Thoughts on version control for Fusion - comments welcome

We often see composites go to 20+ versions, and it is frequently necessary to go back to pull something from a previous version, so we like to keep those versions of the comp file on hand. In addition, it's frequently necessary to be able to quickly do an A/B comparison between two versions to evaluate changes, which are often quite subtle.

At present, I do not see any means of tracking multiple versions of a Fusion composite in Resolve without performing an export. In addition, it's difficult to review multiple versions of the render. I experimented a little with the Take Selector, and I think with some enhancements it could fit the bill.

Suppose that once in the Take Selector, there were a button to create a Fusion clip. This would make a new comp file with a version number and an independent clip in the Take Selector such that the first take is the unaltered plate, and the output of the Fusion comp is the second. If another Fusion comp were created from the existing composite, the Flow would be copied into the new comp file and its output used for yet another Take. The user could still select the first composite, and go into that comp if it were necessary.

In the Fusion tab, there could be a menu option to create a new version, which would copy the Flow into a new comp and set its output as another Take in the Take Selector.

I'd also think that a means of moving up and down the stack with a hotkey would be necessary, and perhaps a way to mark two Takes so that an A/B comparison between them could be done without necessarily having to step up and down through any versions between them.

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Any other thoughts on features for managing composite versions? Any problems you can see with this proposal or improvements that could be made to it?

Bryan, did you notice that if you view the Clips tab in Fusion page, and right click on a clip, you get a comp versioning menu?

I did not; thank you!

So that's half of the thing. What about quick A/B of those versions?

That is a Resolve thing, hiding features into obscure places.

But it would be really useful if we could render the fusion clip into a file, and compare the versions in the edit page. We can already do that with the VFX connect (formerly known as Fusion Connect).

Great thread, highlighting some issues I have too with resolve for vfx.

Comps can usually get 20+ revisions, but so can other departments that also use comp as a central place to create files for review.
How can you easily include a comp for say roto review, paint review, lighting review and other triage work ?

Are we limited to "a" version, or can we have variants of a version. Like in a real pipeline.

I've been thinking about this as well. I haven't gotten a chance to test any of the new features in Resolve 15 but one thought I had was to use compound clips for this purpose. The logic would be either a color coding system or a layer based system where the top layer is always the most recent version of the clip would feed "up" to the timeline. Approaching it this way would require some kind of copy and pasting from one comp to the other or making use of the effects library. Here's a simple example of it looking something like this.

V4 - Full Sim/3D renders
V3 - sim/3D - proxy renders
V2 - Roto/key
V1 - Plate

Another option would be to use the multicam features in Resolve, where each version is it's own Multi-cam angle. I'm not sure what the theoretical limit for angles on multi cam or if they even work with Fusion comps.

[Peter Chamberlain]

The need for working with and comparing multiple comps is no lost on us.. but keep letting us know what you need.. its a long project.

Reviving this thread because I would love for Resolve to be a bigger/easier pipeline tool. I already use it for converting exr sequences from fusion standalone to video files to show clients. Some more versioning, A/B compare tools and scripting improvements would be great.

Generation is dead and it seems like the Studio Player from Fusion is too. Besides some cool ideas like the chat, adding notes, doing quick reels and so on. It would be cool to see Resolve take that place.

Resolve with the Fusion page is somewhat like Nuke Studio already and VFX connect also makes it simple to connect to Fusion Studio but that's all very constrained to the default behaviour. Making proper shot management on disk and servers difficult.

I would love to link the output of comps from Fusion Studio to Resolve, so it might automatically import new versions. Making Resolve the place where everything comes together.

I also wouldn't mind if that was something you script for yourself, but for that, the scripts would need to be easier accessible.
So far you have to go through several tabs and you can't undock it like in Fusion Studio on windows. So if you have to run a script a few times from withing resolve, you'll click a lot.
Adding certain scripts to shortcuts or to right click menus would be awesome.

For example, I could create a script to replace the current clip in the timeline with the next version. The script could automatically search for the next version in the shots folder, load that in the media pool and insert it in the timeline. Just by right clicking and selecting the appropriate script.

Or better: Having a (on/off toggleable) toolbar above the timeline that we can fill with custom buttons that run scripts.
Could work like placing buttons on tools or macros in Fusion.
Pair this with presets like the new Fusion toolbar from 17 and you can have different toolbars with different button scripts depending on whether you're adding VFX shots to the timeline or you're editing.

While I am of course only thinking about my own VFX workflow, this could potentially be great for other types of work as well.
I am working together with a company right now that, while editing on avid, does all the exports (and of course the grading) through Resolve. Similar to me, most shots come into resolve at some point. Having to do less manual work could strengthen Resolves position as a core pipeline tool.

Adding in additional features like versioning, a/b comparisons, adding notes and making scripting more accessible would do a lot.
For me, the increase in functions available and easier access to scripts would be the biggest wish on this list. Because of that's a given, users can customize their workflow as they see fit.

But I'm just brainstorming here or maybe some things already exist and I don't know about them. This is an old thread so maybe by now other people have better ideas.

PS: Having the ability to set project related favourites folders on the Media Page would also be a huge time saver for me for when I'm adding shots to the media pool (currently by hand).
I only need quick access to certain folders inside the projects folder on that single project, but those are useless to me when I'm on a different project. So having separate global and project-local favourites would be awesome.