's pretty much no way to use them to their fullest "potential" without constantly switching between pages, going into the Fusion Clip, backing out of it then going backing in, etc. It's a giant time sink that outwardly may appear to be brimming with potential but ultimately overcomplicates every process it was meant to solve. I hate them lol
I don't think anybody would expect that VFX Connect Clips would actually work like timelines. I'm honestly not even sure why they allow you to view it as one but I put it here for just for completeness. One thing that surprised me is that it was at least very consistent in that it will not allow you to place any kind of media in that it can't actually use. It's not without it's strange behaviors though. For example, you can create VFX Connect clip out of any of the other containers and it will display each of them correctly because renders them out to flattened media before sending them to Fusion stand-alone. That makes sense but it still allows you to modify those enclosed containers even though the changes won't propagate anything. That could just be solved by not allowing people to view it's internal timeline. Alternately, it could probably be set up like Composition that can be view in Fusion but lacks the ability to update in the timeline without rendering. That would still allow you to work with it within Resolve, as part of Fusion standalone or with other VFX software.
While all these containers are probably all identical structurally behind the scenes, they do work very differently. If we had the ability to create Timeline in the same way we can create Compound Clip then I think this whole topic probably would have played out differently. Instead of talking about the weaknesses of Compound Clips we'd probably be asking for more differentiation between how they work compared to timelines.
I'm for getting rid of Fusion Clips completely, taking away the nested timeline structure of VFX Connect clips completely, and adding the ability to make timelines within another timeline. I'm against making them all act more like timelines.
Lastly, I'm indifferent about merging the creation process of Timelines and Compound Clips. One one hand, both already prompt you with questions about settings before they're actually created so combining those prompts won't make either process longer and it would clean up some of the context menu. The same would be cool for merging New VFX Connect clip and New Fusion composition (Not Fusion Clip). However, I don't agree that it would better convey that there are differences between Timelines and Compound Clips. I think as long as the user sees both options next to each other, they'll know they're different. I think placing an option that ultimate decides whether or not it's a Compound Clip or a Timeline with an already populated prompt will probably just obscure the fact that there's an option to begin with. I don't think we can't determine an implementation detail like that until we decide on some sort of consensus on how the two should differ. As was previously mentioned, Compound Clips don't populate the timelines dropdown but they do populate the Media Pool. With the ability to create Timelines from clips in a timeline, would anybody still have a use for Compound Clips where they would get any benefit from it populating the Media Pool?
TheBloke wrote:And another arbitrary limitation: there's no Decompose In Place option for Fusion Clips.
I imagine that limitation exists because Fusion clips are just live VFX Connect clips in that it's a composition first and timeline second. It's the only container type mentioned above that maintains an associate Fusion composition within the Media Pool and when you Reset a Fusion clips composition, it can't revert to a blank comp like the other ones do.
Mel Matsuoka wrote:Here’s a new one...Noise Reduction doesn’t work on Compound Clips:
viewtopic.php?t=99384
It does on my end.