Reference Manual DaVinci Resolve August 2020 English Leading the Creative Video Revolution
Welcome Welcome to DaVinci Resolve for Mac, Linux and Windows! DaVinci is the world’s most trusted name in color and has been used to grade more Hollywood films, TV shows, and commercials than anything else.
Navigation Guide Hover over and click the Contents Heading and it opens the Main Content Page at the beginning of the manual Hover over and click each title and it opens the Page accordingly Hover over and click the footer on each page and it opens the Chapter Content Page DaVinci Resolve Reference Manual Navigation Guide 3
Contents Getting Started with DaVinci Resolve 12 PART 1 Introduction 40 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 41 2 Managing Projects and Databases 95 3 System and User Preferences 115 4 Project Settings 143 5 Camera Raw Settings 172 6 Improving Performance, Proxies, and the Render Cache 198 7 Data Levels, Color Management, and ACES 216 8 HDR Setup and Grading 236 9 Image Sizing and Resolution Independence 260 PART 2 Ingest and Organize Media 274 10 Using the Media Page 275 11
PART 3 The Cut Page 396 18 Introducing the Cut Page 397 19 Importing and Organizing Media in the Cut Page 412 20 Fast Editing in the Cut Page 422 21 Trimming in the Cut Page 443 22 Video and Audio Effects in the Cut Page 457 23 Quick Export 472 24 Using the DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard with the Cut Page 476 PART 4 Edit 494 25 Using the Edit Page 495 26 Creating and Working with Timelines 534 27 Preparing Clips for Editing and Viewer Playback 549 28 Editing Basics 569
PART 5 Edit Page Effects 791 39 Editing, Adding, and Copying Effects and Filters 792 40 Titles, Generators, and Stills 805 41 Compositing and Transforms in the Timeline 818 42 Speed Effects 833 43 Subtitles and Closed Captioning 846 44 Keyframing Effects in the Edit Page 859 45 VFX Connect 872 PART 6 Import and Conform Projects 880 46 Preparing Timelines for Import and Comparison 881 47 Conforming and Relinking Clips 895 48 Creating Digital Dailies for Round Trip Workflows 9
61 Animating in Fusion’s Spline Editor 1212 62 Animating with Motion Paths 1243 63 Using Modifiers, Expressions, and Custom Controls 1262 64 Bins 1275 65 Fusion Connect 1296 66 Preferences 1310 67 Controlling Image Processing and Resolution 1356 68 Managing Color for Visual Effects 1367 69 Understanding Image Channels 1381 70 Compositing Layers in Fusion 1408 71 Rotoscoping with Masks 1433 72 Paint 1456 73 Using the Tracker Node 1484 74 Planar Tracking 1520 75 Usin
90 Film Nodes 2013 91 Filter Nodes 2032 92 Flow Nodes 2049 93 Flow Organizational Nodes 2053 94 Fuses 2059 95 I/O Nodes 2062 96 LUT Nodes 2087 97 Mask Nodes 2097 98 Matte Nodes 2137 99 Metadata Nodes 2195 100 Miscellaneous Nodes 2203 101 Optical Flow 2240 102 Paint Node 2254 103 Particle Nodes 2265 104 Position Nodes 2327 105 Resolve Connect 2347 106 Stereo Nodes 2354 107 Tracker Nodes 2388 108 Transform Nodes 2437 109 VR Nodes 2464 110 Warp Nodes
119 Secondary Qualifiers 2693 120 Secondary Windows and Tracking 2719 121 Motion Tracking Windows 2736 122 Using the Gallery 2762 123 Grade Management 2780 124 Node Editing Basics 2822 125 Serial, Parallel, and Layer Nodes 2843 126 Combining Keys and Using Mattes 2852 127 Channel Splitting and Image Compositing 2877 128 Keyframing in the Color Page 2893 129 Copying and Importing Grades Using ColorTrace 2910 130 Using LUTs 2921 PART 10 Color Page Effects 2931 131 DaVinc
144 ResolveFX Sharpen 3072 145 ResolveFX Stylize 3077 146 ResolveFX Texture 3089 147 ResolveFX Transform 3095 148 ResolveFX Warp 3107 PART 12 Fairlight 3115 149 Using the Fairlight Page 3116 150 Setting Up Tracks, Buses, and Patching 3156 151 Transport Controls, Timeline Navigation, and Markers 3170 152 Recording 3179 153 ADR (Automated Dialog Replacement) 3187 154 Editing Basics in the Fairlight Page 3197 155 Audio Clip Specific Inspector Adjustments 3233 156 Mixing i
PART 14 Advanced Workflows 3492 170 Frame.
DaVinci Resolve Getting Started with DaVinci Resolve DaVinci Resolve integrates editing, compositing and motion graphics, color correction, audio recording and mixing, plus finishing within a single, easy to learn application. The editing, compositing, grading, and audio tools found in DaVinci Resolve are very powerful, but simple to use.
Contents Project Manager 14 Editing using the Cut Page 14 Adding Clips to the Timeline 16 Editing Clips on the Timeline 18 Adding Titles 18 Color Correcting your Clips 19 Adding a Power Window 22 Using Plugins 24 Mixing Your Audio 25 Adding VFX and Compositing 29 Mastering your Edit 38 Quick Export 38 The Deliver Page 39 DaVinci Resolve Getting Started with DaVinci Resolve 13
Getting Started with DaVinci Resolve Project Manager Before you import your clips and start editing, you will need to set up your project using the project manager. The project manager is the first screen you will see when launching DaVinci Resolve, but you can open the manager at any time by clicking on the ‘home’ icon at the bottom right of the user interface. This is helpful when you want to open previous projects and create new ones.
The Cut page default workspace, with the Media Pool in icon view For more information on the Cut page, see Chapter 18, “Introducing the Cut Page.” Media Tabs At the top left corner of the user interface you will see five tabs. Click on these tabs to open the media toolsets you will use when creating your edit. For example, the first tab is the media pool and you can see it is already selected. The other tabs are for the sync bin, media transitions, titles and effects.
TIP: Use the search tool near the media tab icons to find the exact items you are looking for. For example, if you have the transitions tab selected, type “dissolve” in the search tool and only dissolve transition types will be shown in the viewer, making it quicker for you to find the dissolve transition you want. Viewer Tabs In the top left corner of the viewer window you will see the viewer mode buttons.
The timeline is where you will build your edit and is like a board with tracks you can attach clips to, move them around and trim their edits. Tracks let you layer clips over others which gives you more flexibility to try different edits and build transitions and effects. For example, you can try an edit with a clip on one track without affecting other clips on tracks below it. There are different ways to add clips to the timeline, such as smart insert, append, place on top and more.
Appending clips ensures there are no gaps between them on the timeline TIP: You can speed up the process further by assigning a keyboard shortcut to the ‘append’ icon. For example, if you assign the ‘P’ key, you can set your in and out points using ‘I’ and ‘O’ then press ‘P’ to append the clip. Refer to the DaVinci Resolve manual for information on how to assign shortcut keys. Editing Clips on the Timeline With clips added to the timeline, you have complete control to move them around and trim edits.
3 To edit the title, click on the new title clip and a ‘tools’ icon will appear underneath the clip viewer. Click on the tools icon. You will now see a row of tools you can use to modify the title clip. For example transform, crop, dynamic zoom and more. For this example, click on the ‘title’ tool. 4 Now click ‘open inspector’. This will open the inspector window where you can type in the title you want and edit the text settings, for example tracking, line spacing, font type, color and more.
The parade scope helps you optimize highlights, mid tones and shadows Another way to color grade is to use the built in scopes to help you balance shots. You can open a single video scope by clicking the ‘scope’ button, which is the second from the right on the palette toolbar. You can choose to display a waveform, parade, vectorscope and histogram.
Adjusting the ‘gain’: Click on the ‘gain’ dial and slide it back and forth. This adjusts the highlights which are the brightest areas of your clip. The highlights are shown on the top section of the waveform on the parade scope. For a brightly lit shot, these are best positioned just below the top line of the waveform scope. If the highlights rise above the top line of the waveform scope, they will clip and you will lose details in the brightest regions of your image.
Using the HSL qualifier to select colors in your image is helpful when you want to make areas of your image ‘pop’, to add contrast, or to help draw the audience’s attention to certain areas of your shot To qualify a color: 1 Add a new serial node. 2 Open the ‘qualifier’ palette and make sure the ‘selection range’ picker tool is selected. 3 Click on the color in your clip you want to affect.
For example, you can track a window on a person in order to make color and contrast changes just to that person without affecting his or her surroundings. By making corrections like this you can influence the audience’s attention on areas you want them to look at. To add a power window to your clip: 1 Add a new serial node. 2 Open the ‘window’ palette and select a window shape by clicking on a shape icon. Your selected window shape will appear on the node.
To track a window to a moving object: 1 Create a new serial node and add a power window. 2 Go to the start of your clip and position and size the window to highlight just the object or area you want. 3 Open the ‘tracker’ palette. Select the pan, tilt, zoom, rotate, and perspective 3D settings appropriate for the movement in your clip by checking or unchecking the relevant ‘analyze’ checkboxes. 4 Click on the ‘forward’ arrow to the left of the checkboxes.
Mixing Your Audio Mixing Audio in the Edit Page Once you have edited and color corrected your project, you can begin to mix your audio. DaVinci Resolve has a helpful set of features for editing, mixing and mastering audio for your project directly in the ‘edit’ page. For projects requiring more advanced audio tools, the Fairlight page provides you with a full audio post production environment.
The Fairlight Page The ‘Fairlight’ page in DaVinci Resolve is where you adjust your project audio. In single monitor mode, this page gives you an optimized look at the audio tracks of your project, with an expanded mixer and custom monitoring controls that make it easy to evaluate and adjust levels in order to create a smooth and harmonious mix. Don’t feel overwhelmed by the vast array of features in front of you, they are all there to help you deliver the best audio quality for your project.
What is a Bus? A bus is essentially a destination channel to which you can route multiple audio tracks from the timeline, so that they are mixed together into a single signal that can be controlled via a single channel strip. Main Bus: ‘Main busses’ are typically the primary output of a program and each new project you create starts out with a single ‘main bus’, to which all tracks are routed by default.
DaVinci Resolve provides EQ filters that can be applied at a clip level to each individual clip or at the track level to affect entire tracks. Each audio clip in the timeline has a four band equalizer in the inspector panel, and each track has a 6 band parametric equalizer in the mixer panel. The graphical and numeric controls for boosting or attenuating different ranges of frequencies, and different filter types allow you to define the shape of the EQ curve.
To add EQ to a track: 1 Double click in the EQ section for one of your tracks in the mixer to open the equalizer for that track. 2 Select the band filter type from the dropdown menu for the band you want to adjust. The EQ section in the mixer panel indicating an EQ curve has been applied to track one The 6 Band parametric equalizer that can be applied to every track Once you have added EQ to your clip or track, you can adjust the EQ for each band.
The Fusion Page The Fusion page features 2 viewer windows across the top with transport controls to view your media, an inspector window to the right to access tool settings, and a nodes window at the bottom where you build your composition.
Viewers: The viewers are always visible and let you see the different views of your composition, for example an overall 3D perspective via the merge 3D node, a camera output, or your final render output. These viewers also let you see how your changes are affecting a specific element. You can choose which nodes to view by clicking on a node and typing ‘1’ for the left viewer or ‘2’ for the right viewer. White button icons appear beneath the node to let you know which viewer it is assigned to.
Inspector: The inspector in the top right corner displays all settings and modifiers available for one or more selected nodes. Additional tab options will appear to provide quick access to other settings for nodes sorted by category. The text inspector contains additional tabs for text, layout, transform, shading, image and settings. Getting Started with Fusion To get started with Fusion, simply position your playhead over any clip on your timeline and click on the ‘Fusion’ tab to open the Fusion page.
Multiple outputs on nodes means a single node can connect to many different nodes in your composition, so you don’t have to duplicate clips as you would in layer based software. Arrows on the line between connected nodes are a great visual indicator to show you which direction the image data is flowing. Adding Nodes to the Node Editor Adding effects is as simple as placing nodes on the line between the ‘mediain’ and ‘mediaout’ nodes. There are a few ways you can do this.
Selected nodes appear with a red border. Here the inspector panel is displaying the layout tab controls for the text node. There are different parameters and settings you can adjust for every node depending on its task, from sizing and center positions to changing the number of particles in an emitter node. Setting keyframes and changing the settings over time will animate the effect.
Using the Motion Tracker and Adding Text To get a better idea of how to use Fusion, we have included the following examples to show how to use the tracker tool to track an element in a clip, plus add text and attach it to the element using the tracking data. The ‘tracker’ tool tracks pixels over time on the x & y axis, and generates data you can use to attach other elements.
5 Click on the ‘tracker’ node and type ‘1’ so you can see the merged results on your left hand viewer. In the ‘tracker’ inspector panel, click on the ‘operations’ tab. You can see the tab’s name by hovering the mouse pointer over it. Click the dropdown menu next to operation and select ‘match move’. 6 Click the ‘text’ node to reveal the properties in the inspector. Type your text into the text box and change the font, color and size to suit your composition.
7 Click on the keyframes tab above the inspector to open the keyframes editor. Any nodes with keyframes applied will have a small arrow next to the node label, and only the parameter with keyframes added will appear in the list below. Click on the magnify icon and drag a box around the area you want to edit. This will zoom into that area so you can see the keyframes easier. 8 Move the playhead to the location of the last keyframe you want.
Mastering your Edit So now you’ve edited, graded, added vfx and mixed your audio, you’ll want to share it with others. You can use the Quick Export button, or menu selection, to output the contents of the Timeline as a self-contained file in one of a variety of different formats in order to share it with people, or use the additional features of the ‘deliver’ page. The ‘deliver’ page is where you export your edit.
The Deliver Page This page lets you select the range of clips you want to export, plus the format, codec and resolution you want. You can export in many types of formats such as QuickTime, AVI, MXF and DPX using codecs such as 8-bit or 10-bit uncompressed RGB/YUV, ProRes, DNxHD, H.264 and more. To export a single clip of your edit: 1 Click on the ‘deliver’ tab to open the deliver page. 2 Go to the ‘render settings’ window on the top left of the page.
PART 1 Introduction
Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve Now that you have a general knowledge on how to use DaVinci Resolve for your post production workflow, this section will cover a general introduction with greater detail on project management, preferences, project settings, plus how all the features can work together. This chapter introduces the DaVinci Resolve user interface, explaining where to find each group of features that let you pursue nearly any postproduction workflow you can imagine.
Contents The Project Manager 44 Preferences and Project Settings 44 Preferences 45 System Preferences 45 User Preferences 46 Project Settings 47 Switching Among Pages 48 Minimizing the Resolve Page Bar 48 Switching Pages Using Keyboard Shortcuts 48 Hide Pages You Don’t Use 48 The Media Page 49 The Media Storage Browser 49 Viewer 50 Media Pool 51 Metadata Editor 51 Audio Panel 52 The Cut Page 52 The Media Pool 53 The Viewer 54 Audio Meter 55 The Timeline 55 The Edit
Media Pool 66 Status Bar 67 The Console 67 The Color Page 68 Viewer 68 Gallery 69 Node Editor 69 Timeline 70 Left Palettes 71 Center Palettes 71 Keyframe Editor 72 The Fairlight Page 72 The Audio Timeline 73 Toolbar 74 Mixer 74 Dedicated Channel Strip Controls 75 The Monitoring Panel 77 Floating Timecode Window 77 The Deliver Page 77 The Render Settings List 78 The Deliver Page Timeline 79 The Viewer 79 The Render Queue 80 Using the DaVinci Resolve Interface 80
The Project Manager For most users, Project Manager is the first window you’ll see when you open DaVinci Resolve. The Project Manager is a centralized interface for managing all projects belonging to the user who’s currently logged in, whose name appears at the upper right-hand corner in a project title bar.
Preferences The Preferences window, divided into System preferences and User preferences panels, lets you set up the overall environment of your DaVinci workstation, choosing what hardware to use with DaVinci Resolve and what user interface settings you prefer as you work.
Hardware Configuration Lets you choose various options governing how to use the GPUs attached to your computer, and how to configure Viewers in different pages. This panel also provides an overview, for reference, of all hardware and computer characteristics that are relevant to DaVinci Resolve running smoothly, including a listing of installed GPUs. Media Storage This is a list within which you define the scratch disk used by your system.
Project Settings Once you’ve created a project, all project-specific settings are found in the Project Settings window. To open the Project Settings window, just click the gear button at the bottom right on any page. Project Manager and Project Settings buttons The Project Settings open in the middle of the screen, divided into a series of panels which can be selected from a sidebar to the left.
Switching Among Pages DaVinci Resolve is divided into seven main pages of functionality, each of which facilitates a different specialization of a typical post production workflow, and each of which can be accessed using buttons at the very bottom of the DaVinci Resolve interface.
The Media Page The Media page is the primary interface for clip import, media management, and clip organization in DaVinci Resolve. It’s central to the way DaVinci Resolve works that the source media used by a project is organized separately from the project data that you import and manage in the Edit page.
Media Storage with scrubbable Clip view Viewer Clips that you select in any area of the Media page show their contents in the Viewer. A jog bar appears at the bottom, letting you drag the playhead directly with the pointer, while a jog control between the mode drop-down and transport controls lets you move through a long clip more slowly. The full width of the jog bar represents the full duration of the clip in the Viewer.
If you have two monitors connected to your computer, you can make the Viewer fill one entire screen and keep the Resolve UI in the other monitor by choosing Workspace > Full Screen Viewer On, and selecting the display you wish to use for the Viewer. Media Pool The Media Pool contains all of the video, audio, and still image media that you import into the current project. It also contains any media that’s automatically imported along with timelines that have been imported into DaVinci Resolve.
Audio Panel The Audio Panel can be put into one of two modes via a pair of buttons above the audio meters. In the default Meters mode, Audio Meters are displayed that show the levels of audio in clips you’re playing. In Waveform mode, you can load audio clips side by side with video clips opened in the Viewer in order to sync them together manually. The Audio Panel can also be hidden. Audio Meters exposed The Cut Page The Cut page is a focused environment for fast editing.
The Cut page default workspace, with the Media Pool in icon view For more information on the Cut page, see Chapter 18, “Introducing the Cut Page.” The Media Pool The Media Pool appears in the Cut page as well, and contains all video clips, audio clips, graphics, and other media that you import into your project. You can create Bins with which to organize all of this media, to make it easier to find what you need quickly. These bins are opened via the bin drop-down at the upper left-hand corner.
The Viewer The Viewer lets you see clips from the Media Pool or clips in the Timeline play, and has numerous controls to control what you see and how things play. The single Viewer in the Cut page The Viewer has three options. Which option is currently in use can be seen, and switched, by three buttons in the upper lefthand corner of the Viewer.
Audio Meter An audio meter to the right of the Viewer shows you a graphical representation of the audio levels playing in the current clip or in the Timeline as you play through the Viewer, via animated vertical bars that are tinted to indicate how loud the levels are.
TIP: In the Edit page, Video+Audio clips are presented as separated Video and Audio items on different tracks. When you open the Fairlight page, audio is presented on tracks with lanes, where each audio channel can be seen. In this way, each page gives you different sets of controls over the contents of the timeline that are appropriate for each page. The Edit Page The Edit page exposes a source-record style NLE that incorporates many specialized features for both creative editing and finishing.
The Media Pool in Thumbnail mode Effects Library Browsing The Effects Library contains a folder with the different Video Transitions, Title Effects, Generators, and Filters that are available for editing in the Timeline. The Effects Library has two panels, a Toolbox panel that contains the default Transitions, Titles, and Generators that Resolve comes with, and an OpenFX panel that contains any OpenFX transitions and generators you might have installed on your system.
Edit Index Clicking the Edit Index button opens the Edit Index. By default, this shows an EDL-style list view of all the edit events in the current timeline. Whichever timeline is selected in the Timeline list displays its events here; each clip and transition is shown as an individual event, each of which contains multiple columns of information. If you re-edit a timeline, your changes are automatically reflected in this list.
Single Viewer mode In Single Viewer mode, whatever you select in the Media Pool or Timeline determines which controls appear in the Viewer, which lets you do nearly everything you can do with two simultaneously open viewers. You can also put either the Source or Timeline Viewers into Cinema Viewer mode by choosing Workspace > Viewer Mode > Cinema Viewer (Command-F), causing whichever viewer is currently selected to fill the entire screen. This command toggles Cinema Viewer mode on and off.
Toolbar Eleven buttons starting from the left, running along the top of the Timeline, let you choose different tools for performing various editing functions. Buttons in the toolbar Timeline The Timeline shows whichever timeline you’ve double-clicked in the Timelines browser. It’s the workspace where you either edit programs together from scratch, or import sequences from other applications to work on inside of Resolve. You can only have one Timeline open at a time.
Motion Graphics and Visual Effects in DaVinci Resolve To begin with, DaVinci Resolve has a wealth of effects in both the Edit and Color pages for creating titles, transforming and animating clips, compositing and creating transparency effects, cutting mattes, applying filters, image stabilization, lens dewarping, and so on.
The New VFX Connect Clip dialog The Fusion Page The Fusion page is intended, eventually, to be a feature-complete integration of Blackmagic Design Fusion, a powerful 2D and 3D compositing application with over thirty years of evolution serving the film and broadcast industry, creating effects that have been seen in countless films and television series.
The Work Area You’ll probably not see this term used much, in favor of the specific panels within the work area that you’ll be using, but the area referred to as the Work Area is the region at the bottom half of the Fusion page UI, within which you can expose the three main panels used to construct compositions and edit animations in the Fusion page. These are the Node Editor, the Spline Editor, and the Keyframes Editor.
Toolbar The toolbar, located underneath the Time Ruler, contains buttons that let you quickly add commonly used nodes to the Node Editor. Clicking any of these buttons adds that node after the currently selected node in the node tree, or adds an unconnected instance of that node if no nodes are selected. The toolbar is divided into six sections that group commonly used nodes together. As you hover the pointer over any button, a tooltip shows you that node’s name.
The Node Editor displaying a node tree creating a composition Inspector The Inspector is a panel on the right side of the Fusion page that you use to display and manipulate the parameters of one or more selected nodes. When a node is selected in the Node Editor, its parameters and settings appear in the Inspector, ready for you to modify. The Fusion Inspector is divided into two panels. The Tools panel shows you the parameters of selected nodes.
Additionally, many nodes expose multiple tabs’ worth of controls in the Inspector, seen as icons at the top of the parameter section for each node. Click any tab to expose that set of controls. Nodes with several tabs worth of parameters Thumbnail Timeline Hidden by default, the Thumbnail timeline can be opened by clicking the Clips button in the UI Toolbar and appears underneath the Node Editor when it’s open.
Status Bar The status bar at the bottom of the Fusion page, immediately above the Resolve Page bar, shows you a variety of up-to-date information about things you’re selecting and what’s happening in the Fusion page. For example, hovering the pointer over any node displays information about that node in the status bar (as well as in a floating tooltip), while the currently achieved frame rate appears whenever you initiate playback, and the percentage of the RAM cache that’s used appears at all times.
The Color Page The Color page is where you color correct, or grade, your program. It has all of the controls available for manipulating color and contrast, reducing noise, creating limited secondary color corrections, building image effects of different kinds, adjusting clip geometry, and making many other corrective and stylistic adjustments. The Color page is divided into seven main areas that work together to let you build a grade.
You can also put the Viewer into Cinema Viewer mode by choosing Workspace > Viewer Mode > Cinema Viewer (Command-F), so that it fills the entire screen. This command toggles Cinema Viewer mode on and off. Two other modes, Enhanced Viewer (Option-F) and Full Screen Viewer (Shift-F), are available to provide more working area for tasks such as window positioning and rotoscoping. Gallery The Gallery is used for storing still frames to use as reference when comparing clips to one another.
Node Editor to construct your grade processing signal flow Timeline The Timeline in the Color page reflects the contents of the Timeline in the Edit page, but has a different appearance that’s tailored to the requirements of the colorist. However, the content is identical, and changes made to the Timeline in the Edit page are immediately seen in the Color page as you switch back and forth.
Left Palettes A series of palettes at the bottom left of the Color page provide access to different sets of grading tools, used principally for manipulating color, contrast, and raw media format settings. Each individual palette is opened by clicking the corresponding icon at the top of the Palette panel.
The eight available Center palettes include the Curves palette, the Qualifiers palette, the Power Windows palette, the Tracker palette, the Blur palette, the Key palette, the Sizing palette, and the Stereoscopic 3D palette. Keyframe Editor The Keyframe Editor provides an interface for animating Color, Sizing, and Stereo Format adjustments over time. Each node in the Node Editor corresponds to a track in the Keyframe Editor, which lets you animate each node’s adjustments independently.
About Audio Monitoring and Audio Input The audio processing throughout DaVinci Resolve, including on the Fairlight page and audio processing using FairlightFX plug-ins, is equally compatible with all platforms that DaVinci Resolve runs on, including macOS, Windows, and Linux.
The Fairlight page differs in another unique respect from the Edit page Timeline, in that it supports audio layering. Audio layering is a special audio editing mode that lets you superimpose multiple audio clips in the same track, and whatever audio clip is on top dictates which audio will play. In a way, when audio layering is enabled, superimposed audio clips are treated the same as superimposed video clips that all have opacity set to 100%, with clips on top obscuring (or muting) clips underneath.
The Audio Mixer, with channel strips corresponding to the tracks in the Timeline Dedicated Channel Strip Controls The Mixer also has a series of dedicated channel strip controls that add powerful mastering capabilities to DaVinci Resolve. These include: EQ: Double-clicking exposes a four-band parametric equalizer with additional Hi and Lo Pass filters, that has both graphical and numeric controls for tuning the frequencies of the audio on each track.
Dynamics: Double-clicking exposes a set of dynamics controls with compressor, limiter, and expander or gate sections. The Equalizer button at the upper left-hand corner lets you turn all EQ on and off. The first section can be switched between working as an Expander or a Gate, with attendant Threshold/Range/Ratio and Attack/Hold/Release controls. The second section provides Compressor controls, while the third section provides Limiter controls.
The Monitoring Panel The Monitoring panel shows all of the audio meters corresponding to the tracks in the Timeline, as well as the Master Output meter, Control Room meters, and a video viewer. The Monitoring panel At left, a row of audio meters corresponds to the channel strips of the Mixer, one meter for every audio track in the Timeline. To the right of these, all buses appear, showing you meters for the Mains and Subs (submixes) you’re using to mix down your show.
The Deliver page For more information about using the Deliver page, see Chapter 165, “Using the Deliver Page.” The Render Settings List The Render Settings list contains the customizable settings that affect how media is rendered out of DaVinci Resolve. These settings are covered in more detail later in “Output Scaling.” The Render Settings you can choose from for outputting from DaVinci Resolve appear in three panels, separating the Video, Audio, and File information-based settings in a logical fashion.
The Deliver Page Timeline The Timeline mirrors the Timeline seen in the Color page. You can use the Timeline in the Deliver page to turn off tracks with clips you don’t want to include in the operation, define the range of clips you want to render or output to tape, and to choose which versions for each clip you want to output. You also have the option of switching the Deliver page Timeline to look like the Color page Timeline instead, if that’s what you’re more comfortable with.
The Render Queue The Render Queue is a list of all the jobs you’ve queued up for file-based rendering. Each job can have an individualized range of clips and render settings, which you can use to render multiple sections or clips of a timeline, the same timeline output to multiple formats, or multiple timelines.
Panels and Panel Focus Each page of DaVinci Resolve consists of multiple panels. Each panel contains all the controls and information necessary for a particular aspect of that page’s functionality. In the following partial screenshot of the top of the Media page, the Media Storage panel lets you browse files, the Viewer is a panel that lets you watch video, and the Audio panel lets you see the strength of audio playing back via a set of audio meters.
Showing and Hiding Panels Using the Interface Toolbar Each page in DaVinci Resolve has an Interface Toolbar that runs along the top. This toolbar contains buttons that let you show and hide different panels of functionality, so you can hide things you don’t need in order to create more room for controls that you’re using. You can show panels that aren’t displayed by default, since most pages have many available panels of functionality that are hidden until you need them.
Adjusting the Size of Different Panels You can resize adjacent panels in the interface by positioning the pointer at the border between any two panels, and dragging it to enlarge one and shrink the other. (Before/After) Resizing UI regions Certain panels and palettes can be expanded, in the process rearranging another part of the UI, by clicking a small gray Expand button.
The result is that the panel in question expands or contracts. The following screenshots show the Inspector of the Edit page in half height mode, where the Timeline is given room to expand, and in full height mode, where the Timeline becomes shorter, but there’s more room in the Inspector to see all of the controls. (Left) A half-height Inspector with more room for the Timeline, (Right) A full-height Inspector with more room for controls Using Single vs.
The Edit page in Dual-screen mode In Single-screen mode, you can choose which display shows the DaVinci Resolve UI by choosing Workspace > Primary Display > (Monitor Name). In Dual-screen mode, this reverses the contents of both monitors.
The Edit page in dual screen Timeline mode Video Clean Feed A full screen Viewer for a secondary monitor connected directly to your computer is now available. To activate this monitor select Workspace > Video Clean Feed, and select your display in the submenu.
Saving Custom Screen Layouts If you’ve created a particular set of resized panels that you’ll want to use often, you can save it, alongside other frequently useful screen layouts you may have saved. Methods of working with custom screen layouts: To save a custom screen preset: Customize the various pages of DaVinci Resolve for the purpose at hand, then choose Workspace > Layout Presets > Save Layout As Preset. Enter a name into the Save Layout as Preset dialog, and click OK.
The video scopes let you precisely analyze the color and contrast of clips in the Color page. They can be exposed in their docked position to the right of the Color page palettes by clicking the Video Scope button in the Color page toolbar.
DaVinci Resolve User Interface Conventions While each chapter covers the unique onscreen controls found in each page of DaVinci Resolve, this section summarizes how to use some of the more common controls you’ll see. Contextual Menus Nearly every panel on every page exposes additional functionality via contextual menus, which appear when you right-click on the appropriate item.
Additionally, many (but not all) panels and palettes appear with a “Mode” drop-down at the upper right-hand corner that lets you choose a different type of function within that palette. Mode drop-down Some buttons, such as transport controls and toolbar icons, display a little downward facing arrow when you hover the pointer over them, to indicate that you can right-click on these controls to access checkmark options that govern the functionality of those controls.
Double-clicking fields containing most number values highlights the number so that you can type a new value using the keyboard, pressing Return to confirm the change. Icons and Buttons Some controls are exposed as icons and buttons, which you simply click to invoke whatever functionality they encompass.
Middle Button The middle button (usually the scroll wheel button, but you may have to turn this on in the Mouse panel of the System Preferences) is referred to as a middle-click, which does different things in different places. In all pages, rolling the scroll wheel while the pointer is within a viewer lets you zoom into and out of the image being displayed when you need to do more detailed work.
Undo and Redo in DaVinci Resolve No matter where you are in DaVinci Resolve, Undo and Redo commands let you back out of steps you’ve taken or commands you’ve executed, and reapply them if you change your mind. DaVinci Resolve is capable of undoing the entire history of things you’ve done since creating or opening a particular project. When you close a project, its entire undo history is purged. The next time you begin work on a project, its undo history starts anew.
The History submenu, which lets you undo several steps at once Once you’ve selected a step to undo to, the menu closes and the project updates to show you its current state. To undo and redo using the Undo window: 1 Choose Edit > History > Open History Window. 2 When the History dialog appears, click an item on the list to undo back to that point. Unlike the menu, in this window the most recent thing you’ve done appears at the bottom of this list.
Chapter 2 Managing Projects and Databases This chapter covers how to use the Project Manager to organize the projects you’re working on in DaVinci Resolve, as well as how to deal with managing the databases that serve as the organizational foundation of the Project Manager. You’ll also see how to export and import projects, and how to archive a project and its media for long-term storage.
Contents Using the Project Manager 97 Project Management 97 Importing DRP Projects From the macOS Finder 98 Importing and Exporting Projects in Disk Databases 98 Importing and Exporting Projects in PostgreSQL Databases 99 Project Manager View Options 99 Searching for Projects 100 Organizing Projects in Folders 101 Managing Databases with the Databases Sidebar 101 Opening the Databases Sidebar 102 Moving Projects From One Database to Another on the Same Workstation 103 Managing Database
Using the Project Manager Starting with DaVinci Resolve 14, the Project Manager is the only centralized place in which to manage all your projects and is the first window you’ll see when DaVinci Resolve starts up. It shows all projects you’ve created, and provides an overall environment in which you create, organize, import, and export DaVinci Resolve projects.
Methods of project management: To create a new project: Double-click the Default Project, or click the New Project button. A new project is created, and DaVinci Resolve opens up the Media page. Once a project is open, you can alter its project settings by clicking the gear icon. To open a previously saved project: Double-click any Project icon, or Item if you’re in List view. You can also select a project and click the Open button.
Importing and Exporting Projects in PostgreSQL Databases If you’re using a PostgreSQL database, another set of commands let you import and export projects using the .drp file format. You can also export .drp files from Disk Databases if you want to export a more self-contained item to transport. To export the currently open project as a .drp file: Choose File > Export Project, and when the Save dialog appears, choose a location, enter a name, and click Save. The result is a self-contained file with a .
Hover-scrub over Project icon; information is enabled List view: Every project appears as an item in a list that has seven columns: Name, Last Modified, Timelines, Format, Frame Rate, Date Created, and Note. You can click any column header to sort the contents of the Project Manager by that criteria; clicking the header a second time toggles that column between ascending and descending sorting.
Using the drop-down menu, you can choose to search by name, or by project format. Once you’ve chosen a criteria, begin typing into the search field, and the Project Manager will immediately and dynamically begin to be filtered by your search text. Organizing Projects in Folders If you’re organizing a lot of projects, you can create folders to put them into.
However, you can create additional databases with which to store other projects, if you like. For example, you might create one database each for each year in which you work. If you work on series television, you could create multiple databases for each program you work on. Or, you could create separate databases for each client you do work for. There’s no hard and fast rule; ultimately how you use databases is entirely up to you and your individual organizational preferences.
Moving Projects From One Database to Another on the Same Workstation If you’ve used multiple databases to organize your projects, you can browse the contents of each database to search for what you’re looking for, and then copy one or more projects from one database to another if you need to rearrange how they’re organized. To view the contents of a database: 1 Click the button at the upper-left hand corner of the Projects window to open the Databases sidebar.
Databases sidebar controls The five controls at the top of the Databases sidebar have the following functions: Backup Database: You can back up databases just like any other file. This provides added protection should your system drive fail, but a database backup can also be used to move multiple projects between systems (particularly if you’re using PostgreSQL). Clicking this button exports the currently selected database, with all enclosed projects, to a self contained .resolve.backup file.
Creating New Disk and PostgreSQL Databases You can use Disk databases and PostgreSQL databases side by side for switching to the use of one or the other, depending on your needs. To create a new Disk database: 1 Click the button at the upper-left hand corner of the Projects window to open the Databases sidebar. 2 Click the New Database button at the bottom of the sidebar. 3 When the New Database window appears, click the Create tab. 4 Leave Type set to Disk.
Creating a PostgreSQL database 5 Type a name for the new database into the Name field. Because all projects in a PostgreSQL database are saved internally within the PostgreSQL database, no other changes are necessary., 6 Click Create, and the new disk database will appear in the PostgreSQL database section of the Databases sidebar. Backing Up and Restoring Databases You can also back up databases by exporting them, and then reimport them later.
Upgrading Databases Databases display an upgrade badge (circular arrows) only when you’ve installed a new version of DaVinci Resolve and you have databases that were created in older versions of DaVinci Resolve that need upgrading. UpgradeDatabase A badge at the right of a database indicates that database needs to be upgraded It’s generally a good idea to back up a database prior to upgrading it, in case something goes wrong.
To optimize a database: Right-click a database, and choose Optimize from the contextual menu. A dialog appears to confirm if you really want to optimize that database. Click Optimize to proceed. Legacy User Organization in the Databases Sidebar DaVinci Resolve was originally designed as a multi-user application for use in commercial suites.
DaVinci Resolve also has two auto save mechanisms that you can enable in the Save Settings group of controls, called Live Save and Project Backups. Auto Save controls in the User Preferences Live Save Enabling Live Save sets DaVinci Resolve to incrementally save changes as you make changes to your project, with no user intervention required.
To enable Project Backups: 1 Choose DaVinci Resolve > Preferences, and open the Project Save and Load panel. 2 Turn on the Project Backups checkbox. 3 Choose the settings that determine how many Project Backups will be maintained. Project Backups are saved on a first in, first out basis. Three fields let you specify how often to save new backups and how many backups to maintain, while the fourth lets you choose where the backups will be saved.
Restoring a project backup in the Project Browser 3 Select a backup that you want to restore from the Auto Backups list. If you don’t see the particular backup you want, you can click the Refresh button to update the list, or you can try sorting by one of the columns (Auto Backup, Date Modified, Width, Height) to better navigate the list. Selecting a backup that you want to restore 4 Once you’ve selected the backup you want to restore, you can click Load to open that backup as a new project.
Project Notes Each DaVinci Resolve project now provides access to Project Notes, which is a simple “scratch pad” for keeping track of text notes associated with each project. These notes can be accessed using the File > Project Notes command, and there’s also a Project Notes command in the contextual menu for project icons in the Project Manager, which makes these notes accessible to everyone who’s connected to that database.
Copy and paste clips from a timeline in one project to a timeline in another. Copy a node’s settings from one project and paste them to a node in another project. You can also copy and paste clips, timelines, and node settings from one project to another without using dynamic project switching, but using switching makes this process faster.
A dialog letting you choose whether to save Optimized and/or Render Cache media 5 Click Ok, and a dialog with a progress bar will show you how long the archive operation will take to finish. If any errors come up, resulting from missing or offline media, they’ll be presented at the end of the process. The resulting archive that is written is a directory with the .dra file extension. Inside this folder are a series of subdirectories containing all of the media that’s used by the archived project.
Chapter 3 System and User Preferences This chapter covers the settings used for customizing the DaVinci Resolve environment. System Preferences govern setup options that control the hardware and software environment, while User Preferences control various user controls within the software.
Contents DaVinci Resolve Preferences 117 Adjusting Preferences 117 Individual Preferences and Settings Based on Login 118 Resetting Preferences 118 System 118 Memory and GPU 118 Media Storage 120 Decode Options 121 Video & Audio I/O 121 Audio Plug-ins 124 Control Panels 124 General 125 Internet Accounts 126 Advanced 127 User 127 Saving User Preference Presets 127 UI Settings 128 Project Save and Load 129 Editing 131 Color 133 Fairlight 135 Playback Settings 136 Co
DaVinci Resolve Preferences The DaVinci Resolve Preferences window contains workstation-specific settings for customizing how DaVinci Resolve works, divided into System and User panes, selectable via buttons at the top of this window. To open the Project Settings window, do one of the following: Choose DaVinci Resolve > Preferences. Press Command-Comma. TIP: You can open the preferences while the Project Manager is open when you first run DaVinci Resolve by pressing Command-Comma.
To alter any preference setting: 1 Click on the name of any group of settings in the sidebar at the left to open that panel. 2 Change whatever settings you need to change. 3 Click Save to apply the changes you’ve made and close the Preferences window. If you’ve updated certain System Preferences, you’ll be prompted to restart DaVinci Resolve, but if you’ve updated the User Preferences, this will probably be unnecessary.
GPU Configuration This section lets you choose how GPU processing should be handled. Options for configuring the GPUs on your workstation GPU processing mode: Lets you set DaVinci Resolve to use the OpenCL, CUDA, or Metal GPU computing APIs for doing effects processing. Which is best depends on the GPUs that are installed in your computer. Most users can leave this set to Auto to let DaVinci Resolve choose what’s appropriate. Otherwise, here are specific recommendations.
Media Storage This panel lets you define the scratch disk and other media storage locations used by DaVinci Resolve, as well as the default cache directories locations to be used when creating new projects. Media Storage Locations: This list lets you define the scratch disk of the system. The first volume in this list is where Gallery stills and cache files are stored, so you want to make sure that you choose the fastest storage volume to which you have access.
To add a mapped mount string: 1 Open the Media Storage panel of the Resolve Preferences window. 2 Add the volume you want to map to the Scratch Disks list. 3 Double-click the Mapped Mount column of the drive you added to edit it. 4 Enter the alternate file path you want that volume to have. For example, if you’re on a Windows workstation and you want to access a Linux volume, type the Linux file path into the Mapped Mount column.
For capture and playback use: If you have a compatible video capture card, you should choose from the card options that appear here. Leaving this set to “None” disables external video output. Disabling video output can improve real time performance when external monitoring and output is not a priority. You can also choose “None” when you’re using Resolve with another application open at the same time that’s using your workstation’s video output interface.
Assigning different audio I/O devices to different speaker configurations Monitor Set Format: This menu lets you define the format of the currently selected Monitor Set. Options include Mono, Stereo, LCR (left/center/right), LCRS (left/center/ right/sub), LCRSS, 5.1/Film, 6.1, and 7.1/Film.
Audio Plug-ins Three sections of parameters let you manage VST Effects, enabled plug-ins, and external audio processes. VST Effects: A list at top lets you manually add and remove VST plug-in effects directories, if necessary. VST effects aren’t installed in a standard location, so it may sometimes be necessary to add a newly installed directory of VST plug-ins that you’ve just installed on your system.
Use MIDI Audio Console: A checkbox lets you enable the use of a third-party audio console that’s connected to your workstation. Turning this on exposes three additional menus. – MIDI Protocol: Lets you choose either the HUI or MCU protocol, whichever is compatible with the audio console you want to use. – MIDI Input: Lets you choose the MIDI input used to connect your console. – MIDI Output: Lets you choose the MIDI output used to connect your console.
Use Mac Display Color Profile for viewers: If you’re using DaVinci Resolve on macOS, this checkbox enables all viewers in DaVinci Resolve to use whatever display profile is selected in the Displays panel of the System Preferences. This lets DaVinci Resolve use ColorSync on macOS so your Viewer image should better match your output display. Automatically Check for Updates: Turn this checkbox on to make it easier to ensure you’re using the latest version of DaVinci Resolve.
Advanced This tab is used for special Resolve configurations and SAN parameters that are applicable to older file systems. User This panel lets you choose user preferences, specific to your workstation, that govern such things as UI behaviors and appearance, auto save settings, editing and color defaults, control panel action, and keyboard shortcut mappings.
UI Settings A collection of operational preferences. Language: A Language drop-down at the top lets you specify which language the DaVinci Resolve user interface displays. DaVinci Resolve currently supports English, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Russian. Reload last working project when logging in: Automatically reopens the last project a user had open whenever that user logs back into DaVinci Resolve.
Project Save and Load The Project Save and Load panel lets you control how projects are opened, and how they’re saved. Load Settings The Load Settings preference lets you control a key aspect of project opening performance, namely whether or not all timelines within a given project are loaded into memory at the time of opening.
Restoring a project backup in the Project Browser Project backups are only saved when changes have been made to a project. If DaVinci Resolve sits idle for any period of time, such as when your smart watch tells you to go outside and walk around the block, no additional project backups are saved, preventing DaVinci Resolve from overwriting useful backups with unnecessary ones.
NOTE: When using this feature, the very first project backup that’s saved for a given day may be a bit slow, but all subsequent backups should be unnoticeable. Editing The settings in this panel affect new timeline settings, editorial default values, trim behaviors, timeline UI appearance, and frame interpolation settings. New Timeline Settings These settings define the presets that populate the New Timeline Options window whenever you create a new timeline.
Post-playhead shadow length: The number of frames in the Timeline after the playhead covered by the Playhead Shadow, if enabled by choosing View > Show Playhead Shadow.
Color The settings in this panel govern different behaviors in the Color page. General Settings Affect a variety of behaviors while working in the Color page. Enable HDR Scopes for ST.2084 and HLG: (only available in Studio version) If you’re doing an HDR grade and monitoring with the built-in video scopes in DaVinci Resolve, you can turn this checkbox on to replace the 10-bit scale of the video scopes with a scale based on nit values (or cd/m2) instead.
Histogram Background on Grading Tools: This drop-down menu lets you turn the histogram that appears in the background of the Curves palette either Off, On based on the node’s Input (changes made to the curve do not affect the background histogram), or On based on the node’s Output (changes made to the curve do affect the background histogram). Automatically cue x frames into timeline clips: This setting affects the operation of the NEXT SCENE and PREV SCENE commands in the Color page.
– Unit values changed: Changes made to the current clip are rippled to the specified clips by the same delta of change, using whichever units make sense for the affected parameter. For example, if the current clip had a Master Gain of 0.80 and you increased it to 0.90, each rippled scene’s Master Gain level increases by 0.10. – All values are copied: The current clip’s grade is rippled to the specified clips in its entirety.
Playback Settings These preferences let you improve realtime performance in DaVinci Resolve by disabling specific UI features and optimizing the quality of some operations. Hide UI overlays: When using a single GPU for both display and CUDA, OpenCL, or Metal processing, or if your display GPU is underpowered, or if you lack the PCIe bandwidth required for the currently specified resolution or frame rate, you may be able to improve real time performance by turning this option on.
There are two options: – DaVinci: Most users will be familiar with the standard DaVinci controls as this mimics the vectorscope (how closely depends on the Classic DaVinci trackball alignment setting). – Rank: The Rank settings are somewhat different, so this option is for users who are familiar with color controls that the Rank control system offered. In this mode, the orientation of red and green are reversed.
Keyboard Customization Choosing DaVinci Resolve > Keyboard Customization opens the standalone Keyboard Customization window. This window lets you choose which set of keyboard shortcuts you want to use, discover which keyboard shortcuts are available, or create your own custom keyboard mappings that more closely adhere to the way you like to work, in whichever pages you find yourself working.
Viewing Commands Assigned to Specific Key Combinations To see what command a particular key of the keyboard is mapped to, you can click any combination of modifier and other keys on the virtual keyboard at the top of this window. The currently selected keys reveal how they’re mapped in the “Active Key” list below. Selecting keys and modifiers on the virtual keyboard displays their command mapping below TIP: Starting in DaVinci Resolve 15.
Searching for Keyboard Shortcuts Whether you’re looking to see what keyboard shortcuts are available or looking for a particular command you want to customize, a Search field above the Commands list is available for searching whichever group of commands you want (including All Commands). To search for specific keyboard shortcuts: 1 Choose DaVinci Resolve > Keyboard Customization. 2 Choose a command group from the Commands list to search within.
To export a keyboard shortcut file for use by another DaVinci Resolve workstation: Choose a preset from the Export Preset submenu of the Keyboard Customization Option menu, then choose a name and a location for the new file, and click Save. To import a keyboard shortcut file: Choose Import Preset from the Keyboard Customization Option menu, choose a DaVinci Resolve keyboard shortcut file, and click Open.
The warning you see if you try to map the same key to multiple commands You can override the warning and make the assignment, but having the same character or combination applied to multiple commands can cause problems, so a warning badge appears next to affected commands, making it easy to see where the duplicate is, so you can remap one or the other command as necessary. 3 (Optional) You also have the option of assigning multiple keyboard shortcuts to a single command.
Chapter 4 Project Settings This chapter covers the settings used for defining the properties of each individual project. It’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the information in this chapter prior to setting up your first project.
Contents What Are the Project Settings? 145 Opening and Editing Project Settings 145 Presets 146 Master Settings 147 Timeline Format 147 Video Monitoring 149 Optimized Media and Render Cache 150 Working Folders 151 Frame Interpolation 151 Image Scaling 152 Image Scaling 152 Input Scaling 153 Output Scaling 153 Color Management 154 Color Space and Transforms 154 Dolby Vision™ 157 HDR10+ 158 Lookup Tables 158 Broadcast Safe 160 Generate Soft Clip LUT 160 Generate LUT Fr
What Are the Project Settings? The Project Settings window contains all project-specific parameters that are saved along with that project. These include essential project properties such as the timeline format, video monitoring settings, how to optimize media, and where to save cache files. It also includes image scaling properties, color management settings, and many other properties that affect projects in fundamental ways.
To alter project settings: 1 Click on the name of any group of settings in the sidebar at the left to open that panel. 2 Change whatever settings you need to change. 3 Do one of the following to apply your changes: – Click Save to apply the changes you’ve made and close the Project Settings. – Option-click Save to apply the changes you’ve made and keep the Project Settings window open, so you can make other changes.
To load a preset’s settings into a project: 1 Open a project with a preset you want to update. 2 Click an item in the Presets list. 3 Click Load. If a dialog appears saying either “Do you want to replace current project’s config with this selected Preset” or “Apply Current Configuration to System?”, click Yes. 4 If there’s a custom preset that you’ve created that has outlasted its usefulness, you can delete it.
Timeline frame rate: Determines the primary frame rate used by the project. A variety of standard and high frame rate (HFR) settings are available. If you’re importing an AAF or XML file, this setting is automatically set via an option in the Project Import dialog. Ideally, you should choose a frame rate before importing media into the Media Pool.
Video Monitoring The settings available in this group control the signal that’s output by the video output interface that’s connected to your workstation, and let you specify what standard of signal is output, and via which signal path. By default the frame size and frame rate match those in the Timeline resolution and Playback frame rate options. However, if necessary you can change these settings to match those of the external display you’re using to monitor your work.
Video bit depth: Choose the bit depth that corresponds to the capability of your display. You can choose between 8-bit and 10-bit. Monitoring in 10-bit is more processor intensive, but preferable to avoid the appearance of banding that may not in fact be in the image data being processed by DaVinci Resolve. Monitor scaling: Defaults to basic, and is only enabled to smooth the edges of video being viewed on a projector with very large screens.
– Automatically cache Fusion Effects in User Mode: If you’ve created effects for a clip in the Fusion page and you find that your workstation does not have adequate performance to play that clip in real time, you can force these categories of effects to be automatically included in the Sequence Cache and cached when you’re using the User Mode of caching. Working Folders Two fields let you specify to which folders cache and gallery files are written.
There are additional “Enhanced” Optical Flow settings available in the “Motion estimation mode” drop-down in the Master Settings panel of the Project Settings. The “Standard Faster” and “Standard Better” settings are the same options that have been available in previous versions of DaVinci Resolve. They’re more processor-efficient and yield good quality that are suitable for most situations.
Anti-alias edges: A second group of settings lets you choose how to handle edge antialiasing for source blanking. – Auto: Adds anti-aliasing when any of the Sizing controls are used to transform the image. Otherwise, anti-aliasing is disabled. – On: Forces anti-aliasing on at all times. – Off: Disables anti-aliasing. It might be necessary to turn anti-aliasing off if you notice black blurring at the edges of blanking being applied to an image.
Output resolution: Lets you choose an alternate resolution. For: Lets you specify a different custom alternate resolution. Pixel aspect ratio: Lets you specify an alternate pixel aspect ratio to match the alternate timeline format. Mismatched resolution files: Lets you choose an alternate way of handling mismatched resolution files given the alternate resolution you’ve chosen. These options work identically to those of the “Input Image Scaling” group.
ACES version: This drop-down only appears if you choose one of the DaVinci ACES options from the Color science drop-down menu. Lets you switch between different versions of the ACES specification. This lets you choose the appropriate older version of ACES whenever you open an older project. As of DaVinci Resolve 14, ACES 1.0.3 is the minimum supported version. In version 16, DaVinci Resolve also supports ACES 1.1.
to work. In Simple mode, this setting is not used. In Luminance Mapping mode, you can manually alter this setting to customize how the Timeline color space is remapped to the Output color space. Timeline to Output Gamut Mapping: Accommodates workflows where you need to transform one color space into another with a dramatically larger or smaller gamut by helping to automate an expansion or contraction of image saturation in such a way as to give a pleasing and naturalistic result with no clipping.
The Enable HDR metadata over HDMI option in the Master Project Settings lets you output HDR via HDMI 2.0a When you do so, a setting in the Color Management panel of the Project Settings, “HDR mastering is for X” lets you specify the output, in nits, to be inserted as metadata into the HDMI stream being output, so that the display you’re connecting to correctly interprets it. The output you specify should match what your display is expecting.
HDR10+ DaVinci Resolve 15 supports the new HDR10+ HDR format by Samsung. Please note that this support is a work in progress as this is a new standard. When enabled, an HDR10+ palette exposes trimming parameters that let you trim an automated downconversion of HDR to SDR, creating metadata to control how HDR-strength highlights look on a variety of supported televisions and displays. This is enabled and set up in the Color Management panel of the Project Settings with the Enable HDR10+ checkbox.
Here’s an example. It’s common, when grading for film output using a Log workflow, that you’ll use the Display LUT drop-down menu to apply a film emulation LUT that simulates the image as it will be output from the film recorder, taking into account the film lab and print stock used, in order to make sure that the image you’re grading will appear as close as possible to what the eventual release print will look like in the cinema.
Adding Lookup Tables to Your DaVinci Resolve Installation The drop-down menus in the Color Management panel include a series of factory preset LUTs that were installed with DaVinci Resolve, along with any LUTs that have been generated by DaVinci Resolve, or that you’ve imported into the proper directory for your operating system. On macOS: Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/LUT/ On Windows: C:\ProgramData\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\LUT On Linux: /opt/resolve/LUT If
Generate: Lets you choose whether you create a soft-clip LUT as a 1D or 3D LUT. 1D LUTs are more accurate for this operation, using 1023 data points, as opposed to the 33x33x33 cube of the 3D LUT. Generates LUT based on: Defaults to “No LUT selected,” which generates a soft clip LUT using only the settings within this panel.
To use Generate LUT From Current Grade: 1 Import a duplicate of the trim_lut0.dpx file into an application in which to make an adjustment. 2 Make a primary color adjustment of some kind, and save the file. Don’t overwrite the original file. 3 Import the altered trim_lut0.dpx file into DaVinci Resolve, edit it into a timeline, open the Color page, and select that clip.
Assist using reel names from the: When this checkbox is turned on, DaVinci Resolve uses reel numbers when conforming clips to match any imported project. This setting must also be turned on if you want to choose different reel name extraction methods for individually selected clips using the Clip Attributes window. Turning this checkbox off forces DaVinci Resolve to identify clips using file names when conforming XML and AAF projects.
Mixed frame rate format: (Only available prior to importing media into a project) This drop-down menu lets you choose the method used to conform mixed frame rates for rendering and playback. Which option you choose dictates the accuracy with which retimed clips in DaVinci Resolve match the same clips that were retimed in other editing applications when you import those timelines into DaVinci Resolve via XML or AAF. This drop-down menu also appears in the Load AAF or XML dialogs.
Use S-curve for contrast: On by default, this checkbox sets the contrast control in the Color Wheels palette to apply an “S-curve” to the image, such that the shadows and highlights of a signal will not be clipped when you increase the value. If you would prefer for these contrast adjustments to be made linearly, and for the signal to be allowed to clip when you reach the upper and lower boundaries of the video signal, you can turn this checkbox off.
Embed timecode in audio output: When turned on, directs DaVinci Resolve to output LTC timecode that’s embedded in channel 16 of the SDI stream and channel 2 of the analog audio output from your video interface. Use Timelines Bin: This option is only available to be changed before you add clips to the Media Pool; after you’ve added clips, it’s no longer available. Turning Use Timelines Bin on creates a dedicated Timelines bin in the Media Pool, at the top of the Bin List.
Camera Raw This panel contains groups of parameters that correspond to every camera raw media format that’s supported by DaVinci Resolve. Using these parameters in the Camera Raw panel, you can override the original camera metadata that was written at the time of recording, and make simultaneous adjustments to all camera raw clips using the “project” raw settings. These settings are covered in detail in Chapter 5, “Camera Raw Settings.
Non auto edit timing: Adjusts the edit synchronization of the connected deck when auto edit is turned off. Deck preroll: Sets the number of seconds for preroll. How much is appropriate depends on the performance of your deck. Video output sync source: When using a DeckLink card this is set to Auto. Other capture cards may require you to set the sync source to “Reference” for playout and “Input” for ingest. This setting is only available if you have a DVS card installed on your system.
Playout These settings only affect the video signal that’s output when you use the Edit to Tape mode of the Deliver page. Output: Lets you choose whether to output both Video and Audio, Video Only, or Audio Only if you’re doing an audio layback. Output Source Timecode: Turn this checkbox on to output each individual clip’s source timecode. This option is only applicable when assemble editing to tape.
Fairlight The Fairlight panel lets you set up your project’s audio sample rate, as well as setting up various audio-specific tools in the Fairlight page. Timeline Sample Rate This setting can only be changed prior to creation of your first timeline. Once one or more timelines have been created in a project, the Audio Sample Rate is locked to whatever was chosen. The Audio Sample Rate, measured in kilohertz, is the number of samples per second used for audio processing in DaVinci Resolve.
Immersive Audio You can enable these audio surround formats in the Fairlight panel of the Project Settings. Once enabled, all supported channel configurations of each format become available for timeline track mappings, clip attributes channel mappings, Fairlight bus mappings, and output settings. For more information, see Chapter 176, “Immersive Audio Format Workflows.
Chapter 5 Camera Raw Settings This chapter discusses in detail each of the settings available for every camera raw format that is supported in DaVinci Resolve. These settings are available in the Camera Raw panel of the Project Settings, via a contextual menu command in the Media Pool that exposes a floating window, or in the Camera Raw palette of the Color page.
Contents Camera Raw Decoding Explained 174 ARRI ALEXA 175 Master Settings 175 Project Settings 176 Use Camera Metadata 176 Blackmagic RAW 177 BRAW Sidecar Metadata Files 178 Master Settings 178 Project Settings 178 Use Camera Metadata 180 Canon RAW 181 Master Settings 181 Project Settings 181 Use Camera Metadata 182 CinemaDNG 182 Master Settings 183 Project Settings 183 Use Camera Metadata 185 Panasonic Varicam RAW 186 Master Settings 186 Project Settings 186 Use Ca
Camera Raw Decoding Explained Camera raw media formats are so named because they capture raw color space data directly from the sensor of whatever digital cinema camera did the recording. Raw image data is not human readable, and must be debayered or demosaiced to convert the original raw data into image data that can be handed off to DaVinci Resolve’s image processing pipeline.
Each supported camera format has different controls that are specific to that format. These controls are also mirrored in the Camera Raw palette in the Color page, which lets you individually adjust the Camera Raw parameters for individual clips in a Timeline when you set Decode Using to Clip. Camera Raw project palette in the Color page Each group of Camera Raw settings is available from the Raw Profile menu.
Project Settings The following decoder settings let you adjust the color and exposure of ALEXA clips. Lift: Adjusts the black point of the media, raising it or lowering it while scaling all midtone values between it and the white point. Regardless of how you adjust this control, all image data is preserved and can be retrieved in subsequent adjustments. The range is –100 to +100.
Exposure: Increases or lowers image lightness in units relative to ASA values. If your intended exposure adjustment lifts image data above the maximum white level, don’t worry; all image data is preserved and can be retrieved in subsequent adjustments. 160 is unity. The range is +160 to +3200. Finetune Red: Advanced debayer setting. Finetune Green: Advanced debayer setting. Finetune Blue: Advanced debayer setting.
BRAW Sidecar Metadata Files BRAW files have been designed to accommodate descriptive metadata that enables look management from on-set through post. This metadata is both embedded in the .braw files and included within .sidecar files that are saved alongside the media. Metadata .sidecar files that are present always takes precedence over the embedded metadata for purposes of decoding. However, if there’s no .sidecar file, decoding of the .braw file falls back on the embedded metadata.
– Rec.2020: Decodes into the standard color space specified by the Rec. 2020 standard for high definition video, UHD video, and beyond. While you may find this option useful as a starting point, it is not required for programs being output to video. – DCI-P3 D65: Decodes RGB-encoded image data with a D65 white point, intended for monitoring with a P3-compatible display. – DCI-P3 Theater: A setting designed for adaptive viewing of DCI-P3 in a theater with a projector using a D60 white point.
Contrast: Increases contrast by raising the top of the signal and lowering the bottom of the signal about the Midpoint slider (described below). Raising this value increases contrast, while lowering this value lowers contrast. 1 is unity. The range is 0 (minimum contrast) to +2 (maximum contrast). Midpoint: The level about which contrast is either expanded or contracted. 0.41 is unity. The range is 0 (black) to +1 (maximum white).
Canon RAW Canon RAW (CRW) is produced by a variety of Canon cameras. Master Settings These parameters let you choose the decode quality and method that raw clips will be transformed to use when debayered. Decode Quality: Lets you debayer Canon RAW files at Full, Half, or Quarter resolution to improve performance on slower systems. Lower resolution media is lower quality but faster to work with and process.
Midtone Detail: When this parameter is raised, the contrast of regions of the image with high edge detail is raised to increase the perception of image sharpness, sometimes referred to as definition. When this parameter is lowered to a negative value, regions of the image with low amounts of detail are softened while areas of high detail are left alone. 0 is unity. The range is –100 (minimum) through +100 (very high).
Master Settings These parameters let you choose the decode quality, white balance, color space, and gamma that raw CinemaDNG clips will be transformed to use when debayered. Decode Quality: Lets you debayer CinemaDNG raw files at Full, Half, or Quarter resolution to improve performance on slower systems. Lower resolution media is lower quality but faster to work with and process.
Gamma: Five gamma settings are available, depending on what starting point you want to use for further grading. – 2.4: A simple power-function gamma setting commonly used for broadcast. – 2.6: A simple power-function gamma setting commonly used for digital cinema projection. – Rec. 709: A gamma of 2.35, with a linear segment near black, approximating the EBU recommended gamma for broadcast. – sRGB: A gamma of 2.
Midtone Detail: When this parameter is raised, the contrast of regions of the image with high edge detail is raised to increase the perception of image sharpness, sometimes referred to as definition. When this parameter is lowered to a negative value, regions of the image with low amounts of detail are softened while areas of high-detail are left alone. 0 is unity. The range is –100 (minimum) through +100 (very high).
Panasonic Varicam RAW Panasonic Varicam RAW (CRW) is produced by a variety of Panasonic cameras (such as the VariCam 35 and VariCam Pure 4K) recording to Codex VRAW recorders. Master Settings These parameters let you choose the decode quality, white balance, color space, and gamma that raw clips will be transformed to use when debayered. Decode Quality: Lets you debayer Varicam RAW files at Full, Half, or Quarter resolution to improve performance on slower systems.
Midtone Detail: When this parameter is raised, the contrast of regions of the image with high edge detail is raised to increase the perception of image sharpness, sometimes referred to as definition. When this parameter is lowered to a negative value, regions of the image with low amounts of detail are softened while areas of high-detail are left alone. 0 is unity. The range is –100 (minimum) through +100 (very high).
Project Settings The following settings for exposure, color, and sharpness are available. Gamma: Three options are available for setting the gamma of the debayered output: – Rec. 709 – Log 1 – Log 2 Lift: Adjusts the black point of the media, raising it or lowering it while scaling all midtone values between it and the white point. Regardless of how you adjust this control, all image data is preserved and can be retrieved in subsequent adjustments. The range is –100 to +100.
RED R3D source media, recorded by the various models of RED DIGITAL CINEMA cameras, contains one of the most elaborate sets of raw parameters of any of the camera formats. These settings are divided into four different groups. Master RED Settings The Master RED settings are the most important, handling decode quality and the control governing whether the original camera metadata is used, or if you’re overriding the camera metadata project-wide with custom settings.
Timecode: The timecode recorded for R3D media depends on the camera setting in use when it was shot. There are three choices: – Camera: This setting automatically selects between Absolute and Edge depending on what was chosen as the default timecode mode on the camera. This setting needs to be selected before you add R3D media to the Media Pool. If you’re browsing R3D media when you change this setting, you should refresh the folder in the Library of the Media Pool before adding media to the Media Pool.
– sRGB: Decodes into the standard color space defined by the sRGB standard, typically used for computer display. – Adobe1998: Decodes into Adobe’s unique version of the sRGB standard. – DCI-P3: Decodes to an RGB-encoded image data with a D61 white point, intended for use when outputting media for DCI mastering. – DCI-P3 D65: Decodes RGB-encoded image data with a D65 white point, intended for monitoring with a P3-compatible display.
– BT.1886: The standardized gamma curve for standard-dynamic-range HD and UHD display. Does not provide an abundance of latitude for grading. – Log3G12: An expanded option for RED’s IPP2 (image processing pipeline 2) initiative, this is a wide dynamic range log space designed to encode camera data from all RED models to a common starting point in RWG color space for convenient grading to HDR or SDR workflows. Log3G12 provides 12 stops of dynamic range above mid gray, 2 more stops than Log3G10.
Blend Bias: Lets you adjust how much of the regular exposure and how much of the underexposure are combined. Apply Metadata Curves: If the R3D media files were preprocessed in REDCINE X Pro, and saved with color curve metadata, you can use this setting to either use or discard that metadata. D.E.B. (Dragon Enhanced Blacks): A checkbox that enables the elimination of red noise in RED cameras using the Dragon sensor. Embedded Audio: Enables embedded audio in R3D media.
Brightness: Adjusts image lightness. Image data is compressed rather then clipped at 100 and 0 percent. 0 is unity. The range is –10 to +10. Three additional parameters are available for IPP2 workflows, but they only function when DaVinci Resolve is set to use DaVinci YRGB Color Managed color science and the Timeline to Output Gamut Mapping in the Color Management panel of the Project Settings is set to RED IPP2 Gamut Mapping.
Sony RAW Sony makes several digital cinema cameras, such as the F65 and F55, that record wide latitude, high-gamut media either using Sony’s 12-bit SR codec, or as 16-bit raw media files. Since Sony’s cameras do not use a traditional Bayer pattern, special debayering is necessary when working with F65 raw media, and the image data is demosaiced using the following raw controls and parameters.
– SGamut3.Cine: According to Sony’s “Technical Summary for S-Gamut3Cine/S-Log3 and S-Gamut3/S-Log3” whitepaper, S-Gamut3.Cine is designed to provide a more traditionally log-encoded workflow with color reproduction that is slightly wider than the P3 gamut. – P3: Decodes to an RGB-encoded image data with a D61 white point, intended for use when outputting media for DCI mastering. – ACES: Decodes to image data that maps to the ACES profile for the camera that was used.
Color Boost: Lets you naturalistically raise the saturation of regions of low saturation, sometimes referred to as a vibrance operation. Can be used also to lower the saturation of regions of low saturation. 0 is unity. The range is –100 (minimum) through +100 (very high). Saturation: Adjusts the color intensity of the image. 0 is unity. The range is –100 (minimum) through +100 (very high).
Chapter 6 Improving Performance, Proxies, and the Render Cache DaVinci Resolve is a high-performance piece of software designed to enable real time effects on a variety of workstations. This section describes the various ways you can monitor your performance to make sure you’re maintaining real time playback, along with different methods of optimizing real time performance, including using on-the-fly proxies and the background Render Cache.
Contents Understanding the GPU Status Display 200 Prioritizing Audio or Video Playback in the Edit Page 200 Performance Mode Improves Overall Performance 201 Adjusting Performance Mode 201 Proxy Mode Improves Effects Performance 201 Reducing Decode Quality Improves Raw Media Performance 202 Optimized Media Improves Overall Performance 203 Creating Optimized Media 203 Seeing Which Clips Have Been Optimized 204 Using Smart Bins to Keep Track of Clips Needing Optimizing 204 Optimized Media
Understanding the GPU Status Display Every viewer in DaVInci Resolve exposes a GPU status indicator and a frame-per-second (FPS) meter, which appears in the Viewer’s title bar, which shows you your workstation’s performance whenever playback is initiated. Since DaVinci Resolve uses one or more GPUs (graphics processing units) to handle all image processing and effects, the GPU status display shows you how much processing power is being used by whichever clip is playing.
Performance Mode Improves Overall Performance Performance Mode, which is found in the Playback Settings of the User Preferences, analyzes your computer’s configuration, the CPU, GPU, connected video interface, and so on, and automatically tunes DaVinci Resolve’s under-the-hood image processing settings to provide the best interactivity on your machine. It’s set to Automatic by default, although you can choose to adjust its effect manually, or disable it altogether.
To turn Use Proxies on and off, do one of the following: Choose Playback > Proxy Mode > Half Resolution, Quarter Resolution, or None. Press PROXY ON/OFF on the T-bar panel of the DaVinci control panel (Defaults to the last proxy resolution you selected from the menu. Half is the default if you haven’t selected a resolution yet.). Turning on one of the proxy resolutions reduces the working resolution by either half or a quarter of whatever the current Timeline resolution is for your project.
Optimized Media Improves Overall Performance If you’re editing processor-intensive source formats such as camera raw, H.264, or 8K media, and your computer isn’t fast enough to work with it easily in real time, you can create prerendered, low-overhead duplicate media to use instead, that’s automatically managed alongside the original media. This is called “Optimized Media.
To create optimized media for one or more selected clips: Right-click one of the selected clips, and choose Generate Optimized Media from the contextual menu. All optimized media is written to the same directory as the Cache files are written, which defaults to the first scratch disk listed in the Preference dialog’s Media Storage panel. The location of Cache and Optimized files is also selectable via the “Cache files location” setting in the Master Settings panel of the Project Settings.
Optimized Media for Raw Source Clips In general, once you create optimized media, DaVinci Resolve keeps track of it and continues using it regardless of whatever changes you make to your project, including changing the Timeline resolution. However, any change to the camera raw settings of optimized clips will automatically discard the optimized media, requiring you to re-generate optimized media for them.
Choosing Resolution Automatically The “Choose automatically” option of the Resolution setting bears a bit more explanation. When selected, only source media with a higher resolution than the selected Timeline resolution will generate downsized optimized media. How much each clip will be downsized depends on how much larger each clip is than the Timeline resolution.
Deleting Optimized Media The optimized media you generate within a project is persistent; it’s saved for future use even when the project is closed and later reopened. If you need to delete optimized media to free up space on your scratch volume (or wherever you’ve decided to locate your project’s cache files), you can do so with a single command. To clear optimized media: Open the project, and choose Playback > Delete Optimized Media.
To use clip caching on any page, do one of the following: Choose Playback > Render Cache > Smart to set DaVinci Resolve to automatically cache computationally intensive effects and timeline clips in formats judged too processor-intensive to play in real time.
Effectively, this is a “pre-Color page” cache. By caching all processor-intensive clips in the Timeline, you’ll experience vastly improved trimming and grading performance. However, you also have the option to turn the Fusion Output Cache on or off for individual clips, or for multiple selected clips all at once. This lets you switch between using the native source of each clip with live effects, or the cached clip in the cache format you’ve chosen.
Third, the Sequence Cache The Sequence Cache is a separate cache for effects that are specifically applied within the Timeline in the Edit page. These include transitions, opacity adjustments, and composite mode superimpositions. Sequence Cache effects can be auto-cached in both the Smart and User caches.
Caching happens in two ways. First, when either Smart or User caching is enabled, caching always happens whenever you play clips with red caching indicators. Second, if background caching is enabled in the Project settings (it’s turned on by default), and you don’t make any changes to your project for a user-definable number of seconds (this is adjustable in the Master Settings panel of the Project Settings), caching will automatically begin during periods of user inactivity.
Cache Color Output Is Actually Node Caching for the Whole Grade In Smart mode: Manually flagged clips with Render Cache Color Output turned on cache the entire output of the Color page node graph, effectively caching that clip’s entire grade. This is most useful when you want to improve trimming and playback performance in the Edit page. Flagging a clip for caching also causes EVERY SINGLE VERSION associated with that clip to be cached as well.
Controlling Node Caching You can manually control which nodes in a grade are cached, and which are not. Right-click any node in a node tree, and choose an option from the Node Cache submenu. There are three options: Auto: The flagged node and all upstream nodes will only be cached in Smart mode if it contains an operation that’s designated for caching. On: The node will always be cached in either Smart or User mode, no matter what operations it performs.
Using Optimized Media, Proxies, and Caching Together How you use DaVinci Resolve’s various performance-enhancing features together is entirely up to you, but you should know that they’re not an either/or proposition.
Resize Filter: (Image Scaling) A drop-down menu that lets you choose an alternate image transform filter (such as Bilinear) that is lower quality but less processor intensive. A “Force sizing highest quality” checkbox in the Render Settings list of the Deliver page helps make sure you don’t accidentally render your final media at this lower quality setting, however. Hide UI overlays: (User Preferences, Playback Settings) Off by default.
Chapter 7 Data Levels, Color Management, and ACES This chapter covers operational details that affect how color is managed for media that is imported into and exported from DaVinci Resolve. If color accuracy is important to you, then it’s a good idea to learn more about how Resolve handles the data levels of each clip, how DaVinci Resolve Color Management helps you to work with different formats, and how to use ACES.
Contents Data Levels Settings and Conversions 218 Converting Between Ranges and Clipping 218 Internal Image Processing and Clip Data Levels 219 Assigning Clip Levels in the Media Pool 219 Video Monitoring Data Levels 220 Deck Capture and Playback Data Level 220 Output Data Level Settings in the Deliver Page 221 So, What’s the “Proper” Data Range for Output? 221 DaVinci Resolve Color Management 221 Display Referred vs.
Data Levels Settings and Conversions Different media formats use different ranges of values to represent image data. Since these data formats often correspond to different output workflows (cinema vs. broadcast), it helps to know where your project’s media files are coming from, and where they’re going, in order to define the various data range settings in DaVinci Resolve and preserve your program’s data integrity.
Internal Image Processing and Clip Data Levels It’s useful to know that, internally to DaVinci Resolve, all image data is processed as full range, uncompressed, 32-bit floating point data. What this means is that each clip in the Media Pool, whatever its original bit-depth or data range, is scaled into full-range 32-bit data. How each clip is scaled depends on its Levels setting in the Clip Attributes window, available from the Media Pool contextual menu.
there are three additional data level settings that you can use to maintain data integrity, while at the same time seeing the proper image as you work. Video Monitoring Data Levels Superficial problems may result if the settings used by your external display differ from the settings you’re using to process data levels in Resolve. Accordingly, there is a Video/Full Level setting in the Master Settings panel of the Project Settings (in the Video Monitoring section).
Once tape ingest or output has finished, your video interface goes back to outputting using the setting specified by the “Colorspace conversion uses” setting in the Master Settings panel of the Project Settings (in the Video Monitoring section). Output Data Level Settings in the Deliver Page Finally, there’s one last set of data level settings, available in the Render Settings list, within the Format group. It’s the “Set to video or data level” drop-down menu.
Display Referred vs. Scene Referred Color Management The default DaVinci YRGB color science setting, which is what DaVinci Resolve has always used, relies on what is called “Display Referred” color management. This means that Resolve has no information about how the source media used in the Timeline is supposed to look; you can only judge color accuracy via the calibrated broadcast display you’re outputting to.
Resolve Color Management for Editors RCM is also easier for editors to use in situations where the source material is log-encoded. Log-encoded media preserves highlight and shadow detail, which is great for grading and finishing, but it looks flat and unpleasant, which is terrible for editing.
Log C, REDWideGamutRGB/Log3G10, and Cineon Film Log. If you instead prefer grading in the Rec. 709 color space because you’re more comfortable with how the controls feel in that color space, you can choose that instead. Whatever Timeline Color Space you assign is what all source clips will be transformed to for purposes of making grading adjustments in the Color page, so you can make this choice using a single setting.
If you turn the “Use Separate Color Space and Gamma” checkbox on, then the Color Management panel changes so that the Input, Timeline, and Output Color Space settings each display two pop-ups. The first drop-down lets you explicitly set the gamut, while the second drop-down lets you explicitly set the gamma. This makes it easier to see exactly which pair of transforms is being used at each stage of RCM.
Gamut Limiting, Restricting Values Within a Larger Gamut In the emerging world of larger gamuts for distribution, it’s increasingly common for delivery specifications to specify output to a large gamut, such as Rec.2020, yet require that image values be restricted to a smaller gamut, such as P3.
Here are some examples of what the Gamut Mapping controls of RCM can be used for: If you’re working with high-dynamic-range log-encoded media and you’re outputting to Rec. 709 as you work, turning on Gamut Mapping lets RCM use saturation and tone mapping to give you a more immediately pleasing image with highlight detail that’s not clipped.
– Max. Timeline Luminance: The maximum luminance level of the Timeline color space, in nits. Changing the Timeline Color Space gamma setting automatically updates this parameter to the appropriate value for mapping the Timeline Color Space to the Output Color Space, but these two color spaces need to be different in order for tone mapping to work. In Simple mode, this setting is non-adjustable.
To assign an Input Color Space to one or more selected clips in the Media Pool: 1 Select the clip or clips you want to assign. Since you can assign an Input Color Space to more than one clip at a time, it will speed things up if you use a sort or find operation, or create a Smart Bin or Smart Filter, to identify every clip from a specific camera using a particular format, so you can assign them all at once.
For more information on how color management affects the Fusion page, and why the Linear color space is preferable for compositing, see Chapter 67, “Controlling Image Processing and Resolution.” Exporting Color Space Information to QuickTime Files If you render QuickTime files from the Deliver page, then color space tags will be embedded into each file based on either the Timeline Color Space (if Resolve Color Management is disabled) or the Output Color Space (if Resolve Color Management is enabled).
By using the ACES color space and specifying an IDT and an ODT, you can ingest media from any capture device, grade it using a calibrated display, output it to any destination, and preserve the color fidelity of the graded image.
– P3-D65: Transforms RGB-encoded image data with a D65 white point; intended for monitoring with a P3-compatible display using a D65 white point. – P3-D65 (D60 sim.): Transforms RGB-encoded image data with a D65 white point; intended to simulate monitoring with a P3-compatible display using a D60 white point on a display with D65. – P3-D65 ST2084 (108/1000/2000/4000 nits): Transforms an image that’s compatible with the P3 color gamut, using the SMPTE standard PQ (ST.
– Rec.709 (D60 sim.): A standard transform designed to move media in the Rec. 709 color space with a white point of D60 into the ACES color space. – REDColor2/3/4/REDGamma3/4/REDLogFilm combinations: Different combinations of the REDcolor, REDgamma, and REDlogFilm settings are provided for legacy RED workflows. – RWGLog3G10: The standardized RED IPP2 color pipeline transform for all RED camera media.
– P3-D65 ST2084 (1000/2000/4000 nits): Transforms an image that’s compatible with the P3 color gamut, using the SMPTE standard PQ (ST.2084) tone curve for High Dynamic Range (HDR) post-production. Three settings for three different peak luminance ranges are provided; which one is appropriate to use depends on the maximum white level of the display used to create the media. Preliminary standards exist for HDR displays with peak luminance at 1000 nits, 2000 nits, and 4000 nits. – Rec.
NOTE: ACES grades require CLF LUTs that have been specifically created for ACES workflows. If you want to apply a regular LUT within a grade, you must do a color space transform to convert the image from ACES to whatever space the LUT was designed to work within, and then another color space transform to convert the image back to ACES; however, this workflow does not alway provide ideal results.
Chapter 8 HDR Setup and Grading This chapter covers operational details that let you set up DaVinci Resolve to do HDR grading.
Contents High Dynamic Range (HDR) Grading in DaVinci Resolve 238 HDR Isn’t Just for Televisions 238 The Different Formats of HDR 238 What Do I Do With HDR? 239 Analyzing HDR Signals Using Video Scopes 240 Dolby Vision™ 241 Mastering Displays for Dolby Vision 242 GPU-Accelerated Dolby Vision™ CMU Built-In (Studio Only) 243 Simultaneous Master and Target Display Output for Dolby Vision 243 Hardware Setup of Master and Target Display Output for Dolby Vision 244 Auto Analysis is Available to
High Dynamic Range (HDR) Grading in DaVinci Resolve The HDR features found in DaVinci Resolve are only available in DaVinci Resolve Studio. High Dynamic Range (HDR) video describes an emerging family of video encoding and distribution technologies designed to enable a new generation of television displays to play video capable of intensely bright highlights and increased saturation.
A graded HDR image being output looks similar to a log-encoded image At the time of this writing, there are four approaches to mastering HDR that DaVinci Resolve is capable of supporting, including: Dolby Vision™ HDR10 HDR10+ Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) Each of these HDR standards define how an HDR signal is encoded for export and later mapped to the visible output of an HDR or SDR display.
Analyzing HDR Signals Using Video Scopes When you’re using waveform scopes of any kind, including parade and overlay scopes, the signal will fit within the 10-bit scale used to analyze the signal much differently owing to the way HDR is encoded. The following chart of values will make it easier to understand how each level in “nits” (i.e.
The video scopes with “Enable HDR Scopes for ST.2084” enabled in the Color panel of the User Preferences TIP: If you’re unsatisfied with the amount of detail you’re seeing in the 0–519 range (0–100 nits) of the video scope graphs, then you can use the 3D Scopes Lookup Table setting in the Color Management panel of the Project Settings to assign the appropriate “HDR X nits to Gamma 2.4 LUT,” with X being the peak nit level of the HDR display you’re using.
To accommodate backward compatibility with SDR displays, as well as the varying maximum brightness of different makes and models of HDR consumer displays, Dolby Vision offers both dual layer backward compatible and single layer non-backward compatible output options (mastering is identical for both). The dual layer backward compatible output option accommodates a two-stream video delivery method that consists of a base layer and an enhancement layer with metadata.
GPU-Accelerated Dolby Vision™ CMU Built-In (Studio Only) DaVinci Resolve 15 introduced a GPU-accelerated software version of the Dolby Vision CMU (Content Mapping Unit) for doing Dolby Vision grading and finishing workflows right in DaVinci Resolve. Previously available only via external hardware, CMU support is now built into DaVinci Resolve and can be enabled and set up in the Color Management panel of the Project Settings by turning on the Enable Dolby Vision checkbox.
Enabling Simultaneous Monitoring When you set up your display hardware, the HDR Master Display must be connected to output A, and the Target Display must be connected to output B of whichever BMD video output device you’re using. Then, you need to turn on the “Use dual outputs on SDI” checkbox in the Master Settings of the Project Settings.
Your DaVinci Resolve workstation will connect its dual SDI outputs to the BMD Smart Videohub, which splits the video signal to two mirrored sets of SDI outputs. One mirrored pair of SDI outputs goes to your HDR display. The other mirrored pair of SDI outputs goes to the CMU (Content Mapping Unit), which is itself connected to your SDR display via SDI. Lastly, the Resolve workstation is connected to the Dolby CMU via Gigabit Ethernet to enable the CMU to communicate back to Resolve.
Authorizing DaVinci Resolve to Expose Advanced Dolby Vision Controls To expose the Dolby Vision controls in DaVinci Resolve Studio that let you make manual trims on top of the automatic analysis that any copy of DaVinci Resolve Studio can do, you must email dolbyvisionmastering@dolby.com to receive more information about obtaining a license.
Max: The maximum PQ-encoded pixel value, aka maximum picture level, the lightest pixel in the image. Avg: The average PQ-encoded pixel value, aka average picture level (APL). The third are the Primary Trims, which are only editable if you’ve performed an analysis and if you have a license from Dolby: Lift/Gamma/Gain: These controls function similarly to the Y-only Lift, Gamma, and Gain master wheels of the Color Wheels palette, to let you trim the overall contrast levels of the image.
Together, all of this trimming metadata guides how the CMU (software or hardware) transforms the image from the Mastering Display specified in the Project Settings to the Target Display specified in the Dolby Vision palette. This is possible because the CMU is actually the functional equivalent of the Dolby Vision chip that’s inside each Dolby Vision-enabled television; what you’re really doing is using the CMU to make your SDR display simulate a 100 nit Dolby Vision television.
Managing Dolby Vision Metadata As you go through the process of analyzing and trimming the HDR grades displayed on your Master Display to look appropriate on your Target Display, you’ll sometimes find it useful to copy and paste metadata from one clip to another.
This is to prevent accidentally overdriving HDR displays for which there are negative consequences (not all HDR displays have this limitation). – ST.2084 300 nit – ST.2084 500 nit – ST.2084 800 nit – ST.2084 1000 nit – ST.2084 2000 nit – ST.2084 3000 nit – ST.2084 4000 nit This setting is only the output EOTF (a sort of gamma transform, if you will, using the terminology that DaVinci Resolve’s UI has used up until now).
Practically speaking, this makes controls that operate by letting you make adjustments at different tonal ranges, such as Custom Curves, Soft Clip, and so on, work more easily with wide‑latitude signals. 3 When you’re happy with the HDR grade, choose “Target Display Output” and “Trim Controls For” settings that you want to trim to. By default, these are set to “100-nit, BT.709, BT.1886, Full,” which is a typical SDR deliverable.
Rendering an Ordinary SDR Media File If you want to export the SDR trim pass, then you can choose Dolby Vision from the Tone Mapping drop-down menu in the Advanced Settings of the Render Settings list on the Deliver page, and choose the 100-nit, BT.709, BT.1886, Full setting below. With this enabled, you can output the SDR version of your program to any format you like.
Finally, ST.2084 has been included in the HDR 10 standard adopted by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) that covers Ultra HD Blu-ray. HDR 10 stipulates that Ultra HD Blu-ray discs have the following characteristics: UHD resolution of 3840 x 2160 Up to the Rec. 2020 gamut SMPTE ST.2084 Mastered with a peak luminance of 1000 nits The downside is that, by itself, an HDR10 mastered program is not backward compatible with Rec. 709 displays using BT.
outputting 800 nits worth of signal and clipping any image details from 801–1000 nits because there weren’t that many details above 800 anyway. Or, if you’re grading large explosive fireballs up above 800 nits in their entirety because it looks cool, then maybe the audience will notice. The bottom line is, when you’re grading for displays that are only capable of ST.2084, you need to think about these sorts of things. Monitoring and Grading to ST.2084 in DaVinci Resolve Monitoring an ST.
HDR10+™ DaVinci Resolve 15 supports the new HDR10+ HDR format by Samsung. Please note that this support is a work in progress as this is a new standard. When enabled, an HDR10+ palette exposes trimming parameters that let you trim an automated downconversion of HDR to SDR, creating metadata to control how HDR-strength highlights look on a variety of supported televisions and displays. This is enabled and set up in the Color Management panel of the Project Settings with the Enable HDR10+ checkbox.
Necessary Hardware To work in this manner, you must have the following equipment: Your DaVinci Resolve grading workstation must output via a DeckLink 8K, DeckLink 4K Extreme 12G, UltraStudio 4K Extreme video interface, or better. Your Mastering Display must be capable of Dolby Vision levels suitable for the deliverable you’re required to produce. A display that can be set to output calibrated SDR, probably using the Rec. 709 gamut.
The HDR10+ palette in the Color page; the analysis metadata is shown in the Anchor Point number fields for each slider The Enable Tone Mapping Preview checkbox lets you turn the tone mapping trim being applied off and on, so you can evaluate how the downconverted SDR version looks on your HDR display. This control is disabled when you enable “Use dual-outputs on SDI” in the Master Settings of the Project Settings, since the second output SDI now automatically displays the target display output.
Rendering an Ordinary SDR Media File If you want to export the SDR trim pass, then you can choose HDR10+ from the Tone Mapping drop-down menu in the Advanced Settings of the Render Settings list on the Deliver page, and choose the 100-nit, BT.709, BT.1886, Full setting below. With this enabled, you can output the SDR version of your program to any format you like.
Grading Hybrid Log-Gamma in DaVinci Resolve Monitoring an ST.2084 image is as simple as getting a Hybrid Log-Gamma-compatible HDR display, and connecting the output of your video interface to the input of the display. Setting up Resolve Color Management to grade for HLG is identical to setting up to grade for Dolby Vision, except that there are four HLG settings to choose from for the Output Color Space: Rec.709 HLG ARIB STD-B67 Rec.2020 HLG ARIB STD-B67 Rec.2100 HLG Rec.
Chapter 9 Image Sizing and Resolution Independence DaVinci Resolve is a resolution-independent application. This means that, whatever the resolution of your source media, it can be output at whatever other resolution you like, and just about every size-dependent effect in your project, text, windows of grades, edit and input clip scaling, and other effects will scale appropriately to match the new output resolution.
Contents About Resolution Independence 262 Timeline Resolution 262 Mixing Clip Resolutions 262 Changing the Timeline Resolution 262 You Can Use Separate Timelines to Output Different Resolutions 263 You Don’t Need Separate Timelines to Output Different Resolutions 263 Using High Resolution Media in Lower Resolution Projects 263 Clip Source Resolution 264 Pixel Aspect Ratio (PAR) 264 Clip Resolution 264 The DaVinci Resolve Sizing Pipeline 264 “Super Scale” High Quality Upscaling 264 F
About Resolution Independence If you only read one paragraph of this chapter, read this: Resolution Independence in DaVinci Resolve means you can add clips to a timeline in any combination of resolutions to fit the project resolution you’ve chosen to work at, and you can later output that timeline to as many other resolutions as necessary in order to create multiple deliverables.
You Can Use Separate Timelines to Output Different Resolutions Beginning in DaVinci Resolve 16, you have the option of creating separate timelines with individual Format (including Input Scaling), Monitoring, and Output Sizing settings for situations where you need to set up multiple timelines to create multiple deliverables with different resolutions, pixel aspect ratios, frame rates, monitoring options, or output scaling options than the overall project, including “Mismatched Resolution Files” settings.
NOTE: This changes when you apply Fusion effects to any clip, as described later in this chapter. Clip Source Resolution Clip resolution in DaVinci Resolve is handled by the combination of Pixel Aspect Ratio and Resolution. Pixel Aspect Ratio (PAR) The Timeline Format settings, found in the Master Settings of the Project Settings, let you specify a Pixel Aspect Ratio for the project, in addition to the frame size.
Super Scale options in the Video panel of the Clip Attributes The Super Scale drop-down menu provides three options of 2x, 3x, and 4x, as well as Sharpness and Noise Reduction options to tune the quality of the scaled result. Note that all of the Super Scale parameters are in fixed increments; you cannot apply Super Scale in variable amounts.
The available resolution and bit depth of the currently selected clip is visible above the upper right-hand corner of the Viewer, circled in red Fusion Clips Inherit the Timeline Resolution If you combine multiple clips on the Timeline into a Fusion clip, the Fusion page is set to the timeline resolution, regardless of the source resolution of the clip.
Fusion Page Transform Operations Are Resolution Independent Within the Fusion page, multiple Transform nodes operate in a resolution independent manner relative to the resolution of the source clip. This means that if you shrink an image to 20% with one Transform node, and then enlarge it back up to 100% using a second Transform node, you end up with an image that has all the resolution and sharpness of the input image.
Input Scaling Project Setting If the native resolution of an imported clip doesn’t match the timeline resolution, then the currently selected Input Scaling Preset in the Image Scaling panel of the Project Settings dictates how mismatched clips will be handled project-wide.
Stretch frame to all corners: Useful for projects using anamorphic media. Clips of differing resolutions are squished or stretched to match the frame size in all dimensions. This way, anamorphic media can be stretched to match full raster or full raster media can be squished to fit into an anamorphic frame. An added benefit of this setting is that it makes it easy to mix anamorphic and non-anamorphic clips in the same project.
Output Image Scaling Project Settings Another group of settings found in the Image Scaling panel of the Project Settings lets you optionally choose a different resolution to be output, either via the Deliver page, or via your video output interface for monitoring or outputting to tape. In particular, if you set the “Resolution” in the Render Settings panel of the Deliver page to something other than the timeline resolution, these settings are used to make the change.
The Transform parameters in the Inspector of the Edit page If, when importing an AAF or XML project file, you turned on the “Use sizing information” checkbox, then every clip that had position, scale, rotation, or crop settings applied in the originating NLE will have those adjustments applied to these transform parameters, which is convenient for keeping imported transform settings separate from other DaVinci Resolve-native transform settings.
Node Sizing on the Color Page Using Node Sizing, you can apply individual sizing adjustments to clips on a per-node basis within the Color page, which is similar in principal to using Transform nodes in the Fusion page. All Node Sizing adjustments within a grade are cumulative, and any keyframing done to Node Sizing parameters is stored in that node’s Node Format keyframe track in the Keyframe Editor.
Format Resolution on the Delivery Page By default, the Format Resolution setting in the Render Settings of the Deliver page matches the timeline resolution when “Match timeline settings” is enabled in the Output Scaling Preset in the Image Scaling panel of the Project Settings. Choosing a new resolution from the “Set Resolution to” drop-down menu lets you override the current Format Resolution setting before rendering.
PART 2 Ingest and Organize Media
Chapter 10 Using the Media Page The Media page is the primary interface for media import and clip organization in DaVinci Resolve. It’s also where all timelines that you edit in DaVinci Resolve or import from other applications are organized. While timelines and clips are both saved in the Media Pool, it’s central to the way DaVinci Resolve works that the source media used by a project is managed separately from your timelines.
Contents Understanding the Media Page User Interface 277 Showing Which Panel Has Focus 278 The Media Storage Browser 278 Playing Media in the Media Storage Browser 279 The Media Storage Browser’s Volume List 279 The Media Storage Browser Area 280 Revealing a Finder Location in the Media Browser 282 Viewer 282 Live Media Preview 283 Media Pool 284 The Bin List 284 Showing Bins in Separate Windows 284 Bins, Power Bins, and Smart Bins 285 Filtering Bins Using Color Tags 286 Sorting
Understanding the Media Page User Interface By default, the Media page is divided into five different areas, designed to make it easy to find, select, and work with media in your project. Media page Much of the functionality and most of the commands are found within the contextual menus that appear when you right-click clips in the Media Storage browser or Media Pool.
Showing Which Panel Has Focus Whenever you click somewhere on the DaVinci Resolve interface using the pointer, or use a keyboard shortcut to “select” a particular panel (such as in the Edit page), you give that panel of the user interface “focus.” A panel with focus will capture specific keyboard shortcuts to do something within that panel, as opposed to doing something elsewhere in the interface.
Playing Media in the Media Storage Browser You can select media in the Media Storage Browser to play directly in the Media page Viewer, without importing it, so long as it’s in a format that DaVinci Resolve supports. This is useful for previewing clips that you’re considering using in a project, but it’s also useful for quality control review sessions of media that you’ve exported from DaVinci Resolve.
Media Storage Browser Favorites Underneath this is the Favorites area. If there are special directories that you find yourself frequently accessing, you can add them to the Favorites in order to avoid having to traverse complex hierarchies in order to access the media you need. The Favorites can be easily customized and used.
If you work in List view, you gain additional organizational control by exposing columns that show the metadata that each clip contains, prior to media being added to your timeline. You can use these columns to help organize your media. Methods of customizing metadata columns in List view: To show or hide columns: Right-click at the top of any column in the Media Storage browser and select an item in the contextual menu list to check or uncheck a particular column. Unchecked columns cannot be seen.
Also while in Thumbnail view, you can use the Thumbnail Sort drop-down menu (between the zoom slider and the Thumbnail view button) to choose a criteria by which to organize the thumbnails. Options include File Name, Reel Name, Start TC, FPS, Audio Ch, and Date Modified.
Simple transport controls appear underneath the jog bar, letting you Jump to First Frame, Play Backward, Stop, Play Forward, and Jump to Last Frame. A jog control to the left of these buttons lets you move through a long clip more slowly; click it and drag to the left or right to move through a clip a frame at a time. To the right of the transport controls, In and Out buttons let you set In and Out points for the current clip. The Cue buttons move the playhead to these In and Out cue points.
Media Pool The Media Pool is central to the DaVinci Resolve experience. It contains all of the media that you import into the current project, as well as all of the timelines you create. It also contains all media that’s automatically imported along with Projects, Timelines, or Compositions that have themselves been imported into DaVinci Resolve. In the Media page, enough room is given to the Media Pool to make it an ideal place to sort, sift through, and organize the clips in your project.
Media Pool bins opened as new windows Bins, Power Bins, and Smart Bins There are actually three kinds of bins in the Media Pool, and each appears in its own section of the Bin list. The Power Bin and Smart Bin areas of the Bin list can be shown or hidden using commands in the View menu (View > Show Smart Bins, View > Show Power Bins). Here are the differences between the different kinds of bins: Bins: Simple, manually populated bins.
Filtering Bins Using Color Tags If you’re working on a project that has a lot of bins, you can apply color tags to identify particular bins with one of eight colors. Tagging bins is as easy as right-clicking any bin and choosing the color you want from the Color Tag submenu. For example, you can identify the bins that have clips you’re using most frequently with a red tag. A bin’s color tag then appears as a colored background behind that bin’s name.
If you use User Sort in the Bin list to rearrange your bins manually, you can switch back and forth between any of the other sorting methods (Name, Date Created, Date Modified) and User Sort and your manual User Sort order will be remembered, making it easy to use whatever method of bin sorting is most useful at the time, without losing your customized bin organization.
To search for a clip by name: 1 Select which bin or bins you want to search. 2 Click the magnifying glass button at the upper right-hand corner of the Media Pool. 3 Choose the particular column of information you want to search (or All Fields to search all columns) using the Filter by pop-up menu. Only selected bins will be searched. 4 Type your search string into the Search field that appears. A few letters should be enough to isolate only those clips that have that character string within their name.
Clip Metadata Editor showing the Clip Details panel Audio Panel The Audio Panel can be put into one of two modes via an option menu. In the default Meters mode, audio meters are displayed that show the levels of audio in clips you’re playing. In Waveform mode, you can open audio clips side by side with video clips in the Viewer in order to sync them together manually. For more information on manually syncing audio to video, see Chapter 13, “Syncing Audio and Video.
Dual Monitor Layout The Media page has a dual monitor layout that provides maximum space for the Media Storage browser and Media Pool on the primary monitor, and an enlarged Viewer, Audio Panel, and Metadata Editor on the secondary monitor, along with a complete set of video scopes for helping you to evaluate media as you organize it. To enter dual screen mode: Choose Workspace > Dual Screen > On.
Customizing the Media Page The Media Page can be customized to create more room in different areas to accommodate specific tasks. To resize any area of the Media page: Drag the vertical or horizontal border between any two panels to enlarge one and shrink the other. Methods of hiding different parts of the Media page: To toggle the Clone Tool on and off: Click the Clone Tool button in the UI toolbar at the top. To toggle the Audio Panel on and off: Click the Audio button in the UI toolbar at the top.
In all cases, there is no practical limit to the number of steps that are undoable (although there may be a limit to what you can remember). To take advantage of this, there are three ways you can undo work to go to a previous state of your project, no matter what page you’re in. To simply undo or redo changes you’ve made one at a time: Choose Edit > Undo (Command-Z) to undo the previous change. Choose Edit > Redo (Shift-Command-Z) to redo to the next change.
To undo and redo using the Undo window: 1 Choose Edit > History > Open History Window. 2 When the History dialog appears, click an item on the list to undo back to that point. Unlike the menu, in this window the most recent thing you’ve done appears at the bottom of this list. Selecting a change here grays out changes that can still be redone, as the project updates to show you its current state.
Chapter 11 Adding and Organizing Media with the Media Pool Before you can edit or grade media, you need to add it to the Media Pool, which is the central repository of clips in DaVinci Resolve. The Media Pool is a feature-rich environment, giving you many different methods of importing clips into your project and organizing them.
Contents Copying Media Using the Clone Tool 297 Adding Media to the Media Pool 299 Basic Methods for Adding Media in the Media Page 299 Adding Subclips From the Media Storage Panel 300 Adding Individual Frames From Image Sequences 301 Adding Media Based on EDLs 301 Splitting Clips Based on EDLs 302 Import Clips With Metadata Via Final Cut Pro 7 XML 302 Adding Media With Offset Timecode 302 Adding Media to the Cut, Edit, Fusion, and Fairlight Pages 303 Removing Media From the Media Pool
Duplicating Clips in the Media Pool 314 Duplicating Timelines 314 Choosing How to Display Bins 315 Showing Bins in Separate Windows 315 Using the Media Pool in Thumbnail View 315 Working With Columns in List View 316 Editable Description and Comments Columns 319 Finding Clips, Timelines, and Media 319 Finding Clips and/or Timelines Within the Media Pool 319 Finding Synced Audio 320 Finding Timeline Clips in the Media Pool 320 Finding Timelines in the Media Pool 320 Finding Media in t
Copying Media Using the Clone Tool One of the few things you may want to do before you add media to your project is to clone all camera original media onto a safe set of backup volumes, for redundancy in case any one volume fails. Additionally, you should consider cloning all media to an off-site backup as well.
– SHA 256, SHA 512: Slower, but more secure. SHA is a more collision resistant hash function than MD5; options are provided for 256- and 512-bit value generation, with 512 being even more collision resistant than 256. However, these options are progressively slower than MD5, and will result in significantly slower copy times. Similarly to MD5, data integrity is checked by comparing the hash value generated by the original file to that generated by the copied file.
Adding Media to the Media Pool At minimum, you’ll be using the Media page to add clips to a project to begin editing, in preparation to create dailies, or as a prelude to conforming a project using an EDL. All clips you want to work with must first be added to the Media Pool to be available for grading and processing in DaVinci Resolve, regardless of whether or not there’s edited project data to go along with it.
To add the entire contents of one or more directories of clips to the Media Pool: 1 Use the Media Storage panel to find and select one or more directories containing media files you need to import. 2 If you have multiple bins available in the Bin list, select the specific bin you want to add the incoming media to.
To add a subclip from a clip in the Media Storage panel to the Media Pool: 1 Single-click any clip in the Media Storage panel to open it into the Viewer in order to create a subclip without needing to first import that clip into the Media Pool. 2 Set In and Out points in the Source Viewer to define the section you want to turn into a subclip.
Splitting Clips Based on EDLs You can also use EDLs to split a media file into multiple clips in the Media Pool, either as an alternate means of “preconforming” a flattened master media file, or to import multiple sections of a longer media file that happen to be referenced by an EDL. To split and add clips based on an EDL: 1 Right-click a directory in the Media Storage panel, and choose “Split and add into Media Pool.” 2 Using the file dialog that appears, select an EDL to use, and click Open.
To add a folder of clips to the Media Pool with offset timecode: 1 Right-click a directory in the Media Storage panel, and choose one of the following commands: – Add Folder with Source Offset – Add Folder and SubFolders with Source Offset 2 Choose a number of frames with which to offset the timecode from the “Change Frame Offset” dialog, and click Apply. The media is imported as clips with offset timecode in the Media Pool. However, the original source timecode of the clips on disk has not been altered.
To remove clips from the Master Timeline (if it’s exposed): Open the Edit page, then select one or more clips in the Media Pool, right-click one of the selected clips, and choose “Remove Selected Clips from Master Timeline.” For more information about using the Master Timeline, see Chapter 18, “Using the Edit Page.
Alternately, you can add a timeline matte to the Media Pool, which isn’t attached to any clip, that can be used as a key source in the Color page within any clip’s Clip grade, or within a Timeline Grade. Timeline mattes appear as stand-alone clips in the Media Pool. A timeline matte, seen in Thumbnail view What Are Mattes For? Matte files are useful for two things.
Removing an external matte clip also removes that matte’s key from any clip grades that use it, such that any clips using it as a key input change from a secondary operation to a primary operation, where the color adjustment affects the entire image. To add a timeline matte to the Media Pool: 1 Make sure no clip is selected in the Media Pool.
For more information on using an offline video to compare with an imported Timeline in the Edit page, see Chapter 46, “Preparing Timelines for Import and Comparison.” For more information on split-screen reference of Offline video in the Color page, see Chapter 113, “Using the Color Page.
Organizing Media into Bins You can easily organize clips into different bins in the Media Pool. For some workflows, this is required, while with other workflows it’s purely optional. Methods of working with bins in the Media Pool: To add a bin to the Media Pool: Right-click in the Bin list and choose Add Bin. To add a bin inside another bin, right-click any bin and choose Add Bin.
The Power Bins area of the Bin list Like regular bins, Power Bins must be manually created by right-clicking within the Power Bins area and choosing Add Bin. The difference is that whatever clips you import into Power Bins are shared among all projects in a single-user installation, or all projects belonging to a particular user in a multi-user installation. In this way, they’re similar to Power Grades in the gallery of the Color page.
Smart Bins Are Only As Good As Your Metadata It’s important to point out, however, that as much intrinsic metadata is available to every clip in DaVinci Resolve automatically (clip properties such as frame rate, frame size, codec, file name, and so on), the more time you take entering extra metadata in the Metadata Editor to prepare your project for editing and grading, the more powerful Smart Bins can be in helping you to sift and sort through the contents of a program you’re grading.
These categories are hierarchically organized, with each category closed by default to save space. Click the disclosure triangle of any category to reveal all Keyword, People, Scene, or Shot Smart Bins that are available in the current project. Selecting the Smart Category’s top bin lets you see every clip referenced by every Smart Bin inside of it, whereas selecting individual Smart Bins shows you only the clips referenced by that Smart Bin.
Properties (containing every column in the Media Pool) provide access to additional metadata you can use for filtering. Metadata type drop-down: For choosing which exact type of metadata to use, of the options available in the selected metadata category. Metadata criteria drop-down: Lets you choose the criteria by which to filter, depending on the metadata you’ve selected. Options include “true/false,” integer ranges, date ranges, string searches, flag and marker colors, et cetera.
Methods of modifying existing Smart Bins: To rename a Smart Bin: Right-click the Smart Bin you want to rename, choose Rename from the contextual menu, enter a new name, and press Return. To edit a Smart Bin: Double-click the Smart Bin, then edit the filter criteria, and click OK. To duplicate a Smart Bin: Right-click any Smart Bin and choose Duplicate from the contextual menu.
Another benefit of Folders is that when you select a Folder, you can see the full contents of all Smart Bins inside of it in the Media Pool browsing area. Selecting any one Smart Bin then restricts the Media Pool to showing only the media reference by that Smart Bin. Folders can be renamed, removed, opened as a new window, or sorted along with all other Smart Bins by right-clicking them and using commands in the contextual menu.
Choosing How to Display Bins Once you’ve created a bin structure for your project, you can customize how your bins are displayed, depending on how you like to work. Showing Bins in Separate Windows If you right-click a bin in the Bin list, you can choose “Open As New Window” to open that bin into its own window. That window is basically its own Media Pool, complete with its own Bin list, Power Bins and Smart Bins lists, and display controls.
In Thumbnail view, you can use the Sort Order drop-down, at the top right of the Media Pool, between the Icon Size slider and the Icon/List view buttons, to choose how clips are sorted. There are fourteen options: File Name, Reel Name, Clip Name, Start TC, Duration, Type, FPS, Audio Ch, Flags, Date Modified, Date Created, Shot, Scene, and Take.
The available columns in List view include: File Name: The name of the file on disk that clip is linked to. Clip Name: Editing the Clip Name lets you change the name with which clips appear throughout DaVinci Resolve when View > Use Clip Name for Clip Titles is enabled. By default, the clip name mirrors the source clip’s file name. When editing the clip name in the List view of the Media Pool, you can use “metadata variables” that you can add as graphical tags that let you reference clip metadata.
Frames: The total duration, in frames. Good Take: An editable field to contain the circled state of media, relative to the script supervisor’s notes. H-FLIP: Whether that media file is horizontally flipped in DaVinci Resolve. HDRX: Only displayed for R3D media, indicates whether or not it’s HDRX media. IDT: If ACES color science is selected in the Color Management panel of the Project Settings, the IDT used by that clip is listed here.
Start: The first frame number of the media file. Start KeyKode: The starting KeyKode value of a scanned negative. Start TC: The timecode value of the first frame in the media file. Take: An editable field to contain the take number of the media, relative to the shot. Type: The type of item, such as Video+Audio, Video, Audio, Timeline, Multicam, Still, and so on.
A drop-down menu right next to the magnifying glass icon lets you choose the scope of your search. This lets you choose whether a search looks through all bins in the current project for the specified criteria, or just looks at the currently open bin, or currently selected bins in the Bin list, in cases where you’re looking for an instance of media in a specific hierarchical location of the Media Pool.
Finding Media in the Media Storage Panel and Finder If you find yourself needing to determine the location of a clip’s source media file on disk, you can right-click an item in the Media Pool and choose Reveal in Media Storage panel. The Library automatically opens to the folder containing the media file you’ve selected, with that media file selected in the Library browser to the right.
A Usage column shows how many times a clip is used in every timeline, after analysis NOTE: The usage column increments for each clip item that appears in the Timeline. This means that if a clip consists of one video item and one video item linked together, the usage column will show the number 2. Relinking Media Simply DaVinci Resolve keeps track of the relationship between clips in your project and their corresponding source media on disk.
2 When the Relink File dialog opens, choose a directory in which to look for the files you want to relink to, and click OK. DaVinci Resolve attempts to find every clip with a matching file name in the subdirectories of the directory you chose, using the original file paths of the clips being relinked to do this as quickly as possible. By first looking for the clips in the directories they were originally in, relinking can be quite fast.
Chapter 12 Using Clip Metadata DaVinci Resolve has powerful tools for viewing, editing, exporting, and importing metadata associated with each clip in the Media Pool. Once your metadata house is in order, you can use this metadata in the Edit, Color, and Audio pages to find, sort, and organize the clips in your project, so you can work faster.
Contents Editing Clip Metadata 326 Automatically Imported Metadata 326 Using the Metadata Editor 326 Editing Keywords 328 Face Detection to Generate People Keywords 329 Creating Custom Metadata Groups 331 Importing and Exporting Media Pool Metadata 332 Different Ways of Using Clip Metadata 334 Renaming Clips Using Clip Names 334 Switching Between File Names and Clip Names 335 Using Metadata to Define Clip Names 335 Chapter – 12 Using Clip Metadata 325
Editing Clip Metadata Whether you’ve imported media in preparation for editing, or you’ve imported a project for grading that resulted in media being imported automatically, once you’ve added clips to the Media Pool, it would behoove you to consider taking the time to review and add metadata to your clips.
Because there are so very many metadata fields that are available, two drop-down menus at the top right of the Metadata Editor let you change which set of metadata is displayed. Metadata Presets (to the left): If you’ve used the Metadata panel of the User Preferences to create your own custom sets of metadata, you can use this drop-down to choose which one to expose. Surprisingly enough, this is set to “Default” by default.
Editing Keywords While most metadata in the Metadata Editor is edited via text fields, checkboxes, or multiple button selections (such as Flags and Clip Color), the Keyword field is unique in that it uses a graphical “tag” based method of data entry. The purpose of this is to facilitate consistency with keyword spelling by making it easy to reference both a built-in list of standardized keywords, as well as other keywords that you’ve already entered to other clips.
– Enter metadata starting with groups of clips and then moving to individual clips. Since the Metadata Editor lets you add metadata for multiple selected clips at once, it becomes easy to select groups of clips based on their thumbnails for entering information such as Scene designations, Interior or Exterior keywords, Character keywords, and Framing keywords. You’ll be surprised how fast this goes, and how useful this information is later on, for both editing and grading.
Individual bins collect all clips with a particular person, allowing you to evaluate whether or not the contents have been identified correctly. If you see an incorrectly identified clip, you can right-click it and re-tag it from the contextual menu, or choose “Untag” if it’s a new person that has not been identified at all. A bin for a particular person lets you evaluate the contents An “Other People” bin shows all faces that could not be identified.
The People keywords field of the Shot & Scene group in the Metadata Editor, populated with who is in that shot Once People keywords are assigned to one or more clips, a People smart category of smart bins can automatically be created in the Smart Bins sidebar of the Media Pool, making it easy to immediately begin finding clips that have specific people in them. To create this People Smart Bin, select “Automatic Smart Bins for People Metadata” box in the Preferences > User > Editing window.
Making and managing metadata presets is simple. To create a new metadata preset: 1 Open the Metadata panel of the User pane of the Preferences window, and click New. 2 Click the checkboxes of every metadata tag you want to include in this preset, or click the checkbox of a group name on the list to include all metadata tags within it. Every single metadata tag available in DaVinci Resolve appears within one of several groups that appear as a list.
This file can now be imported into another project file to reattach the metadata to the same clips. To import Media Pool metadata: 1 Open a project containing clips you want to populate with imported metadata. 2 Optionally, select which clips in the Media Pool you want to import metadata to.
Different Ways of Using Clip Metadata To encourage you to take advantage of the clip metadata tools that exist in DaVinci Resolve, here’s a short list of the many different ways you can use clip metadata to help you work faster.
After you’ve changed a clip’s clip name, that clip appears in the following places using the clip name instead of the original file name: The Media Pool’s Thumbnail view The name bar of each clip in the Timeline The Source Viewer title bar The Clip Name field of the Clip Attributes dialog’s Name panel Switching Between File Names and Clip Names Since different tasks require different information, you have the ability to switch between using clip file names and clip names.
To add a variable to a text field that supports the use of variables: 1 Type the percentage sign (%) and a scrolling list appears showing all variables that are available. 2 To find a specific variable quickly, start typing the characters of that variable’s name and this list automatically filters itself to show only variables that contain the characters you’ve just typed. 3 Choose which variable you want to use using the Up and Down Arrow keys, and press Return to choose that variable to add.
Chapter 13 Syncing Audio and Video When you’re working on a program where the production audio was recorded separately from the production video (often referred to as “dual‑system recording), DaVinci Resolve provides tools for syncing the audio and video together in a variety of ways to create media that you can edit easily. The process of syncing audio and video together is often referred to as “syncing dailies.
Contents Syncing Audio to Video 339 Syncing Audio to Video Using Timecode 339 Syncing Audio to Video by Matching Waveforms 340 Manually Syncing Audio to Video 341 Offsetting the Sync of Previously Synced Clips 342 Finding Synced Audio Files 342 Displaying Synced Audio File Names on the Timeline 343 Chapter – 13 Syncing Audio and Video 338
Syncing Audio to Video If you’re processing dailies for a shoot that used dual-system recording, where audio is recorded to a separate device than video, you can “sync the dailies” in DaVinci Resolve in one of two ways. Synced clips can be output as media files with embedded audio or output to tape, whatever your client requires.
Syncing Audio to Video by Matching Waveforms If you don’t have matching timecode in the audio and video source clips you’re syncing, but you had the foresight to record camera audio at the same time as the dual source production audio you want to sync to, DaVinci Resolve can use waveform syncing to compare the audio waveforms of your audio and video source files, and sync the ones that match.
TIP: After syncing, you may be notified via a dialog that one or more clips could not be synced. Note these clips, as it may be possible to use waveform syncing more successfully on just the selected pair of audio and video items that belong together.
7 When you’ve found the audio sync point that matches the video sync point, click the Link/Unlink Audio button at the bottom right of the Audio Panel to embed the now synced audio into the video clip. Clicking the sync link button to lock sync The audio and video items are linked. At this point, you can use the newly synced clips in the Edit page, and use the Deliver page to export offline or online media with embedded audio for editing.
Displaying Synced Audio File Names on the Timeline For certain workflows you may wish to see the name of the original audio file used in a synced dual system audio pair on the timeline tracks, rather than the name of the video clip its attached to. To display the filename of the original audio file used in a synced pair in the timeline: 1 Choose View > File Names. You cannot see synced audio file names unless you’ve set DaVinci Resolve to display the original file names.
Chapter 14 Modifying Clips and Clip Attributes Once you’ve added clips to the Media Pool, you may find you have to make some changes to prepare it for use in your project.
Contents Changing Clip Attributes 346 Video Attributes 346 Audio Attributes 349 Timecode Attributes 351 Reel Name Attributes 352 Update Timecode from Audio — LTC 353 Changing Clip Thumbnails in the Media Pool 353 Creating Subclips 354 Removing or Changing Subclip Limits 354 Organizing Stereo 3D Media 355 Camera Raw Decoding 355 Chapter – 14 Modifying Clips and Clip Attributes 345
Changing Clip Attributes Using the Clip Attributes window, you can alter additional attributes for multiple clips all at once. This window has some overlap with other clip attributes that are editable directly from submenus within the Media Pool clip contextual menu. To edit the attributes of one or more clips in the Media Pool of any page: 1 Select one or more clips in the Media Pool by Shift-clicking, Command-clicking, or dragging a bounding box around them.
Video Frame Rate: In cases where a clip’s frame rate was specified incorrectly by another application or recording device, or if there is no frame rate metadata available at all, you can change what DaVinci Resolve considers the frame rate of the source clip to be by either using this menu to choose a frame rate from 1 to 120 fps, or choosing Custom and entering a value from 1 to 32,000 fps (to accommodate high-speed and specialty format video).
The Alpha Mode options that are available when a clip has an embedded alpha channel Super Scale High Quality Upscaling: For instances when you need higher-quality upscaling than the standard Resize Filters allow, you can now enable one of three “Super Scale” options in the Video panel of the Clip Attributes window for one or more selected clips.
Audio Attributes The Audio panel lets you alter the channel format and channel assignments for one or more clips. These settings affect what appears in the audio tracks of the Timeline when you edit a clip into a program. When you first import clips into the Media Pool, you can use the Audio Attributes panel to define which embedded audio channels can be exposed as tracks in the Edit and Fairlight page timelines for editing, and how they will appear.
Tracks: Lets you adjust how many tracks you want to add to the current clip or clips. Each track you add will result in an additional linked audio item being edited into an additional audio track when this clip is edited into the Timeline.
Clip Attributes now lets you assign channels among different tracks with different channel assignments Timecode Attributes If you find yourself dealing with clips that have incorrect timecode, or timecode with an incorrect relationship to the EDL, XML, or AAF project you’ve been given, you can use these attributes to modify the timecode and reel name of clips in the Media Pool. None of these tools alter the source media on disk.
Current Frame Timecode: Lets you assign a new time for the timecode at the currently viewed frame of the clip. Slate Timecode: In situations where source media comes from a shoot where a timecode slate was used during the shoot, then you can assign the slate timecode as a second timecode track that can be used for various operations, without changing the primary timecode of the clip, which may already be in use for program sync.
Source clip file pathname: Obtains the reel name by extracting it from each media file’s path. This makes it possible to extract a reel name from all or part of the file name, or from all or part of the name of any folder in the path that encloses that file. This extraction is defined using the Pattern field. Pattern: A code that defines how a reel name should be extracted from the source clip pathname. More information about creating patters appears later in this chapter.
You can change this, if you like. 1 To customize the thumbnail of any clip: 2 Move the pointer over a clip you want to customize the thumbnail of. 3 Hover for a moment, then scrub to a representative frame. 4 Right-click that clip, and choose Set Poster Frame. To clear the custom poster frame of any clip: Right-click a clip and choose Clear Poster Frame. Creating Subclips Subclips give you another way of organizing media in the Media Pool, letting you break excessively long clips into shorter ones.
Organizing Stereo 3D Media When working with stereo media in DaVinci Resolve, one of the first tasks you must perform is that of syncing each stereo pair of clips to act as a single clip. This is easily accomplished so long as you’re careful about how you organize your media in the Media Pool.
Chapter 15 Using Scene Detection If you have a program that someone has delivered as a single media file, with no accompanying EDL with which to split it up, you can use DaVinci Resolve’s Scene Detect window to automatically find the cut points and split it into individual clips, ready for grading.
Contents Using Scene Detection 358 The Scene Detect Window Interface 358 The Scene Detect Viewers 358 The Scene Detect Graph 360 Cut List 361 The Scene Detect Options Drop-down Menu 362 An Example Scene Detect Workflow 363 Chapter – 15 Using Scene Detection 357
Using Scene Detection Initiating scene detection is easy: To open a clip into the Scene Detect window: 1 Open the Media page, and use the Media Storage browser to find and select the clip you need to split apart. Do not add a clip you want to use scene detection on to the Media Pool first. You need to use Scene Detection before the clip has been imported. 2 Do one of the following: – Right-click the file and choose Scene Cut Detection.
If the playhead in the Scene Detect Graph is directly on top of an edit point, the leftmost viewer should show a completely different frame than the center and rightmost viewers, which should be very similar to one another. This can be seen in the following example. The Scene Detect viewers show the last frame of the outgoing clip, and the first two frames of the incoming clip If all three viewers appear to display a continuous series of frames, then you’re not looking at a cut point.
(Left) Isolating scene cuts to prune with In and Out points, (Right) The result of clicking the Prune button to eliminate all unwanted scene cuts but one Show Cut List: Shows and hides the Cut List, which shows the currently detected scene cuts. The Scene Detect Graph The majority of the bottom half of the Scene Detect window, to the left, consists of the Scene Detect Graph, which shows the scene detect analysis results after you’ve clicked the Start button.
Four controls appear underneath the graph. Auto Scene Detect: This initiates the scene cut detection process. Add: Lets you manually add a scene cut at the current position of the playhead. Sometimes two adjacent clips with similar color and lighting will appear to be a single clip to the scene detection algorithm. This lets you add scene cuts at frames where they weren’t initially found.
To select items in the Cut List: Click any item in the Cut List. Press N (next) or the Down Arrow to select the next item down. Press P (previous) or the Up Arrow to select the next item previous. As you move up and down the list, you can delete items that you can confirm aren’t real cuts using the viewers above. If it’s a long list and you don’t have time to check it all at once, it can be saved for later recall using commands found in the Scene Detect Options drop-down menu.
An Example Scene Detect Workflow This section describes an ideal workflow for using scene detection without an EDL. To scene detect a media file: 1 Locate a media file to scene detect using the Media Storage browser of the Media page. 2 Verify its frame rate and if it uses drop-frame timecode, and make sure that the “Timeline frame rate” matches the “Use drop frame timecode” parameter in the Master Settings panel of the Project Settings.
9 If there’s a gap between any two scene cuts that you’re positive should have another scene cut, then scrub the playhead or use the transport controls to find the missing cut, and click the “Add” button at the bottom left corner of the Scene Detect window to add another scene cut. TIP: Adjacent shots with very similar ranges of color and contrast may sometimes go undetected by the scene detection algorithm.
Chapter 16 Ingesting From Tape DaVinci Resolve is capable of capturing media from tape using a compatible video input device, such as a Blackmagic Design UltraStudio or DeckLink card. Device control is supported.
Contents Tape Ingest 367 The Tape Capture Interface 367 Setting Up to Capture From Tape 368 Deck Settings 368 Capture 369 The Three Methods of Capture 370 Using Capture Now 370 Logging and Capturing Individual Clips 370 Logging and Capturing Multiple Clips 371 Batch Capture Via EDL 372 Chapter – 16 Ingesting From Tape 366
Tape Ingest This chapter covers how to capture media from tape directly into the Media Pool in DaVinci Resolve. Whether you need to capture a handful of clips to incorporate into an existing project, or you need to recapture every clip corresponding to the events of an EDL, you can use the Media page in Capture mode to capture from any device-controllable deck via a compatible video interface.
Capture panel: The panel automatically switches to the Capture panel, with tapespecific metadata and capture controls. Populating File Name Prefix updates the file name preview that’s shown above in the Header, that also shows the Capture directory, Resolution, and Frame Rate specified in the Capture and Playback panel of the Project Settings.
Video connection operates as: Selects between the available signal options: Use 4:4:4 SDI and Enable Single Link. Which options are available depend on which video capture card you are using. Data Levels: Lets you specify the data range (normally scaled or full range) that’s used when ingesting from or outputting to tape. This option switches the data range of the signal output by your video capture card, but only during capture from tape in the Media page, or output to tape in the Deliver page.
Apply reel number to: Lets you choose how to write the reel name. Two checkboxes let you write the reel name to the file’s name, and/or to the Header data. Use prefix: A field lets you type in a prefix to be used in the media file’s name. This lets you add text identification that will make the media more easily identifiable and searchable. Apply prefix to: Two checkboxes let you choose to use the prefix you typed in the file name, and/or in the folder name.
To capture a single clip using device control: 1 Use the transport controls to find the beginning of the section of tape you want to record, and click the In button. Then, find the end of the section of tape you want to record, and press the Out button. 2 Enter all relevant information into the various fields of the Metadata Editor. The Header updates to show a preview of the file name that will be saved. 3 When you’re finished, click Capture Clip.
Batch Capture Via EDL You can also use an EDL to create offline tape clips, one for each event in the EDL, with which to batch capture all the media necessary to conform a project from tape. To import an EDL as a batch capture list: 1 Open the Project Settings, click Master Panel in the sidebar, and make sure of the following: – Set “Timeline frame rate” to the frame rate of your EDL. – Turn on “Use drop frame timecode” if your EDL requires it.
9 Click the Capture mode button to the left of the transport controls, and then click Batch Clips to begin capture. To interrupt capture at any time, click Batch Clips again. Deck control is automatically used to play through the current tape in the VTR and capture every logged clip you’ve selected that can be found on that tape, starting with the clip with the lowest timecode value and ending with the clip having the highest timecode value.
Chapter 17 Capturing from the Cintel Film Scanner This chapter details how to ingest scanned film using DaVinci Resolve settings and workflows to control the Cintel film scanner.
Contents Controlling the Cintel Film Scanner 376 The Cintel Scanner Interface 377 Bi-phase/Timecode Output 377 Calibration 378 Film Type 378 Light Source 380 Image Stabilization 381 Film Protection 382 Editing Capture Info Metadata 383 Film Scanning Workflows 385 Before You Begin 385 Load and Align the Film 385 Focus the Scanner 385 Reset the Timecode 386 Choose a Location to Save the Scanned Frames 387 Check the Codec 387 CinemaDNG Quality Settings 388 Set the Timeline Res
Controlling the Cintel Film Scanner The Blackmagic Cintel film scanner is a compact, easy to use, real time film scanner capable of converting 35mm and 16mm (with a separately purchased gate) positive and negative film formats into Cintel Raw Image (CRI) digital files that can be organized, edited, and graded using DaVinci Resolve, delivered to any format DaVinci Resolve can output, and archived for later use.
The Cintel Scanner Interface Click on the ‘capture’ button in the UI toolbar at the top of the DaVinci Resolve screen to set the media page to control your Cintel scanner. Open DaVinci Resolve’s film scanner panel to set up, calibrate, and choose options for logging or scanning a selected range of the currently spooled roll of film. If you want more room for viewing the Cintel scanner controls, click the full height button that’s all the way to the right of the UI toolbar, and turn off the ‘metadata’ panel.
‘Bi-phase’ outputs two single ended quadrature signals on the standard audio XLR3 differential pair, so direction and frequency can be sensed at the rate you select. ‘Timecode frame synchronized’ outputs a single timecode value per transported frame. ‘Timecode fps playback run’ outputs timecodes at a fixed rate determined by your project’s film frame rate. The voltage output automatically switches between 4.5V for Bi-phase and 1.5V for Timecode selections.
Film Type: Lets you choose what type of film you’re scanning. The choices are positive, negative, interpositive, and internegative. HDR scanning offers an improvement for all these film types. Select the reel type you’re scanning from 35mm 2, 3, and 4 perf, and 16mm. TIP: The scanner automatically detects whether the film is 35mm or 16mm. NOTE: When scanning interpositive and internegative film, the increased density of the film requires slightly extended pulse durations from the light source.
Light Source These controls let you adjust the scanner’s light source to adjust the optimal Dmin, which is the minimum scanned signal value, plus the color temperature of the scanned material. Use the built in software scopes in DaVinci Resolve to help set your light source to its optimum level settings. Scopes can be opened in the Media page by choosing Workspace > Video Scopes > On. You can adjust these settings to make sure you’re not clipping image data during the scanning process.
Image Stabilization These controls let you enable and disable as well as control image stabilization to eliminate vertical film hop. Image Stabilization controls in the Media page Image Stabilization enable/disable control: The dot to the left of the ‘image stabilization’ title bar lets you enable or disable your scanner’s hardware-based image stabilization altogether.
Adjusting the horizontal position of the stabilization overlay. In this screenshot, the overlay is not aligned with the edge of the perf. Hardware stabilization control correctly positioned over a perforation in the viewer. The transparent stripe in the stabilization overlay touches the edge of the perforation. With the 16mm HDR skid plate installed, the stabilizer aligns automatically to the other side of the perforation to avoid interfering with the film image and improve horizontal stability.
The ‘Acceleration’ and ‘Shuttle Speed’ sliders should be lowered when scanning older, delicate archival film Max Acceleration: Sets the maximum change in speed to increase or decrease by 5-30 fps per second. Max Shuttle Speed: Changes the speed of shuttling from one section of film to another between 1–100 frames per second for 35mm film, and between 1–200 frames per second for 16mm film.
Capture Location: Before you begin a film scanning session, scroll down to the ‘capture info’ section of DaVinci Resolve’s film scanner panel to make sure the scanned files are being saved to the directory and volume where you want them. Click the ‘browse’ button and choose a location from the file destination dialog. It’s good to do this first, as this step is easy to forget.
Film Scanning Workflows The following sections describe how to scan film using DaVinci Resolve and to control the Cintel scanner. Throughout, the features outlined in the previous section are presented in the order in which you’ll perform each step of the scanning process. Before You Begin Before turning your scanner on and loading film, you should first dust the gate to make sure your scans are as clean as possible.
Reset the Timecode To set the timecode for the roll of film you’re about to scan, you need to locate the zero frame for that roll. It’s standard practice to punch a small physical hole within the frame before the first frame of necessary film on a roll, to use as a permanent reference for whenever that roll is scanned. This is referred to as the marker frame, lab roll hole, or head punch.
Choose a Location to Save the Scanned Frames Once all this is done, scroll down to the ‘capture info’ controls in DaVinci Resolve’s film scanner panel, and click the ‘browse’ button to choose a location for the scanned files. You can use the other fields in this section to set what prefix you want to add to the name of the scanned files and enclosing folders. The ‘file name prefix’ updates the file name preview that’s shown at the top in the header.
CinemaDNG Quality Settings To control the quality of CRI files, use the ‘decode quality’ and ‘play quality’ CinemaDNG settings located in the Camera Raw panel of the project Settings. These settings are ‘full’ by default. On computers with low processor or memory resources, these settings may be lowered but this will affect the quality of the final render. Set the Timeline Resolution DaVinci Resolve displays and renders the output from the scanner using the same resolution as the timeline.
To adjust the light source settings, find a typical image for the section of roll or for the first series of shots you’re going to scan, and adjust the light source while viewing the built in video scopes. Adjust the light source master wheel to set the intensity of the light source used to illuminate the film, raising or lowering the level of the R, G, and B channels all at once. For a typical camera negative, this lets you adjust the black point of the film image.
Batch Clips: A way you can log multiple clips in advance of scanning them all at once using the current light source settings in DaVinci Resolve’s film scanner panel. Log each clip in advance by setting In and Out points for each section of film you want to scan, and click the ‘log clip’ button to save that frame range as an unscanned clip in the media pool. When you click ‘batch clips’, all unscanned clips will be scanned one after the other until the job is complete.
clips at once by right clicking on your selection and choosing ‘extract audio…’ from the drop down menu. During audio extraction, an information box indicates the progress. You can click the ‘stop’ button any time to stop the extraction. You can filter the contents in the media storage to make it easier to manage them.
The Audio Extraction settings let you make manual adjustments if needed. Audio extraction settings let you make the following manual adjustments. Show audio scan area This checkbox turns the audio scan area guides on or off. The guides are displayed as a box on the side of the frame covering the optical audio scan area and shows what optical information will be used during extraction. The position of the guides will conform to the film type you have selected.
When ‘show audio scan area’ setting is turned on, the audio area guides will be visible so you can see exactly what information is being used and monitor the extraction process. Override audio scan area This setting provides sliders for adjusting the horizontal and vertical positioning, width, and height of the audio scan area guides.
TIP If deselecting the ‘Auto adjust audio scan height’ checkbox, make sure the ‘height’ setting places the guide box at the optimal position for the frame. Making manual adjustments can help if you need them, but don’t forget to turn the automatic features back on afterwards! Audio waveform color is white: Depending on the scanned film type, the audio waveform may be black or white. If the waveform is white, make sure the corresponding checkbox is enabled.
Using three nodes to convert a film scan using LUTs, node 1 converts from Negative or Print to Linear, node 2 converts from Linear to Rec. 709, and node 3, if required, inverts the color NOTE Applying a LUT within a node will clip any image data falling below 0 and above 1. To prevent clipping, you can use the Lift/Gamma/Gain controls within any node with a LUT applied to adjust your image levels prior to the transform applied by the LUT within that node.
PART 3 The Cut Page
Chapter 18 Introducing the Cut Page The Cut page is a focused environment for fast editing. It’s useful in situations where you need to quickly cut a news segment, build an episode of web content, edit a straightforward program, experiment with multiple arrangements of a scene, or put together a first assembly edit. The Cut page is also a good introductory editing interface for people who are new to editing, as it presents a streamlined set of tools that are fast to learn and simple to use.
Contents Overview of the Cut Page 399 Overview of the Cut Page User Interface 399 Customizing the UI 399 Choose Settings Before You Start 400 Projects Settings Quick Menu 400 Color Science Quick Menu 401 The Media Pool 401 The Viewer 403 Playing Clips and Navigating the Timeline 403 Clip Effects 404 Bypass Color Grades and Fusion 404 Audio Meter 404 The Timeline 405 Upper Timeline 406 Lower Timeline 406 Tracks 407 Gaps 409 Timeline Controls 409 Undo and Redo in DaVinci Re
Overview of the Cut Page With the addition of the Cut page, DaVinci Resolve now has two editing environments, intended for two different audiences. While the Cut and Edit pages share many of the same panels such as the Media Pool, the Timeline, and the Viewer, the controls that are exposed on the Cut page have been designed for speed, so you can cut professional programs faster than you’ve ever been able to before.
The Viewer resize handle You can also resize the Timeline area by dragging the timeline handle (at the upper right corner of the Timeline) up or down, making more or less room for the Timeline while simultaneously resizing the Media Pool and Viewer areas.
Color Science Quick Menu This drop-down menu, to the right of the Project Settings drop-down, lets you choose whether or not you want to stay with the default manually-managed color science of DaVinci YRGB, or use a Color Management scheme such as DaVinci YRGB Color Managed or ACES. Color management is a big topic; for more information about this powerful feature, see Chapter 7, “Data Levels, Color Management, and ACES.
The Viewing Modes buttons Icon view: Each clip is represented by a scrubbable thumbnail. Hover the playhead over each thumbnail and move it left and right to see the clip’s image play, and use the I and O keys to mark sections of a clip that you want to use. Clicking on the lower right corner of a thumbnail reveals the clip’s metadata. Filmstrip view: Each clip is represented by a filmstrip of consecutive frames the length of the Media Pool.
The Viewer The Viewer lets you see clips from the Media Pool, or clips in the Timeline, and has numerous controls to control what you see and how things play. The single Viewer in the Cut page The Viewer has three options. Which option is currently in use can be seen, and switched, by three buttons in the upper lefthand corner of the Viewer.
Jog control: Clicking and dragging within the jog control lets you scrub very precisely through the content of the Viewer. Transport controls: A set of Previous Edit (Up Arrow), Stop (Spacebar), Play (Spacebar), Next Edit (Down Arrow), and Loop Playback (Command-/) buttons constitute clickable controls for controlling playback of clips and the Timeline. Each button has a matching keyboard shortcut.
These animated bars serve as a visual reference you can use to help you adjust the volume of different clips to create a pleasing balance, and to make sure you don’t exceed the maximum desired level and introduce clipping. A speaker button at the top of the meters lets you mute or unmute audio playback.
Upper Timeline The Upper Timeline always shows the entire program within the full width of your computer’s display. The Upper Timeline’s playhead is always free, which makes it easy to use your pointer to scroll around the entire program by dragging within the Timeline Ruler at top. This also serves as a visual reference for keeping track of where you are in your program while you’re editing within the zoomed-in Lower Timeline below.
Tracks The Timeline is divided into multiple tracks, with each track capable of holding a sequence of clips in order to create a program. The main tracks, which are labeled numerically, combine a clip’s video and audio into a single item in the Timeline, for simplicity. Editing the In or Out point of a clip edits the video and audio together.
Tracks 2 and Above Tracks 2 and above are intended for “B-roll,” which is additional footage you stack on top of other clips in Track 1 to illustrate what someone is saying in the audio of Track 1, or for superimpositions used for compositing effects that combine two images together in creative ways. Moving or resizing clips on Track 2 and above only moves or resizes that one clip; other clips in the Timeline are not rearranged and the Timeline is not rippled when you do this.
Audio-Only Tracks You can also edit audio-only clips such as music, narration, or sound effects, onto separate audio-only tracks underneath, which are then labeled A1, A2, A3, etcetera. If you drag an audio clip to the undefined gray area of the Timeline below the other existing tracks, an audio-only track will automatically be created.
Undo and Redo in DaVinci Resolve No matter where you are in DaVinci Resolve, Undo and Redo commands let you back out of steps you’ve taken or commands you’ve executed, and reapply them if you change your mind. DaVinci Resolve is capable of undoing the entire history of things you’ve done since creating or opening a particular project. When you close a project, its entire undo history is purged. The next time you begin work on a project, its undo history starts anew.
The History submenu, which lets you undo several steps at once Once you’ve selected a step to undo to, the menu closes and the project updates to show you its current state. To undo and redo using the History window: 1 Choose Edit > History > Open History Window. 2 When the History dialog appears, click an item on the list to undo back to that point. Unlike the menu, in this window the most recent thing you’ve done appears at the bottom of this list.
Chapter 19 Importing and Organizing Media in the Cut Page Before you can start editing, you need to import the clips you want to use for your program into the Media Pool, which is the central repository of clips in your project. This can include video, audio, and graphics files in any format that’s supported by DaVinci Resolve.
Contents Importing Media 414 Removing Media 414 Organizing Media into Bins 415 Master Bin 415 Creating and Using Bins 415 Opening Bins 415 Create Bin with Selected Clips 416 Renaming Bins 416 Media Pool Views 416 Sorting and Searching 418 Searching 418 Sort Media By 418 Finding Timeline Clips in the Media Pool 418 Clip Color 419 Generate Optimized Media 420 Relink Selected Clips 420 Chapter – 19 Importing and Organizing Media in the Cut Page 413
Importing Media Two Import buttons at the top of the Media Pool let you use import dialogs to select media you want to bring into the Media Pool for use in your project. The Import Media and Import Folder buttons To import individual clips: 1 Do one of the following: a. Click the Import Media button. b. Press Command-I. c. Right-click the Media Pool and choose Import Media. 2 Use the Import dialog to select one or more clips to import, and click Open.
Organizing Media into Bins For short projects, having all your clips together in a single bin (the Master bin is the top level of the Media Pool) can be fast. However, for longer projects, organizing your media into subsets of clips within individual bins can make browsing each bin’s contents using the Source Tape of the Viewer more manageable.
The hierarchical Bin drop-down menu Create Bin with Selected Clips You can also create a bin and put clips into it in one step. Select one or more clips in the Media Pool, right-click one of the selected clips, and choose Create Bin With Selected Clips from the contextual menu. A new bin appears called “Bin X” (where X is the next number that’s available) displaying the selected clips it now contains.
The Icon View mode Filmstrip View: Each clip is represented by a filmstrip of consecutive frames the length of the Media Pool. Hover the playhead over the clip and move it left and right to see the clip’s image play, and use the I and O keys to mark sections of a clip that you want to use. The Filmstrip View mode List View: Each clip appears as an item in a multi-column list showing a variety of metadata about each clip.
Sorting and Searching Once you’ve imported media into your project, searching and sorting controls help you find what you need. Searching A search field lets you type a term you want to use to find one or more clips that match that criteria. When you type anything, the contents of the Media Pool shrink to show only clips that match your criteria. Sort Media By The Sort Media By drop-down menu lets you choose which criteria defines the order in which clips in the Media Pool are arranged.
Clip Color Clip colors are an organizational tool that make it easier to keep track of different kinds of clips visually. For example, you can assign colors based on good takes, based on characters or subjects in the program, based on type of media (b-roll versus a-roll for example), or using any one of a number of organizational strategies. Whatever helps you keep track of things you need to keep track of.
Generate Optimized Media If you’re editing processor-intensive source formats such as camera raw, H.264, or 8K media, and your computer isn’t fast enough to work with it easily in real time, you can create prerendered, low-overhead duplicate media to use instead, that’s automatically managed alongside the original media. This is called “Optimized Media.
To relink selected clips or clips in a selected bin: 1 Do one of the following: – Select one or more clips in the Media Pool browser that you want to relink, then right-click one of the selected clips or the selected bin, and choose “Relink Selected Clips” from the contextual menu. – Select a bin in the Media Pool bin drop-down menu that contains clips you want to relink, then right-click the selected bin and choose “Relink Clips for Selected Bin” from the contextual menu.
Chapter 20 Fast Editing in the Cut Page The editing methods in the Cut page have been streamlined for fast editing, and the interface of this page and the methods of assembling clips together using different types of edits are designed to be easy to learn and quick to use.
Contents Creating and Modifying Timelines 424 Creating New Timelines 424 Opening Timelines 424 About Tracks in the Cut Page Timeline 424 Adding Tracks 425 Deleting Tracks 425 Navigating Clips in the Viewer and Timeline 425 Viewer Options 425 Playing Clips and Navigating the Timeline in the Viewer 426 Scrolling Through the Timeline 427 The Boring Detector 427 Setting In and Out Points 428 Setting In and Out Points Using the Keyboard 428 Setting In and Out Points Using the Pointer 4
Creating and Modifying Timelines After you’ve imported and organized the media you need to use in a program, the next thing you must do is create a timeline. Timelines are the organizational entities that contain the edited sequences of clips that make up your program. You can have as many timelines as you like in your project, with each timeline being an independent arrangement of clips. Timelines are stored in the Media Pool and can be organized using bins, just like clips.
Adding Tracks If your timeline doesn’t have enough tracks, you can either click the New Track button in the track header or right-click anywhere in the track header and choose “Add Track” and a new track will be added on top of the previously existing tracks. TIP: Dragging a new clip to the undefined gray area at the top of the Timeline also adds a new track.
Source Tape: Using this option, every single clip in the currently open bin, and any subfolders in that bin, of the Media Pool is shown in the Viewer as a “stringout” in the scroll area at the bottom of the Viewer. In the scroll area, each clip appears one after the other in a long strip, with the order determined by the Sort order. This makes it easy to scrub through a whole collection of clips while you’re figuring out what you want to use.
Scrolling Through the Timeline The playhead in the Cut page is fixed. When you play, shuttle, or jog through your program, the clips in the Timeline flow past the playhead from right to left if you’re playing forward, or from left to right if you’re playing backward. This means that for playback, editing, or trimming, you bring the frame you want to see to the playhead, rather than bringing the playhead to the frame (as you do on the Edit page).
Analyze: Starts the live analysis of your timeline using the criteria you’ve selected above. The Boring Detecter is persistent and continues to function as you make further edits in the Cut page. It can be turned off by clicking the Boring Detector icon again.
When scrubbing or shuttling through the Timeline as you drag the ruler to the left and right, you can press the I (In) or O (Out) keys to define a range for incoming edit operations. The range is marked in both the upper and lower areas of the Timeline.
Smart Indicators Some of the intelligent tools in the Cut page do not require you to select specific In and Out points in the Timeline. They rely on the playhead’s relative position over a clip to guess where you likely will want to make your edit. The point where DaVinci Resolve intends to make that edit is marked using a Smart Indicator icon on the Timeline Ruler. Smart Indicator showing where an edit will occur.
Ripple Overwrite If you drag a clip onto a pre-existing clip in either the Timeline or Upper Timeline so that the entire clip highlights and you drop it immediately, you’ll perform a Ripple Overwrite edit, substituting the previous clip in the Timeline with the new clip. If you’ve ripple overwritten a clip on Track 1, all clips to the right of it will be rippled to make room if the incoming clip is longer, or close the gap if the incoming clip is shorter.
Using Cut Page Edit Commands At the bottom of the Media Pool is a set of five buttons that let you make other kinds of edits. Some of these edits have keyboard shortcuts assigned to them and are also available via dedicated keys on the DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard.
(Top) Before doing a Smart Insert, (Bottom) After inserting clip DD between clips AA and BB Append The position of the playhead is ignored; incoming clips are always placed after the last clip in the Timeline. Performing an Append edit of clip DD to the Timeline Ripple Overwrite At its simplest, Ripple Overwrite substitutes a clip in the Timeline with an incoming clip.
However, Ripple Overwrite works differently if you’ve set In and Out points in the Timeline to define a range. In this case, the incoming clip substitutes whatever portion of the Timeline falls within this range, moving all other clips that are to the right of the affected range either forward to make room if the incoming clip is longer, or back to eliminate gaps if the incoming clip is shorter.
Place On Top Lets you edit the incoming clip as a superimposition above whatever other clips are in the Timeline; the incoming clip is always placed on top, so if there are clips in tracks 1, 2, and 3, the incoming clip is automatically placed on track 4, regardless of which track is selected.
Choosing a Media Pool clip from another camera that has overlapping timecode When you click the Source Overwrite button, a synced section of the selected Media Pool clip will be edited into the Timeline between the In and Out points you placed, superimposed on top. The result is a perfectly timed cutaway.
(Top) Before, positioning the playhead at the frame you want to use as the In point for the incoming clip, (Bottom) After overwriting the end of clip CC with incoming clip DD Sync Bin DaVinci Resolve has a number of tools to make editing multi-camera productions more intuitive and efficient. If simultaneously recorded clips from different cameras share common timecode, DaVinci Resolve can automatically sync all of these different camera angles together as you edit.
Sync Clips Window If your footage does not share common timecode, or if the existing timecode needs to be modified for any reason, the Media Pool in the Cut page offers a Sync Clips window that allows you to modify the sync of all clips in a bin. It is accessed by clicking on the Sync Clips Window icon on top of the Media Pool. The Media Pool Sync Clips Window Icon The Sync Clips window opens and shows a live multi-camera sync Viewer on the left, and a standard clip Viewer on the right.
Once all of the clips in the window are synced appropriately, hit the Save Sync button in the lower right-hand side of the window. The Media Pool Sync By icons (L-R: Timecode, Audio, In point, Out point) Manually Syncing Clips in the Sync Clips Window If none of the Sync By tools is appropriate for the clips in your bin, you can manually sync the clips together by dragging each clip to the appropriate position on the Sync Clips Window timeline.
Edit in Your First Clip from the Media Pool Choose a clip that will be your base layer and place it on Track 1. This clip is used as the reference for all of the other clips in the Sync Bin. Then press the Sync Bin icon. The Sync Bin icon Media Pool in the Sync Bin All of the clips in the bin, and its subfolders, are presented in filmstrip mode. The clips are ganged together automatically by timecode and sorted by camera number.
The Multicam Viewer selection Make the Source Overwrite Edit Once your clip’s edit points are chosen, click on the Source Overwrite button and your selected camera clip will be perfectly positioned in sync on your timeline. The playhead will then automatically advance to the clip’s Out point, the Multi Viewer will return, and so be instantly ready for the next edit. Selected Camera 2 and Playhead In point on the Timeline, ready for Source Overwrite edit.
The completed Source Overwrite edit showing Camera 2 edited in, and the Timeline ready for the next edit TIP: Because the actual media in the Sync Bin determines the overall limit of the clips, and not the timeline, it is possible to scroll past the end of the timeline to make an edit. When you are past the end of the timeline, the playhead now represents the Out-Point instead, which allows the clip to backfill itself to fit the exact duration required to fill in the timeline.
Chapter 21 Trimming in the Cut Page Once you’ve assembled a sequence of clips together into a loosely edited timeline, the Cut page provides numerous methods for modifying them in the Timeline. These tools are intended to improve the pace of your program by fine-tuning the timing of each clip, as well as the edits that separate them them. The idea is to make these kinds of adjustments easy, so your program’s content is clear, and the timing of your program’s playback is satisfying.
Contents Tools That Help You Work in the Timeline 441 Snapping 441 Locking, Muting and Disabling Tracks 442 Timeline Markers 443 Making Selections 444 Moving Clips in the Timeline 445 Ripple Overwriting An Entire Clip in Track 1 445 Overwriting the Middle of Other Clips 446 Overwriting The Edges of Other Clips 446 Swapping Clips 446 Copy, Cut, and Paste 447 Splitting Clips 447 Disabling and Deleting Clips 448 Disabling and Muting Clips 448 Deleting Clips 449 Deleting Parts of C
Tools That Help You Work in the Timeline As you begin the process of trimming clips in the Timeline, a series of buttons at the top left of the Timeline help you to align clips and keep track of important frames while you work. Locked or Free Playhead A pair of buttons at the upper left-hand corner of the Timeline lets you choose whether you use a locked or free playhead.
When snapping is turned on, clip in and out points, markers, and the playhead all snap to line up with one another, making it easy edit clips together at their boundaries, or to line up clips with markers or the playhead as reference for key frames you want to cut to. When a clip’s boundary is snapping, a white line shows you the edges that are being aligned with one another.
You may also find it useful to mute the audio or disable the video of tracks you don’t want to see while playing the Timeline. For example, you might want to disable a track filled with title graphics if you want to get a closer look at the underlying video in the background. Each track has Mute and Enable controls, while audio-only tracks only have Mute controls. White controls are enabled, while gray controls are disabled.
Making Selections As you continue to work in the Cut page, it becomes increasingly helpful to know how to make different kinds of selections, both in the Media Pool and in the Timeline. Most of these methods of selection should be familiar to you if you have experience with other media applications or file managers. Methods of selecting clips in the Media Pool: To select a single clip: Click a clip in the Media Pool.
Methods of selecting edits in the Timeline using the pointer: To select an edit to roll: Move the mouse to the center of an edit point, and when the ripple cursor appears, click to select the edit. To select just the incoming or outgoing half of an edit point to resize: Move the mouse to the left or right of the center of an edit, and when the resize/ripple cursor appears, click to select that portion of the edit. To select multiple roll points: Command-click the center of multiple edit points.
NOTE: If you wait too long, this Ripple Overwrite operation will turn into an overwrite operation. If you drag a clip in Track 1 onto a clip in any other track, you can only do an overwrite, not a ripple overwrite. Overwriting the Middle of Other Clips Drag a clip in the Timeline or Upper Timeline over another clip in the Timeline so that the pointer overlaps that clip, and pause until the clip you’ve selected is overlaid on top of the second clip, and release the mouse button.
(Top) Dragging clip CC to swap it between clip II and JJ, (Bottom) Dropping clip CC rearranges the Timeline, which automatically closes all gaps and move clips to the right where necessary; superimposed clips are kept in sync with clips in Track 1 that have moved Copy, Cut, and Paste Clips can be cut, copied, and pasted in the timeline or Upper Timeline to duplicate them or move them around, just like words in a word processor.
(Left) Before splitting a clip, (Right) After, a new edit point bisects the clip into two pieces Disabling and Deleting Clips Clips that you no longer want can be disabled or deleted. Disabling and Muting Clips You can turn off the audio and/or video for a clip in the Timeline, without removing the clip itself.
Deleting Clips If you want to completely eliminate one or more clips from the Timeline, select them and press the Delete key. The clip(s) will be removed. If you’ve deleted a clip on Track 1, the Timeline will ripple to close the gap automatically.
If you resize a clip in Track 1, the rest of the edited timeline automatically ripples to accommodate the changes you’ve made, with clips to the right of the changed area moving left to fill the gap of a deleted or shortened clips, or moving right to make room for an inserted or lengthened clip.
(Top) Clicking an edit between clips CC and DD, (Bottom) Dragging to the right rolls it forward, simultaneously resizing clips CC and DD Slipping Clip Content If you move the pointer over any clip in the Timeline, a Slip handle appears at the center of the clip. Dragging this handle lets you slip the contents of that clip to present a different range of media, without changing the position or duration of the clip, and without changing any other part of the Timeline.
Numbers over each frame let you see exactly how many frames you’re trimming, while a pair of buttons to the left and right of the transport controls in the Viewer toolbar let you adjust the outgoing clip’s Out point and incoming clip’s In point in one frame increments.
Chapter 22 Video and Audio Effects in the Cut Page As you build your edit, you’ll often find it necessary to add effects to clips to create titles, blend clips together with compositing, add plug-ins to give clips a particular look, speed clips up or slow them down, or transform clips to zoom into them or move them around the frame. The Cut page has controls to accomplish all of this and more.
Contents Adding Transitions 459 Changing a Transition to a Cut 460 Adding Smooth Cuts 460 Adding Other Kinds of Transitions 460 Editing and Removing Transitions 461 Titles 462 Adding Titles 462 Editing Titles 462 Adding ResolveFX and Other Plug-ins 464 Video Plug-ins 465 Audio Plug-ins 465 Editing Plug-ins 465 Clip Effects 466 Shared Controls 466 Transform Effects 466 Crop Effects 467 Audio Levels 467 Speed Effects 467 Camera 468 Dynamic Zoom 470 Composite Effects 47
Adding Transitions You can add transitions such as dissolves or wipes to an edit to indicate a change of topic, a change of location, or the passage of time. You can also add a Smooth Cut transition to patch unwanted cuts in interview clips or other situations where there’s not a significant change in the position of the subject or background in the frame. Three buttons, at the bottom right of the Media Pool, make it easy to add and remove dissolves and Smooth Cut transitions.
Changing a Transition to a Cut To remove a dissolve, thereby changing a transition to a cut, move the playhead at or near the edit with the dissolve, and click the Cut button, which is fast to do when you’re using the DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard which has a dedicated Cut button. TIP: Alternately, you can select one or more transitions in the Timeline and press the Delete key to remove them.
The Transitions Browser lets you choose different transitions for creative effects Methods of adding different transitions by drag and drop: To add a transition by dragging it from the Transitions Browser: Drag a video transition from the Effects Library to an edit point in the Timeline so that it’s centered at, ends at, or starts at the edit point. If there is no overlap between the heads and tails of the two clips, you may not be able to add a transition where you want.
Titles There’s a collection of title clips in the Titles Browser that you can use to add superimposed titles, slates, interstitial titles, lower thirds, or otherwise fulfill any textual needs your program has. Two categories present two different kinds of titles. The available titles in the Titles Browser The “Titles” category presents simple, bare-bones titles that you can customize in a variety of different ways. Of the available options, the Text title is the most flexible.
Positioning and Transforming Text So long as the Timeline playhead is positioned over a text generator that’s on top of one or more background clips, clicking on the text in the Timeline Viewer reveals onscreen transform controls that correspond to the Position, Zoom, and Rotation parameters in the Inspector. Transforming a title’s text box in the Viewer While dragging text to reposition it, snapping occurs at the X and Y center of the frame, as well as around the outer third of the frame.
The floating text Inspector Adding ResolveFX and Other Plug-ins The Filters browser reveals video and audio plug-ins that you can drag and drop onto to your clips. As far as video plug-ins go, there are several categories of ResolveFX plug-ins that accompany DaVinci Resolve, but if you’ve installed Resolve-compatible OFX plug-ins, those appear here as well, organized into their own categories.
Video Plug-ins Each available category of video plug-ins creates different sorts of image effects, such as blurs, lighting effects, or stylization of different kinds. To use, simply drag and drop any video plug-in onto a video clip. If you select multiple clips and drag a plug-in onto one of the selected clips, that plug-in will be added to all of them. When a clip in the Timeline has a plug-in applied to it, a badge appears on that clip.
Clip Effects Clicking the Tools button in the Viewer toolbar opens up additional categories of controls that let you apply various effects to the current clip, or adjust whatever effect is already applied to the current clip. Many of the parameters of these effects have corresponding onscreen controls that let you make visual adjustments directly in the Viewer. The Tools button Shared Controls Every category of effect at the bottom of the Viewer has two shared controls.
Rotation Angle: Rotates the image around the anchor point. Pitch: Rotates the image toward or away from the camera along an axis running through the center of the image, from left to right. Positive values push the top of the image away and bring the bottom of the image forward. Negative values bring the top of the image forward and push the bottom of the image away. Higher values stretch the image more extremely.
video and audio playback, but the audio of sped up or slowed down clips is always pitch corrected. Speed effects applied in the Cut page also appear and are editable via several different methods in the Edit page timeline. Speed Effects controls in the Viewer toolbar Speed: Changing this value lets you speed up or slow down playback by a simple numeric multiplier. You also have the option of choosing a negative value to create reverse speeds.
The rest of the stabilization controls let you refine the result. Whenever you adjust any of these parameters, you must click the Stabilize button again for the effect to be updated. Stabilization Method: A drop-down menu provides three different options that determine how the selected clip is analyzed and transformed during stabilization. You must choose an option first, before clicking the Stabilize button, because the option you choose changes how the image analysis is performed.
Lens Correction Controls Lens Correction presents two controls that let you either correct lens distortion in the image, or add lens distortion of your own for effect. These controls are also editable in the Edit page Inspector and Color page Edit Sizing palette. Lens Correction controls in the Viewer toolbar Analyze: Automatically analyzes the frame in the Timeline at the position of the playhead for edges that are being distorted by wide angle lens.
Composite Effects Two controls let you create transparency and use composite modes to create different compositing effects (also called Blend modes or Transfer modes). These controls also editable in the Edit page Inspector.
Chapter 23 Quick Export Once you’ve finished your program and you want to share it with others, you can use the Quick Export button to output the contents of the Timeline as a self-contained file in one of a variety of different formats in order to share it with people.
Contents Quick Export 474 Customizing Quick Export 475 Chapter – 23 Quick Export 473
Quick Export You can choose File > Quick Export to use one of a variety of export presets to export your program from any page of DaVinci Resolve. You can even use Quick Export to export and upload your program to one of the supported video sharing services, including YouTube, Vimeo, and Frame.io. To use Quick Export: 1 In the Edit, Fusion, or Color page, optionally set In and Out points in the Timeline to choose a range of the current program to export.
Customizing Quick Export While the Quick Export has, by default, a variety of the most important formats currently in use for sharing video files, you may need to export to a format that’s not in this dialog. In this case, there are ways of creating additional presets and having them appear in the Quick Export dialog. To customize Quick Export: 1 Open the Deliver page. 2 Create the preset you want to add using the Render Settings panel.
Chapter 24 Using the DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard with the Cut Page The DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard is a combination of Keyboard and Edit Controller that greatly enhances your speed and efficiency working in DaVinci Resolve.
Contents Introducing the DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard 478 Navigation Using the Search Dial 479 Sort Media Pool Buttons 480 Editorial Tools 481 Trimming Tools 485 Transition Keys 486 Function Keys 488 Timecode Entry 491 QWERTY Keyboard Commands 493 Chapter – 24 Using the DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard with the Cut Page 477
Introducing the DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard Using a traditional keyboard and mouse to edit with is necessary for modern computers, as the interface and operating system dictate the use of these input tools. However, the mouse can sometimes feel like an abstraction in the editing process, and the DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard has been designed to bring back a more “hands on” feel.
Navigation Using the Search Dial The most prominent feature of the DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard is the large Search Dial on its right hand side. Primarily used for navigation, in certain circumstances this dial can also be used for the manipulation of the clips, providing an alternative to click and drag mouse input.
SHTL (Shuttle) Puts the Search Dial into Shuttle mode. Used to quickly navigate long clips or sync bins. Rotating the dial left of center “rewinds” through the clip or timeline, rotating it right “fast forwards” through them. The greater the rotation from center, the faster the Shuttle goes. There are hard end stops on the Search Dial in Shuttle mode that indicate the maximum speed in either direction. A LED on the keyboard will illuminate to show you that this mode is selected.
CAM (Camera) Pressing this button will instantly sort all of the clips in the Media Pool by Camera Number order. The camera numbers can be set in the Clips Metadata Editor field “Camera #”. This field can either be a number or a letter. Pressing this button again will toggle between ascending and descending order. Date/Time Pressing this button will instantly sort all of the clips in the Media Pool by the Date and Time that the clip was created.
Smart Insert Automatically inserts an incoming clip at the closest edit point to the playhead (as shown by the Smart Indicator) on the selected track, pushing all clips to the right of the edit point forward to make room for the incoming clip you’ve inserted to Track 1. Because this is a smart operation, you are prevented from inserting a clip at any arbitrary frame; incoming clips are only inserted at the closest previously existing edit point.
TIP: Using Ripple Overwrite is an efficient way to audition different takes of the same shot without disrupting the narrative flow of the entire scene. Close Up Lets you edit a clip into the Timeline as a zoomed-in close up to make up for a lack of actual close ups that would have been shot with either longer lenses or by moving the camera closer to the subject.
(Top) Before placing a clip on top, (Bottom) After editing clip DD into the Timeline with a Place on Top edit SRC O/WR (Source Overwrite) This edit requires overlapping timecode in multiple clips to work properly, such as when recording synced timecode to multiple cameras during a multi-cam shoot. If there is no overlapping timecode, this edit does nothing.
When you click the Source Overwrite button, a synced section of the selected Media Pool clip will be edited into the Timeline between the In and Out points you placed, superimposed on top. The result is a perfectly timed cutaway.
Roll When this key is pressed and held, it lets the user trim the nearest transition point (as shown by the Smart Indicator), and roll the edit point back and forth between the clips by simply rotating the Search Dial. The trim point is highlighted in green. Release the key to confirm the edit. SLIP SRC (Slip Source) When this key is pressed and held, it allows the user to slip the footage of the clip to the left of the Smart Indicator back and forth by moving the Search dial.
Cut This key will set a simple cut at the Timeline edit point, as shown by the Smart Indicator. If there is another transition already present there, it will replace it. DIS (Dissolve) This key will add a one second dissolve centered between the two shots at the Timeline edit point, as shown by the Smart Indicator. If there is another transition already present there, it will replace it.
Function Keys The function keys of the DaVinci Resolve Editing Keyboard are by default mapped directly to their DaVinci Resolve commands. If you wish to use them as regular function keys (f1, f2, f3, etc.) you can hold the Fn key down and press the appropriate function key.
Live Overwriting a Multi-camera shoot Insert Black (F2) Pressing this button will add two seconds of black (via the solid color generator) to the selected track. This is used as filler for transitions where you want to replace the “nothing” of the empty timeline with an actual media clip. This function does not use the Smart Indicators and will insert exactly at the playhead position.
Pic in Pic (Picture in Picture) (F5) Holding this button down will open a drop-down menu that displays four picture-in-picture placement options that you can navigate using the Search dial or numeric keyboard. This function will take the media that is in the Source Viewer, scale it to 1/8 size and place it on top of the original clip in the position that was selected in the drop-down menu.
REPL (Replace) (F11) Replace edits are a unique three-point edit type that aligns the frame at the Source Viewer playhead with the frame at the Timeline playhead when the edit is executed. This is the fastest edit type to use when you need to align an action at a specific frame of video, or a sound at a specific frame of audio, to a particular frame’s action or sound in the video or audio of the Timeline.
How to Enter Timecode Values When entering timecode, type each pair of hour, minute, second, and frame values from left to right, with a period representing a pair of zeros for fast entry. The numbers you enter appear in the timecode field at the upper right-hand corner of the Viewer with focus. When you’re finished typing, press the Return key to execute the Timecode command.
F/TC (Frames/Timecode) This button toggles between timecode (HH:MM:SS:FF) and frame count (23, 48, etc.) entry using the numerical keypad. For example, if you wanted to move forward 200 frames, you can press this key and then enter +200 and press the Enter key. Dur Enter (Duration Enter) Press this key to quickly change the duration of a transition or clip length to the exact number that you typed in.
PART 4 Edit
Chapter 25 Using the Edit Page In this chapter, you’ll learn how to use and configure the Edit page user interface to prepare for editing projects in DaVinci Resolve. For more information on how to use the Edit page to import and conform projects edited in other applications for color correction and finishing in DaVinci Resolve, see Chapter 47, “Conforming and Relinking Clips.
Contents The Edit Page User Interface 498 The Interface Toolbar 498 Navigating the Edit Page 499 Showing Which Panel Has Focus 499 The Media Pool 500 Importing Media Into the Media Pool on the Edit Page 501 Bins, Power Bins, and Smart Bins 501 Showing Bins in Separate Windows 502 Filtering Bins Using Color Tags 502 Sorting the Bin List 503 More About Timelines and Grading 504 Timelines, Grades, and Versions 504 Enabling the Use of a Master Timeline 504 Using the Effects Library 50
Metadata Editor 520 Inspector 521 Timeline 522 Timeline Options 524 Switching Among Multiple Timelines 525 Toolbar 526 Toolbar Audio Monitoring Controls 527 The Mixer and Meters 528 Displaying Audio Meters 528 Using Video Scopes 529 Floating Timecode Window 529 Dual Monitor Layout 530 Customizing the Edit Page 531 Undo and Redo in DaVinci Resolve 532 Chapter – 25 Using the Edit Page 497
The Edit Page User Interface The Edit page has evolved into a source-record style NLE that contains nearly every editorial tool you need for creative editing through finishing. The Edit page is divided into three main regions: the browsers found at the left, the Viewers at the top, and the Timeline at the bottom, all of which work together to let you import, edit, and trim timelines with a flexible variety of tools and methods.
Mixer: Opens or hides the Audio Mixer, giving you graphical controls to adjust your sound mix. Metadata: Hides or shows the Metadata Editor. Inspector: Shows or hides the Inspector, which shows you the transform and compositing effects of selected clips, or the editable options of selected effects such as transitions or generators. Navigating the Edit Page Each of the panels in the Edit page user interface can be given focus via the Workspace > Active Panel Selection submenu.
The Media Pool In the Edit page, the Media Pool contains all of the video, audio, and still image media you’ve imported for editing into the project at hand, as well as all of the timelines that you’re going to be editing into. The Media Pool is also mirrored on the Media, Cut, Fusion, Color, and Fairlight pages, so you can access any audio or video clip, graphic, or timeline from any page where they can be used.
For more information on using the myriad features of the Media Pool, see Chapter 11, “Adding and Organizing Media with the Media Pool.” In the sections that follow, some key features of the Media Pool are summarized for your convenience.
Bin, show the Smart Bin area of the Bin list (if necessary), then right-click within it and choose Add Smart Bin. A dialog appears in which you can edit the name of that bin and the rules it uses to filter clips, and click Create Smart Bin. Showing Bins in Separate Windows If you right-click a bin in the Bin List, you can choose “Open As New Window” to open that bin into its own window. Each window is its own Media Pool, complete with its own Bin List, Power Bins and Smart Bins lists, and display controls.
Once you’ve tagged one or more Media Pool bins, you can use the Color Tag Filter drop-down menu (the drop-down control to the right of the Bin List button) to filter out all but a single color of bin. Using color tag filtering to isolate the red bins To go back to seeing all available bins, choose Show All from the Color Tag Filter drop-down.
More About Timelines and Grading DaVinci Resolve projects contain one or more edited timelines (sometimes called a sequence in other applications) which are also organized in the Media Pool, and displayed in the Timeline Editor (referred to as “the Timeline”). Timelines contain clips, the source media of which is kept in the Media Pool, and which also appear as edit events in the Edit Index that can be shown at the right of the Timeline.
To create a new Master Timeline: 1 Create a new project, open the General Options panel of the Project Settings, and turn on the “Automatically match master timeline with media pool” checkbox. If you also want all clips to use Remote versions as you grade by default as in previous versions of DaVinci Resolve, you can turn off the “Use local version for new clips in timeline.
The Master Timeline is useful for organizing media for which no editing has yet been done, such as when grading digital dailies. The Master Timeline is also useful for identifying a range of similar clips, based on their similar ranges of timecode. For example, you could find all the talking head shots from a particular section of tape clustered together in the Master Timeline.
the transition so that it ends on, is centered on, or starts on the edit point. For more information, see Chapter 35, “Using Transitions.” Audio Transitions: Contains audio transitions for creating crossfades. Titles: Titles can be edited into the Timeline like any other clip. Once edited into the Timeline, you can edit the title text and position directly in the Timeline Viewer, or you can access its controls in the Inspector for further customization.
Stars indicate a flagged favorite effect; all favorites are currently filtered Edit Index Clicking the Edit Index button opens the Edit Index. By default, this shows an EDL-style list view of all the edit events in the current timeline. Whichever timeline is selected in the Timeline list displays its events here. However, the contents of the Edit Index can be filtered using commands found in the Option drop-down, described later in this section.
Each clip and transition is shown as an individual event, each of which contains multiple columns of information. If you re-edit a timeline, your changes are also reflected in this list. The Edit Index is useful for creative editors that are looking for specific effects that are used in the current timeline, or for finishing editors that need more information about a specific clip, or who might need to filter the entire edit by specific criteria in order to troubleshoot various issues.
The columns in the Edit Index can be customized to prioritize the information that’s important to you. Methods of customizing metadata columns in the Edit Index: To show or hide columns: Right-click at the top of any column in the Edit Index and select an item in the contextual menu list to check or uncheck a particular column. Unchecked columns cannot be seen. To rearrange column order: Drag any column header to the left or right to rearrange the column order.
Show Through Edits: Filters only clips that have through edits, or cuts where continuous timecode appears from the outgoing to the incoming half of the edit, that you may or may not want to remove, depending on why they’re there. Show Offline Clips: Isolates all offline clips (clips that have become unlinked from the corresponding source media on disk) in the Timeline, so you can quickly navigate to each one and troubleshoot the issue.
Source and Timeline Viewers By default, the Edit page presents a traditional source/record style editing experience. The Source Viewer lets you view individual clips from the Media Pool to prepare them for editing. Meanwhile, the Timeline Viewer lets you play through your program, showing you the frame at the position of the playhead in the Timeline.
Turning Grades and/or Fusion Effects Off in the Timeline Viewer The Bypass Color Grades and Fusion Effects button/drop-down from the Color page is also available on the Edit page either via the View > Bypass Color and Fusion drop-down, or via a toggle button/drop-down menu in the Timeline Viewer.
Viewer Controls Both viewers share the following onscreen controls: Zoom drop-down menu: Choosing Fit fits the currently visible frame to the available size of the viewer. Choosing a percentage zooms the visible frame to that size. You can also use the scroll wheel functionality of your mouse, trackpad, or tablet to zoom in and out of the viewer.
– Show All Video Frames: When available processing power is insufficient to play the clip or clips at the position of the playhead due to the grade, transforms, or effects that are applied at that moment in the Timeline, you have the ability to choose exactly how performance in DaVinci Resolve degrades. When off, DaVinci Resolve prioritizes audio playback at the expense of dropping video frames when processing power is tight, resulting in a more conventional playback experience.
– Audio Track: Shows the audio waveforms corresponding to all channels of the currently open clip in the Source Viewer. The top of this audio-only view shows the waveform for the entire duration of the clip, while the main region of the viewer shows a zoomed in section of the audio waveform. The level of zoom displayed is controlled by the zoom drop-down at the upper left-hand corner of the Source Viewer.
Transport Controls and Important Playback Controls While the operation of the main transport controls is probably obvious, there are additional playback controls of interest to the editor that may not be so readily found. For more information about transport controls, see Chapter 27, “Preparing Clips for Editing and Viewer Playback.
Viewer Indicators Certain frames trigger visible indicators in either the Source or Timeline viewers. For example, if the playhead is at the very first or last frame of media available to a particular clip, indicators appear in the lower-left or right corner of the frame to let you know there’s no more media in that direction.
Opening Clips in the Source Viewer There are two methods of opening clips into the Source Viewer. Which is enabled depends on the “Live Media Preview” setting found in the Viewer options menu (the three-dots menu found at the upper right-hand corner of the Viewer). – When Live Media Preview is enabled (by default), skimming a thumbnail in the Media Pool also shows the skimmed frame in the Source Viewer, effectively opening each clip you skim in the Media Pool into the Source Viewer.
However, the “Timeline overlay retains the last performed action” checkbox in the Editing panel of the User Preferences can be turned on if you want DaVinci Resolve to always remember the last edit type you used, and highlight it on this overlay whenever you drag another clip over the Timeline Viewer to let you know that the last edit you performed is the new default edit if you drop clips to the left of the overlay.
Clip Metadata Editor showing the Clip Details panel for a clip in the Timeline Inspector The Inspector can be opened to let you customize compositing, transform, and cropping parameters for clips, as well as clip-specific retime and scaling options. Furthermore, the Inspector lets you edit the parameters of transitions, titles, and generators used in the Timeline, in order to customize their effect.
The Inspector shows different buttons at the top that let you switch among different pages of parameters. For example, when you select a clip with both audio and video components, the Inspector shows Video and Audio buttons at the top that let you switch among each set of controls. If you select a Generator effect, the Inspector only shows the controls corresponding to that generator. Timeline The Timeline shows whichever timeline you’ve double-clicked in the Timelines browser.
Track Header area showing the controls for each track that are located within – Track Color: Each track can be color-coded with one of 16 different colors. These color codes correspond to the Edit page Mixer, and to the Fairlight page Mixer and Audio Meters. You can choose a new color for any track by right-clicking the track header and choosing from the Change Track Color submenu.
– Audio Channel Type indicator: Audio tracks also show which channel configuration that track uses, listing the number of channels for mono, stereo, 5.1, 7.1, and adaptive. – Number of clips: The number of clips on that particular track of the Timeline is listed, but only if the track is tall enough to have room for them.
This shadow can make it easier to see the playhead’s position, and it can also serve as a measuring tool for projects where you have an interest in visualizing a specific offset, in frames, both before and after the current position of the playhead. This offset can be adjusted by changing the Pre- and Post-Playhead Shadow Length parameters in the Editing panel of the User Preferences, which let you specify the number of frames to shadow both before and after the playhead.
Toolbar At the center of the toolbar that sits above the Timeline, several buttons let you choose different tools and options for performing various editing functions. Buttons in the toolbar Customize Timeline drop-down menu: Three controls at the top let you customize the look of the clips on the tracks (Filmstrip, Thumbnail, or Minimized), audio waveform displays, stacked timelines, subtitles, and the adjustable height of the video and audio tracks.
Replace Clip: Performs a replace edit to the Timeline with whatever clip is in the Source Viewer. Snapping: Enables or disables clip snapping. When turned on, clip In and Out points, markers, and the playhead all snap to one another for reference while you’re editing. Linked Selection: Enables or disables audio/video linking. When turned on, clicking a video clip in the Timeline automatically selects the corresponding audio clip if they’re linked together.
The Mixer and Meters The Audio Mixer provides a set of graphical controls you can use to set track levels, pan stereo audio, and mute and solo tracks, all while you continue to edit. To open the Audio Mixer: Click the Mixer button on the Interface toolbar. The Audio Mixer exposes a set of channel strips with controls that correspond to the tracks in the Timeline, and each channel strip displays a number of audio meters equal to the number of channels within that track.
Using Video Scopes DaVinci Resolve has a set of four real-time video scopes that you can use to monitor the internal data levels of clips in your project as you work. Each scope provides an unambiguous graphical analysis of the various characteristics of the video signal, showing you the relative strength and range of individual color components including luma, chroma, saturation, hue, and the red, green, and blue channels that, together, comprise the color and contrast of the images in your program.
Dual Monitor Layout The Edit page has a dual monitor layout that provides maximum space for the Timeline and Viewers on the primary monitor, and an enlarged Media Pool, simultaneously displayed Timelines browser, Edit Index, Effects Library, and Metadata Editor on the secondary monitor. To enter dual screen mode: Choose Workspace > Dual Screen > On.
Customizing the Edit Page The default layout is quite efficient for a number of tasks on most displays. You can always return to the default layout by choosing Workspace > Reset UI Layout. However, the Edit page can be customized to create more room for specific areas of the interface to accommodate different tasks. To resize any area of the Edit page: Drag the vertical or horizontal border between any two panels to enlarge one and shrink the other.
Undo and Redo in DaVinci Resolve No matter where you are in DaVinci Resolve, Undo and Redo commands let you back out of steps you’ve taken or commands you’ve executed and reapply them if you change your mind. DaVinci Resolve is capable of undoing the entire history of things you’ve done since creating or opening a particular project. When you close a project, its entire undo history is purged. The next time you begin work on a project, its undo history starts anew.
The History submenu, which lets you undo several steps at once You can also undo several steps at a time using the History submenu and window. At the time of this writing, this only works for multiple undo steps in the Media, Cut, Edit, and Fairlight pages. To undo and redo using the Undo window: 1 Choose Edit > History > Open History Window. 2 When the History dialog appears, click an item on the list to undo back to that point.
Chapter 26 Creating and Working with Timelines In this chapter, you’ll learn how to create and modify the timelines into which you edit clips to create the edited sequences that are your programs.
Contents Keyboard Shortcuts in This Chapter 536 Creating and Duplicating Timelines 536 Individual Timeline Settings for Format, Monitoring, and Output 536 Creating Blank and Stringout Timelines 537 Creating Timelines by Drag and Drop 538 Creating Timelines From Bins and Selections 539 Duplicating Timelines 539 Timeline View Options 540 Modifying Timeline Tracks 541 Naming Timeline Tracks 542 Using Timeline Snapping and Zooming 542 Scrolling Through the Timeline 543 Resizing the Timel
Keyboard Shortcuts in This Chapter Here’s a list of of keyboard shortcuts you might find helpful that relate to topics found in this chapter.
The New Timeline dialog with standard customization settings However, you have the option of creating separate timelines with individual Format (including Input Scaling), Monitoring, and Output Sizing settings, for situations where you need to set up multiple timelines to create multiple deliverables with different resolutions, pixel aspect ratios, frame rates, monitoring options, or output scaling options than the overall project, including “Mismatched Resolution Files” settings.
To create a new blank timeline: 1 (Optional) Select or create a folder in the Bin list in which to put the new timeline. 2 Do one of the following: – Choose File > New Timeline (Command-N). – Right-click within the Media Pool, and choose Timelines > Create New Timeline. 3 When the New Timeline Options window opens, set the following options: – Start Timecode: You can change the Start Timecode if a specific start time is required. – Timeline Name: Enter a name into the Timeline Name field. – No.
Creating Timelines From Bins and Selections The “Create Timeline Using Bin” and “Create Timeline Using Selected Clips” commands let you quickly assemble a timeline using the contents of the Media Pool, using whatever In and Out points have been added to each clip, and using the sort order of the enclosing bin to determine the order in which the clips will be assembled.
Timeline View Options As you’re working on an edit, it can often be useful to modify the appearance of the Timeline, changing the height of video or audio clips, choosing whether audio waveforms are drawn or not, and so on. Using the Timeline View Options drop-down at the far left of the Timeline, you can make these kinds of changes as you work.
Audio View Options: Three buttons govern the look of audio waveforms in the Timeline, when visible. – Non-Rectified Waveform: Lets you toggle between the waveform being drawn from the bottom of the audio track up, or centered and mirrored about itself. – Full Waveform: Hides the divider bar that keeps the waveform separate from the file name area of each audio clip, so the waveform occupies the full space of each audio bar in the Timeline.
To delete a track from the Timeline: Right-click within a track’s Timeline header and choose Delete Track. If there are clips on a track you remove, they are deleted from the Timeline. To delete all unused tracks in the Timeline: Right-click anywhere in the track header area and choose Delete Empty Tracks. All tracks without clips will be deleted at once.
Custom Zoom: Zooms the Timeline to the level selected by the Zoom Slider to its immediate right. Zoom Slider: Drag the zoom slider to the left to zoom out, and right to zoom in. You can also press Command-Minus (–) and Command-Equal (=) to zoom out and in. Either way, zooming is always centered on the current position of the playhead, even if the playhead is off screen. To frame every clip into the width of the Timeline: Press Shift-Z.
Dragging the Timeline center divider to make more room for audio or video tracks Tabbed and Stacked Timelines The Timeline now supports the option to have tabs that let you browse multiple timelines quickly. With tabbed timeline browsing enabled, a second option lets you open up stacked timelines to simultaneously display two (or more) timelines one on top of another.
Methods of working with tabbed timelines: Click any tab to switch to that timeline. Use the drop-down menu within any tab to switch that tab to display another timeline from the Media Pool. Each tab’s drop-down menu shows all timelines within that project, in alphabetical order, but a timeline can only be open in one tab or stack at a time. Drag any tab left or right to rearrange the order of timeline tabs. Click any tab’s Close button to close that timeline and remove that tab.
The button for closing a stacked timeline Duplicate Frame Detection You can turn on Duplicate Frame Detection (often referred to as Dupe Detection) for clips in the Timeline by choosing View > Show Duplicate Frames. Doing so shows colored bars at the top of clips in the Timeline whenever a range of frames has been used more than once.
The Timeline Comparison Window When you first open the Timeline Comparison window, the first thing you see is a pair of miniature timelines. The currently open Timeline appears at the bottom and the Timeline you right-clicked appears at the top. The Timeline Comparison window Comparison Window Playhead Output By default, the two playheads are ganged together, with the top playhead being displayed in the Source Viewer, and the bottom playhead being displayed in the Timeline Viewer.
The Change List Clicking the Diff Index button opens the change list, which shows you a more conventional item by item comparison of the differences between the two timelines. The Change List of the Timeline Comparison window The method of exporting this change list has not yet been defined at the time of this writing.
Chapter 27 Preparing Clips for Editing and Viewer Playback Before you start editing, there are a wide variety of things you can do to prepare your clips for editing. In this chapter, you’ll learn how to browse, select, and play through clips that you need to log, adding markers, setting In and Out points, and creating subclips as you identify pieces you’ll be using later as you edit.
Contents Keyboard Shortcuts in This Chapter 551 Browsing Clips in the Media Pool 552 Selecting Clips in the Media Pool to Edit 553 Duplicating Clips in the Media Pool 554 Viewer Playback and Navigation 554 Source and Timeline Viewers vs.
Keyboard Shortcuts in This Chapter Here’s a list of of keyboard shortcuts you might find helpful that relate to topics found in this chapter.
Browsing Clips in the Media Pool The following procedures show how to select one or more clips in the Media Pool to accomplish various editing tasks, either by opening a clip in the Source Viewer, or selecting a group of clips with which you want to do drag and drop editing. This section starts by presenting different ways you can browse the contents of the Media Pool to find clips you want to use, in preparation for making a selection for your next operation.
Selecting Clips in the Media Pool to Edit Once you’ve found one or more clips that you want to use in your edit, you’ll need to make a selection in preparation for performing an edit. Methods of selecting clips in the Media Pool using the mouse: To select a single clip: Click a clip in the Media Pool.
Methods of selecting clips using the keyboard: To navigate the Bin list: Either click any bin in the Bin list to the left of the Media Pool, or press Command-1 to make the Bin list the active pane of the Edit page, then use the Up and Down Arrow keys to to move up and down among the available bins. Use the Right Arrow key to open a bin that’s closed, and use the Left Arrow key to close the bin again.
Source and Timeline Viewers vs. Single Viewer Mode If you want to change the Edit page layout to hide the Source Viewer, you can choose Workspace > Single Viewer Mode to instead use just a single viewer to contextually display either a selected Source Clip or the current frame of the Timeline.
To open a clip into the Source Viewer using the mouse: Double-click any clip in the Media Pool, or in the Filmstrip of the Media Pool, to open it into the Source Viewer. To open a clip into the Source Viewer using the keyboard: 1 If necessary, press Command-1 to select the Bin list, and press the Up and Down arrows to choose a folder to view its contents. Press the Right Arrow key to open folders and show any nested folders within, or the Left Arrow key to close folders and hide their nested contents.
A separate jog control, to the left of the other transport controls, provides a way to jog more slowly through long clips or a long timeline. Click and drag to the left and right to move through a clip or the Timeline a frame at a time. Transport controls appear above the jog bar. In the Source Viewer, these controls let you Jump to the First Frame, Play Reverse, Stop, Play Forward, and Jump to the Last Frame.
Using JKL to Control Playback The JKL keyboard shortcuts are common to many editing applications, and experienced editors know these to be some of the most useful controls for playback and editing there are. Here’s a list of the many different ways you can use these three keyboard shortcuts to play through clips and timelines as you work.
Special-Purpose Playback Commands In addition to the standard transport controls, there are some additional playback controls, available via keyboard shortcuts or the Playback menu, that let you perform different playback operations. Loop: Command-Forward Slash (/). Toggles looped playback off and on. While looped playback is on, playback initiated with any of the following commands will loop automatically until you stop playback. Play around selection: Forward Slash (/).
Enabling and Disabling Audio Scrubbing Audio scrubbing is enabled by default, meaning that you’ll hear audio when dragging the playhead with the mouse back and forth. While this can be useful when you’re searching for audio cues, it can also be distracting if you’re just focused on the picture. To enable or disable audio scrubbing: Choose Timeline > Audio Scrubbing (Shift-S).
Absolute Timecode Entry Absolute timecode is entered simply by typing in a timecode value. So long as no clips or edit points are selected when you press the Return key, the playhead will move to that timecode value. If an edit point or clip is selected, those will be moved or trimmed to the corresponding timecode value, if possible. Here are some examples of absolute timecode entry using this method: Original TC Value User-Typed Value New TC Value 01:10:10:10 15245218 15:24:52:18 01:10:10:10 2..
Gang Viewers (Playhead Ganging) Ordinarily, the playhead movement in the Source and Timeline Viewers is independent. However, if you click the Option menu at the upper right-hand corner of either Viewer and turn Gang Viewers on, the movement of the Source and Timeline Viewer playheads is locked together, so that they move in unison. This is useful when you’re marking the In and Out points of a clip in the Source Viewer to match the duration of a clip or other event in the Timeline.
Once you’ve added some markers, you may want to edit their contents to make them more useful. To open a marker’s edit dialog to alter its properties: 1 Do one of the following: – Press Command-M to add a marker during playback and immediately open its edit dialog. – Double-click any marker you want to edit. – Move the playhead to the frame containing the marker you want to annotate using Shift-Up Arrow/Down Arrow and press M. – Select a marker anywhere in the Source Viewer or Timeline, and press Shift-M.
To set In and Out points using the Media Pool’s List view Filmstrip: Set the Media Pool to List view, then select a clip to expose it in the Filmstrip at the top of the Media Pool, drag the pointer through the Filmstrip to watch it play, and press I and O to set In and Out points to the appropriate range. Marking In and Out points in the Filmstrip of the Media Pool in List view The Filmstrip will dim the heads and tails to let you see the range of media you’ve marked.
Simple In and Out points let you join the audio and video of two clips at a single edit point in the Timeline. However, setting split In or Out points sets you up to create split edits where the video is offset from the audio in a single step. Clearing and Navigating In and Out Points Once placed, you can also clear In and Out points you don’t want and move the playhead to In and Out points you might want to edit.
Clip Edit Points Are Saved Once set, In and Out points remain in place within each source clip or timeline until you set new ones. If you quit DaVinci Resolve and later reopen the same project, each clip’s In and Out points are saved for future reference.
In this way, you can log several regions within a single clip for future use. A clip with multiple logged sections identified via markers with duration To turn a duration marker into an In and Out point: 1 Find a duration marker you want to convert into In and Out points.. Finding a duration marker to convert into In and Out points 2 Do one of the following, – Right-click the jog bar and choose Set In and Out from Duration Marker.
Organizing Media by Creating Subclips Subclips give you another way of organizing media in the Media Pool, letting you break excessively long clips into shorter ones. For example, if the director of a project is fond of “rolling takes” where multiple takes are all recorded within a single clip, you can break these takes up by making them into subclips.
Chapter 28 Editing Basics In this chapter, you’ll learn many of the fundamental methods and commands you’ll use when beginning to assemble clips into the Timeline. This includes drag and drop operations to begin assembling a timeline, different ways of selecting and deselecting the clips you’ve edited in preparation for different tasks, maintaining sync between the audio and video components of clips you’re editing, and deleting clips and gaps you don’t want.
Contents Keyboard Shortcuts in This Chapter 571 Drag and Drop Editing 572 Drag and Drop Editing of Individual Clips Into the Timeline 572 Drag and Drop Editing of Several Clips Into the Timeline At Once 573 Drag and Drop Editing of Video-Only or Audio-Only Edits 574 Drag and Drop Insert Editing 575 Dragging Clips From the File System Into the Timeline 576 Audio Track Creation While Editing 576 Using Keyboard Shortcuts and Three-Point Editing to Assemble a Program 576 Example: Assembling Cl
Keyboard Shortcuts in This Chapter Here’s a list of of keyboard shortcuts you might find helpful that relate to topics found in this chapter.
Key Shortcut Function Shift-F11 Fit to Fill from Media Pool or Source Viewer to the Timeline Shift-F12 Append To End Edit from Media Pool or Source Viewer to the Timeline Undo Command-Z Redo Command-Shift-Z Drag and Drop Editing If you’ve already used other editing programs, the procedures in this section will almost certainly be remedial, but if you’re new to editing, this section covers the most basic methods of editing a series of clips into the Timeline to get you started.
Dragging a clip from the Media Pool to overwrite a clip in the Timeline TIP: If you drag a clip into the blank area above an existing video track or below an existing audio track, a new track will automatically be created. Drag and Drop Editing of Several Clips Into the Timeline At Once The procedure above also works when you want to edit several clips into the Timeline at once by dragging them from the Media Pool.
2 Use the Media Pool thumbnails, the Media Pool List view Filmstrip, or the Source Viewer to set In and Out points to define the part of each clip that you want to edit into the Timeline. 3 Select the Media Pool clips you want to edit into the Timeline by dragging a bounding box, Command-dragging multiple bounding boxes over different sets of clips, by Shiftclicking a range of clips, or by Command-clicking individual non-contiguous clips.
Video and Audio-only overlay controls appear in the Source Viewer that let you drag just the video or just the audio into the Timeline Drag and Drop Insert Editing You can also drag multiple clips from the Timeline, or a single clip from the Source Viewer, at any frame of the current timeline to either insert the selection between any two clips or to insert it in the middle of an existing clip, moving (actually rippling) all media to the right of the new edit point you create to make room for the new incom
Dragging Clips From the File System Into the Timeline You can also drag a clip directly from your file system to the Timeline on supported platforms. Dragging multiple clips into the Timeline from the macOS Finder Audio Track Creation While Editing When dragging an audio clip to the undefined gray area of the Timeline below currently existing audio tracks in order to create a new track, the new track is set to a channel mapping that reflects the number of channels of the audio clip you’re dragging.
Example: Assembling Clips Into the Timeline From the Source Viewer The following example shows how you can use the Edit page to assemble a quick first cut of edits using different features of the Media Pool, Viewers, and Timeline. Written out with every possible option, this may seem like a lot of steps, but once you learn these fundamentals and develop some muscle memory for the keyboard shortcuts in use, these methods become really fast to do.
7 To perform an overwrite edit, do one of the following: – Drag the clip from the Source Viewer to the Timeline Viewer and drop it on the Overwrite overlay. If you’re in single viewer mode, this overlay only appears when you drag a clip from the Media Pool to the Timeline Viewer. – Click the Overwrite Clip button in the toolbar. – Choose Edit > Overwrite (or press F10).
Example: Assembling Clips Into the Timeline From the Media Pool If you want, you can also edit clips directly into the Timeline from the Media Pool using a variety of commands. This can be a fast way of appending clips to the end of the Timeline (although you can also perform insert edits this way). To edit one or more clips from the Media Pool to the Timeline: 1 Press Command-2 or click with the pointer to choose a clip in the Media Pool.
Making Selections in the Timeline Once you’ve assembled a sequence of clips in the Timeline, you’ll probably need to manipulate them further, moving, deleting, trimming, or otherwise adjusting the clips in the Timeline to make the edit play with the pacing and verve you require. Manually Selecting Clips in the Timeline Many operations require you to make a selection first, to define the scope of what you’re about to do. There are many ways to do so.
Selecting clips using the keyboard or menu commands: To select one clip: Using the keyboard, make sure the Auto Select button for the track the clip is on is enabled, then move the playhead over that clip and press Shift-V.
Selecting Edits in the Timeline A variety of editing and trimming methods require you to select an edit point, or part of an edit point, in order to resize, ripple, or roll an edit. You can do so using the mouse or using the keyboard. Methods for selecting edit points using the mouse: To select an edit to roll: Move the mouse to the center of an edit point, and when the ripple cursor appears, click to select the edit.
Using the Trim tool, you can drag a bounding box to select multiple edits There is also a flexible set of keyboard shortcuts that makes it easy to select edit points in preparation for various operations if you like to avoid using the mouse. Keyboard shortcuts for selecting edits: V: Selects the nearest edit point to the playhead on the lowest track with Auto Select enabled. Selects both the audio and video edit points of a clip together.
Using Auto Select Controls to Define Selections The Timeline Auto Select controls are extremely useful and versatile controls that serve many purposes. In short, they give you a way to specify which tracks will be affected or considered when you’re performing an operation upon multiple superimposed clips on multiple tracks of the Timeline.
Overriding Automatic Selections by Making Manual Selections It’s important to note that manual selections that you make which highlight specific clips in the Timeline always override whatever the Auto Select control of a track is set to. In the following example, three clips are superimposed and the Auto Select control of every track except V2 has been turned off. Setting Timeline In and Out points now automatically defines that region of the clip on track V2 to be deleted were you to press the Delete key.
Using Mark Clip with all Auto Select controls enabled, the clip on the lowest-numbered video track with Auto Select enabled defines the result However, if you disable the Auto Select control of track V1, then whichever clip is on the lowest video track with Auto Select still enabled is used as the target clip for the Mark Clip operation. In this example, the shorter clip on track V2 now sets the locations of the In and Out points.
The following operations are affected by the state of each track’s Auto Select control: Cutting, ripple cutting, copying, or deleting clips: When using Timeline In and Out points to delete a range of media from the Timeline, only media on tracks with an enabled Auto Select control will be cut, copied, or deleted. Deleting gaps: When selecting and deleting gaps in the Timeline, clips on other tracks that overlap the selected gap will also be deleted on tracks with an enabled Auto Select control.
Locking Tracks You Don’t Want to Change Another step you can take to prepare before performing any kind of editorial operation is to lock tracks with media that you don’t want to be affected by whatever it is you’re about to do. For example, if you have a complex set of music edits on track A3 that you don’t want to be affected by operations that will ripple the Timeline, you can lock track A3 so those clips remain unaffected.
There are two ways you can enable Position Lock. Position Locking All Tracks You can turn Position Lock on and off for all tracks via a button in the toolbar above the Timeline. The Position Lock button on the toolbar When you turn position lock on, the Lock button of all tracks changes to show that position lock is enabled instead.
Disabling and Re-Enabling Clips in the Timeline Sometimes there’s one or more video or audio clips in the Timeline that you don’t want to play along with the rest of the edited sequence, but you don’t want to remove from the Timeline either, in case you change your mind later. For this reason, it’s possible to Disable clips, effectively turning them off without removing them. Disabled clips appear dimmed in the Timeline. They don’t play back, they’re not rendered, and they’re not output to video.
Deleting Clip I using the Backspace or Delete key and leaving a gap Deleting clips as a “ripple delete” operation: To delete one or more clips and close the gap by rippling the Timeline left: Select a clip in the Timeline, or Shift-click or Command-click to select the clips you want to remove, and press the Forward Delete key.
Finding, Selecting, and Deleting Gaps in the Timeline A gap is defined as a space between any two clips on the same track. Often gaps are desirable as they allow audio or video clips to be spaced apart from one another very specifically, but sometimes they’re not. If you want to find accidental gaps in your timeline that may be too small to see, a pair of commands lets you do this.
these clips abut one another as a continuous sequence, without any of them overlapping any others. (Top) Before removing gaps, (Bottom) After removing gaps This is an extremely powerful and wide-ranging command. However, it’s made safer by following strict rules in order to maintain overall A/V sync in timelines: Gaps will not be removed past the point where video and/or audio clips will overlap one another. Gaps will not be removed if they’re under superimposed video clips that bridge the gap.
Audio/Video Linking DaVinci Resolve gives you complete control over the linked relationship between the video and audio associated with a clip. By default, DaVinci Resolve tries its best to keep the video and audio of clips and timelines in sync. However, there are several ways you can suspend automatic syncing when you need to make a specific kind of edit.
Before and after with Linked Move Across Tracks enabled; if video clip is moved, the linked audio clip moves simultaneously When Linked Move Across Tracks is disabled: Dragging one of a linked pair of video and audio items up or down to another track in the Timeline only moves that one item, other linked item(s) remain in the same track. So, moving a video clip from track V1 to V2 leaves the audio clip in track A1, where it was originally.
Dealing with Audio Video Sync Offsets Audio/video sync is one of the most important things to maintain in any edited program. However, there are times when you may want to override the sync relationship of a clip’s audio and video to make a particular edit, so moving a clip’s audio and video out of sync is allowed.
Methods of permanently changing audio/video linking in the Timeline: To unlink audio and video from one another: Select a clip, then right-click it and choose Link from the contextual menu (or press Option-Command-L). Unlinked clips do not appear with a chain icon before the clip name in the Timeline.
Commands for Slipping Audio/Video Sync Another set of commands in the Trim > Slip Audio submenu let you slip the contents of one or more selected clips in order to alter the sync between the audio and video, either in whole frame increments, or in sub-frame increments if there are clips with marginal sync that you want to improve.
Chapter 29 Modifying Clips in the Timeline Once you’ve edited a variety of clips into the Timeline, you’ll start working with them as you refine your edit. In this chapter, you’ll learn simple methods of modifying clips, including resizing, splitting, shuffling, disabling, copying and pasting, and duplicating.
Contents Keyboard Shortcuts in This Chapter 601 Moving, Resizing, and Rolling Clips in Selection Mode 602 Trimming Gaps 605 Modifying Clip Duration Via Timecode 605 Resizing or Trimming Clips in the Source Viewer 606 Using the Selection Tool 606 Using the Trim Tool 606 Doing a Slip Edit in the Viewer 606 Shuffle/Swap Insert Edits 607 Splitting and Joining Clips 609 Through Edits 610 Enabling and Disabling Clips and Tracks 610 Copying and Pasting Clips in the Timeline 611 Paste Inse
Keyboard Shortcuts in This Chapter Here’s a list of of keyboard shortcuts you might find helpful that relate to topics found in this chapter.
Moving, Resizing, and Rolling Clips in Selection Mode After editing a series of clips into a timeline, the next thing even the most careful of editors probably needs to do is to start making changes. The simplest changes are made in Selection Mode, using the regular arrow pointer.
Moving a clip into another track without sliding it in time by holding the Shift key down To shorten or lengthen clips: Move the Selection Mode pointer over the beginning or end of a clip, and when it turns into the Resize cursor, drag the In or Out point to the left or right to change the clip’s length. As you do so, the audio will scrub along with the Resize cursor.
Manipulating clips using the keyboard: 1 Press A to choose Selection Mode. 2 Do one of the following: – To roll any edit incrementally: Select the closest edit point to the playhead using the V key, moving the selection to another edit, if necessary, by using the Up Arrow and Down Arrow keys. Then press the Comma key (nudge 1 frame left) or Period key (nudge 1 frame right) to roll the selected edit to the left or right. Shift-Comma and Shift-Period nudges by 5 frames.
Trimming Gaps The start and end of gaps can also be rippled using the Trim tool. For more information, see Chapter 34, “Trimming.” Using the Trim tool to ripple the Out point of a gap to narrow it Modifying Clip Duration Via Timecode You can change a clip’s duration numerically in one of two ways. To change a selected clip’s duration: 1 Decide if you want to ripple the Timeline or overwrite neighboring clips when you change a clip’s duration. If you want to ripple the Timeline, choose the Trim tool.
Resizing or Trimming Clips in the Source Viewer You can also open a clip from the Timeline into the Source Viewer to perform trimming in different ways. You can do this in one of two ways: Double-click a clip in the Timeline to open it into the Source Viewer. Move the playhead over a clip in the Timeline, press Shift-V to select that clip, and then press the Return or Enter key to open it into the Source Viewer.
Shuffle/Swap Insert Edits A Shuffle Insert edit (sometimes referred to as a Swap Insert edit) lets you quickly rearrange one or more selected clips in the Timeline simply by Command-Shift dragging them to the left or right. When you do so, the surrounding clips automatically move to the right or left to switch places with the clip or clips that you’re dragging.
To shuffle insert one clip into adjacent clips in the Timeline: 1 Turn snapping off. 2 Select one or more consecutive clips in the Timeline that you want to shuffle. 3 Press and hold the Command and Shift keys down and drag either the video or audio portion of the selected clips to the left or right.
Before and after a group of clips being shuffled to the right. The clip that was clicked to drag defines how all other clips will be rearranged To shuffle insert multiple clips from the Media Pool or Source Viewer into the Timeline: 1 Either select one or more clips in the Media Pool or open a clip in the Source Viewer. 2 Press and hold the Command and Shift keys, and drag the selection from the Media Pool or Source Viewer into the Timeline.
Through Edits When you split a clip, a through edit appears to show that you currently have an edit with continuous timecode running from the outgoing to the incoming half. This is called a through edit, and is displayed with a dotted line running along its edge so you know that it’s special. A through edit seen in the Timeline To eliminate a through edit, do one of the following: Select it in the Timeline, and press Delete. Right-click a through edit in the Timeline, and choose Delete Through Edit.
In another example, you’ve edited a series of titles on track V3, so you need to disable track V3 in its entirety to output a textless version of the movie as a deliverable. When a clip or track is disabled, clips within it appear dimmed, and these disabled clips don’t appear in the Color page, and aren’t output to tape or rendered to disk in the Deliver page until that track is re-enabled first.
To paste one or more clips to the same track: Move the playhead to the frame where you want the pasted selection to start, and then choose Edit > Paste (Command-V). By default, each copied clip is pasted onto the same track it was copied from. Pasted clips overwrite any clips in that track that are in the way. Pasted clips are automatically selected, ready for nudging left or right, or for other operations.
Using the Cut/Copy Head and Tail Commands Four additional commands make it easy to cut or copy portions of one or more selected clips that intersect the playhead, either from the In point to the current position of the playhead (the Head), or from the current position of the playhead to the Out point (the Tail). To cut or copy the head or tail of a clip: 1 Select the clip or clips you want to cut or copy the head or tail of in the Timeline.
Duplicating Clips and Transitions in the Timeline One or more clips can be duplicated by making a selection, and then Option-dragging the selected clips to another position and/or track in the Timeline. When duplicating clips in this way, you must hold the Option key down until you release the mouse button. Individual selected transitions can also be duplicated by Option-dragging them to another edit point.
Chapter 30 Three- and Four‑Point Editing A more controlled form of editing is to use three- and four-point editing to make a specific range of source media fit into a specific range of the Timeline. This chapter covers the basics of three- and four-point editing, as well as the wide variety of edit commands that are available.
Contents Keyboard Shortcuts in This Chapter 617 Introduction to Three-Point Editing 618 Choosing a Track to Edit to Using Destination Controls 618 Setting In and Out Points in the Timeline 619 Mark Clip and Mark Current Selection 621 Preview Marks During Three‑Point Editing 623 Dragging Preview Marks to Change an Edit 624 The Rules of Three-Point Editing 625 Editing Rules for Split In and Out Points 626 Editing a Specific Range of the Source Clip Into the Timeline 626 Editing Part of a S
Keyboard Shortcuts in This Chapter Here’s a list of of keyboard shortcuts you might find helpful that relate to topics found in this chapter.
Key Shortcut Function F11 Replace Edit the first of selected clip(s) from Media Pool or Source Viewer to the Timeline F12 Place On Top Edit from Media Pool or Source Viewer to the Timeline Shift-F10 Ripple Overwrite from Media Pool or Source Viewer to the Timeline Shift-F11 Fit to Fill from Media Pool or Source Viewer to the Timeline Shift-F12 Append To End Edit from Media Pool or Source Viewer to the Timeline Undo Command-Z Redo Command-Shift-Z Introduction to Three-Point Editing Three-poin
Press Option-1 through 8 to set a video destination, or press Option-Command-1 through 8 to set an audio destination on tracks 1 through 8. Moving the destination control to track V2, labeled “Titles” You can also disable the Video or Audio destination controls in situations where you want to edit a source video clip into the Timeline without its audio, or vice versa.
In and Out points shown in the Timeline, with unmarked areas outside the selection dimmed Methods of moving In and Out points in the Timeline: Move the playhead, and then press the I or O keys to change the In or Out points to the new position of the playhead. Drag any In or Out point in the Timeline ruler to another position.
Mark Clip and Mark Current Selection These commands are automatic ways of setting In and Out points in the Timeline both at once, using the timing of other clips. They’re both exceptionally handy for defining the range of an incoming edit using clips that are already in the Timeline that you want to replace, or gaps in the Timeline that you want to fill. In short, Mark Clip uses the first and last frame of a target clip or gap in the Timeline to automatically set Timeline In and Out points for editing.
Using Mark Clip to set In and Out points that match a clip’s duration TIP: To clear both In and Out points, press Option-X, which is the opposite of this command. To use Mark Selection: 1 Select one or more clips in the Timeline. Selecting clips you want to use as a range to mark In and Out points 2 Press Shift-A to automatically set In and Out points that match the first and last frames of the selection. A range of discontinuous clips will produce the same result as a range of continuous clips.
Preview Marks During Three‑Point Editing In order to help you see what will happen whenever you execute a three-point edit, preview marks appear in either the Source Viewer or the Timeline Ruler to let you know the exact duration of the Timeline that’s about to be affected by the edit you’re preparing to make.
A preview marker in the Source Viewer shows the Source Viewer In point being automatically calculated by DaVinci Resolve based on the In and Out points that are set in the Timeline, and the In point in the Source Viewer If you like, you can move the playhead to the position of the preview mark by using Shift-I if the preview mark is an In point, or Shift-O if the preview marker is an Out point. Dragging Preview Marks to Change an Edit You can drag preview marks to alter the edit you’re about to make.
The Rules of Three-Point Editing In the previous examples, three-point editing was being used by virtue of source In and Out points being set to define a range of the source clip to be edited into the Timeline, and the Timeline playhead being used as the acting Timeline In point; three points defined the edit to be made.
If you set a Timeline Out point but no Timeline In point: The incoming source clip will be backtimed so the Out point of the source clip is aligned with the Timeline Out point. This can be seen by the thick bar that extends to the left of the Out point in the Timeline Ruler.
1 Set In and Out points in a source clip, either in the Media Pool or in the Source Viewer. Setting source clip In and Out points 2 To set where you want the incoming clip to go, set the destination control to the tracks you want to edit onto, and then do one of the following: – Move the Timeline playhead to the frame you want to use as the Timeline In point for the edit. – Set a Timeline In point for the edit.
Editing Part of a Source Clip to Fit Into a Specific Range of the Timeline In this example, you have a section of a clip or a gap in the edited sequence of clips in the Timeline that you want to fill with as much of the current source clip as it will take to “plug the hole.” 1 Set an In point in the source clip, if necessary, to define the first frame of the range of source media that you want to edit into the Timeline.
Backtiming a Source Clip When Editing Into the Timeline In this last example, you’ve got a specific moment in the second half of a source clip that you need to align with an Out point in the Timeline, such that the remaining duration of the incoming clip overwrites the edited sequence of clips from the right to the left. This is referred to as backtiming, when you’re lining up a Source Out point with a Timeline Out point in order to make an edit, and can be set up one of two ways.
3 To make the edit, click the Overwrite Clip button in the toolbar, press the F10 key, or drag a clip onto the appropriate overlay in the Timeline Viewer.
4 To make the edit, choose Edit > Overwrite, click the Overwrite Clip button in the toolbar, press the F10 key, or drag a clip onto the Overwrite overlay in the Timeline Viewer. Before and after an overwrite edit, the Timeline duration stays the same The selected clips in the Media Pool are overwrite edited to the selected track starting at the position of the playhead, eliminating whatever was there originally while adding incoming clip. No other clips are rippled during this operation.
The selected clips are insert edited to the selected track at the position of the playhead, pushing all other media in the destination track back by the total duration of the selected clips, except for clips on other tracks that overlap to the left of the edit point (as seen by the overlapping music clip in the example below).
3 Open a clip into the Source Viewer. 4 Move the playhead in the Source Viewer to the frame that you want to line up with the frame at the position of the playhead in the Timeline. In the example shown below, the original clip that was shot on location of a car driving past a slab of real concrete (shown in the Timeline Viewer at right) is going to be replaced by a VFX shot of a concrete wall with a small hole for the car to drive through (shown in the Source Viewer at left).
To use replace edit to spot a sound effect or action video clip into the Timeline: 1 Move the playhead in the Timeline to the clip that contains the moment you want to align the new incoming audio or video clip with, and position it on the exact frame that you want to line up with a frame of the clip you’re going to edit into the Timeline. 2 Click the appropriate audio and video destination controls of the empty track you want to edit the incoming clip into. 3 Open a clip into the Source Viewer.
Replace Edit Using Clips Already in the Timeline To facilitate workflows where multiple clips are stacked in the Timeline to manually track different takes or versions of stock footage, VFX clips, or other versionable media, there’s a method of drag and drop replace editing that copies the grade of the clip being replaced to the clip you’re replacing it with at the same time, so that newer versions of effects can inherit the same grade as the previous version of the effect being replaced.
Fit to fill edits are especially valuable when you have a source clip in which the action is slightly slow, and you just want to speed it up by squeezing it into a shorter duration of the Timeline. They’re also incredibly handy in situations when you have a gap in an edited sequence of clips to fill with a source clip that’s just not long enough, but in which slightly slower motion won’t be noticeable. Fit to fill edits do not ripple the Timeline.
The incoming source clip is retimed, as necessary, to fit into the specified duration of the Timeline. This can be seen by the retiming badge that appears within the clip that’s just been edited into the Timeline.
Ripple Overwrite Ripple Overwrite is a four-point edit that’s useful when you can identify a segment of the Timeline you want to overwrite, but the incoming clip is of a different duration and you want DaVinci Resolve to automatically ripple the Timeline to accommodate the difference. You can use the Ripple Overwrite command one of two different ways: You can overwrite an entire clip in the Timeline with another clip of different length.
Using Ripple Overwrite on a Section of the Timeline Defined by In/Out Points You can also use ripple overwrite as an explicit four-point edit, to overwrite a section of the Timeline that’s marked with In and Out points with an incoming clip that’s also marked with In and Out points that is of unequal duration.
3 To execute the edit, choose Edit > Ripple Overwrite, drag the clip to the Ripple Overwrite overlay of the Timeline Viewer, or press Shift-F10. As a result, the section of the timeline that was marked in step 1 is overwritten by the section of the source clip marked in step 2, and all clips to the right of this edit in the Timeline are rippled to the right to make room for the much longer source clip. The final result is an edit where the movements match nicely.
3 Right-click one of the selected clips in the Media Pool and choose “Insert selected clips to timeline with handles” from the contextual menu. The selected clips are added to the Timeline starting at the position of the playhead. To change the length of handles that are removed, open the Editing panel of the User Preferences and change the “Default handles length” setting.
Chapter 31 Marking and Finding Clips in the Timeline As you work on your project, you’ll find it useful to identify important information about each clip, and about significant moments in each timeline, using a combination of Flags, Markers, and clip Label colors. These can be applied to source clips in the Media Pool, or to clips that have already been edited into timelines.
Contents Using Flags 644 Using Markers 644 Adding Markers to Clips 645 Adding Markers to Timelines 646 Saving In and Out Point Ranges As Markers with Duration 647 Editing Marker Information and Keywords 648 Changing Marker Timing 650 Drawn Annotations on the Viewer 651 Frame.io Timeline Markers 652 Working With Frame.
Using Flags Flags are meant to mark an entire clip, and they also flag every other clip in the Timeline that shares the same Media Pool source clip, making this a handy way of quickly identifying which clips in a given timeline come from the same Media Pool source. The Flag and Marker buttons and pop-ups. You can apply multiple flags to clips, with a variety of colors to choose from.
Adding Markers to Clips You can place markers on the jog bar of source clips in the Source Viewer (or in the Media page Viewer), and on clips that are selected within a timeline. (Top) Markers placed on a source clip, (Bottom) Markers placed on a clip in the Timeline When you add markers to a source clip, those markers also appear in the Media Pool as hierarchically disclosable items attached to that clip in List view (markers are not visible in Thumbnail view).
To mark a clip in the Timeline, do one of the following: Select one or more clips you want to mark, then move the playhead to the frame of a selected clip in the Timeline, and click the Marker button in the toolbar (or press M) to place a marker at that frame, using the current color (if multiple overlapping clips are selected, you’ll add a marker to all clips).
To mark the Timeline itself, make sure all clips are deselected, and do one of the following: Press M. Click the Marker button to place a marker of the currently selected color in the Timeline ruler. To place a marker during playback and immediately open the marker dialog to enter a name or note within it, select one or more clips you want to mark, then press Command-M (or press M twice). Playback pauses until you enter some text and close the marker dialog again, at which point playback continues.
2 Do one of the following: – Right-click the jog bar and choose Convert In and Out to Duration Marker – A marker with duration appears above the In and Out points. To edit its name or notes, double-click the marker, press Shift-M, or choose Mark > Modify Marker. A marker with duration is created from the In and Out points In this way, you can log several regions within a single clip for future use.
Editable properties in the Marker dialog Time: The frame the marker is positioned at relative to that clip or timeline. This is editable, so you can numerically change a marker’s position. Duration: Optional; the length of a marker that’s been assigned a duration. This is also editable, so you can numerically assign a duration to a marker or alter a marker that already has duration. Name: The name of the marker, defaults to the number of that marker in the order it was added (Marker 1, Marker 2, etc.
Changing Marker Timing Once you’ve placed one or more markers, there are a variety of ways you can move them around to better line up with important events in source footage or the Timeline, or delete them once they’re no longer useful. Additionally, you can enable or disable the ability to have markers ripple along with other clips in areas of the Timeline that are affected by rippling operations.
Drawn Annotations on the Viewer It’s now possible to use the Annotations mode of the Timeline Viewer to draw arrows and strokes of different weights and colors directly on the video frame, in order to point out or highlight things that need to be fixed. These annotations are stored within markers, similarly to marker names and notes. To start, simply choose Annotations mode from the Timeline Viewer mode drop-down menu.
Drawing annotations to highlight feedback Frame.io Timeline Markers If you’re using DaVinci Resolve alongside a Frame.io account, there is some powerful integration that manifests itself as markers in the Timeline. When you render a timeline directly to Frame.io, that timeline is automatically linked to the movie that’s been uploaded to Frame.io, and all comments, “Likes,” and graphical annotations (drawings and arrows) from reviewers that are added online via the Frame.
Working With Frame.io Markers Double-clicking any Frame.io marker in the Timeline opens a dialog that lets you send replies to comments that appear on Frame.io, enabling editors to respond directly to commenters. The editor talking to himself using the Frame.io comment dialog that appears when you open a Frame.io marker If you hover the pointer over any comment, three buttons appear to the right that let you edit that comment, delete it, or “Mark as complete.
Moving the pointer over a marker displays its information in a tooltip To read marker information in the Source and/or Timeline viewers: 1 Open the Source or Timeline Viewer’s option menu, and turn on Show Marker Overlays. 2 Stop playback, and move the playhead to a marker. That marker’s information is displayed in the Viewer, superimposed.
All markers in the currently open clip as seen in the Source Viewer Option menu Markers list Exposing Markers in Lists You can also use the Edit Index to filter out a list of markers appearing within the current Timeline. You can filter all markers at once, in which case columns expose the notes and colors applied to each marker. You can also filter by a specific marker color if you only want to see one type of marker.
Using Markers in the Media Pool Once you’ve added one or more markers to source clips in the Media Pool, you can use them for editing in a considerably more direct way than just using them to move the playhead around. Markers can be exposed in the List view of the Media Pool, and once exposed, they can be opened into the Source Viewer, edited into the Media Pool, or turned into subclips just like any other clip.
Deleting Markers By Color Mark > Delete All Markers lets users remove all markers of a specific color all at once, or remove all markers altogether. Color Labeling Clips in the Timeline By default, different clips have specific colors that identify each type of clip. Furthermore, clips with effects applied to them (adjustments in the Inspector, volume level changes, speed changes, and so on), appear as a darker shade of their default color to help you identify at a glance which clips have been modified.
Clips in the Timeline are tinted everywhere but the thumbnail area of video clips. If you edit a clip into a track that has itself been colored, the clip color overrides the track color. A timeline with audio clips that have been tinted to identify what they are to the editor NOTE: Clip colors are distinct from flags, which appear as badges in the Timeline, Media Pool, and Color page. Assigning Clip Colors Clip colors can be assigned in many different areas of DaVinci Resolve.
When you assign a color to a track, that track’s color appears in a thin strip to the left of that track’s header controls. Color-coded timeline tracks All clips that you place onto that track will appear with that color, unless they’ve been assigned an individual clip color, in which case the individual clip color overrides the track color.
To find a clip in the Timeline: 1 Open the Edit Index. 2 Click the magnifying glass button to open the search controls. 3 Choose a criteria from the Filter By drop-down menu. 4 Type a search term in the Search field at the top right of the Edit Index. As soon as you start typing, all edit events that don’t match the search criteria are temporarily hidden. To show all of the clips in the Edit Index again, click the X at the right of the search field.
To locate a Source Viewer clip in the Media Pool: With any clip open in the Source Viewer, press Option-F. To locate a media file in the Finder from the Media Pool: Right-click any clip in the Media Pool and choose Reveal in Finder. A Finder window, or its equivalent in Windows and Linux, opens to the directory with that clip, which appears highlighted.
Finding Media Using Match Frame Operations Match frame operations are a terrific time saver when you need to match the original source clip to a clip in the Timeline, or when you want to use a clip in the Source Viewer to find that same clip in the Timeline. With a single command, you can match one clip to another in order to set up a new edit to take care of a variety of tasks.
3 Press the F key, or click the Match Frame button at the bottom right of the Timeline Viewer (it’s at the left of the In and Out buttons). The frame that’s matched to the frame at the playhead in the Timeline; In and Out points are set to match those of the clip in the Timeline The original source media for that clip is automatically loaded into the Source Viewer, with In and Out points that match those of the targeted Timeline clip; the Source playhead is at the same frame as the Timeline playhead.
Finding a Clip in the Media Pool Using a Timeline Clip There are two ways you can use a clip in the Timeline to find a clip in the Media Pool. Using a Clip in the Source Viewer to Find a Media Pool Clip To locate the original clip in the Media Pool that corresponds to a clip in the Timeline: 1 Open a Timeline clip into the Source Viewer by doing one of the following: – Double-click a clip in the Timeline.
List View Clip Usage Column A Usage column can be optionally shown in the Media Pool while in List view. By default, this column is empty, but if you right-click in the Media Pool and choose the Update Usage command, the project is analyzed, and every use of that clip in every timeline of the entire project is logged in this column. A Usage column shows how many times a clip is used in every timeline, after analysis NOTE: The usage column increments for each clip item that appears in the Timeline.
Chapter 32 Multicam Editing If you’re working with media that was shot simultaneously using multiple cameras, then you can use the Multicam Editing tools in DaVinci Resolve to create multicam clips that can be edited using a visual switcher. Additional controls let you change the angles of multicam clips that have already been edited into the Timeline.
Contents Introduction to Multicam Editing 668 Creating and Modifying Multicam Clips 668 Logging and Editing Multicam Clips 670 Setting up a Timeline for Multicam Editing 670 Opening and Altering Multicam Clips 671 Performing a Multicam Edit 672 Multicam Controls in the Source Viewer 674 Multicam Keyboard Controls 674 Editing Multicam Clips in the Timeline 675 Grading Multicam Clips 676 Chapter – 32 Multicam Editing 667
Introduction to Multicam Editing If you’re working on a program where a performance, interview, or event was recorded using multiple simultaneous cameras, DaVinci Resolve has multi-camera editing tools; multicam editing for short. Editing using these tools is a three part process: First, you have to create multicam clips from the individual camera angles (called “ISOs,” or isolated cameras). Second, you need to put the multicam clips you’ve created into a timeline.
Angle Sync: The method used to synchronize all of the different angles. If you’re manually syncing all of the angles, you can use In or Out points that you set within each clip. If matching timecode was jam synced to each camera recording an angle, you can choose Timecode for a fast sync that’s as accurate as the timecode is. If each camera had a microphone with which to simultaneously record the location audio, you can choose Sound to use the shape of each audio waveform to align all of the angles.
Logging and Editing Multicam Clips Once you create one or more multicam clips, you can view them in the Media page or in the Source Viewer of the Edit page, and add markers to them (all angles share the same markers) to prepare for the multicam edit you’re planning on performing. When viewing multicam clips in the Media page, you can choose how many angles to show in the viewer via the Viewer Option menu.
When you perform a multicam edit, DaVinci Resolve plays the entire audio mix while you’re editing, so if you want to take the opportunity to edit a master audio mix file or additional piece of music to play along with the multicam clip, you can do so. Opening and Altering Multicam Clips After you’ve created a multicam clip and put it into a timeline, you can modify it in a variety of ways by right-clicking it in the Media Pool and choosing “Open in Timeline.
Performing a Multicam Edit After you’ve created one or more multicam clips and edited them into a timeline, actually executing a multicam edit is simple. 1 Open the Timeline you created to hold the multicam clip or clips comprising your edit, and position the playhead where you want to start editing. 2 Choose Multicam from the Source Viewer mode drop-down.
4 Choose whether you want to switch both the audio and video, just the video, or just the audio using the Audio/Video selection buttons at the bottom center of the Multicam Viewer. You can also choose Edit > Multicam > Video and Audio (Option-Shift-[ ), Video Only (Option-Shift-] ), Audio Only (Option-Shift-\).
Multicam Controls in the Source Viewer The Source Viewer, in Multicam mode, has four sets of controls that let you set up and execute multicam editing. The Source Viewer showing Multicam switching controls Multicam Angle buttons: Each multicam angle displayed in the Source Viewer is a button that lists the angle name underneath.
Previous/Next Angle: (Edit > Multicam submenu) Pressing Command-Shift-Left or Right Arrow lets you switch to the previous or next angle. These controls will also loop back around to the first or last angles in the multicam clip. Audio/Video Switching: (Edit > Multicam submenu) Pressing Option-Shift-[ sets the Multicam Viewer to cut or switch both Video and Audio at the same time. Pressing Option-Shift-] sets the Multicam Viewer to cut or switch Video only. Pressing OptionShift-\ sets the Multicam Viewer
Referencing a Line Cut You may sometimes be provided with what’s called a “line cut” from a production. This is a pre-edited version of the program, cut live with the switcher and recorded during the performance or event, that’s meant to be used as a reference for what you’re doing.
Chapter 33 Take Selectors, Compound Clips, and Nested Timelines This chapter covers a variety of different ways you can turn multiple clips into a single object in the Timeline, to accommodate a variety of different editing tasks. Take Selectors, compound clips, and nested timelines all appear as a single clip in the Timeline, but they all organize multiple clips in different ways.
Contents Take Selectors 679 Compositing and Grading Take Selectors 680 Compound Clips 681 Compositing With and Grading Compound Clips 684 Nested Timelines 684 Re-Editing a Nested Timeline 685 Swapping the Contents of the Source Viewer and Timeline 685 Editing Source Media From a Timeline or Compound Clip 685 Marking Clips in Timelines Loaded into the Source Viewer 686 Decomposing Nested Timelines 686 Compositing and Grading Nested Timelines 687 Audio Buses in Nested Timelines 687 Cha
Take Selectors Take Selectors in DaVinci Resolve provide a way for you to manage multiple takes or versions of a particular clip in the Timeline. They’re ideal for storing multiple useful takes for scenes where you or the client can’t quite decide which one is the best, or for maintaining multiple versions of VFX clips that are going through different iterations.
Methods of using Take Selectors: To create a Take Selector: Right-click any clip that’s not a title or generator, and choose Take Selector from the contextual menu. The Take Selector interface appears, disabling the rest of the Timeline temporarily while you work with the Take Selector’s contents. To populate a Take Selector: Drag any clip from the Media Pool into the Take Selector, and it appears “stacked” on top of the original clip in the Timeline.
Compound Clips You can select a series of clips in the Timeline, be they edited one after the other in serial or superimposed and stacked in parallel, and turn them into a compound clip, which is a single clip in the Timeline that’s actually comprised of many other audio and video clips embedded inside. This allows you to work with a block of clips as if it were a single unit, governed by a single set of Inspector controls, and able to be connected to another clip in your timeline by a single transition.
The resulting compound clip To create a compound clip by In-Out range: 1 Select a range of clips using In and Out points on the Timeline. This allows you to select partial sections of a clip to add to the compound, rather than the whole clip. All tracks between the In-Out range will be included, even if the track is disabled or auto select is off. Selecting a range of clips based on In and Out points to turn into a compound clip.
The resulting bounds of the compound clip showing only the media included in the exact In-Out range. To rename a compound clip: 1 Click the name of the compound clip twice in the Media Pool to select the name text. Type a new name, and press the Return key to accept the change. 2 Type a new name, and press the Return key to accept the change. To edit a compound clip: 1 Right-click any compound clip and choose Open in Timeline from the contextual menu.
To decompose a compound clip into its individual clips in the Timeline: Right-click any compound clip and choose Decompose in Place from the contextual menu. The compound clip is replaced by the individual clips it was made from. To edit a compound clip from the Media Pool to the Timeline as individual clips: 1 Choose Edit > Decompose Compound Clips on Edit so the menu item is checked.
Additionally, you can select multiple timelines in the Media Pool, right-click them, and choose Create Timeline Using Selected Clips to quickly assemble a group of timelines into a nested sequence. The one exception is that you must drag and drop a timeline into the Viewer if you want to use it to set In and Out points, since double-clicking a timeline, or selecting a timeline and pressing Return simply opens it into the Timeline Editor.
Marking Clips in Timelines Loaded into the Source Viewer While you’re editing Source Media from a timeline that’s loaded into the Source Viewer, you can use the Mark Clip (the X key) to set Viewer In and Out points that match the start and end of whatever clip intersects the playhead within that timeline. This makes it easy to edit one clip from a Timeline in the Viewer into your program, all by itself.
If the decomposed clip has more audio or video tracks as a result, then additional tracks will be added to the Timeline to make room. If this is a problem, you can rearrange the clips Decomposing Nested Timelines While Editing If you want to edit an entire timeline into another timeline solely as the source clips, you can turn on Edit > Decompose Compound Clips on Edit, and then edit that timeline into your program using whatever method you find convenient, as described previously in this chapter.
Chapter 34 Trimming Most editors would agree that trimming is half the job of editing. While you can make many kinds of changes in the Timeline using the selection and razor blade tools, there is a dedicated Trim mode in which you can perform more sophisticated trim operations in fewer steps using either the mouse or keyboard shortcuts, depending on how you like to work. Mastering DaVinci Resolve’s trimming operations will save you time when doing the necessary work of fine-tuning your edit.
Contents Keyboard Shortcuts in This Chapter 690 Summarizing Trim Operations 691 Selection-Based Trimming Using the Trim Tool 691 How the Trim Tool Differs From the Selection Tool 691 Using the Trim Tool With the Mouse 693 Turning Off the Heads Up Display While You Trim 697 Trim Tool Operations With the Keyboard 697 Important Trimming Keyboard Shortcuts 698 Trimming Using Timecode Entry 699 How to Enter Timecode Values 700 Commands to Make Selections and Trim 701 Trimming Clips in the S
Keyboard Shortcuts in This Chapter Here’s a list of of keyboard shortcuts you might find helpful that relate to topics found in this chapter.
Summarizing Trim Operations Before going into the different methods of trimming that are available, users who are new to editing might benefit from a quick summary of what each trimming operation actually does. Each trim operation is designed to let you move edits and clips in relation to whichever clips are around them, by performing several operations at once.
Selecting Edit Points When the Trim tool is selected, dragging a bounding box over a series of clips in the Timeline selects the edit points to join clips together, instead of the clips themselves. This makes it fast and easy to select multiple edit points that you want to operate on simultaneously.
Using the Trim tool to ripple the Out point of a gap to narrow it TIP: You can temporarily toggle between the selection (A) and trim tools (T) while using these operators to see their effects. Releasing the key will return you to the originally selected mode.
TIP: You can temporarily disable this four-up display by pressing the Shift key while you slip so that you only see the frame at the position of the playhead. This makes it possible for you to see which frame passes the playhead by as you ripple the Timeline.
4-up display when sliding a clip To roll an edit point: To roll an edit, moving the Out point of the outgoing clip and the In point of the incoming clip at the same time, drag an edit point between two clips to the left or right. (Roll edits can also be done in Selection mode.
Two-up display when rolling an edit Ripple edit: To ripple the outgoing or incoming part of an edit to add or remove media to a clip while simultaneously moving all other clips at the left in the Timeline to make room, click the Trim tool, and drag an edit point to a new position in the Timeline.
Two-up display when rippling an edit Turning Off the Heads Up Display While You Trim If you press the Shift key while performing most drag and trim operations, you can suspend the multi-frame heads up displays that appear in the Timeline window in order to focus on the frame that intersects the playhead. To toggle the two- and four-frame heads up displays off or on: Choose View > Enable Preview During Editing.
TIP: When holding down the Shift key while nudging to do a “fast nudge,” the duration of the nudge is customizable in the Editing panel of the User Preferences. By default it’s five frames, but you can set it to whatever you want. Important Trimming Keyboard Shortcuts When trimming using the keyboard, the following keyboard shortcuts are important for you to remember. Most of these commands, and many more that haven’t been assigned to keyboard shortcuts, can also be found in the Trim menu.
Key Shortcut Function Forward-Slash (/) This command works contextually depending on what’s selected in the Timeline. Plays a section of the Timeline from x frames before to y frames after (a) the playhead (if nothing’s selected), (b) the currently selected edit point, (c) the currently selected clip, (d) a selection of multiple clips. This command is useful for previewing how the current selection plays within the context of the clips immediately surrounding it.
To slip a clip: Select a clip, and press S if necessary to switch to Slip mode, enter a timecode value, and press Return. To slide a clip: Select a clip, and press S if necessary to toggle to Slide mode, enter a timecode value, and press Return. How to Enter Timecode Values When entering timecode, type each pair of hour, minute, second, and frame values from left to right, with a period representing a pair of zeros for fast entry.
Commands to Make Selections and Trim A series of commands in the Trim menu make it fast to automatically select the In or Out point of the clip that’s nearest to the current position of the playhead, and go into either Selection or Trim mode in preparation for resizing or ripple trimming that edit point.
A Timeline clip being ripple-resized by opening it into the Source Viewer dragging its In point using the Trim tool You can slip the contents of the clip by holding the Shift key down and dragging either the In or Out point.
The following operations ripple the Timeline: Ripple deleting a clip or gap (Forward-Delete) Ripple cutting a clip (Shift-Command-X) Rippling one or more edits or gaps using the Trim tool (press T to choose the Trim tool) Using the Extend Edit (E), Trim Start (Shift-[), or Trim End (Shift-]) commands in Trim mode Using the Ripple Start (Command-Shift-[) or Ripple End (Command-Shift-]) commands in any mode Performing an insert edit (F9) or ripple overwrite edit (Shift-F10) Using the Retime cont
The rules of timeline rippling illustrated.
When a track’s Auto Select control is off, clips on that track are ignored by those same categories of operations, unless you manually select one or more clips or edit points. The next three sections go into detail on how the Auto Select buttons help you control the trimming operations described in this chapter, particularly when it comes to operations that ripple the Timeline, and the kinds of “playhead-targeted” trim operations described later in this chapter.
Trimming only the clip in V3 by soloing the V3 Auto Select controls Using Manual Selections to Control Which Clips Are Trimmed It’s important to know that manual selections you make in the Timeline that highlight specific clips always take precedence over whatever the Auto Select controls are set to. For example, if Auto Select is turned on for tracks V1, V2, and V3, but you’ve selected a clip on track V1, only the selected clip will be still be affected by whatever operation you decide to perform.
For ease of use, you’ll typically want to leave Auto Select on for all tracks when rippling clips, to ensure that all the parts of your timeline stay in sync with one another. However, when the occasion requires, the Auto Select controls provide the option to suspend rippling on specific tracks while allowing rippling on others. The rules are simple: Tracks with Auto Select enabled: Ripple editing or ripple deleting affects all clips to the right of the clip or clips on that track being trimmed.
Another set of rules govern what happens when you select clips or edits for trimming on tracks with Auto Select disabled: Selected Tracks with Auto Select turned off with an edit selection: If you select the outgoing or incoming half of an edit on a track that has Auto Select off, the result will be a resize operation. Ripple deleting clips leaves a gap.
The following sections describe each of the special-case multi-selection trim operations that are possible, along with each one’s special rules and limitations. Resizing and Rolling Multiple Edit Points You can resize or roll multiple edit selections at once. In this way, you can adjust the edit points of multiple superimposed clips all together. Trimming multiple edit points essentially lets you “gang” them so that all selected edits move together as one.
(Before) Selecting 14 incoming credits edit points, (After) Trimming them all at once In the following example, the incoming edit of three clips in the following montage are selected and simultaneously rippled using the Trim tool.
Selecting opposite outgoing video and incoming audio edit points in preparation for performing an asymmetric ripple trim To select the outgoing video edit of one clips and the incoming audio edit of the next clip in preparation for making a split edit, you can Option-click the outgoing video edit to suspend linked selection, and then Command-click the incoming audio edit to add it individually to the selection.
Before and After ripple trimming both the incoming and outgoing halves of an edit to shorten the duration of both clips at once You can also select the In and Out points of a clip in the Timeline at the same time, and use the Trim tool to ripple both the beginning and end of the clip closer to the center, shortening the clip while preserving the content in the middle, while tightening up the Timeline.
In short, you can use nearly any combination of edit selections you need to simultaneously trim multiple clips in the same track, in multiple tracks, whatever you need to do to save time. Furthermore, asymmetric trimming can be done in either Selection or Trim mode, either to open and close gaps, or to move edit points to overlap one another to create split edits.
To trim while looping: 1 Move the playhead near the edit point you want to trim, and press V to select it. 2 Press the U to choose which side of the edit you want to select in order to ripple or roll it, and/or Option-U to choose whether you want to trim video+audio, the video only, or the audio only. 3 Press Command-Forward Slash (/) to enable looped playback. 4 Press Forward Slash (/) to play around the current selection. With looping on, playback will continue until you stop it.
TIP: If nothing is selected while you’re in Dynamic Trim mode, JKL simply plays through the Timeline, as usual. Quick Trimming If you’re in a hurry and you can accomplish the trim you want via real time or faster playback, then pressing the Command key while using the J or L keyboard shortcuts lets you dynamically trim any selection in the Timeline, with audio/video playback.
2 Press W to enter Dynamic mode, or click the Dynamic tool in the toolbar. If nothing is selected in the Timeline, then the edit point that’s nearest to the playhead will be automatically selected. If you’ve already made a selection, that selection will remain and be used for trimming. Once you’ve entered Dynamic mode, the Dynamic Trim tool in the toolbar turns yellow to let you know that you’re in Dynamic mode, and the icon shows you whether you’re in Slip or Slide mode for trimming.
5 Use any combination of the JKL keyboard shortcuts to initiate playback and trimming, including: – J+K or K+L to trim in slow motion, with slow motion audio playback – Pressing K while tapping J or L to trim a frame at a time – Pressing J or L to trim with real time playback – Pressing J or L repeatedly to trim in fast-reverse or fast-forward, at a variety of speeds As you dynamically trim, all audio clips in all audio tracks will play back as the playhead scrolls across them, so you can hear your entire
Before and after a Trim Start operation, all clips that intersect the playhead are trimmed Trim End resizes or ripples intersecting clips so that each intersecting clip’s Out point is moved to the current playhead position.
Clips that don’t intersect the playhead are not affected. Furthermore, you can exclude clips on specific tracks from this operation by disabling the Auto Select controls on those tracks. Resize, Ripple, and Roll Start and End Commands Another set of commands in the Trim menu lets you combine the Trim Start and Trim End functions with the act of choosing either Selection or Trim mode, and the ability to resize, ripple, or roll, all with single commands.
Extend Editing Edit Points Make one selection per track of any combination of In or Out points, and press the E key to move those edit points to the current position of the playhead. Before and after a multi-track extend edit performed in Selection mode. Before, the red selections indicate that you’ve selected the first frame of media for those clips. After, the selections turn green to indicate that there’s additional frames at the head of the edit for trimming.
Before and after a multi-track extend edit performed in Trim mode; you can see that the lowest numbered track with a selection defines how far the Timeline will be rippled Using Extend Edits to Slide Clips You can also use the Extend Edit command to slide the contents of a single selected clip using either the Selection or Ripple tools.
Chapter 35 Using Transitions Transitions are the connective tissue binding together moments requiring a more significant way of changing from one image to the next than a simple cut. This chapter shows the many ways you can add and edit transitions in your program.
Contents Working With Transitions 724 Adding and Editing Transitions 724 Adding Transitions When There’s Not Enough Handles 726 Adding Transitions By Dragging to Create Overlap 726 Transition Properties in the Inspector 727 Using Transition Curves 729 Favorite Transitions 730 Changing the Standard Transition 730 Creating Transition Presets 731 Video Transitions 731 Dissolve 731 Iris 732 Motion 733 Shape 734 Wipe 735 User Transitions 736 Fusion Transitions 736 Audio Transiti
Working With Transitions Transitions provide another way of bridging the change from one clip to another, and are often used to indicate a change in time or location when changing scenes. DaVinci Resolve supports a variety of transitions ranging from various forms of the traditional cross dissolve to different types of wipes, allowing for great flexibility when finishing creative edits. In addition, DaVinci Resolve supports third-party OpenFX transitions that you install on your system.
To add a transition using the Edit Point contextual menu: Right-click any edit point between clips with overlapping handles, and choose one of the four durations available for the standard transition; the available choices are quarter-second, half-second, one second, and two seconds, expressed in frames at whatever the current frame rate of the Timeline is.
Methods of altering transitions in the Timeline: To change a transition’s type: Drag a different transition from the Effects Library onto the current one in the Timeline. To change a transition’s duration: Drag the beginning or end of the transition in the Timeline to be longer or shorter symmetrically about the current edit.
Select the In or Out point of a clip, then press and hold Option-Shift down and drag the selected edit point to overlap a neighboring clip where you want to create a transition. Creating a transition by Option-Shift dragging an edit point to create an overlap between two clips Select a clip, then press and hold Option-Shift down and drag the entire clip to overlap a neighboring clip where you want to create a transition.
Additional properties that are specific to each type of transition appear in another group below. Since the Cross Dissolve transition is the most common transition used, its properties will be shown as an example. Style: The different Dissolve transitions (Cross Dissolve, Additive Dissolve, and so on) expose this drop-down that lets you choose different ways for the outgoing clip to blend into the incoming clip during the dissolve.
Using Transition Curves You can create even more highly customized transition effects using the transition curve associated with each transition you add to the Timeline. Clicking the button at the bottom-right corner of a transition in the Timeline reveals a Keyframe Editor, and clicking the Curve Editor button in the Keyframe Editor track for the transition reveals the Transition Curve Editor.
Favorite Transitions While DaVinci Resolve provides a wide variety of transitions by default, most editors typically only use a subset of these in their day-to-day work. Also, it’s typical to save customized versions of a particular transition in order to reuse that specific set of transition settings over and over again.
Creating Transition Presets If you find yourself using a particular transition that’s customized in a particular way over and over in your work, you can create a Preset of that transition for easy recall. Once saved, Presets can be favorited or set to be the Standard Transition to make them more easily available. To save a transition preset for future use: 1 Add a transition to the Timeline, then double-click it to open it in the Inspector to adjust its settings to be the way you need it to be.
Non-Additive Dissolve: Start Ratio lets you adjust how far along the transition is when it first begins. End Ratio lets you adjust how far the transition gets at the very end. The Reverse checkbox reverses the direction of the transition. Smooth Cut: A special-purpose transition designed to make short jump cuts in the middle of a clip less noticeable.
Diamond Iris: Color sets the color of the border, if there is one. Border sets the width of the border, in pixels, with 0 creating no border. Offset to Center identifies the center point at which the diamond-shaped wipe begins, as X and Y coordinates on the screen. Feather is a checkbox that, when turned on, uses the Border slider to determine the amount of feathering at the edge of the transition. Eye Iris: Color sets the color of the border, if there is one.
– Push Left – Push Right – Push Up – Push Down Slide: Direction determines whether or not the incoming clip slides in or the outgoing clip slides out. Color sets the color of the border, if there is one. Border sets the width of the border, in pixels, with 0 creating no border. Feather is a checkbox that, when turned on, uses the Border slider to determine the amount of feathering at the edge of the transition.
Star: Color sets the color of the border, if there is one. Border sets the width of the border, in pixels, with 0 creating no border. Offset to Center identifies the center point at which this circular wipe begins, as X and Y coordinates on the screen. Feather is a checkbox that, when turned on, uses the Border slider to determine the amount of feathering at the edge of the transition. Triangle Left: Color sets the color of the border, if there is one.
Split: Color sets the color of the border, if there is one. Border sets the width of the border, in pixels, with 0 creating no border. Feather is a checkbox that, when turned on, uses the Border slider to determine the amount of feathering at the edge of the transition. Venetian Blind Wipe: Color sets the color of the border, if there is one. Border sets the width of the border, in pixels, with 0 creating no border. Repeat specifies how many “blinds” appear within the wipe effect.
OpenFX Transitions If you’ve installed one or more sets of OpenFX plug-ins on your DaVinci Resolve workstation, any transitions within those sets will appear in the OpenFX panel of the Effects Library.
Chapter 36 Working with Audio in the Edit Page DaVinci Resolve has a solid set of features for editing, mixing, and mastering audio in your programs right in the Edit page.
Contents Audio in the Edit vs.
Keyframing Audio 759 Overlay Controls for Volume 760 How to Add and Adjust Volume Keyframes 760 Audio Fade Handles 761 Audio Crossfades 762 The Audio Mixer 763 Audio Mixer Controls 764 Mute and Solo Tracks For Output 765 Displaying Audio Meters 765 Audio Compound Clips 765 Audio Playback for Variable Speed Clips 765 Using Audio Filters 766 Installing Audio Filters 767 The Fairlight Page 768 Pro Tools Export 768 Chapter – 36 Working with Audio in the Edit Page 740
Audio in the Edit vs. Fairlight Pages While the Fairlight page provides dedicated audio editing and mixing capabilities that are suitable for sweetening the audio of your program once it’s been edited, the Edit page has extensive audio capabilities of its own. This enables editors to edit and refine audio clips, set levels, and do simple mixes as they assemble the program in the first place.
How to Assign Audio Channels Each clip with audio has the following options in the Audio panel of the Clip Attributes window: The controls available for adding tracks with which to remap channels A set of controls at the top of the Track/Channel list lets you add additional tracks to a clip. Adding additional tracks to a clip let you remap that clip’s available channels to appear as additional items in the timeline when you edit it, one item per track with an unmuted channel.
With this mapping, this audio clip exposes only one item on one track in the Edit page Timeline, or five lanes within a single track in the Fairlight page Timeline. Either way, this mapping exposes a single editable unit. A single audio channel exposed in the Timeline Optionally, you could choose to mute the four individual microphone channels and only monitor the top mixdown channel. This can be accomplished by setting channels 2-5 to mute.
The Audio panel of the Clip Attributes window after adding four channels Editing such a clip into the Timeline results in five linked audio items appearing on five separate audio tracks, each of which can be edited separately in the Timeline. Each channel exposed as a separately editable clip in the Timeline Support for Mixed Audio Track Formats from Source Clips DaVinci Resolve also supports media with multiple audio tracks that have differently formatted channels embedded within them.
The Audio panel of Clip Attributes now has controls over what format (Mono, Stereo, 5.1, 7.1, Adaptive) the channels embedded within a particular clip should be configured as. This means that you can set up clips with multiple tracks, each one using potentially different formats of audio employing different combinations of clips, which is handy for mastering.
This view shows every channel within each track of the current clip. An audio clip opened into the Source Viewer You can add markers and set In and Out points for audio clips just as you would for any other clip, in preparation for editing. Simultaneous Audio Waveform Display in the Source Viewer It’s also possible to edit using audio waveforms even when the Source Viewer is set to Source.
Using Multi-Channel Timeline Tracks Multi-channel audio tracks in the Edit page Timeline are extremely convenient when you’re dealing with clips that are stereo, 5.1, 7.1, or have an arbitrary number of channels that were recorded in the field, as you can fit all of these channels as a single clip into a single track, that will be correctly mapped to your project’s outputs, and that can be edited conveniently as a single item in the Timeline.
Four audio tracks with a variety of audio tracks shown. From the top down, Mono, Stereo, Adaptive, 5.1 Changing How Many Channels an Audio Track Has If you had set up your timeline with one kind of audio track, but you discover you actually need a different kind, you can change any audio track’s type at any time. Just right-click anywhere in that audio track’s timeline header, and choose an option from the Change Track Type To submenu of the contextual menu.
Editing a multi-channel production recording as five separate tracks of audio This way, when you edit that clip into the Timeline, each audio channel appears as its own clip in its own audio track of the Timeline, which can be separately edited so you can edit the scene to isolate the best dialog from each microphone.
lavaliere microphone for that actor, so you can select those clips and use the Audio panel of Clip Attributes to mute all channels but channel 4. If, for whatever reason, you need to expose more audio tracks in the Timeline than you originally set an audio clip to use, you can do the following.
While a single averaged audio waveform representing all the channels in that clip is shown by default, you can switch any clip to seeing each individual waveform in a vertical stack by right-clicking any audio clip and choosing Display Individual Audio Channels. Enabling the display of multiple channel waveforms in the Timeline Whenever you cut an audio clip, you cut all audio channels with it. Audio channels that are embedded within a single track cannot be individually edited.
Deleting the audio using the Backspace key to leave a gap To copy a section of audio using In and Out points: 1 Set In and Out points in the Timeline to identify the range of audio you want to copy. If necessary, turn off the Auto Select controls of tracks with overlapping audio you don’t want to copy; you can Option-click the Auto Select control of the audio track you’re copying from to solo it, and you can Shift-click any video track’s Auto Select control to turn them all off.
Resizing Audio Clips in Subframe Increments DaVinci Resolve lets you optionally make subframe audio adjustments to the In and Out points of audio clips in the Timeline. Enabling and Disabling Subframe Editing The “Align audio edits to frame boundaries” preference in the Editing panel of the DaVinci Resolve User Preferences lets you choose whether audio clip In and Out points align to whole frame boundaries, just like video clips. When this option is turned on, you cannot make subframe audio edits.
Audio Settings in the Inspector Each clip has some simple audio-related parameters in the Audio panel of the Inspector. Clip Volume: Each clip has a single volume control that corresponds to the volume overlay over each audio clip. Clip Pan: (Only exposed for clips) A simple Pan slider that controls stereo panning. Clip Pitch: Lets you alter the pitch of a clip without changing the speed.
Adjusting Audio in the Timeline Each clip (or item) of audio in the Timeline has a Volume overlay that lets you set that clip’s level by simply dragging it up or down with the pointer. This overlay corresponds to the Volume parameter in the Inspector. Dragging a Volume overlay to adjust the clip level You can also click the Curve Editor button at the bottom right-hand corner of the audio clip, which opens the Audio Curve Editor.
The commands for changing volume are as follows: To change volume in increments of 1dB, do one of the following: – Clip > Audio > Increase Audio Level 1dB (Option-Command-Equals) – Clip > Audio > Decrease Audio Level 1dB (Option-Command-Minus) To change volume in increments of 3dB, do one of the following: – Clip > Audio > Increase Audio Level 3dB (Option-Shift-Equals) – Clip > Audio > Decrease Audio Level 3dB (Option-Shift-Minus) Normalize Audio Volume Command The Normalize Audio Levels command autom
4 Choose how you want to set the level of multiple selected clips: – When Set Level is set to Relative, all selected clips are treated as if they’re one clip, so that the highest peak level of all selected clips is used to define the adjustment, and the volume of all selected clips is adjusted by the same amount. This is good if you have a series of clips, such as a dialog recording, where the levels are consistent with one another, and you want to normalize all of them together.
Clip EQ Each audio clip in the Timeline has a four-band equalizer that has both graphical and numeric controls for boosting or attenuating different ranges of frequencies within that clip, before it even gets to the EQ built into the mixer. Each band has controls for the filter type (Bell, Lo-Shelf, Hi-Shelf, Notch), Frequency, Gain, and Q-factor (sharpness of the band), with the available controls for each band of EQ changing depending on the filter type.
The EQ graph with user-draggable handles Dragging the numbered handles on this graph in turn modifies the parameters of the corresponding band, and changing each band’s parameters will also alter the EQ graph, which serves the additional purpose of providing a graphical representation of the equalization being applied to that track. Bands 1 and 4 The outer two sets of band controls let you make high-pass and low-pass adjustments, if necessary. Band enable button: Turns each band of EQ on and off.
Overlay Controls for Volume Each audio clip in the Timeline appears with a Volume overlay control on top of it, that by default starts out completely flat. Similar to such controls found in other applications, the level curve lets you alter each clip’s levels, either overall, or dynamically using keyframes.
To adjust a keyframe in any direction: Move the pointer over a keyframe so that the four-way cursor appears, and then click and drag up or down to change the volume, or side to side to change its timing. The timing of audio keyframes can be adjusted in subframe increments, for precision mixing.
Audio Fade Handles can also be adjusted in subframe increments, if necessary, to create a precise transition. Adjusting an Audio Fade handle in subframe increments, seen within a one-frame playhead shadow Once you’ve created a fade effect, you can adjust the curve of the fade by dragging the handle that appears right on top of the fader curve. Dragging the handle up and down affects the angle of the curve, and dragging the handle left and right affects the shape of the curve.
You can double-click a Cross Fade transition to open it into the Inspector, revealing the following parameters: Duration: The duration of the transition, shown in both seconds and frames. Alignment: A drop-down that lets you choose the transition’s position relative to the edit point it’s applied to. Your choices are “End on Edit,” “Center on Edit,” and “Begin on Edit.” Transition style: You can choose –3dB, 0dB, or +3dB to set both the Fade In and Fade Out levels to the same value.
The Audio Mixer, with four channel strips corresponding to the four tracks in the Timeline NOTE: You cannot record automation in the Edit page. Comprehensive mixing controls with full automation recording are found in the Fairlight page. Audio Mixer Controls Each track’s channel strip has the following controls: Track Color: Each track can be differently color-coded to help you keep organized. These colors also appear in the timeline track header and the Fairlight page.
Mute and Solo Tracks For Output When you use the Mute or Solo controls of the Audio Mixer, track audio is disabled both during playback and delivery for output. Make sure you have re-enabled any tracks you need before heading to the Deliver page. You can only modify mute and solo tracks on the Edit, Cut, and Fairlight pages. Displaying Audio Meters If you just want to see your program’s levels, you can also switch to display the “Control Room” audio meters instead of the Mixer.
Using Audio Filters DaVinci Resolve includes FairlightFX, a set of DaVinci Resolve-specific audio plug-ins that run natively on macOS, Windows, and Linux, providing high-quality audio effects with professional features to all DaVinci Resolve users on all platforms. Additionally, DaVinci Resolve supports the use of third-party VST audio plug-ins on Mac OS X and Windows. On Mac OS X, DaVinci Resolve supports Audio Unit (AU) audio plug-ins.
The custom audio filter interface for iZotope RX4 To expose a filter’s custom controls: Click the Custom Control button (the button to the right of the trash can). The custom controls appear in a floating window. When you’re finished adjusting the custom controls, close the window. The button for opening a filter’s custom control Methods of working with audio filters in the Inspector: To disable or re-enable a filter: Click the toggle button at the far left of each filter’s title bar.
The Fairlight Page The audio controls of the Edit page are geared more towards simple mixing to have sensible levels as you work putting a program together. For comprehensive audio sweetening, mixing, automation, and mastering controls, the Fairlight page is only one click away. For more information, see Part 12, “Fairlight.
Chapter 37 Media Management Media Management in DaVinci Resolve refers to operations that let you copy, move, or transcode the media that’s linked to clips in your timeline, with the option to eliminate unused media in the process. Even though Media Management is only available in the Media page, it’s very typical that it be used to consolidate media from an edited timeline, or from a project nearing completion, so it’s presented here in the editing section.
Contents What is Media Management in DaVinci Resolve? 771 File Formats that are Compatible with Media Management 771 Using Media Management 772 Options in the Media Management Window 775 Options for Transcode Only 776 File Naming When You Consolidate Media 776 Chapter – 37 Media Management 770
What is Media Management in DaVinci Resolve? If you’ve edited a program within DaVinci Resolve, you can use the Media Management command to take care of a variety of tasks, including but not limited to: Moving all clips used in a project to a specific storage location. Creating a duplicate of your project’s clips that eliminates unused media in preparation for handing the media off to another facility. Transcoding all clips in a timeline to another format while eliminating unused heads and tails.
In addition, the “trim unused media” options of the Copy or Move operations are now compatible with clips that use codecs employing temporal compression, such as H.264, XAVC, and AVC-Intra, enabling you to eliminate unused media for these formats during media management without recompressing or transcoding. Using Media Management Using Media Management is simple.
4 Next, choose which operation you want to perform: Copy: Creates duplicates of all media associated with clips or timelines at the destination. Move: Relocates all media associated with clips or timelines to the destination, removing it from the original locations. Transcode: Creates duplicates of all media associated with clips or timelines in a new format that you specify; all transcoded clips are written to the same destination.
To use Media Management to create a consolidated duplicate of media for a project you’re conforming: 1 Connect the portable drive containing the media to be conformed to your workstation. 2 Import the AAF or XML project file you were given into the Edit page, and conform it to the media on the portable drive you connected in step 1. You’re only doing this to identify what clips you need to media manage, not because you’ll be working off that volume. 3 Choose File > Media Management.
7 When you’re done choosing these settings, click Start. A progress bar appears showing you how long the operation will take. A subset of media used by that timeline is copied to the specified directory, and is automatically relinked to the timeline and clips in the Media Pool. You are now ready to continue working on the project. Options in the Media Management Window The different Media Management operations offer different options.
Relink to new files: (Appears for the Copy operation only) Relinks the selected clips and/or timelines to the new media you’ve created by copying, wherever you’ve copied it to. Delete unused media: (Appears for the Move operation only) Moves all unused media to your file system’s trash when you perform a Move operation. It’s up to you to do the final deletion of the media being discarded, so proceed with caution.
Chapter 38 Using the DaVinci Editor Keyboard with the Edit Page Chapter – 38 Using the DaVinci Editor Keyboard with the Edit Page 777
Contents Introducing the DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard 779 Navigation Using the Search Dial 779 Sort Media Pool Buttons 780 Editorial Tools 781 Trimming Tools 784 Transition Keys 785 Function Keys 786 Timecode Entry 788 QWERTY Keyboard Commands 790 Chapter – 38 Using the DaVinci Editor Keyboard with the Edit Page 778
Introducing the DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard Using a traditional keyboard and mouse to edit with is necessary for modern computers, as the interface and operating system dictate the use of these input tools. However the mouse can sometimes feel like an abstraction in the editing process, and the DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard has been designed to bring back a more “hands on” feel.
Source Pressing this button instantly brings the Source Viewer into focus, allowing you to navigate through the source media. Timeline Pressing this button instantly brings the Timeline Viewer into focus, allowing you to navigate through the Timeline. SHTL (Shuttle) Puts the Search dial into Shuttle mode. Used to quickly navigate long clips or timelines. Rotating the dial left of center “rewinds” through the clip or timeline, rotating it right “fast forwards” through them.
Timecode Pressing this button will instantly sort all of the clips in the Media Pool by Timecode. Pressing this button again will toggle between ascending and descending order. CAM (Camera) Pressing this button will instantly sort all of the clips in the Media Pool by Camera Number order. The camera numbers can be set in the Clips Metadata Editor Field “Camera #”. This field can either be a number or a letter. Pressing this button again will toggle between ascending and descending order.
Smart Insert Automatically inserts an incoming clip at the playhead or selected In point on the selected track, pushing all clips to the right of the edit point forward to make room for the incoming clip. (Top) Before doing a Smart Insert, (Bottom) After inserting clip DD between clips AA and BB Append The position of the playhead is ignored; incoming clips are always placed after the last clip of the selected track in the Timeline.
Close Up Lets you edit a clip into the Timeline as a zoomed-in close up to make up for a lack of actual close ups that would have been shot with either longer lenses or by moving the camera closer to the subject. This function is particularly useful when you’re working with 4K media in a 1080 timeline, or 8K media in a 4K timeline, which enables you zoom into existing wide shots to create medium shots, or medium shots to create close up shots, with no loss of quality.
SRC O/WR (Source Overwrite) This edit requires overlapping timecode in multiple clips to work properly, such as when recording synced timecode to multiple cameras during a multi-cam shoot. If there is no overlapping timecode, this edit does nothing.
SLIP DEST (Slip Destination) When this key is pressed and held, it allows the user to slip the footage of the clip to the right of the nearest edit point to the playhead back and forth by moving the Search Dial. A four way multiview will show the In and Out points for both source and destination clips as you slip. The clip that will slip will be highlighted in orange. Release the key to confirm the edit. Trim Editor This key does not function in the Edit page.
a short two or four frame Smooth Cut transition to the edit can make this kind of edit invisible, as long as the speaker doesn’t change position significantly during the cut. The more motion there is in the background of the shot, and the more the speaker changes position, the harder it will be to get a useful result using Smooth Cut.
Pic in Pic (Picture in Picture) (F5) This key does not function in the Edit page. Swap (F6) Press and hold the Swap button, and using the Search dial, move the clip under the playhead earlier or later in the Timeline, effectively swapping the moving clip with the one you are scrolling over. TIP: You can easily move entire scenes back and forth in your timeline by Command Selecting the all clips in the scene, holding down the Swap key (f6), and rotating the Search Dial.
Fit to Fill (F12) Fit to fill edits are the only edit type that actually use all four edit points, and it’s the only edit type that retimes clips at the same time as they’re being edited. By setting In and Out points in the incoming source clip, and another pair of In and Out points in the Timeline, you can stretch or compress the timing of the specified range of source media to cover the entire specified range of the Timeline.
A single period between two numbers is considered to either be a single zero, or ignored if it’s between two pairs of numbers. Any untyped pairs of values to the left of what you enter are assumed to be whatever those values were prior to the timecode you entered; this makes it easy to type partial timecode values even when the Timeline starts at hour one. It’s not necessary to enter colons or semicolons. Absolute Timecode Entry Absolute timecode is entered simply by typing in a timecode value.
00 This button adds two zeros to the timecode input rather than a single zero, to make numerical entry faster. QWERTY Keyboard Commands The standard QWERTY shortcut keys have been modified slightly. Retime (R) The Retime controls have been mapped to the letter R on the keyboard. This works both in the Cut and Edit pages. Full View (P) The full screen Viewer has been mapped to the letter P on the keyboard, and works in the Cut, Edit, Color and Fusion pages.
PART 5 Edit Page Effects
Chapter 39 Editing, Adding, and Copying Effects and Filters DaVinci Resolve 14 added the ability to apply ResolveFX and OFX effects as filters in the Edit page. This chapter covers how to browse for and apply effects to clips in the Timeline, how to copy them from clip to clip, how to remove them, and how to edit them in the Inspector once they’ve been added. For more information about the specific ResolveFX that are available, see Part 11, “ResolveFX.
Contents Using the Effects Library 794 The Toolbox 794 OpenFX 795 AudioFX 795 Effects Library Favorites 796 Seeing Effects in the Timeline 796 Using the Inspector 797 Opening Effects Using Selection Follows Playhead 798 Inspector Controls 798 Adding Filters to Video Clips 799 Adjusting Multiple Clips at the Same Time 801 Adjustment Clips 802 Paste Attributes 803 Keyframe Options for Pasting Keyframed Attributes 803 Option to Ripple the Timeline for Pasting Speed Effects 803 Rem
Using the Effects Library All effects that you can add to your edit, including filters, transitions, titles, and generators, are found in the Effects Library, which is split into two parts. To the left is a Bin list that shows a hierarchical list of all of the different transitions, title effects, generators, and filters that are available, sorted by category. To the right is a browsing area in which you can see the contents of whichever bins are selected.
– Generators: Generators can also be edited into the Timeline like any other clip. Selecting a generator and opening the Inspector lets you access its controls for further customization. You can also choose a standard duration for generators to appear within the Editing panel of the User Preferences. – Effects: Effects are essentially placeholders in the Timeline that allow for more specialized compositing in Fusion, or that let you modify the underlying tracks with an adjustment clip.
Effects Library Favorites You can click on the far right of any transition, title, or generator flag that effect with a star as a favorite effect. When you do so, the favorited effects appear in a separate Favorites area at the bottom of the Effects Library Bin list.
Using the Inspector Once you’ve added effects to a timeline, the Edit page Inspector is where you can edit their parameters. Closed by default, the Inspector is the central area for editing all of the settings relating to filters, compositing, sizing, titling, transitions, generators, and effects of all kinds.
Choosing Timeline > Selection Follows Playhead sets DaVinci Resolve to always select whichever clip intersects the playhead in the Timeline. The result is that the Inspector always displays the parameters of the clip at the playhead, with the added bonus that the clip at the playhead is also selected for other editorial functions.
Adding Filters to Video Clips DaVinci Resolve supports both built-in ResolveFX and third-party OFX plug-ins to create various effects. These effects can be applied both to clips in the Edit page, and to nodes in the Color page. This section shows how to apply, edit, and remove these filters in the Edit page. For more information about using video effects in the Color page, see Chapter 132, “Using OpenFX and ResolveFX.
Some video filters have custom onscreen controls that can be modified in the Viewer. These can be exposed in the Edit page using the OFX mode of the Viewer. Turning on the onscreen controls for ResolveFX in the Edit page Timeline Viewer Once enabled, the OFX onscreen controls appear in the Viewer. Modifying onscreen controls for ResolveFX in the Edit page Timeline Viewer Many audio filters expose custom controls that appear in a floating window.
Methods of working with video filters in the Inspector: To rearrange the order of multiple video filters applied to a clip: Click the move up or move down buttons in any filter’s title bar, to the left of each filter’s Trash Can button. To disable or re-enable a filter: Click the toggle control at the far left of each filter’s title bar. Orange means that track’s enabled. Gray is disabled. To remove a filter: Click the Trash Can button.
Adjustment Clips You can also apply all sorts of effects to multiple clips in the Timeline using Adjustment clips, available from the Effects bin of the Toolbox in the Effects Library. When an Adjustment Clip is superimposed above one or more clips in the Timeline, any filters or other effects that are applied to the Adjustment clip are also applied to all clips underneath it.
Paste Attributes You can copy and paste video and audio attributes, as well as color corrections, from one clip to multiple clips using the Paste Attributes command. This is a fast way to apply video and audio adjustments and effects from one clip to many others in the Timeline. To copy attributes: 1 Select a clip with attributes you want to apply to other clips, and press Command-C. 2 Select one or more other clips to paste to.
Remove Attributes You can also eliminate specific attributes from one or more clips, using a window that’s the opposite of the Paste Attributes window. The Remove Attributes window To remove attributes: 1 Select one or more other clips that have effects you want to remove. 2 Choose Edit > Remove Attributes, or right-click one of the selected clips and choose Remove Attributes from the contextual menu.
Chapter 40 Titles, Generators, and Stills Using the Edit page, you can add titles, effects generators, and stills to your timelines. You can also save customized titles, generators, and stills back to the Media Pool for future use.
Contents Adding Titles 807 Using Safe Area Overlays 808 Custom Action and Title Safe Areas 808 Types of Title Generators 809 DaVinci Resolve Title Generators 809 Editing Titles Within the Timeline Viewer 809 Title Generator Panels 810 Shared Title Generator Parameters 810 Title Generator Video Parameters 812 The Text+ Title Generator 812 Fusion Titles and Fusion Templates 814 Saving Titles in the Media Pool for Future Use 815 Using Generators 815 Fusion Generators 816 Using Still
Adding Titles There’s a collection of titles and generators in the Toolbox that you can use to create leader when outputting to tape, add slates, create subtitles, and otherwise fulfill any textual needs your program has. The available titles in the toolbox Titles and generators can be edited much like any other clip.
Using Safe Area Overlays If you’re working on a broadcast program and you want to adhere to guidelines for title safe and broadcast safe, you can choose to display overlays that indicate where these regions are in the Edit page. To do so, choose View > Safe Area > On. The available safe area overlays If necessary, there are a number of ways you can customize this overlay by choosing one of the other options in the View > Safe Area submenu to toggle specific parts of the safe area overlay on and off.
Types of Title Generators When opened into the Inspector, titles expose a set of text parameters that allow you to style the contents of that clip’s Text field within the Inspector. Each of the titles supports rich text, so you can individually style words, lines, or paragraphs of text using the available parameters including Color, Font, and Size. Other attributes such as Alignment, Anchor, Position, and Shadow affect the entire title.
Drag the text to position it in the Viewer While dragging text to reposition it, snapping occurs at the X and Y center of the frame, as well as around the outer third of the frame. Holding the Shift key down while dragging a text object constrains movement to just the X or Y axes. Editing Text Double-clicking on text in the Timeline Viewer puts that text into an editable state, wherein you can insert a text cursor or select characters to edit the text as you would in any text editor.
A single generator with three lines of differently styled text Each title generator shares the same parameters in the Text panel of the Inspector for editing and styling text: Rich Text: A control group consisting of a text entry field and parameters that can be used to style different parts of the text independently. – Text: A text entry field for editing the title being generated. If no characters are selected, the styling controls affect the entire block of text.
Drop Shadow: A group of controls that lets you apply a customizable drop shadow to every character of text being generated. – Color: Opens the standard color picker for choosing a drop shadow color. – Offset: X and Y parameters determining how offset the drop shadow is from the original text. – Blur: A slider for blurring the drop shadow. – Opacity: A slider determining how transparent the drop shadow is. Stroke: Lets you add an outline to every character of text being generated.
The new Text+ title generator, along with new Fusion titles below You can use the Text+ generator the same way you use any generator in the Edit page. Simply edit it into a video track of the Timeline, select it, and open the Inspector to edit and keyframe its numerous properties to create whatever kind of title you need.
Better yet, with the playhead parked on your new Text+ “Fusion Title,” you can open the Fusion page and access its parameters there too, if you want to start building upon this single generator to create a multi-layered motion graphics extravaganza. Opening the Text+ node in the Fusion page reveals it as an actual Fusion page operation For more information about the extensive capabilities of the Text+ generator, see Chapter 89, “Generator Nodes.
Saving Titles in the Media Pool for Future Use If you’ve created a title in a style that you want to later reuse, for example, a particularly formatted lower third that will be the basis for every lower-third in your program, you can drag any title from the Timeline to the Media Pool, and it will be saved as a separate clip. Title clips in the Media Pool are shown with a thumbnail showing a preview of the text they contain.
Fusion Generators The Fusion Generators section of the Generators panel contains Fusion effects that have been made into reusable generators. By default, a single generator, Noise Gradient, appears as an example of how these work. Fusion Generators work like any other generator. Once edited into the Timeline, they act like any other clip, and when selected, they expose customizable parameters in the Inspector that let you tailor their effect to meet your needs.
Photoshop File Support Photoshop (.psd) files appear as a single clip displaying only the bitmapped layers within the Edit page and Color page of DaVinci Resolve. Photoshop text layers and layer effects are not supported at the time of this writing. Fusion Page PSD Support The Fusion page has support for multi-layered Photoshop files. You can use the Fusion > Import > .
Chapter 41 Compositing and Transforms in the Timeline The Edit page is also home to many of the compositing and transform effects found in DaVinci Resolve. Many of these kinds of effects can be imported into DaVinci Resolve, including composite modes, opacity settings, and clips using alpha channels. Once in DaVinci Resolve, you can make changes to these effects in the Edit page. Alternately, you can also use DaVinci Resolve’s controls to create effects from scratch.
Contents Composite Modes and Transparency Effects 820 More About Composite Modes 821 Opacity 824 Video Fader Handles 825 Fade In and Out to Playhead Commands 825 Alpha Channel Support 825 Keying, External Mattes, and Window Compositing 826 Transform and Cropping 826 Transform 827 Cropping 827 Dynamic Zoom 827 Stabilization 828 Retime and Scaling 829 Lens Correction 830 Onscreen Controls for Transform, Crop, and Dynamic Zoom 830 Object Snapping in the Viewer 831 Using Onscreen
Composite Modes and Transparency Effects Composite modes are effects that use various mathematical operations to combine one superimposed clip with another, relying on standard image processing math for each color channel whereby black pixels have a value of 0, white pixels have a value of 1, and descending levels of gray are represented by decimal point values (for instance, 0.5 represents 50% gray).
All composite modes interact with the Opacity slider (found below the Composite Mode pop-up menu in the Inspector) to make a clip more or less transparent in addition to compositing already being done. Composite modes can be used on clips that are superimposed over other clips in the Timeline. However, these composite modes are also available for use within a grade on the Color page using the Layer Mixer node, within which you can combine differently graded versions of an image in creative ways.
Color Dodge The bottom layer pixels are divided by the top layer, which has been inverted. Darken Each pair of pixels in each color channel is compared, and the darker of the two is the output. Layer order does not matter. Darken is useful when you want the darker features of both layers to take precedence, but the output for any given pixel may be a color that doesn’t actually exist for that pixel in either of the source layers.
Lighter Color For each pair of pixels, all three color channels from the bottom layer are added together, and all three color channels from the top layer are added together. These results are compared, and the lighter pixel of the two layers is the output. Layer order does not matter. Lighten Color is useful when you want the lighter features of both layers to take precedence. Unlike the Lighten composite mode, the result will always be a specific color from either the bottom or top layers.
Saturation Recombines two layers using HSL image components, by combining the Luma and Hue of the bottom layer, with the Saturation of the top layer. Screen The pixel values of each layer are inverted, then multiplied, and the result is itself inverted. Layer order does not matter.
Video Fader Handles If you want to dissolve a clip to or from another clip, or to or from black, the traditional way to do so has been to use one of the transitions in the Effects Library. However, you can also use fader handles that appear at the beginning and end a clip when you position the pointer right over it. Fader handles are a fast, ubiquitous method of creating a fade to or from black.
However, if you need to disable or alter the interpretation of an alpha channel for any clip, for example if a clip is being interpreted as having an alpha channel of the wrong type, you can right-click that clip, choose Clip Attributes from the contextual menu, and use the Alpha Mode pop-up menu of the Clip Attributes Video panel to correct the problem.
When the time comes to output your program, the final resolution of each clip is calculated taking into account the original resolution of the source media, the timeline resolution, image scaling settings, Edit page transforms, and Color page transforms, so that the final resolution correctly uses the cleanest geometric transformation based on the maximum resolution available to each source clip.
Dynamic Zoom Ease: Lets you choose how the motion created by these controls accelerates. You can choose from Linear, Ease In, Ease Out, and Ease In and Out. Swap: This button reverses the start and end transforms that create the dynamic zoom effect. Stabilization Image Stabilization is available for clips right in the Edit page. These controls let you smooth out or even steady unwanted camera motion within a clip.
and whatever blanking intrudes into the image is output along with the image, on the assumption that you’ll have dedicated compositing artists deal with eliminating this blanking by filling in the missing image data in a more sophisticated manner.
Scaling: Lets you choose how clips that don’t match the current project resolution are handled on a clip-by-clip basis. The default setting is “Project Settings,” so that all mismatched clips use the same method of being automatically resized. However, you can also choose an individual method of automatic scaling for any clip. The options are Crop, Fit, Fill, and Stretch; for more information see the 2D Transforms section of Chapter 133, “Sizing and Image Stabilization.
Transform controls in the Timeline Viewer Object Snapping in the Viewer While dragging objects or dynamic zoom outlines to reposition them, snapping occurs at the X and Y center of the frame, as well as around the outer third of the frame. Holding the Shift key down while dragging a text object constrains movement to just the X or Y axis. Using Onscreen Controls For many, the onscreen controls provide a more intuitive experience for manipulating your clips.
Onscreen controls for cropping in the Timeline Viewer c Choose the Dynamic Zoom mode from the pop-up menu. In this mode, the green box shows the starting size and position of the animated transform, while the red box shows the ending size and position of the animated transform. Drag anywhere within either bounding box to adjust pan and tilt for either the start or the end of the animated effect, and drag any of the corners to adjust the size. A motion path appears to show the motion that’s being created.
Chapter 42 Speed Effects You can import both linear and nonlinear speed changes from other applications, or you can create these effects from scratch in order to speed up or slow down clips in your programs. DaVinci Resolve has a comprehensive set of controls for creating these kinds of effects using dedicated Retime controls, curves, and specific edit types. Once created, DaVinci Resolve also provides different ways of processing these effects to create the smoothest possible playback.
Contents Speed Effects and Retiming 835 Creating Freeze Frames 835 Creating Simple Linear Speed Effects 836 Clip Retiming Controls 837 Retiming an Entire Clip 837 Rippling or Overwriting the Timeline When Using Retime 838 Reading Clip Speed Arrows 838 Creating Variable Speed Effects Using the Retime Controls 838 Closing Retime Controls 841 Using Retime Curves 841 Speed Effect Processing 844 Optical Flow Quality Settings Affecting Speed Effects 845 Chapter – 42 Speed Effects 834
Speed Effects and Retiming Speed effects describe any effect that speeds up, slows down, or otherwise changes the playback speed of clips in the Timeline. There are four basic ways you can create speed effects in DaVinci Resolve. Importing speed effects: DaVinci Resolve is capable of reading linear speed effects from imported EDL, AAF, and XML projects, and nonlinear speed effects from XML and AAF project files. When speed effects are present, DaVinci Resolve plays clips at the specified speed.
Creating Simple Linear Speed Effects If all you need to do is to make a clip play in slow motion, speed it up, reverse the clip, or create a freeze frame, you can apply a simple speed effect using either the browser or the Change Speed dialog. To change a clip’s speed, do one of the following: Select a clip, choose Clip > Change Clip Speed, and use the controls of the Edit Speed Change dialog.
Clip Retiming Controls Another method of altering clip speed in the Timeline is to apply the Retime effect. This method of clip retiming provides a convenient control overlay that you can use to adjust clip speed directly in the Timeline, and it also provides the controls that are needed for creating variablespeed effects. To expose the Retime controls on a clip: Select a clip, and choose Clip > Retime Controls (Command-R). Right-click a clip and choose Retime Clip from the contextual menu.
To return a clip to its original speed: Click the pop-up next to the speed percentage text at the bottom of the clip, and choose Reset to 100%.
Speed effect controls set to insert a momentary freeze frame within the clip 3 Drag the second speed point forward or back to define the duration of the freeze frame. The result is that the clip plays normally up until the first speed point, then freezes on that frame until the second speed point, at which playback resumes.
Speed controls set to ramp among three different playback speeds; arrow spacing shows the timing There are two additional sets of commands for creating preset speed effects that use multiple speed points. To add a rewind effect: With a clip’s Retime controls exposed, open any Clip Speed pop-up menu and choose a preset percentage from the Rewind submenu.
Speed effect controls set to create a gradual ramp from 0 to 100 percent playback speed Closing Retime Controls When you’re finished creating your Retime effect, you can close the Retime controls so that clip assumes a normal appearance again. Closing the Retime controls has no effect on the timing of the clip, it just ensures you cannot accidentally modify the speed of the clip with the mouse.
The Retime Curves let you adjust the transition from one speed to another using handles No matter how you like to work, the control points of each of the speed curves have a 1:1 correspondence to the speed points that are exposed in the Retime controls, and curve segment modifications are mirrored by speed point adjustments in the Retime controls if you have both exposed at the same time.
If a curve segment has a left control point that’s higher than the right control point, then the motion will be reversed and that segment will play backward. A Retime Frame curve with an inverted curve that creates reverse motion The Retime Speed curve (seen below) exposes a flat line that represents 100% speed. Adding pairs of control points and dragging each segment to raise or lower it alters speed; you must drag the segments, not the control points themselves.
To switch between editing Retime Speed and Retime Frame curves: Use the Curve pop-up at the upper left-hand corner of the Curve Editor to check or uncheck the curves you want to be visible. Clicking on a curve within the editor makes that curve the currently edited one. To close a speed curve: Clicking the Curve button at the right-hand side of the clip’s title bar in the Timeline toggles the curve open and closed.
Motion estimation mode: When using Optical Flow to process speed change effects or clips with a different frame rate than that of the Timeline, the Motion Estimation pop-up lets you choose the best-looking rendering option for a particular clip. Each method has different artifacts, and the highest quality option isn’t always the best choice for a particular clip. The default setting is “Project Settings,” so all speed effected clips are treated the same way. There are several options.
Chapter 43 Subtitles and Closed Captioning DaVinci Resolve 15 adds new features to support subtitles and closed captioning in sophisticated ways. With dedicated subtitle/closed caption tracks that can be shown or hidden, subtitle file import and export, sophisticated subtitle editing and styling at the track and clip level, and comprehensive export options, adding subtitles and closed captions to finish your project is a clear and straightforward workflow.
Contents Subtitles and Closed Captioning Support 848 Viewing Subtitle/Caption Tracks 848 Adjusting QC Thresholds For Subtitle/Caption Timing 848 Importing Subtitles and Captions 849 Adding Subtitles and Captions Manually 851 Editing Subtitles and Captions 853 Styling Subtitles and Captions 853 Linking Subtitles to Clips 854 Naming Subtitle Tracks 855 Exporting Subtitles and Closed Captions 857 Exporting Subtitles Via the File Menu 857 Exporting Subtitles Via the Subtitle Track Header
Subtitles and Closed Captioning Support Subtitles are supported in DaVinci Resolve using specially typed subtitle tracks containing specifically designed subtitle generators to add and edit subtitles for a program. Typically each subtitle track corresponds to a single language or use, and you can change the name of a subtitle track to reflect its contents. Subtitle tracks can be locked, have Auto Select controls, and can be enabled or disabled like any other track.
As you edit a subtitle clip, these thresholds are used to automatically calculate how many lines and characters are allowable for a particular subtitle clip given its duration. For example, if you exceed the calculated threshold, the CPS value of that caption turns red to warn you.
5 To add a subtitle clip to a timeline, do one of the following: – Drag a subtitle file you’ve imported into the unused gray area at the top of your video tracks, and a subtitle track will automatically be created for adding those subtitles into – Drag a subtitle file you’ve imported into a pre-existing subtitle track As you drag the subtitle clip, it’ll immediately be decomposed so that each title is added to the Timeline as an individual subtitle clip, with its timing offset relative to the position of
The Captions list shows you every caption or subtitle on a track, for selecting, editing, deleting, or navigating Adding Subtitles and Captions Manually Other times, you may need to create subtitles on your own. Before doing so, you’ll need to add one or more subtitle tracks. Once those tracks are created, you can add subtitle generators to them in a variety of ways. You can add as many subtitle tracks as you need, one for each language you require.
Showing and hiding subtitles tracks: Open the Timeline View options, and click on the Subtitle button to toggle the visibility of subtitles tracks on and off.
5 If necessary, you can now edit the clip to better fit the dialog that’s being spoken or the sound that’s being described, by dragging the clip to the left or right, or dragging the beginning or end of the clip to resize it. 6 While the new subtitle clip you’ve created is selected, use the Captions panel in the Inspector to type the text for that particular subtitle. The text appears on the subtitle clip as you type it.
The Track Style panel of the Inspector sets styling for every subtitle on that track Keep in mind that there are additional groups of controls that let you add a Drop Shadow, Stroke, and/or Background to all text on that track, which can be found at the bottom of the Track Style panel of the Inspector. Linking Subtitles to Clips If you like, you can link one or more subtitles to their accompanying clip, so that if you re-edit a subtitled scene, each clip’s subtitles move along with the clips.
The now linked clip and subtitle have link badges to show their state Naming Subtitle Tracks If necessary, you can double-click the name of any subtitle track to rename it to something more descriptive of what that subtitle track will contain, such as the language, and whether a particular track is for subtitles or closed captions.
Language ISO 639-1 Language Code ISO 639-2 Language Code ISO 3166-1 Country Code Finnish fi fin FI (Finland) French fr fre (B) CA (Canada) fra (T) FR (France) German de Greek Modern el Hausa ha hau Hebrew he heb IL (Israel) Hindi hi hin IN (India) Indonesian id ind ID (Indonesia) Italian it ita IT (Italy) Japanese ja jpn JP (Japan) Malay ms Maori mi Norwegian no nor NO (Norway) Polish pl pol PL (Poland) Portuguese pt por Punjabi pa pan IN (India) R
Exporting Subtitles and Closed Captions Once you’ve created one or more subtitle tracks filled with subtitles or captions, there are a few different ways you can export subtitles once you’ve created them. Exporting Subtitles Via the File Menu Choose File > Export Subtitle, and use the export dialog to choose a location and file type for the exported subtitle file. You can export subtitles in the .srt and .webvtt formats.
Export As: (only available when Format is set to “As a separate file”) Lets you choose the subtitle/closed captioning format to output to. Options include SRT and WebVTT. Include the following subtitle tracks in the export: (only available when Format is set to “As a separate file”) A series of checkboxes lets you turn on which subtitle tracks to output.
Chapter 44 Keyframing Effects in the Edit Page The Edit page also provides controls for keyframing effects that you add to your timeline, as well as a curve editor to fine-tuning the motion effects you create right in the Editing Timeline.
Contents Keyframing Effects in the Edit Page 861 Keyframing in the Inspector 863 Keyframing Motion Paths in the Timeline Viewer 864 Keyframing in the Timeline and Curve Editor 866 The Keyframe Editor 866 The Curve Editor 868 Keyframable OpenFX and ResolveFX 871 Chapter – 44 Keyframing Effects in the Edit Page 860
Keyframing Effects in the Edit Page Most parameters in the Inspector of the Edit page can be keyframed, in order to create animated effects such as zooming in via the Zoom parameter, fading out via the Opacity parameter, or cropping from one side to reveal a clip underneath via the Cropping parameters. Additionally, if you import a project from an NLE that has keyframed sizing settings, those keyframes will be imported and exposed within the Edit page of DaVinci Resolve.
A keyframe track for all of the Transform group parameters If you want to edit each parameter independently, a small disclosure control at the right of each keyframe track lets you open up an aggregated keyframe track into individual keyframe tracks, one for each parameter that’s been keyframed within that group of Inspector controls.
Keyframing in the Inspector Keyframing in the Edit page works slightly differently than when using the Keyframe Editor in the Color page. Most simple keyframing tasks can be performed in the Inspector using three buttons that appear to the right of any parameter that’s capable of being keyframed. It takes two keyframes at minimum to create an animated effect.
To disable or enable a single parameter’s keyframed effect: In the Timeline, click the toggle control at the left of a parameter’s keyframe track. White means that track’s enabled. Gray is disabled. To disable or enable a group of parameters in the Inspector: Click the toggle control at the left of a parameter group’s title bar in the Inspector. Orange means that group is enabled. Gray is disabled.
Dots on the motion path show that the left half has slow motion, while the right half has faster motion You can also adjust the shape of any control point’s curve by clicking to select that control point, which exposes its Bezier handles, and then dragging the handles to adjust its curve. Once handles have been exposed, there are a variety of methods you can use to adjust them and manipulate the motion path.
Methods of adjusting the Bezier handles of motion paths: Drag any control point to reshape the motion path. Drag any Bezier handle to change the shape of the curve. Command-drag any Bezier handle to break the tangent between it and the opposite Bezier handle. When you release the Command key, the two Bezier handles become locked together again at whatever angle you created. To eliminate a control point on a motion path, along with its keyframe: Right-click any control point and choose Delete Keyframe.
Group keyframe tracks open in the Timeline However, each group keyframe track has a disclosure button that lets you show or hide each individual parameter that’s keyframed within that group. For example, clicking the Transform keyframe track’s disclosure button shows the Zoom and Position tracks, so you can adjust those individual keyframes. Individual parameter keyframe tracks open in the Timeline These keyframe tracks let you edit keyframes in context of the actual clip durations in the Timeline.
Methods of changing keyframe interpolation/easing/smoothing in the Keyframe Editor of the Edit page: To change one or more Linear keyframe to Ease In or Ease Out: Eased keyframes create animated changes that begin slowly and accelerate to full speed, or slow down gradually to decelerate to a stop. This only works when you have two or more keyframes creating an animated effect.
You can open multiple parameters into the Curve Editor using the curve pop-up menu at the upper left-hand corner of the Curve Editor that lets you choose which parameters are exposed via checkboxes. This menu also lets you choose which curve is selected by clicking the name of the parameter you want to edit.
To duplicate one or more keyframes: Make a selection of keyframes, then hold the Option key down and drag the selected keyframes to duplicate them and move the duplicates to a new position (and even new values). This can be a good way to quickly loop a repetitive animated effect you’ve created. To select a single keyframe: Click a single keyframe to select it. To select multiple discontiguous keyframes: Command-click all keyframes you want to select, whether they’re next to one another or not.
Methods of Cutting, Copying, Pasting, and Deleting keyframes: To cut or copy, and paste one or more keyframes: Make a selection of keyframes and use the Cut (Command-X) or Copy (Command-C) key shortcuts. Then, move the playhead to where you want the first of the copied keyframes to start, and press Paste (Command-V). To delete one or more control points from a curve: Select the keyframe(s) you want to delete and press Backspace.
Chapter 45 VFX Connect For instances where the various effects of the Edit, Fusion, and Color page aren’t enough to achieve the effect you require, you can use the VFX Connect feature of DaVinci Resolve to send one or more clips from the Edit page timeline to the standalone version of Blackmagic Fusion, in order to do more robust compositing and effects work there. You can use this workflow in the macOS, Windows, and Linux versions of DaVinci Resolve, since Fusion works on all three platforms.
Contents Using VFX Connect 874 How Clips are translated into Node Trees 876 Altering VFX Connect Clips 876 Creating Multiple Versions of Fusion Clips 877 Switching Versions of VFX Connect Clips in DaVinci Resolve 878 Sending a VFX Connect Directory to Another Machine 878 Creating Multiple Versions of Fusion Clips on Another Machine 879 Updating VFX Connect Clips Using Render Media and Refresh 879 Chapter – 45 VFX Connect 873
Using VFX Connect Sending one or more clips to the standalone version of Blackmagic Fusion is simple. To send clips to Fusion: 1 Select one or more clips in the Timeline that you want to send to Fusion. In this example, two superimposed clips are selected. Selecting two clips to send to Fusion 2 Right-click one of the selected clips and choose New VFX Connect Clip from the contextual menu. 3 In the New VFX Connect Clip dialog, choose the following options: a Enter a name.
4 When you’re finished, click Create. DaVinci Resolve creates a VFX Connect clip, which appears in the Timeline as a single clip and in the Media Pool. (Left) VFX Connect clips in the Timeline, (Right) in the Media Pool 5 Opening the VFX Connect clip in Fusion can be done in one of two ways: – If you turned on “Open VFX Connect Clip,” then Fusion automatically opens and the clips you selected appear as Loader nodes within Fusion.
9 A Render Settings dialog appears, which lets you choose how you want to render the output, with options including the Quality, Frame Range, and Size of the media being output. If the default settings are good, click Start Render. A progress bar indicates how long the render will take. For more information, consult the Fusion User Manual.
Creating Multiple Versions of Fusion Clips If you want to render a new version, but you want to keep the previous version, then you can right-click the VFX Connect clip in the Resolve Media Pool and choose VFX Connect > Create New Version. Creating a new version of a VFX Connect composite This creates a duplicate of the composite in Fusion, with the “_v1” part of the filename incremented so it doesn’t overwrite the previous version of that composite.
Switching Versions of VFX Connect Clips in DaVinci Resolve Once you’ve created multiple versions of a VFX Connect clip, you can switch which version is used for that clip in DaVinci Resolve by right-clicking the VFX Connect clip in the Media Pool, and choosing the version from the VFX Connect > Select Version submenu of the contextual menu.
Since your DaVinci Resolve project keeps track of the location of the VFX Connect directory from the moment it’s created, you don’t want to move it, since DaVinci Resolve is counting on it being where it thinks it is.
PART 6 Import and Conform Projects
Chapter 46 Preparing Timelines for Import and Comparison Generally speaking, “conforming” a project describes the process of importing a project exchange file from another post-production application, and automatically relinking each clip in the imported timeline to the high-quality media files each clip corresponds to. If you need to continue editing, color correct, or finish a project that was put together in another application, you can import via the EDL, AAF, or XML project exchange formats.
Contents Preparing to Move Your Project to DaVinci Resolve 883 Move Clips to the Lowest Video Track 883 Organize Unsupported Media Files 883 Creating an Offline Reference Movie 883 Mixed Frame Sizes and Mixed Codecs 884 Mixed Frame Rates 884 Importing Effects when Conforming Edits 885 About Supported Color Corrections 886 About Supported Transitions 887 Transition Names 887 About Supported Opacity, Position, Scale, and Rotation Settings 888 About Flip and Flop Support 888 Pitch and Y
Preparing to Move Your Project to DaVinci Resolve When you’re preparing to move a project from another NLE to DaVinci Resolve, there are a few steps you can take to make your work more organized. Move Clips to the Lowest Video Track Editors often use the multiple tracks NLEs offer for simple clip organization in the edit of a scene.
Mixed Frame Sizes and Mixed Codecs Most NLEs can freely mix media using different frame sizes, different codecs, and different frame rates. DaVinci Resolve deals with these combinations in different ways, depending on what settings you’ve selected in the Project Settings. Mixing Frame Sizes: Mixed frame sizes are easily handled. The Set Timeline Resolution To parameter in the Project Settings panel of the Project Settings dictates the current resolution of the project.
This Mixed frame rate format pop-up menu is also found in the Load AAF and Load XML dialogs. DaVinci Resolve automatically chooses a setting from the “Mixed frame rate format” pop-up menu that corresponds to the project file you’re importing, but in some cases you can override this setting if necessary. For projects sent from Final Cut Pro, you can choose either “Final Cut Pro 7” or “Final Cut Pro X” to match the type of project you’re importing.
EDL FCP 7 XML FCP X XML AAF Color Corrections No No Yes No Composite Modes No Yes Yes Overlay only Multiple Tracks No Yes Yes Yes Video Transitions Yes Yes Yes Yes Audio Transitions No No No Yes Opacity Settings No Yes Yes Yes, via 3D Warp or Superimpose Position, Scale, Rotation No Yes Yes Yes, via 3D Warp Flip and Flop No No No Yes, via Flip, Flop, or Flip-Flop effects Pitch and Yaw No No No Yes, via 3D Warp Linear Speed Effects Yes Yes Yes Yes Variabl
About Supported Transitions EDLs are the most restrictive when it comes to transition support in DaVinci Resolve, as only Cross Dissolves will be read. Any other transitions appearing in an EDL will be automatically converted to a Cross Dissolve of the same duration when it’s imported into DaVinci Resolve.
About Supported Opacity, Position, Scale, and Rotation Settings When importing XML project files from Final Cut Pro X, Premiere Pro, or legacy Final Cut Pro 7, DaVinci Resolve supports the import of Opacity, Position, Scale, and Rotation settings. Imported Composite and Transform settings for any given clip appear in the Inspector of the Edit page, or in the Edit Sizing mode of the Sizing palette in the Color page. If these settings have been keyframed, the animation will appear in DaVinci Resolve.
DaVinci Resolve has high-fidelity conversion of variable-speed speed effect data from other applications, accomplished by creating one speed keyframe per frame for each affected clip. However, you may see small variations between the resulting speed effect in DaVinci Resolve and an offline reference movie exported from the original NLE if you haven’t set the Retime Process setting to the same type of speed interpolation that the original NLE was using.
About Supported Still Image Formats DaVinci Resolve supports the import of greater-than-one-frame-in-duration TIF, JPG, PNG, DPX, TGA, and DNG still image files that appear in Final Cut Pro X, Final Cut Pro 7, and Premiere Pro XML files, and AAF files exported from Media Composer. These clips appear as ordinary clips in the DaVinci Resolve Timeline. Export of still images is limited to Final Cut Pro 7 and Final Cut Pro X XML formats.
This is a good way of prepping the titles and effects of projects that you want to finish in DaVinci Resolve. If you create self-contained media files for all title clips and effects, then these elements will import cleanly and easily, and you can export a complete, texted version of your program out of DaVinci Resolve.
Comparing two versions of a timeline: You can make a visual comparison a timeline with another version of that timeline to spot differences for evaluation.
Checkerboard indicating an offline video 4 Open the Edit page, right-click the timeline you want to review against the Offline Reference Clip, and choose the offline clip you imported from the Timelines > Link Offline Reference Clip submenu. Selecting the offline video to link to the current Timeline Setting Up an Offline Reference/Timeline Comparison Once you’ve assigned a clip or timeline as an Offline Reference Movie, it’s easy to see a comparison.
The Offline Reference Clip you assigned previously now appears within the Offline Viewer, and plays back in sync with the Timeline. If your clips have sizing applied, have Fusion or other effects, or are graded, you can see a side-by-side comparison between the state of each clip in the Offline Reference Clip, and the graded Timeline clip.
Chapter 47 Conforming and Relinking Clips Whether you import a DaVinci Resolve project or a project exchange file from another application, you’ll need to deal with the need to relink media files in the Media Pool and reconform timelines to either the same or compatible media files that may either be in the Media Pool or that may need to be imported from disk.
Contents Conforming and Relinking Media 897 Conforming and Relinking During Project Import 897 Conforming and Relinking Existing Timelines and Clips 897 The Difference Between Unlinked and Missing Clips 898 Duplicate Clips are Considered Separate Sources 899 Summary of Methods for Conforming and Relinking 899 Unlinking Clips 901 Conforming Clips During XML and AAF Import 901 Importing Clips Before Importing an EDL, AAF, or XML 903 Essential Clip Metadata for Easy Conforming and Relinking
Conforming and Relinking Media DaVinci Resolve provides a wealth of tools to help you deal with managing the relationship between clips in the Media Pool and clips in timelines, and with the links between each clip and its corresponding media file on disk. You can use these tools to manage different project workflows, or to deal with problems that can occur when importing project files in any format from a variety of sources.
The Difference Between Unlinked and Missing Clips While it may seem pedantic, there’s an important difference between clips that are unlinked, and clips that are missing when it comes to the relationship between clips in the Media Pool and clips in a Timeline. First off, both of these “offline” clip states look different in the timeline, but these differences aren’t just cosmetic.
Duplicate Clips are Considered Separate Sources Another thing that’s good to understand is that in DaVinci Resolve, duplicate clips are considered to be completely separate from the original Media Pool or Timeline clips you duplicated them from. For example, if you import five clips into Media Pool Bin 1, then edit them into a timeline, and then drag the five clips you edited into Media Pool Bin 2, the clips in Bin 1 are not intrinsically linked to the clips in Bin 2.
Using the Import Additional Clips commands: The process of importing media just for missing clips in a timeline can be automated by right-clicking that timeline in the Media Pool and using the Timelines > Import > Additional Clips With Loose (or Tight) Filename Match contextual menu commands, which automatically search the selected directory tree of your file system for media that matches all of the offline clips in that timeline.
Using the Change Source Folder command: You also have the option to relink offline clips in the Media Pool using the Change Source Folder command, which changes the directory structure of each selected clip’s file path into a new file path based on a parent directory you select. This is mainly useful if you’re relinking clips to media that you’ve moved to another location, but that uses the same subdirectory structure as when the media was originally imported.
The most important settings for conforming media in the Load dialog The ways in which these two checkboxes interact to let you choose how media is conformed to an imported AAF or XML file are complex, but here are the rules. When Importing Clips With File Extensions Matching Those in the AAF or XML File Turn “Automatically Import” on and “Ignore file extensions” off.
Turn “Automatically import” on and “Link to source camera files” on. The “Link to source camera files” checkbox only appears when you import AAF files. Turning this option on when automatically importing media relinks the imported project to the original camera source files that are kept track of by Media Composer/Symphony via the “Source Name” metadata within the AAF file. When You’re Only Relinking to Clips Already in the Media Pool Turn “Automatically import” off.
Essential Clip Metadata for Easy Conforming and Relinking When conforming projects in DaVinci Resolve, the accuracy and integrity of clip metadata is critical for a successful result. Keep the following three criteria in mind when you’re preparing media to use in DaVinci Resolve. Accurate timecode: Essential for every clip.
How Reel Names Are Identified The “Assist using Reel Names” checkbox in the General Options panel of the Project Settings is an extremely important setting for controlling how the conform process works. By default, it’s turned off, and reel names are left blank. This is fine for conform workflows where all you need is the file path or file name and source timecode to successfully identify which media files correspond to what clips.
Media Pool folder name: The reel name is obtained from the name of the bin in the Media Pool that encloses that clip. For example, in a stereoscopic workflow you might want to export offline stereo media with the “Left” and “Right” bin names in which they’re organized as reel names. Another example would be organizing VFX being incrementally processed in individually named bins, such as “VFX_Tuesday_10-12.
If you’re trying to create a new extraction pattern for a unique workflow, there’s a test dialog you can use to try different patterns out before applying them to your project. To test the extraction path: 1 Turn on “Assist using reel names from the” and click the Test button next to the current Pattern in the General Options panel of the Project Settings. The “Specify Reel Extraction Pattern” dialog opens. 2 Type the extraction patten you want to test into the Pattern field.
Example 3: This example shows the reel name stored within the parent folder name two directory levels up. Pattern: */%R/%D/%D File path: /vol0/MyMovie/Scans/004B/134500-135000/Frame[1000-2000].dpx Reel name: 004B This example is again similar to Example 1. The difference is that in Example 3, the reel name is the directory name two levels above the clip. In Example 1, the reel name was in the directory name only one level up.
Using the Import Additional Clips Command If you find that there are a lot of missing clips in a timeline that have no corresponding Media Pool clips, there’s an easy way to fix this, that automates the process of gathering a list of what’s missing so as to import all missing clips and conform them at once. This only works for missing clips, it does not work for unlinked clips (for which you should use the Relink command in the Media Pool).
Using Conform Lock As a Command If, for whatever reason, an unlinked clip in a timeline simply won’t conform to a clip in the Media Pool, even when you know it’s there, you can use the “Conform Lock with Media Pool Clip” command to force a clip in the Timeline to conform to a clip in the Media Pool of your choosing.
3 If there are any clips that couldn’t be found using the method in step 2, you’re prompted with the option to do a “deep search” by a second dialog. If you click Yes, then DaVinci Resolve will look for each clip inside every subdirectory of the directory you selected in step 2. This may take significantly longer, but should be completely successful so long as the media that’s required is within the selected directory structure.
An important aspect of the Reconform From Bins command is that DaVinci Resolve only reconforms timeline clips that can be matched to source clips in selected Media Pool bins. All timeline clips that cannot be matched are left alone. This makes Reconform From Bins an ideal command to use when you’ve imported a subset of clips to the Media Pool that you need to reconform to clips found throughout an existing timeline.
However, if the criteria you’ve selected to control the conform doesn’t match, the Reconform From Bins operation will fail, and you’ll need to either try again with other conform criteria, or manually replace the necessary clips in the Timeline. Here’s a step by step workflow. To reconform a timeline to clips within a specific Media Pool bin: 1 Double-click the Timeline you want to reconform to open it.
Selecting criteria to guide the reconform TIP: Choosing Custom from the top of the pop-up menu for File Extensions, File Format, and Codec displays editable fields into which you can enter multiple options, separated by commas, in order to list multiple possibilities for a successful match.
Using Reconform From Media Storage DaVinci Resolve 14 introduces another reconform method, that lets you conform clips in a timeline to clips in a specific File System directory (including all subdirectories) using the “Reconform From Media Storage Folders” command.
This method of timeline conform is ideal when the only way you can conform a timeline to the media you require is using a very specific combination of metadata that’s different from the rules that DaVinci Resolve defaults to. For example, you have a jumbled mix of 8- and 10-bit versions of the same clips on your hard drive, but you only want to conform a given timeline to the 10-bit media in preparation for finishing.
Selecting criteria to guide the reconform TIP: Choosing Custom from the top of the pop-up menu for File Extensions, File Format, and Codec displays editable fields into which you can enter multiple options, separated by commas, in order to list multiple possibilities for a successful match.
Understanding, Fixing, and Using Reel Conflicts As long as the “Auto conform clips with media added into Media Pool” setting is enabled in the General Options panel of the Project Settings, the same dynamic relationship between clips in the Media Pool and those in a timeline are maintained whether clips are linked or unlinked, it makes no difference.
Using Clip Conflicts as a Conform Tool On the other hand, clip conflicts can often be desirable solutions to workflows where you need to switch among different versions of a particular clip. To take the example of an edited timeline consisting of transcoded QuickTime versions of camera raw original media, if you only had the transcoded clips in the Media Pool, then all is well.
2 Click the entry in the list that you want to conform to, and click Apply. The clip in the Timeline changes to reflect the media you selected, and the “attention” icon is replaced with a “resolved” badge indicating that the conflict has been resolved. Keep in mind that you can always double-click the “resolved” badge to change which Media Pool clip you want to conform to. It remains a dynamic relationship.
How Grades Are Linked to Multiple Timelines If you’ve set your project up to use Remote versions, then any clips that refer to the same file in the Media Pool are linked and share the same Remote versions of grades that are applied to them. For example, two clips that are close-ups from the same take refer to the same media file, so they’re both automatically linked to one another and share the same remote grades. Clips using Remote versions also exhibit this behavior when they appear in multiple timelines.
Chapter 48 Creating Digital Dailies for Round Trip Workflows DaVinci Resolve can be used to create media for editors to use in other applications in situations where those applications are unable to import a given project format but DaVinci Resolve can.
Contents Step 1–Ingest Media and Add/Edit Metadata 924 Step 2–Sync Audio to the Dailies 925 Step 3–Do Whatever Grading is Necessary 926 Step 4–Export Media Suitable for Editing 928 Step 5–Reconform Media to an EDL, AAF, or XML Project File 929 Step 6–Output Final Media for Finishing 929 Chapter – 48 Creating Digital Dailies for Round Trip Workflows 923
Step 1–Ingest Media and Add/Edit Metadata It’s not necessary to have a project file exported from an NLE to start working in DaVinci Resolve. Using the Media Storage browser on the Media page, you can access any volume that’s currently available to the system, and import any compatible media format into the Media Pool. Media Storage browser with scrubbable clip thumbnails The Media Pool is DaVinci Resolve’s internal database of available media for the currently open project.
Step 2–Sync Audio to the Dailies If your video format has embedded audio, DaVinci Resolve can simply pass that audio through when outputting media from the Deliver page. However, if the program you’re working on employs dual-system audio recording, there are a variety of methods available for syncing it in the Media page.
Step 3–Do Whatever Grading is Necessary Many productions that decide not to record camera raw media instead elect to record a log-encoded or “flat” image to ProRes or DNxHD media files in order to preserve the most image data for grading without clipping highlights or shadows. This can be accomplished using in-camera settings that record log-encoded QuickTime or MXF media, or via external video recorders such as the Blackmagic Video Assist.
Project-wide LUT table settings on the Lookup Tables panel of the Project Settings In the case of LUT-managed shooting workflows where a variety of LUTs have been customdesigned to monitor different scenes, you can manually apply individual LUTs to one or more selected clips from each scene using the Media Pool’s contextual menu.
Step 4–Export Media Suitable for Editing Once you’ve organized your clips, synced the dailies, and applied whatever grading is necessary for the purpose at hand, you’ll use the Deliver page to set up the format, file naming convention, and organization of the media you’re outputting for editing or finishing.
Once you’ve selected the appropriate render settings and window burn options, you can output one or several versions of the media, to accommodate jobs where you need to provide several media deliverables. For more information on setting up and using the Deliver page, see Chapter 165, “Using the Deliver Page.
Chapter 49 Conforming XML Files XML is one of the most straightforward methods of bringing edits with as many video tracks as you need from different NLEs into DaVinci Resolve. XML import has the added benefit of allowing a variety of supported effects to be imported along with the edit data, as well as multiple tracks of video data. This chapter covers the relatively simple procedure used to import XML projects into DaVinci Resolve.
Contents More About Conforming XML Files 932 Importing XML Project Files 932 Chapter – 49 Conforming XML Files 931
More About Conforming XML Files DaVinci Resolve can import projects that were exported to the Final Cut Pro 7 or Final Cut Pro X XML formats. Adobe’s Premiere Pro and Autodesk Smoke and Flame Premium are also capable of using the Final Cut Pro XML project exchange format to accommodate round-trip workflows. However, for the best results you need to make sure that you’re exporting XML from Premiere Pro version 5.5.
Options when importing an XML file 3 Choose the options that are applicable to your particular project. By default, these options are based on metadata within the file you selected. Source file: The file you selected in the previous step. Import timeline: If there are multiple sequences within the selected XML source file, this pop-up menu lets you choose which sequence to import as a DaVinci Resolve timeline. Timeline name: The name of the Timeline you’re about to create.
Use sizing information: Lets you import position, scale, and rotation transforms from the originating NLE via the imported XML project file. These transforms are stored in each clip’s settings in the Edit page Inspector. Use color information: For Final Cut Pro X XML files only. This option lets you import a subset of color correction data from the Final Cut Pro X color board controls.
IMPORTANT It’s always possible to choose the top level of any volume to automatically find all media in any directories located within, but if the volume is large and full of many files, scanning every folder and document of the volume may be an extremely time-intensive process. 6 If you clicked Yes to selecting another folder, then use the folder selection dialog to navigate to another folder, and click Ok.
Chapter 50 Conforming AAF Files AAF (Advanced Authoring Format) is a project exchange format, originally developed by the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA). Commonly used video applications that export project data in the AAF format include Avid Media Composer, Avid Symphony, Autodesk Smoke and Flame Premium, and Adobe Premiere Pro.
Contents Supported Media Types in AAF Workflows 938 Transcoding to DNxHD or DNxHR Always Works 938 Linking to Media Using AMA and Consolidating 938 Fast Imported Media 939 Logged Errors When Importing AAF 940 Simple AAF Import 940 Performing an AAF Avid Round Trip 944 Step 1–Create a Project in Media Composer 944 Step 2–Exporting an AAF for DaVinci Resolve 945 Step 3–Conforming Your AAF in DaVinci Resolve 946 Step 4–Continue Editing, Grading, and Finishing the Project 948 Step 5–Render
Supported Media Types in AAF Workflows Media Composer provides several methods of ingesting and managing compatible media formats. Ultimately, which formats are suitable for a Media Composer to DaVinci Resolve one-way or round trip depends on whether they’re compatible with DaVinci Resolve. There’s one other thing to keep in mind as you’re managing media in Media Composer; not all formats are compatible with all media management operations.
Fast Imported Media Another wrinkle is that Media Composer supports a media ingest method called “Fast Import,” where imported media is quickly copied to the Avid MediaFiles directory by inserting the original image data using the original codec into an MXF wrapper. This is an extremely fast and efficient way to bring media into Media Composer projects, but the resulting files are not typically compatible with DaVinci Resolve.
Logged Errors When Importing AAF If you turn on the “Import log messages as markers” checkbox in the Load AAF dialog, certain error messages that alert you to issues with the AAF import you’re trying to do will be added as markers with notes to the Timeline. You have an option, via a pop-up embedded within the text of this checkbox, of choosing the color of the markers used to store this information. The following messages will create markers: – Nested edits are not supported in this release.
To load an XML file and automatically link to its referenced media: 1 Do one of the following: – From any page, choose File > Import Timeline > Import AAF, EDL, XML (Shift- Command-I). – Open the Edit page, right-click anywhere in the Media Pool, and choose Timelines > Import > AAF/EDL/XML. 2 Using the file dialog that appears, find the project file you want to import, and click the file to open it. The Load AAF window appears, depending on your selection.
Automatically import source clips into media pool: Leave this checkbox on to automatically import the media referenced by the AAF project file you selected into the Media Pool based on the embedded file paths. If the media files are not automatically found at these locations, you will be prompted to manually select a directory where the clips are located.
A prompt appears if all the media was not found IMPORTANT It’s always possible to choose the top level of any volume to automatically find all media in any directories located within, but if the volume is large and full of many files, scanning every folder and document of the volume may be an extremely time-intensive process. 6 If you clicked Yes to selecting another folder, then use the folder selection dialog to navigate to another folder, and click Ok.
Performing an AAF Avid Round Trip This section outlines a comprehensive workflow for creating projects in Media Composer that will be compatible with DaVinci Resolve, moving projects from Media Composer to DaVinci Resolve, then grading, rendering, and sending the final graded project back to Media Composer. The following steps include procedures covering the following tasks: – Ingesting all media as high quality MXF-wrapped DNxHD, then round tripping from Media Composer to DaVinci Resolve.
Step 2–Exporting an AAF for DaVinci Resolve When you’re finished editing, you need to export an AAF that will conform the .mxf media you used in Media Composer into a DaVinci Resolve timeline. Two export configuration options are available, depending on whether DaVinci Resolve and Media Composer are on the same system. 1 Select the sequence you want to export, and choose File > Output > Export to File. 2 In the Export As dialog, type a name for the AAF file you’ll be exporting.
Once export is complete, you’ll see a duplicate sequence and duplicate media populating your Media Composer bin, with the suffix “.Exported” appended to the sequence, and “.new” appended to each media clip. In the file system, the resulting folder contains an AAF file, and an Avid MediaFiles folder that contains the exported media. Step 3–Conforming Your AAF in DaVinci Resolve 1 Open DaVinci Resolve and create a new project.
– To conform to the transcoded or AMA-linked media files you edited: Leave the “Automatically import source clips into media pool” checkbox turned on.
Step 4–Continue Editing, Grading, and Finishing the Project Edit the Timeline in the Edit page and grade each clip in the Color page as you would any other. However, you should be aware that if you use the tools found in the Edit page to make any editorial changes to the timeline you’ve imported, your export options will change later on: – If you don’t make editing changes: Then you have the option to have DaVinci Resolve use the Avid AAF file that you originally imported to generate an updated one.
5 If you require handles for your rendered output, you can add handles in the Advanced Settings of the Video tab. When making any changes to the File render settings, make sure to leave the “Render Clip with Unique Filename” checkbox turned on to ensure that each clip rendered has a different file name as multiple clips in the edited sequence may originate from the same source clip.
Relinking Transcoded Media to AMA Media This next workflow is useful when you’ve been editing transcoded, offline versions of processor- or bandwidth-intensive media, but you want to send the original high-quality source media (such as ALEXA or RED raw files) to DaVinci Resolve for grading. In certain situations, it may be better to reconform your sequence to the original AMA-linked media files in Media Composer before you round trip from Media Composer to DaVinci Resolve.
Step 4–Reimport the AAF into Media Composer/Symphony Open Media Composer, and import the AAF you exported from DaVinci Resolve. Your graded sequence is now ready for finishing. Audio AAF Import from ProTools Importing audio AAF timelines from ProTools (or any DAW software capable of exporting AAF) works similarly to the workflow for importing a video AAF from Media Composer that’s detailed at the beginning of this chapter. However, there are two methods you can use.
Chapter 51 Conforming EDL Files The edit decision list (EDL) is the lowest common denominator project exchange format there is, and most professional post-production applications are capable of exporting and importing projects in this format, including Media Composer, Autodesk Flame Premium, and the legacy Final Cut Pro 7. This chapter covers all workflows that let you import and conform timelines using the EDL format.
Contents Conforming EDL Files 954 EDL Export of a Project and Its Media 955 Conforming EDLs to Individual Media Files 955 Preconforming “Flat” Media Files to EDLs 957 Conforming “Flat” Media Files Using Split and Add 957 Importing an EDL to a New Track 958 Chapter – 51 Conforming EDL Files 953
Conforming EDL Files DaVinci Resolve supports the CMX 3600 format for EDL import and export. The universality of EDLs is due, in part, to their longevity; different EDL formats have been in use for decades. It’s also due to their simplicity. At least as used by DaVinci Resolve, EDLs describe a very narrow range of editorial information, including clip arrangement, clip name (via embedded comments), video transitions (cuts or dissolves), and linear speed settings (percentage of fast forward or slow motion).
EDL Export of a Project and Its Media When using EDL workflows, it’s important to make sure that every clip in your edited sequence, and every source media file it’s linked to, has an appropriate reel number/reel name, and true timecode written into that file. When conforming EDLs, DaVinci Resolve requires reel names and accurate timecode to successfully conform the imported EDL timeline to media in the Media Pool.
TIP: The “Add Folder...Based on EDLs” commands are useful for efficiently adding just the media you need to the Media Pool in instances where there might be many terabytes of unmanaged source media, most of which is unused. 3 Do one of the following: – From any page, choose File > Import AAF, EDL, XML (Command-Shift-I). – Right-click anywhere in the background of the Media Pool, and choose Timelines > Import > AAF/EDL/XML. A window appears prompting you to “Select a file to import.
Preconforming “Flat” Media Files to EDLs Preparing an edited sequence for grading, along with each individual clip of media, can be time consuming for effects-intensive projects, or it may be an unnecessary step for a project with no effects whatsoever. In these cases, it can be simpler and quicker to export a flattened master media file that can be split back apart into its individual clips in DaVinci Resolve.
4 In the “Select EDL files for splitting clips” dialog that appears, navigate to the EDL that matches the flattened master media file, select it, and click Open. 5 Select the frame rate of the project from the File Conform Frame Rate dialog that appears. This frame rate should be identical to the “Timeline frame rate” pop-up you set in step 1.
To import an EDL to a new track of an existing timeline: 1 In this procedure, you have the option of adding whatever media is required by the EDL you’re about to import to the Media Pool first, or you can add the media after the EDL has been imported. It’s your choice. 2 Open the Edit page, select a timeline in the Media Pool, then right-click it and choose Timelines > Import > EDL to New Track. A window appears prompting you to “Choose a file to import.
PART 7 Fusion Fundamentals
Chapter 52 Introduction to Compositing in Fusion This introduction is designed explicitly to help users who are new to Fusion get started learning this exceptionally powerful environment for creating and editing visual effects and motion graphics right from within DaVinci Resolve or using the stand-alone Fusion Studio application. This documentation covers both the Fusion Page inside DaVinci Resolve and the stand-alone Fusion Studio application.
Contents What Is Fusion? 963 The Fusion Page within DaVinci Resolve 963 The Fusion Studio Stand-Alone Application 965 What Kinds of Effects Does Fusion Offer? 965 How Hard Will This Be to Learn? 967 Chapter – 52 Introduction to Compositing in Fusion 962
What Is Fusion? Blackmagic Design Fusion is powerful 2D and 3D visual effects compositing software with over thirty years of evolution serving the motion picture and broadcast industry, creating effects seen in countless films and television series. It is available as a stand-alone application as well as a page within DaVinci Resolve. In its purest form, Fusion is a collection of image-processing engines called nodes.
Clips with Fusion page compositions have a Fusion badge to the right of the name. To create an effect in the Fusion page of DaVinci Resolve, you need only park the playhead over a clip in the Edit or Cut page and then click the Fusion page button. Your clip is immediately available as a MediaIn node in the Fusion page, ready for you to add a variety of stylistic effects.
The Fusion Studio Stand-Alone Application Creating visual effects with the stand-alone Fusion Studio software begins with opening Fusion, creating a new composition, importing some clips via Loader nodes, and building out your composite with effects. Just like the Fusion Page in DaVinci Resolve, you add effects using different nodes from the Effects Library, and you combine multiple layers of imagery using Merge nodes.
Particles Fusion also has an extensive set of nodes for creating particle systems that have been used in major motion pictures, with particle generators capable of spawning other generators, 3D particle generation, complex simulation behaviors that interact with 3D objects, and endless options for experimentation and customization. You can create particle system simulations for VFX or more abstract particle effects for motion graphics. A 3D particle system, also created entirely within Fusion.
How Hard Will This Be to Learn? That depends on what you want to do, but honestly it’s not so bad with this PDF at your side, helping guide the way. It’s worth repeating that this Fusion documentation was developed specifically to help users who’ve never before worked with Fusion learn the core concepts needed to perform the basics, in preparation for learning the rest of the application on your own.
Chapter 53 Exploring the Fusion Interface This chapter provides an orientation on the Fusion user interface, providing a quick tour of what tools are available, where to find things, and how the different panels fit together to help you build and refine compositions in this powerful node-based environment.
Contents The Fusion User Interface 971 The Work Area 972 Interface Toolbar 972 Choosing Which Panel Has Focus 973 Viewers 974 Zooming and Panning into Viewers 975 Loading Nodes Into Viewers 975 Clearing Viewers 976 Viewer Controls 976 Time Ruler and Transport Controls 978 Time Ruler Controls in the Fusion Page 978 Time Ruler Controls in Fusion Studio 979 The Playhead 980 Zoom and Scroll Bar 980 Transport Controls in the Fusion Page 980 Transport Controls in Fusion Studio 983
Keyframes Editor 998 Keyframes Editor Control Summary 999 Adjusting Clip Timings 1000 Adjusting Effect Timings 1000 Adjusting Keyframe Timings 1000 Spline Editor 1002 Spline Editor Control Summary 1002 Choosing Which Parameters to Show 1003 Essential Spline Editing 1003 Essential Spline Editing Tools and Modes 1003 Thumbnail Timeline in the Fusion Page 1005 The Media Pool in the Fusion Page 1006 Importing Media Into the Media Pool on the Fusion Page 1007 Bins in Fusion Studio 1007
The Fusion User Interface If you open up everything at once, Fusion is divided into four principal regions designed to help you make fast work of node-based compositing. The viewer(s) are at the top, the work area is at the bottom, the Inspector is at the right, and the Effects Library is the area found at the left. In DaVinci Resolve’s Fusion page, the Effects Library shares space with the Media Pool.
The Work Area You probably won’t see the term “the work area” used much, in favor of the specific panels within the work area that you’ll be using. Still, the area referred to as the work area is the region at the bottom half of the Fusion user interface, within which you can expose the three main panels used to construct compositions and edit animations in Fusion. These are the Node Editor, the Spline Editor, and the Keyframes Editor.
Clips: (DaVinci Resolve only): Opens and closes the Thumbnail timeline, which lets you navigate your program, create and manage multiple versions of compositions, and reset the current composition. Nodes: Opens and closes the Node Editor, where you build and edit your compositions. Console (Fusion Studio only): The Console is a window in which you can see the error, log, script, and input messages that may explain something Fusion is trying to do in greater detail.
Viewers The viewer area displays either one or two viewers at the top of the Fusion page, and this is determined via the Viewer button at the far right of the viewer title bar. Each viewer can show a single node’s output from anywhere in the node tree. You assign which node is displayed in which viewer. This makes it easy to load separate nodes into each viewer for comparison.
The viewers have a variety of capabilities you can use to compare and evaluate images. This section provides a short overview of viewer capabilities to get you started. Zooming and Panning into Viewers There are standardized methods of zooming into and panning around viewers when you need a closer look at the situation. These methods also work with the Node Editor, Spline Editor, and Keyframes Editor. Methods of panning viewers: Middle-click and drag to pan around the viewer.
To load specific nodes into specific viewers: Hover the pointer over a node, and click one of two buttons that appear at the bottom left of the node. Click once to select a node, and press 1 (for the left viewer) or 2 (for the right viewer). Right-click a node and choose View On > None/Left View/Right View in the contextual menu. Right-click the control header of a node in the Inspector, and choose View On > None/Left View/Right View from the contextual menu.
SubView type: (These aren’t available in 3D viewers.) Clicking the icon itself enables or disables the current “SubView” option you’ve selected, while using the menu lets you choose which SubView is enabled. This menu serves one of two purposes. When displaying ordinary 2D nodes, it lets you open up SubViews, which are viewer “accessories” within a little pane that can be used to evaluate images in different ways.
– Region: Provides all the settings for the Region of Interest in the viewer. – Smooth Resize: This option uses a smoother bilinear interpolated resizing method when zooming into an image in the viewer; otherwise, scaling uses the nearest neighbor method and shows noticeable aliasing artifacts. However, this is more useful when you zoom in at a pixel level since there is no interpolation. – Show Square Pixels: Overrides the auto aspect correction when using formats with non-square pixels.
If you’ve created a Fusion clip or a compound clip, then the “working range” reflects the entire duration of that clip. The Time Ruler displaying ranges for a Fusion clip in the Timeline. Render Range The render range determines the range of frames that are visible in the Fusion page and that are used for interactive playback, disk caches, and previews. Frames outside the default render range are not visible in the Fusion page and are not rendered or played.
To change the Global range for the current composition, enter a new range in the Global Start and End fields to the left of the transport controls. Dragging a node from the Node Editor to the Time Ruler automatically sets the Global and Render Range to the extent of the node. Render Range The render range determines the range of frames used for interactive playback, disk caches, and previews.
The Fusion page controls for playback. Navigation Shortcuts Many standard transport control keyboard shortcuts you may be familiar with work in Fusion, but some are specific to Fusion’s particular needs. To move the playhead in the Time Ruler using the keyboard, do one of the following: Spacebar: Toggles forward playback on and off. JKL: Basic JKL playback is supported, including J to play backward, K to stop, and L to play forward. Back Arrow: Moves 1 frame backward.
Looping Options The Loop button can be toggled to enable or disable looping during playback. You can rightclick this button to choose the looping method that’s used: Playback Loop: The playhead plays to the end of the Time Ruler and starts from the beginning again. Ping-pong Loop: When the playhead reaches the end of the Time Ruler, playback reverses until the playhead reaches the beginning of the Time Ruler, and then continues to ping-pong back and forth.
Motion Blur The Motion Blur button is a global setting. Turning off Motion Blur temporarily disables motion blur throughout the composition, regardless of any individual nodes for which it’s enabled. This can significantly speed up renders to the viewer. Individual nodes must first have motion blur enabled before this button has any effect. Proxy The Proxy setting is a draft mode used to speed processing while you’re building your composite.
Controlling Playback There are eight transport controls underneath the Time Ruler in Fusion Studio. These buttons include Composition First Frame, Step Backward, Play Reverse, Stop, Play Forward, Step Forward, Composition Last Frame, and Loop. Fusion Studio transport controls. Navigation Shortcuts Many standard transport control keyboard shortcuts you may be familiar with work in Fusion, but there are some keyboard shortcuts specific to Fusion’s particular needs.
Right-click the Step Forward or Step Backward buttons to choose a frame increment in which to move the playhead. Looping Options The Loop button can be toggled to enable or disable looping during playback. You can rightclick this button to choose the looping method that’s used: Playback Loop: The playhead plays to the end of the Time Ruler and starts from the beginning again.
The Current Time The Current Time field at the right of the transport controls shows the frame at the position of the playhead, which corresponds to the frame seen in the viewer. However, you can also enter time values into this field to move the playhead by specific amounts. When setting ranges and entering frame numbers to move to a specific frame, numbers can be entered in sub-frame increments. You can set a range to be –145.6 to 451.75 or set the playhead to 115.22.
Prx A draft mode to speed processing while you’re building your composite. Turning on Proxy reduces the resolution of the images that are rendered to the viewer, speeding render times by causing only one out of every x pixels to be processed, rather than processing every pixel. The value of x is decided by adjusting a slider in the General panel of the Fusion Preferences, found under the Fusion menu on macOS or the File menu on Windows and Linux.
Keyframe Display in the Time Ruler When you select a node with keyframed parameters, those keyframes appear in the Time Ruler as little white tic marks, letting you navigate among and edit keyframes without having to open the Keyframes Editor or Spline Editor to see them. The Time Ruler displaying keyframe marks. To move the playhead in the Time Ruler among keyframes: Press Option-Left Bracket ([) to jump to the next keyframe to the left.
When the size of the cache reaches the Fusion Caching/Memory Limits setting found in the Memory panel of the Preferences, then lower-priority cache frames are automatically discarded to make room for new caching. You can keep track of the RAM cache usage via a percentage indicator on the far right of the Status bar at the bottom of the Fusion window. Displaying Cached Frames All cached frames for the currently viewed node are indicated by a green line at the bottom of the Time Ruler.
The toolbar is divided into sections that group commonly used nodes together. As you hover the pointer over any button, a tooltip shows you that node’s name. Loader/Saver nodes (Fusion Studio Only): The Loader node is the primary node used to select and load clips from the hard drive. The Saver node is used to write or render your composition to disk.
The Node Editor displaying a node tree creating a composition. Adding Nodes to Your Composition Depending on your mood, there are a few ways you can add nodes from the Effects Library to your composition. For most of these methods, if there’s a single selected node in the Node Editor, new nodes are automatically added after it, but if there are no selected nodes or multiple selected nodes, then new nodes are added as disconnected from anything else.
The Select Tool dialog lets you find any node quickly if you know its name. Removing Nodes from Your Composition Removing nodes is as simple as selecting one or more nodes, and then pressing the Delete or Backspace keys. Identifying Node Inputs and Node Outputs Each node displays small colored connections around the edges. One or more arrows represent inputs, and the square connection represents the tool’s processed output, of which there is always only one.
You can connect a single node’s output to the inputs of multiple nodes (called “branching”). One node branching to two to split the image to two operations. You can then composite images together by connecting the output from multiple nodes to certain nodes such as the Merge node that combines multiple inputs into a single output. Two nodes being merged together into one to create a composite.
Navigating the Node Editor As your Node tree gets larger, parts inevitably go off-screen. When a portion of the node tree is offscreen, a resizable Navigator pane appears in the upper-right corner. The Navigator is a miniature representation of the entire node tree that you can drag within to pan to different parts of your composition quickly.
Status Bar The Status bar in the lower-left corner of the Fusion window shows you a variety of up-to-date information about things you’re selecting and what’s happening in Fusion. For example, hovering the pointer over a node displays information about that node in the Status bar. Additionally, the currently achieved frame rate appears whenever you initiate playback, and the percentage of the RAM cache that’s used appears at all times.
The Effects Library with Tools open. The hierarchical category browser of the Effects Library is divided into several sections depending on whether you are using Fusion Studio or the Fusion page within DaVinci Resolve. The Tools section is the most often used since it contains every node that represents an elemental image-processing operation in Fusion.
The Inspector The Inspector is a panel on the right side of the Fusion window that you use to display and manipulate the parameters of one or more selected nodes. When a node is selected in the Node Editor, its parameters and settings appear in the Inspector. The Inspector shows parameters from one or more selected nodes. The Tools and Modifiers Panels The Fusion Inspector is divided into two panels. The Tools panel is the main panel that shows you the parameters of selected nodes.
Parameter Header Controls A cluster of controls appears at the top of every node’s controls in the Inspector. CommonInspectorControls Common Inspector controls. Set Color: A pop-up menu that lets you assign one of 16 colors to a node, overriding a node’s own color. Versions: Clicking Versions reveals another toolbar with six buttons. Each button can hold an individual set of adjustments for that node that you can use to store multiple versions of an effect.
The Keyframes Editor is used to adjust the timing of clips, effects, and keyframes. Keyframes Editor Control Summary At the top, a series of zoom and framing controls let you adjust the work area containing the layers. A Horizontal zoom control lets you scale the size of the editor. A Zoom to Fit button fits the width of all layers to the current width of the Keyframes Editor. A Zoom to Rect tool lets you draw a rectangle to define an area of the Keyframes Editor to zoom into.
Adjusting Clip Timings Each Loader or MediaIn node that represents a clip used in a composition is represented as a layer in this miniature timeline. You can edit a layer’s In or Out points by positioning the pointer over the beginning or end of a segment and using the resize cursor to drag that point to a new location. You can slide a layer by dragging it to the left or right, to better line up with the timing of other elements in your composition.
To change the position of a keyframe using the toolbar, do one of the following: Select a keyframe, and then enter a new frame number in the Time Edit box. Choose T Offset from the Time Editor pop-up, select one or more keyframes, and enter a frame offset. Choose T Scale from the Time Editor pop-up, select one or more keyframes, and enter a multiplier added to the current playhead frame position.
Spline Editor The Spline Editor provides a more detailed environment for editing the timing, value, and interpolation of keyframes. Using control points at each keyframe connected by splines (also called curves), you can adjust how animated values change over time. The Spline Editor has four main areas: the Zoom and Framing controls at the top, the Parameter list at the left, the Graph Editor in the middle, and the toolbar at the bottom.
Choosing Which Parameters to Show Before you start editing splines to customize or create animation, you need to choose which parameter’s splines you want to work on. To show every parameter in every node: Click the Splines Editor Option menu and choose Expose All Controls. Toggle this control off again to go back to viewing what you were looking at before. To show splines for the currently selected node: Click the Splines Editor Option menu and choose Show Only Selected Tool.
Invert: Inverts the vertical position of non-animated LUT splines. This does not operate on animation splines. Step In: For each keyframe, creates sudden changes in value at the next keyframe to the right. Similar to a hold keyframe in After Effects® or a static keyframe in the DaVinci Resolve Color page. Step Out: Creates sudden changes in value at every keyframe for which there’s a change in value at the next keyframe to the right.
Time Stretch: If you select a range of keyframes, you can turn on the Time Stretch tool to show a box you can use to squeeze and stretch the entire range of keyframes relative to one another, to change the overall timing of a sequence of keyframes without losing the relative timing from one keyframe to the next. Alternatively, you can turn on Time Stretch and draw a bounding box around the keyframes you want to adjust to create a time-stretching boundary that way.
To create and manage versions of compositions: To create a new version of a composition: Right-click the current thumbnail, and choose Create New Composition from the contextual menu. To load a different composition: Right-click the current thumbnail, and choose “NameOfVersion” > Load from the contextual menu. To delete a composition: Right-click the current thumbnail, and choose “NameOfVersion” > Delete from the contextual menu.
TIP: If you drag one or more clips from the Media Pool onto a connection line between two nodes in the Node Editor, the clips are automatically connected to that line via enough Merge nodes to connect them all. For more information on using the myriad features of the Media Pool, see Chapter 11, “Adding and Organizing Media with the Media Pool” in the DaVinci Resolve Manual.
To open the Bins window: Choose File > Bins from the menu bar. Similar to the Media Pool in DaVinci Resolve, when adding an item to the Fusion bins, a link is created between the item on disk and the bins. Fusion does not copy the file into its own cache or hard drive space. The file remains in its original format and in its original location. Bins Interface The Bins window is actually a separate application used to save content you may want to reuse at a later time.
A toolbar along the bottom of the Bin provides access to organization, playback, and editing controls. The Bins toolbar. New Folder: Creates a new folder in the current window. New Reel: Creates an empty reel that can contain multiple clips edited together into a timeline. New Clip: Opens a dialog to link a new media file into a bin. Studio Player: Opens a playback viewer for a selected clip. Icon/List view: This button toggles between showing contents of a bin in thumbnail view and list view.
The Console The Console is a window in which you can see the error, log, script, and input messages that may explain something Fusion is trying to do in greater detail. The Console is also where you can read FusionScript outputs, or input FusionScripts directly. In DaVinci Resolve, the Console is available by choosing Workspace > Console or choosing View > Console in Fusion Studio. There is also a Console button in the Fusion Studio User Interface toolbar.
Customizing Fusion This section explains how you can customize Fusion to accommodate whatever workflow you’re pursuing. The Fusion Settings Window Fusion has its own settings window, accessible by choosing Fusion > Fusion Settings in DaVinci Resolve, or in Fusion Studio by choosing Fusion > Preferences on macOS or File > Preferences on Windows or Linux. This window has a variety of options for customizing the Fusion experience.
Showing and Hiding Panels The UI toolbar at the top of the screen lets you open panels you need and hide those you don’t. It’s the simplest way to create a layout for your particular needs at the moment. The UI toolbar of the Fusion page. Resizing Panels You can change the overall size of each panel using preset configurations, or you can adjust them manually. The viewers and Work panel are inverse of each other. The more space used to display the Work panel, the less space available for the viewers.
The Fusion Hotkey Manager dialog is divided into two sections. The left is where you select the functional area where you want to assign a keyboard shortcut. The right side displays the keyboard shortcut if one exists. You can use the New button at the bottom of the dialog to add a new keyboard shortcut. For instance, if you want to add a shortcut for a specific node: 1 Open the Keyboard Hotkey Manager. 2 Select Views > Effect from the Target area of the Hotkey Manager.
The History submenu, which lets you undo several steps at once. Once you’ve selected a step to undo to, the menu closes and the project updates to show you its current state. To undo and redo using the Undo window: 1 Choose Edit > History > Open History Window. 2 When the History dialog appears, click an item on the list to undo back to that point. Unlike the menu, in this window the most recent thing you’ve done appears at the bottom of this list.
Chapter 54 Getting Clips into the Fusion This chapter details the various ways you can move clips into Fusion as you build your compositions.
Contents Preparing Compositions in the Fusion Page 1017 Working on Single Clips in the Fusion Page 1017 Turning One or More Clips into Fusion Clips 1018 Adding Fusion Composition Generators 1020 Creating a Fusion Composition Clip in a Bin 1020 Using Fusion Transitions 1020 Adding Clips from the Media Pool 1021 Adding Clips from the File System 1022 Using MediaIn Nodes 1022 MediaIn Node Inputs 1022 Inspector Properties of MediaIn Nodes 1022 Using Loader and Saver Nodes in the Fusion Pag
Preparing Compositions in the Fusion Page Ordinarily, clips come into the Fusion page from the Edit or Cut page Timeline as either a single clip, or as multiple layers contained within a Fusion clip. You can also add clips to a composition directly from DaVinci Resolve’s Media Pool. How clips find their way into a Fusion composition can determine how they function within that composition and what resolution that composition outputs to the rest of DaVinci Resolve.
Once you’ve finished, simply go back to the Edit or Cut page and continue editing, because the entire Fusion composition is encapsulated within that clip, similarly to how grades in the Color page are also encapsulated within a clip. However you slip, slide, ripple, roll, or resize that clip, the Fusion effects you’ve created and the Color page grades you’ve made follow that clip’s journey through your edited Timeline.
A stack of clips to use in a composite (Top), and turning that stack into a Fusion clip in the Edit page (Bottom). The nice thing about creating a Fusion clip is that every superimposed clip in a stack is automatically connected into a cascading series of Merge nodes that create the desired arrangement of clips.
Adding Fusion Composition Generators The Generator category of the Edit page Effects Library has a Fusion Composition generator. It’s useful for creating an empty placeholder in the Timeline that you later want to work on in the Fusion page to create a more fully-featured Fusion composition. To create a blank Fusion clip in the Edit page: 1 Open the Effects Library, and select the Effects category. 2 Edit a Fusion Composition clip into the Timeline in whichever way is most convenient. a.
4 The Fusion page opens with two MediaIn nodes representing the two sides of the transitions. The MediaIn nodes connect to a cross dissolve or a group of nodes used to create the transition. At this point, you can modify the transition using masks or other nodes and return to the Edit page to see the results. A Noise Dissolve Transition opened in the Fusion page.
When you add a clip by dragging it into an empty area of the Node Editor, it becomes another MediaIn node, disconnected, that’s ready for you to merge into your current composite in any one of a variety of ways. TIP: Dragging a clip from the Media Pool on top of a connection line between two other nodes in the Node Editor adds that clip as the foreground clip to a Merge node.
MediaIn Node Parameters for Clips in a Timeline When you create a composition using clips from the Edit page Timeline, the MediaIn nodes for those clips display fewer parameters than those imported directly from the Media Pool, because the timing of clips that have already been edited into a Timeline is already set. The Inspector Image tab parameters for a clip from the Timeline. Image Tab Clip Name: Displays the name of that clip.
Log: Similar to the Log-Lin node, this option reveals specific log-encoded gamma profiles so that you can select the one that matches your content. A visual graph shows a representation of the log setting you’ve selected. When Cineon is selected from the Log Type menu, additional Lock RGB, Level, Soft Clip, Film Stock Gamma, Conversion Gamma, and Conversion table options are presented to finesse the gamma output.
To slide the clip in time or align it to other clips without changing its length, place the mouse pointer in the middle of the range control and drag it to the new location, or enter the value manually in the Global In value control. If the Global In and Out values are decreased to the point where the range between the In and Out values is smaller than the n number of available frames in the clip, Fusion automatically trims the clip by adjusting the Clip Time range control.
Loader Node Parameters The image tab of Loader nodes shares parameters with MediaIn nodes, as described previously in this chapter. However, when using a Loader node for EXR files, the Format tab selectively enables and disables the use of specific auxiliary channels contained in the file. The Format tab in a Loader node Inspector displays Aux channels in EXR files. Outputting Images Using Saver Nodes Saver nodes render OpenEXR image sequences to disk directly from the Fusion page.
Once the Saver node is set up, output one or more Saver nodes, and choose Fusion > Render All Savers. The Inspector parameters for a Saver node. Manual Disk Caching Using Loader and Saver Nodes The Loader and Saver nodes in the Fusion page are also useful for optimizing extremely complex and processor-intensive compositions.
To open an existing composition, do one of the following: Choose File > Open. Choose File > Open Recent, and choose from the list of recently opened comps. Drag a composition file from an OS file browser into the tabbed composition area at the top of the Fusion Studio window. Double-click on a composition file in the OS file browser. The following methods can be used to close the current composition: Choose File > Close from the menu at the top of the Fusion window.
Although the compositions created in DaVinci Resolve’s Fusion page are saved in the DaVinci Resolve database as .drp project files, you can import and export Fusion composition files when in the Fusion page. This makes it very easy to share Fusion compositions between the different applications. To export a Fusion composition from DaVinci Resolve: 1 From within DaVinci Resolve, switch to the Fusion page with the composition you want to export. 2 Choose File > Export Fusion Composition.
Setting Up a Composition Source media can come in a variety of formats, including HD, UHD, and 4K or larger. Often you will have different formats within a single comp. Each format has different properties, from resolution to color depth and gamma curve. Fusion can mix and match material of different formats together in a single composite, but it is important to note how Fusion Studio configures and combines materials of different formats when loading and merging them together.
When you set options in the Global Frame Format category, they determine the default frame format for any new composition you create. They do not affect existing compositions or the composition currently open. If you want to make changes to existing compositions, you must open the comp. You can then select the Frame Format controls listed under the comp’s name in the sidebar.
Aligning Clips in a Fusion Studio Composition When you add a clip into a composition, the resulting Loader node is added at frame 0 of the composition. However, the vital portion of the clip you are interested in may not start until a few frames or even seconds later. To ensure you can align the timing of each piece of media, each Loader includes timing and trimming options in the Inspector.
Loader Node Inputs Loader nodes have one Effects mask input and one output. In the case of the Effects mask input, connecting a mask node such as a Polygon or B-Spline node automatically creates an alpha channel in the Loader node. TIP: If you connect a Mask node without any shapes drawn, that mask outputs full transparency, so the result is that the image output by the MediaIn node is blank.
The Proxy menu sets the ratio for skipping pixels when processing. The Auto Proxy button enables Fusion to interactively degrade the image only while adjustments are made. The image returns to normal resolution when the control is released. Similar to the Prx button in Fusion Studio, you can set the Auto Proxy ratio by right-clicking the APrx button and choosing a ratio from the menu.
File Format Options The Fusion interface in DaVinci Resolve and Fusion Studio display specific options for various file formats in slightly different ways. Where Fusion Studio displays most file-specific options in the Loader’s Format tab, the Fusion page in most cases displays these options in the main Image tab of the MediaIn node. The only exception being the OpenEXR format. Its extensive options are displayed in a separate tab even in the MediaIn node of the Fusion page.
Photoshop PSD There are two methods for importing Photoshop PSD files. You can either import the PSD file and have it represented as a single node in the Node Editor or import the PSD and have each layer represented as a node in the Node Editor. If you do not need independent control over each layer or blend modes are not used when creating the PSD file, then importing the PSD file as a single node will make for a more manageable experience.
Chapter 55 Rendering Using Saver Nodes This chapter covers how to render compositions using Saver nodes in Fusion Studio and the Fusion page in DaVinci Resolve. It also covers how to render using multiple computers over a network when using Fusion Studio.
Contents Rendering Overview 1040 Rendering in the Fusion Page 1040 Rendering in Fusion Studio 1040 Rendering with the Saver Node 1040 Setting Filenames for Export 1042 Using the Render Settings Dialog 1042 Render Settings Dialog Options 1043 Rendering Previews 1044 Setting Up Network Rendering in Fusion Studio 1045 Licensing for Network Rendering 1045 Configuring the Render Master and Render Nodes 1047 Setting Up the Render Manager 1049 Submitting Comps to Network Render 1051 Using
Managing Memory Use 1060 Override Composition Settings 1061 Render Several Frames at Once 1061 Simultaneous Branching 1061 Limitations of Render Nodes 1061 Time Stretching 1061 Linear Tools 1061 Saving to Multi-Frame Formats 1061 Troubleshooting 1062 Checking the Render Log 1062 Check the Composition 1062 Chapter – 55 Rendering Using Saver Nodes 1039
Rendering Overview When you have finished creating a composition in Fusion, you need to render the files out to disk for playback and integration into a larger timeline. Fusion Studio and the Fusion page in DaVinci Resolve use very different workflows for rendering. To finish a composite in the Fusion Page, you use a MediaOut node to cache the results into the Edit or Cut page Timeline. The DaVinci Resolve Deliver page handles the final render of the entire Timeline.
You can attach multiple Saver nodes anywhere along the node tree to render out different parts of a composite. In the example below, three Saver nodes are added at different points in the node tree. The top two render out each half of the composite while the bottom renders the results of the entire composite. Multiple Saver nodes can be added to different parts of a node tree. You can also use multiple Saver nodes stemming from the same node in order to create several output formats.
Setting Filenames for Export If you use a file extension when naming the file, Fusion will set the output format accordingly. For example, naming your file image_name.exr will set the Inspector to output an EXR file or naming a file image_name.mov will set the Inspector for an H264 QuickTime movie. If you decide to change or modify the setting of the file type, the Saver’s format tab in the Inspector contains the specific parameters for the selected format.
The Render Settings dialog options. Ensure that the frame range and other parameters are correct and click Start Render. Saver nodes in the DaVinci Resolve Fusion page The Fusion page also includes a Saver node, although it is used for a different purpose than the Saver node in Fusion Studio. Rendering from the Fusion page is handled primarily through the MediaOut node. There is no Render Settings dialog since the rendering location and format is predetermined by DaVinci Resolve’s cache settings.
Settings When the Configuration section is set to Preview, the Settings section of the Render dialog includes three options that determine the overall quality and appearance of your final output. These buttons also have a significant impact on render times. When the Configurations setting is set to Final, these options cannot be disabled HiQ: When enabled, this setting renders in full image quality. If you need to see what the final output of a node would look like, then you would enable the HiQ setting.
For more information on rendering RAM previews, see Chapter 58 “Using Viewers” in the DaVinci Resolve manual or Chapter 7 in the Fusion Studio manual. TIP: Option-Shift-dragging a node into a viewer will skip the Render dialog and previously used settings.
Nodes automatically search for the dongle on the subnet, making it easy to set up. Single-seat dongles do not “float” over a network; they must be connected to the same computer where Fusion Studio operates. Multi-License Dongles Using a multi-license dongle, you can license 10 copies of Fusion Studio by connecting the dongle to any computer on the same subnet. Since these licenses “float” over a network, Fusion Studio does not have to be running on the same computer where the dongle is connected.
Like most environment variables, you can put the license server in the Global Preferences via the Prefs text file. EnvironmentVars: fu:SetPrefs(“Global.EnvironmentVars. FUSION_LICENSE_ SERVER”, “10.0.0.23;*”) fu:SavePrefs() See Chapter 15, “Preferences” in the Fusion Studio manual for more information on using environment variables. NOTE: The use of straight quotes (“ “) in the environment variables above are intentional and should not be replaced with typographer’s, or curly, quotes (“ ”).
Acting as a Render Master has no significant impact on render performance. The system resources consumed are insignificant. However, there are specific steps you must take to make one of your computers a Render Master. To set up the Render Master: 1 Install a copy of Fusion Studio on the computer you want to be the Render Master.
On a Windows Render Node computer: Right-click the Fusion Render Node icon in the taskbar Notification area and choose Allow Network Renders. Setting Up the Render Manager The Render Manager window is used to monitor the progress of rendering. It can be used to reorder, add, or remove compositions from a queue, and to manage the list of Render Nodes used for rendering. To open the Render Manager window in Fusion Studio, choose File > Render Manager.
Scanning for Render Nodes With the Render Manager open, you can scan for Render Nodes by choosing Slave > Scan for Slaves in the menu bar or by right-clicking in the Render Manager’s Slave list and choosing Scan for Slaves from the pop-up menu. Scanning searches IP addresses on the subnet for active Render Nodes. Scanning looks through all IP addresses on the network subnet to determine whether any other computers in the local network are actively responding on the port Fusion uses for network rendering.
Loading and Saving Render Node Lists The list of Render Nodes is automatically saved in the Documents > Blackmagic Design > Fusion > Queue folder when you quit the Render Manager. You can save and reload alternative lists of Render Nodes by choosing Slaves > Save Slave List and Load Slave list from the menu. Submitting Comps to Network Render To submit a comp to render on the network, you can use the Render Manager, the Render Settings dialog, or a third-party render farm application.
The Add Comp button in the Render Manager adds a comp to the queue for batch rendering over the network. Removing a Composition from the Queue To remove a composition from the queue, select the composition in the queue list and press the Backspace/Delete key or right-click over the comp in the queue list and choose Remove Composition from the pop-up menu. Saving and Reloading Queue Lists It can be useful to save a queue list to reuse at a later time.
To submit a comp to a group from the Render Manager: 1 Open the Render Manager. 2 Submit the comp. 3 Click the Pause Render button. 4 Right-click over the comp in the queue list and select Assign Group. 5 In the Assign Group dialog, select an existing group to render the comp and click OK. 6 Click the Resume Render button. To submit a comp to a group from the Render Settings dialog: 1 Click the Render button in the transport controls area.
To disable Verbose mode: Choose Misc > Verbose Logging from the Render Manager’s menu bar. Using Third-Party Render Managers with Fusion Studio You can make use of third-party render manager software to control network rendering. This allows for efficient sharing of your computer resources between the many applications that may make use of them. Examples of such managers are Smedge from Uberware LLC, Rush from Seriss, and Deadline from GetRender.
Command Description -listen The node remains running and waits for incoming requests from a manager. -log Causes the Render Node to output information about the render to a log file. This appends to the end of an existing log file. -cleanlog Clears existing text from a log file. -verbose Outputs more detailed information into the log file. -quiet Suppresses pop-ups and interface buttons from displaying and needing interaction. -version Returns the Render Node version number.
Make sure all fonts used in the comp for Text+ and 3D text nodes are installed on all the Render Nodes Make sure all Render Nodes have third-party OFX plug-ins installed if any are used in the comp. Below are more details about some of these items. Using Relative Paths The file paths used to load a composition and its media, and to save the composition’s rendered results, are critical to the operation of network rendering.
In this situation, using the Comp:\ path means your media location starts from your comp file’s location. The relative path set in the Loader node would then be: Comp:\Greenscreen\0810Green_0000.exr Replacing the Loader’s path to start with Comp:\ creates a relative path from the comp file’s location. If your source media’s actual file path uses a subfolder in the same folder as the comp file’s folder: Volumes\Project\Shot0810\Footage\Greenscreen\0810Green_0000.
Installing Third-Party Plug-Ins on Render Nodes All third-party plug-ins and tools used by a composition must be installed in the plug-ins directory of each Render Node. A Render Node attempting to render a composition that uses a plug-in that’s not installed will fail to render. Licensed plug-ins are required on each Render Node.
When Renders Fail It is a fact of life that render queues occasionally fail. The composition has an error, the power goes out, or a computer is accidentally disconnected from the network are some causes for failure. If no one is available to monitor the render, the risk that an entire queue may sit inactive for several hours may become a serious problem. Fusion Studio includes a variety of measures to protect the queue and ensure that the render continues even under some of the worst conditions.
Right-click over a comp in the Render Manager to set a timeout value. To change the frame timeout value, choose Set Frame Time Out from the Render Manager’s Misc menu and enter the number of seconds you want for the Time Out. Heartbeats Often, the network environment is made up of computers with a variety of CPU and memory configurations. The memory settings used on the workstation that created a composition may not be appropriate for all the Render Nodes in the network.
Override Composition Settings Enable this option to use the Render Node’s local settings to render any incoming compositions. Disable it to use the default settings that are saved into the composition. Render Several Frames at Once Fusion has the ability to render multiple frames at once for increased render throughput. This slider controls how many frames are rendered simultaneously. The value displayed multiplies the memory usage (a setting of 3 requires three times as much memory as a setting of 1).
NOTE: The above does not apply to network rendered previews, which are previews created over the network that employ spooling to allow multi-frame formats to render successfully. Only final renders are affected by this limitation. Troubleshooting There are some common pitfalls when rendering across a network. Virtually all problems with network rendering have to do with path names or plug-ins.
Check the Render Nodes: Fusion’s Render Manager incorporates a number of methods to ensure the reliability of network renders. Periodically, the Render Manager will send signals called Heartbeats, generated at regular intervals, to detect network or machine failures. In this event, a failed Render Node’s outstanding frames are reassigned to other Render Nodes where possible. In rare cases, a Render Node may fail in a way that the heartbeat continues even though the Render Node is no longer processing.
Chapter 56 Working in the Node Editor This chapter discusses how to work in the Node Editor, including multiple ways to add, connect, rearrange, and remove nodes to create any effect you can think of.
Contents Learning to Use the Node Editor 1067 Navigating within the Node Editor 1067 Automatic Node Editor Navigation 1068 Using the Node Navigator 1068 Adding Nodes to a Composition 1069 Adding, Inserting, and Replacing Nodes Using the Toolbar 1069 Adding Nodes Quickly Using the Select Tool Window 1070 Adding Nodes from the Effects Library 1071 Adding, Inserting, and Replacing Nodes Using the Contextual Menu 1074 Deleting Nodes 1075 Disconnected Nodes 1075 Selecting and Deselecting No
Connection Options and Routers 1089 Using Routers to Reshape and Branch Connections 1089 Swapping Node Inputs 1091 Extracting and Inserting Nodes 1091 Cut, Copy, and Paste Nodes 1092 Cut, Copy, and Paste in the Node Editor 1092 Pasting Node Settings 1093 Copying and Pasting Nodes to and from Any Text Editor 1093 Instancing Nodes 1094 Using Instanced Nodes 1095 De-Instancing and Re-Instancing Specific Parameters 1096 Keeping Node Trees Organized 1096 Moving Nodes 1096 Renaming Nodes
Learning to Use the Node Editor The Node Editor (formerly called the Flow or Flow Editor) is the heart of Fusion’s compositing interface. It uses a flowchart structure called a node tree that lets you build a composition out of interconnected nodes, as opposed to using layers in a layer list.
Methods of zooming the Nod4e Editor: Press the Middle and Left buttons simultaneously and drag to resize the Node Editor. Hold down the Command key and use your pointer’s scroll control to resize the Node Editor. Right-click the Node Editor and choose an option from the Scale submenu of the contextual menu. Press Command-1 to reset the Node Editor to its default size. Hold down the Command key and drag with two fingers on a track pad to resize the Node Editor.
Drag the corner to resize the Navigator. To return to the default Node Navigator size, do the following: Right-click anywhere within the Node Navigator and choose Reset Size. To pan the Node Editor using the Node Navigator, do the following: Drag within the Node Navigator to move around different parts of your node tree. Within the Navigator, drag with two fingers on a track pad to move around different parts of your node tree.
The Fusion page toolbar. TIP: If you don’t know which node a particular icon corresponds to, just hover your pointer over any toolbar button and a tooltip will display the full name of that tool. Methods of adding nodes by clicking toolbar buttons: To add a node after a selected node: Select a node in the Node Editor and then click a toolbar button. To add a disconnected node to the Node Editor: Deselect all nodes in the Node Editor and then click a toolbar button.
To use the Select Tool window to add nodes: 1 Do one of the following to determine if you want to insert a node or create a disconnected node: – If you want to insert a node, select a node that’s compatible with the one you’ll be creating, and the new node will be inserted after it. – If you want to create a disconnected node, deselect all nodes. 2 Press Shift-Spacebar to open the Select Tool dialog. 3 When the window appears, type characters corresponding to the name of the node you’re looking for.
To open the Effects Library: Click the Effects Library button in the UI toolbar at the top of the Fusion window. The Effects Library appears at the upper-left corner of the Fusion window, and consists of two panels. A category list at the left shows all categories of nodes and presets that are available, and a list at the right shows the full contents of each selected category. The Tools bin of the Effects Library exposing 3D nodes.
Methods of adding nodes by clicking in the Effects Library: To add a node after a selected node: Select a node in the Node Editor and then click a node in the browser of the Effects Library. To add a disconnected node to the Node Editor: Deselect all nodes in the Node Editor and then click a node in the browser of the Effects Library.
Adding a LightWrap effect from the “How to” bin of the Templates category of the Effects Library. Adding, Inserting, and Replacing Nodes Using the Contextual Menu Another way of adding, inserting, and replacing nodes is to use the Node Editor’s contextual menu, which has dedicated submenus that let you create any kind of node available in Fusion. This can be a convenient when the pointer is already in the Node Editor selecting, moving, or connecting nodes.
Deleting Nodes To delete one or more selected nodes, press Delete (macOS) or Backspace (Windows), or right-click one or more selected nodes and choose Delete from the contextual menu. The node is removed from the Node Editor, and whichever nodes are connected to its primary input and output are now connected together. Nodes connected to other inputs (such as mask inputs) become disconnected.
The Active Node When you select a single node using any of the methods described above, the selected node is known as the active node, and is highlighted orange to indicate that its parameters are currently editable in the Inspector (if the Inspector is open). This also indicates that node will be targeted for specific operations (such as inserting new nodes). While multiple nodes can be selected, only one node will be the active node.
A node tree for doing a simple rotoscoping job. As seen in the screenshot above, you’ll want to load the upstream MediaIn or Loader node into a viewer while the Polygon node is selected for editing in order to see the full image you’re rotoscoping while keeping the Polygon node’s spline visible. Viewed Nodes When You First Open Fusion When you first open the Fusion page in DaVinci Resolve, the output of the current empty composition (the MediaOut1 node) is usually showing in viewer 2.
A viewer indicator enabled for the right viewer and disabled for the left viewer. To load a node into a viewer using the Node View indicators: Clicking an indicator turns it white to show that node is currently loaded in the corresponding viewer. Clicking it again turns the indicator black and removes it from the viewer. Nodes only display View indicators if they’re currently being viewed.
Create/Play Preview You can right-click a node, and choose an option from the Create/Preview Play On submenu of the contextual menu to render and play a preview of any node’s output on one of the available viewers. The Render Settings dialog is displayed, and after accepting the settings, the tool will be rendered and the resulting frames stored in RAM for fast playback on that view.
Before (top), and after (bottom) dragging a connection line and dropping it to connect two nodes. Dropping Connections on Top of Nodes To make your life a bit easier, you can also drag a connection line and drop it directly on top of the tile of a node to automatically connect to the default input of that node, which is usually labeled “background” or “input.
Some multi-input nodes are capable of adding inputs to accommodate many connections, such as the Merge3D node. These nodes simply add another input whenever you drop a connection onto them. After dragging a connection line and dropping it on top of a Merge3D node. Attaching Connections to Specific Inputs If you want to make sure you don’t attach a connection to the default input of a node, then you need to drop it right on top of the specific node input you want to attach it to.
Automatically and Manually Attaching Mask Nodes Mask nodes, such as the Polygon, B-Spline, Ellipse, or Rectangle, have a different automatic behavior when you connect them to other nodes. If you drag a connection from a Mask node onto the body of another node, it will automatically connect itself to the default mask input, which is usually the effect mask input. The assumption is that you’re using the mask to limit the node’s effect somehow.
Adding a Defocus effect first, then the TV node second. As you can see above, connecting the Defocus node first, followed by the TV node, means that while the initial image is softened, the TV effect is sharp. However, if you reverse the order of these two nodes, then the TV effect distorts the image, but the Defocus node now blurs the overall result, so that the TV effect is just as soft as the image it’s applied to. The explicit order of operations you apply makes a big difference.
As you can see, the node tree that comprises each composition is a schematic of operations with tremendous flexibility.
Disconnecting and Reconnecting Nodes Node trees are a continuous work in progress, requiring constant revision and rearrangement as you discover new details that need to be finessed, or things that you can do better once the overall composition has taken shape. To facilitate quick changes, each connection between two nodes is divided into two halves: the output half (connected to the upstream node’s output) and the input half (connected to the downstream node’s input).
Additionally, positioning the pointer over a connection causes a tooltip to appear that displays the output and input that connection is attached to. Hovering the pointer over a node highlights the connection between it and other nodes. Branching A node’s input can only have one connection attached to it. However, a tool’s output can be connected to inputs on as many nodes as you require. Splitting a node’s output to inputs on multiple nodes is called branching.
Connecting Merge Nodes The Merge node is the primary tool available for compositing images together. Each Merge node is capable of combining two inputs to create a third, using standard compositing methods and composite modes. For more extensive information about the Merge node, see Chapter 95 “IO Nodes” in the DaVinci Resolve manual or Chapter 44 in the Fusion Studio manual.
Automatically Creating a Merge Node When Adding Nodes There’s a nice shortcut for connecting Merge nodes if you want to connect the incoming clip immediately to your node tree as the top layer of a composite, and that’s to drag a clip from an Operating System window or a Generator from the Effects Library right on top of any connection line.
Connection Options and Routers By default, the Node Editor uses linear connections that are drawn straight between any two connected nodes. While efficient, this sometimes causes connection lines to overlap nodes, which some people feel interferes with the view of the Node Editor. Linear connections between nodes. If you like, you can change how connections are drawn by enabling orthogonal connections, which automatically draws lines with right angles to avoid having connections overlap nodes.
A router added to force a connection to be drawn at an angle. Routers are tiny nodes with a single input and an output, but with no parameters except for a comments field (available in the Inspector), which you can use to add notes about what’s happening in that part of the composition.
Swapping Node Inputs For multiple-input nodes such as the Merge, Merge 3D, and Dissolve nodes, there’s a quick method of swapping the Primary and Secondary inputs, such as the foreground and background inputs of a Merge tool, when you find you’ve accidentally connected them in the wrong order. If a node has more than two of its inputs connected, only the foreground and background inputs will be swapped.
After you’ve extracted a node, you can re-insert it into another connection somewhere else. You can only insert one node at a time. To insert a disconnected node in the Node Editor between two compatible nodes: 1 Hold down the Shift key and drag a disconnected node directly over a connection between two other nodes. 2 Once the connection highlights, drop the node, and then release the Shift key. That node is now attached to the nodes coming before and after it.
To paste one or more selected nodes, do one of the following: To paste nodes to be inserted after another node: Select the node in the node tree you want to insert the pasted node(s) to, and choose Edit > Paste (Command-V). To paste nodes to be disconnected from the rest of the node tree: Deselect all nodes, and then choose Edit > Paste (Command-V), or right-click anywhere in the Node Editor and choose Paste from the contextual menu.
A set of three nodes being copied. And you then paste into a new text editing document, you get the following: The same three nodes pasted into a text editor. At this point, you have the option of editing the text (if you know what you’re doing), emailing it to colleagues, or storing it in a digital notepad of some sort for future use. To use this script in Fusion again, you need only copy it and paste it back into the Node Editor.
Using Instanced Nodes Instanced nodes are nodes that have been created using the Paste Instance command, and which share settings with the original node so that a change made to one instanced node is also automatically applied to all other instances of that node (as well as the original node you copied). To create an Instance, do the following: 1 Select a node you want to instance, and copy it (Command-C).
NOTE: If you’ve de-instanced a node and you cannot undo the operation because you’ve restarted DaVinci Resolve, you can only recreate an instance by copying the original and pasting an instance again. De-Instancing and Re-Instancing Specific Parameters By default, every parameter in an instanced node is linked to the original node, so that any change you make is rippled across.
Snapping Nodes to the Grid By default, you can position nodes freely wherever you want them to be. However, keeping nodes and connection lines straight and aligned can make them easier to read. To help keep them aligned, you can have nodes you’re dragging automatically snap to the grid. To have nodes snap to the grid as they’re dragged: Right-click over an empty area of the Node Editor, and choose Arrange Tools > To Grid from the contextual menu. All nodes you drag now snap to the nearest grid coordinate.
NOTE: If multiple nodes are selected, multiple dialogs will appear asking for a name for each tool. Since Fusion can be scripted and use expressions, the names of nodes must adhere to a scriptable syntax. Only use alphanumeric characters (no special characters), and do not use any spaces. Also, you cannot start a node name with a number. If you accidentally create a name that doesn’t exactly follow the guidelines, spaces and invalid characters will be automatically deleted.
To edit a Sticky Note: If necessary, double-click a Sticky Note to open it to full size, and then click once in the body of the note to place a text cursor. You can edit text within the Sticky Note just like any other text editor. To rename a Sticky Note: Right-click a Sticky Note, choose Rename, type a new name into the Rename dialog, and click OK. Alternatively, you can select a Sticky Note, press F2 to open the Rename dialog, and press Return to close it when you’re done.
To rename an Underlay Box: Option-click the Underlay Box to select just the box and not the contents, and then right-click it and choose Rename (or press F2). Type a new name into the Rename dialog and click OK or press Return. To change the color of an Underlay Box: Option-click the Underlay Box to select just the box and not the contents, and then right-click it and choose a color from the Set Color submenu.
Nodes can be displayed as a small rectangle or as a larger square. The rectangular form displays the node’s name in the center, while the square form shows either the tool’s icon or a thumbnail of the image it is outputting. TIP: Even if you’re not displaying node thumbnails, you can quickly obtain detailed information about a node and the data it’s processing by hovering your pointer over it in the Node Editor and viewing the tooltip bar below.
Switching Thumbnails between Images and Icons Whenever you enable node thumbnails, you have the choice of having these thumbnails either display an image of the state of the image at that node, or you can instead choose to display the icon for that particular node. The setting for this affects all nodes at once. To display icons instead of thumbnails: Right-click anywhere in the background of the Node Editor and deselect Show Thumbnails in the contextual menu.
To search for a node in the Node Editor: 1 Press Command-F, or right-click in an empty area of the Node Editor and choose Find from the contextual menu. 2 When the Find dialog appears, do the following: – Enter a search term in the Find field. – Choose search options, such as whether to match the whole phrase in the Find field, whether to match the case, whether to use a sequence number, or whether to use a regular expression in the Find field. – Choose what to search.
Custom Node Settings When a node is added to the Node Editor, its parameters are set to the default values for that type of node. If you find yourself constantly readjusting the parameters of a node to a preferred starting point as soon as it’s added to the node tree, you can override the default node settings with your own custom settings. To save new default settings for a particular type of node: 1 Create a new node.
To reset a single parameter to the original default settings: 1 Create a new node. 2 Open the Inspector and customize a parameter to the new default value you want it to have. 3 Right-click that parameter in the Inspector, and choose Set to Default from the contextual menu. To reset every parameter in a node to the original defaults, do one of the following: Right-click on the node and choose Settings > Reset Default.
Node Modes Including Disable and Lock Right-clicking one or more nodes and opening the contextual menu reveals a series of commands in the Modes submenu, some with accompanying keyboard shortcuts, that let you set control visibility, disable, lock, update, and cache nodes. Show Controls: Sets whether that node reveals its parameters in the Inspector when it’s selected and whether its onscreen controls appear in viewers. On by default.
Show Instance Links: When enabled, the Node Editor draws a green connection between an instanced node and its parent. Auto Remove Routers: If routers are disconnected from a tool, they are automatically deleted from the Node Editor. This option is enabled by default to eliminate the need to delete orphaned routers. Show Navigator: Enabling this option displays a small overview window of the entire node tree in the Node Editor’s top-right corner.
Chapter 57 Node Groups, Macros, and Fusion Templates This chapter reveals how to use groups, macros, and templates in Fusion so working with complex effects becomes more organized, more efficient, and easier.
Contents Groups 1110 Creating Groups 1110 Deleting Groups 1110 Expanding and Collapsing Groups 1110 Panning and Scaling within Open Group Windows 1111 Ungrouping Nodes 1111 Saving and Reusing Groups 1111 Macros 1112 Creating Macros 1112 Using Macros 1114 Re-Editing Macros 1114 Other Macro Examples 1114 Creating Fusion Templates 1115 Getting Started with a Fusion Title Template 1115 Saving a Title Macro 1115 Using Your New Title Template 1119 Getting Started with a Fusion Tran
Groups When you work on complex visual effects, node trees can become sprawling and unwieldy, so grouping tools together can help you better organize all the nodes and connections. Groups are containers in your node tree that can hold multiple nodes, similar to the way a folder on your Desktop holds multiple files. There is no limit to the number of nodes that can be contained within a group, and you can even create subgroups within a group.
An open group window showing the minimize button. When you open a group, a floating window shows the nodes within that group. This floating window is its own Node Editor that can be resized, zoomed, and panned independently of the main Node Editor. Within the group window, you can select and adjust any node you want to, and even add, insert, and delete nodes while it is open.
Methods of saving and reusing groups: To save a group: Right-click a group and choose Settings > Save As from the contextual menu. To reuse a group: Drag it from your computer’s file browser directly into the Node Editor. This creates a new group node in the node tree with all the same nodes as the group you saved. To load the settings from a saved group to another group with the same nodes: Right-click a group in the Node Editor and choose Settings > Load from the contextual menu.
2 Right-click one of the selected nodes and choose Macro > Create Macro from the contextual menu. A Macro Editor window appears, showing each node you selected as a list, in the order in which each node was selected. The macro editor with a Blur node and Color Corrector node. 3 First, enter a name for the macro in the field at the top of the Macro Editor. This name should be short but descriptive of the macro’s purpose. No spaces are allowed, and you should avoid special characters.
7 A Save Macro As dialog appears in which you can re-edit the Macro Name (if necessary), and choose a location for your macro. To have a macro appear in the Fusion page Effects Library Tools > Macros category, save it in the following locations: – On macOS: Macintosh HD/Users/username/Library/Application Support/ Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/Fusion/Macros/ – On Windows: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Blackmagic Design\ DaVinci Resolve\Support\Fusion\Macros – On Linux: home/username/.
Creating Fusion Templates The integration of Fusion into DaVinci Resolve has enabled the ability to create Fusion Titles, custom transitions, and Generators for use in the Edit page. You can create these templates in the Fusion page or within Fusion Studio and then copy them into DaVinci Resolve. Fusion Titles, Generators, and Transition templates are essentially comps created in Fusion but editable in the Timeline of the Edit page with custom controls. This section shows you how it’s done.
Selecting the nodes you want to turn into a title template. TIP: If you want to control the order in which node controls will be displayed later on, you can Command-click each node you want to include in the macro, one by one, in the order in which you want controls from those nodes to appear. This is an extra step, but it keeps things better organized later on. Having made this selection, right-click one of the selected nodes and choose Macro > Create Macro from the contextual menu.
The Macro Editor window appears, filled to the brim with a hierarchical list of every parameter in the composition you’ve just selected. The Macro Editor populated with the parameters of all the nodes you selected. This list may look intimidating, but closing the disclosure control of the top Text1 node shows us what’s really going on. A simple list of all the nodes we’ve selected. Closing the top node’s parameters reveals a simple list of all the nodes we’ve selected.
So all we have to do now is to turn on the checkboxes of all the parameters we’d like to be able to customize. For this example, we’ll check the Text3D node’s Styled Text checkbox, the Cloth node’s Diffuse Color, Green, and Blue checkboxes, and the SpotLight node’s Z Rotation checkbox, so that only the middle word of the template is editable, but we can also change its color and tilt its lighting (making a “swing-on” effect possible).
Using Your New Title Template After you’ve saved your macro, you’ll need to quit and reopen DaVinci Resolve. When you open the Effects Library of the Edit page, you should see your new template inside the Titles category, ready to go in the Fusion Titles list. Custom titles appear in the Fusion Titles section of the Effects Library.
Getting Started with a Fusion Transition Template When creating a Fusion transition template, it’s easiest to start with an existing transition template and build off that. Three transitions are located in the Fusion Transitions category of the DaVinci Resolve Effects Library. The simplest transition is the Cross Dissolve, while the most complex example is the Slice Push. The Fusion transition templates located in DaVinci Resolve’s Effects Library.
The Fusion page opens, displaying the node tree used to create the Fusion transition. The Cross Dissolve node tree in Fusion. The MediaIn 1 node represents the outgoing clip in the Edit page Timeline. The MediaIn 2 clip represents the incoming clip. You can modify or completely change the Cross Dissolve effect to create your own custom transition using any of Fusion’s nodes. The Fusion Cross Dissolve node tree replaced with Transforms and a Merge node.
Having made this selection, right-click one of the selected nodes and choose Macro > Create Macro from the contextual menu. The Macro Editor displaying the parameters of all the nodes you selected. The Macro Editor window appears, displaying a hierarchical list of every parameter in the composition you’ve just selected. The order of nodes is based on the order they were selected in the Node Editor prior to creating the macro.
Using Your New Transition Template After you’ve saved your macro, you’ll need to quit and reopen DaVinci Resolve. When you open the Effects Library on the Edit page, the new transition template is listed in the Video Transitions category, in the Fusion Transitions list. A custom Fusion Transition saved in the Edit page Effects Library. Applying this transition to a cut in the Timeline and opening the Inspector shows the parameters you enabled for editing, if any.
Creating a Fusion Generator Template As easy as it is to begin with the Noise Gradient Generator template, you can just as easily start by adding a Fusion Composition Effect to a Timeline in the Edit page. To begin creating a Fusion Generator Template with an empty Fusion composition, do the following: 1 On the Edit page, drag the Fusion Composition Effect from the Effects Library to the Timeline. 2 Right-click over the Composition Effect and choose Open in Fusion Page from the pop-up menu.
Saving a New Fusion Generator After creating the generator you want in Fusion, you need to save it to the Effects Library to reuse it in other projects from the Edit page. To do this, you must create a Macro and save it to the Generator folder. Ordinarily, macros are used as building blocks inside of Fusion so that you can turn frequentlymade compositing tricks that you use all the time into your own nodes.
To have the Generator template appear in the Effects Library > Fusion Generators category of DaVinci Resolve, save the macro in the following locations: On macOS: Macintosh HD/Users/username/Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/ DaVinci Resolve/Fusion/Templates/Edit/Generators On Windows: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\Fusion\ Templates\Edit\Generators On Linux: home/username/.
Chapter 58 Using Viewers This chapter covers working with viewers in Fusion, including using onscreen controls and toolbars, creating groups and subviews, managing viewer Lookup Tables (LUTs), working with the 3D viewer, and setting up viewer preferences and options.
Contents Viewer Overview 1130 Single vs.
The 3D Viewer 1147 Panning, Scaling, and Rotating a 3D Viewer 1147 Viewing Objects via Wireframe 1148 Changing the POV of a 3D Viewer 1148 Changing Cameras in a 3D Viewer 1148 Copying a Viewer’s POV to a Camera 1148 Lighting and Shadows in 3D Viewers 1149 Transparency in 3D Viewers 1151 Grid 1151 Vertex Normals 1152 Quad View 1152 Quad View Layouts 1153 Using Quad Views for 2D Scenes 1153 Guides 1153 Frame Format Settings 1154 Domain of Definition and Region of Interest 1155
Viewer Overview Viewers in Fusion display the current frame of the current composition in a variety of ways to help you see what you’re doing and evaluate the final result of your compositing artistry. Viewers display 2D images, but they can also display a 3D environment using a 3D View as well as a special Quad viewer to help you effectively work in three dimensions. Side-by-side dual viewers: a 3D viewer (left), and a 2D viewer (right).
Floating Viewers in Fusion Studio In addition to the dual views above the Node Editor, Fusion Studio provides the option to use an unlimited number of floating viewers. These floating viewers are excellent for taking full advantage of a dual monitor configuration. Floating viewers can also be set to full-screen mode to make the best use of screen real estate. To create a new floating display view, select Window > New View from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
When a node is being viewed, a View Indicator button appears at the bottom left. This is the same control that appears when you hover the pointer over a node. Not only does this control let you know which nodes are loaded into which viewer, but they also expose little round buttons for changing which viewer they appear in. Viewer assignment buttons at the bottom left of nodes indicate when they’re being viewed, and which dot is highlighted indicates which viewer that node is loaded into.
The viewer divider bar. Zooming and Panning into Viewers There are standardized methods of zooming into and panning around viewers when you need a closer look at the situation. These methods also work with the Node Editor, Spline Editor, and Keyframes Editor. Methods of panning viewers: Middle-click and drag to pan around the viewer. Hold down Shift and Command and drag the viewer to pan. Drag two fingers on a track pad to pan.
Click the Scale Viewer menu and choose Fit or a percentage. Right-click on a viewer and choose an option from the Scale submenu of the contextual menu. This includes a Custom Scale command that lets you type your own scale percentage Methods of spinning 3D viewers: In 3D Perspective view, hold down the Shift key and drag to spin the stage around.
Once you’ve created a Flipbook Preview within a particular viewer, right-clicking that viewer presents Flipbook-specific commands and options to Play, Loop, or Ping-Pong the Flipbook, to open it Full Screen, to Show Frame Numbers, and to eliminate it. TIP: If you want to create a Flipbook Preview and bypass the Render Settings dialog by just using either the default setting or the settings that were chosen last, hold down Shift-Option while you drag a node into the viewer.
Settings The Settings section of the Preview Render dialog includes three buttons that determine the overall quality and appearance of your Flipbook Preview. These buttons also have a significant impact on render times. HiQ: When enabled, this setting renders the preview in full image quality. If you need to see what the final output of a node would look like, then you would enable the HiQ setting.
Onscreen Controls When it comes to adjusting images, the Control Panel provides very precise numerical values, but sometimes visually positioning an element using onscreen controls can get you where you want to go with less tweaking. The viewers show onscreen controls for manipulating the parameters of the currently selected node. Common onscreen controls include crosshairs, angle indicators, polylines, and paint strokes.
Making Fine Adjustments to Onscreen Controls If you want the visual guidance of onscreen controls with the precision of the Inspector, you can use different keyboard modifiers. Up and Down Arrow keys can be used to adjust the vertical position of an onscreen control by small steps. Holding down the Command key while using the Up and Down Arrow keys reduces the scale of each step by a factor of ten. Holding Shift increases the scale of each step by a factor of ten.
A/B Buffers Each viewer has two buffers, each of which can contain images from different nodes, enabling easy comparison of two different nodes within the same viewer by either toggling between buffers, or via an adjustable split-wipe. Each buffer can be considered a complete and separate viewer within the same viewer pane. The A buffer is always shown by default, so when you first load a node into a viewer, the image loads into the A buffer.
4 (Optional) If you want to change the image that’s displayed on that side of the split, you can drag new nodes onto either half of the viewer. 5 To turn off the wipe, click the Switch to Split Wipe View button again (or press /). The wipe divider can be adjusted for comparing different areas of the A and B images.
For example, the RGB channels can be viewed in the main viewer, while the alpha channel is displayed in a subview. For the most part, the subview is a fully functional miniature viewer, with its own contextual menu and options. It responds to the same keyboard shortcuts and navigation controls as any other viewer. However, there are several view types designed for use only in the subview, including the Navigator, Magnifier, Color Inspector, and Image Info.
To swap the contents of the subview with the main view, do one of the following: Press Shift-V. Right-click in a viewer and choose Views > SubView > Swap from the contextual menu. Viewer and Subview Types Viewers can be changed to show a variety of different information about the image, but not all view types are available at all times. For example, the 3D Viewer is not available for a 2D node, and some of the measurement viewers are available only as subviews.
Histogram The Histogram Viewer is an analysis node that can be used to identify problems with the contrast and dynamic range in an image. The graph shows the frequency distribution of colors in the image, including out-of-range colors in floating-point images. The horizontal axis shows the colors from shadows to highlights. The vertical axis shows the number of pixels in the image that occur at each level. The Histogram Viewer will also display gradient information.
Vectorscope The Vectorscope Viewer duplicates the behavior of a specific type of video test equipment, displaying a circular graph that helps to visualize the intensity of chrominance signals. The Vectorscope Viewer type for evaluating chrominance in an image. Waveform The Waveform Viewer duplicates the behavior of a specific type of video test equipment, displaying a line or bar graph that helps to visualize the voltage or luminance of a broadcast signal.
The Navigator subview for panning the image while zoomed in. Magnifier The Magnifier can be used only in a subview. It shows a zoomed-in version of the pixels under the cursor in the main viewer. The Magnifier subview used to view a zoomed-in version of the image. Image Info The Image Info view can only be used in a subview. The Image Info tab shows a horizontal bar across the top of the image with information about the frame size, pixel aspect, and color depth of the viewed image.
Color Inspector The Color Inspector can only be used in a subview. The Color Inspector shows information about the color channels of the pixel under the cursor. It will show all channels present, even the auxiliary channels such as Z buffer, XYZ normals, and UV mapping channels. The Color Inspector subview for evaluating colors in an image. Metadata The content of this subview is based entirely on the amount of metadata in your image. Most Loaders will give the color space and file path for the image.
To toggle between RGB and alpha channels in the active viewer: Click the Color button in the viewer toolbar to toggle between full RGB color and that image’s alpha channel. To toggle the channel that’s displayed in the active viewer: Click the arrow to the right of the Color button to choose a specific channel to view from the list of available channels in the current image. Click the viewer you want to toggle, and press one of the following keyboard shortcuts.
To rotate within a 3D viewer, do one of the following: Hold down the Option key and drag left or right using the middle mouse button. Hold down the middle and right mouse buttons while dragging. The rotation is centered on the middle of the view. TIP: These rotation controls can be used with the 3D Histogram subview as well.
1 Set up a 3D Viewer with the point of view you want by zooming, panning, and rotating the viewer. 2 Add a camera to your 3D scene. 3 Right-click anywhere within the 3D viewer and choose Camera > Copy PoV To > Camera3DNameOfCamera from the contextual menu. The Camera3D’s controls will inherit the viewer’s position and angle values. TIP: The Copy PoV To command uses the object’s own coordinate space; any transformations performed downstream by another node are not taken into account.
Right-click within the 3D Viewer and choose 3D Options > Lighting from the contextual menu. A 3D scene using default lights (top), and the same scene with lighting turned on (bottom). TIP: Attempting to load a Light node into a viewer all by itself will result in an empty scene, with nothing illuminated. To see the effects of lights, you must view the Merge 3D node the light is connected to. Similar to lights, the default 3D Viewer has shadows turned off.
NOTE: The shadows shown in the 3D viewer are always hard edged. Soft shadows are available for output to the rest of your composition in the software renderer of the Renderer3D node. Transparency in 3D Viewers Image planes and 3D objects are obscured by other objects in a scene depending on the X, Y, and Z position coordinates of each object in 3D space. The default method used to determine which polygons are hidden and which are shown based on these coordinates is called Z-buffering.
Vertex Normals Normals indicate what direction each vertex of 3D geometry is facing, and they are used when calculating lighting and texturing on an object. When viewing any kind of 3D geometry, including an image plane or a full FBX mesh, you can display the normals for each object in a scene. To view the normals in a scene: Right-click anywhere within the viewer and choose 3D Options > Vertex Normals from the contextual menu. The normals viewed in a 3D scene.
While there are four panes in the Quad view, they all show the same scene. When assigning views within a Quad view, you can choose between displaying Front, Left, Top, Bottom, and Perspective orthographic views, or you can choose the view through any camera or spotlight that’s present in the scene.
To show or hide specific guides: Right-click in the viewer and then choose an option from the Guides submenu. A variety of specific guides are provided, each of which can be individually enabled and disabled. – Monitor Safety: Monitor Safety indicates the safe action area viewable on most monitors and TV screens. – Safe Title: Safe Title indicates the safe area for titles viewable on all TV and monitor screens. – Center: Center shows a crosshair for the center point and x- and y-axis of the view.
Domain of Definition and Region of Interest As a compositing environment, the Fusion page uses the standard compositing conventions of Region of Interest (RoI) and Domain of Definition (DoD) to dramatically improve performance. Domain of Definition (DoD) In compositing, the Domain of Definition, frequently abbreviated to DoD, refers to a rectangular region that defines what part of an image actually contains data.
Showing the DoD If the current DoD for a node is different from the frame size of that image, it’s shown in the tooltip that appears when the pointer hovers over a node in the Node Editor. The DoD is also visible in the viewer when you right-click in a viewer and choose Region > Show DoD from the contextual menu. Setting the DoD Manually in the Node Editor It is also possible to set the DoD for an image manually using the Tools > Miscellaneous > Auto Domain node in the Effects Library.
Alternatively, an Auto command sets the RoI to fit whichever pixels are visible at the current zoom/pan level in the viewer. This lets you quickly limit the RoI to whatever part of the composition you’ve zoomed into. To automatically draw the RoI: Choose Auto from the viewer menu next to the RoI button. Right-click anywhere within the viewer and choose Region > Auto Region. When you no longer need to use the RoI, you can reset it.
How Lookup Tables Work in Fusion A Lookup Table (LUT) is a table of values used to transform the color and luminance of an image. A 1D LUT uses a two-column table for input color and output color, while a 3D LUT uses more of a matrix. A LUT is used primarily to correct for variances in the monitor or the source color space of the image. You can choose to apply a LUT to all the viewers or apply different LUTs to each viewer. Image LUTs Image LUTs can be applied to each viewer.
Log-Lin View LUT The Log-Lin LUT converts logarithmic data to linear, and vice versa. This can be particularly useful when used in conjunction with supplied LUT files that expect logarithmic data. It is similar to the Cineon Log node. Gamut View LUT The Gamut LUT converts a source color space to an output color space, with options to deal with gamma settings, alpha channels, and premultiplication.
Using Viewer LUTs Viewer LUTs can be enabled, edited, and turned off using the viewer LUT button and menu, as well as by using the viewer contextual menu. This menu shows all LUTs available to Fusion, including custom LUTs you’ve installed yourself. The viewer LUT button and menu from the Fusion page in DaVinci Resolve. To turn the current viewer LUT on and off: Click the LUT button in the viewer toolbar to toggle the viewer LUT on and off.
Editing Viewer LUTs The viewers are the primary area where composites are assessed, so it’s crucial that they provide an accurate representation of what the content will look like when it’s played for an audience. The LUT Editor allows you to customize your viewer’s output to match the gamma and color characteristics of your eventual playback device, or to test how the current image looks in a completely different color space, or how it holds up over a range of different color spaces.
Selecting the Pre-Divide/Post-Multiply checkbox will cause the image’s pixel values to be divided by the alpha values prior to this conversion, and then re-multiplied by the alpha value after this conversion. This helps to avoid the creation of illegally additive images, particularly around the edges of a blue/green key or when working with 3D rendered objects. The Gamut View LUT Editor. Editing the Log-Lin LUT The Log-Lin LUT lets you apply a Log to Lin or Lin to Log operation using the Mode pop-up menu.
LUT Processing Order In elaborate workflows, facilities may apply multiple LUTs in a row before the image is seen. The order of these is important since each LUT delivers different outputs. For instance, for a Cineon file in Log color space you may often apply three LUTs. First a Log to Lin conversion, followed by a Fusion View LUT to apply a color calibration, and a third one to correct it for display on an sRGB monitor, or replace the last with a 3D DCP LUT if you are viewing on a projector.
LUT Settings The most straightforward way to save a LUT you have created using the Fusion View LUT Editor is to use the LUT > Save menu found in the viewer contextual menu. The settings are saved as an ASCII file with the extension .viewlut in the LUTs folder. Any files with this extension found in that folder will appear in the Image LUT menus for ease of loading. You can also load the settings that are not found in the menu by choosing LUT > Load from the viewer’s contextual menu.
3 In the file browser, go to the LUTs folder as set in Preferences > Global> Path Map > LUTS. 4 Click Save to save the .settings file. This allows almost any combination of nodes to be used as a viewer LUT. This is the most flexible approach but is also potentially the slowest. The LUT nodes must be rendered solely on the CPU, whereas other methods are GPU-accelerated.
To save a viewer setting, do the following: 1 Right-click over the viewer you want to save. 2 From the contextual menu, choose Setting > Save New. 3 Enter a name for the settings and click Save. To load a viewer setting, do the following: 1 Right-click over the viewer you want to load a setting into. 2 From the contextual menu, choose Settings > filename.
Gain/Gamma Exposes or hides a simple pair of Gain and Gamma sliders that let you adjust the viewed image. Especially useful for “gamma slamming” a composite to see how well it holds up with a variety of gamma settings. Defaults to no change. 360º View Sets the Fusion page viewer to properly display spherical imagery in a variety of formats, selectable from this submenu.
Show Labels The Show Lables option lets you toggle the display of the text that sometimes accompanies onscreen controls in the viewer without disabling the functions that are showing those overlays, and without hiding the onscreen controls themselves. Status Bar Information The status bar at the bottom of the Fusion window provides the exact RGBA and Z values for the pixel beneath the pointer when it’s hovering within one of the viewers.
Chapter 59 Editing Parameters in the Inspector The Inspector is where you adjust the parameters of each node to do what needs to be done. This chapter covers the various node parameters and methods for working with the available controls.
Contents Overview of the Inspector 1171 The Tools and Modifiers Panels 1171 Customizing the Inspector 1172 Inspector Height 1172 Inspector Display Preferences 1172 Opening Nodes in the Inspector 1173 Pinning Multiple Nodes in the Inspector 1174 Hiding Inspector Controls 1175 Using the Inspector Header 1175 Selecting and Viewing Nodes in the Inspector 1175 Using Header Controls 1176 Versioning Nodes 1176 Parameter Tabs 1176 The Settings Tab 1177 Inspector Controls Explained 1181
Overview of the Inspector While the creation and connection of nodes in the Node Editor determines the tools and order of operations that make up a composition, the Inspector (previously called the Control Panel) is where you adjust the various parameters inside each node to do what needs to be done. Inspector displays the Brightness Contrast controls. This chapter covers methods for opening node parameters in the Inspector to edit them in different ways according to the type of available controls.
Customizing the Inspector You can customize how the Inspector is presented in a variety of ways. Inspector Height A small arrow button at the far right of the UI toolbar lets you toggle the Inspector between full-height and half-height views, depending on how much room you need for editing parameters. The Maximize button on the left side of the Inspector.
Auto Control Close Tools: When enabled (the default), only the parameters for the active node can be exposed. When disabled, you can open the parameters of multiple nodes in the Inspector if you want. Auto Controls for Selected: When enabled (the default), selecting multiple nodes opens multiple control headers for those nodes in the Inspector. When disabled, only the active node appears in the Inspector; multi-selected nodes highlighted in white do not appear.
Pinning Multiple Nodes in the Inspector For instances where you need to work quickly by editing the parameters of multiple nodes at the same time, you can use the Pin button in the Inspector header of nodes in the Inspector to keep those parameters exposed in the Inspector, regardless of whether that node is selected and active. The Pin button of a node’s Inspector header in the Inspector. While the Pin button is on, that node’s parameters remain open in the Inspector.
Hiding Inspector Controls If you like, Inspector parameters for specific nodes can be hidden so they never appear, even when that node is selected. This can be useful for preventing accidental changes by you or other compositors who may be working on a composition in situations where you don’t want to lock the node. To Toggle the Inspector controls for a node or or off: Right-click on the node in the Node Editor, or on the Inspector header, and choose Modes > Show Controls from the contextual menu.
Using Header Controls The controls found in each node’s Inspector header makes it fast to do simple things. To turn nodes off and on: Each Inspector header has a toggle switch to the left of its name, which can be used to enable or disable that node. Disabled nodes pass image data from the previous upstream node to the next downstream node without alteration. To change the Inspector header name: The name of the node corresponding to that Inspector header is displayed next.
The parameter tabs of the Blur node. More complicated nodes have more tabs containing more groups of parameters. For example, the Delta Keyer has seven tabs: separating Key, Pre-Matte, Matte, Fringe, Tuning, and Mask parameters, along with the obligatory Settings tab. These tabs keep the Delta Keyer from being a giant scrolling list of settings and make it easy to keep track of which part of the keying process you’re finessing as you work. The parameter tabs of the Delta Keyer node.
The following controls are common to most nodes, although some are node-specific. For example, Motion Blur settings have no purpose in a Color Space node. Blend The Blend control is found in all nodes, except the Loader, MediaIn, and Generator nodes. It is used to blend between the node’s unaltered image input and the node’s final processed output. When the blend value is 0.0, the outgoing image is identical to the incoming image.
Skipping Channel Processing Under the hood, most nodes actually process all channels first, but afterward copy the input image to the output for channels that have been unchecked. Modern workstations are so fast that this isn’t usually noticeable, but there are some nodes where deselecting a channel actually causes that node to skip processing that channel entirely. Nodes that operate this way have a linked set of Red, Green, Blue, and Alpha checkboxes on another tab in the node.
Correct Edges The Correct Edges checkbox is only displayed once the Use Object or Use Material checkbox is enabled. When the Correct Edges checkbox is enabled, the Coverage and Background Color channels are used to separate and improve the effect around the edge of the object. When disabled (or no Coverage or Background Color channels are available), aliasing may occur on the edge of the mask.
Inspector Controls Explained Although a few nodes use fully customized interface elements that are unique to only that node, the vast majority of nodes use a mix of sliders, angle wheels, and checkboxes. This section explains how to use these controls. Fusion Slider Controls Slider Controls are used to select a single value from a range of values. You change the value by dragging the slider or entering a value into the edit box. This is fairly standard behavior for sliders.
You can use the arrowheads at either end of the control to fine tune your adjustments. Once the thumbwheel has been selected either by dragging or using the arrow keys, you can use the Left and Right Arrows on your keyboard to further adjust the values. As with the slider control, the Command and Shift keys can be used to increase or decrease the change in value in smaller or larger increments.
Button Arrays Button arrays are groups of buttons that allow you to select from a range of options. They are almost identical in function to drop-down menu controls, except that in the case of a button array it is possible to see all of the available options at a glance. Often button arrays use icons to make the options more immediately comprehensible. The Lens Type button array in the Defocus node.
macOS and Windows Color Nodes Clicking on the color swatch will display the operating system’s standard Color Selection node. macOS Colors panel. Windows Color dialog. Each operating system has a slightly different layout, but the general idea is the same. You can choose a color from the swatches provided—the color wheel on macOS, or the color palette on Windows. However you choose your color, you must click OK for the selection to be applied.
The Eyedropper with color swatch. The Color Picker normally selects from a single pixel in the image, but you can adjust the size of the selection by dragging into the viewer with the Eyedropper, and then holding Command and dragging out a rectangle for the sample size you want. The size change applies to all Color Pickers until the size is changed again. Gradients The Gradient Control bar is used to create a gradual blend between colors.
Square draws the gradient by using a square pattern when the starting point is at the center of the image. Square gradient. Cross draws the gradient using a cross pattern when the starting point is at the center of the image. Cross gradient. Radial draws the gradient in a circular pattern when the starting point is at the center of the image. Radial gradient. Angle draws the gradient in a counter-clockwise sweep when the starting point is at the center of the image. Angle gradient.
Gradient Colors Bar The Gradient Colors bar is used to select the blending colors for the gradient. The default two color stops set the start and end colors. You can change the colors used in the gradient by selecting the color stop, and then using the Eyedropper or color wheel to set the new color. You can add, move, copy, and delete colors from the gradient using the Colors bar. To add a color stop to the Gradient Colors bar: 1 Click anywhere along the bottom of the Gradient Colors bar.
Modifiers Modifiers are expressions, calculations, trackers, paths, and other mathematical components that you attach to a parameter to extend its functionality. When a modifier is attached to a parameter, its controls will appear separately in the Inspector Modifiers tab. To attach a modifier: 1 Right-click over the parameter to which you want to attach a modifier. 2 Make a selection from the Modifier submenu in the contextual menu.
Removing Animation From a Parameter To remove all keyframes from a parameter: 1 Right-click over the name of the keyframed parameter in the Inspector. 2 Choose Remove “node name:parameter name” from the contextual menu. TIP: If you change the default spline type from Bézier, the contextual menu will display the name of the current spline type. Attaching a Parameter to an Existing Animation Curve Multiple parameters can be connected to the same animation curve.
Connecting Parameters by Pick Whipping You can also use simple expressions to link two parameters together. By using simple expressions via pick whipping, values can be connected and combined visually without the need to publish a value first. The pick whip is a temporary line drawn from one parameter to another in order to create a link between the two.
Customizing Node Parameters with User Controls The user interface for each node in Fusion is designed to provide access to the parameters in a logical manner. Sometimes, though, you may want to add, hide, or change the controls. This is commonly done for simple expressions and macros, but it can be done for usability and aesthetic reasons for favorites and presets. User custom controls can be added or edited via the Edit Control dialog.
We could use the Center input control, along with its preview control, to set an angle and distance from directly within the viewer using expressions. 1 Right-click the label for the Length parameter, choose Expression from the contextual menu, and then paste the following expression into the Expression field that appears: -sqrt(((Center.X-.5)*(Input.XScale))^2+((Center.Y-.5)*(Input.YScale)*(Input. Height/Input.
To add the checkbox, run UserControls again, but this time instead of selecting an existing ID, we’ll type Centered into the Name. This will set the name and the ID of our input to Centered. The Type is set to Number, and the Page is set to Controls. Now in the Type Attributes, set the Input Ctrl to be CheckboxControl. Press OK, and now we have our checkbox. To make the new control affect the Type, add a SimpleExpression to the Type: iif(Centered==1, 2, 0).
Chapter 60 Animating in Fusion’s Keyframes Editor This chapter covers how you can keyframe effects in the Inspector, and how you can edit clips, effects, and keyframes in the Keyframes Editor.
Contents Keyframing in the Inspector 1197 Removing Animation in the Inspector 1197 Attaching a Parameter to an Existing Animation Curve 1198 Keyframes Editor Overview 1198 Keyframes Editor Tracks 1199 The Timeline Header 1199 The Playhead 1199 Spreadsheet 1200 Scaling and Panning the Timeline 1200 Working with Segments in the Timeline 1200 Moving Segments in the Timeline 1201 Trimming Segments 1201 Holding the First or Last Frame 1202 Working with Keyframes in the Timeline 1202 D
Autosnap 1209 Autosnap Points 1209 Autosnap Guides 1209 The Spreadsheet Editor 1210 Selecting a Node to Edit 1210 Inserting Keyframes 1210 Selecting Multiple Nodes to Edit 1210 Customizing the Keyframes Editor 1211 Line Size 1211 Display Point Values 1211 Chapter – 60 Animating in Fusion’s Keyframes Editor 1196
Keyframing in the Inspector Most parameters in most effects nodes can be keyframed in order to create animated effects such as animated transforms, rotoscoping with splines, dynamically altering warping behaviors, and more; the list is endless. For convenience, a set of keyframing controls is available within the Inspector next to each keyframable parameter. These controls are: A gray Keyframe button to the right each keyframable parameter.
Attaching a Parameter to an Existing Animation Curve Multiple parameters can be connected to the same animation curve. This can be an invaluable timesaver if you are identically animating different parameters in a node. To connect a second parameter to the same animation curve: 1 Right-click on the second parameter you want to attach. 2 In the contextual menu, hover over the Connect To submenu. 3 In the Connect To submenu, choose the name of the animated parameter.
Keyframes Editor Tracks While each clip and effect node in your composition is represented by a track, keyframed parameters are exposed either as keyframes superimposed upon the track to which they’re applied (as seen on the MOVEMENT track), or they can be opened up onto their own tracks for more precise editing, one keyframe track per keyframed parameter, by clicking a disclosure control to the left of that track’s name in the Timeline header (as seen under the “Drip1” track). The Timeline tracks.
Spreadsheet If you turn on the Spreadsheet and then click on the name of a layer in the keyframe track, the numeric time position and value (or values if it’s a multi-dimensional parameter) of each keyframe appear as entries in the cells of the Spreadsheet. Each column represents one keyframe, while each row represents a single aspect of each keyframe. Editing keyframes in the Spreadsheet.
To add another segment to the selection, do one of the following: Hold Command and click additional segments to select discontiguous selections. Select a segment, and then hold Shift and click another segment to make a contiguous selection of all segments in between. To remove a segment from the selection, do the following: Hold Command and click a selected segment to deselect it.
The Trim cursor. Holding the First or Last Frame If you want to hold a Loader’s first or last frame of a clip for a certain number of frames, also called a freeze frame, you can hold Command while you drag beyond the first or last of the segment in the Timeline. Working with Keyframes in the Timeline Keyframes can be drawn in one of two ways. When keyframe tracks are closed, they’re drawn over the node’s segment.
Keyframe Editing Using the Time Editor A drop-down and editing field at the bottom right of the Keyframes Editor lets you numerically edit the timing, in frames, of any selected keyframe, making it easy to make precise adjustments. To change the position of a keyframe using the toolbar, do one of the following: Select a keyframe, and then enter a new frame number in the Time Edit box. Choose T Offset from the Time Editor drop-down, select one or more keyframes, and enter a frame offset.
Time Stretching Keyframes If you select a range of keyframes in a keyframe track, you can turn on the Time Stretch tool to show a box you can use to squeeze and stretch the entire range of keyframes relative to one another, to change the overall timing of a sequence of keyframes without losing the relative timing from one keyframe to the next. Alternatively, you can turn on Time Stretch and draw a bounding box around the keyframes you want to adjust to create a time-stretching boundary that way.
Choosing a Timeline filter. To create a Timeline filter: 1 Choose Create/Edit Filters from the Keyframes Editor Option menu to open the Timeline panel of the Fusion Settings window. This is where you can create new Timeline filters. The Global Timeline preferences for enabling filters. 2 Click the New button, enter a name for your new filter setting, and click OK. The filter you created is now selected in the Filter pop-up menu at the top.
Selected Filtering Choosing “Show only selected tools” from the Keyframes Editor Option menu filters out all segments except for layers corresponding to selected nodes. This option can be turned on or off. TIP: When “Show only selected tools” is enabled, you can continue to select nodes in the Node Editor to update what’s displayed in the Keyframes Editor. Sorting in the Timeline You can change the order in which the nodes are displayed from top to bottom in the Timeline.
The Timeline Sort Order menu. All Tools: Forces all tools currently in the Node Editor to be displayed in the Keyframes Editor. Hierarchy: Sorts with the most background layers at the top of the header, through to the most foreground layers at the bottom, following the connections of the nodes in the Node Editor. Reverse: The opposite of Hierarchy, working backward from the last node in the Node Editor toward the most background source node.
To create a guide, do the following: Right-click at a frame in the Timeline Ruler of the Keyframes Editor and choose Add Guide from the contextual menu. The most important attribute of a guide is its position. For it to add value, a guide must be placed on the frame you intended it to be on. Hovering the cursor over a guide displays a tooltip with its current frame position. If it is on the wrong frame, you can drag it along the Timeline to reposition it.
There is a pair of checkboxes beside the names of each guide. One is for the Spline Editor, and one is for the Keyframes Editor (labeled Timeline). By default, guides are shown in both the Spline Editor and Keyframes Editor, but you can deselect the appropriate checkbox to hide the guides in that view. Deleting Guides You can delete a guide by dragging it up beyond the axis labels and releasing the mouse. You can also use the Guide’s contextual menu to choose Delete Guide.
The Spreadsheet Editor The Spreadsheet Editor is a separate panel that can be displayed beneath the Keyframes Editor. It is used to compactly show the numeric values of the keyframes for selected parameters in the Timeline header, via a table with rows and columns, showing time and value. The Spreadsheet Editor showing editable data for six keyframes. To reveal the Spreadsheet Editor, click on the Spreadsheet button in the toolbar.
TIP: You can use the Tab and Shift-Tab key shortcuts to move the selection right or left in the Spreadsheet Editor. Customizing the Keyframes Editor There are a few ways you can change the appearance of the Keyframes Editor to better fit your needs. All these options are found by right-clicking anywhere within the Keyframes Editor and choosing an option from the contextual menu that appears. Line Size The Line Size option controls the height of each Timeline segment individually.
Chapter 61 Animating in Fusion’s Spline Editor This chapter covers how you can keyframe effects and control animations in Fusion’s Spline Editor.
Contents Spline Editor Overview 1214 Spline Editor Interface 1214 The Graph, Header, and Toolbar 1215 Renaming Splines 1216 Changing Spline Colors 1216 Navigating Around the Spline Editor 1217 Guides 1218 Autosnap 1220 Creating Animation Splines 1220 Animating with Different Spline Types 1221 Working with Keyframes and Splines 1223 Adding Keyframes 1223 Locked and Unlocked Controls Points 1224 Selecting, Moving, and Deleting Keyframes 1225 Showing Key Markers 1226 Copying and P
Spline Editor Overview The Spline Editor is the main area where animation is manipulated and refined. You primarily use the Spline Editor to show the changing values of parameters over time in the form of splines. Whereas Keyframes explicitly set the value of a parameter on a given frame, Splines are lines or curves that interpolate the values between keyframes.
The Graph, Header, and Toolbar The Spline Editor has three main working areas: the graph, header, and toolbar. On the left side of the Spline Editor is the header, which shows a list of animated parameters. The majority of the panel is taken up by the splines displayed in the graph area, and a toolbar runs along the bottom, providing a variety of ways to manipulate the splines. Graph The graph is the largest area of the interface. It is here that you see and edit the animation splines.
Spline Editor Toolbar The toolbar across the bottom of the Spline Editor represents the most common operations applied to an animation spline. The various operations represented in the toolbar are all accessible from the graph’s context menu as well, but the following buttons provide a faster shortcut. Spline toolbar buttons. Playhead The playhead is the thin red vertical bar that runs vertically through the Spline Editor graph and represents the current time of the comp.
Navigating Around the Spline Editor It is often necessary to magnify and pan around the graph area to ensure that the splines you want to work on are visible. In general, scaling and panning the Spline Editor works the same as in all navigable parts of the Fusion interface. However, there are several unique functions to the Spline Editor for controlling your view based on the height, width, and selection of multiple animation splines.
Using the Graph contextual menu for navigation: There are several ways to navigate the graph area using the Spline Editor contextual menu as well. Choose Scale > Scale to Fit (Command-F) to fit all active splines into the graph area. Choose Scale > Scale to Rectangle (Command-R) to draw a bounding box around the area of the graph you want centered and scaled. This has the same effect as clicking the Zoom to Rectangle button.
Guides can be added by right-clicking in the horizontal time axis. To create a guide: Right-click in the horizontal axis Time Ruler and choose Add Guide. To delete a guide, do one of the following: Drag the guide up outside the Spline Editor panel. Right-click on the guide and then choose Delete Guide from the menu. Select the guide and then press Delete or Backspace on the keyboard. From the Guide List, select a guide in the list and click the Del button.
If guides currently exist in the comp, they are automatically displayed in the Guide List, regardless of whether they were added in the Keyframes Editor or the Spline Editor. You can also add guides directly from the Guide List, which can be helpful if you have multiple guides you need to add, and you know the rough timing. To add a guide from the Guide List: 1 Click the Add button in the Guide List window. 2 Enter a frame number in the Time field.
Choosing Animation from the menu displays a spline in the Spline Editor. Selecting Animate from the contextual menu connects the parameter to the default spline type. This is usually a Bézier Spline unless you change the default spline in the Defaults panel of the Fusion Preferences. Deleting Animation Splines To remove an animation spline from a parameter, right-click on the control and select Remove [tool parameter’s name] from the contextual menu.
Bézier Spline: Bézier splines are the default curve type. Three points for each keyframe on the spline determine the smoothness of the curve. The first point is the actual keyframe, representing the value at a given time. The other two points represent handles that determine how smoothly the curve for the segments leading in and out of the keyframe are drawn. Bézier is the most used spline type because Bézier splines allow you to create combinations of curves and straight lines. Bézier spline.
Natural Cubic spline. Working with Keyframes and Splines Once you animate a parameter and display the Spline Editor, you can manipulate the spline’s keyframes (and thus the animation) in a variety of ways. By selecting Keyframe control points, you can move, copy, and change the interpolation of your animation. Adding Keyframes Once you create one keyframe, additional keyframes are automatically added to a spline whenever you move the playhead and change the value of that spline’s parameter.
Locked and Unlocked Controls Points When animating the Center X/Y or Pivot X/Y parameters on any tool, you create a displacement spline in the Spline Editor. The displacement spline represents the relative offset position of the animated object along its path. Since the displacement spline is relative, keyframes use a value between 0.0 and 1.0. A displacement value of 0.0 in the Spline Editor indicates that the object is at the very beginning of a path. A value of 1.
Selecting, Moving, and Deleting Keyframes The placement of keyframes greatly affects the style of the animation. Using the graph, you can select keyframes and move them up or down to change their value or move them left and right to change the timing. Keyframes can be copied and pasted between splines and parameters. Methods of selecting keyframes: Click directly on a keyframe on the spline, or drag a bounding box around the keyframe.
Showing Key Markers You can adjust the position of the keyframes in time, without worrying about manipulating splines, by using the key markers. The horizontal time axis can show markers that indicate the position of each keyframe. The display of these markers is enabled by right-clicking in the graph and choosing Show > Key Markers from the contextual menu, or by clicking on the Show Key Markers button in the toolbar.
To copy and paste keyframes from one spline to another: 1 Make one spline the active visible spline and select the desired keyframes on the spline. 2 Right-click over the spline and choose Copy Points from the contextual menu or press Command-C. 3 Set the spline to viewed or disabled using the status checkbox next to the spline’s name in the header. 4 Make the destination spline the active visible spline and select the keyframe on the spline where the new keyframes should be pasted.
Time and Value Editors The Time and Value Editors in the lower-right corner of the Spline Editor are used to change the position and parameter value of a keyframe by entering a number into the number field for each button. Each field can switch between three modes that help modify the time and value of a keyframe in three precise but distinct ways. The default mode for each field takes the explicit frame number or parameter value at which you want the keyframe set.
Value Editor The Value Editor is used to modify the selected keyframe’s parameter value using one of three Value modes. You can change the Value mode to enter a specific value for a parameter, an offset from the value, or to spread the values. The mode is chosen from the Value mode drop-down menu. Three value editing modes are selectable from the Value mode drop-down menu. Value The number field shows the value of the currently selected keyframes.
Dragging on a keyframe’s handles adjusts the slope of the segments passing through the spline. By default, the two control handles on a control point are locked together so that if one moves, the one on the other side moves with it. This maintains a constant tension through the keyframe. There are situations, however, when it is desirable to modify these control handles separately for a more pronounced curve or effect.
The Spline Editor includes different ways to control which splines are displayed. The majority of these options are available in the Options menu, located in the upper-right corner of the Spline Editor panel. The Options menu is used to control which splines are displayed in the Spline Editor. Show Only Selected Tools: You can choose to limit the splines displayed in the Spline Editor by showing only the splines from selected tools.
To create a filter: 1 From the Options menu, choose Create/Edit Filters. 2 Click the New button to create a new filter and name the new filter in the dialog box. 3 Enable a checkbox next to the entire category or the individual tools in each category to determine the tools included in the filter. Enable each tool you want to keep in the Spline Editor when the filter is selected.
To disable a filter and show all tools in the Spline Editor again: Choose Show All from the Options menu. Changing a Spline’s Status The Spline header is a hierarchical list of animated parameters and their parent nodes. Clicking the disclosure arrow next to a tool’s name reveals all the names of the animated parameters on that tool. Clicking directly on the parameter name in the Spline header activates that spline for display and editing.
Selection States There are three selection options, labeled Select All Tools, Deselect All Tools, and Select One Tool, that determine how the items in the Spline Editor header behave when a checkbox or label is selected to activate a spline. These states are located in the Options menu in the upper-right corner of the Spline Editor. The Options menu selection states make it easier to select and deselect all parameters in the header.
Interpolation Keyframes are specific frames in an animation where control points are set to exact values on a given parameter. Interpolation is the method used to fill in the unknown values between two keyframes. Fusion automatically interpolates between two keyframes. However, you may want to modify the interpolation to achieve a specific style of animation. The Spline Editor includes several interpolation methods you can choose from using the toolbar.
Step In/Step Out On occasion, it is not desirable to have any interpolation between two keyframes. Instead, the value of one keyframe may hold its value until another keyframe changes it. For these cases, use the Step In or Step Out mode. Step In causes the value of the previous keyframe to hold, then jump straight to the value of the next keyframe. Step In holds a value until the next keyframe is reached in the comp.
Looping Splines It is often useful to repeat an animated section, either infinitely or for a specified number of times, such as is required to create a strobing light or a spinning wheel. Fusion offers a variety of ways to repeat a selected segment. The various Loop buttons in the toolbar. Set Loop To repeat or loop a selected spline segment, select the keyframes to be looped. Select Set Loop from the contextual menu or click on the Set Loop button in the toolbar.
Relative Loop The Relative Loop mode repeats the segment like the Loop, but each repetition adds upon the last point of the previous loop so that the values increase steadily over time. A Relative Loop section in the graph. Looping Backward You can choose Set Pre-Loop by right-clicking in the graph area and choosing it from the contextual menu.
Gradient Extrapolation You can choose Gradient Extrapolation by right-clicking in the graph area and choosing it from the contextual menu. This option continues the trajectory of the last two keyframes. The Gradient Extrapolation applied to the spline. Time Stretching Time Stretching allows for a selected group of keyframes to be proportionally stretched or squashed. This allows you to change the duration of the animation while keeping the relative distance between each keyframe.
The Time Stretch bars in the graph. TIP: If no keyframes are selected when you enable Time Stretch, drag a rectangle to set the boundaries of the Time Stretch. To disable the Time Stretching mode: Click on the Time Stretch button in the toolbar again or reselect Modes > Time Stretching from the contextual menu. Shape Box The Shape Box transform mode is similar to Time Stretching; however, it can adjust the vertical scaling of keyframe values as well as time.
A white rectangle outlines the selected points when the mode is enabled. To scale, skew, or stretch the spline, drag on any of the control points located around the box. To move all the keyframes, drag on the box edges. The Shape Box in the graph. TIP: If no points are selected, or if you want to select a new group of keyframes, you can drag out a new rectangle at any time.
Importing and Exporting Splines Spline shapes can be imported and exported from or to an ASCII text file. This makes it easier to save complex spline curves for later reuse, or to transfer tracking, path, and animation data from one application to another. Exported splines are assigned the file extension .spl for easy identification. To export a spline: 1 Select the active spline in the Spline Editor. 2 Right-click on the spline in the graph area to display the contextual menu.
Chapter 62 Animating with Motion Paths Layers and 3D objects can move along a designated spline shape to create motion path animations. This chapter discusses how you can create, edit, and use motion paths in Fusion.
Contents Animating Using Motion Paths 1245 Types of Motion Paths 1246 Polyline Path 1246 Path Modifier 1250 Controlling Speed and Orientation along a Path 1250 XY Path 1253 Types of Control Points 1255 Locked Points 1255 Unlocked Points 1257 Locking and Unlocking Points 1258 Tips for Manipulating Motion Paths 1259 Compound Motion Paths Using Path Centers 1259 Copying and Pasting Motion Paths 1260 Removing Motion Paths 1260 Recording Motion Paths 1260 Importing and Exporting Pol
Animating Using Motion Paths Motion paths are created from splines (polylines) including paint strokes and masks that have a path modifier applied to them. The path modifier defines the movement that transforms ordinary spline shapes into motion paths. You apply the path modifier either explicitly to the Center X/Y or Pivot X/Y parameters or implicitly by keyframing the Center or Pivot parameters. In either case, the spline path is displayed and then visually adjusted in the viewers.
Types of Motion Paths There are three types of motion paths: Polyline paths, XY paths, and 3D motion paths for 3D scenes. A Polyline path is generated by applying the path modifier. It uses two splines to define the path; one for the shape of the path displayed in the viewer, and a Displacement spline for the speed of the object along the path, displayed in the Spline Editor. The Polyline path is the default type of path modifier, and most documentation in this chapter assumes that this type is used.
Applying a path modifier to the center of a Transform node. The object now has a path modifier applied, so without setting a keyframe you can drag the object to begin creating a motion path in the viewer. 4 Move the playhead to a new frame. 5 Drag the onscreen coordinate control or adjust the Offset or Center values in the Inspector. A keyframe is automatically created on the motion path, and a polyline is drawn from the original keyframe to the new one.
A final alternative method for creating a motion path is to draw a spline shape first and then connect a path modifier to the spline. Using any of Fusion’s spline tools, you can draw the shape of the path and then connect the path modifier to the published spline. Once the path modifier and the published spline are connected, you can keyframe the Displace parameter to move an image along the path. This method is useful when you want to use a paint stroke or mask shape as a motion path.
5 Right-click at the bottom of the Inspector again and select Publish to give other nodes access to this spline shape. (For a paint stroke, you will need to make the Stroke editable first by clicking the Make Editable button in the Stroke Controls.) This enables the Modifiers tab with the Published Polyline modifier. This published spline can be used to define the shape of splines in other nodes. 6 Connect a Transform node to the image you want to have follow the path.
Path Modifier In terms of functionality, it makes no difference which method you use to generate the path modifier. All the above methods are just different ways to get to the same point. Whichever way you decide to add the path modifier, the Modifiers tab contains controls for the path. Creating a path adds controls to the Modifiers tab in the Inspector. You can use the path modifier controls in the Inspector to change the position, size, and rotation of the entire path shape.
For instance, let’s say you have a bumblebee that bobs up and down as it moves across the screen. To have the bee accelerate as it moves up and down but slow down as it reaches its peaks and valleys you use the Displacement curve. An curvy path defined by a spline shape. The curved shape path does not define how fast the bee moves. The speed of the bee at any point along the path is a function of the Displacement parameter.
A Displacement curve in the Spline Editor. TIP: Holding down the Option key while clicking on the spline path in the viewer will add a new point to the spline path without adding a Displacement keyframe in the Spline Editor. This allows you to refine the shape of the path without changing the speed along the path. Using a Path Modifier to Adjust Orientation The Heading parameter is used to adjust the orientation of the object along the path.
XY Path Unlike a Polyline path, the XY path modifier uses separate splines in the Spline Editor to calculate position along the X-axis and along the Y-axis. To animate a coordinate control using an XY path modifier: Right-click on the center coordinate control in the viewer or the Center X/ Y parameter in the Inspector, and then choose Modify With > XY Path from the contextual menu. Adding the XY Path modifier to a Center parameter in the Inspector. At first glance, XY paths work like Polyline paths.
Using an XY path modifier to animate a piece of text. Using the XY Paths in the Spline Editor The Spline Editor for the XY path displays the X and Y channel splines. Changes to the path in the viewer or the Inspector will be displayed as keyframes on these splines in the Spline Editor. Unlike a Polyline path, XY paths do not include a Displacement curve. The speed of the object along the path is tied to the path itself and cannot be separated from the timing of the keyframes that define that path.
Types of Control Points The control points along an XY path in the viewer are locked to the control points on the X and Y curve in the Spline Editor. The number of points are identical, and adding a control point in one place adds it to the other. That is not the case with a Polyline path. Polyline paths are composed of locked and unlocked points. Whether a point is locked is determined by how it was added to the Polyline.
4 Select the Transform node and in the Inspector, click the Keyframe button to the right of the Center X/Y parameter. This adds the path modifier and creates the first locked point of the path. 5 Position the playhead at frame 45. 6 Move the object’s center to the lower center of the screen. Moving the playhead and repositioning the bee adds a second locked point. This sets the second locked point. 7 View the Spline Editor and display Path1’s Displacement spline.
Moving locked points changes the duration of a motion path without changing its shape. This will create an additional locked point and set a new ending for the path. Unlocked Points Unlocked points are created when additional points are added to the motion path while in Insert and Modify modes. These points are used to adjust the overall shape of the motion path, without directly affecting the timing of the motion.
Unlocked points added to the motion path are not displayed on the Displacement spline. You can add unlocked points to the Displacement spline as well. Additional unlocked points in the Spline Editor can be used to make the object’s motion pause briefly. To pause motion along a motion path using an unlocked point: Select a locked point on the Displacement spline and then hold down the Command key while dragging the point horizontally to another frame.
Tips for Manipulating Motion Paths There are a variety of ways you can create and edit motion paths in the viewer. Compound Motion Paths Using Path Centers Every motion path has a defined center represented by a crosshair. Path centers allow paths to be connected to other controls and behave in a hierarchical manner, which is an exceptionally powerful way of creating complex motion by combining relatively simple paths. A useful example of this technique would be animating the path of a bee in flight.
Copying and Pasting Motion Paths It is possible to copy an entire motion path to the clipboard and then paste it onto another node or path or composition. Methods of copying and pasting motion paths: To copy a motion path: In the Inspector’s Modifiers tab, right-click on the path’s control header and choose Copy from the contextual menu. To cut a motion path out of a node: In the Inspector, right-click on the path’s control header and choose Cut from the contextual menu.
Importing and Exporting Polylines You can import and export polyline shapes into a common editable ASCII text file or its native format. These methods are used to save a particularly useful or generic mask or path for future use or for use in another application, such as Maya or LightWave. You can also import FXF, SSF, or Nuke shape files.
Chapter 63 Using Modifiers, Expressions, and Custom Controls Some of the most powerful aspects of Fusion are the different ways it allows you to go beyond the standard tools delivered with the application. This chapter provides an introduction to a variety of advanced features, including Modifiers, Expressions, and Scripting, which can help you extend the functionality and better integrate Fusion into your studio.
Contents The Contextual Menu for Parameters in the Inspector 1264 Using Modifiers 1264 Adding the Right Modifier for the Job 1264 Adding Modifiers to Individual Parameters 1264 Combining Modifiers and Keyframes 1265 Publishing a Parameter 1265 Connecting Multiple Parameters to One Modifier 1266 Adding and Inserting Multiple Modifiers 1266 Performing Calculations in Parameter Fields 1268 Using SimpleExpressions 1268 Pick Whipping to Create an Expression 1270 Removing SimpleExpressions
The Contextual Menu for Parameters in the Inspector Most of the features in this chapter are accessed via a contextual menu that appears when you right-click most parameters in the Inspector. Different contextual menus are available based on where in the Inspector you right-click.
A modifier’s controls are displayed in the Modifiers tab of the Inspector. When a selected node has a modifier applied, the Modifiers tab will become highlighted as an indication. The tab remains grayed out if no modifier is applied. The Modifiers tab with two modifiers applied. Modifiers appear with header bars and header controls just like the tools for nodes. A modifier’s title bar can also be dragged into a viewer to see its output.
Publish a parameter in order to link other parameters to it. Once a parameter is published, you can right-click another parameter and choose Connect To > [published parameter name] from the contextual menu. The two values are linked, and changing the parameter value of one in the Modifiers tab changes the other. Using the pick whip between two parameters provides similar linking behavior with more flexibility. Pick whipping between parameters is covered later in this chapter.
CoordTransform Position: Calculates the current 3D position of a given object even after multiple 3D transforms have repositioned the object through the node tree hierarchy. Cubic Spline: Adds a Cubic spline to the Spline Editor for animating the selected parameter. Expression: Allows you to add a variable or a mathematical calculation to a parameter, rather than a straight numeric value.
Performing Calculations in Parameter Fields You can enter simple mathematical equations directly in a number field to calculate a desired value. For example, typing 2.0 + 4.0 in most number fields will result in a value of 6.0. This can be helpful when you want a parameter to be the sum of two other parameters or a fraction of the screen resolution. Using SimpleExpressions Simple Expressions are a special type of script that can be placed alongside the parameter it is controlling.
Expression Description iif(Merge1.Blend == 0, 0, 1) This returns 0 if the Blend value is 0, and returns 1 if it is not. The iff() function is a shorthand conditional statement, if-then-else. iif(Input.Metadata.ColorSpaceID == “sRGB”, 0, 1) This returns 0 if the image connected to the current node’s Input is tagged with the sRGB colorspace. When no other node name is supplied, the expression assumes the Input is coming from the current node. It is equivalent to self.Input.
TIP: When working with long SimpleExpressions, it may be helpful to drag the Inspector panel out to make it wider or to copy/paste from a text editor or the Console. After setting an expression that generates animation, you can open the Spline Editor to view the values plotted out over time. This is a good way to check how your SimpleExpression evaluates over time. A sine wave in the Spline Editor, generated by the expression used for Text1: Size.
Customizing User Controls Each tool’s parameters are organized in a logical order in the Inspector. The most used controls are closer to the top, and the more subtle refinement controls are lower in the list. Sometimes, though, you may want to add, hide, or change the controls. You often need to do this for SimpleExpressions and macros, but you may also do this for usability and aesthetic reasons for favorites and presets.
As an example, we’ll customize the controls for a DirectionalBlur: The Inspector for a default direction blur. Let’s say we wanted a more interactive way of controlling a linear blur in the viewer, rather than using the Length and Angle sliders in the Inspector. Using a SimpleExpression, we’ll control the length and angle parameters with the Center parameter’s onscreen control in the viewer. The SimpleExpression would look something like this: For Length: sqrt(((Center.X-.5)*(self.Input.
4 Set the Type to Point. 5 Select Controls in the Page list. (Controls is the first tab in the Inspector, normally.) 6 Click OK. DirectionalBlur Center parameter name changed to Blur Vector. The new Blur Vector parameter now appears in the Inspector. The internal ID of the control is still Center, so our SimpleExpressions did not change. To hide the Length and Angle parameters in the Inspector: 1 In the Edit Control dialog, select the Length from the ID list. 2 Select Controls from the Page list.
To create a new control: 1 In the Edit Control dialog, enter Center Blur in the Name field. 2 Select the New Control from the ID list. 3 Set the Type to Number, and set the Page to Controls. 4 Set the Input Ctrl to CheckboxControl. 5 Click OK. To make this new checkbox affect the original Type menu, you’ll need to add a SimpleExpression to the Type: iif(TypeNew==0, 0, 2) The “iif” operator is known as a conditional expression in Lua script.
Chapter 64 Bins This chapter covers the bin system in Fusion Studio. Bins allow for the storage and organization of clips, compositions, tool settings, and macros, similar to the Media Pool and Effects Library in DaVinci Resolve. It includes a built-in Studio Player for creating a playlist of multiple shots and their versions. Bins can be used in a server configuration for organizing shots and collaborating with other team members across the studio.
Contents Bins Overview 1277 Bins Interface 1277 Viewing and Sorting Bins 1278 Organizing Bins 1279 Adding and Using Content 1281 File Type Details 1282 Using Content from Bins 1282 Jog and Shuttle 1283 Stamp Files 1283 Using the Studio Player 1284 Playing a Single Clip 1284 Creating a Reel 1285 Connecting Bins Over a Network 1293 Adding a Remote Bin Entry 1294 Accessing Remote Bins 1294 Permissions 1294 Studio Player and Bin Server 1295 Chapter – 64 Bins 1276
Bins Overview Bins are folders that provide an easy way of accessing commonly used tools, settings, macros, compositions, and footage. They can keep all your custom content and resources close at hand, so you can use them without searching through your hard drives. Bins can also be shared over a network to improve a collaborative workflow with other Fusion artists. Bins are only available in Fusion Studio. The Bins window. Bins Interface The Bins window is separated into two panels.
TIP: When opening the Bins window on macOS, the window may open behind the current Fusion Studio window. Check in the dock for the Bins window icon or move the Fusion Studio window to locate the Bins window if you are working on a single monitor. The sidebar organizes content into bins, or folders, using a hierarchical list view.
The Bins List view. Sort Order in List View Clicking on the heading of a column in List view will sort the list in ascending order, and clicking it again will reverse the sort order. Icon Size in Icon View The icons can be adjusted to small, medium, large, or huge by clicking the Size button in the bottom toolbar or right-clicking in an empty area of the Contents panel to bring up the contextual menu and choosing a size from the Icon Size submenu. Use the Size button to select the icon size in the bin.
The New Folder menu. You can also click the New Folder icon in the toolbar. To rename a bin folder: 1 Right-click on the folder icon in the Contents panel. 2 Choose Rename from the contextual menu or press F2 on the keyboard. To move a folder into or out of a parent folder: 1 Select the parent folder that contains the folder you want to move. 2 In the Contents panel, drag the folder into the sidebar where you want it moved. Drag a folder from the Contents panel to move it in the sidebar.
Adding and Using Content You can add and use different types of content with bins. Fusion Studio compositions, tools, saved tool settings, macros, tool groups, and any file format that is supported in Fusion can be added to bins and then used in compositions at a later time. To add an item to a bin: 1 Select a bin in the sidebar where you want to add the content. 2 Right-click in the Contents panel. 3 Choose New > … from the contextual menu.
File Type Details Some types of content have additional methods of being added to bins. Some additional methods are because of the file type and some are because of where they are located. Projects and Media In addition to using the New… contextual menu as explained earlier, Fusion Studio project files with the extension “.comp” and media can also be added to bins by dragging them to the Contents panel from a file browser.
Jog and Shuttle You can scrub clips in Icon view in the bin using one of two modes. Jog mode is the default mode. It moves the clip forward and backward as long as you are dragging the mouse. Once the mouse stops, the clip pauses. You can choose Shuttle mode by right-clicking over the clip’s thumbnail in the bin and choosing Scrub Mode > Shuttle. Jog and Shuttle contextual menu. Shuttle mode begins playing the clip forward or backward once you press the right mouse button and drag either left or right.
Using the Studio Player The Studio Player is a timeline-based playback interface built into the Bins window. It allows you to play and organize versions of compositions, make notes, and collaborate on shots and projects. The resolution-independent player uses any format that Fusion Studio can ingest, like EXR, ProRes, BMD RAW, QuickTime, and others. Clips use a RAM cache for playback, so even large formats can loop playback as long as there is available memory.
The Studio Player includes a large viewer, a Timeline, and a toolbar along the bottom. Once you have the clip open in the Studio Player, you can click the Play button in the toolbar at the bottom of the window. Scrubbing the Timeline You can quickly preview the clip by scrubbing through it rather than playing it. To scrub a clip in Studio Player: 1 In the Timeline, drag the playhead to the area you want to scrub over. 2 Use the Left and Right Arrow keys to move one frame forward or backward.
Use the New Reel button to create a reel in the current bin. Once created and named, the reel appears in the current bin. Double-clicking the reel opens the Studio Player interface along the bottom of the Bin window. An empty Studio Player appears in the top half of the window. To add a clip to a reel: 1 Click the three-dot Options menu in the lower-left corner and choose Show Bins. 2 Drag a clip from one of the bins to the empty reel in the lower half of the window.
You can insert a shot between existing clips by positioning the new clip in between existing items in the reel. To play the clips in a reel: 1 Click the three-dot Options menu in the lower-left corner and choose Show Player. 2 Position the playhead where you want to begin playing and click the Play button. Creating Versions Alternatively, you can add a version to an existing clip by dragging the new item on top. Versions of a shot will appear as stacked icons in the storyboard reel.
Version Menu You can choose which version to view by right-clicking over the clip in the storyboard and selecting it from the Version > Select menu. The Version menu also includes options to move or rearrange the order of the clip versions as well as remove a version, thereby deleting it from the stack. Shot Menu The per-clip Shot menu includes functions to Rename the shot, Remove the shot, Trim the clip’s In and Out points, add notes, adjust the color, and add an audio soundtrack.
Rename: Allows you to change the name of the shot. Remove: Deletes the entire shot and all the versions from the project reel. Trim: Opens the Trim dialog to adjust the clip In point and Out point on the Timeline. Notes: Opens the Notes window to the right of the interface, allowing you to add a note to the specific shot. Color: Opens the Color Adjustments panel to perform Lift, Gamma, Gain, Brightness, and Contrast adjustments to clips.
The Options menu includes options to switch the top half of the window between the viewer or bin contents. Selecting Reel > Notes opens the Notes dialog to add annotations text to the entire reel project. The Reel > Export option saves the reel to disk as an ASCII readable format so it can be used elsewhere or archived. The Reel submenu opens an area for production notes on the entire reel. The View menu is used when you want to switch between the reel storyboard layout and a Timeline layout.
Guides are a simple XML formatted text document saved with the .guide extension, as defined below. This makes it easy to create and share guides.
Guide Styles The style of a guide is defined by a set of properties that appear in the format shown below: HLine: Draws a horizontal line and requires a Y-value, which is measured from the top of the screen. The Y-value can be given either in percent (%) or in absolute pixels (px). Vline: Draws a vertical line and requires an X-value, which is measured from the left of the screen.
Connecting Bins Over a Network You can share bins among computers running Fusion on the network so that multiple visual effects artists can share assets, presets, and even entire compositions. These shared bins are called remote bins, and everyone can share one or more remote bin in a studio. To connect to a remote system and display its bins: 1 Choose Fusion Studio > Preferences. 2 In the Preferences dialog, select Global > Bins > Servers in the list. The bin servers Preferences panel.
Adding a Remote Bin Entry If you want to add another Remote bin to the list of available Remote bins, you can click the Add button in the bin servers Preferences panel. The text controls below the button will become enabled for editing. In the Server field, type the system name or IP address where the bin is hosted. Add the IP address where the bin server is hosted. Then add a User name and Password if one is needed to access the server. The Library field lets you name the bins.
Studio Player and Bin Server Reel projects can be shared by multiple artists across the studio via the bin server system, reviewing and adding versions and notes, all independently at the same time. With the Sync function, multiple people can collaborate together with synced playback and scrubbing. The Sync button is a three-way toggle button: Off, Slave, and Master. When the Sync function is On, the transport controls can be set to control the playback or follow the master controller.
Chapter 65 Fusion Connect This chapter goes into detail on how to use the Fusion Connect AVX2 plug-in with an AVID Media Composer editing system. The Fusion Connect AVX plug-in is only available with Fusion Studio.
Contents Fusion Connect Overview 1298 System Requirements 1298 The Effects Palette 1298 The Layer Input Dialog 1299 Applying Fusion Connect to a Transition Point 1299 Export Clips 1299 Edit Effect 1300 Browse for Location 1301 Auto Render in Fusion 1301 Red on Missing Frames 1301 Compress Exported Frames 1301 Edit Effect Also Launches Fusion 1301 Versioning 1302 Create New Version 1302 Version 1302 About RAW Images 1302 About Color Depth 1302 Manual vs.
Fusion Connect Overview Fusion Connect is an AVX2 plug-in for AVID Media Composer. It allows editors to create a conduit between the Timeline in Avid editing products and Fusion Studio. Fusion Connect exports clips from the Avid Timeline as image sequences and assembles Fusion compositions that allow you to work your magic on the content. Fusion can be started automatically by the plug-in if Fusion is installed on the same system, or it can be used on remote computers to modify the composition.
The Layer Input Dialog When you apply the Fusion Connect AVX plug-in to a clip or a layer in the Timeline, you are presented with an AVX Optional Inputs dialog box. The Fusion Connect AVX plug-in can access multiple layers from the Media Composer Timeline. Once the layer count is selected, Fusion Connect will be applied to the Timeline. Select the layer count equal to the number of video track layers you want to ingest into Fusion. Filler can be used as a layer.
When using Fusion on the same computer as Media Composer, there is no need to export the clips explicitly by checking the Export Clips checkbox. Without this option enabled, Fusion Connect saves the source frames each time images are displayed, scrubbed, or played back from the Timeline. Depending on your Media Composer Timeline settings, these interactively exported images might be half-resolution based on Avid proxy settings.
Browse for Location The Fusion Connect media folders are created on the drive where the associated Avid media resides, defaulting to the root level of that drive. However, you can choose a new location for the Fusion Connect media. 0To choose another location to store and access the media: 1 In the Media Composer Effects Editor, click the Browse for Location button. 2 In the File Browser, change the location and create additional folders if desired.
Versioning Creating visual effects is almost always an iterative process. You’ll often need to create revisions after your first pass at the effect. Built into Fusion Connect is a versioning feature that lets you create multiple revisions of an effect and switch between them from within Media Composer. Create New Version This checkbox creates a copy of the current comp without affecting the original.
The following diagram shows typical workflows for manual and automatic renders. Manual Workflow 1 Add Connection effect Auto-Render Workflow 1 Add Connection effect Ensure thatAuto-Render is ticked. 2 Click Export Clip Creates Fusion RAW files at the given location on the media drive. These files are not deleted automatically, and manual cleanup of old files will be rquired to avoid running out of disk space.
TIP: Due to the design of the AVX2 standard, hidden embedded handles are not supported. To add handles, prior to exporting to Fusion, increase the length of your clip in the Media Composer Timeline to include the handle length. Fusion Node Editor representations of a single clip segment effect in the Media Composer Timeline (left), a multi-layered composite (center), and the transition (right).
Rendering with Fusion When you perform a render of your comp inside Fusion Studio, the results are rendered to the output folder created by Fusion Connect during the initial application of the plug-in to the Timeline. Upon rendering, you immediately see the results of the rendered Fusion comp in the Avid Timeline. Even while Fusion is rendering, you can continue with the edit process on any clip except for the associated clip being rendered at the time.
Fusion Connect creates a logical folder structure that is not affiliated with the Avid Media Files folder but rather the Fusion Connect AVX2 plug-in. Based on data gathered during the AVX application to the Timeline, a logical folder hierarchy is automatically created based on Avid projects, sequences, and clips. This structure allows for multiple instances of Fusion Studio to access the media and multiple instances of the AVX to relate to a single Fusion comp.
Default paths can be configured using variables similarly as on Windows, but for added convenience it is possible to enter any desired path defaults directly into fields in the dialog, without the need for using environment variables. Configuring Paths on Windows When using Fusion Connect on Windows, the Configure Path Defaults dialog looks like this: Environment variable path maps on Windows. Fusion Connect can define the user variables directly in the Fusion Connect plug-in.
Environment Variables The pathing can be set in the environment variables of the system, so that IT management of the project paths can be achieved. Accessing the Environment Variables on Windows The quickest way to access environment variables is through your Windows control panel by searching the word “env” without the quotes. You have a choice of editing at a user level or system level. User Variables Click on the link that says “Edit environment variables for your account.
Environment Variables and What They Mean The Fusion Connect AVX plug-in can use environment variables to set different locations for certain folders or files. Each computer OS has a unique way of entering environment variables, but in every OS, the variable must be typed exactly as shown. TIP: If you type directly in Fusion Connect’s Path Editor, you do not have to type the variable, just the value.
Chapter 66 Preferences This chapter covers the various options that are available from the Fusion Preferences panel.
Contents Preferences Overview 1312 Categories of Preferences 1313 Preferences In Depth 1315 AVI 1317 Defaults 1317 Flow 1319 Frame Format 1321 General 1322 GPU 1325 Layout 1326 Loader 1327 Memory 1329 Network 1331 Path Maps 1332 Preview 1334 QuickTime 1335 Script 1336 Spline Editor 1337 Splines 1338 Timeline 1340 Tweaks 1341 User Interface 1343 Video Monitoring 1345 View 1347 VR Headsets 1348 Bins/Security 1350 Bins/Server 1351 Bins/Settings 1352 EDL I
Preferences Overview The Preferences window provides a wide variety of optional settings available for you to configure Fusion’s behavior to better suit your working environment. These settings are accessed via the Preferences dialog. The Preferences dialog can be opened from a menu at the top of the interface. In DaVinci Resolve, to open the Fusion Preferences window, do one of the following: – On macOS, switch to the Fusion page and choose Fusion > Fusion Settings.
Global and Composition Preferences The Preferences window is divided into a category sidebar on the left and the settings panel on the right. In Fusion Studio, there are two levels of preferences: Global and Composition. The Fusion page in DaVinci Resolve uses just a single Global preference that affects every project, new and existing. The Global preferences are used to set options specific to Fusion’s overall behavior as well as defaults for each new composition.
Flow You use the Flow preferences to set many of the same options found in the Node Editor’s contextual menu, like settings for Tile picture, the Navigator, and pipe style. Frame Format The Frame Format preferences are used to create new frame formats as well as select the default image height and width when adding new creator tools like Background and Text+. You also set the frame rate for playback.
Options for the handling and smoothing of animation splines, Tracker path defaults, onionskinning, roto assist, and more are found in the Splines preference. Timeline The Timeline preferences is where you create and edit Timeline/Spline filters and set default options for the Keyframes Editor. Tweaks The Tweaks preferences handle miscellaneous settings for modifying the behavior when loading frames over the network and queue/network rendering.
The 3D View preferences. Grid The Grid section of the 3D View preferences configures how the grid in 3D Viewers are drawn. Grid Antialiasing: Some graphics hardware and drivers do not support antialiased grid lines, causing them to sort incorrectly in the 3D Viewer. Disabling this checkbox will disable antialiasing of the grid lines. To turn off the grid completely, right-click in a 3D Viewer and choose 3D Options > Grid. Size: Increasing the Size value will increase the number of grid lines drawn.
Fit to View The Fit to View section has two value fields that manage how much empty space is left around objects in the viewer when the F key is pressed. Fit Selection: Fit Selection determines the empty space when one or more objects are selected and the F key is pressed. Fit All: Fit All determines the empty space when you press F with no objects selected. Default Lights These three settings control the default light setup in the 3D Viewer.
The Defaults preferences. Default Animate The Default Animate section is used to change the type of modifier attached to a parameter when the Animate option is selected from its contextual menu. The default option is Nothing, which uses a Bézier spline to animate numeric parameters and a path modifier for positional controls. Number With and Point With: Drop-down lists are used to select a different modifier for the new default.
Global Range Using the Start and End fields, you can define the Global Start and End frames used when creating new compositions. Time Code You use this option to determine whether new compositions will default to showing SMPTE Time Code or frames (Feet + Frames) to represent time. Flow Many of the same options found in the Node Editor’s contextual menu, like settings for Tile Picture, the Navigator, and Pipe Style, are found in this category. The Flow preferences.
Options The Options section includes several settings that control or aid in the layout and alignment of tools in the Node Editor. Arrange to Grid: This enables a new node tree’s Snap to Grid option to force the tool layout to align with the grid marks in the flow. Arrange to Connected: Tools snap to the vertical or horizontal positions of other tools they are connected to.
Group Opacity This slider controls the opacity of an expanded group’s background in the Node Editor. Frame Format Frame Format preferences allow you to select the resolution and frame rate for the nodes that generate images like Background, fast noise, and Text+. It also sets the color bit depth for final renders, previews, and interactive updates in the viewer. The color bit depth settings only apply to Fusion Studio. Rendering in DaVinci Resolve always use 32-bit float. The Frame Format preferences.
Settings The Settings section defines the format that is selected in the Default Format menu. You can modify an existing format or create a new one. Width/Height: When creating a new format for the menu or modifying an existing menu item, you specify the Width or Height in pixels of the format using these fields. Frame Rate: Enter or view the frames per second played by the format. This sets the default Frame Rate for previews and final renders from the Saver tool.
The General preferences. Usability Usability has a number of project, Node Editor, and user interface settings that can make the application easier to work with, depending on your workflow. Auto Clip Browse: When this checkbox is enabled, the File Browser is automatically displayed when a new Loader or Saver is added to the Node Editor. New Comp on Startup: When checked, a new, empty project is created each time Fusion Studio is launched. This has no effect in DaVinci Resolve’s Fusion page.
Show Render Settings: When this checkbox is selected, the Fusion Render Settings dialog will be displayed every time a render is started in Fusion Studio. Holding Shift while starting a render will prevent the display of the dialog for that session, using whatever settings were applied during the last render. Disabling this option reverses this behavior. Mouse Wheel Affects the Window Under the Pointer: Normally the mouse wheel or trackpad swiping works in the currently active window.
GPU The GPU preference is only available in Fusion Studio. In DaVinci Resolve, you can configure the GPU processing in Resolve’s Memory and GPU preferences. In Fusion Studio, the GPU preference is used to specify the GPU acceleration method used for processing, based on your computer platform and hardware capabilities. It is also used for enabling caching and debugging GPU devices and tools. The GPU preferences.
Debugging The more advanced preferences located in this section are designed for diagnostics and analyzing GPU operations. Verbose Console Messages: Enabling this option causes information to be shown in the Console. For example, Startup Logs, Compiler Warnings, and Messages. OpenGL Sharing: Enabling this option shares system RAM with onboard GPU RAM to create a larger, but slower, OpenGL memory pool. Clear Cache Files: This option will clear already compiled GPU code and then recompile the kernels.
Program Layout The Program Layout is used to save the overall Fusion interface window and any open floating windows. Each new composition you open within the lager overall Fusion interface window will adhere to these preferences. Grab Program Layout: Pressing this button stores the application’s overall current position and size. Run Mode: This menu is used to select the application’s default mode at startup.
The Loader preferences. Defaults The Defaults section includes two settings to determine how color depth and aspect ratio are handled for Loaders. Loader Depth: The Loader Depth defines how color bit depth is handled when adding a Loader. Choosing Format means that the correct bit depth is automatically selected, depending on the file format and the information in the file’s header. Choosing Default sets the bit depth to the value specified in the Frame Format preferences.
Don’t Cache Files from Local Disks: Files that do not sit on a network drive will not be copied into the LoaderCache path. You can disable this option if you have, for example, a fast SSD cache drive and want to use it for local files as well to speed up file access while working interactively. Only Files Smaller Than xxx MB.: Files larger than the value set here will not be copied into the LoaderCache path.
The Memory preferences. Caching Limits The Caching Limits include options for Fusion’s RAM cache operation. Here, you can determine how much RAM is allocated to the RAM cache for playing back comps in the viewer. Limit Caching To: This slider is used to set the percentage of available memory used for the interactive tool cache. Available memory refers to the amount of memory installed in the computer.
Final Render These settings apply to memory usage during a rendering session, either preview or final, with no effect during an interactive session. Render Slider: This slider adjusts the number of frames that are rendered at the same time. Simultaneous Branching: When checked, more than one branch of a node tree will be rendered at the same time. If you are running low on memory, turn this off to increase rendering performance. Network The Network preferences are only available in Fusion Studio.
General The General preferences are designed with the most used options at the top in the General section. These options determine in what capacity the system is used during network rendering. Make This Machine a Render Master: When enabled, Fusion will accept network render compositions from other computers and manage the render. It does not necessarily mean that this computer will be directly involved in the render, but it will submit the job to the render nodes listed in the Render Manager dialog.
The Path Map preferences. There are two main advantages to virtual path maps instead of actual filenames. One is that you can easily change the path to footage (for example, copying from one drive to another), without needing to make any changes to compositions. Also, path maps are used when network rendering to bypass the different filename conventions. Built in Path Maps: There are several built-in path maps. In Fusion Studio, Comp refers to the folder where the current composition is saved.
Creating a Path Map: To create a path map, click on the New button and enter the name of the path map in the From field below. Enter the value of the path map in the To field. Deleting a Path Map: To delete a user created path map, select it from the list and click the Delete button. Built-in path maps cannot be deleted. Only path maps created by the user can be removed from the path maps list. Preview Preview is only available in Fusion Studio.
Show Previews for Active Loaders: This setting determines whether the preview playback controls are shown below the Inspector when a Loader with a valid file is activated. Show Previews for Active Savers: This setting determines whether the preview playback controls below the Inspector are shown when a Saver with a valid file is activated.
Key Frame Every X Frames: When checked, the codec will create key frames at specified intervals. Key frames are not compressed in conjunction with previous frames and are, therefore, quicker to seek within the resulting movie. Not all codecs support the key frame setting. Limit Data Rate To X KB/Second: When checked, the data rates of the rendered file will be limited to the amount specified. Not all codecs support this option.
Specify Custom Login: If a username and password are assigned, Fusion will refuse to process incoming external script commands (from FusionScript, for example), unless the Script first logs in to the workstation. This only affects scripts that are executed from the command line, or scripts that attempt to control remote copies of Fusion. Scripts executed from within the interface do not need to log in regardless of this setting. For more information, see the Scripting documentation.
Spline Editor Options These settings control the spline behavior in the Spline Editor, as well as the appearance of the graph area. Independent Handles: Enabling this option allows the In or Out direction handle on newly created key frames to be moved independently without affecting the other. This option is also available via the Options submenu when right-clicking in the Spline Editor graph. Follow Active: The Spline Editor focuses on the currently active tool.
The Splines preferences. Autosmooth: Automatically smooths out any newly created points or key frames on the splines selected in this section. You can choose to automatically smooth animation splines, B-Splines, polyline matte shapes, LUTs, paths, and meshes. B-Spline Modifier Degree: This setting determines the degree to which the line segments influence the resulting curvature when B-Splines are used in animation.
Timeline The Timeline preferences is where you create and edit Keyframes Editor/Spline Editor filters and set default options for the Keyframes Editor. The Timeline preferences. Filter/Filter to Use The Filter menu populates the hierarchy area below the menu with that setting. It lets you edit the filters. The Filter to Use menu selects the default filter setting located in the Keyframes Editor Options menu. Settings for Filters This area is used to create a new filter and define its settings.
Autosnap Points: When moving points in the Keyframes Editor, the points will snap to the fields or to the frames, or they can be moved freely. Guides: When moving points in the Keyframes Editor, the point will snap to the guides that are placed in the Timeline graph. Autosnap Guides: When moving or creating guides, the guides will snap to the fields or to the frames, or they can be moved freely. Autoscale: Keeps the Timeline scales intact while changing the editable spline content in the graph.
Load Composition Timeout: This timeout option determines how long the Render Manger will wait for a composition to load before moving on to another task. Last Slave Restart Timeout: This timeout option determines how long the Render Manager will wait for a render salve to respond before using another render slave. File I/O The File I/O options are used to control the performance when reading frames or large media files from both direct and networked attached storage.
Disable View LUT Shaders: OpenGL shaders can often dramatically accelerate View LUTs, but this can occasionally involve small trade-offs in accuracy. This setting will force Fusion to process LUTs at full accuracy using the CPU instead. Try activating this if View LUTs do not seem to be giving the desired result.
The User Interface preferences. Appearance When enabled, the Use Gray Background Interface checkbox will change the color of the background in Fusion’s panels to a lighter, more neutral shade of gray. Controls This group of checkboxes manages how the controls in the Inspector are displayed. Auto Control Open: When disabled, only the header of the selected node is displayed in the Inspector. You must double-click the header to display the parameters.
Show Controls for Selected: When this option is disabled, only the active tool’s parameters are shown in the Inspector. By default, it is enabled, showing controls for the active tool as well as all selected tools. Combined Color Wheel: When the Color Corrector tool is displayed in the Inspector, enabling this checkbox will show one color wheel with buttons to switch between the master, shadow, midtones, and highlight channels. Otherwise, four color wheels are displayed in the Inspector.
The Video Monitoring preferences. Video Output This group of drop-down menus allows you to select the type of video I/O device you have installed, the output resolution, and the pixel format. These settings have nothing to do with your rendered output; it is only for your display hardware. The Output HDR over HDMI settings are used to output the necessary metadata when sending high dynamic range signals over HMDI 2.0a and have it correctly decided by an HDR capable video display.
View The View preferences are used to manage settings and default controls for viewers. The View preferences. Saved View Settings The area at the top of the view preferences lists the currently saved settings that you create from the viewer’s contextual menu. You can use the Rename and Delete buttons to manage the selected entries in the list. For more information on the viewer and its contextual menu, see Chapter 58 “Using Viewers” in the DaVinci Resolve manual or Chapter 7 in the Fusion Studio manual.
Fit Margin The Fit Margin setting determines how much padding is left around the frame when the Fit button is pressed or Fit is selected from the viewer’s contextual menu. Display LUT Plug-Ins This list shows the available display LUTs and activates the selected one as default. VR Headsets The VR Headsets preferences allow configuration of any connected Virtual Reality headsets, including how stereo and 3D scenes are viewed.
360° Video Format Auto: Auto will detect the incoming image layout from the metadata and image frame aspect. VCross and HCross: VCross and HCross are the six square faces of a cube laid out in a cross, vertical or horizontal, with the forward view in the center of the cross, in a 3:4 or 4:3 image.
Bins/Security Bins preferences are only available in Fusion Studio. These preferences are used to manage the Bin users and their permissions. The Bins Security preferences. Users List The Users List is a list of the users and their permissions. You can select one of the entries to edit their settings using the User and Password edit boxes. Add: The Add button is used to add a new user to the list by entering a username and password. Remove: Click this button to remove the selected entry.
Bins/Server These preferences are used to add Bin Servers to the list of bins Fusion will display in the Bins dialog. The Bin Servers preferences. Servers This dialog lists the servers that are currently in the connection list. You can select one of the entries to edit its settings. Add: Use this button to add a new server to the list. Remove: Click this button to remove the selected entry. Server This editable field shows the name or IP address of the server for the selected entry in the list.
Bins/Settings These preferences are used to control the default behavior of bins. The Bins Settings preferences. Stamp Quality The Stamp Quality is a percentage slider that determines the compression ratio used for Stamp thumbnail creation. Higher values offer better quality but take up more space. Stamp Format This drop-down list determines whether the Stamp thumbnails will be saved as compressed or uncompressed.
EDL Import The EDL Import options are used to determine how compositions are created from imported CMX-formatted EDL files. The EDL Import preferences. Flow Format This drop-down menu provides three options that determine how the node tree is constructed for the imported EDL file. Loader Per Clip: A Loader will be created for each clip in the EDL file. A-B Roll: A node tree with a Dissolve tool will be created automatically.
Shortcuts Customization Keyboard shortcuts can be customized in Fusion Studio. You can access the Hotkey Manager by choosing Customize HotKeys from the View menu. Fusion has active windows to focus attention on those areas of the interface, like the Node Editor, the viewers, and the Inspector. When selected, a grey border line will outline that section. The shortcuts for those sections will work only if the region is active.
Customizing Preferences Fusion Studio’s preferences configure Fusion’s overall application default settings and settings for each new composition. Although you access and set these preferences through the Preferences window, Fusion saves them in a simple text format called Fusion.prefs. These default preferences are located in a \Profiles\Default folder and shared by all Fusion users on the computer.
Chapter 67 Controlling Image Processing and Resolution This chapter covers how the Fusion page fits into the overall image processing pipeline of DaVinci Resolve 15. It also discusses the value of doing compositing with clips using a linear gamma, and how to deal with color management in the Fusion page, so you can work with a linear gamma while previewing the image in the Viewer using the gamma of your choice.
Contents Fusion’s Place in the DaVinci Resolve Image-Processing Pipeline 1358 Source Media into the Fusion Page 1358 Forcing Effects into the Fusion Page 1359 Output from the Fusion Page to the Color Page 1359 What Viewers Show in Different DaVinci Resolve Pages 1359 Managing Resolution In Fusion 1359 Changing the Resolution of a Clip 1360 Compositing with Different-Resolution Clips 1360 Sizing Between DaVinci Resolve Pages 1361 Color Bit Depths 1362 Understanding Integer vs.
Fusion’s Place in the DaVinci Resolve Image-Processing Pipeline When working in a single unified environment like DaVinci Resolve, it is important to understand the order of operations among the pages. DaVinci Resolve exposes some of this via the order of the page buttons at the bottom of the screen, with the Media, Cut, and Edit page at the beginning of the chain and the Color, Fairlight, and Deliver page at the end. However, this isn’t the whole story, especially when it comes to the Fusion page.
Forcing Effects into the Fusion Page There is a way you can force clips with Edit page Inspector adjustments, plug-ins, retiming, and Color page grades into the Fusion page, and that is to turn that clip into a compound clip. When Edit page effects and Color page grading are embedded within compound clips, MediaIn nodes corresponding to compound clips route the effected clip into the Fusion page.
The initial resolution of the Fusion comp is the size of the source media. Depending on how you combine images and the nodes you use, the output comp resolution can be maintained or modified. TIP: The output of the Fusion page is placed back into the Edit page Timeline based on DaVinci Resolve’s Image Sizing setting. By default, DaVinci Resolve uses an image sizing setting called Scale to Fit.
A Background node determines the output resolution of the merge. The Background node sets the output size, and the foreground image is cropped if it is larger. A Background node created at 1280 x 720 crops the larger foreground. However, all the pixels of the larger foreground are available for repositioning. Sizing Between DaVinci Resolve Pages The order of sizing operations between DaVinci Resolve pages is a bit more nuanced.
To maintain the full resolution of source clips, bring only one clip into the Fusion page from the Edit or Cut page Timeline, and then bring other clips into the Fusion composition using the Media Pool. Of course, if your clips are full HD and your timeline is full HD, then creating a Fusion clip or compound clip does not affect the resolution. Color Bit Depths The term bit depth describes how many colors are available in the color palette used to make up an image.
Setting Color Depth in Fusion Studio As we said earlier, DaVinci Resolve always processes at 32-bit float bits per channel; however, you can use less memory and still achieve more-than-acceptable results using the Performance Mode setting located in the User > Playback Preferences panel. Fusion Studio automatically uses the color depth that makes the most sense for each file format. For example, if you read in a JPEG file from disk, then the color depth for the Loader is set to 8 bits per channel.
Hover over a node to view its Color Bit Depth setting. TIP: When working with images that use 10-bit or 12-bit dynamic range or greater, like Blackmagic RAW or Cinema DNG files, set the Depth menu in the Inspector to 16-bit float or 32-bit float. This preserves highlight detail as you composite. Combining Images with Different Color Depths You can combine images with different color depths in a single composition.
Accessing Extended Highlights and Shadows Increasingly more productions are capturing out-of-range images thanks to digital cinema cameras like the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro and even the Pocket Cinema 6K camera. These cameras capture very high dynamic range RAW images and maintain color detail even in heavily over or underexposed frames. The extended white color detail can also give very nice, natural results when blurred, glowed, color corrected, or even just when faded or dissolved.
The 3D Histogram subview can also help visualize out-of-range colors in an image. For more information, see Chapter 58 “Using Viewers” in the DaVinci Resolve manual or Chapter 7 in the Fusion Studio manual. Clipping Out-of-Range Values When processing in floating point, there may be situations where the out-of-range values in an image need to be clipped. The Brightness/Contrast tool provides checkboxes that can be used to clip out-of-range values to 0 or 1.
Chapter 68 Managing Color for Visual Effects This chapter discusses LUTs, color space conversions, and the value of compositing with linear gamma while previewing the image in the viewer using the gamma of your choice.
Contents Color Management 1369 All Compositing Is Math 1369 Introducing Color Management in Fusion 1370 Converting to Linear Gamma 1370 Applying LUTs to a Viewer 1373 Using Resolve Color Management 1375 Using ACES Color Management in Resolve 1376 Using OCIO for ACES Color Management in Fusion 1378 Applying OCIO LUTs in the Viewer 1379 Chapter – 68 Managing Color for Visual Effects 1368
Color Management The simplified goal of color management is to make sure that the image you see on your computer screen is what your audience sees when they view it on a television, cinema screen, or mobile device. For such a simple goal, problems arise that you, as the compositor, must manage. These problems begin with the fact that our eyes see luminance one way, and a computer display represents luminance differently.
other compositing tasks assume that 1 + 1 always equals 2. In other words, if you perform an operation that doubles the amount of brightness, then every pixel should be twice as bright. However, if you are starting with a nonlinear gamma curve, pixels are not being adjusted linearly, so some pixels might end up 1.2 x as bright, 1.7 x as bright, or 2.4 x as bright. Now the math is 1 + 1 = 3. The further your images are from linear gamma, the more pronounced the math error.
TIP: 3D rendered CGI images are often generated as EXR files with linear gamma, and converting them is not necessary. However, you should check your specific files to make sure they are using linear gamma. Fusion includes several kinds of nodes you can use to convert the image out of each MediaIn or Loader node to linear gamma at the beginning of your composite, and then convert from linear back to your desired output gamma at the end of your composite.
When converting media to linear gamma, set the Source Space menu to the color space of your source material. For instance, if your media is full 1080 HD ProRes, then choose ITU-R BT.709 (scene) for gamma of 2.4. Then, enable the Remove Gamma checkbox if it isn’t already enabled, to use linear gamma. Source Space is used to convert to linear gamma.
the menu. Clicking the Remove Curve checkbox then removes the gamma curve, converting the image to linear gamma. MediaIn and Loader nodes include a Remove Curve checkbox in the Inspector. FileLUT node: The FileLUT node, found in the LUT category of the Effects Library, lets you do a conversion using any LUT you want, giving you the option to manually load LUTs in the ALUT3, ITX, 3DL, or CUBE format to perform a gamma and gamut conversion.
Apply a Gamut View LUT to preview the image in your intended output color space. To preview the images in the viewer using sRGB or REC 709 color space: 1 Enable the LUT button above the viewer. 2 From the Viewer LUT drop-down menu, choose either a Gamut View LUT, or a LUT from the VFX IO category that transforms linear to REC 709 or sRGB. 3 If you choose the Gamut View LUT, then choose Edit from the bottom of the LUT menu to configure the LUT.
TIP: If your monitor is calibrated differently, you need to select a LUT that matches your calibration. Whether you use the Gamut View LUT or a LUT for your specific monitor calibration, you can save the viewer setup as the default. To Save the Gamut LUT setup as the default viewer setup: Right-click in the viewer, and then choose Settings > Save Defaults. For every comp, the viewer will now be preconfigured based on the saved defaults.
To override the input color space for differently recorded clips in the Media Pool: 1 Enable DaVinci YRGB Color Management as explained above. 2 Save and close the Settings dialog. 3 In the Media Pool, select the clip or clips you want to assign a new Input Color space. 4 Right-click one of the selected clips. 5 Choose the Input Color Space that corresponds to those clips from the contextual menu.
When ACES is enabled, IDT and ODT are used to identify input and output devices. Color Science: Using this drop-down menu, you can choose either ACEScct or ACEScc color science. This is primarily a personal preference since they are mostly identical, but the shadows respond differently to grading operations. In the Fusion page, images are automatically converted to linear, so whoever does the grading has more of a reason to choose one or the other.
Using OCIO for ACES Color Management in Fusion When using Fusion Studio or not using color management in DaVinci Resolve, you have the option to use OpenColorIO nodes in Fusion to composite in an ACES color space. OpenColorIO (OCIO) is an open-source color management framework for visual effects and computer animation. OCIO is compatible with the Academy Color Encoding Specification (ACES).
The Source menu is used to choose the color profile for your Loader or MediaIn node. The default raw setting shows an unaltered image, essentially applying no color management to the clip. The selection you make from the menu is based on the recording profile of your media. The Output menu is set based on your deliverables. When working in Fusion Studio, typically the Output selected is ACEScg, to work in a scene linear space.
To set the LUT using OCIO: 1 Click the LUT menu and choose the OCIO Color Space View LUT. 2 From the same menu, select Edit. 3 In the View LUT editor that opens, set the source’s color space to lin sRGB 4 Set the output space to sRGB or REC 709, assuming you are viewing on a standard computer monitor. You now see a normalized image in the viewer, but all color operations will be on linear images.
Chapter 69 Understanding Image Channels This chapter seeks to demystify how Fusion handles image channels and, in the process, show you how different nodes need to be connected to get the results you expect. It also explains the mysteries of premultiplication, and presents a full explanation of how Fusion is capable of using and even generating auxiliary data.
Contents Channels in Fusion 1384 Types of Channels Supported by Fusion 1384 Fusion Node Connections Carry Multiple Channels 1385 Node Inputs and Outputs 1385 Node Colors Tell You Which Nodes Go Together 1389 Using Channels in a Composition 1391 Channel Limiting 1392 Adding Alpha Channels 1393 How Channels Propagate During Compositing 1394 Rearranging or Combining Channels 1394 Understanding Premultiplication 1395 The Rules of Premultiplication 1396 How Do You Know You’ve Made a Premu
Nodes That Use Auxiliary Channels 1405 Copy Aux 1405 Channel Boolean 1405 Custom Tool, Custom Vertex 3D, pCustom 1405 Depth Blur 1405 Disparity to Z, Z to Disparity, Z to WorldPos 1405 Fog 1405 Lumakeyer 1405 Merge 1405 New Eye 1406 Shader 1406 Shadow 1406 Smooth Motion 1406 SSAO 1406 Stereo Align 1406 Texture 1406 Time Speed and Time Stretcher 1406 Vector Distortion 1406 Volume Fog 1407 Volume Mask 1407 Chapter – 69 Understanding Image Channels 1383
Channels in Fusion Fusion introduces some innovative ways of working with the many different channels of image data that modern compositing workflows encompass. This chapter’s introduction to color channels and how they’re affected by different nodes and operations is a valuable way to begin the process of learning to paint, composite, and apply effects in Fusion.
The reason to use auxiliary data is that 3D rendering is computationally expensive and time consuming, so outputting descriptive information about a 3D image that’s been rendered empowers compositing artists to make sophisticated alterations in 2D. You can fine-tune focus, perform relighting, and composite with depth information faster than re-rendering the 3D source material over and over. TIP: You can view any of a node’s channels in isolation using the Color control in the viewer.
MediaIn node connected to a Highlight node connected to a MediaOut node in the Fusion page. When connecting nodes, a single node output can be connected to the inputs on multiple nodes, which is known as “branching.” This is useful when you have a single node that you want to feed multiple operations at the same time. The MediaIn node’s output is branched to the inputs of two other nodes.
being extracted from the image in different ways. To pull a key successfully, though, you must connect the image you want to key to the “Input” input. A MediaIn node connected to the main “Input” input of a DeltaKeyer node; other nodes are connected to specific inputs for those particular nodes.
Side by side, dropping a connection on a specific node input. Note how the inputs rearrange themselves afterward to keep the node tree tidy-looking. TIP: If you hold down the Option key while you drag a connection line from one node onto another, and you keep the Option key held down while you release the mouse button to drop the connection, a menu appears that lets you choose which specific input you want to connect to, by name.
If you connect to only one input of a multi-input node and you don’t connect to the background input, you may find that you don’t get the results you wanted. This is because each multi-input node expects that the background is connected before anything else so that the internal connections and math used by that node can be predictable.
2D Processing Nodes, Color Coded by Type These encompass most 2D processing and compositing operations in Fusion, all of which process RGBA channels and pass along auxiliary channels. These include: Orange Blur nodes Olive Color Adjustment nodes (Color Adjustment nodes additionally concatenate with one another.) Pink Paint nodes Dark orange Tracking nodes Tan Transform node (Transform nodes additionally concatenate with one another.
Using Channels in a Composition When you connect one node’s output to another node’s input, you feed all the channels that are output from the upstream node to the downstream node. 2D nodes, which constitute most simple image-processing operations in Fusion, propagate all channel data from node to node, including RGB, alpha, and auxiliary channels, regardless of whether that node actually uses or affects a particular channel.
data specifically, do not affect alpha or auxiliary channels. This makes them convenient for color-matching foreground and background layers you’re compositing, without worrying that you’re altering the transparency or depth information accompanying that layer. MediaIn, DeltaKeyer, Color Corrector, and Merge/MediaIn node.
Skipping Channel Processing Under the hood, most nodes process all channels first, but afterward copy the input image to the output for channels that have been enabled. Modern workstations are so fast that this isn’t usually noticeable, but there are some nodes where deselecting a channel actually causes that node to skip processing that channel entirely. Nodes that operate this way have a linked set of Red, Green, Blue, and Alpha buttons on another tab in the node.
How Channels Propagate During Compositing Images are combined, or composited together, using the Merge node. The Merge node takes two RGBA inputs labeled “Foreground” (green) and “Background” (orange) and combines them into a single RGB output (or RGBA if both the foreground and background input images have alpha), where the foreground image is in front (or on top, depending on what you’re working on), and the background image is, you guessed it, in back. A simple Merge node composite.
The following nodes are used to recombine channels in different ways: Channel Boolean: This is a 3D node used to remap and modify channels of 3D materials using a variety of simple predefined math operations. Channel Booleans: Used to shuffle or rearrange YRGB and auxiliary channels within a single input image, or among two input images, to create a single output image. If you connect only a single image to this node, it must be connected to the background input to make sure everything works.
Premultiplied alpha image (Top), and straight alpha image (Bottom). The Rules of Premultiplication In general, when you’re compositing multiple images together, and one or more has a built-in alpha channel, you want to make sure you follow these general rules: Images with alpha connected to a Merge node must be premultiplied. Always color-correct images that are not premultiplied. Always filter and transform images that are premultiplied.
Setting the Premultiplied Status of Nodes That Need It When you select a Loader node, the Import panel in the Inspector includes a group of checkboxes that let you determine how an alpha channel embedded with that image should be handled. There are checkboxes to make the alpha channel solid (to eliminate transparency), to invert the alpha channel, and to post-multiply the RGB channels with the alpha channel, should that be necessary.
Understanding Auxiliary Channels Auxiliary channels describe a family of special-purpose image data that typically describes 3D position, orientation, and object information for use in 2D composites. For example, Z-Depth channels describe the depth of each region of an image along a Z-axis (XYZ), while an XYZ Normals channel describes the orientation (facing up, facing down, facing to the left or right) of each pixel in an image.
might exist in an OpenEXR. In most cases, the channel has a custom name that can be used to map the extra channel to one of the channels recognized by Fusion. SoftImage PIC (*.PIC, *.ZPIC, and *.Z) The PIC image format (used by SoftImage) is an older image format that can contain Z-Depth data in a separate file marked by the ZPIC file extension. These files must be located in the same directory as the RGBA PIC files and must use the same names.
The rendered Z-Depth channel for the previous RGBA image. Z-Coverage The Z-Coverage channel is used to indicate pixels in the Z-Depth that contains two objects. The value is used to indicate, as a percentage, how transparent that pixel is in the final depth composite. WARNING: Depth composites in Fusion that are based on images that lack a Z-Coverage channel, as well as a background RGBA channel, will not be properly anti-aliased. Z-Coverage channel.
Object ID Most 3D applications are capable of assigning ID values to objects in a scene. Each pixel in the Object ID channel will be identified by that ID number, allowing for the creation of masks. Object ID. Material ID Most 3D applications are capable of assigning ID values to materials in a scene. Each pixel in the Material ID channel will be identified by that ID number, allowing for the creation of masks based on materials. Material ID.
X, Y, and Z Normals The X, Y, and Z Normal channels contain information about each pixel’s orientation (the direction it faces) in 3D space. XYZ Normals. XY Vector and XY BackVector The Vector channel indicates the pixel’s motion from frame to frame. It can be used to apply motion blur to an image as a post process or to track pixels over time for retiming. The XY Vector points to the next frame, while the XY BackVector points to the previous frame. XY Vector.
XY Disparity The XY Disparity channels indicate where each pixel’s corresponding matte can be found in a stereo image. Each eye, left and right, will use this vector to point to where that pixel would be in the other eye. This can be used for adjusting stereo effects, or to mask pixels in stereo space. XY Disparity. World Position Pass World Position Pass (WPP) is an auxiliary channel, sometimes referred to as Point Position, XYZ pass, or WPP.
A 3D rendering of a scene (Previous Page) and its World Position Pass (Top). For more information on using the World Position Pass in Fusion, see Chapter 76, “3D Compositing” in the DaVinci Resolve manual or Chapter 25 in the Fusion Studio manual. Propagating Auxiliary Channels Ordinarily, auxiliary channels are propagated along with RGBA image data, from node to node, among gray-colored nodes, including those in the Blur, Filter, Effect, Transform, and Warp categories.
Nodes That Use Auxiliary Channels The availability of auxiliary channels opens up a world of advanced compositing functionality. This section describes every Fusion node that has been designed to work with images that contain auxiliary channels. Copy Aux The Copy Aux tool can copy auxiliary channels to RGB and then copy them back. It includes some useful options for remapping values and color depths, as well as removing auxiliary channels.
New Eye For stereoscopic footage, New Eye uses the Disparity channels to create new viewpoints or to transfer RGBA data from one eye to the other. Shader The Shader tool applies data from the RGBA, UV, and the Normal channels to modify the lighting applied to objects in the image. Control is provided over specular highlights, ambient and diffuse lighting, and position of the light source. A second image can be applied as a reflection or refraction map.
Vector Motion Blur Using the forward XY Vector channels, the Vector Motion Blur tool can apply blur in the direction of the velocity, creating a motion blur effect. Volume Fog Volume Fog renders Fog, in real time, using a light rendering raymarcher technique. World Position channels are used to determine light ray termination and volume dataset placement. It can also use cameras and lights from a 3D scene to set the correct ray start point and Illumination parameters.
Chapter 70 Compositing Layers in Fusion This chapter is intended to give you a solid base for making the transition from a layer-based compositing application to Fusion’s node-based interface. It provides practical information about how to start structuring a node tree for simple layered composites.
Contents Applying Effects 1410 Adding a Node to the Tree 1410 Editing Parameters in the Inspector 1410 Replacing Nodes 1412 Adjusting Fusion Sliders 1412 Compositing Two Clips Together 1413 Adding Additional Media to Compositions 1413 Automatically Creating Merge Nodes 1413 Fixing Problem Edges in a Composite 1414 Using Composite Modes in the Merge Node 1416 Creating and Using Text 1417 Creating Text Using the Text+ Node 1417 Styling and Adjusting Text 1418 Using Text as a Mask 14
Applying Effects Before we dive into multi-layered composites, let’s start by looking at some very simple effects and build up from there. Opening the Effects Library, then clicking the disclosure control to the left of Tools, reveals a list of categories containing all the nodes available in Fusion. As mentioned before, each node does one thing, and by using these nodes in concert you can create extremely complex results from humble beginnings. Clicking the Effect category reveals its contents.
The Inspector showing the parameters of the TV effect. Clicking the last panel on any node opens the Settings panel. Every node has a Settings panel, and this is where the parameters that every node shares, such as the Blend slider and RGBA buttons, are found. These let you choose which image channels are affected, and let you blend between the effect and the original image. The Settings panel, which includes channel limiting and mask handling controls that every node shares.
Replacing Nodes In the Effect category of the Effects Library, you’ll also find a Highlight node that adds glints to the highlights of an image. Instead of clicking the Highlight node, which would add it after the currently selected node, dragging and dropping a node from the Effects Library on top of a node in the Node Editor replaces the node in the Node Editor. Dragging a node from the Effects Library onto a node in the Node Editor to replace it.
Compositing Two Clips Together As entertaining as it is adding individual nodes to create simple effects, eventually you’ll need to start adding additional layers of media in order to merge them together as composites. Let’s turn our attention to another example in which we need to combine a background clip with a foreground clip that includes a built-in alpha channel, to see simple layering in action.
Dragging a node from the Media Pool onto a connection (left), and dropping it to create a Merge node composite (right). The Node Editor is filled with shortcuts like this to help you build your compositions more quickly. Here’s one for when you have a disconnected node that you want to composite against another node with a Merge node. Drag a connection from the output of the node you want to be the foreground layer, and drop it on top of the output of the node you want to be the background layer.
A bit of fringing at the edge of a foreground element surrounded by transparency. Click to select the Merge node for that particular composite, and look for the Subtractive/ Additive slider. The Subtractive/Additive slider, which can be used to fix or improve fringing in composites. Drag the slider all the way to the left, to the Subtractive position, and the fringing disappears.
For example, using Subtractive merging on a premultiplied image may result in darker edges, whereas using Additive merging with a non-premultiplied image will cause any non-black area outside the foreground’s alpha to be added to the result, thereby lightening the edges. By blending between Additive and Subtractive, you can tweak the edge brightness to be just right for your situation.
Creating and Using Text In this next example, we’ll look at how to create a simple text object using the Text+ node. Then, we’ll see how to use the text generator’s alpha channel in another image to create a more complex composite. Creating Text Using the Text+ Node The Text+ node is the primary tool for creating 2D text in the Fusion page. If you are using DaVinci Resolve, this is also the same Text+ generator available in the Edit page. It is easily accessible right in the toolbar.
If you’re viewing the Merge, the text appears in the viewer superimposed against the background clip. Onscreen controls appear that let you rotate (the circle) and reposition (the red center handle and two arrows) the text, and we can see a faint cursor that lets us edit and kern the text using other tools in the viewer toolbar. Text that’s been typed into the viewer, with onscreen text transform controls.
To make manual kerning adjustments: 1 Option-drag the red dot under any letter of text to adjust that character’s kerning while constraining letter movement to the left and right. You can also drag letters up and down for other effects. Depending on your system, the kerning of the letter you’re adjusting might not update until you drop the red dot in place.
Clicking the second half of a connection to disconnect it (top), and the result with the text node disconnected (bottom). Connecting a MediaIn2 or Loader2 node onto the Merge1 node’s foreground input causes the entire viewer to be filled with the MediaIn2 (assuming we’re still viewing the Merge node). At this point, we need to insert the Text1 node’s image as an alpha channel into the MediaIn2 node’s connection, and we can do that using a MatteControl node.
With this done, connecting the Text+ node’s output, which has the alpha channel, to the MatteControl node’s Garbage Matte input, is a shortcut we can use to make a mask, matte, or alpha punch out a region of transparency in an image. Keep in mind that it’s easy to accidentally connect to the wrong input.
Connecting the Text node to the MatteControl node’s Garbage Matte input (top), and the resulting hole punched in the image (bottom). Customizing Matte Control Nodes You can use the Inspector to change some parameters to get the result you want. In the Inspector controls for the MatteControl node, revealing the Garbage Matte controls exposes parameters for modifying how the Garbage Matte input is applied to the image.
The final composite. Building a Simple Green-Screen Composite Taking another step forward in compositing, the next example shows how you can equate a multilayered Timeline like the one in DaVinci Resolve’s Edit page to nodes in Fusion’s node tree. We’ll use DaVinci Resolve, but understanding how layers map to nodes can be helpful for anyone new to dealing with a node-based interface. In this example, we’ll create a simple composite using a green-screen key and two other layers to create a news story.
Implied in a timeline-based system is that higher numbered video tracks appear as the more forward, or frontmost, element in the viewer. Video track 1 is the background to all other video tracks. Video track 3 is in the foreground to both video track 1 and video track 2. TIP: If using DaVinci Resolve, you can bring all three layers from the Edit page into Fusion by creating a Fusion clip.
The initial node tree of the three clips we turned into a Fusion clip. With this node tree assembled to mimic the video layers, we can focus the rest of this example on adding the nodes we’ll need to each branch of this tree to create the green-screen composite. Pulling a Green-Screen Key Using the Delta Keyer To make this composite, you need to create transparency behind the newscaster. When working in a node tree, you must become accustomed to rearranging existing nodes to make room for new ones.
With the DeltaKeyer selected, we’ll use the Inspector controls to pull our key by quickly sampling the shade of green from the background of the image. To sample the green-screen color, drag the Eyedropper from the Inspector over the screen color in the viewer. Dragging the Eyedropper to the viewer samples the screen color.
No matter how good the composite may look, once you’ve selected the screen color to pull a key, you need to load the DeltaKeyer node into the viewer itself. This allows you to evaluate the quality or density of the alpha channel created by the key. Above the viewer, click the Color button in the viewer toolbar, or click in the viewer and press C to switch the viewer between the RGB color channels of the image and the alpha channel.
Adjusting the Clean Foreground slider in the Matte panel of the DeltaKeyer controls. In this case, raising the Clean Foreground slider a bit eliminates the inner fringing we don’t want, without noticeably compromising the edges of the key. The original key (left), and the key after using the Clean Foreground slider (right). With this accomplished, we’re happy with the key, so we load the Merge1 node back into the viewer, and press C to set the Color control of the viewer back to RGB.
Dealing with Spill The DeltaKeyer can handle any screen color that may bounce off the background and land on your subject. This bounce screen light is called spill. However, instead of using one node to handle the matte creation and the spill correction, consider disabling this in the DeltaKeyer and remove the spill using a separate color correction node. To disable spill suppression in the DeltaKeyer, do the following. Select the matte tab in the Inspector.
Masking a Graphic Next, it’s time to work on the top video track: the news graphic that will appear to the left of the newscaster. The graphic we will use is actually a sheet of different logos, so we need to cut one out using a mask and position it into place. A graphic of multiple logos that must be cropped down to isolate just one. The easiest way to crop a MediaIn or Loader node is to add one of the mask shapes from the toolbar directly to it.
For a simple over-the-shoulder graphic, masking the image may be all you need to do, but masking an image does not change the actual dimensions of the graphic. It only changes the area you see. So, accurately positioning the graphic based on the center of the composite becomes more difficult, and any type of match moving would give incorrect results because the graphic has a different resolution than the background.
At this point, we’re all set to move the logo into place. Because the logo is the foreground input to a Merge, you can select the Merge2 node, load it into the viewer, and use the built-in Center X and Y controls or the oncreen controls to place the logo where you want it and make it a suitable size. Placing the logo using the foreground input transform controls of the Merge2 node.
Chapter 71 Rotoscoping with Masks This chapter covers how to use masks to rotoscope, one of the most common tasks in compositing.
Contents Introduction to Masks and Polylines 1435 Mask Nodes 1435 Polyline Types 1436 Converting Polylines from One Type to Another 1437 How to Use Masks with Other Nodes 1437 Attaching Masks to an Image for Rotoscoping 1438 Combining Multiple Masks 1439 Mask Inputs on Other Nodes 1440 Creating and Editing Polylines In-Depth 1443 The Polyline Toolbar 1443 Selecting a Specific Polyline 1443 Polyline Creation Modes 1443 Protection Modes 1445 Closing Polylines 1445 Selecting and Adj
Introduction to Masks and Polylines Polylines are splines that are used whenever a control is animated with a motion path or when a node’s effect is masked with a drawn shape. They are also used in the Paint and Grid Warp nodes. In a more basic form, polylines are used to control the animation in the Spline Editor. Since these splines are used for just about everything, they are extremely flexible, with a considerable amount of controls, modes, and options.
Mask Paint Mask Paint allows a mask to be painted using Fusion’s built-in vector paint nodes. Wand Mask A Wand mask provides a crosshair that can be positioned in the image. The color of the pixel under the crosshair is used to create a mask, where every contiguous pixel of a similar color is also included in the mask. This type of mask is ideal for isolating color adjustments. Ellipse, Rectangle, and Triangle Masks These are primitive shape masks.
If you’re familiar with applications such as Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, you’ll already be familiar with many of the basic concepts of editing Bézier polylines. B-Spline Polylines A B-Spline polyline is similar to a Bézier spline; however, these polylines excel at creating smooth shapes. Instead of using a control point and direction handles for smoothness, the B-Spline polyline uses points without direction handles to define a bounding box for the shape.
Masks are single-channel images that can be used to define which regions of an image you want to affect. Masks can be created using primitive shapes (such as circles and rectangles), complex polyline shapes that are useful for rotoscoping, or by extracting channels from another image. A Polygon node’s mask seen in the viewer. Each mask node is capable of creating a single shape.
Connecting a Mask to a MediaIn or Loader Node’s Input This method is a bit simpler but requires you to know that you can view one node while adjusting another node, even if that other node is disconnected. If you add an unattached Mask node such as a Polygon or B-Spline node, and then place a MediaIn or Loader node directly into the viewer while selecting the Mask node, you can draw a spline to rotoscope the image. Rotoscoping a MediaIn node using a disconnected Polygon node.
When a Mask node’s input is attached to another mask, a Paint Mode drop-down menu appears, which allows you to choose how you want to combine the two masks. The Paint Mode parameter in the Polygon node Inspector parameters. The default option is Merge, but you can also choose Subtract, Minimum, Maximum, Multiply, or any other operation that will give you the mask boolean interaction you need.
While masks (or mattes) are connected via an input, they are actually applied “post effect,” which means the node first applies its effect to the entire image, and then the mask is used to limit the result by copying over unaffected image data from the input. A Polygon node used as a mask to limit the Blur node’s effect. Although many nodes support effects masking, there are a few where this type of mask does not apply—notably Savers, Time nodes, and Resize, Scale, and Crop nodes.
A B-Spline node is connected to the Garbage Matte input of a DeltaKeyer node to eliminate a light stand at the left of frame. TIP: You can quickly add a mask node to the Effect/Solid/Garbage Matte inputs of a keyer node by right-clicking the header bar of that node in the Inspector and choosing whichever mask node you want to use from the Effect Mask, SolidMatte, and GarbageMatte submenus.
Creating and Editing Polylines In-Depth This section covers the Polygon node’s capabilities in depth. The Polyline Toolbar Whenever a node that contains one or more polylines is selected, the polyline is shown on all viewers and the Polyline toolbar is displayed along the side of each viewer. The toolbar contains several buttons that make switching polyline modes and options easy to access. The Polyline toolbar.
To create a mask using the Click Append mode, do the following: 1 Select Click Append from the toolbar or press Shift-C. 2 Click the pointer where you want to start the shape. 3 Move and click the pointer to append a point to the last one. 4 To close the shape, place the mouse pointer over the first point created and click when the pointer changes shape. When a shape is closed, the polyline is automatically switched to Insert and Modify mode.
Protection Modes In addition to the modes used to create a polyline, two other modes are used to protect the points from further changes after they have been created. Modify Only Modify Only mode allows existing points on the polyline to be modified, but new points may not be added to the shape. The Modify Only toolbar button (Shift-M). TIP: Even with Modify Only selected, it is still possible to delete points from a polyline.
Selecting and Adjusting Polylines To create the shape you need for a mask or a motion path, you need to know how to manipulate the splines. Fusion provides a number of simple techniques for selecting, moving, and smoothing a spline, but also includes more complex adjustment techniques for scale, skewing, and twisting a spline. Polyline Points Selection To select one or more control points on a polyline, do one of the following: Click directly on the control points. Lasso around the points.
The Smooth button in the toolbar (Shift-S). Linearizing a Polyline Segment To make certain that a polyline segment is perfectly straight, that segment must be linearized. A linear segment aligns the Bézier direction handles with the segment and therefore has no curvatures. The segment is always drawn in a straight line between two points on the polyline. To linearize the selected points on an active polyline, do one of the following: Press Shift-L. Click the Linear button on the polyline’s toolbar.
Editing Bézier Handles For Bézier polylines, each control point has two direction handles that adjust the slope of a curve through the control point. These direction handles appear only when the point is selected. Dragging a direction handle makes adjustments to the curve of the segment that emerges from the control point. The direction handle on the opposing side of the control point will also move to maintain the relationship between these two handles.
In addition to absolute values for the X- and Y-axis, you can adjust points using relative values from their current position. Clicking once on the label for the axis will change the value to an offset value. The label will change from X to X-offset or from Y to Y-offset. The Point Editor dialog with Offset values. If you are not sure of the exact value, you can also perform mathematical equations in the dialog box. For example, typing 1.0-5 will move the point to 0.5 along the given axis.
If there are selected points on the polyline when the Shape Box mode is enabled, the shape box is drawn around those points. Otherwise, you can drag the shape box around the area of control points you want to include. If you want to freely resize the shape box horizontally and vertically, you can drag a corner handle. Dragging a handle on the side of the shape box resizes the polyline along a specific axis. Dragging a side handle resizes along a specific axis.
Stop Rendering While points along the polyline are being moved, the results are rendered to the viewer to provide constant interactive feedback. Although extremely useful, there are situations where this can be distracting and can slow down performance on a complex effect. To disable this behavior so renders happen only when the points stop moving, you can toggle the Stop Rendering button in the toolbar or select this option from the polyline contextual menu.
A double polyline uses an inner and outer shape for non-uniform softness. Converting a Single Polyline to a Double Polyline To convert a mask into a double polyline, click the Double Polyline button in the Polyline toolbar or right-click in the viewer and select Make Outer Polyline from the mask’s contextual menu. The shape will be converted into an inner and an outer polyline spline. Both polylines start with exactly the same shape as the original single polyline.
Adding Softness to a Segment The outer shape is drawn using a green dashed line instead of a solid line to help distinguish it from the inner shape. To select the outer soft edge shape, do one of the following: Use the Tab key to cycle between the onscreen controls until the dashed outline is visible Right-click over a spline in the view and choose Controls > Select > Polygon: Outer Polygon.
Animating Polyline Masks Animating masks is surprisingly easy. When Polygon or B-Spline masks are added to the Node Editor, the spline’s control points are automatically ready to be animated. All you have to do to animate a mask is move the playhead to a new frame and then change the shape of the mask. A new keyframe is added in the Spline Editor and Timeline Editor. This one keyframe controls the position of all control points for that mask at that frame.
A new coordinate control is added to the Polyline mask controls for each published point, named Point 0, Point 1, and so on. The Publish Points controls in the Inspector. The onscreen control indicates published points on the polyline by drawing that control point much larger. Once a published point is created, it can be connected to a tracker, path, expression, or modifier by right-clicking on this control and selecting the desired option from the point’s contextual menu.
Chapter 72 Paint This chapter describes how to use Fusion’s non-destructive Paint tool to repair images, remove objects, and add creative elements.
Contents Paint Overview 1458 Types of Paint Nodes 1458 Setting Up the Paint Node 1459 Setting the Paint Node’s Resolution 1459 Paint Node Workflow 1460 Select the Correct Paint Stroke Type 1460 Setting the Brush Size 1463 Choosing an Apply Mode 1463 Editing Paint Strokes 1467 Editing Paint Strokes in the Modifiers Tab 1468 Deleting Strokes 1468 Animating and Tracking Paint Strokes 1469 Tracking a Paint Stroke 1469 Using the Planar Tracker with the Paint Tool 1472 Inverting the St
Paint Overview The Paint node is a procedural paint tool, which means that each paint stroke is a live, editable object that’s drawn with properties that you can mix and match to address a wide variety of painting tasks. You can use it to paint masks, retouch images, perform beauty work, clone out objects, or even create motion graphics. Each element of a paint stroke can be altered long after you apply it.
Setting Up the Paint Node The Paint node has two inputs. Typical of most Fusion nodes, the orange input background is the primary input for connecting the “canvas” or image to paint on, while the second blue input is an Effect Mask. Unlike the Mask Paint node, the Paint node requires a background input to begin painting.
Setting this up requires some configuration of the nodes. The Background node must be fully transparent and, unless you are doing something simple like using the Stroke tool set to Color to paint over an image, you must drag the image you want to clone or smudge into the Source Tool field in the Paint node’s inspector. These steps are described in more detail later in this chapter. Paint Node Workflow You begin painting by first selecting the paint stroke type from the Paint toolbar above the viewer.
The Stroke and Polyline strokes are editable and last for the entire comp. The Stroke Tool One of the most flexible editable stroke types you’ll use for many tasks is the Stroke, because it is fully animatable and editable. You can animate all elements of the Stroke, and you can use the Write-on/Write-off parameters to control how the stroke appears onscreen. You can also connect to a tracker from the Center point of the Stroke if you want to make the stroke follow specific onscreen motion.
The Polyline Stroke Shape Animation label. Shape Drawing Tools Five shape-based drawing tools allow you to draw shapes and either fill them with a color or clone an area from a source image. All these tools act similarly to the Stroke and Polyline stroke type in that they are editable at any time and have a default duration spanning the entire global range of the comp. However, you can edit the duration at any time in the Keyframes Editor.
Setting the Brush Size After selecting the Stroke type, the Brush size can be set in the Inspector or more intuitively in the viewer. With the Paint node selected in the Node Editor and the pointer positioned over the viewer, you can see an outline of the current brush size. To change the brush size, hold down the Command key and drag. The circle changes size, so you can set it relative to other objects you may be painting over. Brush size can be changed interactively in the viewer.
To select a color for the paint brush, do one of the following: Click the color swatch to open a standard OS Color Picker window. Drag the Eyedropper into the viewer. Drag inside the color chooser to select a saturation and luminance. Drag on the sidebars to change the hue and transparency. When you paint, each stroke is unpremultiplied, so adjusting the Alpha slider in the Inspector does not affect what you apply to the RGB channels. However, changing opacity affects all four channels.
The Clone source starting area identified by the X and the paint brush size represented by the circle. 5 Paint over the area you want to cover up using the source pixels. The Clone completed after selecting the source area and painting over the flag pole. When trying to erase objects or artifacts from a clip using the Clone Apply Mode, it can sometimes be easier if you sample from a different frame on the same clip.
5 Click the Overlay checkbox to see the current frame and the offset frame superimposed. 6 Drag the Time Offset slider to select the source frame you want to use. 7 Option-click over the area in the viewer you want to use as the source or to offset the source frame’s position. Overlay shows two frames overlapped with Time Offset, allowing you to clone from one frame onto another. 8 Paint over the area you want to cover up using the source pixels.
Editing Paint Strokes Once you’ve painted using the Stroke or Polyline stroke type, you can change the look of the stroke by selecting it and updating the parameters in the Inspector. Selecting the stroke requires you to switch to the selection tool in the Paint toolbar above the viewer. Using the Paint node’s selection tool, you can either click once on a stroke or drag a bounding box around a stroke to select it for editing.
Editing Paint Strokes in the Modifiers Tab When you paint a stroke, the settings for that stroke appear in the Inspector’s Modifiers tab. You can then change the settings in the Tools tab for the next stroke you are about to paint. Each time you click, drag, and release the pointer button, you create a new stroke. Each stroke is numbered in the Modifiers tab, where it can be selected and edited. Each stroke is listed in the Modifiers tab for editing.
Animating and Tracking Paint Strokes In some ways, animating paint strokes is no different than animating any other effect in the Inspector. Each parameter that can be animated includes a gray diamond Keyframe button along the right side. Clicking the Keyframe button sets a keyframe on the current frame and enables auto-keyframe mode for the parameter.
Trackers can be attached to the Center parameters of a paint stroke. To attach a tracker to a paint stroke: 1 With the Paint node, select the Stroke brush type and clone out an object on a frame. 2 In the Paint toolbar above the viewer, click the Select tool. 3 Drag a selection box around the stroke to select it. 4 Right-click the center control on the stroke, and then choose Stroke1:Center > Modify With > Tracker Position.
5 Click the Modifiers tab to view the Tracker controls. 6 From the Node Editor, drag the MediaIn for the image you painted on, and drag it into the Tracker Source field in the Inspector. Drag the MediaIn you want to track into the Tracker Source field in the Inspector. 7 Click the Track Forward button. 8 After tracking, at the bottom of the Inspector, use the Tracker 1 X Offset/Y Offset controls to reposition the paint stroke, if necessary.
Using the Planar Tracker with the Paint Tool Here’s an example that dives deeper into a workflow where we use the Paint tool with the Planar Tracker for retouching a clip. We’ll eliminate some facial scars on an actor’s forehead in a commercial by combining the Paint node with the PlanarTracker node, illustrating a common way of using these two powerful tools together. The actor has some scars on his forehead that the director would like painted out.
Drawing a shape over the man’s forehead to prepare for Planar Tracking. In the Inspector, the PlanarTracker node has tracking transport controls that are similar to those of the Tracker. However, there are two buttons, Set and Go, underneath the Operation Mode menu, which defaults to Track, since that’s the first thing we need to do. The Set button lets you choose which frame to use as the “reference frame” for tracking, so you click the Set button first before clicking the Track Forward button below.
Once you initiate the track, a series of dots appears within the track region shape you created to indicate trackable pixels found. A green progress bar at the bottom of the Timeline ruler lets you see how much of the shot is remaining to track. Clicking the Track from First Frame button to set the Planar Track in progress, green dots on the image and a green progress bar let you know the track is happening.
Steadying the image results in warping as the forehead is pinned in place for painting. At this point, you’re ready to paint out those scars. Connecting the Paint Node Although you could paint directly on the image by connecting the Paint node after the Planar Tracker, it gives you more control over the process if you merge the Paint node over the top of the steadied image. To do that, you’ll add a Merge after the Planar Tracker and then connect a Background node into the foreground of the Merge.
Selecting the Stroke and Clone Mode With the Paint node selected and set up, the next thing we want to do is to select the Stroke tool. The Stroke tool is the tool of choice when you want to paint out features or paint in fixes to subjects within the frame that need to remain in place for the entire shot. Choosing the Stroke tool from the Paint node’s tools in the viewer toolbar. Next, choose the Clone mode from the Apply Controls.
Any node can be dragged into the Source Tool field when cloning with the Paint tool. With the Stroke tool selected in the Paint toolbar, the Clone mode selected in the Inspector controls, and the Source for cloning added to the Source Tool field, we’re ready to start painting. If we move the pointer over the viewer, a circle shows us the paint tool, ready to go. To use the clone brush, first hold down the Option key and click somewhere on the image to identify the source area of the clone.
TIP: You can adjust the size of the brush right in the viewer, if necessary, by holding down the Command key and dragging the pointer left and right. You’ll see the brush outline change size as you do this. Inverting the Steady Effect to Put the Motion Back In At this point, scrubbing through the clip shows that the paint strokes we’ve made are indeed sticking to the man’s forehead as we need them to do.
This is just one example of how to set up a Planar Tracker and Paint node. In some instances, you made need to do more work with masks and layering, but the above example gives you a good starting point. Painting a Clean Plate On simple clips, planar tracking the clone paint strokes may work fine. In other cases, you may not be able to steady the clip, or the strokes might appear like they are “bubbling.” Paint is just a single stroke repeated over multiple frames.
Add a MatteControl node with a garbage mask to cut out the painted forehead. TIP: When it comes to using masks to create transparency, there are a variety of ways to connect one—for example, (a) attach the image to the background input of a Brightness/Contrast node and attach a Polygon mask node to the effect mask input.
Before fixing this, we drag the Soft Edge slider in the Inspector to the right to blur the edges just a bit. Inverting the Garbage Input Selecting the MatteControl1 node, we open the Garbage Matte controls and click the Invert checkbox, which immediately gives us the result we want, of the forehead in isolation, ready for compositing. Inverting the Garbage Matte input (top), and the resulting inverted mask inverting the forehead (bottom).
Because the Polygon isn’t animated to match the motion of the shot, it goes out of sync. Selecting the first PlanarTracker node that comes right after the MediaIn node, and choosing Track from the Operation Mode menu, reveals a Create Planar Transform button at the bottom of the listed controls. Clicking this button creates a new, disconnected Planar Transform node in the Node Editor, which has the transforms from the Planar Tracker baked in.
The final painted image, along with the final node tree.
Chapter 73 Using the Tracker Node This chapter shows the many capabilities of the Tracker node in Fusion, starting with how trackers can be connected in your node trees, and finishing with the different tasks that can be performed.
Contents Introduction to Tracking 1487 Tracker Node Overview 1487 Modes of the Tracker Node 1487 Basic Tracker Node Operation 1488 Connect to a Tracker’s Background Input 1488 Analyze the Image to be Tracked 1489 Apply the Tracking Data 1489 Viewing Tracking Data in the Spline Editor 1492 Tracker Inspector Controls 1493 Motion Tracking Workflow In Depth 1494 Connect the Image to Track 1494 Add Trackers 1494 Refine the Search Area 1497 Perform the Track Analysis 1498 Tips for Choo
Connecting to Trackers’ Operations 1506 Steady Position 1506 Steady Angle 1507 Offset Position 1507 Unsteady Position 1507 Steady Size 1507 Using the Outputs of a Tracker 1507 Using the Tracker as a Modifier 1509 Match Moving Text Example 1511 Adding a Layer to Match Move 1511 Setting Up Motion Tracking 1512 A Simple Tracking Workflow 1513 Connecting Motion Track Data to Match Move 1516 Offsetting the Position of a Match Moved Image 1518 Chapter – 73 Using the Tracker Node 1486
Introduction to Tracking Tracking is one of the most useful and essential techniques available to a compositor. It can be roughly defined as the creation of a motion path from analyzing a specific area in a clip over time. Fusion includes a variety of different tracking nodes that let you analyze different kinds of motion.
Corner Positioning Corner positioning tracks four patterns that are then used to map the four corners of a new foreground into the background. This technique is generally used to replace signs or mobile phone screens. The Planar Tracker node is often a better first choice for these types of tracking tasks. Perspective Positioning Perspective positioning again tracks four patterns to identify the four corners of a rectangle.
Tracker connected as a branch to indicate it is linked to other nodes and not used directly. Analyze the Image to be Tracked After constructing the node tree and inserting the Tracker where you want, you can set up the tracker in the viewer. You identify one or more features in the image that you wish to track (referred to as patterns) by adding trackers (there’s one by default) and positioning them using the onscreen controls in the viewer.
Using a Tracker node in line for a match move. Setting the Operation parameter in the Operation tab in the Inspector to Match Move, Corner Position, or Perspective Position always applies the motion to the foreground input (if one is connected). This is an easy workflow for simple situations. In this scenario, you can use the Tracker node to replace a Merge node since Tracker nodes include all the same functionality as a Merge. Using a Tracker node to do a match move and merge, all in one.
The ellipse needs to follow the motion of the ray gun, so a Tracker node is used to analyze the movement of the gun tip so that tracking data can be used to animate the ellipse. The ellipse is not connected to the tracker directly via the foreground input but indirectly through the Connect To contextual menu. Applying the light of a ray gun by connecting tracking data to the center position of an Ellipse node.
Viewing Tracking Data in the Spline Editor Tracking data can be seen in the viewer as a path or as a displacement spline in the Spline Editor. You can manipulate the tracking data in either place. The Tracker uses a displacement spline by detail that indicates how far the tracking point is based on the original location. It is great for modifying velocity, but it doesn’t tell you anything about direction.
Tracker Inspector Controls The layout of the Tracker node’s tabs in the Inspector reflects this workflow. It’s divided into three main Tracker tabs, as well as the common Settings tab. The Tracker Control tab: This is where you create onscreen trackers with which to target patterns, and where the controls appear that let you perform the required track analysis. The Tracker Control tab. The Operations tab: This is where you decide how the tracking data is used. The Tracker Operations tab.
The Display Options tab: This is where you can customize how the onscreen controls look in the viewer. The Tracker Display Options tab. Motion Tracking Workflow In Depth Tracker nodes serve two purposes. They provide a method to analyze an object you want to follow, and they serve as a container for the resulting track data. This allows you to use one node for analysis and to pass on that analysis to any other node that requires it. Following is a more detailed breakdown of the tracking process.
To add an additional tracker, click the Add button in the Inspector. Multiple patterns are useful when stabilizing, match moving, or removing perspective from a clip. They also help to keep the Node Editor from becoming cluttered by collecting into a single node what would otherwise require several nodes. Working in the Tracker list: To select a tracker: Click the name of the Tracker you want to select. To rename a tracker: You can rename trackers to make it easier to reference them later.
A pattern box positioned over an eye you want to track. When you add a Tracker node to the Node Editor, you start with one pattern box displayed in the viewer as a small rectangle. When the cursor is placed over the pattern rectangle, the control expands and two rectangles appear. The outer rectangle has a dashed line, and the inner rectangle has a solid line. The outer rectangle is the search area, and the inner rectangle is the pattern.
Resizing a pattern box to fit the tracking point on the ray gun. TIP: The magnified pattern box does not take viewer LUTs into account. When using Log content, it may make it easier to position the tracker if you temporarily insert a Brightness Contrast node between the source content and the yellow input of the tracker. You can use the Brightness Contrast node to temporarily increase the visibility of the region you are tracking.
Perform the Track Analysis Before you begin analyzing, you’ll need to make sure you’ve set a render range in the Time Ruler that corresponds to the range of frames during which the pattern is visible. This may be an entire clip or only a small portion of that clip. Depending on the type of motion you’re tracking, you may want to use the Adaptive Mode option to aid the analysis (see below for more details).
In addition to locating high contrast, defined patterns, watch for the frames where the pattern moves the most. Identifying the maximum range of a pattern’s motion will help to determine the correct size for the pattern search area. It is not uncommon to have a scene that requires the use of several different patterns to generate a single path. This most often occurs because the pattern moves out of frame or is temporarily obscured by another scene element.
Using the Pattern Flipbooks Each pattern has a pair of thumbnail windows shown in the Inspector. The left window shows the selected pattern, while the right window is updated during the track to show the actual pattern that has been acquired for each frame. The Tracker Pattern Selection and Flipbook thumbnails. Each pattern that’s stored is added to a Flipbook. Once the render is complete, you can play this Pattern Flipbook to help you evaluate the accuracy of the tracked path.
The Best Match mode would detect that the change from the previous frame’s pattern was too extreme and would not grab a new pattern from that frame. The Adaptive mode is applied to all active patterns while tracking. If you only want some patterns to use the Adaptive mode, disable all other patterns in the list before tracking.
To use the Track Center (Append) mode, do the following: 1 When the pattern has become untrackable for some reason, stop analysis and move the playhead to the last frame that tracked successfully. 2 Choose Track Center (Append) from the Path Center pop-up menu in the Inspector. 3 Now, drag the Pattern selector to a new pattern that can be tracked from that point onward. 4 Restart tracking from the current frame.
Stabilizing with the Tracker Node When a Tracker node is set to Match Move in the Operations tab, it is capable of a variety of functions. Applying the motion from the background clip to the foreground clip is the obvious functionality. However, the Match Move operation is also used for stabilizing footage to to either completely remove motion from the scene or smooth existing motion. Here are some common scenarios for stabilization that are handled when the Tracker is set to Match Move.
Edges The Edges menu determines whether the edges of an image that leave the visible frame are cropped, duplicated, or wrapped when the stabilization is applied. Wrapping edges is often desirable for some methods of match moving, although rarely when stabilizing the image for any other purpose. For more information on the controls, see Chapter 107, “Tracker Nodes” in the DaVinci Resolve manual or Chapter 56 in the Fusion Studio manual.
When tracking to create smooth camera motion, ensure that the Start & End reference mode is enabled and set the Merge mode to BG Only. It is recommended to leave the Pivot Type control set to Tracker Average. Using the Tracker Node for Match Moving A simple match moving example is shown at the beginning of this chapter, but this section presents additional details that you may not have been aware of. Examples of match moving include: A static CG element must be believably added to a moving sequence.
Corner Positioning Operations The Corner Positioning operation maps the four corners of a foreground image to four patterns within the Tracker. This operation, or technique, is most commonly used for sign replacements. The Corner Positioning operation of the Tracker requires the presence of a minimum of four patterns. If this operation mode is selected and there are not four patterns set up in the Tracker already, additional patterns will automatically be added to bring the total up to four.
Steady Angle The Steady Angle mode can be used to stabilize footage in both X and/or Y to remove camera shake and other unwanted movement. When you connect a control, for example the Angle of a Transform, to the Steady Angle of the Tracker, it will be placed at 0 degrees by default at frame 1. This can be changed by means of the Reference mode in the Tracker’s Operation tab. From there on, the resulting motion of the Steady Angle mode will rotate into the opposite direction of the original motion.
The Match Move settings determine the reference frame for stabilization and the point around which stabilization pivots. Rather than using the Tracker node to perform the Merge operation, an alternative and common way to use these published outputs is to create a match move by connecting the outputs to multiple nodes. A tracker is used to track a pattern, and then that data can be connected to multiple other nodes using the Connect To submenu.
4 Connect the foreground to a corner-positioned node, so you can position the corners of the foreground appropriately over the background. 5 Add another Transform node to the Node Editor after the Merge. A second Transform after the Merge is used to add back in the original motion with Unsteady Poisition. 6 Connect the new Transform’s Center to the Tracker’s Unsteady Position. The image will be restored to its original state with the additional effect included.
The Tracker modifier can only output a single value and cannot be used for complex stabilization procedures, but it is a nice quick way to apply a tracker to a point that you need to follow. As an example, to apply the Tracker as a modifier, do the following: Imagine that you needed to track an actor’s eyes so that an unearthly, alien glow could be applied to the eyes. 1 Add an ellipse mask node to cover an actor’s eye.
5 Insert a Soft Glow node directly after the MediaIn and connect the Ellipse Mask to the white Glow Mask input. A Tracker modifier applied to the Ellipse to create a green glow on an actor’s pupil. You can set a different source image for the Tracker modifier by typing in the name of the node or dragging and dropping the node from the Node Editor into the Tracker Source field control.
Some text superimposed against a background, ready to track. Our goal for this composition is to motion track the background image so that the text moves along with the scene as the camera flies along. Setting Up Motion Tracking To set up for the motion track, we’ll begin by creating a disconnected Tracker node, using another method other than those seen previously.
Next, we’ll drag a connection from the MediaIn1 node to the Tracker1 node to automatically connect the source clip to the Tracker1 background input. This branches the output from the MediaIn1 node to the Tracker node so that the Tracker1 node processes the image separately from the rest of the node tree. This is not required, but it’s a nice organizational way to see that the Tracker node is doing an analysis that must be referred to in a way other than a “physical” connection.
The onscreen controls of a selected tracker seen in isolation. It’s worth saying a second time that the handle for moving a tracker’s onscreen control is a tiny dot at the upper-left corner of the inner pattern box. It’s really easy to miss if you’re new to Fusion. You must click on this dot to drag the tracker around. The handle for dragging the tracker boxes to move them around.
Tracker Inspector controls, with the tracking analysis buttons at top, the tracker options in the middle, and the Tracker List below. Additional controls over each tracker and the image channels being analyzed appear at the bottom, along with offset controls for each tracker, but we don’t need those now (at least not yet).
For now, clicking the Track from Beginning button will analyze the entire range of this clip, from the first frame to the last. A dialog lets you know when the analysis is completed, and clicking the OK button dismisses it so you can see the nice clean motion path that results. The analyzed motion path resulting from tracking a section of the bridge as the camera flies past.
Now it’s time to connect the track we’ve just made to the text in order to start it in motion. After loading the Merge1 node into the viewer to see the text in context with the overall composite we’re creating, we’ll select the Text1 node to open its parameters in the Inspector, and click the Layout panel icon (second button from the left) to expose the Layout controls, which are the text-specific transform controls used to position the text object in the frame.
The text now aligns with the motion track coordinate. Offsetting the Position of a Match Moved Image In fact, we want to offset the match-moved text, so it’s higher up in the frame. To do this, we select the Tracker1 node again and use the Y Offset 1 dial control to move the text up, since now any changes we make to the Bridge Track dataset now apply to the center of the text that’s connected to it.
Now, if we play through this clip, we can see the text moving along with the bridge. Two frames of the text being match moved to follow the bridge in the shot.
Chapter 74 Planar Tracking This chapter provides an overview of how to use the Planar Tracker node, and how to use it to make match moves simple. For more information about the Planar Tracker node, see Chapter 107, “Tracker Nodes” in the DaVinci Resolve manual or Chapter 56 in the Fusion Studio manual.
Contents Introduction to Tracking 1522 Using the Planar Tracker 1522 Different Ways of Using the Planar Tracker Node 1522 Setting Up to Use the Planar Tracker 1523 Check for Lens Distortion 1523 A Basic Planar Tracker Match Move Workflow 1524 Tips for Choosing Good Planes to Track 1526 Chapter – 74 Planar Tracking 1521
Introduction to Tracking Fusion includes three different Tracking nodes that let you analyze different kinds of motion. Once you have tracked motion on a clip, you can then use the resulting data for stabilization, motion smoothing, matching the motion of one object to that of another, and a host of other essential tasks. Each tracker type has its own chapter in this manual. This chapter covers the tracking techniques with the Planar Tracker node.
Setting Up to Use the Planar Tracker Similar to the Tracker node, to do a planar track, you need to connect the output of the image you want to track to the background input of a Planar Tracker node. Connecting an image to the background input of a PlanarTracker node. Check for Lens Distortion If the image has barrel distortion, or any other kinds of lens distortion, it can adversely affect your track. The more lens distortion in the footage, the more the resulting track will slide and wobble.
A Basic Planar Tracker Match Move Workflow Using the Planar Tracker is a process, but it’s straightforward once you’ve learned how to use it. The following procedure tries to make this process as clear as possible. To track a surface using the Planar Tracker: 1 Make sure the Operation Mode is set to Track, as you need to analyze an image to track a surface before you do anything else.
4 (Optional) If moving objects partially cover up or occlude the planar surface, you may wish to connect a mask that surrounds and identifies these occlusions to the white “occlusion mask” input of the Planar Tracker. This lets the Planar Tracker ignore details that will cause problems. When using the Hybrid Tracker, providing a mask to deal with occluding objects is nearly mandatory, while with the Point Tracker it is recommended to try tracking without a mask.
Adding the PlanarTransform node after a Paint node to match move it to the background image, combining it via a Merge node. The result is a seamless match move of the fake graffiti married to the wall in the original clip. The final result; the paint layer is match moved to the background successfully. TIP: If you want to composite semi-transparent paint strokes on the wall, or use Apply modes with paint stroke, you can attach a Paint node to a Background node set to 100 transparency.
Chapter 75 Using OpenFX, ResolveFX, and Fuse Plug-Ins Fusion’s capabilities can be extended using different kinds of plug-ins. All compositions in Fusion Studio and in the Fusion page of DaVinci Resolve support third-party OpenFX plug-ins. Additionally, the Fusion page of DaVinci Resolve provides access to all of the ResolveFX that come with DaVinci Resolve. Lastly, you can develop your own plug-ins without using a computer development environment by scripting Fusion’s native Fuse plug-ins.
Contents What Are OpenFX? 1529 What Are ResolveFX? 1529 Applying OpenFX and ResolveFX Plug-Ins 1529 Introduction to Fuse Plug-Ins 1530 Chapter – 75 Using OpenFX, ResolveFX, and Fuse Plug-Ins 1528
What Are OpenFX? Fusion is able to use compatible OpenFX (OFX) plug-ins that are installed on your computer. OpenFX is an open standard for visual effects plug-ins. It allows plug-ins written to the standard to work on both DaVinci Resolve and Fusion Studio as well as other applications that support the standard. OFX plug-ins can be purchased and downloaded from third-party suppliers such as BorisFX, Red Giant, and RE:Vision Effects.
Introduction to Fuse Plug-Ins Fuses are plug-ins developed for Fusion using the Lua built-in scripting language. Being script-based, Fuses are compiled on-the-fly in Fusion without the need of a computer programming environment. While a Fuse may be slower than an identical OpenFX plug-in created using Fusion’s C++ SDK, a Fuse will still take advantage of Fusion’s existing nodes and GPU acceleration. To install a Fuse: 1 Use the .fuse extension at the end of the document name.
Chapter 76 3D Compositing Basics This chapter covers many of the nodes used for creating 3D composites, the tasks they perform, and how they can be combined to produce effective 3D scenes.
Contents An Overview of 3D Compositing 1534 3D Compositing Fundamentals 1535 Creating a Minimal 3D Scene 1535 The Elements of a 3D Scene 1537 Geometry Nodes 1537 The Merge3D Node 1539 The Renderer3D Node 1542 Software vs.
Materials and Textures 1562 Material Components 1563 Alpha Detail 1565 Illumination Models 1566 Textures 1567 Reflections and Refractions 1568 Bump Maps 1570 Projection Mapping 1572 Project a Texture onto a Catcher Material 1572 Project Using the UVMap Node 1573 Geometry 1575 Common Visibility Parameters 1575 Adding FBX Models 1576 Using Text3D 1577 Fog 3D and Soft Clipping 1581 Material and Object IDs 1582 World Position Pass 1583 Point Clouds 1584 Chapter – 76 3D Compo
An Overview of 3D Compositing Traditional image-based compositing is a two-dimensional process. Image layers have only the amount of depth needed to define one as foreground and another as background. This is at odds with the realities of production, since all images are either captured using a live-action camera with freedom in all three dimensions, in a shot that has real depth, or have been created in a true 3D modeling and rendering application.
3D Compositing Fundamentals The 3D category of nodes (which includes the Light, Material, and Texture subcategories) work together to create 3D scenes. Examples are nodes that generate geometry, import geometry, modify geometry, create lights and cameras, and combine all these elements into a scene. Nearly all these nodes are collected within the 3D category of nodes found in the Effects Library. The 3D category of nodes in the Effects Library.
More realistically, each 3D scene that you want to create will probably have three to five nodes to give you a better lit and framed result. These include: One of the available geometry nodes (such as Text3D or Image Plane 3D) A light node (such as DirectionalLight or SpotLight) A camera node A Merge3D node A Renderer3D node All these should be connected together as seen below, with the resultantly more complex 3D scene shown below.
The Elements of a 3D Scene All 3D nodes can be divided into a number of categories. Geometry Nodes You can add 3D geometry to a composition using the ImagePlane3D node, the Shape3D node, the Cube3D node, the Text3D node, or optionally by importing a model via the FBX Mesh 3D node. Furthermore, you can add particle geometry to scenes from pEmitter nodes. You can connect these to a Merge3D node either singularly or in multiples to create sophisticated results combining multiple elements.
An image connected to the material input of a Shape3D node set to Taurus, with the image (left), and the shaded taurus (right). If you’re shading or texturing Text3D nodes, you need to add a texture in a specific way since each node is actually a scene with individual 3D objects (the characters) working together. In the following example, the RustyMetal shader preset is applied to a Text3D node using the ReplaceMaterial3D node.
The Merge3D Node The Merge3D node combines the output of one or more 3D nodes into a single scene. Unlike the Merge2D node, the ordering of elements in the scene is not restricted to only background and foreground inputs. Instead, the Merge3D node lets you connect an unlimited number of inputs, with the resulting output combined according to each object’s absolute position in 3D space. Merging many objects together in a 3D scene using the Merge3D node.
Combining Multiple Merge3D Nodes Furthermore, Merge3D nodes can be combined with other Merge3D nodes, allowing you to create composite 3D scenes made up of multiple “sub-scenes,” each put together within individual Merge3D nodes. You can build elaborate scenes using multiple Merge3D nodes connected together.
The result of lights on the text in one Merge3D node not affecting the cone and taurus added in a downstream Merge3D node (left). Turning on Pass Through Lights in the upstream Merge3D node results in those lights also illuminating the downstream shapes (right). Transforming Merge3D Scenes Each Merge3D node includes a Transform tab. These transform parameters adjust the position, scale, and rotation of all objects being combined within that Merge3D node together, including lighting and particles.
Transforming Upstream, Lighting Downstream When building complex scenes using multiple Merge3D nodes being combined together, it’s common to use one last downstream node to combine light and camera nodes to illuminate the final scene, while leaving the upstream Merge3D nodes free for controlling object transforms and animation.
The Renderer3D uses one of the cameras in the scene (typically connected to a Merge3D node) to produce an image. If no camera is found, a default perspective view is used. Since this default view rarely provides a useful angle, most people build 3D scenes that include at least one camera. The image produced by the Renderer3D can be any resolution with options for fields processing, color depth, and pixel aspect. Software vs.
OpenGL Renderer The OpenGL renderer takes advantage of the GPU in your computer to render the image; the textures and geometry are uploaded to the graphics hardware, and OpenGL shaders are used to produce the result.
Suppose, for instance, that you have a scene on a street corner, and there’s a shop sign with a phone number on it, but you want to change the numbers. If you track the scene and have standing geometry for the sign, you can project the footage onto it, do a UV render, switch the numbers around with a Paint node, and then apply that back to the mesh with a Texture2D. The UV renderer can also be used for retouching textures.
A 3D Viewer’s default perspective view. To change the viewpoint, right-click in the viewer and choose the desired viewpoint from the ones listed in the Camera submenu. A shortcut to the Camera submenu is to right-click on the axis label displayed in the bottom corner of the viewer.
Navigating the 3D View For the most part, panning and scaling of the 3D Viewer uses the same controls as the 2D Viewer. For more information about the options available in the 3D Viewer, see Chapter 7, “Using Viewers.” To pan in a 3D Viewer, do the following: Hold the middle mouse button and drag in the viewer. To dolly (zoom) in the 3D Viewer, do one of the following: Hold down the middle and left mouse buttons and drag left or right in the viewer.
When a viewer is set to display the view of a camera or light, panning, zooming, or rotating the viewer (seen at right) actually transforms the camera or light you’re viewing through (seen at left). It is even possible to view the scene from the perspective of a Merge3D or Transform3D node by selecting the object from the Camera > Others menu. The same transform techniques will then move the position of the object. This can be helpful when you are trying to orient an object in a certain direction.
Material Viewer When you view a node that comes from the 3D > Material category of nodes in the Effects Library, the viewer automatically switches to display a Material Viewer. This Material Viewer allows you to preview the material applied to a lit 3D sphere rendered with OpenGL by default. The Material Viewer mode of the viewer. The type of geometry, the renderer, and the state of the lighting can all be set by right-clicking the viewer and choosing options from the contextual menu.
Transformations Merge3D, 3D Objects, and Transform3D all have Transform parameters that are collected together into a Transform tab in the Inspector. The parameters found in this tab affect how the object is positioned, rotated, and scaled within the scene. The Transform tab of a Merge3D node.
Using Onscreen Transform Controls In all three modes, red indicates the object’s local X-axis, green the Y-axis, and blue the Z-axis, respectively ( just remember RGB = XYZ). You can drag directly on the red, green, or blue portion of any onscreen control to constrain the transform to that axis, or if you drag the center of the onscreen control, you can apply a transform without constraints.
Turning on the Use Target checkbox of a 3D object. 4 Use the X/Y/Z Target Position controls in the Inspector or the Target onscreen control in the viewer to position the target and in turn position the object it’s attached to. In the viewer, a line is drawn between the target and the center of the 3D object it’s attached to, to show the relationship between these two sets of controls. Whenever you move the target, the object is automatically transformed to face its new position.
A light made to face the wall using its enabled target control. Parenting One of the many advantages of the node-based approach to 3D compositing is that parenting between objects becomes implicit in the structure of a 3D node tree. The basis for all parenting is the Merge3D node.
Cameras When setting up and animating a 3D scene, the metaphor of a camera is one of the most comprehensible ways of framing how you want that scene to be rendered out, as well as animating your way through the scene. Additionally, compositing artists are frequently tasked with matching cameras from live-action clips, or matching cameras from 3D applications.
Plane of Focus and Depth of Field Cameras have a plane of focus, for when depth of field rendering is available. Here’s the procedure for enabling depth of field rendering in your scenes. To render depth of field in a 3D scene: 1 You must add a Renderer3D node at the end of your 3D scene. 2 Select the Renderer3D node, and set the Renderer Type to OpenGL Renderer. 3 Open the Accumulation Effects disclosure control that appears, and turn on the Enable Accumulation Effects checkbox in the OpenGL render.
Importing Cameras If you want to match cameras between applications, you can import camera paths and positions from a variety of popular 3D applications. Fusion is able to import animation splines from Maya and XSI directly with their own native spline formats. Animation applied to cameras from 3ds Max and LightWave are sampled and keyframed on each frame. To import a camera from another application, do the following: 1 Select the camera in the Node Editor.
The Lighting button under the viewer. NOTE: When lighting is disabled in either the viewer or final renders, the image will appear to be lit by a 100% ambient light.
Spotlight A spotlight is an advanced point light that produces a well defined cone of light with falloff. This is the only light that produces shadows. From left to right: Directional light, point light, and spotlight. All of the Light nodes display onscreen controls in the viewer, although not all controls affect every light type. In the case of the ambient light, the position has no effect on the results. The directional light can be rotated, but position and scale will be ignored.
Lighting Options Most nodes that generate geometry have additional options for lighting. These options are used to determine how each individual object reacts to lights and shadows in the scene. 3D objects have individual lighting controls that let you control how each object interacts with light and shadows. Affected By Lights: If the Affected By Lights checkbox is enabled, lights in the scene will affect the geometry.
Generally, through trial and error, you’ll find a point of diminishing returns where increasing the size of the shadow map no longer improves the quality of the shadow. It is not recommended to set the size of the shadow maps any larger than they need to be. The Shadow Map Proxy control is used to set a percentage by which the shadow map is scaled for fast interactive previews, such as Autoproxy and LoQ renders. A value of .4, for example, represents a 40% proxy.
Multiplicative and Additive Bias Shadows are essentially textures applied to objects in the scene that occasionally result in “fighting.” Z-fighting results when portions of an object that should be receiving shadows instead render over the top of the shadow because they effectively exist in the same exact location in 3D space. Results of shadow map Z-fighting (top), and the corrected shadow shown using Biasing (bottom).
Materials and Textures To render a 3D scene, the renderer must take into account the shape of the object as well as its appearance. The geometry of an object defines the shape of the object, while the material applied to the object defines its appearance. Fusion provides a range of options for applying materials and textures to geometry, so you can give your 3D objects the surface qualities you want. Nodes that describe the geometry’s response to light are called illumination models.
Material Components All the standard illumination models share certain characteristics that must be understood. Diffuse The Diffuse parameters of a material control the appearance of an object where light is absorbed or scattered. This diffuse color and texture are the base appearance of an object, before taking into account reflections. The opacity of an object is generally set in the diffuse component of the material. Alpha The Alpha parameter defines how much the object is transparent to diffuse light.
Left to right: white, complimentary, and matching specular colors. Transmittance When using the software renderer, the Transmittance parameters control how light passes through a semi-transparent material. For example, a solid blue pitcher will cast a black shadow, but one made of translucent blue plastic would cast a much lower density blue shadow. The transmittance parameters are essential to creating the appearance of stained glass.
Alpha Detail When the Alpha Detail slider is set to 0, the non-zero portions of the alpha channel of the diffuse color are ignored and the opaque portions of the object casts a shadow. If it is set to 1, the alpha channel determines how dense the object casts a shadow. NOTE: The OpenGL renderer ignores alpha channels for shadow rendering, resulting in a shadow always being cast from the entire object. Only the software renderer supports alpha in the shadow maps.
Color Detail set to 0: no color is visible in the shadow. Saturation Saturation will allow the diffuse color texture to be used to define the density of the shadow without affecting the color. This slider lets you blend between the full color and luminance only. Transmittance and Shadows The transmittance of an object’s material plays an important role in determining the appearance of the shadow it casts. Normally, the transmittance behavior is defined in each object’s Materials tab as explained above.
Blinn The Blinn material is a general purpose material that is flexible enough to represent both metallic and dielectric surfaces. It uses the same illumination model as the Standard material, but the Blinn material allows for a greater degree of control by providing additional texture inputs for the specular color, intensity, and exponent (falloff), as well as bump map textures. Phong The Phong material produces the same diffuse result as Blinn, but with wider specular highlights at grazing incidence.
A node that outputs a material is frequently used, instead of an image, to provide other shading options. Materials passed between nodes are RGBA samples; they contain no other information about the shading or textures that produced them. The Texture2D node is used to translate a texture in the UV space of the object, as well as set the filtering and wrap mode.
The Nodes > 3D > Texture > Cube Map and Sphere Map nodes can be used to help create environment maps, applying special processing and transforms to create the cubic or spherical coordinates needed. Sphere map example. To produce reflections with real-time interactive feedback at a quality level appropriate for production environment maps, you make some trade-offs on functionality when compared with slower but physically accurate raytraced rendering.
Refraction Refraction occurs only where there is transparency in the background material, which is generally controlled through the Opacity slider and/or the alpha channel of any material or texture used for the Background Material Texture input. The Reflect node provides the following material inputs: Background Material: Defines both the opacity for refraction and the base color for reflection. Reflection Color Material: The environment reflection.
Using a Height Map A height map is an image where the value of a pixel represents the height. It is possible to select which color channel is used for bump creation. White means high and black means low; however, it is not the value of a pixel in the height map that determines the bumpiness, but rather how the value changes in the neighborhood of a pixel. Using a Bump Map A bump map is an image containing normals stored in the RGB channels.
Projection Mapping Projection is a technique for texturing objects using a camera or projector node. This can be useful for texturing objects with multiple layers, applying a texture across multiple separate objects, projecting background shots from the camera’s viewpoint, image-based rendering techniques, and much more. There are three ways to do projection mapping in Fusion.
Camera projection used with a Catcher node (example from an older version of Fusion). Project Using the UVMap Node This mode requires a camera and a UVMap3D node downstream of the objects to which the texture is being projected. In the Inspector, when the UVMap Map mode is set to Camera, it gathers the information from the camera and creates new UVs for the input objects, which are used for texturing. Because the UVs are stored in the vertices of the mesh, the object must be tessellated sufficiently.
TIP: Projected textures can be allowed to slide across an object. If the object moves relative to the Projector 3D, or alternatively, by grouping the two together with a Merge3D, they can be moved as one and the texture will remain locked to the object.
Geometry There are five nodes used for creating geometry in Fusion. These nodes can be used for a variety of purposes. For instance, the Image Plane 3D is primarily used to place image clips into a 3D scene, while the Shapes node can add additional building elements to a 3D set, and Text 3D can add three-dimensional motion graphics for title sequences and commercials. Although each node is covered in more detail in the “3D Nodes” chapter, a summary of the 3D creation nodes is provided below.
Unseen by Cameras If the Unseen by Cameras checkbox is selected, the object will be visible in the viewers but invisible when viewing the scene through a camera, so the object will not be rendered into the output image by a Renderer3D. Shadows cast by an Unseen object will still be visible. Cull Front Face/Back Face Use these options to cull (exclude) rendering of certain polygons in the geometry.
FBX Scene Import Dialog The FBX Mesh node is used to import mesh geometry from an FBX file. The first texture applied to a mesh will also be imported, if available. Since different 3D applications use different units to measure their 3D scenes, the imported geometry may be enormous compared to the rest of the scene, because Fusion treats its scale of measurement as equal to its own system.
Entering Text When you select a Text3D node and open the Inspector, the Text tab shows a “Styled Text” text entry field at the very top into which you can type the text you want to appear onscreen. Below, a set of overall styling parameters are available to set the Font, Color, Size, Tracking, and so on. All styling you do in this tab affects the entire set of text at once, which is why you need multiple text objects if you want differently styled words in the same scene.
Positioning and Transforming Text By default, every new Text3D node is positioned at 0, 0, 0, so when you add multiple Text3D nodes, they’re all in the same place. Fortunately, every Text3D node has built-in transform controls in the Transform tab. Text3D nodes also have Transform parameters built-in. Additionally, selecting a Text3D node exposes all the onscreen transform controls discussed elsewhere in this chapter. Using these controls, you can position and animate each text object independently.
Layout Parameters The Layout tab presents parameters you can use to choose how text is drawn: on a straight line, a frame, a circle, or a custom spline path, along with contextual parameters that change depending on which layout you’ve selected (all of which can be animated). Text using two different layouts.
Fog 3D and Soft Clipping The Fog3D node helps to create atmospheric depth cues. Split screen with and without fog. The Fog3D node works well with depth of field and antialiasing supported by the OpenGL renderer. Since it is not a post-processing node (like the VolumeFog node found in the Nodes > Position menu or Fog node in Nodes > Deep Pixel), it does not need additional channels like Position or Z-channel color. Furthermore, it supports transparent objects.
Matte Object Parameters Opening the Matte disclosure control reveals the Is Matte option, which when turned on enables two more options. Matte parameters in the Shape3D node; enabling Is Matte reveals additional options. Is Matte Located in the Controls tab for the geometry, this is the main checkbox for matte objects. When enabled, objects whose pixels fall behind the matte object’s pixels in Z do not get rendered.
Object ID for ground plane and object set to the same numeric value. World Position Pass The World Position Pass, or WPP, is a render pass generated from 3D applications. Each pixel is assigned the XYZ position where the pixel was generated in the world coordinates. So if the face from which the pixel was derived in the scene sits at (0,0,0), the resulting pixel will have a Position value of (0,0,0). If we visualize this as RGB, the pixel will be black.
There are three Position nodes that can take advantage of World Position Pass data. Nodes > Position > Volume Fog Nodes > Position > Volume Mask Nodes > Position > Z to World The “Dark Box” Empty regions of the render will have the Position channel incorrectly initialized to (0,0,0). To get the correct Position data, add a bounding sphere or box to your scene to create distant values and allow the Position nodes to render correctly.
The Point Cloud node can import point clouds written into scene files from match moving or 3D scanning software. To import a point cloud, do the following: 1 Add the PointCloud3D node to your composition. 2 Click the Import Point Cloud button in the Control panel. 3 Browse to the scene file and select a cloud to import from the scene. The entire point cloud is imported as one object, which is a significantly faster approach.
TIP: The Point Cloud Find function is a case-sensitive search. A point named “tracker15” will not be found if the search is for “Tracker15”. Renaming a Point in the Cloud You can use the Point Cloud contextual menu to rename a selected point. This works only for a single point. A group of points cannot be renamed. Publishing a Point If you want to use a point’s XYZ positions for connections to other controls in the scene, you can publish the point.
Chapter 77 3D Camera Tracking This chapter presents an overview of using the Camera Tracker node and the workflow it involves. Camera tracking is used to create a virtual camera in Fusion’s 3D environment based on the movement or a liveaction camera in a clip. You can then use the virtual camera to composite 3D models, text, or 2D images into a live-action clip that has a moving camera.
Contents Introduction to Tracking 1589 What Is 3D Camera Tracking? 1589 How Camera Tracking Works 1589 The Camera Tracking Workflow 1590 Clips That Don’t Work Well for Camera Tracking 1590 Outputting from the Camera Tracker 1591 2D View 1592 3D View 1592 Auto-Tracking in the Camera Tracker 1593 Increasing Auto-Generated Tracking Points 1593 Masking Out Objects 1594 Matching the Live-Action Camera 1596 Running the Solver 1596 How Do You Know When to Stop? 1597 Using Seed Frames 1
Introduction to Tracking Tracking is one of the most useful and essential techniques available to a compositor. It can roughly be defined as the creation of a motion path from analyzing a specific area in a clip over time. Fusion provides a variety of different tracking nodes that let you analyze different kinds of motion. Each tracker type has its own chapter in this manual. This chapter covers the tracking techniques with the Camera Tracker node.
The Camera Tracking Workflow Camera tracking has two main phases: 1 Tracking, which is the analysis of a scene. 2 Solving, whi7ch calculates the virtual 3D scene. Once you complete these steps, an animated camera and point cloud are exported from the Inspector into a 3D composite. The Camera Tracker encompasses this complete workflow within one tool. Five tabs at the top of the Inspector are roughly laid out in the order in which you’ll use them. These five tabs are: Track: Used to track a clip.
Tripod pans: Similar to a locked-off shot, there is no way to calculate which objects are closer and which are nearer from a pan that remains centered on a locked-off tripod. Skip the Camera Tracker node and find another solution. No detail: Clips like green screens without tracking markers lack enough detail to track. If you are lucky enough to be involved in the shooting of these types of shots, including tracker markers makes it much easier to get a good track.
2D View The 2D view is the primary display for the node. Viewing the node displays the image being tracked as well as overlay tracker markers and their motion paths. A dedicated toolbar gives you access to the common features used to track and solve a clip. The Camera Tracker 2D output with toolbar and auto-track points. 3D View The second output of the Camera Tracker node displays a 3D scene. To view this, connect this 3D output to a 3D Transform or Merge 3D node and view that tool.
After an initial solve, the 3D output displays the point cloud and the camera, along with the image connected to it. Selecting points displays the Camera Tracker toolbar above the viewer, which gives control of various functions, such as renaming, deleting, and changing the colors of points in the point cloud. 3D output of a point cloud and a solved camera path. Auto-Tracking in the Camera Tracker Tracking is the term used to describe the task of observing or analyzing a sequence of frames (or clip).
Green tracker marks are added automatically to the features in an image. Bi-Directional Tracking When performing a track, you can enable the Bidirectional Tracking checkbox, which first tracks forward from the start of the clip, and then tracks a second pass in reverse. This two-pass approach can potentially extend the duration of any given point by re-analyzing points initially identified in the forward pass. There is very little reason not to have this enabled unless you are very short on time.
When creating a mask, the fixed areas of the image to be analyzed for tracking should be encompassed in the white portion of the mask. All moving objects that need to be ignored should be encompassed in the black portion. The mask should then be attached to the Camera Tracker Track Mask input. Masks used to omit the moving clouds and waves from being tracked by the Camera Tracker. By doing this, the tracker ignores the waves of the water and moving clouds.
Matching the Live-Action Camera Once you have completed tracking, the next stage of this workflow requires the controls in the Camera tab. This is where you define the actual camera used on set, primarily the film gate size and focal length. This information should have been logged on the set to make available for post-production. When using camera-original media, you can sometimes locate this information in the file metadata.
To solve a camera’s motion: 1 Click the Solve button to run the solver. 2 Filter out and delete poor tracks. 3 Rerun the solver. The Solver tab after it has run and produced an average solve error of 0.4367 pixels. How Do You Know When to Stop? At the end of the solve process, an Average Solve Error (sometimes called a reprojection error) appears at the top of the Inspector. This is the crucial value that tells you how well the calculation has gone. A good Average Solve Error for HD content is below 1.
Using Seed Frames The solver works by first constructing a partial solution between two seed frames. These seed frames are selected automatically. However, automatic selection adds time to the process. The time is reported in the solve summary at the top of the Inspector once you run the solver. You can select your own seed frames to speed the process and potentially get a better solve on trickier clips.
How to Judge Track Accuracy The automatic color coding of tracking markers makes deleting false or poor tracks easier. After the solver runs, each tracker is assigned a solve error color that indicates which 3D locators match their 2D tracking points well, and which match up poorly. Green: Good. Tracked very well. Yellow: Moderate confidence. Usually an acceptable track. Orange: Low Confidence. May be acceptable in some situations. Red: No Confidence. The tracks have not solved well.
Tips for What to Keep and What to Delete Understanding what false tracks look like, and then manually cleaning the track data to reduce it to a precise set of clear tracks, will result in a more accurate solve. When cleaning up any track—particularly yellow and orange color coded tracks—keep the following in mind: Keep all tracks with motion that’s completely determined by the motion of the live‑action camera. Delete tracks on moving objects or people and tracks that have parallax issues.
Using Filters to Delete Problem Tracks The Solve tab includes filters that can be used to select groups of similar tracks by track length, track error, and solve error. These can be used to quickly select and delete poorly performing tracks that may be misleading to the resulting camera, leaving a concise list of accurate tracks. Tracks can be selected using filters and deleted using the Operations On Selected Tracks buttons.
Set the 3D Scene Transform menu to Unaligned before setting the ground plane. Setting the Ground Plane The Camera Tracker has no idea if the camera is on its side or tilted in some way. So, it is up to you to indicate where the ground plane is in a clip. After choosing Unaligned from the 3D Scene Transform menu, you can begin identifying the ground plane. Drag a selection box around marks that represent the ground.
Setting the Origin When it comes time to add and position new objects into your 3D scene, you can make it easier by setting the origin or center location. To set the origin of the 3D scene, do the following: 1 Move to a frame that clearly shows the area you want to select as the center of the scene. 2 In the viewer, either select a single point or drag a selection box around a few marks located where you want to position the center of the 3D scene.
To work with the 3D scene, you can select the Merge 3D and load it into one of the viewers, and then select the Camera Tracker Renderer and load that into a second viewer. Viewing the Merge 3D shows the point cloud, ground plane, and camera. When the Merge 3D is selected, a toolbar above the Viewer can add 3D test geometry like an image plane or cube to verify the precision of the 3D scene and camera. You can then connect actual 3D elements into the Merge 3D as you would any manually created 3D scene.
Chapter 78 Particle Systems This chapter is designed to give you a brief introduction to the creation of fully 3D particle systems, one of Fusion’s most powerful features. Once you understand these basics, for more Information on each particle system node that’s available, see Chapter 103, “Particle Nodes” in the DaVinci Resolve manual or Chapter 52 in the Fusion Studio manual.
Contents Introduction to Particle Systems 1607 Anatomy of a Simple Particle System 1608 Particle System Distribution 1611 Particle Nodes Explained by Type 1612 Emitters 1612 Forces 1613 Compositing 1613 Rendering 1613 Example Particle Systems 1614 Chapter – 78 Particle Systems 1606
Introduction to Particle Systems Particle systems are computer simulations that use customizable rules to automatically generate and animate large numbers of elements to simulate smoke, dust, fire, leaves, sparks, or any other animated system of shapes. As Fusion is a full-featured 3D compositing environment, particle systems can be created in 2D or 3D, which makes them incredibly flexible and capable of producing all kinds of visual effects or abstract animated content for use in motion graphics.
All particle nodes begin with the letter “p,” and they’re designed to work together to produce sophisticated effects from relatively simple operations and settings. The next section shows different ways particle nodes can be connected to produce different effects. Anatomy of a Simple Particle System The simplest particle system you can create is a pEmitter node connected to a pRender node.
You can also attach the following types of nodes to a pEmitter node to deeply customize a particle system: Attach a 2D image to a pEmitter node to create highly customized particle shapes. Make sure your image has an appropriate alpha channel. Attach a Shape3D or other 3D geometry node to a pEmitter node to create a more specific region of emission (by setting Region to Mesh in the Region tab). Customizing pEmitter nodes using mesh geometry to define regions and 2D images to define particle shape.
Choosing whether a particle system’s output is 2D or 3D in the pRender node’s Inspector controls. If you connect a pRender node to a Merge3D node, the Output Mode is locked to 3D, meaning that 3D geometry is output by the pRender node for use within the Merge3D node’s scene. This means that the particles can be lit, they can cast shadows, and they can interact with 3D objects within that scene. The result of using a particle system within a 3D scene.
Particle System Distribution To adjust the distribution of particles being emitted, select the pEmitter node to expose its controls in the Inspector, then open the Velocity controls in the Controls tab, and use the Angle, Angle Variance, Angle Z, and Angle Z Variance controls to adjust the direction and width over which particles are emitted. All these controls can be animated. A pEmitter node’s Velocity Angle and Angle Variance controls let you adjust the direction and width of particle distribution.
A pEmitter node’s Region controls open in the Inspector. Particle Nodes Explained by Type This section introduces the four types of particle system nodes available in the Effects Library. Emitters pEmitter nodes are the source of all particles. Each pEmitter node can be set up to generate a single type of particle with enough customization so that you’ll never create the same type of particle twice.
Region: The Region tab lets you choose what kind of geometric region is used to disperse particles into space and whether you’re emitting particles from the region’s volume or surface. The Winding Rule and Winding Ray Direction controls determine how the mesh region will handle particle creation with geometric meshes that are not completely closed, as is common in many meshes imported from external applications.
Example Particle Systems The Templates category in the Inspector in the Fusion page of DaVinci Resolve or in the Bins window in Fusion Studio includes over 20 different examples of particle systems creating a variety of effects. One of the best ways of learning how to create and customize particle systems is to open these and investigate how they’re made. Different particle system presets in the Templates category of the Bins window in Fusion Studio.
Chapter 79 Optical Flow and Stereoscopic Nodes This chapter covers the numerous stereoscopic and optical flow-based nodes available in Fusion and their related workflows.
Contents Overview 1617 Stereoscopic Overview 1617 Optical Flow Overview 1617 Toolset Overview 1618 Working with Aux Deep Channels 1619 Optical Flow Workflows 1620 OpticalFlow 1620 TimeSpeed, TimeStretcher 1620 SmoothMotion 1620 Repair Frame, Tween 1620 Stereoscopic Workflows 1621 Stereo Camera 1622 Stereo Materials 1623 Disparity 1623 NewEye, StereoAlign 1623 DisparityToZ, ZToDisparity 1623 Separate vs.
Overview Fusion includes 3D stereoscopic and optical flow-based nodes, which can work together or independently of each other to create, repair, and enhance 3D stereoscopic shots. Stereoscopic comp displayed in the viewers. Stereoscopic Overview All stereoscopic features are fully integrated into Fusion’s 3D environment. Stereoscopic images can be created using a single camera, which supports eye separation and convergence distance, and a Renderer 3D for the virtual left and right eye.
Toolset Overview Here is an overview of the available nodes. Optical Flow Nodes Optical Flow > OpticalFlow: Analyzes motion between neighboring frames in a sequence to generate motion vectors, which can then be used by other nodes for retiming, motion blur, and other effects. Miscellaneous > TimeSpeed: Retimes a clip at a constant speed using Flow Interpolation mode. Miscellaneous > TimeStretcher: Retimes a clip at variable speeds using Flow Interpolation mode.
Working with Aux Deep Channels Certain image formats can contain channels other than RGBA color, called aux deep channels. Stereo Disparity and OpticalFlow deal directly with auxiliary deep channels. Aux channels supported in Fusion include: RGBA: These are the standard colors. Z: The eyespace Z coordinate is almost always negative because in eyespace, Fusion’s camera sits at (0, 0, 0) looking down the Z-axis.
Optical Flow Workflows The Optical Flow analysis is a non real-time process, and depending on your computer, the clip’s resolution, and the duration of the clip, it can take some time. Because of this, the general idea is that you pre-generate the motion vectors, either by performing the analysis overnight or using a render farm, and save results into an OpenEXR sequence.
Stereoscopic Workflows Disparity is the difference between the left and right image. The Disparity map is used by nodes to align and massage the stereo pair of images. The Disparity node analyzes a stereo pair of images and generates an X&Y disparity map. The workflow is to load a left and right stereo image pair and process those in the Disparity node. Once the Disparity map is generated, other nodes can process the images.
Stereo Camera There are two ways to set up a stereoscopic camera. The common way is to simply add a Camera 3D and adjust the eye separation and convergence distance parameters. Stereoscopic cameras can be done with a single camera or two connected cameras. The other way is to connect another camera to the RightStereoCamera input port of the Camera 3D. When viewing the scene through the original camera or rendering, the connected camera is used for creating the right-eye content.
Stereo Materials Using the Stereo Mix material node, it is possible to assign different textures per eye. Material viewer showing stereoscopic material. Disparity The Disparity node does the heavy lifting of generating disparity maps. This generates the Disparity channel and stores it in the hidden aux channels of their output image. NewEye, StereoAlign NewEye and StereoAlign use and destroy the Disparity channel to do interpolation on the color channel.
Setting Up Stereo in the Node Editor The disparity generation is the first operation. This can be configured in the Node Editor in two different ways. Two stereoscopic workflows. In the above example, the workflow on the right takes the left and right eye, generates the disparity, and then NewEye is used to generate a new eye for the image right away. The example on the left renders the frames with disparity to intermediate EXR images.
things in pixel shifts, this can cause problems with Proxy and AutoProxy. Fusion follows the convention that, for proxied images, these channels store unscaled pixel shifts valid for the full-sized image. So if you wish to access the Disparity values in a script or via a probe, you need to remember to always scale them by (image. Width/image. OriginalWidth, image. Height/ image. OriginalHeight).
Motion Blur Motion blur is also a serious problem for the reason explained in the previous point. The Disparity and Optical Flow algorithms are unsure whether to assign a pixel in the motion blur to the moving object or the background pixel. Because the algorithms used are global in nature, not only the vectors on the motion blur will be wrong, but it will confuse the algorithm on regions close to the motion blur. Depth of Field Depth of field is also another problem related to the above two problems.
Picking from Aux Channels Some nodes, like StereoAlign, allow one to drag pick from the Z or Disparity auxiliary channels. You must pick from a node upstream of the StereoAlign, not from the output of the StereoAlign.
Disparity and Optical Flow values are stored as un-normalized pixel shifts. In particular, note that this breaks from Fusion’s resolution-independent convention. After much consideration, this convention was chosen so the user wouldn’t have to worry about rescaling the Disparity/ Flow values when cropping an image or working out scale factors when importing/exporting these channels to other applications.
PART 8 Fusion Page Effects
Chapter 80 3D Nodes This chapter covers, in great detail, the nodes used for creating 3D composites. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents Alembic Mesh 3D [ABC] 1632 Bender 3D [3BN] 1636 Camera 3D [3CM] 1638 Cube 3D [3CB] 1648 Custom Vertex 3D [3CV] 1651 Displace 3D [3DI] 1656 Duplicate 3D [3DP] 1659 FBX Exporter 3D [FBX] 1664 FBX Mesh 3D [FBX] 1667 Fog 3D [3FO] 1670 Image Plane 3D [3IM] 1672 Locator 3D [3LO] 1674 Merge 3D [3MG] 1677 Override 3D [3OV] 1679 Point Cloud 3D [3PC] 1681 Projector 3D [3PJ] 1685 Renderer 3D [3RN] 1690 Replace Material 3D [3RPL] 1700 Replace Normals 3D [3RPN] 1702 Replica
Alembic Mesh 3D [ABC] The Alembic Mesh 3D node Alembic Mesh Node Introduction At times, you may need to import 3D geometry from applications like Blender, Cinema4D, or Maya. One of the formats you can use for importing 3D geometry is the Alembic file format. This file type is a 3D scene interchange format that contains baked animation with its geometry. In other words, it eliminates the animation calculation times by embedding fixed, uneditable animation with 3D geometry.
Alembic Import Dialog An Alembic Import dialog is displayed once you select the file to import. The top half of the Import dialog displays information about the selected file including the name of the plug-in/application that created the Alembic file, the version of the Alembic software developer kit used during the export, the duration of the animation in seconds, if available, and the frame rate(s) in the file.
Animation: This section includes one option for the Resampling rate. When exporting an Alembic animation, it is saved to disk using frames per second (fps). When importing Alembic data into Fusion, the fps are detected and entered into the Resample Rate field unless you have changed it previously in the current comp. Ideally, you should maintain the exported frame rate as the resample rate, so your samples match up with the original.
Inspector Alembic mesh 3D controls Controls Tab The first tab in the Inspector is the Controls tab. It includes a series of unique controls specific to the Alembic Mesh 3D node as well as six groupings of controls that are common to most 3D nodes. The “Common Controls” section at the end of this chapter includes detailed descriptions of the common controls. Below are descriptions of the Alembic Mesh 3D specific controls. Filename: The complete file path of the imported Alembic file is displayed here.
Bender 3D [3BN] The Bender3D node Bender 3D Introduction The Bender 3D node is used to bend, taper, twist, or shear 3D geometry based on the geometry’s bounding box. It works by connecting any 3D scene or object to the orange input on the Bender 3D node, and then adjusting the controls in the Inspector. Only the geometry in the scene is modified. Any lights, cameras, or materials are passed through unaffected.
Inspector Controls Tab The first tab in the Inspector is the Controls tab. It includes all the controls for the Bender 3D node. Bender Type The Bender Type menu is used to select the type of deformation to apply to the geometry. There are four modes available: Bend, Taper, Twist, and Shear. Amount Adjusting the Amount slider changes the strength of the deformation. Axis The Axis control determines the axis along which the deformation is applied.
Common Controls Settings The Settings tab in the Inspector is common to all 3D nodes. This common tab is described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section. Camera 3D [3CM] The Camera3D node Camera 3D Node Introduction The Camera 3D node generates a virtual camera for viewing the 3D environment. It closely emulates the settings used in real cameras to make matching live-action or 3D-rendered elements as seamless as possible.
Inputs There are three optional inputs on the Camera 3D node in the Node Editor. – SceneInput: The orange input is used to connect a 3D scene or object. When connected, the geometry links to the camera’s field of view. It acts similarly to an image attached to the Image Plane input. If the camera’s Projection tab has projection enabled, the image attached to the orange image input projects on to the geometry. – ImageInput: The optional magenta input is used to connect a 2D image.
Inspector Controls Tab The Camera3D Inspector includes six tabs along the top. The first tab, called the Controls tab, contains some of the most fundamental camera settings, including the camera’s clipping plains, field of view, focal length, and stereoscopic properties. Some tabs are not displayed until a required connection is made to the Camera 3D node. Projection Type The Projection Type menu is used to select between Perspective and Orthographic cameras.
Near/Far Clip The clipping planes are used to limit what geometry in a scene is rendered based on an object’s distance from the camera’s focal point. Clipping planes ensure objects that are extremely close to the camera, as well as objects that are too far away to be useful, are excluded from the final rendering. The default perspective camera ignores this setting unless the Adaptive Near/Far Clip checkbox located under the Near/Far Clip control is disabled.
Use the vertical aperture size to get the vertical angle of view and the horizontal aperture size to get the horizontal angle of view. Plane of Focus (for Depth of Field) Like a focal point on a real-world camera, this setting defines the distance from the camera to an object. It is used by the OpenGL renderer in the Renderer 3D node to calculate depth of field. Stereo The Stereo section includes options for setting up 3D stereoscopic cameras.
Paralle The cameras are shifted parallel to each other. Since this is a purely parallel shift, there is no Convergence Distance control that limits your control over placing objects in front of or behind the screen. However, Parallel introduces no vertical parallax, thus creating less strain on the eyes. Rig Attached To This pop-up menu allows you to control which camera is used to transform the stereoscopic setup.
Resolution Gate Fit Determines how the film gate is fitted within the resolution gate. This only has an effect when the aspect of the film gate is not the same aspect as the output image. NOTE: This setting corresponds to Maya’s Resolution Gate. The modes Overscan, Horizontal, Vertical, and Fill correspond to Inside, Width, Height, and Outside. Inside: The image source defined by the film gate is scaled uniformly until one of its dimensions (X or Y) fits the inside dimensions of the resolution gate mask.
Import Camera The Import Camera button displays a dialog to import a camera from another application. It supports the following file types: *LightWave Scene .lws *Max Scene .ase *Maya Ascii Scene .ma *dotXSI .xsi NOTE: FBX cameras can be imported using DaVinci Resolve’s Fusion > Import > FBX Scene menu or File > Import > FBX Scene in Fusion Studio. Image Tab When a 2D image is connected to the magenta image input on the Camera3D node, an Image tab is created at the top of the inspector.
Fill Method This menu configures how to scale the image plane if the camera has a different aspect ratio. Inside: The image plane is scaled uniformly until one of its dimensions (X or Y) fits the inside dimensions of the resolution gate mask. Depending on the relative dimensions of image source and mask background, either the image source’s width or height may be cropped to fit the dimensions of the mask. Width: The image plane is scaled uniformly until its width (X) fits the width of the mask.
Camera3D projection tab Projection Mode Light: Defines the projection as a spotlight. Ambient Light: Defines the projection as an ambient light. Texture: Allows a projection that can be relighted using other lights. Using this setting requires a Catcher node connected to the applicable inputs of the specific material. Common Controls Transform and Settings Tabs The options presented in the Transform and Settings tabs are commonly found in other 3D nodes.
Parallel Stereo: There are three ways you can achieve real Parallel Stereo mode: – Connect an additional external (right) camera to the green Right Stereo Camera input of your camera. – Create separate left and right cameras. – When using Toe-In or Off Axis, set the Convergence Distance slider to a very large value of 999999999. Rendering Overscan: If you want to render an image with overscan, you also must modify your scene‘s Camera3D.
Basic Node Setup The output of a Cube 3D node typically connects to a Merge 3D node, integrating it into a larger scene. When 3D tracking, the Cube 3D is often used as a placeholder for proper geometry that is not available at the current time.
Controls Tab The first tab in the Inspector is the Controls tab. It includes the primary controls for determining the overall size and shape of the Cube 3D node. Lock Width/Height/Depth This checkbox locks the Width, Height, and Depth dimensions of the cube together. When selected, only a Size control is displayed; otherwise, separate Width, Height, and Depth sliders are shown.
Custom Vertex 3D [3CV] The CustomVertex3D node Custom Vertex 3D Node Introduction The Custom Vertex 3D node is an advanced custom node for 3D geometry that performs per vertex manipulations. If you have moderate experience with scripting or C++ programming, you should find the structure and terminology used by the Custom node familiar. Using scripting math functions and lookup tables from images, you can move vertex positions on 3D geometry. Vertices can be more than just positions in 3D space.
NOTE: Missing attributes on the input geometry are created if the expression for an attribute is nontrivial. The values for the attributes are given as in the above point. For example, if the input geometry does not have normals, then the values of (nx, ny, nz) is always (0,0,1). To change this, you could use a ReplaceNormals node beforehand to generate them. Basic Node Setup The object you want to manipulate connects to the orange scene input of the Custom Vertex 3D node.
Vertex Tab Using the fields in the Vertex tab, vertex calculations can be performed on the Position, Normals, Vertex Color, Texture Coordinates, Environment Coordinates, UV Tangents, and Velocity attributes. The vertices are defined by three XYZ Position values in world space as px, py, pz. Normals, which define as a vector the direction the vertex is pointing as nx, ny, nz. Vertex color is the Red, Green, Blue, and Alpha color of the point as vcr, vcg, vcb, vca.
Points 1-8 The point controls represent points in the Custom Vertex 3D tool, not the vertices. These eight point controls include 3D X,Y,Z position controls for positioning points at the current time: (p1x, p1y, p1z, p2x, p2y, p2z) or at any time: p1x_at(float t), p1y_at(float t), p1z_at(float t), p2x_ at(float t), p2y_at(float t), p2z_at(float t), where t is the time you want. For example, you can use a point to define a position in 3D space to rotate the vertices around.
Setups 1-8 Up to eight separate expressions can be calculated in the Setup tab of the Custom Vertex 3D node. The Setup expressions are evaluated once per frame, before any other calculations are performed. The results are then made available to the other expressions in the node as variables s1, s2, s3, and s4. Think of them as global setup scripts that can be referenced by the intermediate and channel scripts for each vertex.
Config Tab Custom Vertex 3D node Config tab Random Seed Use this to set the seed for the rand() and rands() functions. Click the Reseed button to set the seed to a random value. This control may be needed if multiple Custom Vertex 3D nodes are required with different random results for each. Number Controls There are eight sets of Number controls, corresponding to the eight sliders in the Numbers tab.
When using Displace 3D, keep in mind that it only displaces existing vertices and does not subdivide surfaces to increase detail. To obtain a more detailed displacement, increase the subdivision amount for the geometry that is being displaced. Note that the pixels in the displacement image may contain negative values. TIP: Passing a particle system through a Displace 3D node disables the Always Face Camera option set in the pEmitter.
Inspector Controls Tab The Displace 3D Inspector includes two tabs along the top. The primary tab, called the Controls tab, contains the dedicated Displace 3D controls. Channel Determines which channel of the connected input image is used to displace the geometry. Scale and Bias Use these sliders to scale (magnify) and bias (offset) the displacement. The bias is applied first and the scale afterward.
Duplicate 3D [3DP] The Duplicate3D node Duplicate 3D Node Introduction Similar to the 2D version called the Duplicate node, the Duplicate 3D node can be used to duplicate any geometry in a scene, applying a successive transformation to each, and creating repeating patterns and complex arrays of objects. The options in the Jitter tab allow nonuniform transformations, such as random positioning or sizes. Inputs The Duplicate 3D node has a single input by default where you connect a 3D scene.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab includes all the parameters you can use to create, offset, and scale copies of the object connected to the scene input on the node. Copies Use this range control to set the number of copies made. Each copy is a copy of the last copy, so if this control is set to [0,3], the parent is copied, then the copy is copied, then the copy of the copy is copied, and so on.
Transform Method Linear: When set to Linear, transforms are multiplied by the number of the copy, and the total scale, rotation, and translation are applied in turn, independent of the other copies. Accumulated: When set to Accumulated, each object copy starts at the position of the previous object and is transformed from there. The result is transformed again for the next copy Transform Order With this menu, the order in which the transforms are calculated can be set.
Jitter Tab The options in the Jitter tab allow you to randomize the position, rotation, and size of all the copies created in the Controls tab. Duplicate 3D Jitter tab Random Seed The Random Seed slider is used to generate a random starting point for the amount of jitter applied to the duplicated objects. Two Duplicate nodes with identical settings but different random seeds produce two completely different results. Randomize Click the Randomize button to auto generate a random seed value.
Pivot Jitter Use these three controls to adjust the amount of variation in the rotational pivot center of the duplicated objects. This affects only the additional jitter rotation, not the rotation produced by the Rotation settings in the Controls tab. Scale Jitter Use this control to adjust the amount of variation in the scale of the duplicated objects. Disable the Lock XYZ checkbox to adjust the scale variation independently on all three axes.
Region: The Region menu determines the shape of the region. The five options include cube, sphere, and rectangle primitive shapes. The mesh option allows you to connect a 3D model into the green mesh input on the node. The green input appears only after the Region menu is set to Mesh. The All setting refers to the entire scene. This allows the copies to pop on and off if the Region mode is animated. When the Region menu is set to Mesh, four other options are displayed. These are described below.
Besides the FBX format, this node can also export to the 3D Studio’s .3ds, Collada’s .dae, Autocad’s .dxf, and the Alias .obj formats. Inputs The FBX Exporter node has a single orange input. – Input: The output of the 3D scene that you want to export connects to the orange input on the FBX Exporter node. Basic Node Setup The input to the FBX Exporter 3D node is any 3D scene you want to export. Below, the node is placed as a separate branch off of the Duplicate 3D node.
Filename This Filename field is used to display the location and file that is output by the node. You can click the Browse button to open a file browser dialog and change the location where the file is saved. Format This menu is used to set the format of the output file. Not all features of this node are supported in all file formats. For example, the .obj format does not handle animation. Version The Version menu is used to select the available versions for the chosen format.
FBX Mesh 3D [FBX] The FBXMesh node FBX Mesh 3D Node Introduction The FBX Mesh 3D node is used to import polygonal geometry from scene files that are saved in the FilmBox (FBX) format. It is also able to import geometry from OBJ, 3DS, DAE, and DXF scene files. This provides a method for working with more complex geometry than is available using Fusion‘s built-in primitives.
An FBX Mesh 3D node with chrome material applied Inspector Controls Tab Most of the Controls tab is taken up by common controls. The FBX-specific controls included on this tab are primarily information and not adjustments.
Size The Size slider controls the size of the FBX geometry that is imported. FBX meshes have a tendency to be much larger than Fusion’s default unit scale, so this control is useful for scaling the imported geometry to match the Fusion environment. FBX File This field displays the filename and file path of the currently loaded FBX mesh. Click the Browse button to open a file browser that can be used to locate a new FBX file. Despite the node’s name, this node is also able to load a variety of other formats.
Fog 3D [3FO] The Fog3D node Fog 3D Node Introduction The Fog 3D node applies fog to the scene based on a depth cue. It is the 3D version of the Fog node in the Deep Pixel category. It is designed to work completely in 3D space and takes full advantage of anti-aliasing and depth of field effects during rendering. The Fog 3D node essentially retextures the geometry in the scene by applying a color correction based on the object’s distance from the camera.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab includes all the parameters you use to decide how the Fog looks and projects onto the geometry in the scene. Enable Use this checkbox to enable or disable parts of the node from processing. This is not the same as the red switch in the upper-left corner of the inspector. The red switch disables the tool altogether and passes the image on without any modification. The Enable checkbox is limited to the effect part of the tool.
Type This control is used to determine the type of falloff applied to the fog. Linear: Defines a linear falloff for the fog. Exp: Creates an exponential nonlinear falloff. Exp2: Creates a stronger exponential falloff. Near/Far Fog Distance This control expresses the range of the fog in the scene as units of distance from the camera. The Near Distance determines where the fog starts, while the Far Distance sets the point where the fog has its maximum effect.
– MaterialInput: The green-colored material input accepts either a 2D image or a 3D material. It provides the texture and aspect ratio for the rectangle based on the connected source such as a Loader node in Fusion Studio or a MediaIn node in DaVinci Resolve. The 2D image is used as a diffuse texture map for the basic material tab in the Inspector. If a 3D material is connected, then the basic material tab is disabled.
Controls Tab Most of the Controls tab is taken up by common controls. The Image Plane specific controls at the top of the Inspector allow minor adjustments. Lock Width/Height When checked, the subdivision of the plane is applied evenly in X and Y. When unchecked, there are two sliders for individual control of the subdivisions in X and Y. This defaults to on. Subdivision Level Use the Subdivision Level slider to set the number of subdivisions used when creating the image plane.
– Target: The optional green target input accepts the output of a 3D scene. When provided, the transform center of the scene is used to set the position of the Locator. The transformation controls for the Locator become offsets from this position. Basic Node Setup The scene provided to the Locator’s input must contain the camera through which the coordinates are projected. So, the best practice is to place the Locator after the Merge that introduces the camera to the scene.
Controls Tab Most of the controls for the locator 3D are cosmetic, dealing with how the locator appears and whether it is rendered in the final output. However, the Camera Settings are critical to getting the results you’re looking for. Size The Size slider is used to set the size of the Locator’s onscreen crosshair. Color A basic Color control is used to set the color of the Locator’s onscreen crosshair.
Width, Height, and Pixel Aspect In order for the Locator to generate a correct 2D transformation, it must know the dimensions and aspect of the image. These controls should be set to the same dimensions as the image produced by a renderer associated with the camera specified above. Right-clicking on these controls displays a contextual menu containing the frame formats configured in the composition’s preferences.
Basic Node Setup The Merge 3D is the hub of a 3D composite. All elements in a 3D scene connect into a Merge 3D. Multiple Merge 3D nodes can be strung together to control lighting or for neater organization. The last Merge 3D in a string must connect to a Renderer 3D to be output as a 2D image. Merge 3D with a connected Image Plane, FBX Mesh object, SpotLight, and camera Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab is used only to pass through any lights connected to the Merge 3D node.
Override 3D [3OV] The Override3D node Override 3D Node Introduction The Override node lets you change object-specific options for every object in a 3D scene simultaneously. This is useful, for example, when you wish to set every object in the input scene to render as a wireframe. Additionally, this node is the only way to set the wireframe, visibility, lighting, matte, and ID options for 3D particle systems and the Text 3D node.
Inspector Override 3d controls Controls Tab The function of the controls found in the Controls tab is straightforward. First, you select the option to override using the Do [Option] checkbox. That reveals a control that can be used to set the value of the option itself. The individual options are not documented here; a full description of each can be found in any geometry creation node in this chapter, such as the Image Plane, Cube, or Shape nodes. Do [Option] Enables the override for this option.
Point Cloud 3D [3PC] The PointCloud3D node Point Cloud 3D Node Introduction A Point Cloud is generally many null objects created by 3D tracking or modeling software. When produced by 3D tracking software, the points typically represent each of the patterns tracked to create the 3D camera path. These point clouds can be used to identify a ground plane and to orient other 3D elements with the tracked image.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab is where you can import the point cloud from a file and controls its appearance in the viewer. Style The Style menu allows you to display the point cloud as cross hairs or points in the viewer. Lock X/Y/Z Deselect this checkbox to provide individual control over the size of the X, Y, and Z arms of the points in the cloud. Size X/Y/Z These sliders can be used to increase the size of the onscreen crosshairs used to represent each point.
Import Point Cloud The Import Point Cloud button displays a dialog to import a point cloud from another application. Supported filetypes are: Alias's Maya .ma 3DS Max ASCII Scene Export .ase NewTek's LightWave .lws Softimage XSI's .xsi. Make Renderable Determines whether the point cloud is visible in the OpenGL viewer and in final renderings made by the OpenGL renderer. The software renderer does not currently support rendering of visible crosshairs for this node.
Find: Selecting this option from the viewer contextual menu opens a dialog to search for and select a point by name. Each point that matches the pattern is selected. Rename: Rename any point by selecting Rename from the contextual menu. Type the new name into the dialog that appears and press Return. The point now has that name, with a four-digit number added to the end. For example, the Name window is window0000, and multiple points would be window0000, window0001, and so on.
Projector 3D [3PJ] The Projector3D node Projector 3D Node Introduction The Projector 3D node is used to project an image upon 3D geometry. This can be useful in many ways: texturing objects with multiple layers, applying a texture across multiple separate objects, projecting background shots from the camera’s viewpoint, image-based rendering techniques, and more. The Projector node is just one of several nodes capable of projecting images and textures. Each method has advantages and disadvantages.
See the section for the Catcher node for additional details. Camera Projection vs. Projection 3D Node The Camera 3D node also provides a projection feature, and should be used when the projection is meant to match a camera, as this node has more control over aperture, film back, and clip planes. The Projector 3D node was designed to be used as a custom light in 3D scenes for layering and texturing. The projector provides better control over light intensity, color, decay, and shadows.
Inspector Controls Tab Enabled When this checkbox is enabled, the projector affects the scene. Disable the checkbox to turn off the projector. This is not the same as the red switch in the upper-left corner of the Inspector. The red switch disables the tool altogether and passes the image on without any modification. The Enabled checkbox is limited to the effect part of the tool. Other parts, like scripts in the Settings tab still process as normal.
Fit Method The Fit Method determines how the projection is fitted within the projection cone. The first thing to know is that although this documentation may call it a “cone,” the Projector 3D and Camera 3D nodes do not project an actual cone; it’s more of a pyramid of light with its apex at the camera/projector. The Projector 3D node always projects a square pyramid of light—i.e., its X and Y angles of view are the same.
Shadows Since the projector is based on a spotlight, it is also capable of casting shadows using shadow maps. The controls under this reveal are used to define the size and behavior of the shadow map. Enable Shadows: The Enable Shadows checkbox should be selected if the light is to produce shadows. This defaults to selected. Shadow Color: Use this standard Color control to set the color of the shadow. This defaults to black (0, 0, 0).
– Softness Falloff: The Softness Falloff slider appears when the Softness is set to variable. This slider controls how fast the softness of shadow edges grows with distance. More precisely, it controls how fast the shadow map filter size grows based on the distance between shadow caster and receiver. Its effect is mediated by the values of the Min and Max Softness sliders. – Min Softness: The Min Softness slider appears when the Softness is set to variable.
Like most nodes, the Renderer’s motion blur settings can be found under the Common Controls tab. Be aware that scenes containing particle systems require that the Motion Blur settings on the pRender nodes exactly match the settings on the Renderer 3D node. Otherwise, the subframe renders conflict producing unexpected (and incorrect) results. NOTE: The Open GL renderer respects the Color Depth option in the Image tab of the Renderer 3D node.
Inspector Controls Tab Camera The Camera menu is used to select which camera from the scene is used when rendering. The Default setting uses the first camera found in the scene. If no camera is located, the default perspective view is used instead. Eye The Eye menu is used to configure rendering of stereoscopic projects. The Mono option ignores the stereoscopic settings in the camera.
Renderer Type This menu lists the available render engines. Fusion provides three: the software renderer, OpenGL renderer, and the OpenGL UV render engine. Additional renderers can be added via third-party plug-ins. All the controls found below this drop-down menu are added by the render engine. They may change depending on the options available to each renderer. So, each renderer is described in its own section below.
Lighting Enable Lighting: When the Enable Lighting checkbox is selected, objects are lit by any lights in the scene. If no lights are present, all objects are black. Enable Shadows: When the Enable Shadows checkbox is selected, the renderer produces shadows, at the cost of some speed. OpenGL Controls Output Channels In addition to the usual Red, Green, Blue, and Alpha channels, the OpenGL render engine can also embed the following channels into the image.
RGBA: This option tells the renderer to produce the Red, Green, Blue, and Alpha color channels of the image. These channels are required, and they cannot be disabled. Z: This option enables rendering of the Z-channel. The pixels in the Z-channel contain a value that represents the distance of each pixel from the camera. Note that the Z-channel values cannot include anti-aliasing. In pixels where multiple depths overlap, the frontmost depth value is used for this pixel.
Anti-Aliasing of Aux Channels in the OpenGL Renderer The reason Fusion supplies separate anti-aliasing options for color and aux channels in the Anti-Aliasing preset is that supersampling of color channels is quite a bit slower than aux channels. You may find that 1 x 3 LowQ/HiQ Rate is sufficient for color, but for world position or Z, you may require 4 x 12 to get adequate results.
Box This is a simple interpolation scale of the image. Bi-Linear (triangle) This uses a simplistic filter, which produces relatively clean and fast results. Bi-Cubic (quadratic) This filter produces a nominal result. It offers a good compromise between speed and quality. Bi-Spline (cubic) This produces better results with continuous tone images but is slower than Quadratic. If the images have fine detail in them, the results may be blurrier than desired.
Texturing Texture Depth: Lets you specify the bit depth of texture maps. Warn about unsupported texture depths: Enables a warning if texture maps are in an unsupported bit depth that Fusion can’t process. Lighting Mode The Per-vertex lighting model calculates lighting at each vertex of the scene’s geometry. This produces a fast approximation of the scene’s lighting but tends to produce blocky lighting on poorly tessellated objects.
Below are some issues to be aware of when using the OpenGL UV renderer. Baked-in lighting: After you have baked lighting into a model’s texture, you need to be careful to turn lighting off on the object later when you render it with the baked-in lighting texture. Single textures/multiple destinations: Beware of cases where a single area of the texture map is used on multiple areas of the model. This is often done to save texture memory and decrease modeling time.
Replace Material 3D [3RPL] The ReplaceMaterial3D node Replace Material 3D Node Introduction The Replace Material 3D node replaces the material applied to all the geometry in the input scene with its own material input. Any lights or cameras in the input scene are passed through unaffected. The scope of the replacement can be limited using Object and Material identifiers in the Inspector.
Inspector Controls Tab Enable This checkbox enables the material replacement. This is not the same as the red switch in the upper-left corner of the Inspector. The red switch disables the tool altogether and passes the image on without any modification. The enable checkbox is limited to the effect part of the tool. Other parts, like scripts in the Settings tab, still process as normal.
Replace Normals 3D [3RPN] The ReplaceNormals node Replace Normals Node Introduction In 3D modeling, normals are vectors used to determine the direction light reflects off surfaces. The Replace Normals node is used to replace the normals/tangents on incoming geometry, effectively adjusting the surface of an object between smooth and flat. All geometry connected to the scene input on the node is affected. Lights/Cameras/PointClouds/Locators/Materials, and other non-mesh nodes are passed through unaffected.
Inspector Control Tab The options in the Control tab deal with repairing 3D geometry and then recomputing normals/tangents. Pre-Weld Position Vertices Sometimes position vertices are duplicated in a geometry, even though they have the same position, causing normals/tangents to be miscomputed. The results of pre-welding are thrown away; they do not affect the output geometry’s position vertices. Recompute Controls when normals/tangents are recomputed. Always: The normals on the mesh are always recomputed.
There are five items you should be aware of when dealing with normals. #1 The FBX importer recomputes the normals if they don’t exist, but you can get a higher-quality result from the Replace Normals node. #2 Bump maps can sometimes depend on the model’s normals. Specifically, when you simplify a complex high polygon model to a low polygon model + bump map, the normals and bump map can become “linked.” Recomputing the normals in this case can make the model look funny.
– Input[#]: The input accepts the 3D scene or geometry for replicating. Once this input is connected, a new input for alternating 3D geometry is created. At least one connected input is required. Basic Node Setup In the example below, a Replicate 3D node is inserted directly after the pRender node. A spaceship FBX node is connected to the green input representing the object that will be replicated based on the particles. Each particle cell takes on the shape of the 3D geometry connected to the input.
Controls Tab Step Defines how many positions are skipped. For example, a step of 3 means that only every third vertice of the destination mesh is used, while a step of 1 means that all positions are used. The Step setting helps to keep reasonable performance for big destination meshes. On parametric geometry like a torus, it can be used to isolate certain parts of the mesh. Point clouds are internally represented by six points once the Make Renderable option has been set.
Alignment Alignment specifies how to align the copies in respect of the destination mesh normal or particle rotation. Not Aligned: Does not align the copy. It stays rotated in the same direction as its input mesh. Aligned: This mode uses the point’s normal and tries to reconstruct an upvector. It works best with organic meshes that have unwelded vertices, like imported FBX meshes, since it has the same rotations for vertices at the same positions.
Color Affects the diffuse color or shader of each copy based on the input’s particle color. Use Object Color: Does not use the color of the destination particle. Combine Particle Color: Uses the shader of any input mesh and modifies the diffuse color to match the color from the destination particle. Use Particle Color: Replaces the complete shader of any input mesh with a default shader. Its diffuse color is taken from the destination particle.
Jitter Tab The Jitter tab can be used to introduce randomness to various parameters. Random Seed/Randomize The Random Seed is used to generate the jitter applied to the replicated objects. Two Replicate nodes with identical settings but different random seeds will produce two completely different results. Click the Randomize button to assign a Random Seed value. Time Offset Use the Time Offset slider to offset any animations that are applied to the source geometry.
Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab is common to many 3D nodes. The description of these controls can be found in “The Common Controls” section at the end of this chapter. Ribbon 3D [3RI] The Ribbon3D node Ribbon 3D Node Introduction Ribbon 3D generates an array of subdivided line segments or a single line between two points.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab determines the number of ribbon strands, their size, length, and spacing. Number of Lines The number of parallel lines drawn between the start point and end point. Line Thickness Line thickness is allowed in the user interface to take on a floating-point value, but some graphics cards allow only integer values. Some cards may only allow lines equal to or thicker than one, or max out at a certain value.
Antialiasing Allows you to apply anti-aliasing to the rendered lines. Using anti-aliasing isn’t necessarily recommended. When activated, there may be be gaps between the line segments. This is especially noticeable with high values of line thickness. Again, the way lines are drawn is completely up to the graphics card, which means that these artifacts can vary from card to card.
Shape 3D nodes combined with Projector 3D to create a realistic 3D set Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab allows you to select a shape and modify its geometry. Different controls appear based on the specific shape that you choose to create. Shape This menu allows you to select the primitive geometry produced by the Shape 3D node. The remaining controls in the Inspector change to match the selected shape.
Radius When a Sphere, Cylinder, Cone, or Torus is selected in the shape menu, this control sets the radius of the selected shape. Top Radius When a cone is selected in the Shape menu, this control is used to define a radius for the top of a cone, making it possible to create truncated cones. Start/End Angle When the Sphere, Cylinder, Cone, or Torus shape is selected in the Shape menu, this range control determines how much of the shape is drawn.
NOTE: If you pipe the texture directly into the sphere, it is also mirrored horizontally. You can change this by using a Transform node first. Soft Clip [3SC] The SoftClip node Soft Clip Node Introduction The Soft Clip node is used to fade out geometry and particles that get close to the camera. This helps avoid the visible “popping off” that affects many particle systems and 3D flythroughs. This node is very similar to the Fog 3D node, in that it is dependent on the geometry’s distance from the camera.
Soft Clip placed between a Merge 3D and a Renderer 3D node Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab determines how an object transitions between opaque and transparent as it moves closer to the camera. Enable This checkbox can be used to enable or disable the node. This is not the same as the red switch in the upper-left corner of the Inspector. The red switch disables the tool altogether and passes the image on without any modification. The Enable checkbox is limited to the effect of the tool.
Show In Display Views Normally, the effect is only visible when the scene is viewed using a Camera node. When enabled, the soft clip becomes visible in the scene from all points of view. Transparent/Opaque Distance Defines the range of the soft clip. The objects begin to fade in from an opacity of 0 at the Transparent distance and are fully visible at the Opaque distance. All units are expressed as distance from the camera along the Z-axis.
Spherical Camera placed inside a sphere Inspector Controls Tab Layout VCross and HCross: VCross and HCross are the six square faces of a cube laid out in a cross, vertical or horizontal, with the forward view in the center of the cross, in a 3:4 or 4:3 image. VStrip and HStrip: VStrip and HStrip are the six square faces of a cube laid vertically or horizontally in a line, ordered as Left, Right, Up, Down, Back, Front (+X, -X, +Y, -Y, +Z, -Z), in a 1:6 or 6:1 image.
Near/Far Clip The clipping plane is used to limit what geometry in a scene is rendered based on the object’s distance from the camera’s focal point. This is useful for ensuring that objects that are extremely close to the camera are not rendered and for optimizing a render to exclude objects that are too far away to be useful in the final rendering. The default perspective camera ignores this setting unless the Adaptively Adjust Near/Far Clip checkbox control below is disabled.
Eye Separation Defines the distance between both stereo cameras. If the Eye Separation is set to a value larger than 0, controls for each camera are shown in the viewer when this node is selected. There is no Convergence Distance control in Parallel mode. Convergence Distance This control sets the stereoscopic convergence distance, defined as a point located along the Z-axis of the camera that determines where both left and right eye cameras converge.
The Text 3D node was based on a tool that predates the Fusion 3D environment. So, some of the controls found in the basic primitive shapes and geometry loaders, such as many of the material, lighting, and matte options, are not found in this node’s controls. The Text 3D node has a built-in material, but unlike the other 3D nodes it does not have a material input. The Shading tab contains controls to adjust the diffuse and specular components.
Inspector Text Tab The Text 3D text tab in the Inspector is divided into three sections: Text, Extrusion, and Advanced Controls. The Text section includes parameters that are familiar to anyone who has used a word processor. It includes commonly used text formatting options. The Extrusion section includes controls to extrude the text and create beveled edges for the text. The Advanced controls are used for kerning options. Styled Text The Edit box in this tab is where the text to be created is entered.
Size This control is used to increase or decrease the size of the text. This is not like selecting a point size in a word processor. The size is relative to the width of the image. Tracking The Tracking parameter adjusts the uniform spacing between each character of text. Line Spacing Line Spacing adjusts the distance between each line of text. This is sometimes called leading in word-processing applications. V Anchor The Vertical Anchor controls consist of three buttons and a slider.
Extrusion Depth An extrusion of 0 produces completely 2D text. Any value greater than 0 extrudes the text to generate text with depth. Text 3D extrusion and bevel controls Bevel Depth Increase the value of the Bevel Depth slider to bevel the text. The text must have extrusion before this control has any effect. Bevel Width Use the Bevel Width control to increase the width of the bevel. Smoothing Angle Use this control to adjust the smoothing angle applied to the edges of the bevel.
Text 3D Advanced Controls can be used to manually kern letters Use Font Defined Kerning This enables kerning as specified in the True Type font and is on by default. Manual Font Kerning Manual Font Kerning is only performed using the Text+ node. To perform manual kerning on Text3D, create the text using the Text+ node and kern it in that tool. Then, right-click over the tool’s name in the Inspector and choose Copy.
Circle: Circle layout places the text around the curve of a circle or oval. Control is offered over the diameter and width of the circular shape. When the layout is set to this mode, the Alignment controls determine whether the text is positioned along the inside or outside of the circle’s edge, and how multiple lines of text are justified. Path: Path layout allows you to shape your text along the edges of a path.
Text 3D Transform tab Transform This menu determines the portion of the text affected by the transformations applied in this tab. Transformations can be applied to line, word, and character levels simultaneously. This menu is only used to keep the number of visible controls to a reasonable number. Characters: Each character of text is transformed along its own center axis. Words: Each word is transformed separately on the word’s center axis.
Shading The Shading tab for the Text 3D node controls the overall appearance of the text and how lights affect its surface. Shading Tab Opacity Reducing the material’s opacity decreases the color and Alpha values of the specular and diffuse colors equally, making the material transparent and allowing hidden objects to be seen through the material. Use One Material Deselecting this option reveals a second set of Material controls for the beveled edge of the text.
Type To use a solid color texture, select the Solid mode. Selecting the Image mode reveals a new external input on the node that can be connected to another 2D image. Specular Color Specular Color determines the color of light that reflects from a shiny surface. The more specular a material is, the glossier it appears. Surfaces like plastics and glass tend to have white specular highlights, whereas metallic surfaces like gold have specular highlights that tend to inherit their color from the material color.
Text 3D Modifiers Right-clicking within the Styled Text box displays a menu with the following text modifiers. Only one modifier can be applied to a Text 3D Styled Text box. Below is a brief list of the text specific modifiers, but for more information see Chapter 111, “Modifiers” in the DaVinci Resolve manual and Chapter 60 in the Fusion Studio manual. Animate Use the Animate command to set to a keyframe on the entered text and animate the content over time.
Transform 3D [3XF] The Transform3D node Transform 3D Node Introduction The Transform 3D node can be used to translate, rotate, or scale all the elements within a scene without requiring a Merge 3D node. This can be useful for hierarchical transformations or for offsetting objects that are merged into a scene multiple times. Its controls are identical to those found in other 3D nodes’ Transformation tabs. Inputs The Transform node has a single required input for a 3D scene or 3D object.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab is the primary tab for the Transform 3D node. It includes controls to translate, rotate, or scale all elements within a scene without requiring a Merge 3D node. Translation X, Y, Z Offset: Controls are used to position the 3D element in 3D space. Rotation Rotation Order: Use these buttons to select the order used to apply the rotation along each axis of the object.
Use Target Selecting the Use Target checkbox enables a set of controls for positioning an XYZ target. When Use Target is enabled, the object always rotates to face the target. The rotation of the object becomes relative to the target. Import Transform Opens a file browser where you can select a scene file saved or exported by your 3D application. It supports the following file types: LightWave Scene .lws Max Scene .ase Maya Ascii Scene .ma dotXSI .
Triangulate 3D [3TRI] The Triangulate3D node Triangulate 3D Node Introduction The Triangulate 3D node is a unique node in that it has no controls. This node turns polygon shapes into triangles. For instance, a quad that is four points becomes two triangles. It is used to convert complex polygon shapes into a mesh for easier processing. Inputs The Triangulate 3D node has a single required input for a 3D scene or 3D object.
Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is duplicated in other 3D nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section. UV Map 3D [3UV] UV Map 3D Node Introduction The UV Map 3D node replaces the UV texture coordinates on the geometry in the scene. These coordinates tell Fusion how to apply a texture to an object.
Inputs The UV Map 3D node has two inputs: one for a 3D scene or 3D object and another optional input for a Camera 3D node. – Scene Input: The orange scene input is connected to the 3D scene or 3D object you want to triangulate. – CameraInput: This input expects the output of the Camera 3D node. It is only visible when the Camera Map mode menu is set to Camera. Basic Node Setup The UV Map 3D node is placed after all the geometry and set to Camera Map.
over the texture’s appearance. An option is also provided to lock the UV produced by this node to animated geometry according to a reference frame. This can be used to ensure that textures applied to animated geometry do not slide. Map Mode The Map mode menu is used to define how the texture coordinates are created. You can think of this menu as a way to select the virtual geometry that projects the UV space on the object. Planar: Creates the UV coordinates using a plane.
Flip U/V/W Mirrors the texture coordinates around the applicable axis. Flip Faces (Cube Map Mode Only) Mirrors the texture coordinates on the individual faces of the cube. NOTE: To utilize the full capabilities of the UV Map 3D node, it helps to have a basic understanding of how 2D images are mapped onto 3D geometry. When a 2D image is applied to a 3D surface, it is converted into a texture map that uses UV coordinates to determine how the image translates to the object.
Instead of round tripping back to your 3D modeling application to fix the “duplicated” vertices, the Weld 3D node allows you to do this in Fusion. Weld 3D welds together vertices with the same or nearly the same positions. This can be used to fix cracking issues when vertices are displaced by welding the geometry before the Displace. There are no user controls to pick vertices. Currently, this node welds together just position vertices; it does not weld normals, texcoords, or any other vertex stream.
Tolerance In auto mode, the Tolerance value is automatically detected. This should work in most cases. It can also be adjusted manually if needed. Usage Use Weld 3D when issues occur with the geometry. Don’t use it everywhere just because it’s there, as it influences render time. Weld 3D is intended to be used as a mesh robustness tool and not as a mesh editing tool to merge vertices. If you can see the gap between the vertices you want to weld in the 3D view, you are probably misusing Weld 3D.
Modifier Coordinate Transform 3D Because of the hierarchical nature of the Fusion 3D node tree, the original position of an object in the 3D scene often fails to indicate the current position of the object. For example, an image plane might initially have a position at 1, 2, 1, but then be scaled, offset, and rotated by other nodes further downstream in the 3D scene, ending up with an absolute location of 10, 20, 5.
The Common Controls Nodes that handle 3D geometry share several identical controls in the Inspector. This section describes controls that are common among 3D nodes. Common Controls Tab These controls are often displayed in the lower half of the Controls tab. They appear in nodes that create or contain 3D geometry. Visibility Visible: If this option is enabled, the object is visible in the viewers and in final renders.
optional. The reason you might want to do this is to get aux channels (e.g., Normals, Z, UVs) for the transparent areas. For example, suppose you want to replace the texture on a 3D element that is transparent in certain areas with a texture that is transparent in different areas. It would then be useful to have transparent areas set aux channels (particularly UVs). As another example, suppose you are adding depth of field.
Normal/Tangents Normals are imaginary lines perpendicular to each point on the surface of an object. They are used to illustrate the exact direction and orientation of every polygon on 3D geometry. Knowing the direction and orientation determines how the object gets shaded. Tangents are lines that exists along the surface’s plane. These lines are tangent to a point on the surface. The tangent lines are used to describe the direction of textures you apply to the surface of 3D geometry.
The controls in the Materials tab are used to determine the appearance of the 3D object when lit. Most of these controls directly affect how the object interacts with light using a basic shader. For more advanced control over the objects appearance, you can use tools from the 3D Materials category of the Effects Library. These tools can be used to assemble a more finely detailed and precise shader.
Specular Exponent Specular Exponent controls the falloff of the specular highlight. The greater the value, the sharper the falloff, and the smoother and glossier the material appears. The basic shader material does not provide an input for textures to control the specular exponent of the object. Use tools from the 3D Material category when more precise control is required over the specular exponent. Transmittance Transmittance controls the way light passes through a material.
are facing the opposite direction on the backside. Thus, when you revolve around the back, you see the second image plane that has its normals facing the opposite way. Fusion does exactly the same thing as 3D applications when you make a surface two sided. The confusion about what two-sided lighting does arises because Fusion does not cull backfacing polygons by default.
Rotation Rotation Order Use these buttons to select which order is used to apply rotation along each axis of the object. For example, XYZ would apply the rotation to the X axis first, followed by the Y axis and then finally the Z axis. X, Y, Z Rotation Use these controls to rotate the object around its pivot point. If the Use Target checkbox is selected, then the rotation is relative to the position of the target; otherwise, the global axis is used.
Most of the controls in the Transform tab are represented in the viewer with onscreen controls for transformation, rotation, and scaling. To change the mode of the onscreen controls, select one of the three buttons in the toolbar in the upper left of the viewer. The modes can also be toggled using the keyboard shortcut Q for translation, W for rotation, and E for scaling.
Chapter 81 3D Light Nodes This chapter details the 3D Light nodes available when creating 3D composites in Fusion. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents Ambient Light [3AL] 1752 Directional Light [3DL] 1754 Point Light [3PL] 1756 Spot Light [3SL] 1758 The Common Controls 1762 Chapter – 81 3D Light Nodes 1751
Ambient Light [3AL] The AmbientLight node Ambient Light Node Introduction An Ambient Light is a directionless light that globally illuminates a scene. It has no real position or rotation, although an onscreen control appears in the viewer to indicate that a light is present in the scene. Position controls for the viewer are provided to move the widget out of the way of other geometry, if necessary.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab is used to set the color and brightness of the ambient light. Enabled When the Enabled checkbox is turned on, the ambient light affects the scene. When the checkbox to turned off, the light is turned off. This checkbox performs the same function as the red switch to the left of the node’s name in the Inspector. Color Use this standard Color control to set the color of the light. Intensity Use this slider to set the Intensity of the ambient light. A value of 0.
Directional Light [3DL] The DirectionalLight node Directional Light Node Introduction A directional light is a light with a clear direction but without a clear source or distance, similar to sunlight. This light shows an onscreen control, but the position of the control has no meaning. The rotation of the control is used to determine from where in the scene the light appears to be coming. Similar to a Camera 3D, you connect lights into a Merge 3D and view them in the scene by viewing the Merge 3D node.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab is used to set the color and brightness of the directional light. The direction of the light source is controlled by the rotation controls in the Transform tab. Enabled When the Enabled checkbox is turned on, the directional light affects the scene. When the checkbox is turned off, the light is turned off. This checkbox performs the same function as the red switch to the left of the node’s name in the Inspector.
Point Light [3PL] The PointLight node Point Light Node Introduction A point light is a light source with a clear position in space that emits light in all directions. A light bulb is a good example of a point light. This light shows an onscreen control, although only the position and distance of the control affect the light. Since the light is a 360-degree source, rotation has no meaning. Additionally, a point light may fall off with distance, unlike an ambient or directional light.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab is used to set the color and brightness of the point light. The position and distance of the light source are controlled in the Transform tab. Enabled When the Enabled checkbox is turned on, the point light affects the scene. When the checkbox is turned off the light is turned off. This checkbox performs the same function as the red switch to the left of the node’s name in the Inspector. Color Use this standard Color control to set the color of the light.
Spot Light [3SL] The SpotLight node Spot Light Node Introduction A spotlight is a light that comes from a specific point and that has a clearly defined cone, with falloff of the light to the edges. Experienced stage and theatre lighting technicians may recognize the spotlight as being very similar to practical lights used in live productions. This is the only type of light capable of casting shadows.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab is used to set the color and brightness of the spotlight. The position, rotation, and distance of the light source are controlled in the Transform tab. Enabled When the Enabled checkbox is turned on, the spotlight affects the scene. When the checkbox is turned off the light is turned off. This checkbox performs the same function as the red switch to the left of the node’s name in the Inspector. Color Use this standard Color control to set the color of the light.
Penumbra Angle The Penumbra Angle determines the area beyond the cone angle where the light’s intensity falls off toward 0. A larger penumbra angle defines a larger falloff, while a value of 0 generates a hard-edged light. Dropoff The Dropoff controls how quickly the penumbra angle falls off from full intensity to 0. Shadows This section provides several controls used to define the shadow map used when this spotlight creates shadows.
Shadow Map Sampling Sets the quality for sampling of the shadow map. Softness Soft edges in shadows are produced by filtering the shadow map when it is sampled. Fusion provides two separate filtering methods for rendering shadows, which produce different effects. NOTE: Shadows have a hard edge. No filtering of the shadow map is done at all. The advantage of this method is that you only have to sample one pixel in the shadow map, so it is fast. Constant: Shadows edges have a constant softness.
The Common Controls Nodes that handle 3D lighting share several identical controls in the Inspector. This section describes controls that are common among 3D lighting nodes. Common Transform Tab Many tools in the 3D category include a Transform tab used to position, rotate, and scale the object in 3D space. Translation X, Y, Z Offset These controls can be used to position the 3D element.
Scale X, Y, Z Scale If the Lock X/Y/Z checkbox is checked, a single Scale slider is shown. This adjusts the overall size of the object. If the Lock checkbox is unchecked, individual X, Y, and Z sliders are displayed to allow individual scaling in each dimension. Note: If the Lock checkbox is checked, scaling of individual dimensions is not possible, even when dragging specific axes of the Transformation Widget in scale mode.
Settings Tab Common Settings 3D Controls The Common Settings tab can be found on almost every tool found in Fusion. The following controls are specific settings for 3D nodes. Hide Incoming Connections Enabling this checkbox can hide connection lines from incoming nodes, making a node tree appear cleaner and easier to read. When enabled, fields for each input on a node are displayed.
Chapter 82 3D Material Nodes This chapter details the 3D Material nodes available when creating 3D composites in Fusion. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents Blinn [3BI] 1767 Channel Boolean [3BOL] 1771 Cook Torrance [3CT] 1774 Material Merge 3D [3MM] 1778 Phong [3PH] 1780 Reflect [3RR] 1784 Stereo Mix [3SMM] 1787 Ward [3WD] 1788 The Common Controls 1793 Chapter –82 3D Material Nodes 1766
Blinn [3BI] The Blinn node Blinn Node Introduction The Blinn node is a basic illumination material that can be applied to geometry in the 3D scene. It describes how the object responds to light and provides multiple texture map inputs to allow fine control over the diffuse, specular, and bump map components of the material. The standard basic material provided in the Materials tab of most geometry nodes is a simplified version of the Blinn node.
When nodes have as many inputs as this one does, it is often difficult to make connections with any precision. Hold down the Option (macOS) or Alt (Windows) key while dragging the output from another node over the node tile, and keep holding Option or Alt when releasing the left mouse button. A small drop-down menu listing all the inputs provided by the node appears. Click on the desired input to complete the connection.
Diffuse Diffuse describes the base surface characteristics without any additional effects like reflections or specular highlights. Besides defining the base color of an object, the diffuse color also defines the transparency of the object. The Alpha in a diffuse texture map can be used to make portions of the surface transparent. Diffuse Color A material’s Diffuse Color describes the base color presented by the material when it is lit indirectly or by ambient light.
Attenuation Attenuation determines how much color is passed through the object. For an object to have transmissive shadows, set the attenuation to (1, 1, 1), which means 100% of green, blue, and red light passes through the object. Setting this color to RGB (1, 0, 0) means that the material transmits 100% of the red arriving at the surface but none of the green or blue light. This can be used for “stained glass”-styled shadows.
Material ID This slider sets the numeric identifier assigned to this material. This value is rendered into the MatID auxiliary channel if the corresponding option is enabled in the renderer. Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is duplicated in other 3D nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section.
A Channel Boolean used to combine and operate on Cook Torrance and Blinn nodes Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab includes a section for each RGBA channel. Within each channel are two input menus called Operand A and Operand B. The function performed on these two inputs is selected in the Operation menu.
Operand A/B The Operand menus, one for each output RGBA channel, allow you to set the desired input information for the corresponding channel. Red/Green/Blue/Alpha FG Reads the color information of the foreground material. Red/Green/Blue/Alpha BG Reads the color information of the background material. Black/White/Mid Gray Sets the value of the channel to 0, 0.5, or 1.
avg(A,B): Returns the average value of both Operands. Material ID This slider sets the numeric identifier assigned to this material. This value is rendered into the MatID auxiliary channel if the corresponding option is enabled in the renderer. Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is duplicated in other 3D nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section.
texture. – Bump Map Material: The white Bump Map material input accepts only a 3D material. Typically, you connect the texture into a Bump Map node, and then connect the Bump Map node to this input. This input uses the RGB information as texture-space normals. Each of these inputs multiplies the pixels in the texture map by the equivalently named parameters in the node itself. This provides an effective method for scaling parts of the material.
Controls Tab The Controls tab contains parameters for adjusting the main color, highlight, and lighting properties of the Cook Torrance shader node. Diffuse Diffuse describes the base surface characteristics without any additional effects like reflections or specular highlights. Besides defining the base color of an object, the diffuse color also defines the transparency of the object. The Alpha in a diffuse texture map can be used to make portions of the surface transparent.
Refractive Index This slider appears when the Do Fresnel checkbox is selected. The Refractive Index applies only to the calculations for the highlight; it does not perform actual refraction of light through transparent surfaces. If the refractive index texture map is provided, then this value is multiplied by the Alpha value of the input. Transmittance Transmittance controls the way light passes through a material.
Normally, in a 3D application, only the front face of a surface is visible and the back face is culled, so that if a camera were to revolve around a plane in a 3D application, when it reached the backside, the plane would become invisible. Making a plane two sided in a 3D application is equivalent to adding another plane on top of the first but rotated by 180 degrees so the normals are facing the opposite direction on the backside.
Basic Node Setup The output of a Material Merge node is connected to the material input on a 3D scene or 3D geometry node. The Material Merge node below is taking in a background base layer from the Blinn shader and combining it with a more textured bump map layer. A Material Merge node combining a Blinn-based shader (teal underlay) and a Ward-based shader (orange underlay) Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab includes a single slider for blending the two materials together.
Phong [3PH] The Phong node Phong Node Introduction The Phong node is a basic illumination material that can be applied to geometry in the 3D scene. It describes how the object responds to light and provides multiple texture map inputs to allow fine control over the diffuse, specular, and bump map components of the material. While producing a highlight similar to that produced by the Blinn model, it is more commonly used for shiny/polished plastic surfaces.
Basic Node Setup The output of a Phong node is connected to the material input on a 3D scene or 3D geometry node. The Phong node below is taking in a base Color Diffuse input from the Fast Noise node and a bump map texture also generated from a Fast Noise node. A Phong node with a diffuse color and Bump Map input Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab contains parameters for adjusting the main color, highlight, and lighting properties of the Phong shader node.
Diffuse Color A material’s Diffuse Color describes the base color presented by the material when it is lit indirectly or by ambient light. If a diffuse texture map is provided, then the color value provided here is multiplied by the color values in the texture. Alpha This slider sets the material’s Alpha channel value. This affects diffuse and specular colors equally and affects the Alpha value of the material in the rendered output.
Alpha Detail When the Alpha Detail slider is set to 0, the Alpha channel of the object is ignored and the entire object casts a shadow. If it is set to 1, the Alpha channel determines what portions of the object cast a shadow. Color Detail The Color Detail slider modulates light passing through the surface by the diffuse color + texture colors. Use this to throw a shadow that contains color details of the texture applied to the object.
Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is duplicated in other 3D nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section. Reflect [3RR] The Reflect node Reflect Node Introduction The Reflect node is used to add environment map reflections and refractions to materials. Control is offered over the face on and glancing strength, falloff, per channel refraction indexes, and tinting.
– Bump Map Texture: The white Bump Map texture input accepts only a 3D material. Typically, you connect the texture into a Bump Map node, and then connect the Bump Map node to this input. This input uses the RGB information as texture-space normals. When nodes have as many inputs and some using the same color as this one does, it is often difficult to make connections with any precision.
Controls Tab The Controls tab contains parameters for adjusting the reflective strength based on the orientation of the object, as well as the tint color of the Reflect shader node. Reflection Reflection Strength Variability This multi-button control can be set to Constant or By Angle for varying the reflection intensity, corresponding to the relative surface orientation to the viewer. The following three controls are visible only when this control is set to By Angle.
Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is duplicated in other 3D nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section. Stereo Mix [3SMM] The StereoMix node Stereo Mix Node Overview This node is used to swap the left and right material inputs. It is often used to output to the left and right eye of the 3D Render. Inputs This node has two inputs that are both required for this node to work.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab contains a single switch that swaps the left and right material inputs. Swap This option swaps both inputs of the node. Material ID This slider sets the numeric identifier assigned to this material. This value is rendered into the MatID auxiliary channel if the corresponding option is enabled in the renderer. Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is duplicated in other 3D nodes.
Inputs There are six inputs on the Ward node that accept 2D images or 3D materials. These inputs control the overall color and image used for the 3D object as well as controlling the color and texture used in the specular highlight. Each of these inputs multiplies the pixels in the texture map by the equivalently named parameters in the node itself. This provides an effective method for scaling parts of the material.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab contains parameters for adjusting the main color, highlight, and lighting properties of the Ward shader node. Diffuse Diffuse describes the base surface characteristics without any additional effects like reflections or specular highlights. Besides defining the base color of an object, the diffuse color also defines the transparency of the object. The Alpha in a diffuse texture map can be used to make portions of the surface transparent.
Specular The parameters in the Specular section describe the look of the specular highlight of the surface. These values are evaluated in a different way for each illumination model. Specular Color Specular Color determines the color of light that reflects from a shiny surface. The more specular a material is, the glossier it appears.
Color Detail The Color Detail slider modulates light passing through the surface by the diffuse color + texture colors. Use this to throw a shadow that contains color details of the texture applied to the object. Increasing the slider from 0 to 1 brings in more diffuse color + texture color into the shadow. Note that the Alpha and opacity of the object are ignored when transmitting color, allowing an object with a solid Alpha to still transmit its color to the shadow.
The Common Controls Nodes that handle 3D geometry share a number of identical controls in the Inspector. This section describes controls that are common among 3D Material nodes. Settings Tab The Common Settings tab can be found on most tools in Fusion The following controls are specific settings for 3D nodes Hide Incoming Connections Enabling this checkbox can hide connection lines from incoming nodes, making a node tree appear cleaner and easier to read.
Chapter 83 3D Texture Nodes This chapter details the 3D Texture nodes available when creating 3D composites in Fusion. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents Bump Map [3Bu] 1796 Catcher [3CA] 1799 CubeMap [3CU] 1801 Falloff [3FA] 1804 Fast Noise Texture [3FN] 1806 Gradient 3D [3GD] 1809 Sphere Map [3SPM] 1812 Texture 2D [3Tx] 1814 Texture Transform [3TT] 1816 The Common Controls 1818 Chapter – 83 3D Texture Nodes 1795
Bump Map [3Bu] The BumpMap node Bump Map Node Overview The Bump Map node is used to convert a grayscale (height map) image into a bump map and takes an input directly from a bump map created by the Create Bump Map node. The node outputs a material. Inputs The Bump Map node includes a single orange input for connecting a 2D image you want to use as the bump map texture, or it can accept the output of the Create Bump Map node.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab contains all parameters for modifying the input source and the appearance of the bump map. Source Image Type Toggle between Height Map, which creates a bump map similar to the Create Bump Map node, and Bump Map, which expects a bump map created by the Create Bump Map node. Filter Size A custom filter generates the bump information. The drop-down menu sets the filter size. Height Channel Sets the channel from which to extract the grayscale information.
Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is duplicated in other 3D nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section. Notes on Bump Maps There is some confusion of terminology with bump mapping, depending on where you get your information.
Catcher [3CA] The Catcher node Catcher Node Overview The Catcher material is used to “catch” texture-mode projections cast from Projector 3D and Camera 3D nodes. The intercepted projections are converted into a texture map and applied by the Catcher material to the geometry to which it is connected. To understand the Catcher node, it helps to understand the difference between light-based projections and texture-based projections.
Basic Node Setup The output of a Catcher node should be connected to the material input of your 3D geometry node. A camera is set up as a proctor with an image connected to the camera’s image input. When the camera is set to texture projection mode, the Catcher node is used to determine which geometry receives the texture.
Alpha Mode The Alpha mode is used to control how the Catcher combines the Alpha channels from multiple projectors. It has no effect on the results when only one projector is in the scene. This control is designed to work with the software renderer in the Renderer 3D node,and has no effect when using the OpenGL renderer. Threshold The Threshold can be used to exclude certain low values from the accumulation calculation. For example, when using the Median Accumulation mode, a threshold of 0.
Inputs The Inputs on this node change based on the settings of the Layout menu in the Inspector. The single input uses a 2D image for the entire cube, while six inputs can handle a different 2D image for each side of a cube. – CrossImage: The orange Cross Image input is visible by default or when the Layout menu in the Inspector is set to either Vertical Cross or Horizontal Cross. The input accepts a 2D image. – CubeMap.
Inspector Controls Tab Layout The Layout menu determines the type and number of inputs for the cube map texture. Valid options are: Separate Images: This option exposes six inputs on the node, one for each face of the cube. If the separate images are not square or not of the same size, they are rescaled into the largest 1:1 image that can contain all of them. Vertical Cross: This option exposes a single input on the node.
Rotation The rotation controls are divided into buttons that select the order of rotation along each axis of the texture. For example, XYZ would apply the rotation to the X axis first, followed by the Y axis, and finally the Z axis. The other half of the rotation controls are dials that rotate the texture around its pivot point.
Inputs The two Inputs on the Falloff node are used to connect two images or materials. One is used to reflect back at the camera, while the other reflects away from the camera and into the scene. – Face On Material: The orange Face On material input accepts a 2D image or a 3D material. If a 2D image is provided, it is turned into a diffuse texture map using the basic material shader.
Controls Tab The parameters in the Controls tabs modify the tint and opacity of the Face On material and the Glancing material. A Falloff slider controls the blending between the two. Color Variation Two Tone: Two regular Color controls define the colors for Glancing and Face On. Gradient: A Gradient control defines the colors for Glancing and Face On. This can be used for a multitude of effects, like creating Toon Shaders, for example.
3D volumetric mode for creating seamless textures in conjunction with nodes providing UVW texture coordinates (Similar to the UV Map 3D node set to XYZ-to-UVW or Camera). Inputs The Fast Noise Texture node includes an optional input that can be used to connect a 2D image or material. – SourceMaterial: The Source Materials input accepts a 2D image or a 3D material. The image is then altered by the noise pattern.
Detail Increase the value of this slider to produce a greater level of detail in the noise result. Larger values add more layers of increasingly detailed noise without affecting the overall pattern. High values take longer to render but can produce a more natural result (not all graphics cards support higher detail levels in hardware). Brightness This control adjusts the overall Brightness of the noise map. Contrast This control increases or decreases the overall Contrast of the noise map.
Gradient 3D [3GD] The Gradient node Gradient Node Overview The Gradient 3D node is used to texture objects with a variety of gradient types. It offers many of the same controls as the Background node. While it is not possible to transform the gradient directly in 3D space, it is orientable using the following nodes: Texture Transform Node: The Texture Transform node can be used to adjust the mapping per pixel.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab for the Gradient node control the pattern and colors used for the gradient texture. Gradient Type Determines the type or pattern used for the gradient. Linear: A simple linear gradient. Reflect: Based on the Linear mode, this gradient is mirrored at the middle of the textured range. Square: The gradient is applied using a square pattern. Cross: Similar to the Reflect mode, but Cross uses two axes to apply the gradient.
Interpolation Space The gradient is linearly interpolated from point to point in RGB color space by default. This can sometimes lead to unwanted colors. Choosing another color space may provide a better result. Scale Allows sizing of the gradient. Offset Allows panning through the gradient. Repeat Defines how the left and right borders of the gradient are treated.
Sphere Map [3SPM] The SphereMap node Sphere Map Node Overview The Sphere Map node can be used to create simulated environment mapping, also called reflection mapping. Ray trace rendering a reflective scene can be very time consuming, but sphere map-based reflection mapping can generate 360-degree reflections faster with little loss of accuracy. For example, when creating a reflective environment, a sphere map is created, large enough to surround the 3D object in your scene.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab in the Inspector modifies the mapping of the image input to the sphere map. Angular Mapping Adjusts the texture coordinate mapping so the poles are less squashed and areas in the texture get mapped to equal areas on the sphere. It turns the mapping of the latitude lines from a hemispherical fisheye to an angular fisheye. This mapping attempts to preserve area and makes it easier to paint on or modify a sphere map since the image is not as compressed at the poles.
Common Controls Settings tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is duplicated in other 3D nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section. Sphere Map vs. Connecting the Texture to a Sphere Directly You can connect an equirectangular texture map directly to a sphere instead of piping it through the Sphere Map node first. This results in a different rendering if you set the start/end angle and latitude to less than 360°/180°.
NOTE: Background pixels may have U and V values of 0.0, which set those pixels to the color of the texture’s corner pixel. To restrict texturing to specific objects, use an effect mask based on the Alpha of the object, or its Object or Material ID channel. For more information, see Chapter 18, “Understanding Image Channels” in the Fusion Studio Reference Manual or Chapter 69 in the DaVinci Resolve Reference Manual. Inputs – Image Input: The orange image input expects a 2D image.
Wrap Mode If a texture is transformed in the texture space (using the controls below or the UV Map node), then it’s possible that areas beyond the image borders will be mapped on the object. The Wrap Mode determines how the image is applied in these areas. Wrap: This wraps the edges of the image around the borders of the image. Clamp: The color at the edges of the images is used for texturing. This mode is similar to the Duplicate mode in the Transform node.
Inputs The Texture Transform node includes a single input that is used to connect the image or material you want to transform. – Material Input: The orange Material input accepts a 2D image or 3D material whose texture coordinates are transformed using the controls in the Inspector. Basic Node Setup The Texture Transform node below is used to take in a 2D image, transform it, and output a material to be used on 3D geometry.
Controls Tab The Controls tab for the Texture Transform node includes many common transform controls that are used to transform the texture using UVW coordinates. Translation The U, V, W translation sliders shift the texture along U, V, and W axes. Rotation Rotation Order buttons set the order in which the rotation is applied. In conjunction with the buttons, the UVW dials define the rotation around the UVW axes. Scale U, V, W sliders scale the texture along the UVW axes.
The Common Settings tab can be found on most tools in Fusion. The following controls are specific settings for 3D nodes. Hide Incoming Connections Enabling this checkbox can hide connection lines from incoming nodes, making a node tree appear cleaner and easier to read. When enabled, fields for each input on a node are displayed. Dragging a connected node from the node tree into the field hides that incoming connection line as long as the node is not selected in the node tree.
Chapter 84 Blur Nodes This chapter details the Blur nodes available in Fusion. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents Blur [Blur] 1822 Defocus [DFO] 1825 Directional Blur [DRBL] 1827 Glow [GLO] 1829 Sharpen [SHRP] 1832 Soft Glow [SGlo] 1834 Unsharp Mask [USM] 1837 Vari Blur [VBL] 1839 Vector Motion Blur [VBL] 1841 The Common Controls 1843 Chapter – 84 Blur Nodes 1821
Blur [Blur] The Blur node Blur Node Introduction The Blur node does exactly what its name implies – it blurs the input image. This is one of the most commonly used image-processing operations. Inputs The two inputs on the Blur node are used to connect a 2D image and an effect mask that can be used to limit the blurred area. – Input: The orange input is used for the primary 2D image that is blurred.
NOTE: Since a perfect Gaussian filter would require examining an infinite number of pixels, all practical Gaussians are, of necessity, approximations. The algorithm Fusion uses is a highly-optimized approach that has many strengths, but can create visible ringing around the edges in certain extreme cases. This ringing appears only when blurring float-depth images and is normally far below the limits of visibility, especially in final renders or HiQ mode, but may appear in subsequent processing.
Clipping Mode This option determines how edges are handled when performing domain-of-definition rendering. This is profoundly important for nodes like Blur, which may require samples from portions of the image outside the current domain. Frame: The default option is Frame, which automatically sets the node’s domain of definition to use the full frame of the image, effectively ignoring the current domain of definition.
Defocus [DFO] The Defocus node Defocus Node Introduction The Defocus node simulates the effects of an out-of-focus camera lens, including blooming and image flaring. It provides a fast Gaussian mode, as well as a more realistic but slower Lens mode. Inputs The two inputs on the Defocus node are for connecting a 2D image and an effect mask that can be used to limit the simulated defocused area. – Input: The orange input is used for the primary 2D image for defocusing.
Controls Tab The Controls tab contains all the primary controls necessary for customizing the defocus operation. Filter Use this menu to select the exact method applied to create the defocus. Gaussian applies a simplistic effect, while Lens mode creates a more realistic defocus. Lens mode takes significantly longer than Gaussian. Lock X/Y When Lock X/Y is selected, this performs the same amount of defocusing to both the X- and Y-axis of the image. Deselect to obtain individual control.
Domain: Setting this option to Domain respects the upstream domain of definition when applying the node’s effect. This can have adverse clipping effects in situations where the node employs a large filter. None: Setting this option to None does not perform any source image clipping at all. This means that any data required to process the node’s effect that would normally be outside the upstream DoD is treated as black/transparent.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab contains all the primary controls necessary for customizing the directional blur operation. Type This menu is used to select the type of directional blur to be applied to the image. Linear: Linear distorts the image in a straight line, resembling the scenery that appears in the window of a speeding train.
Clipping Mode This option determines how edges are handled when performing domain-of-definition rendering. This is profoundly important for nodes like Blur, which may require samples from portions of the image outside the current domain. Frame: The default option is Frame, which automatically sets the node’s domain of definition to use the full frame of the image, effectively ignoring the current domain of definition.
The Glow mask allows the glow to extend beyond the borders of the mask, while restricting the source of the glow to only those pixels within the mask. Glow masks are identical to Effect masks in every other respect. Basic Node Setup The Glow node receives a 2D image like the MediaIn1 shown below. The output continues the node tree by connecting to another 2D image-processing node or a Merge node.
Fast Gaussian: Fast Gaussian adds a soft glow, blurred by the Gaussian algorithm. This is the default method. Blend: Blend adds a nonlinear glow that is evenly visible in the whites and blacks. Hilight: Hilight adds a glow without creating a halo in the surrounding pixels. Solarize: Solarize adds a glow and solarizes the image. Color Channels (RGBA) This filter defaults to operating on R, G, B, and A channels.
Blend The Blend slider determines the percentage of the affected image that is mixed with original image. It blends in more of the original image as the value gets closer to 0. This control is a cloned instance of the Blend slider in the Common Controls tab. Changes made to this control are simultaneously made to the one in the common controls. Apply Mode Three Apply Modes are available when it comes to applying the glow to the image. Normal: Default.
Basic Node Setup The Sharpen node receives a 2D image like the MediaIn1 shown below. The output continues the node tree by connecting to another 2D image-processing node or a Merge node. A Sharpen node applied to a MediaIn1 node in DaVinci Resolve Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab contains all the primary controls necessary for customizing the sharpen operation. Color Channels (RGBA) This filter defaults to operating on R, G, B, and A channels.
Frame: The default option is Frame, which automatically sets the node’s domain of definition to use the full frame of the image, effectively ignoring the current domain of definition. If the upstream DoD is smaller than the frame, the remaining area in the frame is treated as black/transparent. Domain: Setting this option to Domain respects the upstream domain of definition when applying the node’s effect. This can have adverse clipping effects in situations where the node employs a large filter.
– Glow Mask: The Soft Glow node supports pre-masking using the white glow mask input. A Glow pre-mask filters the image before applying the soft glow. The soft glow is then merged back over the original image. This is different from a regular effect mask that clips the rendered result. The Glow mask allows the soft glow to extend beyond the borders of the mask, while restricting the source of the soft glow to only those pixels within the mask.
Multi-box: Multi-box uses a Box filter layered in multiple passes to approximate a Gaussian shape. With a moderate number of passes (e.g., four), a high-quality blur can be obtained, often faster than the Gaussian filter and without any ringing. Gaussian: Gaussian adds a soft glow, blurred by the Gaussian algorithm. This is the default method. Color Channels (RGBA) The filter defaults to operating on R, G, B, and A channels.
Blend The Blend slider determines the percentage of the affected image that is mixed with original image. It blends in more of the original image as the value gets closer to 0. This control is a cloned instance of the Blend slider in the Common Controls tab. Changes made to this control are simultaneously made to the one in the common controls. Color Scale (RGBA) These Scale sliders are used to adjust the amount of glow applied to each color channel individually, by tinting the glow.
Basic Node Setup The Unsharp Mask node receives a 2D image like the MediaIn1 shown below. The output continues the node tree by connecting to another 2D image-processing node or a Merge node. An Unsharp mask node applied to a MediaIn1 node Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab contains all the primary controls necessary for customizing the Unsharp Mask operation. Color Channels (RGBA) The filter defaults to operating on R, G, B, and A channels.
Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other Blur nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section. Vari Blur [VBL] The VariBlur node Vari Blur Node Introduction The Vari Blur node gives a true per-pixel variable blur, using a second image to control the amount of blur for each pixel.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab contains all the primary controls necessary for customizing the Vari Blur operation. Method Use this menu to select the method of Blur used in the filter. The selections are described below. Soften: This method varies from a simple Box shape to a Bartlett triangle to a decentlooking Smooth blur as Quality is increased. It is a little better at preserving detail in less-blurred areas than Multi-box.
Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other Blur nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section. Vector Motion Blur [VBL] The VectorMotionBlur node Vector Motion Blur Introduction This node is used to create directional blurs based on a Motion Vector map or AOV (Arbitrary Output Variable) channels exported from 3D-rendering software like Arnold, Renderman, or VRay.
A Vector Motion Blur node applied to a MediaIn or Loader node with motion vectors connected to the Vectors input Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab contains all the primary controls necessary for customizing the Vector Motion Blur operation. X Channel Use this menu to select which channel of the image provides the vectors for the movement of the pixels along the X-axis. Y Channel Use this menu to select which channel of the image provides the vectors for the movement of the pixels along the Y-axis.
Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other Blur nodes. These common controls are described in the following “The Common Controls” section. The Common Controls Nodes that handle blur operations share several identical controls in the Inspector. This section describes controls that are common among Blur nodes. Inspector Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector can be found on every tool in the Blur category.
Process When Blend Is 0.0 The tool is processed even when the input value is zero. This can be useful if processing of this node is scripted to trigger another task, but the value of the node is set to 0.0. Red/Green/Blue/Alpha Channel Selector These four buttons are used to limit the effect of the tool to specified color channels. This filter is often applied after the tool has been processed.
Motion Blur Motion Blur: This toggles the rendering of Motion Blur on the tool. When this control is toggled on, the tool’s predicted motion is used to produce the motion blur caused by the virtual camera’s shutter. When the control is toggled off, no motion blur is created. Quality: Quality determines the number of samples used to create the blur. A Quality setting of 2 causes Fusion to create two samples to either side of an object’s actual motion.
Chapter 85 Color Nodes This chapter details the Color nodes available in Fusion. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents Auto Gain [AG] 1848 Brightness Contrast [BC] 1849 Channel Booleans [BOL] 1852 Color Corrector [CC] 1856 Color Curves [CCV] 1866 Color Gain [CLR] 1870 Color Matrix [CMX] 1874 Color Space [CS] 1878 Copy Aux [CPA] 1880 Gamut [GMT] 1884 Hue Curves [HCV] 1886 OCIO CDL Transform [OCD] 1889 OCIO Color Space [OCC] 1892 OCIO File Transform [OCF] 1894 Set Canvas Color [SCV] 1895 White Balance [WB] 1897 The Common Controls 1901 Chapter – 85 Color Nodes 1847
Auto Gain [AG] The AutoGain node Auto Gain Node Introduction The Auto Gain node automatically adjusts the tonal range of an image, setting the darkest and brightest pixels to user-selected values. By default, the darkest pixels get pushed to black, the brightest pixels get pushed to white, and pixels in between get stretched to cover the tonal range evenly.
Controls Tab The Controls tab contains the few primary controls necessary for customizing the AutoGain operation. NOTE: Variations over time in the input image can cause corresponding variations in the levels of the result. For example, if a bright object moves out of an otherwise dark shot, the remaining scene gets suddenly brighter, as the remaining darker values get stretched to white.
For example, gamma gets applied before contrast but after gain. The Brightness Contrast is also reversible using the Forward and Reverse buttons. So color corrections, once applied, can be reversed further downstream. For this to work best, image processing should operate in 32-bit floating point. Inputs The two inputs on the Brightness Contrast node are the input and effect mask. – Input: The orange input connects the primary 2D image for the brightness contrast.
Color Channels (RGBA) The filter defaults to operating on R, G, B, and A channels. Selective channel filtering is possible by clicking each channel button to make them active or inactive. NOTE: This is not the same as the RGBA checkboxes found under the common controls. The node takes these selections into account before it processes the image, so deselecting a channel causes the node to skip that channel when processing, speeding up the rendering of the effect.
Direction Forward applies all values normally. Reverse effectively inverts all values. Clip Black/White The Clip Black and Clip White checkboxes clip out-of-range color values that can appear in an image when processing in floating-point color depth. Out-of-range colors are below black (0.0) or above white (1.0). These checkboxes have no effect on images processed at 8-bit or 16-bit per channel, as such images cannot have out-of-range values.
– Effect Mask: The blue effect mask input expects a mask shape created by polylines, basic primitive shapes, paint strokes, or bitmaps from other tools. Connecting a mask to this input limits the channel booleans adjustment to only those pixels within the mask. – Foreground: The green foreground input connects a 2D image that is used to adjust the background input image. – Matte: The white matte input can be used to combine external mattes with the foreground and background operations.
Copy Copy the value from one color channel to another. For example, copy the foreground red channel into the background’s Alpha channel to create a matte. Add: Add the color values from one color channel to another channel. Subtract: Subtract the color values of one color channel from another color channel. And: Perform a logical AND on the color values from color channel to color channel. The foreground image generally removes bits from the color channel of the background image.
Inspector Aux Channel Tab This tab includes a series of menus where you select a source for the auxiliary channels of the output image. Enable Extra Channels When the Enable Extra Channels checkbox is selected, the Channel Booleans node can output images with channels beyond the usual RGBA. Once enabled, the remaining controls in the Aux Channels tab can copy data into the auxiliary channels.
To subtract the red channel’s pixels of another image from the blue channel, choose “Do Nothing” for To Red and To Green and “Red FG” for To Blue. Pipe the image containing the red channel to subtract into the foreground input on the Channel Booleans node. Set Operation: “Subtract.” Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector appears in other Color nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section.
A Color Corrector node applied to a MediaIn1 node Inspector Correction Tab Colors Menu The main Correction tab is further separated into four types of correction methods: colors, levels, histogram, and suppress. Selecting one from the menu at the top of the Correction tab causes that method’s controls to appear. The Color method is described in detail below. Range This menu determines the tonal range affected by the color correction controls in this tab.
NOTE: The controls are independent for each color range. For example, adjusting the Gamma control while in Shadows mode does not change or affect the value of the Gamma control for the Highlights mode. Each control is independent and applied separately. Color Wheel The color wheel provides a visual representation of adjustments made to Hue and Saturation, as well as any tinting applied to the image.
The controls are independent, so switching to blue does not remove or eliminate any changes made to red, green, or Master. The animation and adjustments made to each channel are separate. This menu simply determines what controls to display. Contrast Contrast is the range of difference between the light to dark areas. Increasing the value of this slider increases the contrast, pushing color from the midrange toward black and white.
Correction Tab Levels Menu The main Correction tab is further separated into four types of correction methods: colors, levels, histogram, and suppress. When Levels is selected from the menu, you can remap the white and black points of an image, with a Gamma control to adjust midtones. A histogram provides a view of the tonal distribution in the image to help guide your adjustments. The Level method is described in detail below.
Histogram Controls These controls along the bottom of the histogram display are used to adjust the input image’s histogram, compressing or shifting the ranges of the selected color channel. The controls can be adjusted by dragging the triangles beneath the histogram display to the left and right. Shifting the High value toward the left (decreasing the value) causes the histogram to slant toward white, shifting the image distribution toward white.
Channel This menu is used to select and display the histogram for each color channel or for the Master channel. Histogram Display A histogram is a chart that represents the distribution of color values in the scene. The chart reads from left to right, with the leftmost values representing the darkest colors in the scene and the rightmost values representing the brightest. The more pixels in an image with the same or similar value, the higher that portion of the chart is.
If this control has a positive value when equalizing the image, the input image’s luminance distribution is flattened before any color equalization is applied. If this control has a positive value when the correction mode is set to Match, the luminance values of the input are matched to the reference before any correction is applied to the R, G, and B channels. The Luminance and RGB controls can have a cumulative effect, and generally they are not both set to full (1.0) simultaneously.
Suppression Angle Use the Suppression Angle control to rotate the controls on the suppression wheel and zero in on a specific color. Reset All Suppression Clicking this control resets the suppression colors to 1.0, the default value. Ranges Tab The Ranges tab contains the controls used to specify which pixels in an image are considered to be shadows and which are considered to be highlights. The midrange is always calculated as pixels not already included in the shadows or the highlights.
Selecting one of the other menu options switches the display to a grayscale image showing which pixels are part of the selected range. White pixels represent pixels that are considered to be part of the range, and black pixels are not in the range. For example, choosing Shadows would show pixels considered to be shadows as white and pixels that are not shadows as black. Mid gray pixels are only partly in the range and do not receive the full effect of any color adjustments to that range.
Histogram Proxy Scale The Histogram Proxy Scale determines the precision used when creating and calculating histograms. Lower values represent higher precision, and higher values produce a rougher, generalized histogram. Process Order This menu is used to select whether adjustments to the image’s gamma are applied before or after any changes made to the images levels. Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other Color nodes.
Basic Node Setup The Color Curves node, like many 2D image-processing nodes, receives a 2D image like a Loader node or the MediaIn1 shown below. The output continues the node tree by connecting to another 2D image-processing node or a Merge node. A Color Curves node applied to a MediaIn1 node Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab for the color curves is divided into two sections. The top half of the Inspector includes the curves and LUT controls.
Color Space The splines in the LUT view represent color channels from a variety of color spaces. The default is Red, Green, and Blue. The options in this menu allow an alternate color space to be selected. A detailed description of the color spaces available here are below: RGB (Red, Green, Blue): Fusion uses the RGB color space, and most nodes and displays interpret the primary channels of an image as Red, Green, and Blue.
Eyedropper (Pick) Click the Eyedropper icon, also called the Pick button, and select a color from an image in the display to automatically set control points on the spline for the selected color. The new points are drawn with a triangular shape and can only be moved vertically (if point is locked, only the Out value can change). Points are only added to enabled splines. To add points only on a specific channel, disable the other channels before making the selection.
Color Gain [CLR] The ColorGain node Color Gain Node Introduction The Color Gain node contains options for adjusting the gain, gamma, saturation, and hue of the image. Many controls provided by the Color Gain node are also found in the Color Corrector node, but this simpler node may render more quickly. One feature that distinguishes the Color Gain node from the Color Corrector is its balance tab controls. These can be used to adjust the tinting of the colors in the highs, mids, and lows.
Inspector Gain Tab The Gain tab provides control of individual RGBA Lift/Gamma/Gain parameters. These controls can quickly enable you to fix irregular color imbalances in specific channels. Lock R/G/B When selected, the Red, Green, and Blue channel controls for each effect are combined into one slider. Alpha channel effects remain separate. Gain RGBA The Gain RGBA controls multiply the values of the image channel in a linear fashion.
Pre-Divide/Post-Multiply Selecting this checkbox causes the image pixel values to be divided by the Alpha values prior to the color correction, and then re-multiplied by the Alpha value after the correction. This helps when attempting to color correct images with premultiplied Alpha channels. Saturation Tab This Setting tab includes controls for the intensity of the colors in the individual RGB channels. RGB Saturation When adjusting an individual channel, a value of 0.
Hue Tab Use the Hue tab of the Color Gain node to shift the overall hue of the image, without affecting the brightness, or saturation. Independent controls of the High, Mid, and Dark ranges are offered by three sliders. The following is the order of the hues in the RGB color space: Red, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, Magenta and Red. High/Mid/Dark Hue Values above 0 push the hue of the image toward the right (red turns yellow). Values below 0 push the hue toward the left (red turns magenta). At -1.0 or 1.
Preset Simple/Smooth Ranges These two buttons can be used to return the spline ranges to either Smooth (default) or Simple (linear) settings. Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other Color nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section.
Inspector Controls Tab Color Matrix multiplies the RGBA channels based on the values entered in a 4 x 4 grid. The fifth column/row is an Add column. Update Lock When this control is selected, Fusion does not render the node. This is useful for setting up each value of the node, and then turning off Update Lock to render it. Matrix This defines what type of operation actually takes place. The horizontal rows define the output values of the node. From left to right, they are R, G, B, A, and Add.
Example 1: Invert If you want to do a simple invert or negative of the color values, but leave the Alpha channel untouched, the matrix would look like this: Observe the fact that we have to add 1 to each channel to push the inverted values back into the positive numbers. Let’s follow this example step by step by viewing the waveform of a 32-bit grayscale gradient. 1 The original grayscale. 2 RGB set to -1. The values get inverted but fall below 0.
3 Adding 1 to each channel keeps the inversion but moves the values back into a positive range. Example 2: Brightness per Channel This example influences the brightness of each channel individually. This subtracts 0.2 from the red channel, adds 0.314 to the green channel, and adds 0.75 to the blue channel, while keeping Alpha as it is. Example 3: Copying Values You can also copy color values back and forth between individual channels.
Color Space [CS] The ColorSpace node. Color Space Node Introduction The Color Space node provides the ability to work on an image in a variety of alternate color space formats. By default, Fusion uses the RGB color space, and most nodes and displays interpret the primary channels of an image as Red, Green, and Blue. Changing the color space from RGB causes most images to look odd, as Fusion’s viewers still interpret the primary channels as Red, Green, and Blue.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab in the Color Space node consists of two menus. The top Conversion menu determines whether you are converting an image to RGB or from RGB. The bottom menu selects the alternative color space you are either converting to or from. Conversion This menu has three options. The None option has no effect on the image. When To Color is selected, the input image is converted to the color space selected in the Color Type control found below.
XYZ (CIE Format): This mode is used to convert a CIE XYZ image to and from RGB color spaces. CIE XYZ is a weighted space, instead of a nonlinear one, unlike the other available color spaces. Nonlinear in this context means that equal changes in value at different positions in the color space may not necessarily produce the same magnitude of change visually to the eye.
Inputs The Copy Aux node includes two inputs: one for the main image and the other for an effect mask. – Input: This orange input is the only required connection. It connects a 2D image for the Copy Aux node operation. – Effect Mask: The optional blue effect mask input accepts a mask shape created by polylines, basic primitive shapes, paint strokes, or bitmaps from other tools. Connecting a mask to this input limits the Copy Aux operation to only those pixels within the mask.
Aux Channel The Aux Channel menu selects the auxiliary channel to be copied from or written to depending on the current mode. When the aux channel abcd has one valid component, it is copied as aaa1, two valid components as ab01, three valid components as abc1, and four components as abcd. For example, the Z-channel is copied as zzz1, texture coordinates as uv01, and normals as nxnynz1. Out Color Depth Out Color Depth controls the color depth of the output image.
Enable Remapping When remapping is enabled, the currently selected aux channel is rescaled, linearly mapping the range according to the From and To slider selections as explained below. The Remapping options are applied before the conversion operation. This means you could set the From > Min-Max values to -1, 1 to rescale your normals into the [0, 1] range, or set them to [-1000, 0] to rescale your Z values from [-1000, 0] into the [0, 1] range before the clipping occurs.
Gamut [GMT] The Gamut node Gamut Node Introduction The Gamut node has controls to transform one color space to another and remove/add gamma curves. This node, along with the Cineon Log node, is primarily used to linearize incoming images and then reapply the applicable output gamma curve at the end of a node tree. Inputs The Gamut node includes two inputs: one for the main image and the other for an effect mask to limit the conversion area. – Input: This orange input is the only required connection.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab is where all the conversion operations take place. It has a section for incoming images and a section for the node’s output. Which section you use depends on whether you are stripping an image of a gamma curve to make it linear or converting a linear image to a specific color space and gamma curve for output. Source Space Source Space determines the input color space of the image.
Red Primary 0.68 0.32 Green Primary 0.265 0.69 Blue Primary 0.15 0.06 White Point 0.314 0.351 Gamma 2.6 – Linear Limit 0.0313 – To understand how these controls work, you could view the node attached to a gradient background in Waveform mode and observe how different adjustments modify the output. Output Space Output Space converts the gamut to the desired color space.
The advantage of the Hue Curves node over other color correction nodes in Fusion is that the splines can be manipulated to restrict the node’s effect to a very narrow portion of the image, or expanded to include a wide-ranging portion of the image. Additionally, these curves can be animated to follow changes in the image over time. Since the primary axis of the spline is defined by the image’s hue, it is much easier to isolate a specific color from the image for adjustment.
Controls Tab The Controls tab consists of color attribute checkboxes that determine which splines are displayed in the Spline window. The spline graph runs horizontally across with control points placed horizontally at each of the primary colors. You can manipulate these control points to change the selected color attribute. Mode The Mode options change between No Animation and Animated Points modes. The default mode is No Animation, where adjustments to the curves are applied consistently over time.
Pre-Divide/Post-Multiply Selecting this checkbox causes the image’s pixel values to be divided by the Alpha values prior to the color correction, and then re-multiplied by the Alpha value after the correction. This helps when color correcting images that include a premultiplied Alpha channel. Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other Color nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section.
Basic Node Setup The OCIO CDL Transform node is often applied after a Gamut node converts the Loader to linear color in Fusion Studio.
Controls Tab The Controls tab for the OCIO CDL Transform contains primary color grading color correction controls in a format compatible with CDLs. You can make R, G, B adjustments based on the Slope, Offset, and Power. There is also overall Saturation control. You can also use the Controls tab to import and export the CDL compatible adjustments. Operation This menu switches between File and Controls. In File mode, standard ASC-CDL files can be loaded.
Export File Allows the user to export the settings as a CDL file. Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other Color nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section. OCIO Color Space [OCC] The OCIOColorspace node OCIO Color Space Node Introduction Fusion supports the Open Color IO color management workflow by way of three OCIO nodes.
Basic Node Setup The OCIO Color Space node is typically placed directly after a MediaIn node in DaVinci Resolve or a Loader node in Fusion Studio. Another OCIO Color Space node is placed just before a Media Out node in DaVinci Resolve or a Saver node in Fusion Studio.
OCIO File Transform [OCF] The OCIOFileTransform node OCIO File Transform Node Introduction Fusion supports the Open Color IO color management workflow by way of three OCIO nodes. – The OCIO CDL Transform node allows you to create, save, load, and apply a Color Decision List (CDL) grade. – The OCIO Color Space allows sophisticated color space conversions, based on an OCIO config file. – The OCIO File Transform allows you to load and apply a variety of Lookup tables (LUTs).
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab for the OCIO File Transform node includes options to import the LUT, invert the transform, and select the color interpolation method. LUT File Displays a File > Open dialog to load the desired LUT. CCC ID This is the ID key used to identify the specific file transform located within the ASC CDL color correction XML file. Direction Toggles between Forward and Reverse.
compositing images smaller than the raster, or with transforms. By default, the canvas color used is black/no Alpha (transparent). However, since some nodes may change an image’s canvas color—for example, inverting a mask changes the mask’s canvas from black to white— the Set Canvas Color allows you to control the color of the canvas to whatever you require. The Set Canvas Color node sets the color of the workspace outside the domain of definition (DOD).
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab for the Set Canvas Color is used for simple color selection. When the green foreground is connected, the tab is empty. Color Picker Use these controls to adjust the Color and the Alpha value for the image’s canvas. It defaults to black with zero Alpha. Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other Color nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section.
Inputs The White Balance node includes two inputs: one for the main image and the other for an effect mask to limit the area where the white balance is applied. – Input: This orange input is the only required connection. It connects a 2D image for the white balance. – Effect Mask: The optional blue effect mask input accepts a mask shape created by polylines, basic primitive shapes, paint strokes, or bitmaps from other tools.
Balance Tab Space Use this menu to select the color space of the source image, if it is known. This can make the correction more accurate since the node can take the natural gamma of the color space into account as part of the correction. If the color space that the image uses is unknown, leave this menu at its default value. Method The White Balance node can operate using one of two methods: a Custom method or a color Temperature method.
Temperature Reference When the Method menu is set to Temperature, the Temperature reference control is used to set the color temperature of the source image. If the Lock Black/ Mid/White checkbox is deselected, different references can be selected for each color range. Temperature Result Use this control to set the target color temperature for the image. If the Lock Black/Mid/White checkbox is deselected, different results can be selected for each color range.
Preset Simple/Smooth Ranges These two buttons can be used to return the spline ranges to either Smooth (default) or Simple (linear) settings. Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other Color nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section. The Common Controls Nodes that handle Color adjustment operations share several identical controls in the Inspector.
Blend The Blend control is used to blend between the tool’s original image input and the tool’s final modified output image. When the blend value is 0.0, the outgoing image is identical to the incoming image. Normally, this causes the tool to skip processing entirely, copying the input straight to the output. Process When Blend Is 0.0 The tool is processed even when the input value is zero.
Clipping Mode This option determines how edges are handled when performing domain of definition rendering. This is mostly important for nodes like Blur, which may require samples from portions of the image outside the current domain. Frame: The default option is Frame, which automatically sets the node’s domain of definition to use the full frame of the image, effectively ignoring the current domain of definition.
Chapter 86 Composite Nodes This chapter details the Dissolve and Merge nodes available in Fusion. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents Dissolve [DX] 1906 Merge [MRG] 1909 The Common Controls 1917 Chapter – 86 Composite Nodes 1905
Dissolve [DX] Dissolve Node Introduction The Dissolve node is typically used to mix two images together, providing a gradual transition between two clips. A Background/Foreground slider controls the mix between the foreground and background images. Dissolves are commonly used to transition between one clip and another and are a very common effect in editing. However, you can also use the extreme left and right positions of the Background/Foreground slider to switch between inputs.
Basic Node Setup Dissolve nodes are typically connected in the following way, with two input images connected to the background and foreground inputs, and the output connected to the next node in the composition. A typical dissolve node structure in Fusion Resolution Handling It is recommended to make sure that all images connected to the foreground, background, and gradient map inputs of the Dissolve node have the same resolution and the same pixel aspect. This is not required, however.
– Dissolve: The standard Dissolve mode is the equivalent of a cross dissolve: one clip fades out as another clip fades in. – Additive Dissolve: Similar in look to a standard film dissolve, an Additive dissolve adds the second clip and then fades out the first one. – Erode: The Erode method transitions between the two images by growing the darkest areas of the background image to reveal the foreground image. The effect appears similar to a filmstrip burning out.
Merge [MRG] Merge Node Introduction The Merge node combines two images based on the Alpha (opacity) channel associated with the one in front. This node takes two inputs: a background and a foreground image. The Operation mode determines which method is used to combine the foreground and background images, supporting the standard Over, In, Held Out, Atop, and XOr methods for compositing images.
Basic Node Setup Merge nodes are typically connected in the following way, with two input images connected to the background and foreground inputs, and the output connected to the next node in the composition. In this example, the effect mask input is not used, as this is not typical.
Merge Tab The Merge tab contains most of the controls necessary for customizing most merge operations. Foreground Sizing Controls These controls let you adjust the sizing of the image connected to the foreground input, making it unnecessary to use a separate Transform node to fit the foreground layer to match the background layer in simple compositions. Center X and Y: This control determines the position of the foreground image in the composite. The default is 0.5, 0.
– Hard Light: Hard Light multiplies or screens the color values of the foreground image, depending on the color values of the background image. The effect is similar to shining a harsh spotlight on the image. – Color Dodge: Color Dodge uses the foreground’s color values to brighten the background image. This is similar to the photographic dark room technique of dodging by reducing the exposure of an area of a print.
The Operator modes are as follows: – Over: The Over mode adds the foreground layer to the background layer by replacing the pixels in the background with the pixels from the Z wherever the foreground’s Alpha channel is greater than 1. x = 1, y = 1-[foreground Alpha] – In: The In mode multiplies the Alpha channel of the background input against the pixels in the foreground. The color channels of the foreground input are ignored. Only pixels from the foreground are seen in the final output.
Alpha Gain slider: Alpha Gain linearly scales the values of the foreground’s Alpha channel. In Subtractive merges, this controls the density of the composite, similarly to Blend. In Additive merges, this effectively reduces the amount that the background is obscured, thus brightening the overall result. In an Additive merge with Alpha Gain set to 0.0, the foreground pixels are simply added to the background.
– Window Method: Some filters, such as Sinc and Bessel, require an infinite number of pixels to calculate exactly. To speed up this operation, a windowing function is used to approximate the filter and limit the number of pixels required. This control appears when a filter that requires windowing is selected. – Hanning: This is a simple tapered window. – Hamming: Hamming is a slightly tweaked version of Hanning. – Blackman: A window with a more sharply tapered falloff.
If you specify the dimensions of the background image in the Reference Size controls, this changes the way the center control values are displayed so that it shows the actual pixel positions in its X and Y fields. Extending the example, set the width and height to 100 each and the center will now be shown as 50, 50, and we would move it 5 pixels toward the right by entering 55, 50.
Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in both the Dissolve and Merge nodes. These common controls are described in the following “The Common Controls” section. The Common Controls The Merge and Dissolve nodes share several identical controls in the Inspector. This section describes controls that are common among those two nodes. Inspector Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector can be found on both tools in the Composite category.
Blend The Blend control is used to blend between the tool’s original image input and the tool’s final modified output image. When the blend value is 0.0, the outgoing image is identical to the incoming image. Normally, this will cause the tool to skip processing entirely, copying the input straight to the output. Process When Blend Is 0.0 The tool is processed even when the input value is zero.
Use GPU The Use GPU menu has three settings. Setting the menu to Disable turns off hardwareaccelerated rendering using the graphics card in your computer. Enabled uses the hardware. Auto uses a capable GPU if one is available and falls back to software rendering when a capable GPU is not available Motion Blur Motion Blur: This toggles the rendering of Motion Blur on the tool.
Chapter 87 Deep Pixel Nodes This chapter details Deep Pixel nodes found in Fusion. Deep Pixel nodes are capable of handling AOVs (Arbitrary Output Variables) from 3D-rendered files. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents Ambient Occlusion [SSAO] 1922 Depth Blur [DBl] 1925 Fog [Fog] 1928 Shader [Shd] 1930 Texture [Txr] 1933 The Common Controls 1935 Chapter – 87 Deep Pixel Nodes 1921
Ambient Occlusion [SSAO] The AmbientOcclusion node Ambient Occlusion Node Introduction Ambient Occlusion (AO) is the lighting caused when a scene is surrounded by a uniform diffuse spherical light source. Think of the scene as being surrounded by a humongous sphere that uniformly emits light from its surface. AO captures the low frequency lighting. It does not capture sharp shadows or Diffuse or Specular lighting.
Ambient occlusion as a 2D post process Inspector Controls Tab The controls tab includes all the main controls for compositing with AO. It controls the quality and appearance of the effect. Output Mode Color: Using the Color menu option combines the incoming image with Ambient Occlusion applied. AO: This option outputs the pure Ambient Occlusion as a grayscale image. White corresponds to regions in the image that should be bright, while black correspond to regions that should be darker.
Type To determine the AO, rays are cast from a point on the surface being shaded, outward to a large enclosed sphere. The AO factor is determined by the unoccluded rays that reach the sphere. Hemisphere: Rays are cast toward a hemisphere oriented to the surfaces normal. This option is more realistic than Sphere and should be used unless there is a good reason otherwise. Flat surfaces receive 100% ambient intensity, while other parts are darkened.
AO Tips and Limitations Transparency/Translucency: AO is designed to work with opaque objects. There are known limitations with transparent receivers and those with transparent occluders. You can work around some of these limitations by splitting out the transparent/translucent objects into separate scenes and only computing AO on the opaque objects. Particles: Because of the transparency/translucency limitations, do not use AO on particles, unless the particles are solid opaque geometry.
Inputs The Depth Blur node includes three inputs: one for the main image, one for a blur image, and another for an effect mask to limit the area where the depth blur is applied. – Input: This orange input is the only required connection. It accepts a 2D image that includes a Z channel. The Z channel is used to determine the blur amount in different regions of the image. – Blur Image: If the Blur Image input is connected, channels from the image are used to control the blur.
Filter This menu selects the filter used for the blur. Box: This applies a basic depth-based box blur effect to the image. Soften: This applies a depth-based general softening filter effect. Super Soften: This applies a depth-based high-quality softening filter effect. Blur Channel Select one of these options to determine the channel used to control the level of blur applied to each pixel. The channel from the main image input is used, unless an image is connected to the node’s green Blur Image input.
Fog [Fog] The Fog node Fog Node Introduction The Fog node is used to create simulated fog effects on 3D-rendered images that contain a valid Z-buffer channel. The fog can be placed in front of or behind various elements of a rendered image based on the selected Z-channel planes. Inputs The Fog node includes three inputs: one for the main image with a Z channel, one for a blur image, and another for an effect mask to limit the area where the depth blur is applied.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab includes parameters for adjusting the density and color of the fog. Z-Buffer Near Plane and Far Plane These controls are used to select the extents of the fog within the scene. To pick a value, drag the Pick button to an area on the image being viewed where the plane is to be located. The Near Plane is used to select the depth where the fog thins out to nothing. The Far Plane is used to select the depth at which the fog becomes opaque.
Shader [Shd] The Shader node Shader Node Introduction The Shader node can control the lighting, reflection mapping, and 3D shading of elements in a rendered image. The node relies on the presence of the normal map channel in a rendered image. If this channel is not present, this node has no effect. Inputs The Shader node includes three inputs: one for the main image with normal map channels, one for a reflection map, and another for an effect mask to limit the area where the depth blur is applied.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab for the Shader node includes parameters for adjusting the overall surface reaction to light sources. You can modify the ambient, diffuse, specular, and reflection properties of the image connected to the orange image input. Light Tab The Controls tab includes parameters for basic lighting brightness and reflections. Ambient Ambient controls the Ambient color present in the scene or the selected object.
Equator Angle Equator Angle controls the left to right angle of the light generated and mapped by the Shader node for the scene or the selected object. Polar Height Polar Height controls the top to bottom angle of the light generated and mapped by the Shader node for the scene or the selected object. Shader Tab The Shader tab is used to adjust the falloff of the Diffuse and Specular light and the tint color of the specular highlight.
Texture [Txr] The Texture node Texture Node Introduction The Texture node controls the texture mapping of elements in a rendered image. The Texture node relies on the presence of U and V Map channels in a 3D-rendered image connected to the main Image input. If these channels are not present, this node has no effect. NOTE: Background pixels may have U and V values of 0.0, which set those pixels to the color of the texture’s corner pixel.
Inspector Texture Tab The Texture tab controls allow you to flip, swap, scale, and offset the UV texture image connected to the texture input. Flip Horizontal and Vertical Use these two buttons to flip the texture image horizontally and/or vertically. Swap UV When this checkbox is selected, the U and V channels of the source image are swapped. Rotate 90 The texture map image is rotated 90 degrees when this checkbox is enabled.
The Common Controls Nodes that handle Deep Pixel compositing operations share several identical controls in the Inspector. This section describes controls that are common among Deep Pixel nodes. Inspector Common Settings tab in Deep Pixel Nodes Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector can be found on every tool in the Deep Pixel category. The Settings controls are even found on third-party Deep Pixel-type plug-in tools.
Red/Green/Blue/Alpha Channel Selector These four buttons are used to limit the effect of the tool to specified color channels. This filter is often applied after the tool has been processed. For example, if the red button on a Blur tool is deselected, the blur is first applied to the image, and then the red channel from the original input is copied back over the red channel of the result.
Motion Blur Motion Blur: This toggles the rendering of Motion Blur on the tool. When this control is toggled on, the tool’s predicted motion is used to produce the motion blur caused by the virtual camera’s shutter. When the control is toggled off, no motion blur is created. Quality: Quality determines the number of samples used to create the blur. A quality setting of 2 causes Fusion to create two samples to either side of an object’s actual motion.
Chapter 88 Effect Nodes This chapter details the Effect nodes in Fusion. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents Duplicate [Dup] 1940 Highlight [HIL] 1946 Hot Spot [HOT] 1948 Pseudo Color [PSCL] 1955 Rays [CIR] 1957 Shadow [SH] 1959 Trails [TRLS] 1961 TV [TV] 1966 The Common Controls 1969 Chapter – 88 Effect Nodes 1939
Duplicate [Dup] The Duplicate node Duplicate Node Introduction Similar to the Duplicate 3D node, the Duplicate node can be used to quickly duplicate any 2D image, applying a successive transformation to each, and creating repeating patterns and complex arrays of objects. The options in the Jitter tab allow for non-uniform transformations, such as random positioning or sizes.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab includes all the parameters you can use to create, offset, and scale copies of the object connected to the input on the node. Copies Use this slider to set the number of copies made. Each copy is a copy of the last copy. So, when set to 5, the parent is copied, then the copy is copied, then the copy of the copy is copied, and so on. This allows for some interesting effects when transformations are applied to each copy using the following controls.
Angle adjustment with centered pivot Angle adjustment with offset pivot Apply Mode The Apply Mode setting determines the math used when blending or combining duplicated objects that overlap. Normal: The default mode uses the foreground object’s Alpha channel as a mask to determine which pixels are transparent and which are not. When this is active, another menu shows possible operations, including Over, In, Held Out, Atop, and XOr.
Color Burn: Color Burn uses the foreground object’s color values to darken the objects behind them. This is similar to the photographic practice of burning by increasing the exposure of an area of a print. Darken: Darken looks at the color information in each channel and selects the object’s foreground or background’s color value, whichever is darker, as the result color. Pixels lighter than the blended colors are replaced, and pixels darker than the blended color do not change.
object. x = 1 - [background Alpha], y = 0 Atop: Atop places the foreground object over the background object only where the background object has a matte. x = [background Alpha], y = 1 - [foreground Alpha] XOr: XOr combines the foreground object with the background object wherever either the foreground or the background have a matte, but never where both have a matte.
Burn In The Burn In control adjusts the amount of Alpha used to darken the objects that fall behind other objects, without affecting the amount of foreground objects added. At 0.0, the blending behaves like a straight Alpha blend, in contrast to a setting of 1.0 where the objects in the front are effectively added on to the objects in the back (after Alpha multiplication if in Subtractive mode). This gives the effect of the foreground objects brightening the objects in the back, as with Alpha Gain.
Angle Use this dial to adjust the amount of variation in the Z rotation of the duplicated objects. Gain The Gain RGBA controls randomly multiply the values of the image channel linearly. Blend Changes made to this control randomize the blend between objects. Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab controls are common to all Effect nodes, so their descriptions can be found in “The Common Controls” section at the end of this chapter.
Basic Node Setup The Highlight node below is used to create glint-type highlights on an incoming image. The highlight mask is used to limit the area where the effect is applied. A Highlight node applied to an image, with a highlight mask limiting the area of the effect Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab includes parameters for the highlight style except for color, which is handled in the Color Scale tab.
Merge Over When enabled, the effect is overlaid on the original image. When disabled, the output is the highlights only. This is useful for downstream color correction of the highlights. Color Scale Tab The Color Scale tab controls the color of the highlight. Red, Green, and Blue Scale Moving the sliders of one or all of these channels down changes the falloff color of the highlight. Alpha Scale Moving the Alpha slider down makes highlight falloff more transparent.
Inputs There are three inputs on the Hot Spot node: one for the image, one for the effects mask, and another for an Occlusion image. – Input: The required orange input is used for the primary 2D image that gets the hot spot applied. – Effect Mask: The blue input is for a mask shape created by polylines, basic primitive shapes, paint strokes, or bitmaps from other tools. Connecting a mask to this input restricts the hot spot to be within the pixels of the mask.
Primary Strength This control determines the brightness of the primary hot spot. Hot Spot Size This control determines the diameter of the primary hot spot. A value of 1.0 represents a circle the full width of the image. Aspect This controls the aspect of the spot. A value of 1.0 produces a perfectly circular hot spot. Values above 1.0 elongate the circle horizontally, and values below 1.0 elongate the circle vertically. Aspect Angle This control can be used to rotate the primary hot spot.
Aberration The Aberration slider controls the overall strength of the lens aberration effect. Color Tab The Color tab is used to modify the color of the primary and secondary hot spots. Color Mode This menu allows you to choose between animated or static color modifications using the small curves editor in the Inspector. None: The default None setting retains a static curve adjustment for the entire range.
NOTE: Right-clicking in the LUT displays a contextual menu with options related to modifying spline curves. For more information on the LUT Editor, see Chapter 8, “Using Viewers” in the Fusion Studio Reference Manual or Chapter 60 in the DaVinci Resolve Reference Manual. Hot Spot Radial tab Radia Tab Radial On This control enables the Radial splines. Otherwise, the radial matte created by the splines is not applied to the hot spot, and the Mix spline in the color controls does not affect the hot spot.
Radial Repeat This control repeats the effect of the radial splines by x number of times. For example, a repeat of 2.0 causes the spline to take effect between 0 and 180 degrees instead of 0 and 360, repeating the spline between 180 and 360. Length Angle This control rotates the effect of the Radial Length spline around the circumference of the hot spot. Density Angle This control rotates the effect of the Radial Density spline around the circumference of the hot spot.
L3 tab Lens Reflect Tabs The three Lens Reflect tabs are used to enable and design additional lens flare elements beyond the primary and secondary hot spots. Lens Reflect 1-3 Each of these three checkboxes enables a pair of lens reflection elements that you can modify using the controls in this tab. The parameters affect all the enabled Lens reflection elements in this tab. Element Strength This determines the brightness of element reflections. Element Size This determines the size of element reflections.
NGon Star: This creates a very soft-edged star shape with a variable number of sides. NGon Shaded Out: This creates soft-edged circular shapes. NGon Shaded In: This creates a polygon with a variable number of sides, which has a very soft reversed (dark center, bright radius) circle. NGon Angle: This control is used to determine the angle of the NGon shapes.
Basic Node Setup The Pseudo Color node is not a stand-alone generator, so it must have an image input that it uses to generate variations in colors. Pseudo Color node applied to an image Inspector Red/Green/Blue/Alpha Tabs The node’s controls are separated into four identical tabs, one for each of the RGBA color channels. Color Checkbox When enabled, the Pseudo Color node affects this color channel.
Phase This modifies the Phase of the waveform. Animating this control produces color cycling effects. Mean This determines the level of the waveform selected. Higher values increase the overall brightness of the channel until the allowed maximum is reached. Amplitude Amplitude increases or decreases the overall power of the waveform.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab contains all the primary controls necessary for customizing the rays. Center X and Y This coordinate control and related viewer crosshair set the center point for the light source. Blend Sets the percentage of the original image that’s blended with the light rays. Decay Sets the length of the light rays. Weight Sets the falloff of the light rays. Exposure Sets the intensity level of the light rays.
Shadow [SH] The Shadow node Shadow Node Introduction Shadow is a versatile node used in the creation of a drop shadow, based on the Alpha channel in an image. Optionally, a second image can be used as a depth matte to distort the shadow based on the varying depth in a background image. Input The three inputs on the Shadow node are used to connect a 2D image that causes the shadow. A depth map input and an effect mask can be used to limit the area where trails appear.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab contains all the primary controls necessary for customizing the shadow appearance. Shadow Offset This control sets the X and Y position of the shadow. When the Shadow node is selected, you can also adjust the position of the Shadow Offset using the crosshair in the viewer. Softness Softness controls how blurry the shadow’s edges appear. Shadow Color Use this control to select the color of the shadow.
Minimum Depth Map Light Distance This control is active when an image is connected to the shadow’s Depth Map input. The slider is used to control the amount that the depth map contributes to the Light Distance. Dark areas of a depth map make the shadow deeper. White areas bring it closer to the camera. Z Map Channel This menu is used to select which color channel of the image connected to the node’s Depth Map input is used to create the shadow’s depth map.
Basic Node Setup The output of an animated Text node is connected to the input of the Trails node. Trails are generated based on the motion of the text. The Reset button must be pressed in the Inspector between each preview, or the trails will accumulate. A Trails node generates trails for the animation in the Text node Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab contains all the primary controls necessary for customizing the trails.
This Time Only Selecting this checkbox makes the pre-roll use this current frame only and not the previous frames. Preroll Frames This determines the number of frames to pre-roll. Lock RGBA When selected, this checkbox allows the Gain of the color channels to be controlled independently. This allows for tinting of the Trails effect. Gain The Gain control affects the overall intensity and brightness of the image in the buffer.
objects to perform the mixture. Multiply: Multiplies the values of a color channel. This gives the appearance of darkening the object as the values are scaled from 0 to 1. White has a value of 1, so the result would be the same. Gray has a value of 0.5, so the result would be a darker object or, in other words, an object half as bright. Overlay: Overlay multiplies or screens the color values of the foreground object, depending on the color values of the background object.
Operator This menu is used to select the Operation mode used when the trailing objects overlap. Changing the Operation mode changes how the overlapping objects are combined to produce a result. This drop-down menu is visible only when the Apply mode is set to Normal. The formula used to combine pixels in the trails node is always (fg object * x) + (bg object * y). The different operations determine what x and y are, as shown in the description for each mode.
Although the Additive/Subtractive option is often an either/or checkbox in other software, the Trails node lets you blend between the Additive and Subtractive versions of the compositing operation. This can be useful when dealing with problem edges that are too bright or too dark.
Input The two inputs on the TV node are used to connect a 2D image and an effect mask, which can be used to limit the area where the TV effect appears. – Input: The orange input is used for the primary 2D image that gets the TV distortion applied. – Effect Mask: The blue input is for a mask shape created by polylines, basic primitive shapes, paint strokes, or bitmaps from other tools. Connecting a mask to this input limits the area where the the TV effect to appears.
Vertical Use this slider to apply a simple Vertical offset to the image. Skew This slider is used to apply a diagonal offset to the image. Positive values skew the image to the top left. Negative values skew the image to the top right. Pixels pushed off frame wrap around and reappear on the other side of the image. Amplitude The Amplitude slider can be used to introduce smooth sine wave-type deformation to the edges of the image. Higher values increase the intensity of the deformation.
Roll Bar Tab The Roll Bar tab is the third of three tabs used to customize the analog TV distortion. The Roll Bar tab animates the bar. Bar Strength At the default value of 0, no bar is drawn. The higher the value, the darker the area covered by the bar becomes. Bar Size Increase the value of this slider to make the bar taller. Bar Offset Animate this control to scroll the bar across the screen.
Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector can be found on every tool in the Effects category. The Settings controls are even found on third-party Effects-type plug-in tools. The controls are consistent and work the same way for each tool, although some tools do include one or two individual options, which are also covered here. Blend The Blend control is used to blend between the tool’s original image input and the tool’s final modified output image. When the blend value is 0.
Object ID/Material ID (Sliders) Use these sliders to select which ID is used to create a mask from the object or material channels of an image. Use the Sample button in the same way as the Color Picker: to grab IDs from the image displayed in the view. The image or sequence must have been rendered from a 3D software package with those channels included. Clipping Mode This option determines how the domain of definition rendering handles edges.
Chapter 89 Generator Nodes This chapter details the Generator nodes available in Fusion. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents Background [BG] 1974 Day Sky [DS] 1978 Fast Noise [FN] 1981 Mandelbrot [MAN] 1984 Plasma [PLAS] 1986 Text+ [TXT+] 1989 Text+ Modifiers 2002 The Common Controls 2008 Chapter –89 Generator Nodes 1973
Background [BG] The Background node Background Node Introduction The Background node can be used to produce anything from a solid color background to complex looped gradients. Inputs There is one input on the Background node for an effect mask input. – Effect Mask: The optional blue effect mask input accepts a mask shape created by polylines, basic primitive shapes, paint strokes, or bitmaps from other tools.
Color Tab The Color tab is used to control the style and color(s) of the generated background. Type This control is used to select the style of background generated by the node. Four selections are available: Solid Color: This default creates a single-color image. Horizontal: This creates a two-color horizontal gradation. Vertical: This creates a two-color vertical gradation. Four Corner: This creates a four-color corner gradation.
Gradient When the Type menu is set to Gradient, additional controls are displayed where the gradient colors’ direction can be customized. Gradient Type This menu selects the form used to draw the gradient. There are six choices: Linear: Draws the gradient along a straight line from the starting color stop to the ending color stop. Reflect: Draws the gradient by mirroring the linear gradient on either side of the starting point.
Gradient Colors This gradient color bar is used to select the colors for the gradient. The default two color stops set the start and end colors. You can change the colors used in the gradient by selecting the color stop, and then using the Eyedropper or color swatch to set a new color. You can add, move, copy, and delete color from the gradient using the gradient bar. To modify one of the colors, select the triangle below the color on the bar.
Common Controls Image and Settings Tabs The Image and Settings tabs in the Inspector are duplicated in many Generator nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section. Day Sky [DS] The DaySky node Day Sky Node Introduction The Day Sky node aims to produce a simulation of the daylight produced at a specific time and location on the earth, and generates a high dynamic range image that represents a map of that light.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab is used to set the location and time of the daylight simulation. This will determine the overall look that is generated. Location The Latitude and Longitude sliders are used to specify the location used to create the Day Sky simulation. Date and Time The Day, Month, and Time controls are used to select the specific time for the Day Sky simulation.
Advanced Tab The Advanced tad provides more specific controls over the brightness and width of the different ranges in the generated sky. Horizon Brightness Use this control to adjust the brightness of the horizon relative to the sky. Luminance Gradient Use this control to adjust the width of the gradient separating the horizon from the sky. Circumsolar Region Intensity Use this control to adjust the intensity or brightness of the sky nearest to the sun.
Fast Noise [FN] The FastNoise node Fast Noise Node Introduction The Fast Noise node is a very fast and flexible Perlin Noise generator. It can be useful for a wide range of effects, from clouds, to swirling fog, waves, water caustics, stylized fire, and smoke, and other organic textures. It is also invaluable as a noise source for other effects, such as heat shimmers, particle systems, and dirtiness maps.
Inspector Noise Tab The Noise tab controls the shape and pattern of the noise for the Fast Noise node. Discontinuous Normally, the noise function interpolates between values to create a smooth continuous gradient of results. Enable this checkbox to create hard discontinuity lines along some of the noise contours. The result will be a dramatically different effect. Inverted Select this checkbox to invert the noise, creating a negative image of the original pattern.
Lock and Scale X/Y The size of the noise map can be adjusted using the Scale slider, changing it from gentle variations over the whole image to a tighter overall texture effect. The Scale slider can be separated into independent X- and Y-axis scale sliders by clicking on the Lock X/Y checkbox immediately above, which can be useful for a brushed-metal effect. Angle Use the Angle control to rotate the noise pattern.
Color Tab The Color tab allows you to adjust the gradient colors used in the generated noise pattern. Two Color A simple two-color gradient is used to color the noise map. The noise function will smoothly transition from the first color into the second. Gradient The Advanced Gradient control in Fusion is used to provide more control over the color gradient used with the noise map. Common Controls Image and Settings Tabs The Image and Settings tabs in the Inspector are duplicated in many Generator nodes.
Inspector Noise Tab The Noise tab controls the shape and pattern of the noise for the Mandelbrot node. Position X and Y This chooses the image’s horizontal and vertical position or seed point. Zoom Zoom magnifies the pattern in or out. Every magnification is recalculated so that there is no practical limit to the zoom. Escape Limit Defines a point where the calculation of the iteration is aborted. Low values lead to blurry halos. Iterations This determines the repetitiveness of the set.
Color Tab The Color tab allows you to adjust the gradient and repetition of the gradient colors for the generated pattern. Grad Method Use this control to determine the type of gradation applied at the borders of the pattern. Continuous Potential This causes the edges of the pattern to blend to the background color. Iterations This causes the edges of the pattern to be solid. Gradient Curve This affects the width of the gradation from the pattern to the background color.
Basic Node Setup Like the Mandelbrot node, the Plasma node generates images that can be used for motion graphics and sci-fi effects. Below, it is used to generate motion graphics for the background of a title. A Plasma node applied as a background to a Merge node Inspector Circles Tab The Circles tab controls the shape and pattern generated by the Plasma node. Scale The Scale control is used to adjust the size of the pattern created.
Circle Type Select the type of circle to be used. Circle Center Report and change the position of the circle center. Circle Scale Determines the size of the circle to be used for the pattern. Color Tab The Color tab allows you to adjust the colors and location within the pattern of the colors for the generated plasma. Phase Phase changes the color phase of the entire image. When animated, this creates psychedelic color cycles.
Text+ [TXT+] The Text+ node Text+ Node Introduction Fusion’s Text+ node is an advanced character generator capable of multiple styles, 3D transformations, and several layers of shading. Text can be laid out to a user-defined frame, circle, or along a path. Any TrueType or PostScript 1 font installed on the computer can be used to create text. Support for multibyte and Unicode characters allows text generation in any language, including right to left and vertically oriented text.
Inspector Text Tab The Text tab in the Inspector is divided into three sections: Text, Advanced Controls, and Tab Spacing. The Text section includes parameters that will be familiar to anyone who has used a word processor. It includes commonly used text formatting options. The Advanced controls are used for kerning options, and the Tab Spacing is used to define the location and alignment of tabs in the layout. Styled Text The edit box in this tab is where the text to be created is entered.
The Styled Text contextual menu includes the following options: Animate: Used to animate the text over time. Character Level Styling: Used to change the font, color, size and transformations of individual characters or words through the Modifiers tab. Comp Name: Places the name of the composition in the Styled text box for creating slates. Follower: A text modifier used to ripple animation across each character of the text. Publish: Publishes the text for connection to other text nodes.
H Justify The horizontal justify slider allows you to customize the justification of the text from the H Anchor setting to full justification so it is aligned evenly along the left and right edges. This control is most often used when the Layout type is set to Frame in the Layout tab. Direction This menu provides options for determining the Direction in which the text is to be written.
Tab Spacing Tab Spacing The controls in the Tabs section are used to configure the horizontal screen positions of eight separate tab stops. Any tab characters in the text will conform to these positions. You can add tabs directly in the Styled Text input as you type. You can also add tabs by copying from another document, such as Text on macOS or Notepad on Windows, and paste it into the text box. Position This control is used to set the horizontal position of the tab in the frame.
Point: Point layout is the simplest of the layout modes. Text is arranged around an adjustable center point. Frame: Frame layout allows you to define a rectangular frame used to align the text. The alignment controls are used for justifying the text vertically and horizontally within the boundaries of the frame. Circle: Circle layout places the text around the curve of a circle or oval. Control is offered over the diameter and width of the circular shape.
Reference Manual or Chapter 63 in the DaVinci Resolve Reference Manual. Transform Tab The Transform tab is used to move, rotate, shear and scale text based on a character, word, or line. Transform The Transform menu is used to determine the portion of the text affected by the transformations applied in this tab. Transformations can be applied to line, word, and character levels simultaneously. This menu is only used to keep the visible controls to a reasonable number.
Rotation These buttons are used to determine the order in which transforms are applied. X, Y, and Z would mean that the rotation is applied to X, then Y, and then Z. X, Y, and Z These controls can be used to adjust the angle of the text elements in any of the three dimensions. Shear X and Y Adjust these sliders to modify the slanting of the text elements along the X- and Y-axis. Size X and Y Adjust these sliders to modify the size of the text elements along the X- and Y-axis.
Shading Element The eight number values in the menu are used to select the element affected by adjustments in this tab. Enabled Select this checkbox to enable or disable each layer of shading elements. Element 1, which is the fill color, is enabled by default. The controls for a shading element will not be displayed unless this checkbox is selected.
Outside Only (Outline only) Selecting this checkbox will cause the outline to be drawn only on the outside edge of the text. By default, the outline is centered on the edge and partially overlaps the text. Join Style (Outline only) These buttons provide options for how the corners of the outline are drawn. Options include Sharp, Rounded, and Beveled. Line Style (Outline only) This menu offers additional options for the style of the line.
To modify one of the colors, select the triangle below the color on the bar. To add a color stop to the gradient bar: 1 Click anywhere along the bottom of the gradient bar. 2 Use the Eyedropper or color swatch to select the color for the color stop. To move a color stop on the gradient bar: Drag a color stop left or right along the bar. To copy a color stop: Hold Command (macOS) or Ctrl (Windows) while you drag a color stop. To delete a color stop: Drag the color stop up past the gradient bar.
Mapping Angle (Image and Gradient Modes only) This control rotates the image or gradient on the Z-axis. Mapping Size (Image and Gradient Modes only) This control scales the image or gradient. Mapping Aspect (Image and Gradient Modes only) This control vertically stretches or shrinks the image or gradient. Mapping Level (Image and Gradient Modes only) The Mapping Level menu is used to select how the image is mapped to the text. Full Image: Applies the entire image to the text.
Pivot X, Y, and Z These controls are used to set the exact position of the axis for the currently selected shading element. By default, the axis is positioned at the calculated center of the line, word, or character. The axis control works as an offset, such that a value of 0.1, 0.1 in this control would cause the axis to be shifted downward and to the right for the shading element. Positive values in the Z-axis slider will move the axis of rotation further along the axis (away from the viewer).
No Text Outline When this button is selected, it disables the drawing of any outline around the edges of the text. The outline is not a part of the text; it is an onscreen control used to help identify the position of the text. This is a three-way toggle with the Text Outline Outside Frame Only, and Show Always Text Outline buttons. Text Outline Outside Frame Only This button draws an outline around the edges of text, which is outside the visible frame.
Character Level Styling The Character Level Styling modifier works only on Text+ nodes. Once applied, individual characters can be selected directly in the viewer, and different text attributes can be applied to them using the controls in the Modifiers tab. NOTE: Character Level Styling can only be directly applied to Text+ nodes, not to Text 3D nodes. However, styled text from a Text+ node can be applied to a Text 3D node by copying the Text+, right-clicking on the Text 3D, and choosing Paste Settings.
Controls This modifier has no controls. Follower The Follower modifier allows sequencing text animations. The modifier is applied by rightclicking in the Styled Text field of a Text+ node and selecting Follower. In the Modifiers tab, you start by animating the parameters of the text (note that changing any parameter in the Modifiers tab will not be visible unless a keyframe is added.) Then, in the Timing tab you set the animation’s delay between characters.
Delay Type Determines what sort of delay is applied to the animation. Available options include: Between Each Character: The more characters there are in your text, the longer the animation will take to the end. A setting of 1 means the first character starts the animation, and the second character starts 1 frame later, the third character starts 1 frame after the second, and so on.
Input Text This reflects the original text in the Text+ Styled Text field. Text can be entered either here or in the Text+ node. Animate on Time When enabled, the characters are scrambled randomly on every new frame. This switch has no effect when Randomness is set to 0. Animate on Randomness When enabled, the characters are scrambled randomly on every new frame, when the Randomness thumbwheel is animated. This switch has no effect when Randomness is set to 0.
Hrs, Mins, Secs (Sliders) Sets the start time for the CountDown and Timer mode. Start Starts the Counter or Timer. Toggles to Stop once the timer is running. Reset Resets the Counter and Timer to the values set by the sliders. Time Code The Time Code only works on Text+ nodes. It sets the Styled text to become a counter based on the current frame. This is quite useful for automating burn-ins for daily renderings.
The Common Controls Nodes that generate images share a number of identical controls in the Inspector. This section describes controls that are common among Generator nodes. Inspector Image Tab The controls in this tab are used to set the resolution, color depth, and pixel aspect of the image produced by the node. Process Mode Use this menu control to select the Fields Processing mode used by Fusion to render changes to the image.
Pixel Aspect This control is used to specify the Pixel Aspect ratio of the created images. An aspect ratio of 1:1 would generate a square pixel with the same dimensions on either side (like a computer display monitor), and an aspect of 0.9:1 would create a slightly rectangular pixel (like an NTSC monitor). NOTE: Right-click on the Width, Height, or Pixel Aspect controls to display a menu listing the file formats defined in the preferences Frame Format tab.
Fast Noise Image Tab Options The following controls are specific the the Image tab in the Fast Noise Node. Mask Map Inputs These external connections allow you to use masks to control the value of the Noise Detail and Brightness controls individually for each pixel. This can allow some interesting and creative effects.
Blend The Blend control is used to blend between the tool’s original image input and the tool’s final modified output image. When the blend value is 0.0, the outgoing image is identical to the incoming. Normally, this will cause the tool to skip processing entirely, copying the input straight to the output. Process When Blend Is 0.0 The tool is processed even when the input value is zero.
Motion Blur Motion Blur: This toggles the rendering of Motion Blur on the tool. When this control is toggled on, the tool’s predicted motion is used to produce the motion blur caused by the virtual camera’s shutter. When the control is toggled off, no motion blur is created. Quality: Quality determines the number of samples used to create the blur. A quality setting of 2 will cause Fusion to create two samples to either side of an object’s actual motion.
Chapter 90 Film Nodes This chapter details the Film nodes in Fusion. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents Cineon Log [LOG] 2015 Film Grain [FGR] 2018 Grain [GRN] 2022 Light Trim [LT] 2025 Remove Noise [RN] 2027 The Common Controls 2029 Chapter – 90 Film Nodes 2014
Cineon Log [LOG] The CineonLog node Cineon Log Node Introduction The Cineon Log node is used to convert several different log camera formats to linear gamma and back again. Although the name implies that it should be used with Cineon files, it handles “log” gamma from many different digital cinema sources such as Blackmagic Design, Arri, and Red cameras. Input There are two Inputs on the Cineon Log node: one for the log image and one for the effects mask.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab includes settings for converting from log gamma to linear or from linear to log. You first select the Mode and then the Log Type. For instance, choose Log to Lin from the Mode menu, and then select BMD Film if you are compositing with a RAW clip from a Blackmagic Design camera. Those settings output a linear image ready for compositing. Depth The Depth menu is used to select the color depth used to process the input image. The default option is Auto.
Lock RGB When enabled, the settings in this tab affect all color channels equally. Disable this control to convert the red, green, and blue channels of the image using separate settings for each channel. Level Use this range control to set the black level and white level in the log image before converting. The left handle adjusts the black level, while the right handle adjusts the white level. Pixels with values in log space below the black level become out-of-range values below 0.0.
Since this lifts the blacks, the image is usually then converted back to linear one more time, using more traditional values (i.e., 95-685) to reset the black point.
NOTE: Although more accurate, the Film Grain node does not replace the older Grain node, which is still provided to allow older compositions to load and render, but in almost every case, it is better to use the Film Grain node. Input There are two inputs on the Film Grain node: one for the image and one for the effects mask. – Input: The orange input is used for the primary 2D image that gets the grain applied.
Controls Tab The Controls tab includes all the parameters for modifying the appearance of the film grain. Complexity The Complexity setting indicates the number of “layers” of grain applied to the image. With a complexity of 1, only one grain layer is calculated and applied to the image. When complexity is set to 4, the node calculates four separate grain layers and applies the mean combined result of each pass to the final image.
Time Lock Enabling Time Lock stops the random seed from generating new grain on every frame. Monochrome When the Monochrome checkbox is enabled (default), the grain is applied to the red, green, and blue color channels of the image equally. When deselected, individual control over the Size, Strength, and Roughness of the grain in each channel becomes possible. Lock Size X/Y Deselect the Lock Size X/Y checkbox to control the size of the grain along the X- and Y-axis individually.
Processing Examples Log Processing On In the default setting, the different amounts of Grain are applied to the blacks and the whites of the image Log Processing Off When Log processing is off, the Grain is applied evenly to the entire image, as shown here Grain [GRN] The Grain node Grain Node Introduction The Grain node offers an older film grain emulation than the more modern and accurate Film Grain node.
Basic Node Setup The Grain node is commonly placed before a MediaOut node in DaVinci Resolve, or before a Saver node in Fusion Studio. It adds back grain previously removed in a composite. A Grain node used to add grain back for a more realistic composite Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab includes all the parameters for modifying the appearance of the grain. Power This slider determines the strength of the grain. A higher value increases visibility, making the grain more prevalent.
Aspect Ratio This slider adjusts the aspect of the grain so that it can be matched with anamorphic images. Alpha-Multiply When enabled, this checkbox multiplies the image by the Alpha, clearing the black areas of any grain effect. Spread Tab The Spread tab uses curves for the red, green, and blue channels to control the amount of grain over each channel’s tonal range.
Bell-Shaped Spread Setting a bell shape is often a good starting point to create a more realistic-looking grain. Here we have a non-uniform distribution with different amounts of grain in the red, green, and blue channels. In both examples, the grain’s power has been exaggerated to show the effect a bit better. Common Controls Setting Tab The Settings tab controls are common to all Film nodes, so their descriptions can be found in “The Common Controls” section at the end of this chapter.
Inputs There are two Inputs on the Light Trim node: one for the 2D image and one for the effects mask. – Input: The orange input is used for the primary Log 2D image that gets its exposure adjusted. – Effect Mask: The blue input is for a mask shape created by polylines, basic primitive shapes, paint strokes, or bitmaps from other tools. Connecting a mask to this input limits the exposure change to be within the pixels of the mask. An effects mask is applied to the tool after the tool is processed.
Remove Noise [RN] The RemoveNoise node Remove Noise Node Introduction The Remove Noise node provides simple noise management. The basic operation is that the node blurs the image channels, and then compares the blurred image to the original to extract the noise. A sharpness is then applied to the image, except where noise was detected. To use this node, view the image and look at the red channel. Then increase the Red Softness until the grain appears to be gone.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab switches the noise removal between two methods: Color and Chroma. When the Method is set to Color, the Controls tab adjusts the amount of blur and sharpness individually for each RGB channel. When the Method is set to Chroma, the blur and sharpness is adjusted based on Luma and Chroma controls. Method This menu is used to choose whether the node processes color using the Color or Chroma method. This also gives you a different set of control sliders.
Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab controls are common to all Film nodes, so their descriptions can be found in the following “The Common Controls” section. The Common Controls Film nodes share a number of identical controls in the Inspector. This section describes controls that are common among Film nodes. Inspector Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector can be found on every tool in the Film category. The Settings controls are even found on third-party Film-type plug-in tools.
Process When Blend Is 0.0 The tool is processed even when the input value is zero. This can be useful if processing of this node is scripted to trigger another task, but the value of the node is set to 0.0. Red/Green/Blue/Alpha Channel Selector These four buttons are used to limit the effect of the tool to specified color channels. This filter is often applied after the tool has been processed.
Clipping Mode This option determines how edges are handled when performing domain of definition rendering. This is mostly important for nodes like Blur, which may require samples from portions of the image outside the current domain. Frame: The default option is Frame, which automatically sets the node’s domain of definition to use the full frame of the image, effectively ignoring the current domain of definition.
Chapter 91 Filter Nodes This chapter details the Filter nodes available in Fusion. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents Create Bump Map [CBu] 2034 Custom Filter Node [CFlt] 2036 Erode Dilate Node [ErDl] 2040 Filter Node [Fltr] 2042 Rank Filter Node [RFlt] 2044 The Common Controls 2046 Chapter – 91 Filter Nodes 2033
Create Bump Map [CBu] The CreateBumpMap node Create Bump Map Node Introduction The Create Bump Map node converts a grayscale (height map) image into a bump map. Unlike the Bump Map node that turns an image into a 3D material, the Create Bump Map node creates bump vector data and provides the output as an RGB image so other image-processing operations can be applied.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab contains all parameters for creating the bump map. Filter Size This menu sets the filter size for creating the bump map. You can set the filter size at 3 x 3 pixels or 5 x 5 pixels, thus determining the radius of the pixels sampled. The larger the size, the more time it takes to render. Height Source The Height Source menu selects the channel for extracting the grayscale information. Clamp Normal.
Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab controls are common to all Filter nodes, so their descriptions can be found in “The Common Controls” section at the end of this chapter. Custom Filter Node [CFlt] The CustomFilter node Custom Filter Node Introduction The Custom Filter node is used to apply custom convolution filters to images. A custom convolution filter can give a wide variety of image effects. For example, emboss, relief, sharpen, blurring, and edge detection are all convolution filters.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab is used to set the filter size and then use the filter matrix to enter convolution filter values. Color Channels (RGBA) The custom filter defaults to operating on R, G, B, and A channels. Selective channel editing is possible by enabling or disabling the checkboxes beside each channel. This is not the same as the RGBA checkboxes found under the Common Controls. The node takes these controls into account before it processes.
Floor Level This adds or subtracts a minimum, or Floor Level, to the result of the filtered image. Zero does not add anything to the image. Positive values add to the filtered image, and negative values subtract from the image. Examples Original Image Example For example, a filter with the values... 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 ...has zero effect from its neighboring pixels, and the resulting image would be unchanged. Original image Softening Example A slight softening effect would be... 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ...
If parts of the processed image are very smooth in color, the neighboring values are very similar. In parts of the image where the pixels are different (e.g., an edge), the results are different and tend to highlight or emboss edges in the image. A Custom Filter adding and subtracting neighboring pixels to create an embossed image Exposure Example Using the values... 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ...and adjusting Normalize to a positive value makes the image brighter or glow, simulating film overexposure.
Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab controls are common to all Filter nodes, so their descriptions can be found in “The Common Controls” section at the end of this chapter. Erode Dilate Node [ErDl] The ErodeDilate node Erode Dilate Node Introduction The Erode Dilate node contracts or expands the image, depending on whether the Amount slider is set to a negative or positive value.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab includes the main Amount slider that determines whether you are performing an erode by entering a negative value or a dilate by entering a positive value. Color Channels (RGBA) The Erode Dilate node defaults to operating on R, G, B, and A channels. Selective channel editing is possible by enabling or disabling the checkboxes beside each channel. This is not the same as the RGBA checkboxes found under the Common Controls.
Filter Node [Fltr] The Filter node Filter Node Introduction The Filter node contains several standard convolution filters, easily selectable from a list. This node enables a variety of effects, from radically changing the look of an image to adding subtle randomly-generated film grain. The Sobel and Laplacian settings are often used for edge detection. Inputs The Filter node includes two inputs: one for the main image and the other for an effect mask to limit the area where the filter is applied.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab is used to set the filter type, the channels the filter is applied to, and the amount it blends with the original image. Filter Type The Filter Type menu provides a selection of filter types described below. Relief: This appears to press the image into metal, such as an image on a coin. The image appears to be bumped and overlaid on gray. Emboss Over: Embosses the image over the top of itself, with adjustable highlight and shadow height and direction.
Median Depending on which Filter Type is selected, the Median control may appear. It varies the Median filter’s effect. A value of 0.5 produces the true median result, as it finds the middle values. A value of 0.0 finds the minimums, and 1.0 finds the maximums. This applies to the Median setting only. Seed This control is visible only when applying the Grain or Noise filter types. The Seed slider can be used to ensure that the random elements of the effect are seeded with a consistent value.
Basic Node Setup The Rank Filter node can be placed anywhere in a node tree to apply an effect to an image. A Rank Filter node placed after a MediaIn node in DaVinci Resolve Inspector l Controls Tab The Controls tab is used to set the size and rank value of the filter. Size This control determines the size in pixels of the area sampled by the filter. A value of 1 samples 1 pixel in each direction, adjacent to the center pixel. This produces a total of 9 pixels, including the center sampled pixel.
The Common Controls Filter nodes share a number of identical controls in the Inspector. This section describes controls that are common among Filter nodes. Inspector Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector can be found on every tool in the Filter category. The Settings controls are even found on third-party filter-type plug-in tools. The controls are consistent and work the same way for each tool, although some tools do include one or two individual options, which are also covered here.
Red/Green/Blue/Alpha Channel Selector These four buttons are used to limit the effect of the tool to specified color channels. This filter is often applied after the tool has been processed. For example, if the red button on a Blur tool is deselected, the blur is first applied to the image, and then the red channel from the original input is copied back over the red channel of the result.
Motion Blur Motion Blur: This toggles the rendering of Motion Blur on the tool. When this control is toggled on, the tool’s predicted motion is used to produce the motion blur caused by the virtual camera’s shutter. When the control is toggled off, no motion blur is created. Quality: Quality determines the number of samples used to create the blur. A quality setting of 2 causes Fusion to create two samples to either side of an object’s actual motion.
Chapter 92 Flow Nodes This chapter details the Sticky Note and Underlay features available in Fusion. The abbreviations next to each feature name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents Sticky Note [NTE] 2051 Underlay [UND] 2052 Chapter – 92 Flow Nodes 2050
Sticky Note [NTE] The Sticky Note Sticky Note Introduction A Sticky Note is not a node at all. It is a useful way of attaching notes, comments, and history to a specific area of a comp. By changing their size and color, they can provide unobtrusive comments or important notices, as required. Sticky Notes make an excellent complement to the Comments tab in the Inspector.
Underlay [UND] The Underlay Underlay Introduction Underlays are a convenient method of visually organizing areas of a composition. As with Groups, Underlays can improve the readability of a comp by separating it into labeled functional blocks. While Groups are designed to streamline the look of a comp by collapsing complex layers down to single nodes, Underlays highlight, rather than hide, and do not restrict outside connections.
Chapter 93 Flow Organizational Nodes This chapter details the Groups, Macro, and Pipe Router nodes, which are designed to help organize your compositions, making the node tree easier to see and understand. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents Groups 2055 Macro 2056 Pipe Router 2057 Chapter – 93 Flow Organizational Nodes 2054
Groups The Group node Groups Introduction Groups are used to keep complex node trees organized. You can select any number of nodes in the node tree and then group them to create a single node icon in the Node Editor. Groups are non-destructive and can be opened at any time. Usage To group nodes, select them in the Node Editor, and then right-click over any of the selected nodes and choose Group from the contextual menu.
Macro Macros are not technically a node. Instead, they are a group of nodes that act as a single node. Macro Introduction Macros can be used to combine multiple nodes and expose a user-definable set of controls. They are meant as a fast and convenient way of building custom nodes. Usage To create a Macro, select the nodes intended for the macro. The order in which the nodes are selected becomes the order in which they are displayed in the Macro Editor.
To add the macro to your node tree, right-click anywhere on the node tree and select Macro > [NameOfYourMacro] from the contextual menu. Saving a Macro as a Title Template in the Edit Page (DaVinci Resolve) When using DaVinci Resolve, macros are available only in the Fusion page. However, if the macro is a title animation, you can save it to the Titles Templates folder and have it appear in the Edit page Effects Library.
Usage Router To insert a router along a connection line, Option- or Alt-click on the line. The router can then be repositioned to arrange the connections as needed. Although routers have no actual controls, they still can be used to add comments to a comp.
Chapter 94 Fuses This chapter introduces Fuses, which are scriptable plug-ins that can be used within Fusion.
Contents Fuses [FUS] 2061 Fuses Introduction 2061 Installing Fuses 2061 Working with Fuses in a Composition 2061 Chapter – 94 Fuses 2060
Fuses [FUS] A Fuse node Fuses Introduction Fuses are plug-ins. The difference between a Fuse and an OpenFX plug-in is that a Fuse is created using a Lua script. Fuses can be edited within Fusion or DaVinci Resolve, and the changes you make compile on-the-fly. Using a Lua script makes it easy for even non-programmers to prototype and develop custom nodes. A new Fuse can be added to a composition, edited and reloaded, all without having to close the current composition.
Chapter 95 I/O Nodes This chapter details the input and output of media using Loader and Saver nodes within Fusion Studio as well as the MediaIn and MediaOut nodes in DaVinci Resolve. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references.
Contents Loader Node [LD] 2064 MediaIn Node [MI] 2072 MediaOut Node [MO] 2076 Saver Node [SV] 2077 The Common Controls 2084 Chapter – 94 I/O Nodes 2063
Loader Node [LD] The Loader node Loader Node Introduction NOTE: The Loader node in DaVinci Resolve is only used for importing EXR files. When using Fusion Studio, the Loader node is the node you use to select and load footage from your hard drive into the Node Editor. There are three ways to add a Loader node, and consequently a clip, to the Node Editor.
Basic Node Setup The Loader node is a 2D image of any format supported in Fusion Studio. It is limited to an EXR format in DaVinci Resolve. Below, the LOADER imports an image, which is then masked using an Ellipse matte. The output of the masked LOADER is passed onto 2D imageprocessing nodes. A Loader node used for importing images Inspector File Tab The File tab for the Loader includes controls for trimming, creating a freeze frame, looping, and reversing the clip.
To slide the clip in time or move it through the project without changing its length, place the mouse pointer in the middle of the range control and drag it to the new location, or enter the value manually in the Global In value box. Filename The Filename field shows the file path of the clip imported to the Node Editor by the Loader node. Clicking on the Browse button opens a standard file browser. The path to the footage can also be typed directly using the field provided.
bandwidth, interactive render times, and memory usage.The proxy clip must have the same number of frames as the source clip, and the sequence numbers for the clip must start and end on the same frame numbers. It is strongly suggested that the proxies are the same format as the main files. In the case of formats with options, such as Cineon, DPX, and OpenEXR, the proxies use the same format options as the primary. Trim The Trim range control is used to trim frames from the start or end of a clip.
So as long as all your source footage is stored in subfolders of your Comp folder, Fusion finds that footage regardless of the actual hard drive or network share name. You could, for example, copy an entire shot from the network to your local drive, set up your Loaders and Savers to use the Comp variable, work all your magic locally (i.e., set up your composition), and then copy just the composition back to the server and issue a net-render. All render slaves automatically find the source footage.
Process Mode Use this menu to select the Fields Processing mode used by Fusion when loading the image. The Has Fields checkbox control in the Frame Format preferences determines the default option, and the default height as well. Available options include: Full frames NTSC fields PAL/HD fields PAL/HD fields (reversed) NTSC fields (reversed).
NOTE: For more information on frame formats, see Chapter 11, “Preparing Projects and Importing Media” in the Fusion Studio Reference Manual or Chapter 55, “Image Processing and Color Management” in the DaVinci Resolve Reference Manual. Custom Pixel Aspect This control is visible only when Custom is selected from the Pixel Aspect menu. Enter the desired X and Y aspect or right-click on the control to display a menu of common frame formats and their aspects.
Color Space Type This menu is used to set the Color Space of the footage to help achieve a linear color space workflow. Unlike the Gamut tool, this doesn’t perform any actual color space conversion, but instead adds the source color space data into the metadata, if that metadata doesn‘t already exist. The metadata can then be used downstream by a Gamut tool with the From Image option, or in a Saver if explicit output spaces are defined there.
Format Tab The Format tab contains file format-specific controls that dynamically change based on the selected Loader and the file it links to. Some formats contain a single control or no controls at all. Others like Camera RAW formats contain RAW-specific debayering controls. A partial format list is provided below for reference. OpenEXR: EXR provides a compact and flexible format to support high dynamic range images (float). The format also supports a variety of extra channels and metadata.
Drag clips from the Media Pool into the Node Editor, creating a MediaIn node in the Node Editor. Drag clips from an OS window directly into the Node Editor, creating a MediaIn node in the Node Editor. Choose Fusion > Import> PSD when importing PSD files into the Node Editor. Each PSD layer is imported as a separate MediaIn node. NOTE: Although a MediaIn tool is located in the I/O section of the Effects Library, it is not used as a method to import clips.
Inspector Image Tab When brought in from the Media Pool or dragged from an OS window, the MediaIn node’s Image tab includes controls for trimming, creating a freeze frame, looping, and reversing the clip. You can also reselect the clip the MediaIn links to on your hard drive. A subset of these controls is available when the MediaIn node is brought in from the Edit or Cut page Timeline.
Process Mode Use this menu to select the Fields Processing mode used by Fusion when loading the image. The Has Fields checkbox control in the Frame Format preferences determines the default option, and the default height as well. Available options include: – Full frames – NTSC fields – PAL/HD fields – PAL/HD fields (reversed) – NTSC fields (reversed).
Source Gamma Space Lets you choose a gamma setting for the image data output by this MediaIn node. Once the gamma curve type is set, you can choose to remove the curve to help achieve a linear workflow. Auto: Uses the Timeline gamma, or whichever gamma is assigned by Resolve Color Management (RCM) if it’s enabled. Space: Lets you choose a specific setting from a Gamma Space drop-down menu, while a visual graph lets you see a representation of the gamma setting you’ve selected.
NOTE: Additional MediaOut nodes can be added to the Node Editor from the Effects Library. Additional MediaOut nodes are used to pass mattes to the Color page. Inputs The single input on the MediaOut node is where you connect the final composite image you want rendered back into the Edit page. – Input: The orange input is a required input. It accepts any 2D image that you want rendered back into the Edit page. Basic Node Setup Multiple MediaOut nodes can exist in a single comp.
NOTE: In Fusion Studio, the Saver node can be used to add scratch track audio to your flow, which can be heard during interactive playback. Inputs The single input on the Saver node is for the final composition you want to render. – Image Input: The orange input is used to connect the resulting image you want rendered. Basic Node Setup The Saver node is placed at the end of the composition. Multiple Savers can be placed in a comp to render different formats or to render different parts of a composition.
Sequence numbering is automatically added to the filename when rendering a sequential image file format. For example, if c\renders\image.exr is entered as the filename and 30 frames of output are rendered, the files are automatically numbered as image0000.tga, image0001.exr, image0003.exr...and so on. Four-digit padding is automatically used for numbers lower than 10000. You can specify the number of digits to use for padding by explicitly entering the digits into the filename. For example, image000000.
Process Mode Use this menu to select the Fields Processing mode used by Fusion when saving the images or movie file to disk. The Has Fields checkbox control in the Frame Format preferences determines the default option, and the default height as well. Available options include: – Full frames – NTSC fields – PAL/HD fields – PAL/HD fields (reversed) – NTSC fields (reversed).
Apply Curve Depending on the selected Curve Type or on the Gamma Space found in Auto mode, the associated Gamma Curve is applied, effectively converting from a linear working space. Saver Audio tab Audio Tab NOTE: This tab is only available in Fusion Studio. The audio functionality is included in Fusion for scratch track (aligning effects to audio and clip timing) purposes only. Final renders should almost always be performed without audio.
Action Use this menu to choose how Fusion treats illegal colors in the image. Adjust to Legal: This causes the images to be saved with legal colors relevant to the Video Type selected. Indicate as Black: This causes the illegal colors to be displayed as black in the views. Indicate as White: This causes the illegal colors to be displayed as white in the views. No Changes: This causes the images to be saved unaffected.
When the Saver node is set to DPX, it’s important to understand the reason for the Bypass Conversion > Data is Linear option. When saving log data into a DPX, and not using the Saver’s node’s own lin-log conversion (that is, Bypass Conversion is checked), the Data Is Linear option should be off. This indicates whether the reason for checking Bypass Conversion is because the data is linear, or whether it’s already log.
Apply Curve Depending on the selected Curve Type or on the Gamma Space found in Auto mode, the associated Gamma Curve is applied, effectively converting from a linear working space. The Common Controls I/O nodes share a number of identical controls in the Inspector. This section describes controls that are common among I/O nodes.
Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector can be found on the Loader, Saver, MediaIn, and MediaOut nodes. The controls are consistent and work the same way for each tool, although some parameters are only available on individual nodes but are covered here. Blend The Blend control is used to blend between the tool’s original image input and the tool’s final modified output image. When the blend value is 0.0, the outgoing image is identical to the incoming image.
Object ID/Material ID (Sliders) Use these sliders to select which ID is used to create a mask from the object or material channels of an image. Use the Sample button in the same way as the Color Picker: to grab IDs from the image displayed in the view. The image or sequence must have been rendered from a 3D software package with those channels included. Hide Incoming Connections Enabling this checkbox can hide connection lines from incoming nodes, making a node tree appear cleaner and easier to read.
Chapter 96 LUT Nodes This chapter details the LUT nodes available in Fusion. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn/MediaOut nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader/Saver nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents File LUT [FLU] 2089 LUT Cube Analyzer [LCA] 2091 LUT Cube Apply [LCP] 2092 LUT Cube Creator [LCC] 2093 The Common Controls 2095 Chapter – 96 LUT Nodes 2088
File LUT [FLU] The FileLUT node File LUT Node Introduction The File LUT node applies a Lookup table (LUT) to the image: either a simple 1D LUT or a supported 3D LUT. Unlike the Color Curves node, it does not use a spline-based LUT. Instead, it loads the LUT from a file stored on your computer or server. This approach has two advantages. The first is that the only part of the LUT stored in the composition is the path to the file.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab includes options for loading a LUT and making adjustments to the gain, color space, and Alpha channel, if one exists. LUT File This field is used to enter the path to the LUT file. Clicking the Browse button opens a file browser window to locate the LUT file instead of entering it manually into the LUT File field. Currently, this node supports LUTs exported from Fusion in .LUT and .ALUT formats, DaVinci Resolve’s .CUBE format, and several 3D LUT formats.
LUT Cube Analyzer [LCA] The LUTCubeAnalyzer node LUT Cube Analyzer Node Introduction The LUT Cube Analyzer takes an image originated by the LUT Cube Creator as an input and allows the user to create a 3D LUT file in ALUT3, ITX, or 3DL format. Feeding the original LUT Cube Creator image into the node results in an unaltered, or 1:1, LUT file, and nothing is displayed in the viewer.
Controls Tab The Controls tab for the LUT Cube Analyzer node is used to select the desired LUT output format, specify a filename, and write the 3D LUT to disk. Type Select the desired output format of the 3D LUT. Filename Enter the path where you want the file saved and enter the name of the LUT file. Alternatively, you can click the Browse button to open a file browser to select the location and filename. Write File Press this button to generate the 3D LUT file based on the settings above.
Basic Node Setup The example below shows a node tree starting with a LUT Cube Creator node and going through two color adjustments. The adjusted image is then connected to the green Reference input of the LUT Cube Apply. The image you want to apply the LUT to is connected to the orange Input. The LUT generated by the LUT Cube Creator is applied to an image using the LUT Cube Apply node Inspector There are no controls for the LUT Cube Apply node.
Inputs There are no inputs on the LUT Cube Creator. The purpose of the node is to generate an image that can be used to create a LUT. Basic Node Setup The example below shows a node tree starting with a LUT Cube Creator node and going through two color adjustments. The adjusted image is then connected into a LUT Cube Analyzer that generates the LUT file.
Size Determines the resolution of the color cube. Typical Size settings for color cubes are 33 (33 x 33 x 33) or 65 (65 x 65 x 65). These numbers are the samples on each side of the cube. A 33 x 33 x 33 cube has around 35,937 color samples. NOTE: Higher resolutions yield more accurate results but are also more memory and computationally expensive. Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other LUT nodes.
Use GPU The Use GPU menu has three settings. Setting the menu to Disable turns off hardwareaccelerated rendering using the graphics card in your computer. Enabled uses the hardware. Auto uses a capable GPU if one is available and falls back to software rendering when a capable GPU is not available. Hide Incoming Connections Enabling this checkbox can hide connection lines from incoming nodes, making a node tree appear cleaner and easier to read.
Chapter 97 Mask Nodes This chapter details the Mask nodes available in Fusion. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents Bitmap Mask [BMP] 2099 B-Spline Mask [BSP] 2104 Ellipse Mask [ELP] 2108 Mask Paint [PNM] 2111 Polygon Mask [PLY] 2114 Ranges Mask [RNG] 2119 Rectangle Mask [REC] 2124 Triangle Mask [TRI] 2128 Wand Mask [WND] 2131 The Common Controls 2134 Chapter – 97 Mask Nodes 2098
Bitmap Mask [BMP] Bitmap Mask Node Introduction The Bitmap mask node allows images from the node tree to act as masks for nodes and effects. Bitmap masks can be based on values from any of the color, Alpha, hue, saturation, luminance, and auxiliary coverage channels of the image. Nodes can also be masked based on the Object ID or Material ID of a 3D-rendered image (provided those channels were included when the file was rendered). The Bitmap mask node is not required for effect masks.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab is used to refine how the image connected to the orange input converts into the Bitmap mask. Show View Controls The Show View Controls checkbox is used to enable/disable the display of the mask’s onscreen controls in the viewer. Onscreen controls, including center position, polylines, angles, and others, do not appear when this checkbox is disabled, even when the node is selected. Level The Level control sets the transparency level of the pixels in the mask channel.
Multi-box: When selecting this filter, the Num Passes slider appears and lets you control the quality. At 1 and 2 passes, results are identical to Box and Bartlett, respectively. At 4 passes and above, results are usually as good as Gaussian, in less time and with no edge “ringing.” Gaussian: The Gaussian filter uses a true Gaussian approximation and gives excellent results, but it is a little slower than the other filters.
In the example below, a 720 x 576 image source (yellow) is used to generate a 1920 x 1080 mask (gray). Crop: If the image source is smaller than the generated mask, it will be placed according to the X/Y controls, masking off only a portion of the mask. If the image source is larger than the generated mask, it will be placed according to the X/Y controls and cropped off at the borders of the mask.
Height: The image source will be scaled uniformly until its height (Y) fits the height of the mask. Depending on the relative dimensions of the image source and mask, the image source’s X-dimension might not fit the mask’s X-dimension, resulting in either cropping of the image source in X or the image source not covering the mask’s width entirely. Outside: The image source will be scaled uniformly until one of its dimensions (X or Y) fits the outside dimensions of the mask.
B-Spline Mask [BSP] The B-Spline node A B-Spline mask is identical to a Polygon mask in all respects except one. Where Polygon masks use Bézier splines, this mask node uses B-Splines. Where Bézier splines employ a central point and two handles to manage the smoothing of the spline segment, a B-Spline requires only a single point. This means that a B-Spline shape requires far fewer control points to create a nicely smoothed shape.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab is used to refine how the B-Spline appears after drawing it in the viewer. Show View Controls The Show View Controls checkbox is used to enable/disable the display of the mask’s onscreen controls in the viewer. Onscreen controls, including center position, polylines, angles, and others, do not appear when this checkbox is disabled, even when the node is selected. Level The Level control sets the transparency level of the pixels in the mask channel.
Soft Edge Use the Soft Edge slider to blur (feather) the mask, using the selected filter. Higher values cause the edge to fade off well beyond the boundaries of the mask. A value of 0.0 creates a crisp, well-defined edge. Border Width The Border Width control adjusts the thickness of the mask’s edge. When the solid checkbox is toggled on, the border thickens or narrows the mask. When the mask is not solid, the mask shape draws as an outline, and the width uses the Border Width setting.
X, Y, and Z Rotation Use these three controls to adjust the rotation angle of the mask along any axis. Fill Method The Fill Method menu offers two different techniques for dealing with overlapping regions of a polyline. If overlapping segments in a mask are causing undesirable holes to appear, try switching the setting of this control from Alternate to Non Zero Winding. Right-Click Here for Shape Animation By default, all B-Spline masks are animated when they are created.
You can change the way the toolbar is displayed by right-clicking on the toolbar and selecting from the options displayed in the toolbar’s contextual menu. The functions of the buttons in this toolbar are explained in depth in the Polylines section. Common Controls Image and Settings Tabs The Image and Settings tabs in the Inspector are also duplicated in other mask nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab is used to refine how the ellipse appears after drawing it in the viewer. Show View Controls The Show View Controls checkbox is used to enable/disable the display of the masks onscreen controls in the viewer. Onscreen controls, including center position, polylines, angles, and others, do not appear when this checkbox is disabled, even when the node is selected. Level The Level control sets the transparency level of the pixels in the mask channel. When the value is 1.
Soft Edge Use the Soft Edge slider to blur (feather) the mask, using the selected filter. Higher values cause the edge to fade off well beyond the boundaries of the mask. A value of 0.0 creates a crisp, well-defined edge. Border Width The Border Width control adjusts the thickness of the mask’s edge. When the solid checkbox is toggled on, the border thickens or narrows the mask. When the mask is not solid, the mask shape draws as an outline, and the width uses the Border Width setting.
Width This control allows independent control of the ellipse mask’s Width. In addition to the slider in the mask’s controls, interactively drag the width (left or right edge) of the mask on the viewer using the pointer. Any changes will be reflected in this control. Height Height allows independent control of the ellipse mask’s height. In addition to the slider in the mask’s controls, interactively drag the height (top or bottom edge) of the mask on the view using the pointer.
Basic Node Setup The Mask Paint node is useful for painting masks using a more free hand, pressure sensitive style. In the node tree below, the Mask Paint node is used to patch up holes in a Bitmap mask.
Mask Tab The Mask tab is used to refine the basic mask parameters that do not fall into the category of “panting.” These include how multiple masks are combined, overall softness control, and level control. Show View Controls The Show View Controls checkbox is used to enable/disable the display of the masks onscreen controls in the viewer. Onscreen controls including, center position, polylines, angles, and others, do not appear when this checkbox is disabled, even when the node is selected.
Minimum: Comparing the input mask’s values and the new mask, displays the lowest (minimum) value. Maximum: Comparing the input mask’s values and the new mask, displays the highest (maximum) value. Average: This calculates the average (half the sum) of the new mask and the input mask. Multiply: This multiplies the values of the input mask by the new mask’s values. Replace: The new mask completely replaces the input mask wherever they intersect.
Inputs The Polygon mask node includes a single effect mask input. – Effect Mask: The optional blue input expects a mask shape created by polylines, basic primitive shapes, paint strokes, or bitmaps masks. Connecting a mask to this input combines the masks. How masks are combined is handled in the Paint mode menu in the Inspector. Basic Node Setup The Polygon node can be used to generate a detailed spline shape or combined with other masks for even more complex shapes.
Level The Level control sets the transparency level of the pixels in the mask channel. When the value is 1.0, the mask is completely opaque (unless it has a soft edge). Lower values cause the mask to be partially transparent. The result is identical to lowering the blend control of an effect. NOTE: Lowering the level of a mask lowers the values of all pixels covered by the mask in the mask channel.
Average: This calculates the average (half the sum) of the new mask and the input mask. Multiply: This multiplies the values of the input mask by the new mask’s values. Replace: The new mask completely replaces the input mask wherever they intersect. Areas that are zero (completely black) in the new mask do not affect the input mask. Invert: Areas of the input mask that are covered by the new mask are inverted; white becomes black and vice versa. Gray areas in the new mask are partially inverted.
Adding Points Adding Points to a polygonal effect mask is relatively simple. Immediately after adding the node to the Node Editor, there are no points, but the tool will be in Click Append mode. Click once in the viewer wherever a point is required for the mask. Continue clicking to draw the shape of the mask. When the shape is complete, click on the initial point again to close the mask. When the shape is closed, the mode of the polyline will change to Insert and Modify.
Double Poly: Allows softening part of the spline curve while keeping other portions of the curve sharp. The double polyline is composed of two shapes, an inner and outer shape. The inner shape is the original shape from the single polyline, whereas the outer shape is used to determine the spread of the softness. The further the outer shape gets from the inner shape, the softer that segment of the shape becomes.
Inputs The Ranges mask node includes two inputs in the Node Editor. – Input: The orange input accepts a 2D image from which the mask will be created. – Effect Mask: The optional blue input expects a mask shape created by polylines, basic primitive shapes, paint strokes, or bitmaps masks. Connecting a mask to this input combines the masks. How masks are combined is handled in the Paint mode menu in the Inspector.
Controls Tab The Controls tab is used to refine how the image connected to the orange input converts into the ranges mask. Show View Controls The Show View Controls checkbox is used to enable/disable the display of the mask’s onscreen controls in the viewer. Onscreen controls, including center position, polylines, angles, and others, do not appear when this checkbox is disabled, even when the node is selected. Level The Level control sets the transparency level of the pixels in the mask channel.
Maximum: Comparing the input mask’s values and the new mask displays the highest (maximum) value. Average: This calculates the average (half the sum) of the new mask and the input mask. Multiply: This multiplies the values of the input mask by the new mask’s values. Replace: The new mask completely replaces the input mask wherever they intersect. Areas that are zero (completely black) in the new mask do not affect the input mask.
Inside: The image source is scaled uniformly until one of its dimensions (X or Y) fits the inside dimensions of the mask. Depending on the relative dimensions of the image source and mask background, either the image source’s width or height may be cropped to fit the respective dimension of the mask. Width: The image source is scaled uniformly until its width (X) fits the width of the mask.
Shadows/Midtones/Highlights These buttons are used to select which range is output by the node as a mask. White pixels represent pixels that are considered to be part of the range, and black pixels are not included in the range. For example, choosing Shadows would show pixels considered to be shadows as white, and pixels that are not shadows as black. Mid gray pixels are only partly in the range and do not receive the full effect of any color adjustments to that range.
Inputs The Rectangle mask node includes a single effect mask input. – Effect Mask: The optional blue input expects a mask shape created by polylines, basic primitive shapes, paint strokes, or bitmaps masks. Connecting a mask to this input combines the masks. How masks are combined is handled in the Paint mode menu in the Inspector. Basic Node Setup The Rectangle mask node is useful for generating rectangular shapes.
Level The Level control sets the transparency level of the pixels in the mask channel. When the value is 1.0, the mask is completely opaque (unless it has a soft edge). Lower values cause the mask to be partially transparent. The result is identical to lowering the Blend control of an effect. NOTE: Lowering the level of a mask lowers the values of all pixels covered by the mask in the mask channel.
Average: This calculates the average (half the sum) of the new mask and the input mask. Multiply: This multiplies the values of the input mask by the new mask’s values. Replace: The new mask completely replaces the input mask wherever they intersect. Areas that are zero (completely black) in the new mask do not affect the input mask. Invert: Areas of the input mask that are covered by the new mask are inverted: white becomes black and vice versa. Gray areas in the new mask are partially inverted.
Triangle Mask [TRI] The Triangle node Triangle Mask Node Introduction The Triangle mask creates simple triangular masks. It is unique in that it has no Center, Size, or Angle control. Unlike most other types of masks, all three points of the triangle can attach to a tracker or motion path. Inputs The Triangle mask node includes a single effect mask input. – Effect Mask: The optional blue input expects a mask shape created by polylines, basic primitive shapes, paint strokes, or bitmaps masks.
Controls Tab The Controls tab is used to refine how the triangle appears after drawing it in the viewer. Show View Controls The Show View Controls checkbox is used to enable/disable the display of the mask’s onscreen controls in the viewer. Onscreen controls, including center position, polylines, angles, and others, do not appear when this checkbox is disabled, even when the node is selected. Level The Level control sets the transparency level of the pixels in the mask channel. When the value is 1.
Paint Mode Connecting a mask to the effect mask input displays the Paint mode menu. The Paint mode is used to determine how the incoming mask for the effect mask input and the mask created in the node are combined. Merge: Merge is the default for all masks. The new mask is merged with the input mask. Add: The mask’s values add to the input mask’s values. Subtract: In the intersecting areas, the new mask values subtract from the input mask’s values.
Wand Mask [WND] Wand Mask Node Introduction The Wand mask masks an image based on a wand-style selection, similar to the Magic Wand tool found in Adobe Photoshop. As with a Bitmap mask, any image in the composition can be the source of the mask. Generally, the default is most useful, where the source image is the input of the node to which the mask is applied. When adding a Wand mask to a node, a crosshair appears in the viewers.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab is used to refine how the mask appears after the Wand makes a selection in the viewer. Show View Controls The Show View Controls checkbox is used to enable/disable the display of the masks onscreen controls in the viewer. Onscreen controls, including center position, polylines, angles, and others, do not appear when this checkbox is disabled, even when the node is selected. Level The Level control sets the transparency level of the pixels in the mask channel.
Soft Edge Use the Soft Edge slider to blur (feather) the mask, using the selected filter. Higher values cause the edge to fade off well beyond the boundaries of the mask. A value of 0.0 creates a crisp, well-defined edge. Paint Mode Connecting a mask to the effect mask input displays the Paint mode menu. The Paint mode is used to determine how the incoming mask for the effect mask input and the mask created in the node are combined. Merge: Merge is the default for all masks.
Range The Range slider controls the range of colors around the source color that are included in the mask. If the value is left at 0.0, only pixels of the same color as the source are considered part of the mask. The higher the value, the more that similar colors in the source are considered to be wholly part of the mask. Range Soft Edge The Range Soft Edge determines the falloff range of the colors selected. Any pixel within the range defined above are treated as 100% within the mask.
Depth: The Depth button array is used to set the pixel color depth of the image created by the mask. 32-bit pixels require four times the memory of 8-bit pixels but have far greater accuracy. Float pixels allow high dynamic range values outside the normal 0..1 range, for representing colors that are brighter than white or darker than black. NOTE: Right-click on the Width, Height, or Pixel Aspect controls to display a menu listing the file formats defined in the preferences Frame Format tab.
Motion Blur Motion Blur: This toggles the rendering of Motion Blur on the tool. When this control is toggled on, the tool’s predicted motion is used to produce the motion blur caused by the virtual camera’s shutter. When the control is toggled off, no motion blur is created. Quality: Quality determines the number of samples used to create the blur. A quality setting of 2 causes Fusion to create two samples to either side of an object’s actual motion.
Chapter 98 Matte Nodes This chapter details the Matte nodes available in Fusion. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents Alpha Divide [ADV] 2139 Alpha Multiply [AML] 2140 Chroma Keyer [CKY] 2141 Clean Plate 2146 Delta Keyer 2149 Difference Keyer [DfK] 2158 Luma Keyer [LKY] 2162 Matte Control [MAT] 2165 Primatte [Pri] 2171 How to Key with Primatte 2182 Ultra Keyer [UKY] 2185 The Common Controls 2192 Chapter – 98 Matte Nodes 2138
Alpha Divide [ADV] Alpha Divide Node Introduction As the name gives away, the Alpha Divide’s sole purpose is to divide an incoming image’s color channels by its Alpha channel. When you color correct an image that contains a premultiplied Alpha channel, first apply an Alpha Divide node before any color correction node to create a non-premultiplied image. Then you can perform the color correction. After the color correction, add an Alpha Multiply node to return the image to its premultiplied state.
Alpha Multiply [AML] The AlphaDivide node Alpha Multiply Node Introduction As the name gives away, the Alpha Multiply’s sole purpose is to multiply an image’s color channels by its Alpha channel. When you color correct an image that contains a premultiplied Alpha channel, first apply an Alpha Divide node before any color correction node to create a non-premultiplied image. Then you can perform the color correction.
Chroma Keyer [CKY] The ChromaKeyer node Chroma Keyer Node Introduction The Chroma Keyer node creates an Alpha channel (matte) for an image by removing selected colors from the scene. Unlike the Delta Keyer or Primatte, which use specific optimizations for keying from blue and green colors, the Chroma Keyer works equally well with any color. NOTE: When working with blue- or green-screen shots, it is best to use the Delta Keyer or Primatte node, rather than the more general purpose Chroma Keyer node.
A Chomra Keyer node creating transparency on the MediaIn node Inspector Chroma Key Tab The Chroma Key tab is used to make the initial selection of color for keying. Key Type The Key Type menu determines the selection method used for the matte creation. Chroma: The Chroma method creates a matte based on the RGB values of the selected color range. Color: The Color method creates a matte based on the hue of the selected color range.
Reset Color Ranges Clicking this button resets the Chroma Keyer’s range controls, discarding all color selections. All other sliders and controls maintain their values. Image Tab The Image tab primarily handles removing spill color on the foreground subject. Color spill occurs when light containing the color you are removing is reflected onto the foreground subject. Spill Color This menu selects the color used as the base for all spill suppression techniques.
Cyan/Red, Magenta/Green, and Yellow/Blue Use these three controls to color correct the fringe of the image. This is useful for correcting semitransparent pixels that still contain color from the original background to match the new background. Matte Tab The Matte tab refines the softness, density, and overall fit of the resulting matte. Filter This control selects the filtering algorithm used when applying blur to the matte. Box: This is the fastest method but at reduced quality.
Domain: Setting this option to Domain will respect the upstream domain of definition when applying the node’s effect. This can have adverse clipping effects in situations where the node employs a large filter. None: Setting this option to None will not perform any source image clipping at all. This means that any data required to process the node’s effect that would normally be outside the upstream DoD will be treated as black/transparent.
Garbage Matte Garbage mattes are mask nodes or images connected to the garbage matte input on the node. The garbage matte is applied directly to the Alpha channel of the image. Generally, garbage mattes are used to remove unwanted elements that cannot be keyed, such as microphones and booms. They are also used to fill in areas that contain the color being keyed but that you wish to maintain. Garbage mattes of different modes cannot be mixed within a single tool.
Once you have the selection, the Erode control expands the pre-matte, removing any small pixels of non-green/blue screen around the edges. Then, growing the pre-matte fills in the holes until you have a solid blue or green image. Inputs The Clean Plate node includes three inputs in the Node Editor. – Input: The orange input accepts a 2D image that contains the green or blue screen.
Inspector Plate Tab The Plate tab contains the primary tools for creating a clean plate. Using this tab, you drag over the areas in the viewer, and then use the Erode and Grow Edges sliders to create the clean plate. Method The Method menu selects the type of color selection you use when sampling colors in the viewer. Color: Color uses a difference method to separate the background color. This works well on screen colors that are even.
Erode The Erode slider decreases the size of the screen area. It is used to eat away at small nonscreen color pixels that may interfere with creating a smooth green- or blue-screen clean plate. Crop Crop trims in from the edges of the image. Grow Edges The Grow Edges slider expands the color of the edges to fill in holes until fully green or blue screen is created. Fill The Fill checkbox fills in remaining holes with color from the surrounding screen color.
It contains several keying systems: the Key tab is the master difference keyer and Pre-Matte is a built-in clean plate to smooth out screen color. Tuning, Fringe, and Matte finish the keying process. The tabs are laid out in the rough order you tend to use them. Inputs The Delta Keyer node includes five inputs in the Node Editor. – Input: The orange input accepts a 2D image that contains the color you want to be keyed for transparency.
An expanded key setup with two Delta Keyers, a Polygon and B-Spline nodes for mattes, and a branch for color correction Inspector Key Tab View Mode At the top of the Inspector is the View Mode menu. The default selection shows the final result. You can change the view to see various intermediate stages of the keying process. Pre Matte: Displays the output of the Pre Matte key. Matte: Displays the Alpha of the key before being combined with solid and garbage masks.
Key Tab The Key tab is where most keying begins. It is used to select the screen color. Background Color This is the color of the blue or green screen, sometimes called the screen color. To create the key with the Delta Keyer, use the background color Eyedropper to select the screen color from the image. Pre-Blur Applies a blur before generating the Alpha. This can help with certain types of noise, edge enhancements, and artifacts in the source image.
Lock Alpha/Spill Removal Color Balance Reference Unlocking this allows you to use different color references when generating the Alpha and when determining how much of the background color to subtract from the image. When enabled, spill and color are combined. Color Balance Reference The Color balance reference controls adjust for lighting or white balance that might be reducing background color purity and saturation.
Lock Color Picking When this checkbox is activated, it prevents the accidental growth of the selected range by selecting more colors from the view. It is a good idea to activate this checkbox after selecting the color for the matte. All other controls in the node remain editable. Reset Pre Matte Ranges This button discards all color selection by resetting the ranges but maintains all other slider and control values.
Erode/Dilate Expands or contracts the matte. Blur Softens the matte. Clean Foreground Fills slightly transparent (light gray) areas of the matte. Clean Background Clips the bottom dark range of the matte. Replace Mode Determines how matte adjustments restore color to the image. None: No color replacement. Matte processing does not affect the color. Source: The color from the original image. Hard Color: A solid color.
Spill Method This selects the strength of the algorithm used to apply spill suppression to the image. None: None is selected when no spill suppression is required. Rare: This removes very little of the spill color and is the lightest of all methods. Medium: This works best for green screens. Well Done: This works best for blue screens. Burnt: This works best for blue screens. Use this mode only for very troublesome shots.
Range Controls The range controls define how much color is considered to fall into the shadows, midtones, and highlights areas of the image. The spline controls allow for easy adjusting of the tonal ranges of each Shadow and Highlight tonal map. Simple/Smooth The Simple button sets the range to be linear. The Smooth button sets a smooth tonal gradient for the ranges.
Solid Replace Mode This determines how the solid mask restores color to the image. None: No color replacement. The solid mask does not affect the color. Source: The color from the original image. Hard Color: A solid color. Soft Color: A solid color weighted by how much background color was originally removed. Solid Replace Color The color used with the Hard Color and Soft Color replace modes. Invert: Inverts the solid mask, before it is combined with the source Alpha.
Inputs The Difference Keyer node includes four inputs in the Node Editor. – Background: The orange background input accepts a 2D image that contains just the set without your subject. – Foreground: The green foreground input accepts a 2D image that contains the shot with your subject in the frame. – Garbage Matte: The gray garbage matte input accepts a mask shape created by polylines, basic primitive shapes, paint strokes, or bitmaps masks.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab in the Difference Keyer contains all the parameters for adjusting the quality of the matte. Threshold This range slider sets the lower threshold using the handle on the left and sets the upper threshold using the handle on the right. Adjusting them defines a range of difference values between the images to create a matte. A difference below the lower threshold setting becomes black or transparent in the matte.
Clipping Mode This option determines how edges are handled when performing domain of definition rendering. This is profoundly important when blurring the matte, which may require samples from portions of the image outside the current domain. Frame: The default option is Frame, which automatically sets the node’s domain of definition to use the full frame of the image, effectively ignoring the current domain of definition.
Post-Multiply Image Select this option to cause the keyer to multiply the color channels of the image against the Alpha channel it creates for the image. This option is usually enabled and is on by default. Deselect this checkbox, and the image can no longer be considered premultiplied for purposes of merging it with other images. Use the Subtractive option of the Merge node instead of the Additive option.
Basic Node Setup The Luma Keyer takes an input from an image with significant luminance difference to extract a key. You can then use the output of the Luma Keyer into any mask input. A Luma Keyer output connecting into an effect mask on a Merge node Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab in the Luma keyer contains all the parameters for adjusting the quality of the matte. Channel This menu selects the color channel used for creating the matte.
Filter This control selects the filtering algorithm used when applying a blur to the matte. Box: This is the fastest method but at reduced quality. Box is best suited for minimal amounts of blur. Bartlett: Otherwise known as a Pyramid filter, Bartlett makes a good compromise between speed and quality. Multi-box: When selecting this filter, the Num Passes slider appears and lets you control the quality. At 1 and 2 passes, results are identical to Box and Bartlett, respectively.
Solid Matte Solid mattes are mask nodes or images connected to the solid matte input on the node. The solid matte is applied directly to the Alpha channel of the image. Generally, solid mattes are used to hold out keying in areas you want to remain opaque, such as someone with blue eyes against a blue screen. Enabling Invert inverts the solid matte before it is combined with the source Alpha. Garbage Matte Garbage mattes are mask nodes or images connected to the garbage matte input on the node.
Inputs The Matte Control node includes four inputs in the Node Editor. – Background: The orange background input accepts a 2D image that receives the foreground image Alpha channel (or some other channel you want to copy to the background). – Foreground: The green foreground input accepts a 2D image that contains an Alpha channel (or some other channel) you want to be applied to the background image.
Inspector Matte Tab The Matte tab combines and modifies Alpha or color channels from an image in the foreground input with the background image. Combine Use this menu to select which operation is applied. The default is set to None for no operation. None: This causes the foreground image to be ignored. Combine Red: This combines the foreground red channel to the background Alpha channel. Combine Green: This combines the foreground green channel to the background Alpha channel.
Maximum: This compares the foreground source and the background Alpha and takes the value from the pixel with the highest value. Minimum: This compares the foreground source and the background Alpha and takes the value from the pixel with the lowest value. And: This performs a logical AND on the two values. Or: This performs a logical OR on the values. Merge Over: This merges the foreground source channel over the background Alpha channel.
Gamma This raises or lowers the values of the matte in the semitransparent areas. Higher values cause the gray areas to become more opaque, and lower values cause the gray areas to become more transparent. Completely black or white regions of the matte remain unaffected. Threshold Any value below the lower threshold becomes black or transparent in the matte. Any value above the upper threshold becomes white or opaque in the matte. All values within the range maintain their relative transparency values.
Spill Tab The Spill tab handles spill suppression in the Matte Control. Spill suppression is a form of color correction that attempts to remove the screen color from the fringe of the matte. Spill is the transmission of the screen color through the semitransparent areas of the Alpha channel. In the case of blue- or green-screen keying, this usually causes the color of the background to become apparent in the edges of the foreground subject.
Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other Matte nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section. Primatte [Pri] The Primatte node NOTE: Primatte is only available in Fusion Studio. Primatte Node Introduction Primatte is an advanced keying tool for Fusion Studio. To use Primatte effectively, you must understand how it works.
– Background Input: The green (optional) input accepts a 2D image layered as the background in the composite. If no image is connected, Primatte outputs the keyed foreground. Connecting an image to the background input activates Primatte’s advanced edge blending options. – Replacement Image: The magenta (optional) input accepts a 2D image used as a source of Primatte’s spill suppression color correction.
Primatte Tab View Mode At the top of the Inspector is the View Mode menu. The default selection shows the final Composite result. You can change the view to see various intermediate stages of the keying process. Black: Displays the foreground subject on a black or transparent background. Composite: The final keyed image with spill suppression, composited over the image connected to the green Background Input on the node. Defocus Foreground: Displays the output of the Pre Matte key.
Primatte Tab The core functionality for Primatte is found in the Primatte tab. The basic workflow is based on selecting one of the operational mode buttons and then scrubbing over areas in the viewer. Lock Color Picking Activate this button once you finished adjusting your key to prevent making accidental changes in the viewer. Auto Compute The Auto Compute button is likely the first button pressed when starting to key your footage.
Matte Sponge Sometimes in the Primatte operation, a 100% opaque, foreground area (all white) becomes slightly transparent (gray). To clean those transparent areas, click the Matte Sponge button and scrub over the transparent pixels. All the spill-suppression information remains intact. Restore Detail Clicking Restore Detail and scrubbing over background regions in the viewer turns completely transparent areas translucent.
Detail(-) When this button is selected, foreground detail becomes more visible for the sampled pixel color (and all colors like it) in the amount of one Primatte increment. If detail is still missing, another click using this operational mode tool makes detail more visible. This can be used to restore lost smoke or wisps of hair. Sample where the smoke or hair just disappears and it returns to visibility. Use this for restoring color regions that were moved into the 100% background region.
Hybrid Erode This slider dilates or erodes the Hybrid matte. You can view the results by selecting Hybrid matte in the View Mode menu. Adjust Lighting Before applying the Adjust Lighting operation, it is necessary to determine the backing screen color using Auto Compute or Select Background Color. After performing one of those operations, click on the Adjust Lighting button. Primatte generates an artificial clean plate and uses it to generate an evenly lit backing screen behind the foreground object.
Selected Color This shows the color selected (or registered) by the scrubbing in the viewer while the Fine Tuning tab is selected. Fine Tuning Sliders The color of the scrubbed pixel is registered as a reference color for fine tuning. It is displayed in the Color swatch. To perform the tuning operation, sample a color region on the image, and adjust one of the Fine Tuning sliders to achieve the desired effect. Spill The Spill slider can be used to remove spill from the selected color region.
Image: Replaces the spill color with colors from a defocused version of the background image or the Replace image, if one is connected to the Replace input (magenta ) on the node. This mode results in a good color tone on the foreground subject even with a high-contrast background. On the negative side, the Image mode occasionally loses the fine edge detail of the foreground subjects. Another problem can occur if you later change the size of the foreground image against the background.
Matte Tab The Matte tab refines the Alpha of the key, combined with any solid and garbage masks connected to the node. When using the Matte tab, set the viewer to display the Alpha channel of Primatte’s final output. Filter This control selects the filtering algorithm used when applying blur to the matte. Box: This is the fastest method but at reduced quality. Box is best suited for minimal amounts of blur.
Contract/Expand This slider shrinks or grows the semitransparent areas of the matte. Values above 0.0 expand the matte, while values below 0.0 contract it. This control is usually used in conjunction with the Matte Blur to take the hard edge of a matte and reduce fringing. Since this control affects only semitransparent areas, it will have no effect on a matte’s hard edge. Gamma Matte Gamma raises or lowers the values of the matte in the semitransparent areas.
Post-Multiply Image Select this option to cause the keyer to multiply the color channels of the image against the Alpha channel it creates for the image. This option is usually enabled and is on by default. Deselect this checkbox and the image can no longer be considered premultiplied for purposes of merging it with other images. Use the Subtractive option of the Merge node instead of the Additive option.
If the foreground image has a shadow in it that you want to keep in the composite, do not select any of the dark screen pixels in the shadow. This keeps the shadow with the rest of the foreground image. Clean Background Noise If there are any white or light gray regions in the dark screen area, this is referred to as “noise.” Technically, it is varying shades of the screen color that did not get picked up on the first sample and should be removed.
Clean Foreground Noise If there are dark regions in the middle of the mostly white foreground subject, the key is not 100% in those areas. Using Clean Foreground Noise can make the matte as white as possible. 1 Keep the View Mode menu set to Black and the viewer set to the Alpha Channel. 2 Click the Clean Foreground Noise button. 3 Drag the mouse pointer through these dark pixels in the foreground that should be pure white. Primatte processes the selection and eliminates the noise.
Ultra Keyer [UKY] The UltraKeyer node Ultra Keyer Node Introduction Like the newer Delta Keyer, the Ultra Keyer node has two keyers built in to it: a pre-matte keyer acts as a garbage matte creator and the color difference keyer that extracts fine detail and transparency. Generally, you start with the Delta Keyer as your first keyer of choice. If you do not get good results, try Primatte if you are using Fusion Studio. A good third choice is to try the Ultra Keyer.
An Ultra Keyer node combined with polygon matte as a garbage matte and connected to the foreground of a Merge Inspector Pre-Matte Tab The Pre-Matte tab is where most keying begins. It is used to select the screen color and smooth out the color of the screen. Background Color The Background Color is used to select the color of the blue or green screen of the images. It is good practice to select the screen color close to the subject to be separated from the screen background.
Red Level, Green Level, Blue Level These color sliders tune the level of the difference channels to help separate the color. When the background color is green, Red and Blue level options are provided. When the background color is blue, Red and Green level options are provided. Background Correction Depending on the background color selected above, the keyer iteratively merges the prekeyed image over either a blue or green background before processing it further.
Image Tab The Image tab handles the majority of spill suppression in the Ultra Keyer. Spill suppression is a form of color correction that attempts to remove the screen color from the fringe of the matte. Spill is the transmission of the screen color through the semitransparent areas of the Alpha channel. In the case of blue- or green-screen keying, this usually causes the color of the background to become apparent in the edges of the foreground subject.
Matte Tab The Matte tab refines the Alpha of the key, combined with any solid and garbage masks connected to the node. When using the Matte tab, set the viewer to display the Alpha channel of the Delta Keyer’s final output. Filter This control selects the filtering algorithm used when applying blur to the matte. Box: This is the fastest method but at reduced quality. Box is best suited for minimal amounts of blur.
Clipping Mode This option determines how edges are handled when performing domain of definition rendering. This is profoundly important when blurring the matte, which may require samples from portions of the image outside the current domain. Frame: The default option is Frame, which automatically sets the node’s domain of definition to use the full frame of the image, effectively ignoring the current domain of definition.
Solid Matte Solid mattes are mask nodes or images connected to the solid matte input on the node. The solid matte is applied directly to the Alpha channel of the image. Generally, solid mattes are used to hold out keying in areas you want to remain opaque, such as someone with blue eyes against a blue screen. Enabling Invert inverts the solid matte before it is combined with the source Alpha. Garbage Matte Garbage mattes are mask nodes or images connected to the garbage matte input on the node.
The Common Controls Nodes that handle matte operations share a number of identical controls in the Inspector. This section describes controls that are common among matte nodes. Inspector Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector can be found on every tool in the Matte category. The controls are consistent and work the same way for each tool. Blend The Blend control is used to blend between the tool’s original image input and the tool’s final modified output image. When the blend value is 0.
Red/Green/Blue/Alpha Channel Selector These four buttons are used to limit the effect of the tool to specified color channels. This filter is often applied after the tool has been processed. For example, if the Red button on a Blur tool is deselected, the blur is first applied to the image, and then the red channel from the original input is copied back over the red channel of the result.
Clipping Mode This option determines how edges are handled when performing domain of definition rendering. This is profoundly important when blurring the matte, which may require samples from portions of the image outside the current domain. Frame: The default option is Frame, which automatically sets the node’s domain of definition to use the full frame of the image, effectively ignoring the current domain of definition.
Chapter 99 Metadata Nodes This chapter details the Metadata nodes available in Fusion. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents Copy Metadata [META] 2197 Set Metadata [SMETA] 2198 Set Timecode [TCMETA] 2199 The Common Controls 2201 Chapter – 99 Metadata Nodes 2196
Copy Metadata [META] The CopyMetadata node Copy Metadata Node Introduction Copy Metadata combines, replaces, or clears the metadata in your image. Metadata can be viewed in a subview of the viewer. Inputs The two inputs on the Copy Metadata node are used to connect two 2D images. – Background Input: The orange background input is used for the primary 2D image that is output from the node.
Operation The Operation menu determines how the metadata of the foreground and background inputs are treated. Merge (Replace Duplicates): All values are merged, but values with duplicate names are taken from the foreground input. Merge (Preserve Duplicates): All values are merged, but values with duplicate names are taken from the background input. Replace: The metadata in the foreground replaces the entire metadata in the background. Clear: All metadata is discarded.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab is where you set up the name of the metadata field and the value or information regarding the metadata. Field Name The name of the metadata value. Do not use spaces. Field Value The value assigned to the name above. Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other Metadata nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section.
Basic Node Setup The Set Timecode node embeds new timecode metadata into the background input (orange). The output is the background input with updated timecode. A Set Timecode node inserts new timecode metadata into the background clip Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab sets the clip’s starting timecode metadata based on FPS, hours, minutes, seconds, and frames. FPS You can choose from a variety of settings for frames per second.
Print to Console Verbose output of the Timecode/Frame value in the Console. The Timecode/Frames conversion is done according to the FPS settings. The result might look like this: TimeCode: 00:00:08:15 Frames: 207 Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other Metadata nodes. These common controls are described in detail in the following “The Common Controls” section.
Correct Edges This checkbox appears only when the Use Object or Use Material checkboxes are selected. It toggles the method used to deal with overlapping edges of objects in a multi-object image. When enabled, the Coverage and Background Color channels are used to separate and improve the effect around the edge of the object. If this option disabled (or no Coverage or Background Color channels are available), aliasing may occur on the edge of the mask.
Chapter 100 Miscellaneous Nodes This chapter details miscellaneous nodes within Fusion. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents Auto Domain [ADoD] 2205 Change Depth [CD] 2207 Custom Tool [CT] 2208 Custom Tool Setup Tab 2210 Custom Tool Intermediate Tab 2211 Custom Tool Config Tab 2211 Custom Tool Channels Tab 2212 Custom Tool Node Syntax 2212 Fields [FLDs] 2219 Frame Average [Avg] 2221 Keyframe Stretcher [Kfs] 2223 Run Command [RUN] 2225 Set Domain [DOD] 2228 Time Speed [TSpd] 2230 Time Stretcher [TST] 2233 Wireless Link [Wire] 2236 The Common Controls 2237 Chapter – 100 Miscellaneous Node
Auto Domain [ADoD] The Auto Domain node Auto Domain Node Introduction The Auto Domain node automatically sets the image’s domain of definition (DoD) based on bounds of the input image’s background Canvas color. It does not change the image’s physical dimensions. Some EXR images come with optimized DoDs already set, but other formats do not. For formats other than EXR, this node can speed up compositions by optimizing the DoD based on the content rather than the frame’s dimensions.
An Auto Domain node automatically limits the area of image processing Inspector Controls Tab In most cases, the Auto Domain node automatically calculates the DoD bounding box; however, the rectangular shape can be modified using the Controls tab in the Inspector. Left Defines the left border of the search area of the ADoD. Higher values on this slider move the left border toward the right, excluding more data from the left margin. 1 represents the right border of the image; 0 represents the left border.
Change Depth [CD] The Change Depth node Change Depth Node Introduction The Change Depth node has one simple use, and that is to change the bits per color channel used to process a node. This node is often used after color correcting 32-bit floating-point image files, converting them from float processing to 16-bit per channel to preserve memory and performance.
Depth The Keep setting doesn‘t do anything to the image but instead keeps the input depth. The other options change the bit depth of the image to the respective value. Dither When down converting from a higher bit depth, it can be useful to add Error Diffusion or Additive Noise to camouflage artifacts that result from problematic (high-contrast) areas. Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other miscellaneous nodes.
Basic Node Setup The Custom Tool below takes two image inputs and a matte input, and then combines them using some calculation. The result can be output to a Merge or other image-processing nodes. A Custom Tool is used to build your own effects using C++ and scripting Inspector Controls Tab Point in 1-4, X and Y These four controls are 2D X and Y center controls that are available to expressions entered in the Setup, Intermediate, and Channels tabs as variables p1x, p1y, ...., p4x, p4y.
LUT in 1-4 The Custom Tool node provides 4 LUT splines. The values of these controls are available to expressions entered in the Setup, Intermediate, and Channels tabs using the getlut# function. For example, setting the R, G, B, and A expressions to getlut1(r1), getlut2(g1), getlut3(b1), and getlut4(a1), respectively, would cause the Custom Tool node to mimic the Color Curves node.
Custom Tool Intermediate Tab Intermediate 1-4 An additional four expressions can be calculated in the Inter tab. The Inter expressions are evaluated once per pixel after the Setup expressions are evaluated but before the Channel expressions are evaluated. Per-pixel channel variables like r1, g1, b1, and a1 are allowable. Results are available as variables i1, i2, i3, and i4.
Random Seed Use this to set the seed for the rand() and rands() functions. Click the Randomize button to set the seed to a random value. This control may be needed if multiple Custom Tool nodes are required with different random results for each. Number Controls There are eight sets of Number controls, corresponding to the eight Number In sliders in the Controls tab. Uncheck the Show Number checkbox to hide the corresponding Number In slider, or edit the Name for Number text field to change its name.
Value Variables s1..s4 Setup Expression Results i1..i4 Inter Expression Results time Current Frame x Horizontal co-ordinate of the current pixel, between 0.0 and 1.0 y Vertical co-ordinate of the current pixel, between 0.0 and 1.0 w (or w1..w3) Width of Image (for image1..image3) h (or h1..h3) Height of Image (for image1..image3) ax (or ax1..ax3) Image Aspect X (for image1..image3) ay (or ay1..ay3) Image Aspect Y (for image1..
Channel (Pixel) Variables bga1..bga3 Background Alpha (for image1..image3) vx1..vx3 X Vector (for image1..image3) vy1..vy3 Y Vector (for image1..image3) nz1..nz3 Z Normal (for image1..image3) NOTE: Use c1, c2, c3 to refer to the value of a pixel in the current channel. This makes copying and pasting expressions easier.
Mathematical Expressions pi The value of pi e The value of e log(x) The base-10 log of x ln(x) The natural (base-e) log of x sin(x) The sine of x (x is degrees) cos(x) The cosine of x (x is degrees) tan(x) The tangent of x (x is degrees) asin(x) The arcsine of x, in degrees acos(x) The arccosine of x, in degrees atan(x) The arctangent of x, in degrees atan2(x,y) The arctangent of x,y, in degrees abs(x) The absolute (positive) value of x int(x) The integer (whole) value of x frac(x)
Mathematical Operators !x 1.0 if x = 0, otherwise 0.0 -x (0.0 - x) +x (0.0 + x) i.e. effectively does nothing x^y x raised to the power of y x*y x multiplied by y x/y x divided by y x%y x modulo y, i.e. remainder of (x divided by y) x+y x plus y x-y x minus y xy 1.0 if x is greater than y, otherwise 0.0 x <= y 1.0 if x is less than or equal to y, otherwise 0.0 x >= y 1.0 if x is greater than or equal to y, otherwise 0.0 x=y 1.
Using the n1 slider for the angle theta, and a sample function, we get (for the red channel): getr1b(x * cos(n1) - y * sin(n1), x * sin(n1) + y * cos(n1)) This calculates the current pixel’s (x,y) position rotated around the origin at (0,0) (the bottom-left corner), and then fetches the red component from the source pixel at this rotated position. For centered rotation, we need to subtract 0.5 from our x and y coordinates before we rotate them, and add 0.5 back to them afterward: getr1b((x-.
These two expressions are evaluated at the beginning of each frame. S1 divides 1.0 by the current width of the frame, and S2 divides 1.0 by the height. This provides a floating-point value between 0.0 and 1.0 that represents the distance from the current pixel to the next pixel along each axis. Now enter the following expression into the first text control of the Channel tab (r).
Fields [FLDs] The Fields node Fields Node Introduction The Fields node is a robust multipurpose utility offering several functions related to interlaced video frames. It interpolates video fields into frames or video frames into fields. Although the interlace preference and method type is defined in the MediaIn or Loader, and generators, this node can be used to assist in the standards conversion of PAL to NTSC and provides the ability to process fields and frames for specific portions of a node tree.
Controls Tab The Controls tab includes two menus. The Operation menu is used to select the type of field conversion performed. The Process Mode menu is used to select the field’s format for the output image. Operation Menu Do Nothing: This causes the images to be affected by the Process Mode selection exclusively. Strip Field 2: This removes field 2 from the input image stream, which shortens the image to half of the original height.
Process Mode. Process Mode Menu Full Frames: This forces Frame Processing. Useful for processing frames in a part of a node tree that is otherwise field processing. NTSC Fields: This forces NTSC Field Processing. Useful for processing fields in a part of a node tree that is otherwise frame processing. PAL Fields: This forces PAL Field Processing. Useful for processing fields in a part of a node tree that is otherwise frame processing. PAL Fields (Reversed): This forces PAL-swapped Field Processing.
Basic Node Setup The image connected to the orange input is frame averaged based on the settings in the Inspector. A Frame Average node blends the input image’s frames Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab contains the parameters for setting the duration and guidance of the averaged frames. Sample Direction The Sample Direction menu determines if the averaged frames are taken before the current frame, after, or a mix of the two.
Keyframe Stretcher [Kfs] The Keyframe Stretcher node Keyframe Stretcher Node Introduction The Keyframe Stretcher node is inserted after animated nodes, so the keyframes stretch and the comp’s duration is modified. It is used to scale the keyframes on the animation curve to the current duration of the clip. This is particularly useful when creating title templates in Fusion for use in DaVinci Resolve’s Edit or Cut page.
Original 50-frame animation In the below example, the duration of the clip is extended to 75 frames. The first 10 frames and the last 10 frames of the animation run at the same speed as the original animation, while any animation in the middle is stretched to fill the difference. NOTE: The actual Spline Editor will show only the original keyframe positions. The splines are not changed by the Keyframe Stretcher; only the animation is changed.
Stretch Start/Stretch End The Stretch Start and Stretch End controls lets you specify a middle zone where keyframes will be stretched or squished. Handles outside the range will not get scaled. Any keyframes outside the Stretch Start and End range always remain the same number of frames from the Start and End. Any keyframe adjustments to the original control will be correspondingly scaled back to the source curve and will match the original timing as expected.
Inspector Frame Tab The Frame tab is where the command to execute is selected and modified. Hide Enable the Hide checkbox to prevent the application or script from displaying a window when it is executed. Wait Enable this checkbox to cause the node to wait for a remote application or tool to exit before continuing. If this checkbox is disabled, the Fusion continues rendering without waiting for the external application.
For example, test%04t.tga would return the following values at render time: test0000.tga test0001.tga test0009.tga test0010.tga You may also pad a value with spaces by calling the wildcard as %x, where x is the number of spaces with which you would like to pad the value. Start and End Tabs The Start and End tabs contain a file browser for a command to be run when the composition starts to render and when the composition is done rendering.
Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other miscellaneous nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section. Set Domain [DOD] The Set Domain node Set Domain Node Introduction Set Domain is used to adjust or set the active area of an image or the area of the image considered to have valid data. It does not change the image‘s physical dimensions.
Inspector Controls Tab Mode The Mode menu has two choices depending on whether you want to adjust or offset the existing domain or set precise values for it. The same operations can be performed in Set or in Adjust mode. In Adjust mode, the sliders default to 0, marking their respective full extent of the image. Positive values shrink the DoD while negative values expand the DoD to include more data. Set mode defaults to the full extent of the visible image.
Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other miscellaneous nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section. Time Speed [TSpd] The Time Speed node Time Speed Node Introduction The Time Speed node allows image sequences to be sped up, slowed down, reversed, or delayed. Image Interpolation offers smooth, high-quality results.
Basic Node Setup The Time Speed node setup is as simple as connecting a 2D image into the orange background input of the node. A MediaIn node having its speed changed in the Time Speed node Inspector Speed This control is used to adjust the Speed, in percentage values, of the outgoing image sequence. Negative values reverse the image sequence. 200% Speed is represented by a value of 2.0, 100% by 1.0, 50% by 0.5, and 10% by 0.1. The Speed control cannot be animated.
Sample Spread This slider is displayed only when Interpolation is set to Blend. The slider controls the strength of the interpolated frames on the current frame. A value of 0.5 blends 50% of the frame before and 50% of the frame ahead and 0% of the current frame. Depth Ordering This menu is displayed only when Interpolation is set to Flow. The Depth Ordering is used to determine which parts of the image should be rendered on top. This is best explained by example.
Time Stretcher [TST] The Time Stretcher node Time Stretcher Node Introduction The Time Stretcher node is similar to the Time Speed node but permits the speed of the clip to be animated. Full spline control of the effect is provided, including smoothing. As a result, the Time Stretcher can be used to animate a single clip to 200, back to normal speed, pause for a second, and then play backward (like a VCR rewinding).
Source Time This control designates from which frame in the original sequence to begin sampling. When a Time Stretcher node is added to the node tree, the Source Time control already contains a Bézier spline with a single keyframe set to 0.0. The keyframe position is determined by the current time when the node is added to the node tree.
Edge Softness This slider is displayed only when Interpolation is set to Flow and Clamp Edges is enabled. It helps to reduce the stretchy artifacts that might be introduced by Clamp Edges. If you have more than one of the Source Frame and Warp Direction checkboxes turned on, this can lead to doubling up of the stretching effect near the edges. In this case, you’ll want to keep the softness rather small at around 0.01. If you have only one checkbox enabled, you can use a larger softness at around 0.03.
Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other miscellaneous nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section. Wireless Link [Wire] The Wireless Link node Wireless Link Node Introduction The Wireless Link node helps manage the tangle of connection lines in a node tree by wirelessly connecting one 2D node to another 2D node.
Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other miscellaneous nodes. These common controls are described in detail in the following “The Common Controls” section. The Common Controls Nodes that handle miscellaneous operations share a number of identical controls in the Inspector. This section describes controls that are common among miscellaneous nodes.
Process When Blend Is 0.0 The tool is processed even when the input value is zero. This can be useful if processing of this node is scripted to trigger another task, but the value of the node is set to 0.0. Red/Green/Blue/Alpha Channel Selector These four buttons are used to limit the effect of the tool to specified color channels. This filter is often applied after the tool has been processed.
Motion Blur Motion Blur: This toggles the rendering of Motion Blur on the tool. When this control is toggled on, the tool’s predicted motion is used to produce the motion blur caused by the virtual camera’s shutter. When the control is toggled off, no motion blur is created. Quality: Quality determines the number of samples used to create the blur. A quality setting of 2 will cause Fusion to create two samples to either side of an object’s actual motion.
Chapter 101 Optical Flow This chapter details the Optical Flow nodes available in Fusion. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents Optical Flow [OF] 2242 Repair Frame [REP] 2245 Smooth Motion [SM] 2247 Tween [TW] 2249 The Common Controls 2252 Chapter – 101 Optical Flow 2241
Optical Flow [OF] The OpticalFlow node Optical Flow Node Introduction This node analyzes a clip connected to its input using an Optical Flow algorithm. Think of optical flow as a per-pixel motion vector that matches up features over several frames. The computed optical flow is stored within the Vector and Back Vector aux channels of the output. These channels can be used in other nodes like the Vector Motion Blur or Vector Distort.
An Optical Flow node generating motion vectors on-the-fly Alternatively, if you find the Optical Flow node too slow to analyze the frames, consider rendering it out to an OpenEXR format using a Saver node. Then import the rendered EXR file as your new image with embedded vector channels. An Optical Flow node rendered out through a Saver node Inspector Controls Tab A single slider at the top of the Controls tab improves performance by generating proxies.
Smoothness This controls the smoothness of the optical flow. Higher smoothness helps deal with noise, while lower smoothness brings out more detail. Edges This slider is another control for smoothness but applies it based on the color channel. It tends to have the effect of determining how edges in the flow follow edges in the color images. When it is set to a low value, the optical flow becomes smoother and tends to overshoot edges.
Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other Optical Flow nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section. Repair Frame [REP] The Repair Frame node Repair Frame Node Introduction Repair Frame replaces damaged or missing frames or portions of frames with scratches or other temporally transient artifacts. It requires three frames: the repair frame and two neighboring frames.
A Repair Frame node set up to analyze a MediaIn node using internal optical flow analysis Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab includes options for how to repair the frames. It also includes controls for adjusting the optical flow analysis, identical to those controls in the Optical Flow node. Depth Ordering The Depth Ordering determines which parts of the image should be rendered on top by selecting either Fastest On Top or Slowest On Top. The examples below best explain these options.
Source Frame and Warp Direction These checkboxes allow you to choose which frames and vectors create the in-between frames. Each method ticked on will be blended into the result. Prev Forward: Takes the previous frame and uses the Forward vector to interpolate the new frame. Next Forward: Takes the next frame in the sequence and uses the Forward vector to interpolate the new frame. Prev Backward: Takes the previous frame and uses the Back Forward vector to interpolate the new frame.
Another technique using two Smooth Motion nodes is to use the first Smooth Motion node to smooth the Vector and Back Vector channels. Use the second Smooth Motion to smooth the channels you want to smooth (e.g., Disparity). This way, you use the smoothed vector channels to smooth Disparity. You can also try using the smoothed motion channels to smooth the motion channels. Inputs The Smooth Motion node includes a single orange image input. – Input: The orange image input accepts a 2D image.
Channel Smooth Motion can be applied to more than just the RGBA channels. It can also be applied to the other AOV channels. Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other Optical Flow nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section. Tween [TW] The Tween node Tween Node Introduction Tween reconstructs a missing frame by interpolating between two neighboring frames using the optical flow.
The Tween node receives two neighboring frames and generates the middle one Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab includes options for how to tween frames. It also includes controls for adjusting the optical flow analysis, identical to those controls in the Optical Flow node. Interpolation Parameter This option determines where the frame you are interpolating is, relative to the two source frames A and B. An Interpolation Parameter of 0.0 will result in frame A, a parameter of 1.
In a locked-off camera shot where a car is moving through the frame, the background does not move, so it produces small, or slow, vectors, while the car produces larger, or faster, vectors. The Depth Ordering in this case is Fastest On Top since the car draws over the background. In a shot where the camera pans to follow the car, the background has faster vectors, and the car has slower vectors, so the Depth Ordering method is Slowest On Top.
The Common Controls Nodes that handle optical flow operations share a number of identical controls in the Inspector. This section describes controls that are common among Optical Flow nodes. Inspector r Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector can be found on every tool in the Optical Flow category. The controls are consistent and work the same way for each tool. Blend The Blend control is used to blend between the tool’s original image input and the tool’s final modified output image.
There are some exceptions, such as tools for which deselecting these channels causes the tool to skip processing that channel entirely. Tools that do this generally possess a set of identical RGBA buttons on the Controls tab in the tool. In this case, the buttons in the Settings and the Controls tabs are identical. Apply Mask Inverted Enabling the Apply Mask Inverted option inverts the complete mask channel for the tool.
Chapter 102 Paint Node This chapter details the Paint node available in Fusion. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents Paint 2256 Paint Node Modifiers 2263 Keyboard Shortcuts 2264 Chapter – 102 Paint Node 2255
Paint The Paint node Paint Node Introduction Paint is an extremely flexible, stroke-based tool for wire and rig removal, image cloning, or to create custom masks and mattes rapidly. Fusion’s paint can even be used to create new images and artistic elements from scratch. Each Paint node is made up of a series of brush strokes. These strokes are vector shapes with editable brush, size, and effect. A wide range of apply modes and brush types are available.
A more flexible setup is to use a Background node to set the size that matches the image you are painting on. In the Inspector, the background would be set to be fully transparent. Then, the Paint tool can be merged as the foreground over the actual image you want to paint on.
duration of the entire global range. However, you can edit its duration at any time in the Keyframes Editor. When the painting is complete, choose the Select button in the Paint toolbar to avoid accidentally adding new strokes. Polyline Stroke: This provides the ability to create and manipulate a stroke in the same way that a Bézier path or polygon mask might be created. To add a Polyline Stroke, select the Polyline button and click in the viewer to add the first point.
Click Append: This is the default option when creating a polyline stroke. It works more like a Bézier pen drawing tool than a paintbrush tool. Clicking sets a control point and appends the next control point when you click again in a different location. Draw Append: This is a freehand drawing tool. It paints a stroke similar to drawing with a pencil on paper.
Inspector Controls Tab Not all of the controls described here appear in all modes. Some controls are useful only in a specific Paint mode and do not appear when they are not applicable. The Controls tab is used to configure your paint settings before painting. Once a paint stroke is created, except for the Multistroke and Clone Multistroke, you can select the stroke in the viewer and update the controls.
Brush Controls Brush Shape The brush shape buttons select the brush tip shape. Except for the single pixel shape, you can modify the size of the brush shape in the viewer by holding down the Command or Ctrl key while dragging the mouse. Soft Brush: The Soft Brush type is a circular brush tip with soft edges. Circular Brush: A Circular Brush is a brush tip shape with hard edges. Image Brush: The Image Brush allows images from any node in the node tree, or from a file system, to be used as a brush tip.
Channel When the Fill tool is selected, a Channel menu selects which color channel is used in the fill paint. For example, with Alpha selected, the fill occurs on contiguous pixels of the Alpha channel. Apply Controls Apply Mode The Apply Modes are buttons that change a brush’s painting functionality. Color: The Color Apply Mode paints simple colored strokes. When used in conjunction with an image brush, it can also be used to tint the image.
– Write On: When Write On is selected, an animation spline is added to the paint stroke that precisely duplicates the timing of the paint stroke’s creation. The stroke is written on the image exactly as it was drawn. To adjust the timing of the Write On effect, switch to the Spline Editor and use the Time Stretcher node to adjust the overall length of the animation spline. To smooth or manually adjust the motion, try reducing the points in the animation spline.
Keyboard Shortcuts Keyboard shortcuts allow you to adjust painting styles and color without having to navigate menus. While painting: Hold Command or Ctrl while left-dragging to change brush size. Hold Option or Alt while clicking to pick a color in the viewer. While cloning: Option-click or Alt-click to set the clone source position. Strokes start cloning from the selected location. Hold O to temporarily enable a 50% transparent overlay of the clone source (% can be changed with pref Tweaks.
Chapter 103 Particle Nodes This chapter details the Particle nodes available in Fusion. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents Particle Nodes 2267 pAvoid [pAv] 2267 pBounce [PBN] 2269 pChangeStyle [pCS] 2271 pCustom [pCu] 2273 pCustomForce [pCF] 2278 pDirectionalForce [pDF] 2279 pEmitter [pEm] 2281 pFlock [pFl] 2287 pFollow [pFo] 2289 pFriction [pFr] 2291 pGradientForce [pGF] 2292 pImage Emitter [PIe] 2294 pKill [pKI] 2297 pMerge [pMg] 2298 pPoint Force [pPF] 2299 pRender [pRn] 2301 pSpawn [pSp] 2308 pTangent Force [pTF] 2310 pTurbulence [pTr] 2312 pVortex [pVt] 2313 The Common Con
Particle Nodes Particles are a large number of duplicated objects that automatically animate. They are used to create elements like falling rain, fireworks, smoke, pixie dust, and much more. There are endless possibilities. Particles in Fusion consist of a set of nodes that are strung together in a chain for generating, modifying, and rendering particles in a 2D or 3D scene.
Inputs The pAvoid node has a single orange input by default. Like most particle nodes, this orange input accepts only other particle nodes. A green bitmap or mesh input appears on the node when you set the Region menu in the Region tab to either Bitmap or Mesh. – Input: The orange input takes the output of other particle nodes. – Region: The green or magenta region input takes a 2D image or a 3D mesh depending on whether you set the Region menu to Bitmap or Mesh.
Common Controls Conditions, Style, Region, and Settings Tabs The Conditions, Style, Region, and Settings tabs are common to all Particle nodes, so their descriptions can be found in “The Common Controls” section at the end of this chapter. pBounce [PBN] The pBounce node pBounce Node Introduction The pBounce node is used to create a region on which particles bounce off. Inputs The pBounce node has a single orange input by default.
Inspector Randomize The Random Seed slider and Randomize button are presented whenever a Fusion node relies on a random result. Two nodes with the same seed values will produce the same random results. Click the Randomize button to randomly select a new seed value, or adjust the slider to manually select a new seed value. Elasticity Elasticity affects the strength of a bounce, or how much velocity the particle will have remaining after impacting upon the Bounce region. A value of 1.
Common Controls Conditions, Style, Region, and Settings Tabs The Conditions, Style, Region, and Settings tabs are common to all Particle nodes, so their descriptions can be found in “The Common Controls” section at the end of this chapter. pChangeStyle [pCS] The pChangeStyle node pChange Style Node Introduction The pChange Style node provides a mechanism for changing the appearance or style of particles that interact with a defined region.
PChange Style Node Structure A pChange Style node placed before the pBounce node Inspector Randomize The Random Seed slider and Randomize button are presented whenever a Fusion node relies on a random result. Two nodes with the same seed values will produce the same random results. Click the Randomize button to randomly select a new seed value, or adjust the slider to manually select a new seed value.
Change Sets This option allows the user to change the particle’s Set to become influenced by forces other than the original particle. See “The Common Controls” in this chapter to learn more about Sets. Style This option allows the user to change the particle’s Style and thus the look. See “The Common Controls” in this chapter to learn more about Styles.
Basic Node Setup The pCustom node is placed in between the pEmitter and pRender. A Shape 3D node is used to create the region where the Custom particle event occurs. A pCustom node using a Shape 3D node as the region where the custom event occurs Inspector All the same operators, functions, and conditional statements described for the Custom node apply to the pCustom node as well, including Pixel-read functions for the two image inputs (e.g., getr1w(x,y), getz2b(x,y), and so on).
pCustom Position tab Position 1-8 These eight point controls include 3D X,Y,Z position controls. They are normal positional controls and can be animated or connected to modifiers as any other node might. They are available to expressions entered in the Setup, Intermediate, and Channels tabs.
Setup 1-8 Up to eight separate expressions can be calculated in the Setup tab of the pCustom node. The Setup expressions are evaluated once per frame, before any other calculations are performed. The results are then made available to the other expressions in the node as variables s1, s2, s3, and s4. Think of them as global setup scripts that can be referenced by the intermediate and channel scripts.
pxi1, pyi1 the 2d position of a particle, corrected for image 1’s aspect pxi2, pyi2 the 2d position of a particle, corrected for image 2’s aspect mass not currently used by anything size the current size of a particle id the particle’s identifier r, g, b, a the particles red, green, blue and alpha color values rgnhit this value is 1 if the particle hit the pCustom node’s defined region rgndist this variable contains the particles distance from the region condscale the strength of the region
pCustomForce [pCF] The pCustomForce node pCustom Force Node Introduction The pCustom Force node allows you to change the forces applied to a particle system or subset. This node is quite likely the most complex and the most powerful node in Fusion. If you are experienced with scripting or C++ programming, you should find the structure and terminology used by the Custom Force node to be familiar. The forces on a particle within a system can have their positions and rotations affected by forces.
Inspector The tabs and controls located in the Inspector are similar to the controls found in the pCustom node Refer to the pCustom node in this chapter for more information. Common Controls Conditions, Style, Region, and Settings Tabs The Conditions, Style, Region, and Settings tabs are common to all Particle nodes, so their descriptions can be found in “The Common Controls” section at the end of this chapter.
– Input: The orange input takes the output of other particle nodes. – Region: The green or magenta region input takes a 2D image or a 3D mesh depending on whether you set the Region menu to Bitmap or Mesh. The color of the input is determined by whichever is selected first in the menu. The 3D mesh or a selectable channel from the bitmap defines the area where the directional force takes effect.
Direction Determines the direction in X/Y space. Direction Z Determines the direction in Z space. Common Controls Conditions, Style, Region, and Settings Tabs The Conditions, Style, Region, and Settings tabs are common to all Particle nodes, so their descriptions can be found in “The Common Controls” section at the end of this chapter.
Basic Node Setup The pEmitter node starts the branch of a particle system that always ends with a pRender node. The pEmitter can feed directly into a pRender node to feed other particle nodes. A pEmitter node connected to a pRender node is a typical setup for more particle systems Inspector The pEmitter inspector is divided into four main tabs and a common settings tab.
Randomize and Random Seed The Random Seed slider is used to seed all the variance and random number generators used by the node when creating the particle system. Two pEmitter nodes with exactly the same settings for all controls and the same random seed will generate exactly the same particle system. Changing the random seed will cause variation between the nodes. Click the Randomize button to automatically set a randomly chosen value for the Random Seed.
Temporal Distribution In general, an effect is processed per frame, based on the comp frame rate. However, processing some particles only at the exact frame boundaries can cause pulsing. To make the behavior subtly more realistic, the particles can be birthed in subframe increments. The default, At The Same Time setting renders on frame boundaries, where as the other two settings take advantage of sub frame rendering.
Rotation XYZ and Rotation XYZ Variance These controls allow for Rotation of the individual particles. This can be particularly useful when dealing with a bitmap particle type, as the incoming bitmap may not be oriented in the desired direction. Rotation XYZ Variance can be used to randomly vary the rotation by a specified amount around the center of the Rotation XYZ value to avoid having every particle oriented in the exact same direction.
Style Tab The Style tab provides controls that affect the appearance of the particles. For detailed information about the style Tab, see the “The Common Controls” section at the end of this chapter. Region Tab The Region tab controls the shape, size, and location of the the area that emits the particle cells. This is often called the Emitter. Only one emitter region can be set for a single pEmitter node.
pFlock [pFl] The pFlock node pFlock Node Introduction The pFlock node can be used to simulate the behavior of organic systems, such as a flock of birds or a colony of ants. Its use can make an otherwise mindless particle system appear to be motivated, or acting under the direction of intelligence. The pFlock node works through two basic principles. Each particle attempts to stay close to other particles and each particle attempts to maintain a minimum distance from other particles.
Inspector Randomize The Random Seed slider and Randomize button are presented whenever a Fusion node relies on a random result. Two nodes with the same seed values will produce the same random results. Click the Randomize button to randomly select a new seed value, or adjust the slider to manually select a new seed value. Flock Number The value of this control represents the number of other particles that the affected particle will attempt to follow.
Attract Strength This value represents the strength of attraction between particles. When a particle moves farther from other particles than the Maximum Space defined in the pFlock node, it will attempt to move closer to other particles. Higher values cause the particle to maintain its spacing energetically, resolving conflicts in spacing more rapidly.
Basic Node Setup When combined with pFlock, the pFollow node can produce natural swarming behaviors that change direction. A pFollow node introduces a follow object that influences the particles’ motion Inspector Random Seed The Random Seed slider and Randomize button are presented whenever a Fusion node relies on a random result. Two nodes with the same seed values will produce the same random results.
pFriction [pFr] pFriction Node Introduction The pFriction node applies resistance to the motion of a particle, slowing the particle’s motion through a defined region. This node produces two types of Friction. One type reduces the velocity of any particle intersecting/crossing the defined region, and one reduces or eliminates spin and rotation. Inputs The pFriction node has a single orange input by default. Like most particle nodes, this orange input accepts only other particle nodes.
Inspector Random Seed The Random Seed slider and Randomize button are presented whenever a Fusion node relies on a random result. Two nodes with the same seed values will produce the same random results. Click the Randomize button to randomly select a new seed value, or adjust the slider to manually select a new seed value. Velocity Friction This value represents the Friction force applied to the particle’s Velocity. The larger the value, the greater the friction, thus slowing down the particle.
Inputs The pGradient Force node accepts two inputs: the default orange input from a particle node and one from a bitmap image with an Alpha channel gradient. A magenta or teal bitmap or mesh input appears on the node when you set the Region menu in the Region tab to either Bitmap or Mesh. – Input: The orange input takes the output of other particle nodes. – Input: The green input takes the 2D image that contains the Alpha channel gradient.
Common Controls Conditions, Style, Region, and Settings Tabs The Conditions, Style, Region, and Settings tabs are common to all Particle nodes, so their descriptions can be found in “The Common Controls” section at the end of this chapter. pImage Emitter [PIe] pImage Emitter Node Introduction The pImage Emitter node takes an input image and treats each pixel of the image as if it were a particle.
Inspector The great majority of controls in this node are identical to those found in the pEmitter, and those controls are documented in that previous section. Below are the descriptions of the controls unique to the pImage Emitter node. X and Y Density The X and Y Density sliders are used to set the mapping of particles to pixels for each axis. They control the density of the sampling grid. A value of 1.0 for either slider indicates 1 sample per pixel.
Alpha Threshold The Alpha Threshold is used for limiting particle generation so that pixels with semitransparent Alpha values will not produce particles. This can be used to harden the edges of an otherwise soft Alpha channel. The higher the threshold value, the more opaque a pixel must be before it will generate a particle. Note that the default threshold of 0.0 will create particles for every pixel, regardless of Alpha, although many may be transparent and invisible.
NOTE: Pixels with a black (transparent) Alpha channel will still generate invisible particles, unless you raise the Alpha Threshold above 0.0. This can slow down rendering significantly. An Alpha Threshold value of 1/255 = 0.004 is good for eliminating all fully transparent pixels. The pixels are emitted in a fixed-size 2D grid on the XY plane, centered on the Pivot position. Changing the Region from the default of All allows you to restrict particle creation to more limited areas.
Basic Node Setup The pKill node is placed in between the pEmitter and pRender nodes. A Shape 3D node is used to create the region where the particles die. A pKill node using a Shape 3D node as the region where particles die Inspector This node only contains controls based on the Conditions and Regions tabs located on most particle nodes. The Conditions and Regions controls are used to define the location, age, and set of particles that are killed.
Inputs The pMerge node has two identical inputs, one orange and one green. These two inputs accept only other particle nodes. – Particle 1 and 2 Input: The two inputs accept two streams of particles and merge them. Basic Node Setup The pMerge node connects two pEmitter nodes. The output of the pMerge can go on to feed other particle nodes or to a pRender.
Basic Node Setup The pPoint Force node is inserted between a pEmitter and a pRender node. The pPoint Force node positions a tangent force that particles are attracted to or repelled from Inspector Randomize The Random Seed slider and Randomize button are presented whenever a Fusion node relies on a random result. Two nodes with the same seed values will produce the same random results.
Common Controls Conditions, Style, Region, and Settings Tabs The Conditions, Style, Region, and Settings tabs are common to all Particle nodes, so their descriptions can be found in “The Common Controls” section at the end of this chapter. pRender [pRn] The pRender node pRender Node Introduction The pRender node converts the particle system to either an image or geometry. The default is a 3D particle system, which must be connected to a Renderer 3D to produce an image.
Inspector Output Mode (2D/3D) While the pRender defaults to 3D output, it can be made to render a 2D image instead. This is done with the 3D and 2D buttons on the Output Mode control. If the pRender is not connected to a 3D-only or 2D-only node, you can also switch it by selecting View > 2D Viewer from the viewer’s pop-up menu. In 3D mode, the only controls in the pRender node that have any effect at all are Restart, Pre-Roll and Automatic Pre-Roll, Sub-Frame Calculation Accuracy, and Pre-Generate frames.
Restart This control also works in 3D. Clicking on the Restart button will restart the particle system at the current frame, removing any particles created up to that point and starting the particle system from scratch at the current frame. Pre-Roll This control also works in 3D. Clicking on this button causes the particle system to recalculate, starting from the beginning of the render range up to the current frame. It does not render the image produced. It only calculates the position of each particle.
For simple, fast-rendering particle systems, it is recommended to leave the Automatic Pre-Roll option on. For slower particle systems with long time ranges, it may be desirable to only Pre-Roll manually, as required. Only Render in Hi-Q Selecting this checkbox causes the style of the particles to be overridden when the Hi-Q checkbox is deselected, producing only fast rendering Point-style particles. This is useful when working with a large quantity of slow Image-based or Blob-style particles.
Generate Z Buffer Selecting this checkbox causes the pRender node to produce a Z Buffer channel in the image. The depth of each particle is represented in the Z Buffer. This channel can then be used for additional depth operations like Depth Blur, Depth Fog, and Downstream Z Merging. Enabling this option is likely to increase the render times for the particle system dramatically.
Image Tab The controls in the Image tab of this node determine the width, height, and aspect of the image. Refer to the Creator Common Controls page for details on the use of these controls.
Process Mode Use this menu control to select the Fields Processing mode used by Fusion to render changes to the image. The default option is determined by the Has Fields checkbox control in the Frame Format preferences. Use Frame Format Settings When this checkbox is selected, the width, height, and pixel aspect of the rendered images by the node will be locked to values defined in the composition’s Frame Format preferences.
Auto: Automatically reads and passes on the metadata that may be in the image. Space: Displays a Gamma Space Type menu where you can choose the correct gamma curve of the image. Log: Brings up the Log/Lin settings, similar to the Cineon tool. For more information, see Chapter 36, “Film Nodes” in the Fusion Studio Reference Manual or Chapter 84 in the DaVinci Resolve Reference Manual.
– Input: The orange input accepts the output of other particle nodes. – Style Bitmap Input: This image input accepts a 2D image to use as the particles’ image. Since this image duplicates into potentially thousands of particles, it is best to keep these images small and square—for instance, 256 x 256 pixels. – Region: The region inputs take a 2D image or a 3D mesh depending on whether you set the Region menu to Bitmap or Mesh.
Affect Spawned Particles Selecting this checkbox causes particles created by spawning to also become affected by the pSpawn node on subsequent frames. This can exponentially increase the number of particles in the system, driving render times up to an unreasonable degree. Use this checkbox cautiously. Velocity Transfer This control determines how much velocity of the source particle is transferred to the particles it spawns. The default value of 1.
Basic Node Setup The pTangent Force node is inserted between a pEmitter and a pRender node. The pTangent Force node positions a tangent force that particles maneuver around Inspector The controls for this node are used to position the offset in 3D space and to determine the strength of the tangential force along each axis independently. Randomize The Random Seed slider and Randomize button are presented whenever a Fusion node relies on a random result.
pTurbulence [pTr] pTurbulence Node Introduction The pTurbulence node imposes a frequency-based chaos on the position of each particle, causing the motion to become unpredictable and uneven. The controls for this node affect the strength and density of the Turbulence along each axis. Inputs The pTurbulence node has a single orange input by default. Like most particle nodes, this orange input accepts only other particle nodes.
Randomize The Random Seed slider and Randomize button are presented whenever a Fusion node relies on a random result. Two nodes with the same seed values will produce the same random results. Click the Randomize button to randomly select a new seed value, or adjust the slider to manually select a new seed value. X, Y, and Z Strength The Strength control affects the amount of chaotic motion imparted to particles.
Basic Node Setup The pVortex node is placed in between the pEmitter and pRender nodes. A pVortex node creates a spiraling motion for particles that fall within its pull Inspector Randomize The Random Seed slider and Randomize button are presented whenever a Fusion node relies on a random result. Two nodes with the same seed values will produce the same random results. Click the Randomize button to randomly select a new seed value, or adjust the slider to manually select a new seed value.
Common Controls Conditions, Style, Region, and Settings Tabs The Conditions, Style, Region, and Settings tabs are common to all Particle nodes, so their descriptions can be found in “The Common Controls” section at the end of this chapter. The Common Controls Particle nodes share a number of identical controls in the inspector. This section describes the Style, Conditions, Region, and Settings tabs that are common among particle nodes.
is displayed and so on. If a particle cell is not generated until frame 50, it begins with frame 50 of the movie file. This causes all particle cells to use the same image on any give frame of the comp. The Particle Age setting causes each particle cell to begin with the first frame of the movie file, regardless of when the particle cell is generated. The Particle Birth Time setting causes each particle to begin with the frame that coincides with the frame of the particle cell birth time.
– Use Aspect From: The Use Aspect From menu includes three settings for the aspect ratio of the brush image. You can choose image format to use the brush image’s native aspect ration. Choose Frame Format to use the aspect ratio set in the Frame Format Setting in the Fusion Preferences, or choose Custom to enter your own Pixel X and Y dimensions. Line: This style produces straight line-type particles with optional “falloff.
Color Over Life This standard gradient control allows for the selection of a range of color values to which the particle will adhere over its lifetime. The left point of the gradient represents the particle color at birth. The right point shows the color of the particle at the end of its lifespan. Additional points can be added to the gradient control to cause the particle color to shift throughout its life.
Size Z Scale This control measures the degree to which the size of each particle changes according to its Z position. The effect is to exaggerate or reduce the impact of perspective. The default value is 1.0, which provides a relatively realistic perspective effect. Objects on the focal plane (Z = 0.0) will be actual-sized. Objects farther along Z will become smaller. Objects closer along Z will get larger. A value of 2.0 will exaggerate the effect dramatically, whereas a value of 0.
Blur (2D) and Blur Variance (2D) These controls apply blur to each particle. Unlike the Blur in the pRender node, this is applied to each particle independently before the particles are merged together. The Blur Variance slider modifies the amount of blur applied to each particle. Blur Over Life This spline graph controls the amount of blur that is applied to the particle over its life. The vertical scale represents a percentage of the value defined by the Blur control.
Probability The Probability slider determines the percentage of chance that the node affects any given particle. The default value of 1.0 affects all particles. A setting of 0.6 would mean that each particle has a 60 percent chance of being affected by the control. Probability is calculated for each particle on each frame. For example, a particle that is not affected by a force on one frame has the same chance of being affected on the next frame.
The Region tab is common to almost all particle nodes. In the pEmitter node Emitter Regions are used to determine the area where particles are created. In most other tools it is used to restrict the tool’s effect to a geometric region or plane. There are seven types of regions, each with its own controls. Only one emitter region can be set for a single pEmitter node. If the pRender is set to 2D, then the emitter region will produce particles along a flat plane in Z Space.
To determine if a particle is in the interior of an object, a ray is cast from infinity through that particle and then out to -infinity. The Winding Ray Direction determines which direction this ray is cast in. Each time a surface is pierced by the ray, it is recorded and added onto a total to generate a winding number. Going against a surfaces normal counts as +1, and going with the normal counts as -1. The Winding Rule is then used to determine what is inside/outside.
Style Tab The Style tab exists in the pEmitter, pSpawn, pChangeStyle, and pImage Emitter. It controls the appearance of the particles, allowing the look of the particles to be designed and animated over time. Style The Style menu provides access to the various types of particles supported by the Particle Suite. Each style has its specific controls, as well as controls it will share with other styles. Point Style: This option produces particles precisely one pixel in size.
Particle Age: Each particle animates through the sequence of images provided by the Style Bitmap node, independently of other particles. In other words, an individual particle’s appearance is taken from the Style Bitmap node at successive times, indexed by its age. Particle Birth Time: New particles take the image from the Style Bitmap node at the current time and keep it unchanged until the end of the particle’s lifespan.
Color Controls The Color Controls select the color and Alpha values of the particles generated by the emitter. Color Variance These range controls provide a means of expanding the colors produced by the pEmitter. Setting the Red variance range at -0.2 to +0.2 will produce colors that vary 20% on either side of the red channel, for a total variance of 40%. If the pEmitter is set to produce R0.5, G0.5, B0.5 (pure gray), the variance shown above will produce points with a color range between R0.3, G0.5, B0.
Chapter 104 Position Nodes This chapter details the Position nodes available in Fusion. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents Volume Fog [VLF] 2329 Volume Mask [VLM] 2336 Z to World Pos [Z2W] 2340 WPP Concept 2342 The Common Controls 2344 Chapter – 104 Position Nodes 2328
Volume Fog [VLF] The Volume Fog node Volume Fog Node Introduction The Volume Fog node is used to create sophisticated volumetric fog on images containing XYZ Position channels. As opposed to 3D-rendered volumetric fog, it works on 2D images and delivers much faster results and interactive feedback when setting up the fog. See the “WPP Concept” section at the end of this chapter for further explanation of how this technology works and to learn about the required imagery.
Inspector Shape Tab The Shape tab defines the size and location of the fog volume. You can either use the Pick buttons to select the location and orientation in the viewer or use the Translation, Rotation, and Scale controls. Shape This menu switches between a basic spherical or rectangular volume to be placed in your image. These volumes can then be further refined using the Fog image and effect mask.
X, Y, Z Scale Scale the fog volume in any direction from its center to refine further the overall Size value specified below. Size The overall size of the fog volume created. Soft Edge Controls how much the fog volume is faded toward the center from its perimeter to achieve a softer look. Color Tab The Color tab controls the detail and color of the fog. Adaptive Samples Volumes images consist of multiple layers, so there may be 64 layers in a volume.
Z Slices The higher the Z Slices value, the more images from the connected Fog image sequence will be used to form the depth of the volume. You can, for example, use a Fast Noise with a high Seethe Rate to create such a sequence of images. Be careful with the resolution of the images. Higher resolutions can require a large amount of memory. As a rule of thumb, a resolution of 256 x 256 pixels with 256 Z Slices (i.e.
Gain This control increases or decreases the brightest parts of the noise map. Brightness This control adjusts the overall brightness of the noise map, before any gradient color mapping is applied. In Gradient mode, this produces a similar effect to the Offset control. Translation Use the Translation coordinate control to pan and move the noise pattern. Noise Rotation Use the Rotation controls to orient the noise pattern in 3D.
X, Y, Z Offset These controls can be used to define the center of the camera manually or can be animated or connected to other controls in Fusion. Light Tab To utilize the controls in the Light tab, you must have actual lights in your 3D scene. Connect that scene, including Camera and Lights, to the 3D input of the node. Do Lighting Enables or disables lighting calculations. Keep in mind that when not using OpenCL (i.e., rendering on the CPU), these calculations may become a bit slow.
Density This is similar to scattering in that it makes the fog appear thicker. With a high amount of scattering, though, the light will be scattered out of the volume before it has had much chance to travel through the fog, meaning it won’t pick up a lot of the transmission color. With a high density instead, the fog still appears thicker, but the light gets a chance to be transmitted, thus picking up the transmission color before it gets scattered out.
Examples In these examples, we are looking at a volume from the outside. On the left, you see how the Volume Fog looks with straight accumulation. That means the Do Lighting option is turned off. On the right, you see the same volume with lighting/scattering turned on, and a single point light. On the left with straight accumulation; in the middle with lighting, scattering, and a single point light; and on the right, the light in the scene has been moved, which also influences the look of the volume.
Inputs The following three inputs appear on the Volume Mask node in the Node Editor: – Image: The orange image input accepts a 2D image containing a World Position Pass in the XYZ Position channels. – Mask Image: An image can be connected to the green mask image input for refining the mask. – Effect Mask: The blue input is for a mask shape created by polylines, basic primitive shapes, paint strokes, or bitmaps from other tools. Connecting a mask to this input limits the volume mask to certain areas.
Shape Tab The Shape tab defines the size and location of the Volume Mask. You can either use the Pick buttons to select the location and orientation in the viewer or use the Translation, Rotation, and Scale controls. Shape This menu switches between a spherical or rectangular mask to be placed in your image. The mask can be further refined using the mask image input.
r Color Tab The Color tab controls the color and blending of the mask image. Color Allows you to modify the color of the generated Volume Mask. This will add to any color provided by the connected mask image. Subtractive/Additive Slider Similar to the Merge node, this value controls whether the mask is composed onto the image in Additive or Subtractive mode, leading to a brighter or dimmer appearance of the mask.
Camera If multiple cameras are available in the connected Scene input, this drop-down menu allows you to choose the correct camera needed to evaluate the Volume. Instead of connecting a camera, position values can also be provided manually or by connecting the XYZ values to other controls. Translation Pick Drag the Pick button into the viewer to select XYZ coordinates from any 3D scene or 2D image containing XYZ values, like a rendered World Pass, to define the center of the camera.
Inputs The following inputs appear on the node tile in the Node Editor: – Image: The orange image input accepts an image containing a World Position Pass or a Z-depth pass, depending on the desired operation. – Effect Mask: The blue input is for a mask shape created by polylines, basic primitive shapes, paint strokes, or bitmaps from other tools. Connecting a mask to this input limits the World Position Pass to certain areas.
Camera If multiple cameras are available in the connected Scene input, this drop-down menu allows you to choose the correct camera needed to evaluate the image. Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other Position nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section.
The Scene Input The nodes offer a Scene input, which can either be a 3D camera or a 3D scene containing a camera. While the camera is vital for the Z to World node, Volume Mask and Volume Fog can generate their output without any camera attached or with the camera position set to 0/0/0. However, connecting a camera that lines up with the original camera the WPP has been rendered from, or setting the camera’s position manually, dramatically improves the accuracy and look of the resulting Fog or mask.
The Common Controls Nodes that handle Position operations share several identical controls in the Inspector. This section describes controls that are common among Position nodes. Inspector Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector can be found on every tool in the Position category. The controls are consistent and work the same way for each tool. Blend The Blend control is used to blend between the tool’s original image input and the tool’s final modified output image. When the blend value is 0.
Red/Green/Blue/Alpha Channel Selector These four buttons are used to limit the effect of the tool to specified color channels. This filter is often applied after the tool has been processed. For example, if the Red button on a Blur tool is deselected, the blur will first be applied to the image, and then the red channel from the original input will be copied back over the red channel of the result.
Motion Blur Motion Blur: This toggles the rendering of Motion Blur on the tool. When this control is toggled on, the tool’s predicted motion is used to produce the motion blur caused by the virtual camera’s shutter. When the control is toggled off, no motion blur is created. Quality: Quality determines the number of samples used to create the blur. A quality setting of 2 will cause Fusion to create two samples to either side of an object’s actual motion.
Chapter 105 Resolve Connect This chapter details the single node found in the Resolve Connect category, available only in standalone Fusion Studio. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents External Matte Saver [EMS] 2349 Chapter – 105 Resolve Connect 2348
External Matte Saver [EMS] The External Matte Saver node NOTE: The Resolve Connect category and External Matte Saver node are available only in Fusion Studio. External Matte Saver Node Introduction The External Matte Saver node renders multiple mattes into multiple channels of an EXR file. This file is intended to import into DaVinci Resolve’s Color page as an efficient way to deliver multiple mattes for color grading.
An External Matte Saver node added as a separate branch in a node tree to render the mattes Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab is used to name the saved file and determine where on your hard drive the file is stored. Filename Enter the name you want to use for the EXR file in the Filename field. At the end of the name, append the .exr extension to ensure that the file is saved as an EXR file.
Channels menu The Channels menu allows you to select which channels are saved in the matte. You can choose the Alpha channel, the RGB channels, or the RGBA channels. Channels Name The Channels Name field allows you to customize the name of the matte channel you are saving. This name is displayed in DaVinci Resolve’s Color page. Node Name The Node Name field displays the source of the matte. This is automatically populated when you connect a node to the input.
Process When Blend Is 0.0 The tool is processed even when the input value is zero. This can be useful if processing of this node is scripted to trigger another task, but the value of the node is set to 0.0. Red/Green/Blue/Alpha Channel Selector These four buttons are used to limit the effect of the tool to specified color channels. This filter is often applied after the tool has been processed.
Motion Blur Motion Blur: This toggles the rendering of Motion Blur on the tool. When this control is toggled on, the tool’s predicted motion is used to produce the motion blur caused by the virtual camera’s shutter. When the control is toggled off, no motion blur is created. Quality: Quality determines the number of samples used to create the blur. A quality setting of 2 causes Fusion to create two samples to either side of an object’s actual motion.
Chapter 106 Stereo Nodes This chapter details the Stereo nodes available in Fusion. Stereoscopic nodes are available only in Fusion Studio and DaVinci Resolve Studio. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents Anaglyph [ANA] 2356 Combiner [COM] 2360 Disparity [DIS] 2361 Disparity To Z [D2Z] 2365 Global Align [GA] 2369 New Eye [NE] 2371 Splitter [SPL] 2375 Stereo Align [SA] 2376 Z To Disparity [Z2D] 2382 The Common Controls 2385 Chapter – 106 Stereo Nodes 2355
Anaglyph [ANA] The Anaglyph node NOTE: The Anaglyph node is available only in Fusion Studio and DaVinci Resolve Studio. Anaglyph Node Introduction The Anaglyph node is used to create stereoscopic images by combining separate left eye and right eye images. It is most commonly used at the end of a stereoscopic workflow to display or deliver the final result. Inputs The three inputs on the Anaglyph node are the left eye input, right eye input, and effect mask.
Inspector Controls Tab Using the parameters in the Controls tab, the separate images are combined to create a stereoscopic output. Color Type Menu The Color Type menu allows you to choose between different color encodings to fit your preferred display device. To match your stereo glasses, you can choose between Red/Cyan, Red/Green, Red/Blue, Amber/Blue, and Green/Magenta encoding; Red/Cyan is the most commonly used.
Monochrome: Assuming you are using a Red/Cyan Color Type, the left eye contains the luminance of the left image and is placed in the output of the red channel. The right eye contains the luminance of the right image and is placed in the output green and blue channels. Half-Color: Assuming you are using a Red/Cyan Color Type, the left eye contains the luminance of the left image and is placed in the output of the red channel.
Dubois: Images with fairly saturated colors can produce retinal rivalry with the Halfcolor, Color, and Optimized methods because the color is visible in only one eye. For example, with red/cyan glasses, a saturated green object looks black in the red eye, and green in the cyan eye.
Combiner [COM] The Combiner node NOTE: The Combiner node is available only in Fusion Studio and DaVinci Resolve Studio. Combiner Node Introduction The Combiner node takes two stereoscopic inputs and creates so-called “stacked images” with the left and right eye, either side by side or on top of each other. Stereoscopic nodes are available only in Fusion Studio and DaVinci Resolve Studio.
Controls Tab To stack the images, the left eye image is connected to the orange input, and the right eye image is connected to the green input of the node. Combine The Combine menu provides three options for how the two images are made into a stacked stereo image. None: No operation will take place. The output image is identical to the left eye input. Horiz: Both images will be stacked horizontally, or side-by-side, with the image connected to the left eye input on the left.
The generated disparity is stored in the output image’s Disparity aux channel, where the left image contains the left > right disparity, and the right image contains the right > left disparity. Because disparity works based on matching regions in the left eye to regions in the right eye by comparing colors and gradients of colors, colors in the two eyes must be as similar as possible. Thus, it is a good idea to color correct ahead of time.
Inspector Proxy (for Tracking) The input images are resized down by the proxy scale, tracked to produce the disparity, and then the resulting disparities are scaled back up. This option is purely to speed up the calculation of the disparity, which can be slow. The computational time is roughly proportional to the number of pixels in the image. This means a proxy scale of 2 gives a 4x speedup, and a proxy scale of 3 gives a 9x speedup.
Match Weight This controls how matching is done between neighboring pixels in the left image and neighboring pixels in the right image. When a lower value is used, large structural color features are matched. When higher values are used, small sharp variations in the color are matched. Typically, a good value for this slider is in the [0.7, 0.9] range.
Disparity To Z [D2Z] The DisparityToZ node NOTE: The Disparity to Z node is available only in Fusion Studio and DaVinci Resolve Studio. Disparity to Z Node Introduction Disparity To Z takes a 3D camera and an image containing a disparity channel as inputs, and outputs the same image but with a newly computed Z channel. Optionally, this node can output Z into the RGB channels. Ideally, either a stereo Camera 3D or a tracked stereo camera is connected into Disparity To Z.
Basic Node Setup Disparity To Z takes a 3D camera and stereo images containing a disparity channel as inputs. The output is an image with a newly computed Z channel. A Disparity to Z node creates an image with a Z channel Inspector Controls Tab In addition to outputting Z values in the Z channel, this tab promotes the color channels to float32 and outputs the Z values into the color channels as {z, z, z, 1}. This option is useful to get a quick look at the Z channel.
HiQ Only Activating this checkbox causes the Refine Z option to process only when rendering is set to High Quality. You can ensure High Quality is enabled by right-clicking to the left or right of the transport controls in the main toolbar. Strength Increasing this slider does two things. It smooths out the depth in constant color regions and moves edges in the Z channel to correlate with edges in the RGB channels.
Foreground Disparity (Pick from Left Eye) When the camera Mode is set to Artistic, a Foreground Disparity slider is available. This is the disparity for the closest foreground object. It will get mapped to the depth value specified by the Foreground Depth control.
Global Align [GA] The GlobalAlign node NOTE: The Global Align node is available only in Fusion Studio and DaVinci Resolve Studio. Global Align Node Introduction As opposed to Stereo Align, this node does not utilize optical flow at all. It’s meant as a fast and convenient way to do simple stereo alignment for both X and Y as well as rotation. Global Align comes in handy at the beginning of the node chain to visually correct major differences between the left and right eye before calculating Disparity.
A Global Align node used to manually correct left and right eye discrepancies Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab includes translation and rotation controls to align the stereo images manually. Translation X and Y Balance: Determines how the global offset is applied to the stereo footage. None: No translation is applied. Left Only: The left eye is shifted, while the right eye remains unaltered. Right Only: The right eye is shifted, while the left eye remains unaltered.
Right Only: The right eye is rotated, while the left eye remains unaltered. Split Both: Left and right eyes are rotated in opposite directions. Angle This dial adjusts the angle of the rotation. Keep in mind that the result depends on the Balance settings. If only rotating one eye by, for example, 10 degrees, a full 10-degree rotation will be applied to that eye. When applying rotation in Split mode, one eye will receive a -5 degree and the other eye a +5 degree rotation.
New Eye Node Introduction The New Eye node constructs a new image by interpolating between two existing stereo images using the embedded disparity channels. This node can also be used to replace one view with a warped version of the other. In Stack Mode, L and R outputs will output the same image. You can map the left eye onto the right eye and replace it. This can be helpful when removing errors from certain areas of the frame. New Eye does not interpolate the aux channels but instead destroys them.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab is divided into identical parameters for the left eye and right eye. The parameters are used to select which eye to recreate and the methods used for the interpolation. Enable The Enable checkbox allows you to activate the left or right eye independently. The New Eye will replace enabled eye with an interpolated eye. For example, if the left eye is your “master” eye and you are recreating the right eye, you would disable the left eye and enable the right eye.
Depth Ordering The Depth Ordering is used to determine which parts of the image should be rendered on top. When warping images, there is often overlap. When the image overlaps itself, there are two options for which values should be drawn on top. Largest Disparity On Top: The larger disparity values will be drawn on top in the overlapping image sections. Smallest Disparity On Top: The smaller disparity values will be drawn on top in the overlapping image sections.
Splitter [SPL] The Splitter node NOTE: The Splitter node is available only in Fusion Studio and DaVinci Resolve Studio. Splitter Node Introduction The Splitter takes a stacked input image—for example, created with the Combiner—and provides two output images: a left eye and a right eye. Inputs The two inputs on the Splitter node are used to connect the left and right images. – Left Input: The orange input is used to connect a stacked stereo image.
Controls Tab The Controls tab is used to define the type of stacked image connected to the node’s input. Split The Split menu contains three options for determining the orientation of the stacked input image. None: No operation takes place. The output image on both outputs is identical to the input image. Horiz: The node expects a horizontally stacked image. This will result in two output images, each being half the width of the input image. Vert: The node expects a vertically stacked image.
NOTE: Changing the eye separation can cause holes to appear, and it may not be possible to fill them since the information needed may not be in either image. Even if the information is there, the disparity may have mismatched the holes. You may need to fill the holes manually. This node modifies only the RGBA channels. TIP: Stereo Align does not interpolate the aux channels but instead destroys them. In particular, the disparity channels are consumed/destroyed.
Inspector Controls Tab Vertical Alignment This option determines how the vertical alignment is split between two eyes. Usually, the left eye is declared inviolate, and the right eye is aligned to it to avoid resampling artifacts. When doing per pixel vertical alignment, it may be helpful to roughly pre-align the images by a global Y-shift before disparity computation because the disparity generation algorithm can have problems resolving small objects that move large distances.
Mode Global: The eyes are simply translated up or down by the Y-shift to match up. Per Pixel: The eyes are warped pixel-by-pixel using the disparity to vertically align. Keep in mind that this can introduce sampling artifacts and edge artifacts. Y-shift Y-shift is available only when the Mode menu is set to Global. You can either adjust the Y-shift manually to get a match or drag the Sample button into the viewer, which picks from the disparity channel of the left eye.
Unlike the Split option for vertical alignment, which splits the alignment effect 50-50 between both eyes, the Both option will apply 100-100 eye separation to both eyes. If you are changing eye separation, it can be a good idea to enable per-pixel vertical alignment, or the results of interpolating from both frames can double up. Left/Right Eye Options The left and right eye options contain depth ordering and warp direction controls independently for the left and right eye.
Stack Mode In Stack Mode, L and R outputs will output the same image. If High Quality is off, the interpolations are done using nearest-neighbor sampling, leading to a more “noisy” result. To ensure High Quality is enabled, right-click under the viewers, near the transport controls, and choose High Quality from the pop-up menu. Swap Eyes Allows you to easily swap the left and right eye outputs. Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other Stereo nodes.
Z To Disparity [Z2D] The Z To Disparity node NOTE: The Z To Disparity node is available only in Fusion Studio and DaVinci Resolve Studio. Z To Disparity Node Introduction Z To Disparity takes a stereo camera and an image containing a Z channel and outputs the same image but with disparity channels in it. This is useful for constructing a Disparity map from CG renders, which will be more accurate than the Disparity map created from the Disparity node.
A Z To Disparity node takes an image with a Z channel and creates a disparity channel Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab includes settings that refine the conversion algorithm. Output Disparity To RGB In addition to outputting disparity values into the disparity channel, activating this checkbox causes Z To Disparity to also output the disparity values into the color channels as {x, y, 0, 1}. When activated, this option will automatically promote the RGBA color channels to float32.
Swap Eyes This allows you to easily swap the left and right eye outputs. Camera Tab The Camera tab includes settings for selecting a camera and setting its conversion point if necessary. Camera Mode If you need correct real-world disparity values because you are trying to match some effect to an existing scene, you should use the External setting to get precise disparity values back.
Background Disparity (Sample from Left Eye) This is the disparity of objects in the distant background. You can think of this as the upper limit to disparity values for objects at infinity. This value should be for the left eye. The corresponding value in the right eye will be the same in magnitude but negative. Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other Stereo nodes. These common controls are described in detail in the following “The Common Controls” section.
Process When Blend Is 0.0 The tool is processed even when the input value is zero. This can be useful if the node is scripted to trigger a task, but the node’s value is set to 0.0. Red/Green/Blue/Alpha Channel Selector These four buttons are used to limit the effect of the tool to specified color channels. This filter is often applied after the tool has been processed.
Comments The Comments field is used to add notes to a tool. Click in the empty field and type the text. When a note is added to a tool, a small red square appears in the lower-left corner of the node when the full tile is displayed, or a small text bubble icon appears on the right when nodes are collapsed. To see the note in the Node Editor, hold the mouse pointer over the node to display the tooltip. Scripts Three Scripting fields are available on every tool in Fusion from the Settings tab.
Chapter 107 Tracker Nodes This chapter details the Tracker nodes available in Fusion. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents Tracker [TRA] 2390 Planar Tracker Node [PTRA] 2405 Planar Transform Node [Pxf] 2416 Camera Tracker [CTra] 2418 The Common Controls 2434 Chapter – 107 Tracker Nodes 2389
Tracker [TRA] The Tracker node Tracker Node Introduction The Tracker is used to detect and follow one or more pixel patterns across frames in moving video. The tracking data can then be used to control the position or values of other nodes in the composition (for example, the center of a Light Rays node). Additionally, trackers can be used to stabilize an image or to apply destabilization to one image based on the motion of another.
A Tracker node branched from the node tree The Tracker can also work as a replacement for a Merge tool in match-moving setups. Below, the Tracker tracks the image connected to the orange background input and applies the tracking data to the image connected to the foreground input. The same foreground-overbackground merge capabilities are available in the Tracker node.
Search Rectangle Whenever the mouse moves over the pattern rectangle, a second rectangle with a dashed outline appears. The dashed outline represents the search area, which determines how far away from the current pattern the Tracker looks in the next frame. The search area should always be larger than the pattern, and it should be large enough to encompass the largest frame-to-frame movement in the scene.
Inspector Trackers Tab The Trackers tab contains controls for creating, positioning, and initiating tracking operations. After tracking, offset controls are used to improve the alignment of the image following the track. Track Buttons There are four buttons to initiate tracking, and one button in the middle used to stop a track in progress. These buttons can track the current pattern forward or backward in time. Holding the pointer over each button displays a tooltip with the name of each button.
Track Forward From Current Time: Clicking this button causes all active trackers to begin tracking, starting at the current frame and moving forward through time until the end of the render range. Track Forward: Clicking this button causes all active trackers to begin tracking, starting at the first frame in the render range and moving forward through time until the end of the render range.
Tracker List A Tracker node can track multiple patterns. Each tracker pattern created in the current Tracker node is managed in the Tracker List. Tracker List The Tracker List shows the names of all trackers created. Each tracker pattern appears in the list by name, next to a small checkbox. Clicking the name of the tracker pattern will select that tracker pattern. The controls below the list will change to affect that tracker pattern only.
Left Pattern Display The pattern display has two side-by-side image windows and a series of status bars. The window on the left shows the pattern initially selected, while the one on the right shows a real-time display of the current pattern as tracking progresses. As the onscreen controls move while tracking, the display in the leftmost window updates to show the pattern. As the pattern moves, the vertical bars immediately to the right of the image indicate the clarity and contrast of the image channels.
Tracker Sizes In addition to onscreen controls, each tracker has a set of sizing parameters that let you adjust the pattern and search box. Pattern Width and Height: Use these controls to adjust the width and height of the selected tracker pattern manually. The size of the tracker pattern can also be adjusted in the viewer, which is the normal method, but small adjustments are often easier to accomplish with the precision of manual controls.
Operation Tab While the Trackers tab controls let you customize how the Tracker node analyzes motion to create motion paths, the Operation tab puts the analyzed motion data to use, performing image transforms of various kinds. The Tracker node is capable of performing a wide variety of functions, from match moving an object into a moving scene, smoothing out a shaky camera movement, or replacing the content of a sign.
Apply Mode and Operator Menus This menu provides a variety of options that determine how the two layers should be combined. The options in this menu are identical to those found in the Merge node. Apply Modes: The Apply Mode setting determines the math used when blending or combining the foreground and background pixels. – Normal: The Default merge mode uses the foreground’s Alpha channel as a mask to determine which pixels are transparent and which are not.
– Difference: Difference looks at the color information in each channel and subtracts the foreground color values from the background color values or the background from the foreground, depending on which has the greater brightness value. Merging with white inverts the color. Merging with black produces no change. – Exclusion: Exclusion creates an effect similar to but lower in contrast than the Difference mode. Merging with white inverts the base color values. Merging with black produces no change.
– Held Out: Held Out is essentially the opposite of the In operation. The pixels in the foreground image are multiplied against the inverted Alpha channel of the background image. You can accomplish exactly the same result using the In operation and a Matte Control node to invert the matte channel of the background image. x = 1-[background Alpha], y = 0 – ATop: ATop places the foreground over the background only where the background has a matte.
Gaussian: This is very similar in speed and quality to Bi-Cubic. Mitchell: This is similar to Catmull-Rom but produces better results with finely detailed images. It is slower than Catmull-Rom. Lanczos: This is very similar to Mitchell and Catmull-Rom but is a little cleaner and also slower. Sinc: This is an advanced filter that produces very sharp, detailed results; however, it may produce visible “ringing” in some situations. Bessel: This is similar to the Sinc filter but may be slightly faster.
Rotate Clockwise and Counter-Clockwise Buttons (Corner or Perspective Positioning) These controls appear only when the operation of the Tracker is set to either Corner or Perspective Positioning modes. They are used to rotate the foreground image by 90 degrees before it is applied to the background. Stabilize Settings The Tracker node automatically outputs several steady and unsteady position outputs to which other controls in the Node Editor can be connected.
Display Options Tab The Display Options tab lets you customize the look of onscreen controls in the viewer. Show Pattern Names This option defines whether the Tracker’s pattern names will be displayed in the viewer. Switch it off to see the pattern rectangle instead. Enlarged Pattern on Dragging This option defines whether there is a magnified thumbnail view when positioning the pattern rectangle.
Planar Tracker Node [PTRA] The Planar Tracker node Planar Tracker Node Introduction The Planar Tracker node is designed to solve a match-moving problem that commonly comes up during post-production. As an example, live-action footage can often contain a planar surface such as a license plate or a road sign that needs new numbers in the license plate or a new city’s name on the road sign.
Inputs The Planar Tracker has four inputs: – Background: The orange background image input accepts a 2D image with the planar surface to be tracked. – Corner Pin 1: The green corner pin 1 input accepts a 2D image to be pinned on top of the background. There may be multiple corner pin inputs, named Corner Pin 1, Corner Pin 2,…etc. – Occlusion Mask: The white occlusion mask input is used to mask out regions that do not need to be tracked. Regions where this mask is white will not be tracked.
5 Adjust render range: In the Keyframes Editor, adjust the render range to match the range of frames where the planar surface is visible. 6 Adjust track options: Frequently changed options include Tracker, Motion Type, and Track Channel. 7 Mask out occluders: If moving objects partially cover up the planar surface, you may wish to connect an occlusion mask to the Planar Tracker.
Steady: After analyzing a planar surface, this mode removes all motion and distortions from the planar surface, usually in preparation for some kind of paint or roto task, prior to “unsteadying” the clip to restore the motion. Corner Pin: After analyzing a planar surface, this mode computes and applies a matching perspective distortion to a foreground image you connect to the foreground input of the Planar Tracker node, and merges it on top of the tracked footage.
After you’ve drawn a pattern, a set of Pattern parameters lets you transform and invert the resulting polygon, if necessary. Track Mode Track mode is unlike the other three options in the Operation menu in that is the only option that initiates the planar tracking. The other modes use the tracking data generated by the Track mode. Tracker There are two available trackers to pick from: Point: Tracks points from frame to frame.
Sometimes with troublesome shots, it can help to drop down to a simpler motion model—for example, when many track points are clustered on one side of the tracked region or when tracking a small region where there are not many trackable pixels. Output Controls what is output from the Planar Tracker node while in the Track operation mode. Background: Outputs the input image unchanged. Background - Preprocessed: The Planar Tracker does various types of preprocessing on the input image (e.g.
Create Planar Transform After tracking footage, this button can be pressed to create a Planar Transform node on the Node Editor. The current tracking data is embedded in the Planar Transform node so that it can replicate the planar distortions tracked by the Planar Tracker node. Unless you are compositing a full frame foreground that matches the same dimensions as the raster, it is best to create a Planar Transform and use it to apply motion to the foreground.
3 Connect in the texture: In the Node Editor, connect the output of the MediaIn node containing the texture to the Corner Pin 1 input on the Planar Tracker node. 4 Adjust corner pin: Drag the corners of the corner pin in the viewer until the texture is positioned correctly. Sometimes the Show Grid option is useful when positioning the texture. Additionally, if it helps to position it more accurately, scrub to other times and make adjustments to the corner pin.
One unavoidable side effect of the stabilization process is that transparent edges appear along the edges of the image. These edges appear because the stabilizer does not have any information about what lies off frame, so it cannot fill in the missing bits. The Planar Tracker node offers the option to either crop or zoom away these edges. When filming, if the need for post-production stabilization is anticipated, it can sometimes be useful to film at a higher resolution (or lower zoom).
NOTE: The stabilizer uses the Track spline (created by the tracker) to produce the Stable Track spline. Both of these splines’ keyframes contain 4 x 4 matrices, and the keyframes are editable in the Spline Editor. Clipping Mode Determines what happens to the parts of the background image that get moved off frame by the stabilization: Domain: The off frame parts are kept. Frame: The off frames parts are thrown away. Frame Mode This controls how transparent edges are handled.
Options Tab These controls affect the look of onscreen controls in the viewer. Darken Image Darkens the image while in Track mode in order to better see the controls and tracks in the viewer. The Shift+D keyboard shortcut toggles this. Show Track Markers Toggles the display of the dots marking the location of trackers at the current time. Show Trails Toggles the display of the trails following the location of trackers. Trail Length Allows changing the length of tracker trails.
Planar Transform Node [Pxf] The Planar Transform node The Planar Transform node applies perspective distortions generated by a Planar Tracker node onto any input mask or masked image. The Planar Transform node can be used to reduce the amount of time spent on rotoscoping objects. The workflow here centers around the notion that the Planar Tracker node can be used to track objects that are only roughly planar.
Basic Node Setup The example below uses a Planar Transform node between a masked MediaIn2 node and the foreground input to a Merge node. The background MediaIn1 node connects to the Planar Tracker, which was used to generate the Planar Transform. Once the Planar Transform is created, the Planar Tracker is no longer needed in the node tree. A Planar Transform creating a match move Inspector Controls Tab The Planar Transform node has very few controls, and they are all located in the Controls tab.
Camera Tracker [CTra] The Camera Tracker node Camera Tracker Introduction Camera tracking is match moving, and a vital link between 2D and 3D, allowing compositors to integrate 3D renders into live-action scenes. The Camera Tracker node is used to calculate the path of a live-action camera and generate a virtual camera in 3D space. This virtual camera’s motion is intended to be identical to the motion of the actual camera that shot the scene.
Inputs The Camera Tracker has two inputs: – Background: The orange image input accepts a 2D image you want tracked. – Occlusion Mask: The white occlusion mask input is used to mask out regions that do not need to be tracked. Regions where this mask is white will not be tracked. For example, a person moving in front of and occluding bits of the scene may be confusing to the tracker, and a quickly-created rough mask around the person can be used to tell the tracker to ignore the masked-out bits.
Reset Deletes all the data internal to the Camera Tracker node, including the tracking data and the solve data (camera motion path and point cloud). To delete only the solve data, use the Delete button on the Solve tab. Preview AutoTrack Locations Turning this checkbox on will show where the auto tracks will be distributed within the shot. This is helpful for determining if the Detection Threshold and Minimum Feature Separation need to be adjusted to get an even spread of trackers.
New Track Defaults There are three methods in which the Camera Tracker node can analyze the scene, and each has its own strengths when dealing with certain types of camera movement. Tracker: Internally, all the Trackers use the Optical Flow Tracker to follow features over time and then further refine the tracks with the trusted Fusion Tracker or Planar Tracker. The Planar Tracker method allows the pattern to warp over time by various types of transforms to find the best fit.
Focal Length Specify the known constant focal length used to shoot the scene or provide a guess if the Refine Focal Length option is activated in the Solve tab. Film Gate Choose a film gate preset from the drop-down menu or manually enter the film back size in the Aperture Width and Aperture Height inputs. Note that these values are in inches. Aperture Width In the event that the camera used to shoot the scene is not in the preset drop-down menu, manually enter the aperture width (inches).
Solve Tab SolveTab The Solve tab is where the tracking data is used to reconstruct the camera’s motion path along with the point cloud. It is also where cleanup of bad or false tracks is done, and other operations on the tracks can be performed, such as defining which marks are exported in the Point Cloud 3D. The markers can also have their weight set to affect the solve calculations.
(measured in pixels) between tracks in the 2D image and the reconstructed 3D locators reprojected back onto the image through the reconstructed camera. Ultimately, in trying to achieve a low solve error, any value less than 1.0 pixels will generally result in a good track. A value between 0.6 and 0.8 pixels is considered excellent. Clean Tracks by Filter Clicking this button selects tracks based on the Track Filtering options.
Enable Lens Parameter When enabled, lens distortion parameters are exposed to help in correcting lens distortion when solving. Refine Center Point: Normally disabled, camera lenses are normally centered in the middle of the film gate but this may differ on some cameras For example, a cine camera may be set up for Academy 1.85, which has a sound stripe on the left, and shooting super35, the lens is offset to the right. Refine Lens Parameters: This will refine the lens distortion or curvature of the lens.
Division Quartic: Provides a more accurate simulation of Quartic radial lens curvature. This causes the low and high order distortion values to be solved for. – Lower Order Radial Distortion: This slider is available for all simulations. It determines the quadratic lens curvature. – Higher Order Radial Distortion: This slider is available only for Quartic simulations. Determines the quartic lens curvature. – Tangential Distortion X/Y: These sliders are available only for Tangential simulations.
Operations on Selected Tracks Tracks selected directly in the viewer with the mouse or selected via track filtering can have the following operations applied: Delete Will remove the tracks from the set. When there are bad tracks, the simplest and easiest option is to simply delete them. Trim Previous Will cut the tracked frames from the current frame to the start of the track. Sometimes it can be more useful to trim a track than deleting it.
Export The Export tab lets you turn the tracked and solved data this node has generated into a form that can be used for compositing. ExportTab Export The Export button will create a basic setup that can be used for 3D match moving: A Camera 3D with animated translation and rotation that matches the motion of the liveaction camera and an attached image plane. A Point Cloud 3D containing the reconstructed 3D positions of the tracks. A Shape 3D set to generate a ground plane.
The export of individual nodes can be enabled/disabled in the Export Options tab. Update Previous Export When this button is clicked, the previously exported nodes are updated with any new data generated. These previously exported nodes are remembered in the Previous Export section at the bottom of this section. Here’s an example of how this is handy: 1 Solve the camera and export. 2 Construct a complex Node Editor based around the exported nodes for use in set extension.
For instance, to set the ground plane, do the following: 1 After solving, set the 3D Scene Transform menu to Unaligned. 2 Find a frame where the ground plane is at its largest and clearest point. 3 In the viewer, drag a selection rectangle around all the ground plane locators. 4 Hold Shift and drag again to add to the selection. 5 In the Orientation section, make sure the Selection Is menu correctly matches the orientation of the selected locators.
Previous Export When the Update Previous Export button is clicked, the previously exported nodes listed here are updated with any new data generated (this includes the camera path and attributes, the point cloud, and the renderer). Options The Options tab lets you customize the Camera Tracker’s onscreen controls so you can work most effectively with the scene material you have. OptionsTab Trail Length Displays trail lines of the tracks overlaid on the viewer.
Visibility Toggles which overlays will be displayed in the 2D and 3D viewers. The options are Tracker Markers, Trails, Tooltips in the 2D Viewer, Tooltips in the 3D viewer, Reprojected Locators, and Tracker Patterns. Colors Sets the color of the overlays. Selection Color: Controls the color of selected tracks/locators. Preview New Tracks Color: Controls the color of the points displayed in the viewer when the Preview AutoTrack Locations option is enabled.
Seed Frames Two seed frames are used in the solve process. The algorithm chooses two frames that are as far apart in time yet share the same tracks. That is why longer tracks make a more significant difference in the selection of seed frames. The two Seed frames are used as the reference frames, which should be from different angles of the same scene. The solve process will use these as a master starting point to fit the rest of the tracks in the sequence.
The Common Controls Nodes that handle tracking operations share several identical controls in the Inspector. This section describes controls that are common among Tracking nodes. Inspector Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector can be found on every tool in the Tracking category. The controls are consistent and work the same way for each tool. Blend The Blend control is used to blend between the tool’s original image input and the tool’s final modified output image. When the blend value is 0.
Red/Green/Blue/Alpha Channel Selector These four buttons are used to limit the effect of the tool to specified color channels. This filter is often applied after the tool has been processed. For example, if the Red button on a Blur tool is deselected, the blur will first be applied to the image, and then the red channel from the original input will be copied back over the red channel of the result.
Motion Blur Motion Blur: This toggles the rendering of Motion Blur on the tool. When this control is toggled on, the tool’s predicted motion is used to produce the motion blur caused by the virtual camera’s shutter. When the control is toggled off, no motion blur is created. Quality: Quality determines the number of samples used to create the blur. A quality setting of 2 will cause Fusion to create two samples to either side of an object’s actual motion.
Chapter 108 Transform Nodes This chapter details the Transform nodes available in Fusion. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents Camera Shake [CSH] 2439 Crop [CRP] 2442 DVE [DVE] 2445 Letterbox [LBX] 2448 Resize [RSZ] 2451 Scale [SCL] 2454 Transform [XF] 2457 The Common Controls 2461 Chapter – 108 Transform Nodes 2438
Camera Shake [CSH] The Camera Shake node Camera Shake Node Introduction This node can simulate a variety of camera shake-style motions from organic to mechanical. It is not the same as the Shake Modifier, which generates random number values for parameters. For more information on the Shake modifier, see Chapter 60, “Modifiers” in the Fusion Studio Reference Manual or Chapter 111 in the DaVinci Resolve Reference Manual.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab includes parameters for adjusting the offsets, strength, speed, and frequency of the simulated camera shake movement. Deviation X and Y These controls determine the amount of shake applied to the image along the horizontal (X) and vertical (Y) axes. Values between 0.0 and 1.0 are permitted. A value of 1.0 generates shake positions anywhere within the boundaries of the image.
Filter Method When rescaling a pixel, surrounding pixels are often used to give a more realistic result. There are various algorithms for combining these pixels, called filters. More complex filters can give better results but are usually slower to calculate. The best filter for the job often depends on the amount of scaling and on the contents of the image itself. Box: This is a simple interpolation resize of the image.
Edges This menu determines how the Edges of the image are treated. Canvas: This causes the edges that are revealed by the shake to be the canvas color— usually transparent or black. Wrap: This causes the edges to wrap around (the top is wrapped to the bottom, the left is wrapped to the right, and so on). Duplicate: This causes the Edges to be duplicated, causing a slight smearing effect at the edges. Mirror: Image pixels are mirrored to fill to the edge of the frame.
Inputs The single input on the Crop node is used to connect a 2D image for cropping. – Input: The orange input is used for the primary 2D image you want to crop. Basic Node Setup Below, the Crop node is inserted between the MediaIn1 node and the background input of the Merge. Unlike using a mask tool, cropping the MediaIn1 changes the resolution of the clip. The cropped MediaIn1 node connected to the orange background input also sets the resolution of the Merge output.
Keep Aspect When toggled on, the Crop node maintains the aspect of the input image. Keep Centered When toggled on, the Crop node automatically adjusts the X and Y Offset controls to keep the image centered. The XY Offset sliders are automatically adjusted, and control over the cropping is done with the Size sliders or the Allow Box Selection button in the viewer. Reset Size This resets the image dimensions to the size of the input image. Reset Offset This resets the X and Y Offsets to their defaults.
Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other Transform nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section. DVE [DVE] The DVE node DVE Node Introduction The DVE (Digital Video Effects) node is a 3D-image transformation similar to nodes found in old, tape-based online editing suites. The node encompasses image rotations, perspective changes, and Z moves.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab includes all the transform parameters for the DVE. Pivot X, Y, and Z Positions the axis of rotation and scaling. The default is 0.5, 0.5 for X and Y, which is in the center of the image, and 0 for Z, which is at the center of Z space. Rotation Order Use these buttons to determine in what order rotations are applied to the image. XYZ Rotation These controls are used to rotate the image around the pivot along the X-, Y- and Z-axis.
Black Background Toggle this on to erase the area outside the mask from the transformed image. Fill Black Toggle this on to erase the area within the mask (before transformation) from the DVE’s input, effectively cutting the masked area out of the image. Enabling both Black Background and Fill Black will show only the masked, transformed area. Alpha Mode This determines how the DVE will handle the Alpha channel of the image when merging the transformed image areas over the untransformed image.
Letterbox [LBX] The Letterbox node Letterbox Node Introduction Use the Letterbox node to adapt existing images to the frame size and aspect ratios of any other format. The most common use of this node is to convert film resolution images to HDsized frames for viewing on an external television monitor. Horizontal or vertical black edges are automatically added where necessary to compensate for aspect ratio differences. This node actually changes the resolution of the image.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab includes parameters for adjusting the resolution and pixel aspect of the image. It also has the option of letterboxing or pan-and-scan formatting. Width and Height The values of these controls determine the size of the output image as measured in pixels. TIP: You can use the formatting contextual menu to quickly select a resolution from a list. Place the pointer over the Width or Height controls, and then right-click to display the contextual menu.
Filter Method When rescaling a pixel, surrounding pixels are often used to give a more realistic result. There are various algorithms for combining these pixels, called filters. More complex filters can give better results but are usually slower to calculate. The best filter for the job often depends on the amount of scaling and on the contents of the image itself. Box: This is a simple interpolation resize of the image.
Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other Transform nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section. Resize [RSZ] The Resize node Resize Node Introduction Use the Resize node to increase or decrease the resolution of an input image. This is useful for converting images from one format to another (for example, from film to video resolution).
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab includes parameters for changing the resolution of the image. It uses pixel values in the Width and Height controls. Width This controls the new resolution for the image along the X-axis. Height This controls the new resolution for the image along the Y-axis. TIP: You can use the formatting contextual menu to quickly select a resolution from a list. Place the mouse pointer over the Width or Height controls, and then right-click to display the contextual menu.
Filter Method When rescaling a pixel, surrounding pixels are often used to give a more realistic result. There are various algorithms for combining these pixels, called filters. More complex filters can give better results but are usually slower to calculate. The best filter for the job often depends on the amount of scaling and on the contents of the image itself. Box: This is a simple interpolation resize of the image.
Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other Transform nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section. Scale [SCL] The Scale node Scale Node Introduction The Scale node is almost identical to the Resize node, except that Resize uses exact dimensions, whereas the Scale node uses relative dimensions to describe the change to the source image’s resolution.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab includes parameters for changing the resolution of the image. It uses a multiplier of size to set the new resolution. An Edges menu allows you to determine how the edges of the frame are handled if the scaling decreases. Lock X/Y When selected, only a Size control is shown, and changes to the image’s scale are applied to both axes equally. If the checkbox is cleared, individual Size controls appear for both X and Y Size.
Catmull-Rom: This produces good results with continuous-tone images that are resized down. This produces sharp results with finely detailed images. Gaussian: This is very similar in speed and quality to Bi-Cubic. Mitchell: This is similar to Catmull-Rom but produces better results with finely detailed images. It is slower than Catmull-Rom. Lanczos: This is very similar to Mitchell and Catmull-Rom but is a little cleaner and also slower.
Transform [XF] The Transform node Transform Node Introduction The Transform node can be used for simple 2D transformations of the image, such as moving, rotating, and scaling. The image’s aspect can also be modified using the Transform node. The Transform node concatenates its result with adjacent Transformation nodes. The Transform node does not change the image’s resolution.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab presents multiple ways to transform, flip (vertical), flop (horizontal), scale, and rotate an image. It also includes reference size controls that can reinterpret the coordinates used for width and height from relative values of 0-1 into pixel values based on the image’s resolution. Center X and Y This sets the position of the image on the screen. The default is 0.5, 0.5, which places the image in the center of the screen.
Angle This control rotates the image around the axis. Increasing the Angle rotates the image in a counterclockwise direction. Decreasing the Angle rotates the image in a clockwise direction. Flip Horizontally and Vertically Toggle this control on to flip the image along the X- or Y-axis. Edges This menu determines how the edges of the image are treated when the edge of the raster is exposed. Canvas: This causes the edges of the image that are revealed to show the current Canvas Color.
Window Method (Sinc and Bessel Only) Some filters, such as Sinc and Bessel, require an infinite number of pixels to calculate exactly. To speed up this operation, a windowing function is used to approximate the filter and limit the number of pixels required. This control appears when a filter that requires windowing is selected. Hanning: This is a simple tapered window. Hamming: Hamming is a slightly tweaked version of Hanning that does not taper all the way down to zero.
Internally, the Transform node still stores this value as a number between 0 to 1, and if you were to query the Center controls value via scripting, or publish the Center control for use by other nodes, then you would retrieve the original normalized value. The change is visible only in the value shown for Transform Center in the node control.
Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector can be found on every tool in the Transform category. The Settings controls are even found on third-party Transform-type plug-in tools. The controls are consistent and work the same way for each tool. Blend The Blend control is used to blend between the tool’s original image input and the tool’s final modified output image. When the blend value is 0.0, the outgoing image is identical to the incoming image.
Object ID/Material ID (Sliders) Use these sliders to select which ID will be used to create a mask from the object or material channels of an image. Use the Sample button in the same way as the Color Picker: to grab IDs from the image displayed in the viewer. The image or sequence must have been rendered from a 3D software package with those channels included. Motion Blur Motion Blur: This toggles the rendering of Motion Blur on the tool.
Chapter 109 VR Nodes This chapter details the Virtual Reality (VR) nodes available in Fusion. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents VR Nodes 2466 Lat Long Patcher [LLP] 2467 Pano Map [PaM] 2469 Spherical Camera [3SC] 2471 Spherical Stabilizer 2471 The Common Controls 2473 Chapter – 109 VR Nodes 2465
VR Nodes You can create and fix spherical (360°) video, often described as Virtual Reality, or VR, using Fusion’s set of VR nodes. Dome productions, planetariums, and other special-venue theaters have utilized the flexibility of Fusion and its 3D system to produce and deliver special content for years.
Fusion supports several common spherical image formats and can easily convert between them. VCross and HCross: VCross and HCross are the six square faces of a cube laid out in a cross, vertically or horizontally, with the forward view in the center of the cross in a 3:4 or 4:3 image. VStrip and HStrip: VStrip and HStrip are the six square faces of a cube laid vertically or horizontally in a line, ordered as Left, Right, Up, Down, Back, Front (+X, -X, +Y, -Y, +Z, -Z) in a 1:6 or 6:1 image.
Basic Node Setup The Loader node connects to the input on a Lat Long Patcher node. The output of a Lat Long Patcher node is set to Extract. It is then connected to whatever image-processing operation is required. A second Lat Long Patcher node set to Apply takes an input from the processed extraction and merges it over the top of the original source.
Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is duplicated in other VR nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section. Pano Map [PaM] The Pano Map node NOTE: The VR category and Pano Map node are available only in Fusion Studio and DaVinci Resolve Studio. Pano Map Node Introduction The Pano Map node converts images from one spherical layout to another, such as from a cube map to an equirectangular format.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab is used to determine the format of the input image and the desired output format. From/To Auto: Auto detects the incoming image layout from the metadata and image frame aspect. VCross and HCross: VCross and HCross are the six square faces of a cube laid out in a cross, vertically or horizontally, with the forward view in the center of the cross in a 3:4 or 4:3 image.
Spherical Camera [3SC] The Spherical Camera node Spherical Camera Node Introduction The Spherical Camera is not located in the VR category of the Effects Library but in the 3D category. However, it is commonly used in creating and fixing VR content, so it is referenced here. The Spherical Camera allows the 3D Renderer node to output an image covering all viewing angles, laid out in several different formats.
Basic Node Setup In the example below, a 2:1 Lat Long image is connected to the input of the Spherical Stabilizer node. Once the image is stabilized, the output of the Spherical Stabilizer node is a steadied clip. Spherical Stabilizer set up to steady a 2:1 Lat Long clip Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab contains parameters to initiate the tracking and modify the results for stabilization or smoothing.
Stabilization Strength This control varies the amount of smoothing or stabilization applied, from 0.0 (no change) to 1.0 (maximum). Smoothing The Spherical Stabilizer node can eliminate all rotation from a shot, fixing the forward viewpoint (Still mode, 0.0) or gently smooth out any panning, rolling, or tilting to increase viewer comfort (Smooth mode, 1.0). This slider allows either option or anything in between.
Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector can be found on every tool in the VR category. The controls are consistent and work the same way for each tool. Apply Mask Inverted Enabling the Apply Mask Inverted option inverts the complete mask channel for the tool. The mask channel is the combined result of all masks connected to or generated in a node. Use GPU The Use GPU menu has three settings. Setting the menu to Disable turns off hardwareaccelerated rendering using the graphics card in your computer.
Chapter 110 Warp Nodes This chapter details the Warp nodes available in Fusion. The abbreviations next to each node name can be used in the Select Tool dialog when searching for tools and in scripting references. For purposes of this document, node trees showing MediaIn nodes in DaVinci Resolve are interchangeable with Loader nodes in Fusion Studio, unless otherwise noted.
Contents Coordinate Space [CDS] 2477 Corner Positioner [CPN] 2479 Dent [DNT] 2481 Displace [DSP] 2483 Drip [DRP] 2485 Grid Warp [GRD] 2488 Lens Distort [LENS] 2494 Perspective Positioner [PPN] 2497 Vector Distortion [DST] 2499 Vortex [VTX] 2501 The Common Controls 2503 Chapter – 110 Warp Nodes 2476
Coordinate Space [CDS] The Coordinate Space node Coordinate Space Node Introduction The Coordinate Space node changes the coordinate space of the image from rectangular to polar or from polar to rectangular. Inputs The two inputs on the Coordinate Space node are used to connect a 2D image and an effect mask, which can be used to limit the distorted area. – Input: The orange input is used for the primary 2D image that is distorted.
Example To demonstrate a basic tunnel effect that can be achieved with this node: 1 Add a Text+ node with some text, and then animate it to move along a path from the top of the frame to the bottom. 2 Connect the output of the Text+ node to a Coordinate Space node. 3 Select Polar to Rectangular from the Shape menu. As the text moves from top to bottom along the original path, it appears to move from an infinite distance in the Coordinate Space node.
Corner Positioner [CPN] The Corner Positioner node Corner Positioner Node Introduction The Corner Positioner can be used to position the four corners of an image interactively. This would typically be used to replace a sign or other rectangular portion of a scene. Connect all corners to Paths or Trackers for animation purposes. Inputs The two inputs on the Corner Positioner node are used to connect a 2D image and an effect mask, which can be used to limit the warped area.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab includes transform and offset adjustments for the four corners of the image Mapping Type This determines the method used to project the image caused by the Corner Positioner. In Bi-Linear mode, a straight 2D warping takes place. In Perspective mode, the image is calculated with the offsets in 2D space and then mapped into a 3D perspective. Corners X and Y There are four points in the Corner Positioner.
Dent [DNT] The Dent node Dent Node Introduction The Dent node creates a circular deformation of an image similar to a Fish Eye Lens effect, with the choice of six different Dent filters. Inputs The two inputs on the Dent node are used to connect a 2D image and an effect mask, which can be used to limit the warped area. – Input: The orange input is used for the primary 2D image that is warped.
Controls Tab The adjustments in the Controls tab are used to change the Dent style, position, size, and strength. Type Select the type of Dent filter to use from this menu. All parameters for the Dent can be keyframed. Dent 1 This creates a bulge dent. Kaleidoscope This creates a dent, mirrors it, and inverts it. Dent 2 This creates a displacement dent. Dent 3 This creates a deform dent. Cosine Dent This creates a fracture to a center point. Sine Dent This creates a smooth rounded dent.
Displace [DSP] The Displace node Displace Node Introduction The Displace node uses a map image to displace or refract another image. This is useful for creating a vast range of effects from bevels and heat distortion to glass and water effects. Inputs There are three inputs on the Displace node: The primary image, the displacement map foreground image, and an effect mask. – Input: The orange image input is a required connection for the primary image you wish to displace.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab is used to change the style, position, size , strength, and lighting (embossing) of the displacement. Type The Type menu is used to choose in what mode the Displace node operates. The Radial mode uses the map image that refracts each pixel out from the center, while X/Y mode provides control over the amount of displacement along each axis individually.
Light Angle This sets the angle of the simulated light source. Spread This widens the Displacement effect and takes the edge off the Refraction map. Higher values cause the ridges or edges to spread out. Light Channel Select the channel from the refraction image to use as the simulated light source. Select from Color, Red, Green, Blue, Alpha, or Luminance channels. NOTE: The Radial mode pushes pixels inward or outward from a center point, based on pixel values from the Displacement map.
Basic Node Setup Below, the Drip node is used to make rippling water-style effects using a MediaIn node. The Drip node can be connected directly after a MediaIn node or any node providing a 2D output Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab is used to change the style, position, size , strength, and phase for animating the “ripples” of the Drip. Shape Use this control to select the shape of the Drip. Circular This creates circular ripples. This is the default Drip mode.
Star This creates an eight-way symmetrical star-shaped ripple that acts as a kaleidoscope when the phase is animated. Radial This creates a star-shaped ripple that emits from a fixed pattern. Center X and Y Use this control to position the center of the Drip effect in the image. The default is 0.5, 0.5, which centers the effect in the image. Aspect Control the aspect ratio of the various Drip shapes. A value of 1.0 causes the shapes to be symmetrical.
Grid Warp [GRD] The Grid Warp node Grid Warp Node Introduction The Grid Warp node is a 2D deformation grid with flexible vertices. The image is deformed so that the source grid matches the destination grid. Inputs The two inputs on the Grid Warp node are used to connect a 2D image and an effect mask, which can be used to limit the warped area. – Input: The orange input is used for the primary 2D image that is warped.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab contains parameters that configure the onscreen grid as well the type of distortion applied when a control point on the grid is moved. Source and Destination The Source and Destination buttons determine whether the source grid or destination grid is currently active. Only one grid can be displayed or manipulated at a time. The selected button is highlighted to indicate that it is the currently active grid.
Magnet Distance The default node for selecting and manipulating the grid is a Magnet node. The magnet is represented in the viewer by a circle around the mouse pointer. The Magnet Distance slider controls how large the region of effect for the magnet is, as in the size of the circle. Drag on the grid and any vertex within the range of the slider moves. To increase the size of the magnet, increase the value of this slider.
Edit Rectangle When the grid is in Edit Rectangle mode, the onscreen controls display a rectangle that determines the dimensions of the grid. The sides of the rectangle can be adjusted to increase or decrease the grid’s dimension. This mode also reveals the onscreen Center control for the grid. Edit Line The Edit Line mode is beneficial for creating grids around organic shapes. When this mode is enabled, all onscreen controls disappear, and a spline can be drawn around the shape or object to be deformed.
Render Tab The Render tab controls the final rendered quality and appearance of the warping. Render Method The Render Method drop-down menu is used to select the rendering technique and quality applied to the mesh. The three settings are arranged in order of quality, with the first, Wireframe, as the fastest and lowest of quality. The default mode is Render, which produces final resolution, full-quality results.
Set Image Coordinates at Subdivision Level This checkbox defaults to enabled and sets the image coordinates at the subdivision level. Force Destination Render This checkbox defaults to enabled and forces a destination render. Contextual Menu Options The Grid Warp node places a submenu for both source and destination grids in the viewer’s contextual menu. Both menus have the exact same name, where only the menu for the active grid is populated with options. The other menu is empty.
Show Key Points, Handles, Grid, and Subdivisions Use these four options to enable or disable the display of the grid, key points (vertices), Bézier handles, and subdivisions in the viewers. Reset Selected Points This resets Selected Points (vertices) to their default positions. Reset All Points This resets all points (vertices) in the mesh to their default positions. Stop Rendering This option stops rendering, which disables all rendering of the Grid Warp node until the mode is turned off.
Inputs The two inputs on the Lens Distort node are used to connect a 2D image and an effect mask, which can be used to limit the distorted area. – Input: The orange input is used for the primary 2D image that is distorted. – Effect Mask: The blue input is for a mask shape created by polylines, basic primitive shapes, paint strokes, or bitmaps from other tools. Connecting a mask to this input limits the distortion to only those pixels within the mask.
Controls Tab The Controls tab presents various ways to customize or build the lens distortion model you want. Camera Settings allow you to specify the camera used to capture the content. Mode Undistort removes the lens distortion to create a flattened image. Distort brings the original lens distortion back into the image. Edges Determines how samples that fall outside the frame are treated. Canvas: Pixels outside the frame are set to the default canvas color. In most cases, this is black with no Alpha.
How to Manually Determine Lens Distortion In an ideal world, one would have exact lens parameters from each lens that was used during the shoot, and one could use those values to undistort the image. However, in the real world, those parameters have not been taken on set or don’t match. Another approach is to use software like 3D Equalizer, which analyzes the footage and delivers a dataset that can be imported into the Lens Distort node right away.
The Perspective Positioner unpins an image to paint on a texture map Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab contains parameters for selecting vector channels and controlling how much distortion they apply to an image. Mapping Type The Mapping Type menu is used to select the type of transform used to distort the image. Bi-Linear is available for support of older projects. Leaving this on Perspective is strongly suggested since the Perspective setting maps the real world more accurately.
Vector Distortion [DST] The Vector Distortion node Vector Distortion Node Introduction The Vector Distortion node distorts the main source image along the X- and Y-axis separately, based on the vector channel data in the source image or vector channels from a second reference image. Inputs There are three inputs on the Vector Distort node for the primary 2D image, the distort image with vector channels and an effect mask.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab contains parameters for selecting vector channels and controlling how much distortion they apply to an image. X Channel and Y Channel These two menus are used to select which channel of the (green) distort image input is used to distort the X and Y channels. If no distort reference image is connected, then channels from the main orange input are used instead.
Common Controls Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other Warp nodes. These common controls are described in detail at the end of this chapter in “The Common Controls” section. Vortex [VTX] The Vortex node Vortex Node Introduction The Vortex effect appears as a swirling whirlpool in specified regions of the image. The Vortex can be made to move and grow by animating the various controls.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab contains parameters for adjusting the position, size, and strength of the Vortex effect. Center X and Y This control is used to position the center of the Vortex effect on the image. The default is 0.5, 0.5, which positions the effect in the center of the image. Size Size changes the area affected by the Vortex. You can drag the circumference of the effect in the viewer or use the Size slider.
The Common Controls Nodes that handle Warp operations share a number of identical controls in the Inspector. This section describes controls that are common among Warp nodes. Inspector Settings Tab The Settings tab in the Inspector can be found on every tool in the Warp category. The Settings controls are even found on third-party Warp-type plug-in tools. The controls are consistent and work the same way for each tool.
Process When Blend Is 0.0 The tool is processed even when the input value is zero. This can be useful if the node is scripted to trigger a task, but the node’s value is set to 0.0. Red/Green/Blue/Alpha Channel Selector These four buttons are used to limit the effect of the tool to specified color channels. This filter is often applied after the tool has been processed.
Motion Blur Motion Blur: This toggles the rendering of Motion Blur on the tool. When this control is toggled on, the tool’s predicted motion is used to produce the motion blur caused by the virtual camera’s shutter. When the control is toggled off, no motion blur is created. Quality: Quality determines the number of samples used to create the blur. A quality setting of 2 will cause Fusion to create two samples to either side of an object’s actual motion.
Chapter 111 Modifiers This chapter details the modifiers available in Fusion.
Contents Modifiers 2508 Bézier Spline 2508 B-Spline 2510 Calculation 2510 CoordTransform Position 2513 Cubic Spline 2514 Expression 2514 From Image 2519 Gradient Color 2521 Key Stretcher Modifier 2522 MIDI Extractor 2523 Natural Cubic Spline 2526 Offset (Angle, Distance, Position) 2527 Path 2530 Perturb 2531 Probe 2533 Publish 2535 Resolve Parameter 2535 Shake 2536 Track 2538 Vector Result 2539 XY Path 2541 Chapter – 111 Modifiers 2507
Modifiers Modifiers are extensions to a node’s standard set of parameters found in the Inspector; in fact, modifiers are designed to control other parameters. They can be as simple as a motion path or linking two parameters. However, they can also be elaborate expressions, procedural functions, external data, third-party plug-ins, or scripted Fuses. You can add modifiers by right-clicking over a parameter in the Inspector and choosing a modifier from the menu.
Usage You can add the Bézier Spline to the Spline Editor by right-clicking a number field and selecting BezierSpline. Since this is the most common choice for animation splines, it is separated from the Modify With menu for quicker access. Selecting BezierSpline from the menu adds a keyframe at the current location and displays a Bézier spline in the Spline Editor. Unlike most modifiers, this modifier has no actual Controls tab in the Inspector.
B-Spline An alternative to the Bézier Spline, B-spline is another animation modifier in Fusion and is typically applied to numerical values rather than point values. It is applied by right-clicking a parameter and selecting Modify With > B-Spline. Usage – This animation spline modifier has no actual Controls tab. However, the Spline Editor displays the B-spline, and it can be controlled there. Notice that, though the actual value of the second keyframe is 0, the value of the resulting spline is 0.
Inspector Calculation Calc tab Calc Tab The Calc tab includes two dials used for the connected parameter and value that gets mathematically combined. The Operator menu selects how the Second Operand value combines with the parameter’s value. First and Second Operand These sliders are connected to published or animated parameters or manually set to the desired values for the calculation. Operator Select from the mathematical operations listed in this menu to determine how the two operands are combined.
Time Tab The Time tab is used to modify the time of the Calculation modifier. The controls here retime the speed of the effect or offset it in time. First and Second Operand Time Scale These sliders multiply the frame number and return the value of the operands at the multiplied frame number. A value of 1 returns the value of the operand at frame x when the composition is on frame x. For example, if the first operand is animated with a value of 1 to 50 from frame 0 to 10, then a scale of 0.
13 Switch to the Time tab of the modifier and set the First Operand Time Scale to -1.0. Normally, the first operand gets the value of the control it is connected to from the same frame as the current time. So at frame 10, the first operand is set to the same value as the Text size at frame 10. By setting this value to -1, the value is read from one frame back in time whenever the current time of the composition advances by 1 frame.
Cubic Spline The Cubic Spline is another animation modifier in Fusion that is normally applied to numerical values rather than point values. It can be applied by right-clicking a numerical control and selecting Modify With > Natural Cubic Spline. Usage Being an animation spline, this modifier has no actual Controls tab. However, its effect can be seen and influenced in the Spline Editor.
Inspector Controls Tab This tab provides nine number controls and nine point controls. The values of the number controls can be referred to in an expression as n1 through n9. The X-coordinate of each point control can be referred to as p1x through p9x, while the Y-coordinate is p1y through p9y. These values can be set manually, connected to other parameters, animated, and even connected to other Expressions or Calculations.
Point Out Tab The two text boxes in this tab use mathematical formulas, accessing the Number In and Point In values from the Controls tab. The output value modifies the control in which the Expression was applied. The Expression in the top text box control is used to calculate the X-axis value, and the bottom text box is used to calculate the Y-axis control. See below for the syntax to use in this field. Config Tab A good expression is reused over and over again.
Random Seed The Random Seed control sets the starting number for the Rand() function. The rand(x, y) function produces a random value between X and Y, producing a new value for every frame. As long as the setting of this Random Seed slider remains the same, the values produced at frame x are always the same. Adjust the Seed slider to a new value to get a different value for that frame.
min(x, y) The minimum (lowest) of x and y. max(x, y) The maximum (highest) of x and y. dist(x1, y1, x2, y2) The distance between point x1,y2 and x2,y2. dist3d(x1,y1,z1,x2,y2,z2) The distance between 3D points x1,y2,z1 and x2,y2,z2 noise(x) A smoothly varying Perlin noise value based on x noise2(x, y) A smoothly varying Perlin noise value based on x and y noise3(x, y, z) A smoothly varying Perlin noise value based on x, y and z if(c, x, y) Returns x if c not 0, otherwise y.
Example 1 To make a numeric control equal to the Y value of a motion path, add an expression to the desired target control and connect the Path to Point In 1. Enter the formula: p1y into the Number Out field. Example 2 To make the result of the Expression’s Number Out be the largest of Number In 1 and Number In 2, multiplied by the cosine of Number In 3, plus the X coordinate of Point In 1, enter the formula: max(n1, n2) * cos(n3) + p1x into the Number Out field.
Controls Tab The From Image controls tab in the Inspector is used to select the node that contains the image you want to sample. It allows you to define the starting and ending point in the image as well as how many color samples to use in creating the gradient. Image to Scan Drop into this box the node from the Node Editor that you want to be color sampled.
Gradient Color The Gradient Color modifier allows you to create a customized gradient and map it into a specific time range to control a value. Use the Start and End time controls to set the frames for the animation. If the Start and End time values are set to 0, then the modifier returns the value at the starting point of the gradient. You can use the Offset control to animate the gradient manually. It can be applied by right-clicking a parameter and selecting Modify With > Gradient Color.
Repeat Defines how the left and right borders of the gradient are treated. Gradients set to Once, Repeat, and Ping Pong from top to bottom, respectively, and shifting the gradient to the left. – Once: When using the Gradient Offset control to shift the gradient, the border colors keep their values. Shifting the default gradient to the left results in a white border on the left; shifting it to the right results in a black border on the right.
MIDI Extractor The MIDI Extractor modifier provides the ability to modify the value of a control using the values stored in a MIDI file. This modifier relies on some knowledge of MIDI, which is beyond the scope of this manual. The value produced by the modifier is extracted from the MIDI event selected in the Mode menu. Each mode can be trimmed so that only specific messages for that event are processed—for example, only some notes are processed, while others are ignored.
Time Offset Time Offset adjusts the sync between the MIDI file’s timing and Fusion’s timing. If there is an unexpected delay, or if the MIDI file should start partway into or before some animation in Fusion, this control can be used to offset the MIDI data as required. Result Offset, Result Scale These sliders adjust the range of values produced by the modifier. By default, values between 0 and 1 (or -1 and 1 for PitchBend mode) are generated.
Envelope Controls (Note and Beat Modes Only) These define an Envelope to follow for values before, during, and after the note or beat. Pre-Attack Time defines how long before the event it starts ramping up to the pre-attack level. Attack is the Time/Level to ramp to once the event has occurred, followed by the Decay ramp and Sustain, until the event stops. This stage is for Notes only. Beats have an instantaneous duration, so it goes straight to Release.
MIDI Events – Channel Aftertouch: This event defines that pressure is being applied to the keys (or strings or whatever) during a note. This represents general, overall pressure for this channel, so it simply uses a pressure value (0–127). – Poly Aftertouch: This event defines that pressure is being applied to the keys (or strings or whatever) during a note. It is specific to each particular note and therefore contains a note number as well as a pressure value (0–127).
Offset (Angle, Distance, Position) There are three Offset modifiers used to create variances between values. Depending on the modifier, these values relate to controls, paths, and points. The three types of Offset modifiers available in Fusion are: – Offset Angle – Offset Distance – Offset Position Offset Angle The Offset Angle modifier outputs a value between 0 and 360 that is based on the angle between two positional controls.
Position X and Y The X and Y values are used by the Position to generate the calculation. Offset X and Y The X and Y values are used by the Offset to generate the calculation. Flip Position Horizontal and Vertical When these controls are selected, the Position is mirrored along the vertical or horizontal axis of the image. Flip Offset Horizontal and Vertical When these controls are selected, the Offset position is mirrored along the vertical or horizontal axis of the image.
Time Tab Position Time Scale This returns the value of the Position at the Time Scale specified (for example, 0.5 is the value at half the current frame time). Position Time Offset This returns the value of the Position at the Time Offset specified (for example, 10 is 10 frames back). Offset Time Scale This returns the value of the Offset at the Time Scale specified. Offset Time Offset This returns the value of the Offset at the Time Offset specified.
Path The Path modifier uses two splines to control the animation of points: an onscreen motion path (spacial) and a Time spline visible in the Spline Editor (temporal). To animate an object’s position control using a Path, right-click the Position control either in the Inspector or in the viewer and select Path from the contextual menu. This adds a keyframe at the current position. You can begin creating a path by moving the playhead and dragging the center position control in the viewer.
To slow down, speed up, stop, or even reverse the motion of the control along the path, adjust the values of the points for the path’s displacement in the Spline Editor or in the Inspector. – A Displacement value of 0.0 in the Spline Editor indicates that the control is at the very beginning of a path. – A value of 1.0 indicates that the control is positioned at the end of the path. – Each locked point on the motion path in the viewer has an associated point on the Displacement spline.
Inspector Controls Tab The Controls tab for Perturb is mainly used for controlling the Strength, Wobble, and Speed parameters of the random jitter. Value The content of this control depends on what type of control the modifier was applied to. If the Perturb modifier was added to a basic Slider control, the Value is a slider. If it was added to a Gradient control, then a Gradient control is displayed here. Use the control to set the default, or center value, for the Perturb modifier to work on.
Phase (Polylines and meshes only) Animating this can be used to move the ripple of a polyline or mesh along itself, from end to end. The effect can be most clearly seen when Speed is set to 0.0. Random Seed Randomize The Random Seed is used to “seed” the amount of jitter applied by the modifier. Two Perturb modifiers with identical settings, but different random seeds, produce two completely different results. Click the Randomize button to assign a random seed value.
Channel Select the channel you want to probe. The usual options are: – Red – Green – Blue – Alpha Luma Once a Probe modifier is present somewhere in your comp, you can connect other node’s values to its outputs as well. The Probe allows you to connect to its values individually: – Result – Red – Green – Blue – Alpha Position X Y The position in the image from where the probe samples the values. Probe Rectangle By default, the Probe samples only the value of a single pixel at its position.
Scale Input By default, the Probe generates the Black Value when the probed area results in a value of 0 (i.e., black), and it generates its White Value when the probed area results in a value of 1 (i.e., white). By using this range control, you can modify the sensitivity of the Probe. Black Value The value that is generated by the Probe if the probed area delivers the result set in Scale Input Black.
For example, to create a cross dissolve, do the following: 1 From the Effects Library, add a Fusion Composition to the Edit page Timeline. 2 In Fusion, add a Dissolve node to the Node Editor. 3 In the Inspector, right-click the Background/Foreground parameter, and then choose Resolve Parameter from the Modifier contextual menu. Adding the modifier to the Background/Foreground parameter automatically updates the slider if the transition is modified back on the Edit/Cut page.
Controls Tab Random Seed The Random Seed control contains the value used to seed the random number generator. Given the same seed, a random number generator always produces the same results. Change the seed if the results from the randomizer are not satisfying. Smoothness This control is used to smooth the overall randomness of the Shake. The higher the value, the smoother the motion appears. A value of zero generates completely random results, with no smoothing applied.
Track Although there is a standard Tracker node, you can also use a Tracker modifier to add a tracker directly to a parameter. To apply the Tracker modifier, in the viewer right-click the Center control of of any transform, text, mask, or other positionable element. From the contextual menu, choose Object x Center > Modify With > Tracker. Then choose one of three options: – Tracker Position: Tracks a point from the source. – Steady Position: Stabilizes based on a single point in the source.
Example Imagine that you need to track an actor’s eyes so that an unearthly, alien glow can be applied to the eyes. 1 Select the Loader node. 2 Add a Glow node. 3 Add an Ellipse mask to the Glow in the shape of one of the eyes. 4 Right-click the center of that mask and select Modify With > Tracker > Position. Since the track is on the mask, the tracker takes the glow as the image for tracking. This could cause problems since the eye might be very obscured by the glow.
Image Aspect This slider control is used primarily to compensate for image aspect differences. A square image of 500 x 500 would use an Image Aspect value of 1, while a rectangular image of 500 x 1000 would use an Image Aspect value of 2. The default for this value is taken from the current Frame Format preferences using width/height. It may be necessary to modify this control to match the current image. Example 1 Create a 100-frame comp.
XY Path The XY Path type uses two separate splines for the position along the X-axis and for the position along the Y-axis. To animate a coordinate control using an XY path, right-click the control and select Modify With > XY Path from the contextual menu. At first glance, XY paths work like Displacement paths. To describe the path, change frames and position the control where it should be on that frame, and then change frames again and move the control to its new position.
PART 9 Color
Chapter 112 Introduction to Color Grading For over thirty years, DaVinci has pioneered the development of color correction hardware and software designed to enhance visual images acquired from film and video. This release of DaVinci Resolve possesses our newest and most evolved professional color correction tools yet. However, for all its technological sophistication, DaVinci Resolve is merely a tool that requires the hands of a skilled artist to realize its full potential.
Contents The Goals of Color Correction 2545 Maximizing the Look of Your Media 2545 Emphasizing What’s Important 2548 Audience Expectations 2550 Balancing Scenes 2551 Adding Style 2553 Quality Control 2556 Never Stop Experimenting 2557 Chapter – 112 Introduction to Color Grading 2544
The Goals of Color Correction If reality is a fire hose of visual information, then digital cinema and broadcast would be represented by a garden hose. Color correction, therefore, could be considered the process of choosing which parts of the fire hose of raw image data to fit into the garden hose of our displays in order to create a pleasing image for the viewer.
For example, Blackmagic URSA, ARRI ALEXA, and RED DRAGON cameras record quite a bit of image data, making extreme corrections far more possible than more heavily compressed camera formats such as the Canon 5D. However, in either case, DaVinci Resolve provides the tools to process images in many different ways to adjust the image for a better look.
All of these controls let you adjust the color tone of the shadows, midtones, and highlights independently from each other. Cool look Warm look Meanwhile, the Master Lift, Gamma, and Gain wheels work together to let you alter image contrast in different ways: deepening shadows, lightening highlights, and brightening or darkening the midtones in between to create whatever image tonality you prefer for a given scene. High contrast Low contrast Source footage courtesy of Gianluca Bertone DP, www.
Separate saturation controls let you increase or decrease color intensity throughout the scene, while the Lum vs. Sat and Sat vs. Sat curves give you the ability to fine-tune saturation very specifically. High Saturation Low Saturation For more information on these controls, which are essential to the color correction process, see Chapter 117, “Primary Grading Controls.
Drawing a window to isolate a region of the picture to highlight Specific alterations can also be made to prevent audience distraction. For example, a lowsaturation monochromatic tint may be a pleasing look overall, but in the soft wash of color, the viewer might lose track of the watch that’s preoccupying the protagonist.
Audience Expectations There is another family of tools, the HSL, RGB, and Luma Qualifiers, that provide even more specific control, and they’re useful for adjusting ranges of color to either play into or against the audience expectations for color in a scene. Substantial research into what has been termed “memory color” shows that people have finely tuned expectations for the hues of particular subjects, such as flesh tone, foliage greens, and sky blues.
Originally graded scene HSL qualification of the sky Corrected and sky enhanced For more information on using qualifiers, see Chapter 119, “Secondary Qualifiers.” Balancing Scenes It’s rare when the uncorrected shots of a scene match one another perfectly. Even the most carefully exposed angles of coverage can have small variances that need to be evened out.
Timeline thumbnail view of unbalanced clips Thumbnail view of balanced clips By using the Gallery to play stills, either split or whole (flipping back and forth between the clip you’re adjusting and the still), it becomes easier to use the extensive DaVinci Resolve toolset to match the color and exposure of every clip in a scene.
Adding Style Of course, it’s not all about subtlety and correction. It’s often appropriate, when grading music videos and commercials, for instance, to add some radical style to a piece. Here, too, DaVinci Resolve provides an abundance of features for manipulating unexpected aspects of the image; for example, by abusing the Custom Curves to create the illusion of chemical cross‑processing.
Node tree adding two different treatments together Original image Enhanced and balanced final You can also create complex node trees to build specific mattes, to use for isolating specific elements of the image. For example, if you wanted to isolate an actor in color against a background turned monochromatic, you can create multiple keys (pulled via HSL Qualification) and combine them using a Key Mixer node to build that effect.
Node tree to isolate the man’s face and clothes Original image The final effect, desaturating everything except for the man Finally, DaVinci Resolve doesn’t just have tools governing color and contrast. A Blur palette provides controls over blurring, sharpening, or adding mist to all or part of the image. When combined with the other tools that are available for isolation and color adjustment, these are powerful additions to your creative arsenal.
Quality Control Lastly, it’s important to keep in mind that, for all the creative possibilities that DaVinci Resolve affords, it’s still important that the final deliverables that you give to your client has appropriate signal levels relative to their requirements. In particular, programs destined for broadcast have specific outer boundaries of luma and chroma that you must not exceed, or you’ll risk having a show rejected for QC (quality control) violations.
Video scopes When the time comes that you want to start clipping data in the highlights and shadows, as part of a creative look, the Soft Clip controls let you introduce a subtle or large roll-off, compressing the extremes of the signal so that what clipping you do is softer and more pleasing. For more information about the video scopes and the Soft Clip controls, see Chapter 113, “Using the Color Page,” and Chapter 118, “Curves.
Chapter 113 Using the Color Page Given the origin of DaVinci Resolve as a professional grading application, the Color page is at the heart of the DaVinci Resolve experience. Within the Color page are all of the controls available for manipulating color and contrast, reducing noise, creating limited secondary color corrections, building image effects of different kinds, adjusting clip geometry, and making many other corrective and stylistic adjustments.
Contents The Color Page Interface 2560 The Interface Toolbar 2560 Showing Which Panel Has Focus 2560 Viewer 2561 Gallery 2563 LUT Browser 2564 Media Pool 2565 Node Editor 2566 Timeline 2566 Palette Area 2568 Dual Monitor Layout 2569 The Info Palette and Clip Information 2571 Clip Info 2571 System Info 2572 Clip Details 2572 Customizing the Color Page 2573 Undo and Redo in DaVinci Resolve 2574 Chapter – 113 Using the Color Page 2559
The Color Page Interface The Color page is divided into seven main areas that work together to let you build a grade. This section provides an overview of what these areas are and how they function. The default layout of the Color page The Interface Toolbar At the very top of the Color page is a toolbar with buttons that let you show and hide different parts of the user interface. These buttons are as follows, from left to right: The Interface toolbar Gallery: Opens and closes the Gallery panel.
A highlight appears at the top edge to show you which panel has focus so that you can keep track of which part of the current page is taking precedence, and you can switch focus as necessary to do what you need to do. You can turn the Focus Indicator on and off in Preferences > User > UI Settings > Show focus indicators in the user interface.
Enhanced Viewer (Option-F to toggle this on and off) hides everything to the left and right of the Viewer, giving you a large working area for tasks such as window positioning and rotoscoping, while keeping the palettes and their controls visible as you work. The Color page in Enhanced Viewer mode Full Screen Viewer (Shift-F to toggle this on and off) is available to provide more working area for tasks such as window positioning and rotoscoping.
The Color page in Cinema Viewer mode Gallery The Gallery is used for storing still frames to use as reference, and grades you might like to copy; stills and grades are stored together. A button lets you open up the Album browser, used for organizing your stills. At the bottom of the Gallery, Memories let you store grade information that you can apply using a control panel or keyboard shortcuts. The Gallery on the Color page mirrors the contents of the Gallery page.
LUT Browser The LUT Browser provides a centralized area for browsing and previewing all of the LUTs installed on your workstation. All LUTs appear in the sidebar, by category. The LUT Browser By default, all LUTs appear with a test thumbnail that give a preview of that LUT’s effect, but you can also get a live preview of how the current clip looks with that LUT by hover scrubbing with the pointer over a particular LUT’s thumbnail (this is described in more detail below).
To reset the thumbnail of a LUT to use the standard thumbnail: Right-click a LUT and choose Reset Thumbnail to go back to using the standard test image. To refresh a LUT category with new LUTs that may have been installed: Select a LUT category, then right-click anywhere within the browser area and choose Refresh to refresh the contents of that category from disk.
Node Editor The Node Editor is where you assemble one or more individual corrections (nodes) together into a complete multi-correction grade (node tree). This is a powerful way of assembling grades, since different types of nodes let you create different combinations of corrections and very specific adjustments by reordering operations, combining keys, or changing the layer order of different adjustments.
Much valuable information appears above and below each thumbnail, such as each clip’s clip number, source timecode, track number, whether it’s been flagged, whether it’s automatically linked or part of a group, whether it’s been tracked, and so on. A clip thumbnail in the Thumbnail timeline What’s displayed underneath each thumbnail can be changed by double-clicking the space underneath each thumbnail.
As seen above, a colored outline appears around the clip number of shots that have been graded, and this outline is doubled if there are additional versions applied to that clip. For more detailed information about the Color page Timeline, see Chapter 115, “Color Page Timeline and Lightbox.” Palette Area Most everyday tools and functions for grading are distributed among a series of palettes found in the palette area of the Color page.
Center Palettes At 1920x1080 resolution or higher, a second set of palettes is organized at the bottom center of the Color page. These palettes span a wide range of functionality, and the adjustments you make with them can be combined with those made using the Color palettes. Center palette selection buttons NOTE: At lower resolutions, the Left and Center palettes are merged to fit the DaVinci Resolve interface into a smaller area.
To enter dual screen mode: Choose Workspace > Dual Screen > On. The Color page in dual screen mode To switch which UI elements appear on which monitors: Choose Workspace > Primary Display > (Monitor Name), which reverses the contents of both monitors in dual screen mode.
The Info Palette and Clip Information The Info palette is hidden by default. Clicking the Info palette button at the far right of the toolbar reveals it at the right of the Center palette. The Info palette has two tabs that display different information. There are no user-editable controls in the Info palette. Info palette displaying Clip Info and System Status Clip Info The first tab displays information about whichever clip is currently selected in the Timeline.
System Info The second tab displays information about operational modes currently in use by DaVinci Resolve. It’s meant to provide the status of different DaVinci Resolve features that can be enabled, disabled, or cycled among various options. This information includes: Clips: The total number of clips in the Timeline. Proxy: The status of Proxy mode (On or Off). Clip Cache: The status of the Clip Cache mode (Off, All, Dissolves, User, User & D).
Folder: Which directory on disk the source media resides in. Description: The description field of the Metadata Editor. Comments: The Comments field of the Metadata Editor. EDL Comments: EDL comments for that event, if any exist. Customizing the Color Page The various sections of the Color page can be resized, hidden, and rearranged as needed to accommodate different working styles. This section covers all of the methods that are available for Color page customization.
Undo and Redo in DaVinci Resolve No matter where you are in DaVinci Resolve, Undo and Redo commands let you back out of steps you’ve taken or commands you’ve executed, and reapply them if you change your mind. DaVinci Resolve is capable of undoing the entire history of things you’ve done since creating or opening a particular project. When you close a project, its entire undo history is purged. The next time you begin work on a project, its undo history starts anew.
The History submenu, which lets you undo several steps at once Once you’ve selected a step to undo to, the menu closes and the project updates to show you its current state. To undo and redo using the Undo window: 1 Choose Edit > History > Open History Window. 2 When the History dialog appears, click an item on the list to undo back to that point. Unlike the menu, in this window the most recent thing you’ve done appears at the bottom of this list.
Chapter 114 Viewers, Monitoring, and Video Scopes Viewers let you see what you’re working on, provide a UI for transport controls and image comparison, draw windows and drag on-screen controls, and provide a variety of warnings and information not found anywhere else. However, at the same time, professional workflows require real time monitoring via supported video I/O devices on a calibrated display.
Contents Using the Viewer 2578 The Viewer Title Bar 2578 Turning Grades and/or Fusion Effects Off 2579 Viewing Isolated Channels 2579 The Viewer Toolbar 2580 The Onscreen Control (OSC) Menu 2580 Toggling Viewer Overlays On and Off 2581 Onscreen Controls and External Displays 2581 Zooming into the Viewer 2583 Using the Jog Bar and Transport Controls 2583 Navigating Using the Arrow Keys 2584 Controlling Playback Using the Spacebar and JKL Keys 2584 Navigating Using Timecode 2584 Navi
Using the Viewer The Viewer is your window into the Timeline. The clip and frame at the current position of the playhead appears in the Viewer. The Viewer also provides a workspace for picking colors, adjusting Windows, using split screen stills for reference, and many other display-oriented tasks. If you have a video out interface connected to a broadcast display or projector, then the contents of the Viewer are typically mirrored by the video output.
Turning Grades and/or Fusion Effects Off The Bypass Color Grades and Fusion Effects button/drop-down commands in the Viewer’s title bar are also available via View > Bypass Color and Fusion menu commands. Turning off Fusion effects in the Color page is an easy way to improve playback performance on low power systems when you just need to make a quick set of grading adjustments.
The Viewer Toolbar The Color page also exposes a toolbar at the top of the image (underneath the title bar) that makes it easy to enable and disable image wipe, split screen, and highlight viewing by clicking one of these three buttons, which then expose additional controls relating to each of these modes of operation (described elsewhere in this chapter). This toolbar can be shown or hidden by clicking the Viewer option menu and unchecking Show Viewer Options.
Image Wipe: Toggles mouse control of dragging the split screen directly on the Viewer on and off. For more about working with split screens, see “Comparing Clips in the Viewer” later in this chapter. Dust Removal: Activates the interactive Dirt and Dust tool. For more information, see Chapter 135, “Dust Removal.” OpenFX:. Shows and hides whatever onscreen controls are exposed by an OpenFX plug-in in the currently selected node.
Limitations When Grading With the Viewer on a Computer Display Most computer displays do not operate at the color critical tolerances or specifications required for broadcast or theatrical delivery. An additional issue, however, is that the Viewer does not necessarily display each clip’s image data as it is displayed by the calibration that your operating system applies to your computer display, depending on which OS you’re running DaVinci Resolve on.
Zooming into the Viewer When using the Viewer to sample tricky colors or draw a detailed PowerCurve, it can be advantageous to zoom into the image. To zoom into or out of the Viewer, do one of the following: Move the pointer to within the Viewer, and then roll the scroll wheel to zoom in or out of the image. Press Command-Equal to zoom in, or Command-Minus to zoom out. To pan around the Viewer: Move the pointer to within the Viewer, then middle-click and drag to pan around the image.
Two other buttons let you control audio playback and clip display in the Viewer: Unmix: Turning on Unmix disables all transitions, composited superimpositions, and effects that mix two or more clips together. Unmix allows you to judge the appearance of a clip without distraction whenever you need to make an adjustment based on how the clip looks on its own, or whenever you need to make changes based on frames that would otherwise be hidden underneath a transition such as a dissolve or fade from black.
You can also use the jog wheel and shuttle control on the Transport panel. The jog wheel lets you scrub frame by frame, while the shuttle control moves among preset rewind and fast forward speeds. NOTE: If a Gallery still is turned on for split screen comparison, the shuttle control will adjust the split screen center, and not the playhead position. Turning Reference Wipe off again frees up the shuttle control to affect playback again.
Timeline Frame: The frame count corresponding to the playhead’s position in the overall Timeline. Source Frame: The frame count corresponding to the playhead’s position relative to the currently selected clip. KeyKode: The KeyKode number corresponding to the media’s KeyKode track, if there is one. Show Timecode at 30 FPS: Displays 24 fps timecode, via 3:2 pulldown, as 29.97 fps timecode. Has no effect on video playback.
Color page in Full Viewer mode Another option, Cinema mode, allows for full-screen viewing. Cinema mode is available by choosing Workspace > Viewer Mode > Cinema Mode Viewer (P). In Cinema mode, the menu bar is hidden, and the image is presented full screen without any of the ordinary onscreen controls. Moving the pointer over the screen reveals a set of hidden onscreen controls that include a play button, jog bar, mute button, and exit button (which lets you turn off Cinema mode).
TIP: If you’d like to superimpose timecode over the image in Cinema mode for reference, you can use the controls within the Data Burn-In window (Workspace > Data Burn-In) to set up whatever information you’d like to display during playback. Safe Area Overlays in the Viewer You can show or hide a series of safe area overlays in the Viewer. All safe area overlay options are found in the View > Safe Area menu. Each safe area overlay option can be individually enabled or disabled from this menu.
Use Gray Background Choosing View > Show Gray Backgrounds in Viewer sets the empty area of the Viewer (if there is any) to a lighter gray, making it easier to see which parts of the Viewer are black because of blanking, and which parts are simply empty because of the way the image is zoomed or panned. Monitor Calibration If you use Light Illusion’s LightSpace CMS or SpectraCal’s Calman for display calibration, you can now use DaVinci Resolve as a sync-able pattern generator.
The Calibration dialog in DaVinci Resolve, connected to LightSpace CMS via WiFi If everything is working correctly, the LightSpace dialog in DaVinci Resolve should show the word “Connected,” and the Network Manager dialog in LightSpace should show that there is 1 available client/s. You can now close the Network Manager dialog in LightSpace and follow the procedures outlined in the LightSpace CMS documentation for characterizing your display and building and exporting a display LUT (in the .
Comparing Clips in the Viewer The ability to compare different clips to one another is an important part of the color correction process. DaVinci Resolve provides three different ways of doing so. You can use the Gallery to display two clips for split screen comparison. You can also use different reference modes to see a timeline clip or reference movie directly as part of a split screen comparison. Finally, you can use the Split Screen controls to display multi-frame arrangements in the Viewer.
To adjust a wipe in the Viewer, do one of the following: Drag the pointer within the Viewer to move the wipe. Push the T-bar control up and down on the T-bar panel of the DaVinci control panel. To customize a wipe in the Viewer: Click one of the Wipe mode buttons in the Viewer toolbar. Choose one of the following from either the View menu or the Viewer contextual menu; – Wipe Style: Cycles among the Horizontal, Vertical, Mix, Alpha, Difference, and Box modes.
To change the Viewer reference mode, do one of the following: Choose an option from the View > Reference Wipe Mode submenu. Right-click the Viewer and choose an option from the Reference Mode submenu of the contextual menu. On the T-bar panel of the DaVinci control panel, press REF ON/OFF to toggle the reference mode immediately to Offline mode and back again, in order to split screen the current clip against an offline video. There are three reference modes: Gallery: The default reference mode.
Using Split Screen Modes A set of split screen modes provides additional ways of comparing multiple images in the Viewer at the same time. These provide side-by-side and grid comparisons of multiple shots and multiple versions, all of which are output to video for monitoring on your external video display. For example, you can use the Split Screen Versions mode to display every single version that’s applied to the current clip in a grid, for easy evaluation.
Available Split Screen Modes You can choose from among the following split screen modes: Current Group: Shows up to 16 clips that share the same group as the current clip. Double-clicking a frame does nothing in this mode. Highlight Modes: Shows a four-up display that lets you simultaneously see (clockwise) the clip’s RGB image, the gray matte, the high contrast matte, and a difference matte generated by the node’s input compared against its output. Double-clicking a frame does nothing in this mode.
The Selected LUTs split screen option lets you preview a bunch of LUT looks at once Selected Still Grades: When you choose this option, the act of selecting stills in the Gallery of the Color page shows each of the grades associated with those stills as they appear applied to the current clip, in a split screen arrangement. Double-clicking a frame applies that gallery grade to the current clip.
Marker Overlays and Navigation If you part the playhead on top of a marker in the Timeline of the Color page, that marker’s information appears in a Viewer overlay, just as in the Edit page, making it easier to read notes and see what information is available. These overlays can be easily hidden by clicking the Viewer option menu and turning off “Show marker overlays.
Optionally, you can click the Expand button at the top right of the video scope to open the video scopes into a floating window, within which you can display all four video scopes together, or individually, on any monitor connected to your workstation. Video scopes in a floating window Additionally, the video scopes are available in many of the dual-screen layouts available in DaVinci Resolve. The video scopes aren’t just available in the Color page.
(Left) The Parade scope showing the data range scale, (Right) The Parade scope showing the HDR “nit” scale Video Scope Performance and Detail All video scopes were updated for DaVinci Resolve 16 to show more detail with faster performance than in previous versions. While they’re GPU-accelerated, the video scopes require a certain amount of video processing power to operate.
(Left) The Waveform scope with Low Pass Filter turned off, (Right) The Waveform scope with Low Pass Filter turned on Displaying Scopes With Data or Video Levels For project being worked on at video levels, a setting in the video scope option menu lets you toggle between displaying video scopes scaled to either Data Levels (the default) or Video Levels (by turning on Video Level Scopes). This only affects how your scopes are displayed; it has no effect on monitored or rendered output.
Explanation of Each Video Scope There are five available video scopes, each of which shows a different analysis of the video signal you’re adjusting. Waveform Monitor Overlays waveform analyses of the Y (luma/luminance), CBCR (the color difference channels of Y’CBCR), or RGB (red, green, and blue) channels over one another so that you can see how they align.
The Parade scope showing YRGB waveforms, with colorization and extents enabled Vectorscope Measures the overall range of hue and saturation within an image. Measurements are relative to a centered graticule that you can enable that’s overlaid on the scope, which provides a frame of reference via crosshairs.
Histogram (RGB/YRGB parade histogram) Displays a statistical analysis of how many pixels of each color channel lie at each percentage of tonality, plotted along a digital scale from 0 percent (black) to 100 percent (white). Comparing the left, middle, and right parts of the Y, R, G, and B graphs (Y is optional) lets you evaluate the color balance in the shadows, midtones, and highlights of the image.
In a way, the Chromaticity scope is a 3D scope, but it’s drawn as if you’re looking down at the top of a 3D shape that plots every color value in an image in X, Y, Z space, but you can only perceive the 2D outline around the widest parts of this shape drawn on an X, Y plot. The graph does indeed represent every single value found within a 3D plot of the image data, but the triangle only indicates the widest “slice” of the current gamut and of this 3D shape within the mid-tones.
Customizing the Video Scopes Once you’ve opened the video scopes, there are a variety of ways you can customize how the scopes look, and expose additional onscreen graticule information to help you measure what you need. Methods of customizing the Scopes window: To change the size of the Scopes window: Drag the lower right-hand corner to resize the Scopes window to the desired size.
RGB, YRGB, and YCbCr modes, allowing you to evaluate more channels than before. A colorize checkbox lets you view graphs in monochrome or false-color (indicating red, green, and blue). An Extents checkbox draws an outline highlighting all graph excursions, to unambiguously show you all overshoots and undershoots in each waveform. The Parade slider makes that scope’s graph brighter or dimmer.
The Waveform slider makes that scope’s graph brighter or dimmer. Brighter graphs make it easier to see fine detail, but harder to see which parts of the graph are stronger and weaker. The Graticule slider makes that scope’s scale brighter or dimmer, making it more or less visible (or distracting) relative to the graph. The Show Reference Levels checkbox lets you turn on adjustable Low and High reference level markers by setting the low and high sliders to something other than their defaults.
Low Range and High Range sliders let you manually define the boundaries separating shadows from mid-tones and highlights. Low Range defaults to 0.30, and High Range defaults to 0.70. Show 2X Zoom zooms the vectorscope graph by 200%, making it easier to see fine detail and use the vectorscope with charts. Show Skin Tone Indicator checkbox shows a line at the traditional Inphase angle that is useful as a general guidepost for average skin tone hue.
CIE Chromaticity Display Options The CIE Chromaticity scope has the following options: Options in the Chromaticity scope You can view a chromaticity analysis in either a CIE 1931 xy graph, or a CIE 1976 uv graph. CIE Chromaticity slider makes that scope’s graph brighter or dimmer. Brighter graphs make it easier to see fine detail, but harder to see which parts of the graph are stronger and weaker.
Chapter 115 Color Page Timeline and Lightbox The Timeline in the Color page, consisting of the Thumbnail Timeline and the Mini-Timeline, is primarily used for navigating the current arrangement of clips, and for keeping track of clip properties such as whether they’re graded and ungraded, whether they use tracking, which version they’re using, and so on. It can also be used for quickly copying grades from one clip to another, for creating groups, and for comparing clips in the Viewer.
Contents Navigating Using the Color Page Timeline 2612 Thumbnail Timeline 2612 Mini-Timeline 2612 Using Multiple Timeline Playheads 2613 Show Current Clip With Handles 2614 Thumbnail Info 2614 Thumbnail Contextual Menu Commands 2616 Sorting and Filtering Clips in the Thumbnail Timeline 2617 Changing Timelines 2617 A and C Mode Sorting 2617 Flags, Clip Colors, and Markers 2619 Timeline Filtering 2619 Using the Lightbox 2624 Chapter – 115 Color Page Timeline and Lightbox 2611
Navigating Using the Color Page Timeline The Color page Timeline consists of two parts that work together, the Thumbnail Timeline and the Mini Timeline. These work together to let you examine and navigate the Timeline of your program in different ways. The Color page Timeline The scroll bar for the Mini-Timeline is independent of the scroll bar for the Thumbnail Timeline, and both can be set to show different ranges of clips.
The Color page Mini-Timeline Scrolling, Zooming, and Navigation A Timeline Ruler contains the top handle of the playhead, displays the record timecode of the current edit, and acts as a scrubber bar that typically spans a longer section of the Timeline. The scroll wheel of your mouse lets you zoom in and out of your edit, and if you zoom all the way out you can fit every clip in the Mini-Timeline into the available width of the ruler, letting you scrub through every clip in the Timeline quickly.
To add a new playhead to the Mini-Timeline: Choose a playhead from the Color > Active Playheads submenu. That playhead will be placed at the same position as the original playhead, but it is now the one that is selected, so dragging the new playhead to a new position of the Mini-Timeline will reveal the original playhead you were using. To select another playhead to view: Click on the top handle of any playhead to select it, making that the currently active playhead controlled by the transport controls.
Dragging a thumbnail to change the representative image If media is replaced in the middle of a color correction timeline, or if you copy or ripple a grade to a range of clips, the thumbnails may not immediately update to accurately represent the current state of each clip. In this case, you can manually refresh the thumbnails. To refresh all thumbnails in the Timeline: Right-click anywhere in the Thumbnail timeline and choose Update All Thumbnails.
Track number: (top right) The video track in which a clip is edited appears above the thumbnail. Clip Color dot: (upper right) If a clip has a clip color assigned to it, a colored dot appears on top of its thumbnail. Flag icon: (upper left) If a clip has been flagged, a flag icon of the appropriate color appears on top of its thumbnail. If a clip has multiple flags, as many as can be drawn appear along the top.
These capabilities are described in more detail in the other chapters of this manual, but it’s important to know that artists working on the Color page have many clip management options available to them, without needing to go to other pages. Sorting and Filtering Clips in the Thumbnail Timeline By default, the Thumbnail Timeline displays every clip of the currently selected edit in the Edit page, sorted in A mode (the record order of your edit).
C Mode sorting, i.e., source clip order Sorting by C mode makes it easy to identify a range of similar clips. For example, if you’re working on a narrative project, clips from each angle of coverage in the scene will naturally cluster together. In another example, sorting by C mode in a documentary will arrange all of a particular subject’s head shots from a specific interview contiguously, one after another, since they all come from the same range of timecode on the same source tape.
If you turn this checkbox off, reel name is ignored, and all clips in the Timeline are sorted only by source timecode. This may result in clips from multiple sources being mixed together, but it is useful in specific situations.
Timeline filtering options For example, once you’ve added flags or markers to clips, it’s easy to hide every other clip in the Timeline that doesn’t fit the criteria; for example, hiding clips that don’t have a green flag. This does nothing to alter the original edit, and you can return the Timeline to its original state at any time.
Unrendered clips: Filters all clips that have not yet been rendered. Flagged Clips: Filters all clips that have a particular flag, a submenu presents each color. Marked Clips: Filters all clips that have a particular mark, a submenu presents each color. Keywords: Filters all clips that have a specific keyword assigned. A submenu presents a list with each keyword that’s used in the Media Pool of the current project.
It’s important to point out, however, that as much intrinsic metadata is available to every clip in DaVinci Resolve (clip properties including frame rate, frame size, codec, file name, and so on), the more time you take entering extra metadata in the Metadata Editor to prepare your project for work for editing and grading (for example, entering scene and take information, and keywords for things like character names, day and night, interior and exterior, framing, and so on), the more powerful Smart Filters
A complicated Smart Filter with multiple criteria and a second match option setting As you’re editing the filter criteria, the Thumbnail timeline automatically updates to show you how the Smart Filter you’re creating is working. 3 When you’re done editing the filter criteria, click Create Smart Filter. The resulting Smart Filter appears at the bottom of the Filter drop-down menu, and is turned on by default.
Using the Lightbox The Lightbox shows you all clips in the Timeline as a grid of thumbnails, arranged in rows from left to right and top to bottom. This lets you quickly evaluate, compare, and search for clips you want to use when making selections, creating groups, flagging clips, or when scanning for a particular scene or looking for an individual clip.
To resize clips in the Lightbox: Drag the Zoom slider to the right to increase thumbnail size, or to the left to decrease thumbnail size. The Lightbox button, Zoom slider, and Monitor Output buttons The contents of the Lightbox can be filtered using the same options that are available for filtering the Thumbnail timeline. To filter the Lightbox: 1 Click the Show sidebar button at the upper left-hand corner of the Lightbox.
To output the contents of the Lightbox to video: Click the Output Lightbox to Video button at the upper right-hand corner of the Lightbox. The button for outputting the Lightbox to video For more information about clip selections, groups, and grade management, see Chapter 123, “Grade Management.
Chapter 116 Automated Grading Commands and Imported Grades While DaVinci Resolve has a wide variety of manual grading controls that afford you control over just about every component of digital imagery, DaVinci has spent a lot of time investigating ways of increasing colorist efficiency by creating automated grading tools.
Contents Color Match Palette 2629 Tips for Properly Shooting a Color Chart 2630 How to Use Color Match 2631 Configuration Controls 2632 Reset Controls 2633 Automatic Adjustments in the Color Wheels Palette 2633 White Balance Eyedropper 2633 Pick Black Point and Pick White Point 2634 Auto Color 2635 Auto Color Using the DaVinci Control Panel 2636 Shot Match 2637 Shot Match Guidelines 2638 How to Use Shot Match 2638 Suggestions for Using Shot Match 2640 Broadcast Safe 2640 Black
Color Match Palette If the camera and lighting departments had the foresight to shoot a color test chart for each of the major lighting setups in the project you’re grading, DaVinci Resolve lets you superimpose a sampling grid over a chart in a clip and mathematically analyze the sampled colors to generate an automatic correction.
Tips for Properly Shooting a Color Chart The results you get using Color Match are completely dependent on how the charts were shot in the field. If the charts were properly shot, you’ll get great results. If the charts were improperly shot, the results will be unpredictable. To get the best results using Color Match, adhere to the following guidelines: The chart must be lit evenly such that the lighting on each patch is the same intensity (level) and color.
curve) to maximize the efficiency of the bit depth being used, and different cameras use different gamma curves to maximize the image data from different sensors. Since the Color Match algorithm converts image data into a scene linear space before creating an adjustment, it needs to undo the gamma curve created by the camera or debayering process.
3 Then, choose a target gamma and color space that corresponds to the format you want this clip to be matched to. 4 Click the Viewer tool drop-down, choose the Color Chart overlay, and use its cornerpinning controls to line the sampling boxes up with the color patches of the chart. Aligning the Color Match target with the chart in the video 5 When you’re finished, click the Match button, and the clip will be automatically corrected.
Target Color Space: The color space you’ll be outputting the finished program with. Color Temp: An adjustable color temperature control that lets you manually adjust the target color balance of the resulting correction to be warmer (lower values) or cooler (higher values). The default is 6500K. White Level: A checkbox that’s disabled by default, which lets you manually choose the target white point that the automatic correction should use.
2 In the Viewer, click on any feature that is supposed to be white such as a white wall, white trim around a window, white blinds, a white shirt, and so on. As you drag the eyedropper around, the RGB values appear as a tooltip to give you a better idea of what the color is of the feature you’re about to click on.
To automatically adjust the white point of an image: 1 Click the White Point control. The pointer turns into the White Point tool. The Auto Pick White Point control 2 In the Viewer, click on any feature that is supposed to be white such as a white wall, white trim around a window, white blinds, a white shirt, and so on. As you drag the White Point tool around, the RGB values appear as a tooltip to give you a better idea of what the color is of the feature you’re about to click on.
To make an automatic correction, do one of the following: Open the Color Wheels palette to any mode, and click the A button in the lower lefthand corner. Choose Color > Auto Color (Option-Shift-C). Press the AUTO COLOR button on the T-bar panel.
Shot Match The previously available automated color correction commands, Auto Color and Color Match, are both useful for adjusting a selected clip to give it a clean, neutral starting point when you’re either in a hurry, or if you’re having trouble manually working out a solution. However, this is only the first step in grading a scene.
Legacy Auto Color The previous methods for doing Auto Color and Shot Match are available from the Color panel of the User Preferences, via two checkboxes named “Use Legacy Auto Color/Shot Match.” With these enabled, DaVinci Resolve looks for the darkest levels in the image to neutralize the RGB color balance in the blacks, and the brightest levels to neutralize the RGB color balance in the highlights.
A Shot Match adjustment applied to a clip The procedure for using Shot Match is deceptively simple. However, getting a good result requires some careful thought in terms of choosing which clips to match to one another. To match one or more selected clips to a specific clip: 1 Following the guidelines presented in this section, Command-click or Shift-click one or more clips that you want to be matched. The clip you want to match to may or may not be part of the selection.
Suggestions for Using Shot Match It’s certainly possible to select every clip in a scene and use Shot Match, and the results may be wonderful depending on what kind of visuals are in the scene. However, for other scenes, this may not always get you the best results. Be strategic about which clips you select to match to one another.
Black Sun Highlight Correction If your project uses media shot with one of the Blackmagic Cinema, Production, Pocket, or Ursa cameras, and you have clips that exhibit so-called “black sun” artifacts, where bright onscreen highlights appear with a dark magenta spot, a command exists to quickly and easily remove these artifacts.
Using ARRI Looks Only available in DaVinci Resolve Studio. If you’ve ingested ARRIRAW media or QuickTime-wrapped Apple ProRes from an Amira, Alexa SXT or Alexa LF, or MXF-wrapped Apple ProRes from Alexa Mini LF with embedded ARRI Look metadata (CDL + LUT), the embedded look can be copied to the currently selected node in the Color page. To copy an ARRI look from the source media to the current node: 1 Select a node in the Node Editor to which you want to apply the look data.
Chapter 117 Primary Grading Controls This chapter focuses on the core color adjustments that you’ll be making to create “primary” corrections that alter the overall color and contrast of the image. These include clip-specific Camera Raw adjustments and the Lift/Gamma/Gain/Offset adjustments available in the Color Wheels palette, as well as more esoteric adjustments such as mixing colors between channels using the RGB Mixer.
Contents Color Controls Covered in This Chapter 2645 Camera Raw 2645 Copying, Versioning, and Protecting Camera Raw Settings 2646 Making Changes to Clip Camera Raw Settings 2646 Clip Decoder Settings 2647 Resetting Camera Raw Settings 2648 Updating Sidecar Settings for Blackmagic RAW (BRAW) Clips 2649 Color Wheels Palette 2650 Opening the Color Wheels Palette Using the DaVinci Control Panel 2650 HDR Grading Using Color Wheels Palette Controls 2651 How to Use Color Balance Controls and Ma
Color Controls Covered in This Chapter The Left Palette panel contains four palettes that relate to color and contrast adjustments in different ways. The controls found within these palettes provide the foundation for any grade, and this chapter covers how you use the Camera Raw, Color Wheels, and RGB Mixer palettes. For more information on the Motion Effects palette, see Chapter 134, “The Motion Effects and Blur Palettes.
To access camera raw settings on the DaVinci control panel: 1 Press the CAMERA RAW soft key on the Center panel. 2 Use the Center panel knobs to make camera raw parameter adjustments. 3 When you’re finished, press the MAIN soft key to return to the main page of controls. This section covers general use of the Camera Raw palette. For in-depth documentation about specific camera raw parameters, see Chapter 5, “Camera Raw Settings.
To ripple camera raw adjustments across multiple clips: 1 First, you must select a range of clips in the Color page timeline. 2 Open the Camera Raw palette, and make whatever adjustments are necessary to the current clip. The name of each parameter you adjust changes to amber, showing you which parameters have been modified, and which have not.
Sharpness: A debayer-specific sharpness filter applied to provide the appearance of enhanced image detail. 20 is unity. The range is 0 to 100. Highlights: Makes it easy to selectively retrieve blown-out highlight detail in highdynamic-range media by lowering this parameter, and achieves a smooth blend between the retrieved highlights and the unadjusted midtones for a naturalistic result. 0 is unity. The range is –100 through +100. Shadows: Lets you selectively lighten or darken shadow detail.
Updating Sidecar Settings for Blackmagic RAW (BRAW) Clips Blackmagic RAW clips support both embedded look metadata within the .braw media clip and external look metadata in .sidecar files. Ordinarily, these files travel in pairs whenever you manage BRAW media, and whenever a .sidecar file is present, its settings override those of the embedded metadata within the actual .braw clip. Since the .
Color Wheels Palette If you’ve had any exposure to color correction tools in any application, the controls found within the Color Wheels palette should look familiar. These controls correspond to the most basic color correction functionality available in DaVinci Resolve, and are designed to let users without control panels have easy access to color balance and YRGB contrast manipulation using a mouse, tablet, or trackpad.
HDR Grading Using Color Wheels Palette Controls When using various grading controls in the Color page to grade wide-latitude images for HDR output, you may find it useful to enable the HDR Mode of the node you’re working on by right-clicking that node in the Node Editor and choosing HDR Mode from the contextual menu (only available in Resolve Studio). Using a node’s contextual menu to put that node into HDR mode This setting adapts that node’s controls to work within an expanded HDR range.
The Master Wheels, located below the Color Balance controls, let you adjust the YRGB channels together to adjust Lift, Gamma, and Gain by individually adjusting the black point, the white point, and distribution of midtones that fall in-between. This has the practical effect of letting you adjust image contrast when you manipulate any two of these wheels together.
Though they may look different, the Primaries Wheels and Primaries Bars actually adjust the same components, but in different ways. These tonal ranges are defined by image lightness, on a scale where 0 is absolute black and 1023 is absolute white. The following illustration shows an approximation of how the Lift, Gamma, and Gain tonal zones broadly overlap, and how each zone’s influence falls off towards the opposing extremes of image tonality.
The following image shows the interaction of extreme corrections made to a grayscale image using all three Color Balance controls. Lift has been pushed toward green, Gamma has been pushed toward blue, and Gain has been pushed toward red. Extreme adjustments showing the overlap of the Lift, Gamma, and Gain color balance controls Notice how, even though these corrections are extreme, the colors blend smoothly.
Waveform display shows the clips contrast range These contrast adjustments are not limited by one another. For example, raising or lowering the Gamma master wheel by a large amount may push the highlights of the image higher or the shadows of the image lower, regardless of the current Lift or Gain contrast setting. As a result, these controls are somewhat interactive, and you may find yourself going back and forth between controls as you make your final contrast adjustments.
The Contrast parameters let you quickly narrow or widen image contrast about a user-definable pivot point. Regardless of which mode you’re in, these parameters are identical. Contrast and pivot can also be adjusted using the DaVinci control surface via the CONTRAST and PIVOT knobs on the Center panel’s default page, regardless of whether you’re in Lift/Gamma/Gain or Log mode.
Page 2 Adjustments Controls The “Page 2” section of the Color Wheels palette has the same kind of highlight and shadow recovery, Color Boost, and Midtone Detail controls that are found on the Camera Raw palette. If you’re grading a camera raw format, then these controls on the Camera Raw palette will give you greater latitude for adjustment. However, the identically named controls in the Color Wheels palette can be used for any media format you like.
Auto Correction in the Primaries Mode Controls The Auto Color command provides a quick way to automatically balance the blacks and whites of a clip based on the current frame at the position of the playhead. As of DaVinci Resolve 16, the A button in the Color Wheels palette and the Shot Match command available from the Thumbnail Timeline contextual menu both now use advanced algorithms, based on the DaVinci Neural Engine, to provide superior results when automatically adjusting color balance and contrast.
Whether or Not to Use Legacy Log Grading Ranges and Curve DaVinci Resolve 12.5 introduced a modification to the Log grading controls that provides smoother, more pleasing results using the same controls. To maintain backward compatibility with older projects, a “Use legacy Log grading ranges and curve” checkbox in the General Options panel of the Project Settings lets you switch your project between the older Log control behavior and the newer one.
In either case, it’s important that the normalizing adjustment happens after your Log control adjustments, for the Log control adjustments to work as they should. With your node tree set up in this way, you’ll be monitoring an ordinary-looking image, but taking advantage of the Log mode controls’ unique tonal ranges to manipulate the log-encoded image data with great specificity.
Using the Log Mode Controls to Stylize Normalized Media You can also use the Log mode controls on normalized images. Although the results you get will be somewhat different, this can be a fast way to create interesting stylizations.
Adjusting Tone Ranges in Log Mode Two parameters let you modify the range of Shadows and Highlights that each Color Balance control affects, in turn narrowing and widening the range of Midtones. Keep in mind that while the ranges can be customized, the amount of overlap between each range cannot. Low Range: Moves the border where the Shadows and Midtones meet. Lowering this parameter widens the range affected by the Midtones, and narrows the range affected by the Shadows.
Switching to Log Mode Using the DaVinci Control Surface You can switch to the Log grading mode of the currently selected node by doing one of the following: Press SHIFT DOWN and then PRIMARY. Press the LOG soft key on the Center panel of the DaVinci control surface. Press the MAIN soft key to return to the more traditional Lift/Gamma/Gain mode of adjustment.
Finally, each group of Lift/Gamma/Gain sliders has its own reset button. To reset individual channels, double-click the single-letter label underneath that slider. To adjust RGB Lift/Gamma/Gain using the DaVinci control surface: 1 Press the POTS soft key on the main page of the Center panel. 2 Use the variously identified LUM/RED/GREEN/BLUE and OFFSET/BLACK/GAMMA/ GAIN knobs to make the required adjustments. 3 Press the MAIN soft key to return to the Center panel’s main page.
The “plus” and “minus” red, green, and blue buttons for making printer point adjustments The Offset wheel control underneath the Offset sliders lets you adjust all three sliders at once, performing a setup adjustment. The Offset sliders, Printer Point buttons, and Offset wheel can be adjusted using the DaVinci control surface.
Red Green Blue 7 - Plus Red 8 - Plus Green 9 - Plus Blue 4 - Minus Red 5 - Minus Green 6 - Minus Blue However, if you want to work in the classic way by manipulating cyan, magenta, and yellow in whole increments, there’s another set of shortcuts for that, using the remaining keys on the numeric keypad. Cyan Magenta Yellow 1 - Plus Cyan 2 - Plus Magenta 3 - Plus Yellow Minus (–) - Minus Cyan 0 - Minus Magenta Period (.
RGB Mixer Palette The RGB Mixer palette lets you remix different amounts of image data from one channel to another, and has a wide variety of creative and utilitarian uses. Furthermore, the RGB Mixer can be used either to remix the color channels, or to add different proportions of each color channel into a monochrome image. By default, the RGB Mixer palette is set to mix any amount of the Red, Green, and Blue color channels into any of the other channels.
Resetting the RGB Mixer Clicking the Reset button at the top right-hand corner of the RGB Mixer resets each slider to its default position, where Red = 1.00 for Red output, Green = 1.00 for Green output, Blue = 1.00 for Blue output, and all other sliders = 0. Swap Channels Buttons A set of three buttons at the bottom of the RGB Mixer lets you easily swap two channels with one another. This can be useful as part of a creative look, or corrective in instances where two channels are accidentally reversed.
Using the RGB Mixer with Monochrome mode turned on gives you the ability to mix your own custom blends of all three color channels to emphasize the creative characteristics you require. For instance, increasing the mix of blue and decreasing red and green can give skin tones a darker, metallic sheen. The following screenshots show multiple versions of the same image with different monochrome mixes. Three monochrome mixes of the same image. The top image is the result of setting saturation to 0.
To adjust the principle color regions using knobs: Adjust one of the four groups of knobs on the Center panel. All are labeled to identify which RED/GREEN/BLUE source channels are paired with RED/GREEN/BLUE destination channels. For example GREEN->BLUE adds or subtracts an amount of the Green color channel from the Blue color channel. Press the PRESERVE LUM soft key to turn on the “With luminance level preserved” checkbox. Press MONO to turn on the Monochrome checkbox.
Chapter 118 Curves The Color page has a powerful curves interface that provides controls for adjusting color and contrast with the Custom Curves, as well as a variety of “Hue” or “HSL” curves that let you make more targeted adjustments to hue, saturation, and luminance in a variety of ways.
Contents Introduction to Curves 2673 Adjusting Curves Using the Mouse 2673 Sampling Images to Place Control Points on Curves 2674 Showing Picker RGB Values 2675 Curves Histograms 2675 Custom Curves 2676 Editing the Top and Bottom Control Points of Curves 2677 HDR Grading Using Curves 2678 Enabling Editable Splines in the Custom Curves 2678 Adding Default Anchors to the Custom Curves 2679 Ganging and Unganging Custom Curves 2679 Copying Custom Curves From One Color Channel to Another 2
Introduction to Curves The Curves palette, selectable via one of the toolbar buttons above the Center Palette panel of the Color page, has six modes that provide different curve-based methods of manipulating the color and contrast of an image. Each curve lets you adjust a customizable region of the image based either on image tonality (zones of lightness or darkness), hue (specific colors), or saturation (intensity of color).
By default, a control point influences the portion of each curve that falls between its neighboring two control points. Control point adjustments affect the entire portion of a curve between adjacent control points. In the top screenshot, you can see that the control point at the position of the pointer is affecting the larger part of the curve that falls between the lower left-hand control point (which is there by default), and a user-created control point placed up within the highlights of the curve.
Creates a control point on the currently open curve Showing Picker RGB Values While you’re dragging the pointer over the Viewer and looking for a feature to sample, you can enable a tooltip that shows you the RGB Value of the pixel under the pointer by right-clicking the Viewer and choosing Show Picker RGB Value to toggle this feature on and off. When you turn this feature on, the View > Show RGB Picker Values In submenu has options for displaying either 8- or 10-bit tristimulus values.
Each Hue or HSL curve shows a histogram analysis of the two color channels that Curve acts upon: hue against saturation level, luminance against saturation level, or saturation level against saturation level, to give three different examples. In the case of Hue or HSL curves, these histograms make it easy to see which parts of the Curve controls will actually affect image data.
The neutral diagonal position of the curve at which no adjustment is made The horizontal axis represents the range of image tonality in the original image, from black (at the left) to white (at the right), while the vertical axis represents the range of alteration you can make. By adding control points to the surface of the curve and raising or lowering it at different regions, you are actually remapping the original horizontal “input” value of a color channel to an “output” value of your choosing.
You can use the Black and White Point controls in the following ways: Using the Black Point control: Dragging this control up makes a lift adjustment to raise the black point of the signal. Dragging this control to the right makes a lift adjustment to lower the black point of the signal. Using the White Point control: Dragging this control down makes a gain adjustment to lower the white point of the signal. Dragging this control to the left makes a gain adjustment to raise the white point of the signal.
Adding Default Anchors to the Custom Curves You can also choose Default Anchors from the option menu of the Curve palette in Custom mode to place three additional control points on the curve, dividing the curve into five segments that affect the shadows, low midtones, medium midtones, high midtones, and highlights of the image.
Editing color channels via individual curve adjustments lets you make smooth color-channel specific corrections, or you can make radically individual adjustments to create a wide number of creative effects. Turning off curve ganging lets you independently adjust each curve TIP: When curve ganging is disabled, the Luma curve allows you to adjust the Y channel by itself, which is similar to using the Y-only Lift/Gamma/Gain knobs of the DaVinci control panel.
YSFX Sliders Each of the Custom curves (Y’, R, G, and B) has a vertical YSFX slider at the upper left-hand corner of the Curve Editor that lets you invert any or all color channels by any amount you want, to create different types of stylized effects.
To make curve adjustments: Adjust the 0% LUM, 20% LUM, 40% LUM, 60% LUM, 80% LUM, or 100% LUM rotary knobs. By default, all adjustments you make using these controls are ganged across all four YRGB curve controls. However, if you turn Custom curve ganging off, then these controls only affect the Luminance curve. These controls correspond to the following default control point positions on the Curve controls.
Soft Clip The Soft Clip controls consist of four sliders underneath the Curve controls of the Custom curves, and give you an interface for adjusting highlight and shadow soft clipping either overall, with Ganging enabled, or on a per-channel basis. The Soft Clip controls are intended to provide clip-by-clip adjustment, as opposed to the Generate Soft Clip LUT settings, which let you set one soft-clipping setting for the entire program.
Ganging and Unganging Soft Clip Controls Soft clipping can be simultaneously applied to all three color channels by enabling the Ganging control (on by default), or you can disable Soft Clip ganging to individually adjust each channel. For example, using soft clipping on individual channels can be useful for legalizing RGB out-of-gamut errors for channels that over- or undershoot your QC standards.
At the default position, no clipping occurs and image data that you push above 1023 on the internal scopes is preserved and passed through the image processing pipeline to subsequent nodes. For example, in the following two screenshots, the highlights in the screenshot at top are blown out raising the gain dramatically in Node 1. In the screenshot at bottom, a subsequent adjustment in Node 2 lowers the gain and retrieves all the previously clipped values.
High Soft The High Soft slider sets the threshold, below the clipping point, at which highlights begin to compress before hard clipping. At unity, no soft clipping occurs. As you raise this value, more and more of the clipped highlight values are compressed, rather than clipped, resulting in softer, more pleasant “glowing” highlights.
The HSL Curves Three sets of Hue curves, and additional Lum vs. Sat and Sat vs. Sat curves, let you make different types of curve-based alterations to the image. Whereas the Custom curves let you make adjustments to the color channels of an image based on tonality (for example, boosting the Red channel in the highlights while lowering it in the shadows), the Hue curves let you make adjustments to the hue, saturation, or luma of elements in an image based on their hue.
Unlike the Custom curves, which default to a diagonal position where lower left represents the black point and upper right represents the white point, Hue and Sat curves are flat. In the case of the Hue vs. Hue/Sat/Lum curves, the horizontal range of the curve from left to right represents the overall range of possible hues, from red through green through blue and then cycling back to red.
Hue vs. Hue The Hue vs. Hue curve lets you change any hue to any other hue. In the following example, the image on the left is the unadjusted original. The image on the right has had the orange jacket shifted to an olive green via a set of three control points. Changing the hue of the woman’s jacket using the Hue vs. Hue curve; Left–original image, Right–altered image One excellent use of the Hue vs. Hue curve is to quickly and subtly alter elements that require only minor adjustments.
Hue vs. Lum The Hue vs. Lum curve lets you increase or decrease the lightness of elements of specific colors. Darkening the woman’s jacket using the Hue vs. Lum curve; Left–original image, Right–altered image This is a tricky curve to use with highly compressed footage, as it can quickly reveal artifacts in the image if you aren’t careful.
Selective desaturation in the shadows and highlights using the Lum vs. Sat curve; Right–original image, Left–altered image Sat vs. Sat The Saturation vs. Saturation curve lets you selectively manipulate image saturation within specific regions defined by the image’s original image saturation. Control points added to the left of this curve affect areas of progressively lower saturation, effectively letting you increase or decrease the saturation of lower-saturated features.
Using HSL Curves with the DaVinci Control Panel Using these curves with the DaVinci control panel unlocks their speed, letting you make fast, controlled adjustments to specific elements within each scene. To open the Hue and Sat curve controls on the DaVinci Resolve control panel: Press the CURVES soft key on the Center panel. To exit the Hue and Sat curve controls: Press the MAIN soft key on the Center panel.
Chapter 119 Secondary Qualifiers Secondary correction describes isolating a specific part of the image, or a specific subject, using a key. Keys in DaVinci Resolve are grayscale images that define which areas of the picture you want to alter (in white) and which parts of the picture you want to leave alone (in black).
Contents Secondary Qualifiers 2695 Adding a Secondary Operation to the Node Editor 2696 The Qualifier Interfaces 2696 Which Qualifier Do I Use? 2697 Basic Qualification Using the 3D Keyer 2698 Basic Qualification Using the HSL Keyer 2702 HSL Qualifier Presets 2705 Using Highlight to See What You’re Isolating 2706 Using Highlight to Solo Nodes 2707 Showing Picker RGB Values 2707 Qualifier Parameters 2708 HSL Qualification Controls 2708 RGB Qualification Controls 2710 Luma Qualificat
Secondary Qualifiers This section covers the use of the Qualifier palette, which lets you pull a 3D, HSL, RGB, or Luma key, with which to isolate the correction you need. The Qualifier controls are fast and flexible when you need to isolate an irregularly shaped subject with a distinct range of color or lightness. Since you’re generating a key by sampling the image, there’s no need for tracking or keyframing, so in the right situation qualifiers can be your fastest solution.
Adding a Secondary Operation to the Node Editor Any node can be switched between functioning as a primary correction, where the adjustments you make affect the entire image, and a secondary correction, where you’re adjusting a specific element in the scene. The only difference is that nodes being used for secondary corrections are limited using a qualifier, Power Windows, or an external matte.
The default qualification mode is the HSL Qualifier, which uses three color components, hue, saturation, and luma, to define a key. However, you can also use the RGB or LUM (Luma) qualification modes to pull keys using other combinations of color components. The LUM qualifier mode, in particular, lets you make targeted adjustments to specific ranges of image lightness. This is a technique employed by many colorists to alter color temperature within a specific range of image highlights or shadows.
HSL: In many instances, the HSL keyer is not as immediately accurate as the 3D keyer, and will include a broader portion of the image for any given sample. On the other hand, if the 3D keyer is not giving you satisfactory results for a particular shot, the HSL keyer can sometimes do a better job. Because of its interface, the HSL keyer makes it easier to “fine-tune” the range and softness of each individual color component that’s sampled, in order to improve the result.
Viewing the key using the Highlight button With the Highlight turned on, the lines you draw become invisible. They’ll reappear whenever you turn the Highlight off. 4 If necessary, draw additional lines to add more of the image to the key you’re creating. Ordinarily, it’s a good idea to not to draw more then two or three lines to sample the part of the image you’re trying to isolate.
5 Alternately, if there are parts of the image that are included in the key that you want to omit, hold the Option key down and draw a line over these areas. When you turn the Highlight button off, you can see that Option-drawn lines are red, and these subtract areas from the key you’re creating. Again, try not to overdo drawing subtractive red lines, as you can end up with an overly hard-edged key that’s difficult to adjust using other controls in the next few steps.
Nearly every key you pull will benefit from some further “post-key” refinement. What this means is that, once you’ve created the best key you can procedurally through sampling the image, you can now adjust the resulting key itself, which is just a grayscale image, to improve the isolated result. This is what the Matte Finesse controls are for.
Basic Qualification Using the HSL Keyer The HSL qualifier is one of the most flexible tools in DaVinci Resolve. Using any combination of sampled hue, saturation, and luma, you can isolate different ranges of color and contrast for specific adjustment. HSL is a general-purpose keyer, meaning you can key any color you like; it’s not restricted to blue or green. The most straightforward way to use any qualifier is to sample the image in the Viewer.
Example image to qualify To use the HSL Qualifier mode to isolate a subject in the Viewer: 1 Open the Qualifier palette, choose HSL from the mode drop-down, and click the eyedropper. 2 Either click a pixel of the part of the image you want to isolate, or click and drag across a range of pixels within that subject. Picking to qualify the ocean 3 To see the key you’re creating as you work, click the Highlight button in the Viewer Options toolbar at the top of the Viewer.
5 To add softness to the outer range of the key you’re creating, click the plus Softness control and then click or drag across the portion of the image you’d like to include as a soft edge. Once you’ve finished using the range and softness sampling controls to refine the key you’re using to isolate the subject, nearly every key you pull will benefit from some further “post-key” refinement.
To sample a subject using the DaVinci control panel: 1 Press VECTORS on the T-bar panel to open the Qualifier palette, which defaults to the HSL Qualifier controls. 2 Press CURSOR (the third button above the fourth trackball) on the Center panel, to display the small cursor crosshairs in both the Viewer and the video output display.
Using Highlight to See What You’re Isolating The Highlight control at the top of the Viewer (revealed by turning on Viewer Options in the Viewer’s Option menu) lets you overlay a representation of the key you’re creating over the current image in the Viewer. Overlays are also mirrored to your video output, so they’ll show up on an external display as well, in the event that you’re hiding the onscreen Viewer. There are two types of highlights with which you can evaluate a qualification you’re creating.
To enable or disable a highlight, do one of the following: In the Viewer Options toolbar at the top of the Viewer, click the Highlight control, and choose the type of highlight you want from the buttons that appear at the right. Choose an option from the View > Highlight submenu; a regular Highlight is Shift-H. On the T-bar panel of the DaVinci control panel, press HILITE.
Qualifier Parameters Each of the Qualifier modes, except for the 3D qualifier, has parameters that correspond to the relevant color components for that mode, with which you can identify a range and softness, similar to using the sample tools. These parameters can be edited precisely with virtual sliders using the pointer, or using the knobs of a supported grading control panel. However, mouse and tablet users can take advantage of each qualifier’s draggable white overlays, for more direct adjustment.
One of the HSL Qualifier’s key strengths, and one of its most underutilized features, is that you can enable or disable each of the three HSL components using the Hue, Sat, and Lum buttons, using toggle controls found at the left of each qualifier range control’s name. This lets you ignore specific color components, while focusing on others that are more important.
Sat Low Soft/High Soft: Two parameters let you define the upper and lower softness falling off outside the current range of saturation. Lum Low/High: Two parameters let you define the upper and lower range of luma being isolated. Lum Low Soft/High Soft: Two parameters let you define the upper and lower softness falling off outside the current range of luma. RGB Qualification Controls The RGB Qualifier mode lets you isolate range and softness in the Red, Green, and Blue channels of an image.
Luma Qualification Controls The Luma Qualifier mode simply pulls a key from the Luma channel all by itself. It’s identical to the HSL qualifier with H and S turned off. This single-component keyer is more useful than you might think; it’s a common technique to isolate a range of highlights, midtones, or shadows throughout the image to alter the color temperature selectively.
The 3D parameters include: Show Paths: A checkbox that lets you turn the visibility of the lines you’re drawing to sample the image on and off. Turning lines off does not affect the key in any way. Colorspace: A drop-down menu that lets you choose whether you’re sampling colors in YUV colorspace or HSL colorspace. YUV is the default, but if you find you’re not getting satisfactory results, you can reset the Qualifier palette and switch to HSL to see if that works any better.
Denoise Denoise provides a distinct way to post-process extracted keys to selectively reduce the noise in a key, getting rid of stray areas of qualification and softly filling holes in a matte.
Blur Radius In small amounts, blurring a key does well to take the edge off problem edges. However, blurring a key can also feather the edges of a key past the border of the subject you’re keying, with the result being a visible “halo” around your subject depending on the adjustment you’re making. The range is 0 to 2000, with 0 being the default.
Matte Finesse Controls, Page 2 The second page of Matte Finesse controls expose controls for shrink, grow, opening, and closing functionality, with control over the shape of the operation, the radius, and iterations. The previously available Black Clip and White Clip controls have also been moved into this second page.
Black Clip Raising Black Clip applies a “lift” adjustment such that translucent areas of the matte (gray areas when viewing a high-contrast highlight) are pushed towards black. The range is 0 to 100, with 0 being the default setting. Before/after raising Black Clip White Clip Lowering White Clip applies a “gain” adjustment such that translucent areas of the matte (gray areas when viewing a high-contrast highlight) are pushed towards white. The range is 0 to 100, with 100 being the default setting.
Combining Qualifiers and Windows This is covered in more detail in a subsequent section, but if you create a key using one of the Qualifier modes, and you then add a Window, the final key that’s output by that node is limited to the intersection of the Qualifier key and the Window. This makes it easy to use a Window to “garbage matte” out bits of a key that you don’t want, that can’t be eliminated by further adjustment of the Qualifier controls.
You can also use the Key Mixer node to combine multiple keys in several different ways, adding keys together, or subtracting them from one another, in order to create exactly the key you need. Adding multiple keys together using a Key Mixer For more information about these techniques, see Chapter 126, “Combining Keys and Using Mattes.
Chapter 120 Secondary Windows and Tracking Secondary correction describes isolating a specific part of the image, or a specific subject, using a key. Keys in DaVinci Resolve are grayscale images that define which areas of the picture you want to alter (in white) and which parts of the picture you want to leave alone (in black).
Contents Power Windows 2721 Adding Nodes with Windows 2722 The Window Palette Interface 2723 Managing Windows 2724 Showing and Hiding Onscreen Window Controls 2725 Using the High-Visibility Power Window Outline Option 2725 Window Transform Controls 2726 Window Softness 2728 Drawing Curves 2728 Converting Linear, Circular, and Polygon Windows into Bezier Curves 2730 Resetting the Window Palette 2730 Combining Power Windows with the Mask Control 2731 Copying and Pasting Windows 2732
Power Windows Power Windows are another way of making secondary correction, being essentially shapes you can use to isolate regions of the image. Different controls let you use oval, rectangular, polygonal, or custom curved shapes. Because you can isolate regions of the image by drawing, Power Windows produce exceptionally clean results, with edges that can be precisely positioned and feathered to achieve a variety of effects.
DaVinci Resolve makes it easy to combine multiple Power Windows in different ways, to intersect with one another and create even more sophisticated shapes. For example, multiple windows can be added together, or one window can be used to cut out part of another window, which saves you from the need to make complicated keyframing operations to animate that window’s shape.
Choose Color > Nodes > Add Serial Node + PPW (Option-G), or press the button of the same name on the T-bar panel of the DaVinci control panel to create a new serial node with a polygonal window. Choose Color > Nodes > Add Serial Node + PCW (Option-B), or press the button of the same name on the T-bar panel of the DaVinci control panel to create a new serial node with a Curve window. When you add a node with a Power Window, the Window palette automatically opens up, ready for editing.
Window list: A row of buttons at the top of this list lets you add new windows, which you can then customize as necessary.
To delete a window you no longer want: Select a window, then click the Delete button. To reset a window: To reset one window to its default shape: Select a window, then choose Reset Selected Window from the Option drop-down. Showing and Hiding Onscreen Window Controls When you open the Window palette, the Viewer goes into Power Window mode.
(Left) Default window outlines, (Right) High Visibility window outlines enabled in the Color panel of the User Preferences Window Transform Controls Windows have transform parameters that are similar to those found in the Sizing palette. These parameters let you alter the window, affecting all of its control points together. Window transform controls Size: Scales the entire window up or down. 50.00 is the default size. Aspect: Alters the aspect ratio of the window. 50.
The transform parameters also correspond to onscreen controls found in the Viewer, which can be manipulated directly using the pointer. Manipulating the window position on the Viewer While many of the onscreen controls correspond to parameters within the Window palette, some onscreen controls, such as the control points that govern reshaping linear, polygonal, and Curve windows, are only adjustable via the pointer.
NOTE: Removing a control point from a polygonal window that’s already been animated using the Keyframe Editor results in that point abruptly popping on and off at the keyframes creating the animation. Window Softness Each type of window has different Softness parameters, depending on how adjustable that window is. Circular: A single parameter, Soft 1, lets you adjust the uniform softness of the oval’s edge.
To draw a curve: 1 Turn on the Curve window style control. 2 Click anywhere in the Viewer to start adding control points and drawing the shape you need. 3 Click and drag to add and shape Bezier curves, or just click and release to add a hard angle. 4 To finish drawing and close the shape, click the first control point you created to create a corner, or click and drag on the first control point you created to create a Bezier curve. Once you’ve drawn a curve, there are many ways of manipulating it.
To select multiple control points on a curve: 1 Hold the Shift key down and drag a bounding box around the control points you want to manipulate or delete. All included control points will become highlighted. 2 Do one of the following: – To move the control points: Drag anywhere within the bounding box.
Combining Power Windows with the Mask Control Adding multiple windows to a single node is an easy way to create composite keys. When combining windows, the Mask control defines whether one window adds to another window, or subtracts from that window.
Since windows can be individually tracked and keyframed, you can quickly set up complex interactions of windows to solve common problems you’ll encounter. For example, when you’re tracking a window to follow a moving subject that moves behind something in the frame, you can use a second window with Mask turned off to cover the object in front. Now, when the tracked window intersects the subtractive window, the correction will disappear along with the subject.
Saving Window Presets If you find there’s a particular window shape or combination of windows that you use frequently, you can save one or more windows as a preset for easy recall whenever needed. For example, if you’re working on a documentary within which you find you need to do a lot of face brightening, you can create preset face ovals for close-up, medium, and wide shots, to save you from having to customize a stock circular window for every single new shot.
Using Windows and Qualifiers Together Another use of windows is to act as a “garbage matte” when used together with a qualifier. By default, when you use a window and qualifier together, a key is only output where both the window and qualifier intersect. This makes it easy to exclude unwanted parts of a key that are too difficult to eliminate by further refinement of the qualifier controls.
Manipulating Windows Using a Control Panel Window shape and position can also be manipulated using the DaVinci control panel. All Windows controls are located on the T-bar panel, except for the ADJ WINDOW button above the fourth trackball of the Center panel. To enable, mask, or disable a window: 1 Press WNDWS on the T-bar panel. The Window palette should appear.
Chapter 121 Motion Tracking Windows While Power Windows can be manually keyframed to follow a moving subject you want to isolate, this chapter shows how you can use the powerful cloud and point-based motion tracking controls in DaVinci Resolve to make Power Windows follow along with the motion of subjects and the camera in the fastest, easiest way possible.
Contents Motion Tracking Windows 2738 Simple Tracking Using the Tracker Menu 2738 Tracking Windows When You’ll Be Exporting Media With Handles 2740 Simple Ways of Working With Existing Tracking Data 2740 Tips for Better Tracking 2740 Tracking One Frame at a Time 2740 Copying and Pasting Tracking 2741 Tracker Palette Controls in More Detail 2741 Controls in the Window Tracker Palette 2741 Cloud Tracker Workflows 2745 Using Interactive Mode to Manually Choose Tracking Features 2746 Deali
Motion Tracking Windows The Tracker palette has three modes, available from the Palette menu. In Window mode, the tracking controls let you match the motion of a window to that of a moving feature in the frame. In Stabilizer mode, the same underlying technology is used to smooth or stabilize the motion within the entire frame. In FX mode a Point Tracker can be used to animate ResolveFX or OFX plug-ins with positioning controls.
To track any Power Window to match a moving feature within the frame: 1 Move the playhead to the frame of the current shot where you want to begin (you don’t have to start tracking at the first frame of a shot). 2 Turn on any window, and adjust it to surround the feature you want to track. Typically, you’ll have done this anyway, for example, framing someone’s moving face with a Circular window to lighten their highlights.
Once you’re satisfied with your track, you can continue to resize, reposition, or reshape the window being tracked. Tracking data is separate from the window transform parameters (which can be keyframed), so changes you make to a window offset it from the originally tracked path. Tracking Windows When You’ll Be Exporting Media With Handles When you track windows to match moving features in a clip, the windows are only transformed on frames with tracking data.
Copying and Pasting Tracking There will be plenty of times you’ll apply multiple windows to a single moving subject, such as a car, when you can use a single motion track for all the windows. Commands in the Option menu let you copy and paste track data from one window to another within the same node, saving time when you want several windows tracking together as one.
Tracker Palette Modes The Tracker palette’s Option drop-down menu lets you choose between Window mode (for matching a window to the motion of a feature in the frame), Stabilizer mode (for subduing unwanted camera motion.; for more information on Stabilizer mode, see Chapter 133, “Sizing and Image Stabilization”), and FX mode (for tracking position to be used with ResolveFX or OpenFX plug-ins).
NOTE: Once tracking or stabilization has been done, disabling these checkboxes does nothing to alter the result. To make changes, you need to enable or disable the necessary checkboxes first, and then reanalyze the clip. After you’ve defined the transforms you want to use for the track, the analyze controls let you proceed with the analysis of the subject being tracked. Track One Frame Reverse button: Motion tracks a single frame in reverse.
The Tracker graph showing a curve for each transform control A vertical slider to the right of the Tracker graph lets you scale the height of the curve data within to make it easier to see it all within the graph. A horizontal slider at the bottom of the graph allows you to zoom in and out of the tracker curves, allowing you to see finer detail of the tracking paths. Above the Tracker graph, a Timeline ruler contains a playhead that’s locked to the playheads in the Viewer and Keyframe Editor.
Point Tracker Controls If you’re using the Point Tracker, then the Interactive Mode controls disappear, replaced by the two controls of the Point Tracker. Point Tracker controls Add Tracker: Click to create a new tracker that’s automatically positioned in the center of the frame. Once created, you can drag it using the pointer to line up with the feature you want to track. You can create as many trackers as you like. Multiple trackers are all tracked at once.
Using Interactive Mode to Manually Choose Tracking Features Interactive mode lets you manually remove or add tracking points to improve tracking performance in situations where the automatic image analysis in DaVinci Resolve provides unsatisfactory results. For example, you can delete tracking points within a window that correspond to overlapping features you don’t want to track. Suppose a car that you’re tracking drives by a sign that partially obscures the car.
The points within the selection area are deleted. Remaining tracking points ready to be used 5 While Interactive mode is still on, click Track Forward or Track Reverse to track the subject using the remaining tracking points. 6 When you’re finished tracking, turn off the Interactive Mode checkbox. DaVinci Resolve goes back to using automatically placed tracking points.
4 Click the Delete button to eliminate all tracking points from the image. Deleting tracking points 5 Drag a box around the specific area where you’d like to add new tracking points. In this case, you only want to track the top half of the woman’s face, since the bottom half is cut off by the fence posts. Placing the selection box over the top of the window 6 Now, click the Insert Track Points button.
While in Interactive Object Tracking mode you may also choose to add tracking points one by one. To add a single tracking point: 1 Open the Tracker palette. 2 Turn on the Interactive Mode checkbox. 3 Using the DaVinci control panel, press the CURSOR button above the fourth trackball of the Center panel, and move the onscreen cursor to the detail of the image that you want to add a tracking point to. 4 Click the Set Point button, within the Interactive mode controls of the Tracker palette.
2 Use Track Forward to track the feature as far as you can before it becomes obscured behind something else in the frame. 3 When the Power Window stops tracking the feature reliably, stop the track. The Power Window is obscured by the post 4 Open the Tracker palette. 5 Click the Frame button to put the Tracker controls into frame-by-frame adjustment mode. This is an important step.
8 Drag a bounding box over the portion of the curves in the Tracker graph that fall between the good tracking data at the beginning and end of the shot. 9 Click the Tracker palette option pop-up menu, and choose Clear Selected Track Data.
Setting up to track a window over a woman’s face 3 Open the Tracker palette, and choose Point Tracker from the bottom right pop-up. Choosing the Point Tracker 4 Before you start tracking, choose what types of motion you want to track and apply to the window you’re working on. You can choose from among Pan, Tilt, Zoom, Rotate or Perspective 3D. Which methods of transformation can be applied depend on how many points you add to track.
Lining up the tracker crosshairs with the feature you need to track 7 If you want to improve the accuracy of your track, you can create more tracker crosshairs and position them on top of other details within the subject you’re tracking. For the best results, make sure that all crosshairs are placed onto details that are in the same plane of motion.
Removing Trackers If you find that a particular tracker is causing problems, you can remove it by selecting it in the Viewer, and clicking the Delete Tracker icon, before retracking the subject. Clicking the Delete Tracker icon Using Frame Mode to Offset Track A common issue when point tracking is how to deal with occlusions and times when the tracked feature moves off screen.
3 Move the playhead back to the last good frame of tracking, and then click the Frame button in the Tracker palette to go into Frame mode. Turning on Frame mode, to prepare to offset the track 4 In Frame mode, you can now drag the tracker to another feature of the building, this time the outer edge of the roof, that will be better to follow as the building goes out of frame to the left, since the Power Window will go out of frame before the rightmost corner of the building’s roof does.
The tracker path before and after moving the tracker crosshairs in Frame mode is smooth and continuous Rotoscoping Window Shapes After Tracking While the DaVinci Resolve trackers are pretty miraculous when it comes to making a window follow moving subjects, or elements within a moving scene, there will be plenty of times when the final track isn’t quite perfect.
Fortunately, the Tracker palette’s Frame mode makes it easy to animate shape changes you make to windows in order to better follow a moving subject, a task often referred to as rotoscoping. By following the motion of a moving subject, and making a series of automatically keyframed adjustments to the window at every point the subject changes speed or direction, you can make a window isolate a moving target with surprising precision.
Keyframing in Frame Mode Once you’ve added keyframes to the Tracker palette, there are a number of ways you can edit them. Methods of working with keyframes in the Tracker graph: To add a keyframe: Click the Add Keyframe icon at the upper right-hand corner of the Tracker graph. It looks similar to the Keyframe icons found in the Edit page Inspector.
Clicking the Add Keyframe icon in the Tracker graph Adding a keyframe at the last frame where the window follows the subject’s motion well means that any future animated changes you make interpolate from this frame forward, rather than from previous frames where there’s no need for alterations.
This results in a second keyframe being placed in the ruler of the Tracker graph. Two keyframes creating rotoscoped animation in addition to any motion tracking that’s applied 5 With your first two keyframes placed, scrub the playhead back and forth between them to evaluate how well the window’s animation is automatically interpolating to fit the motion of the subject you’re isolating.
TIP: If you’re isolating a subject with a complex shape that moves quite a lot, you might consider using multiple simple overlapping shapes to track and rotoscope it, rather than a single complicated one, to make the task easier. 7 When you’re finished rotoscoping the window, be sure to click the Clip button to switch back to Clip mode, so you can trim the window’s shape across every keyframe you’ve just created, if necessary.
Chapter 122 Using the Gallery The Gallery provides a way to save, browse, and use saved still frames from different clips in a program. Each project is saved with its own individual set of stills, and each still you save consists of a DPX image of the saved frame, and the grade metadata. You can use saved stills for reference when matching one clip to another, or you can use them to copy grades to other clips, or other timelines. There are two ways to work with the contents of the Gallery.
Contents Using the Gallery 2764 Saving Stills 2764 Selecting Stills 2765 Deleting Stills 2765 Where are Stills Saved? 2766 Changing the PowerGrade Still Directory 2766 Live Previews of Gallery Stills 2766 Hover Scrub in the Gallery 2767 Playing Stills and Setting Up Image Wipes 2767 Timeline Wipes 2768 Gang Timeline Wipe With Current Clip 2768 Change a Timeline Wipe Using the Timelines Album of the Gallery 2768 Labeling and Searching for Stills and Sources 2769 Automatic Labeling
Using the Gallery The Gallery in the Color page and the expanded Gallery window environment share many of the same commands for organizing stills. However, the commands for saving stills and customizing split-screen views are restricted to the Color page. Color page Gallery Saving Stills One of the most common operations is to save a clip as a still (with that clip’s embedded grade) for future reference and use.
Selecting Stills To select a range of stills, do one of the following: Click one still, then Shift-click another to select a contiguous range of stills. Command-click any stills you like to make a noncontiguous selection. Right-click any still, and choose one of the following commands: – Select All: Selects every clip in the Gallery. – Select Current to Last: Selects every still from the one you’ve clicked through the last still in the Gallery.
Where are Stills Saved? By default, all grades/stills you save are saved in the DPX format, and are placed in the directory path defined in the “Gallery stills location” field in the Working Folders section of the Master Settings panel of the Project Settings. This path defaults to a hidden “.gallery” directory that’s created at the location of the first Media Storage Volume you specify in the Media Storage panel of the System Preferences window.
Hover Scrub in the Gallery When Live Preview is enabled in the Gallery option menu, the Hover Scrub Preview submenu lets you choose how you want Live Preview to be shown by a thumbnail in the Gallery and in the Viewer when you hover the pointer over a still or LUT in the LUT Browser: You can choose to scrub both the thumbnail you’re hovering over and the Viewer, letting you preview the current still’s grade or a LUT over the duration of the current clip in both the thumbnail and Viewer.
To adjust a wipe in the Viewer, do one of the following: Drag the pointer within the Color page’s Viewer to move the wipe. Push the T-bar lever up and down on the T-bar panel of the DaVinci control panel. To customize the type of image wipe that’s displayed in the Viewer, do one of the following: Click any of the controls at the top right of the Viewer toolbar to choose Horizontal, Vertical, Mix, Alpha, Box, and Difference types of wipe.
Labeling and Searching for Stills and Sources By default, all stills are identified by a three-number code. The first number is the video track the clip is on, the second number is the clip’s position number in the current Timeline, and the third number is the version number of the grade. All stills are numbered Track.Shot.Version If you’ve saved many stills, it can help to label the important ones with whatever text you find helpful.
Manual Labeling Sometimes the easiest thing to do is to just give a particular still a custom name that’s representative of what that still represents, such as “SeemedLikeAGoodIdea.” When naming stills manually, it’s best to avoid using the forward slash character in case you find yourself exporting these stills with file names. In fact, it’s a good idea to avoid using the forward slash character for just about any text that you add in DaVinci Resolve.
Gallery Options In the upper right corner of the Gallery palette there are several options that let you adjust the view and organization of your stills. Still Size Slider: Dragging this slider to the left makes the still thumbnails smaller, dragging it to the right makes them larger. Sort Stills: Choosing an option from this submenu changes the sort order of all clips in the Gallery. The options are: – Still ID: Sorts all stills by their assigned ID number (track, clip number, grade version).
Sort Stills By: Choosing an option from this submenu changes the sort order of all clips in the Gallery. The options are: – Record Timecode: Sorts all stills by their position in the program. – Source Timecode: Sorts all stills by the timecode of the source clip they came from. – Create Time: Sorts stills based on when you saved each still.
Organizing Stills Using Albums All stills you save are always placed into the currently open album of the Gallery, which defaults for new projects to “Stills 1.” However, you can create additional albums with which to organize your stills into whatever categories you require. Albums can be shown, created, and removed using the Gallery in either the Color page or Gallery windows. Use albums to organize your stills To show or hide the Albums list: Click the Album button, at the top left of the Gallery.
PowerGrade Albums PowerGrade albums are meant to be repositories for grades you want to reuse frequently, or for stills that you need to reference from multiple projects, such as when grading a series that shares common looks from episode to episode.
The Timelines grade browser in the Gallery automatically shows all grades in the current timeline The Gallery Management Window While you can do quite a lot of stills management using the Gallery as it appears in the Color page, the Gallery window provides additional functionality for copying stills among different projects and databases, for organizing your stills and memories, and for accessing the DaVinci Resolve looks that accompany the application.
The Gallery opens into a floating window, divided into four areas: Stills navigator: Lets you navigate the contents of other projects and databases that are available. Independent projects, as well as database > user > project relationships, appear in this hierarchical list. Click the disclosure triangle next to any item on this list to reveal its contents. Click any project in the list to reveal its albums and stills in the Group Stills browser.
Databases: Each database that’s available appears within this list. Each database has a nested series of users, projects, and timelines within, as well as one nested PowerGrade item for each user, which provides access to the saved stills within. Orphans: Stills are saved to a separate directory which is defined in the Master Settings panel of the Project Settings. Whenever you delete a database, the stills that corresponded to that database become orphaned.
Importing and Exporting Stills It’s possible to import still images in different graphics formats into the Gallery, which can be particularly useful when a client provides reference images to which they’d like you to refer. It’s also possible to export stills from the Gallery, which is good for sending a series of reference stills for approval to a remote client. In both cases, you can choose whether to import or export images with an accompanying LUT.
Using and Organizing Memories Stills and memories contain identical information, and can be split screened, copied, appended, exported, and can display their node graph just like any other still. However, stills that are assigned as a memory make them easier to access via keyboard shortcuts, and from dedicated buttons on the DaVinci control panel. Memories are hidden by default, but you can reveal them by clicking the Memories button, to the right of the Gallery list button at the top-left of the Gallery.
Chapter 123 Grade Management The Color page offers numerous ways of saving grades, copying grades, creating and altering groups of clips to share grades, rippling grades and adjustments, and managing multiple versions of grades. All of these procedures enable you to work faster by leveraging work you’ve already done to apply to other clips that can benefit from the same adjustments, or by applying changes across multiple clips all at once.
Contents Using Versions to Manage Grades 2783 Choosing to Copy Grades Manually or Automatically Using Versions 2783 Using Local Versions by Default 2784 Using Remote Versions to Enable Automatic Linking 2784 Working with Versions 2789 The Importance of “Version 1” 2792 Deleting Unused Versions 2792 Rendering Versions 2793 Copying Grades 2793 Protecting Adjustments with the Copy Grade Options 2793 Clip Grades and Timeline Grades in Saved Stills 2794 Choosing Which Aspect of a Grade to C
Using Shared Nodes 2810 What Are Shared Nodes Good For? 2810 Creating Shared Nodes 2811 Locking Shared Nodes 2811 Copying Shared Nodes 2811 Converting Shared Nodes Back to Corrector Nodes 2812 Deleting Shared Nodes 2812 Using Adjustment Clips 2813 Using Groups 2814 Creating and Managing Groups 2815 Using Group Modes to Control Which Grades Ripple and Which Don’t 2816 Collapse Group Grades 2819 Exporting Grades and LUTs 2821 Chapter – 123 Grade Management 2782
Using Versions to Manage Grades Working quickly requires a mastery of the numerous grade management features built into DaVinci Resolve. These features are designed to help you copy and ripple grades to individual clips, among manually defined groups of clips via the Node Editor’s Clip mode, or among automatically linked clips that share the same source clip in the Media Pool (when using Remote versions).
Switching to use remote versions, instead, puts you into a mode where clips using remote versions that share the same media file are automatically linked together. This gives you a convenient shortcut for grading your program, since a grade that’s applied to one linked clip is automatically copied to every other clip it’s linked to, which can be convenient when grading a series of headshots appearing throughout a program that come from the same interview take.
Turning off “Use local version for new clips in timeline” to enable remote grades to be used by default How Automatic Linking Works When clips using remote versions have been added to a timeline, any other clips in any timeline that (a) use remote versions also, and (b) refer to the same file in the Media Pool are linked.
So long as remote versions are enabled, there are other ways that linked clip relationships are formed. If, after conforming an AAF, XML, or EDL, you used the Split Clips button in the Color page to split one conformed clip into many, each of the clips you split would be linked, since they too would share the same source media in the Media Pool. Finally, automated linking also occurs for clips that appear in multiple timelines that also use remote versions.
Once created, the Master Timeline contains every clip in the Media Pool of the current project. If you color correct the clips in the Master Timeline, you’ll find there’s only one set of versions available, found underneath the Local submenu of the Color Page timeline’s contextual menu. It’s important to understand that local versions within the Master Timeline are in fact the remote versions found in every other timeline of that project.
Three clips automatically linked, sharing a blue grade Then, you set Clip 3 to use Version 2 with a different grade, tinted red. Clip 3 is now unlinked from Clips 1 and 5. Setting the second of the three clips to use another version with a different remote grade sets it apart However, switching Clip 5 to also use the red-tinted Version 2 means that Clip 3 and Clip 5 are now linked together, but Clip 1 is no longer linked.
You can also set every clip in the entire timeline to use local versions. If you switch an entire timeline to local versions, then no clip in that timeline will be linked to any other unless you create a group (covered later in this chapter).
Additionally, DaVinci Resolve 15 introduced the ability to batch create, rename, load, and delete versions for multiple clips that are selected at the same time. To create a new local or remote version quickly for one or more selected clips, do one of the following: – Choose Color > Grade Version > Add (Command-Y). – Using the DaVinci control panel, press ADD VERSION on the T-bar panel.
To load a particular remote or local version for one or more selected clips, do one of the following: Right-click one of the selected clip thumbnails, choose the submenu of the corresponding remote version you want to copy, and choose Load. To rename the version of one or more selected clips: 1 Right-click one of the selected clip thumbnails, choose the submenu of the corresponding remote version you want to rename, and choose Rename. 2 In the Version Name dialog, type a name into the text field.
The Importance of “Version 1” There are specific operations in DaVinci Resolve where “Version 1,” otherwise known as “the default version,” is the only version that’s used, regardless of how many other versions are available, or which version was previously selected. The default version can be named anything you want, but whatever its name, the default version is the first version in the list, and it’s important.
If you selected a local version, all unused local versions will be deleted, but remote versions will be left alone. Similarly, if you selected a remote version, all unused remote versions will be deleted, but local versions will be left alone. To eliminate all other local and remote versions except for the current version: 1 Choose the version you want a clip to use. 2 Right-click the thumbnail of the clip you want to eliminate extra versions from, and choose Delete All Versions from the contextual menu.
for shot matching and scene balancing, with additional nodes applying individual or stylistic adjustments. Copy Grade: Preserve Camera Raw Settings: When enabled, the camera raw Source settings of the current clip are preserved, letting you apply stylistic grades from unrelated clips without overwriting clip-specific source settings. Copy Grade: Preserve Input Sizing: When enabled, Input Sizing adjustments are not overwritten by those of the copied grade.
Choosing How to Copy Keyframes When working with saved grades that have keyframes, you can choose how these keyframes are copied via a setting in the Gallery contextual menu. There are three options: No Keyframes: No keyframes are copied. The state of the grade at the frame used to save the still is what is applied to the target clip or clips. Keyframes Aligning Source Timecode: Keyframes are copied aligning the source timecode of the saved grade with the source timecode of the target clip.
To copy a grade from a clip or still to one or more clips using the Apply Grade command: 1 Select the clip thumbnail you want to copy the grade to in the Timeline; a single selected clip appears highlighted orange. If you want to copy a grade to several clips, you can either Command-click multiple non-adjacent clips, or Shift-click a continuous range of clips; multiple selected clips appear highlighted red.
To apply a memory to one or more clips in a timeline, do one of the following: 1 Choose one or more clips in the Thumbnail timeline to copy to. This can be the current clip, or it can be a range of clips that you select by Command-Clicking or Shift-Clicking. 2 Do one of the following to copy a grade to the selected clips: – Right-click a memory and choose Apply Grade. – Choose Color > Memories > Load Memory A–H (Command-1–8).
Copying from Stills in the Gallery As mentioned previously, each still you store in the Gallery contains the grading information as well as the image of the frame it was saved from. This saved grade can be applied to any clip in the Timeline. IMPORTANT Copied grades overwrite any previously existing grades on the clip or clips you copy to. To apply a grade from a still to one or more selected clips in a timeline: 1 Choose one or more clips in the Thumbnail timeline to copy to.
Appending grades places them after the original nodes To append a saved grade or memory as individual nodes, do one of the following: Drag a still or memory from the Gallery onto a connection line in the Node Editor; when the plus icon appears, drop it and its nodes will be appended within the node tree starting at that connection. Right-click a still or memory in the Gallery, and choose Append Node Graph.
To append a saved grade or memory using the DaVinci control panel: 1 Select the clip you want to append a grade to using the PREV SCENE or NEXT SCENE buttons of the Jog/Shuttle panel. 2 Press NEXT STILL or PREV STILL to select the still with a grade that you want to append. 3 Press PLAY STILL to wipe the selected still against the current clip. 4 Press SHIFT UP and then press NEXT STILL to append the nodes of the grade from the selected still to the current clip.
To copy a node’s settings from one clip to another, do one of the following: Option-drag one node onto another. When you drop it, the settings of the node you dragged overwrite those of the node you dropped onto. Select a node with settings you want to copy and choose Edit > Copy (Command-C). Then, select a node you want to paste these settings to either in the current grade or in the grade of another clip, or create a new node, and choose Edit > Paste (Command-V) to paste the settings you copied.
Clip Node Graph: By default, the Clip node graph is displayed at the left. You can drag any node from the floating node graph to the current grade shown in the Node Editor, and drop it onto an existing node to overwrite that node’s settings or onto a connection line to insert it as a new node.
Ability to Open Compound Nodes in “Display Node Graph” When you right-click a Gallery still or a thumbnail and choose Display Node Graph for a grade that uses compound nodes, you can right-click any compound node and choose “Show compound node,” or Command-double-click a compound node to open it and see its individual nodes.
– In Clip mode, click Apply PTZR to copy the sizing from the floating node graph to overwrite that of the current clip. – In Clip mode, click Apply Source to copy the source settings from the floating node graph to overwrite those of the current clip. – In Clip mode, click Apply All to copy every setting from the floating node graph to the current clip.
– In Node mode, select which attributes you want to copy, and then drag any node from the floating node graph to the current grade shown in the Node Editor, and drop it onto an existing node to overwrite the settings of that node that you selected. – In Node mode, select which attributes you want to copy, and then drag any node from the floating node graph to the current grade shown in the Node Editor, and drop it onto a connection line to insert it as a new node with only the settings that you selected.
3 Select a node to modify. Ideally, every selected clip should have a node sharing the same number as the one you’re modifying. If some clips don’t, then those clips won’t inherit the change you’re going to be rippling. 4 Make whatever changes you need to, adjusting any of the palette controls in the Color page you need to, except for Camera Raw, Sizing, and Data Burn, which aren’t node‑specific. 5 When you’re happy with the change you’ve made, choose Color > Ripple Node Changes to Selected Clips.
The selected node should be appended to the end of the node tree of each selected clip, and in a few moments the thumbnails of those clips should update to show the change. Scroll Copy Grades Using the DaVinci Control Panel Scroll mode lets you quickly preview the effects of many different grades applied to clips in the Timeline on the currently selected clip, with the option to either accept or reject the previewed grade to which you’ve “scrolled.
When you press the TOGGLE DECK KEYS soft key in Scroll mode, each of the Transport Control buttons on the Transport panel functions as a means of previewing the grades of other clips in the Timeline. STEP FWD: Move to the next clip and preview its grade. STEP REV: Move to the previous clip and preview its grade. FWD: Plays (scrolls) forward at 1 scene per second, previewing each new grade as it appears.
To ripple a change using the Ripple Mode soft key commands: 1 (Optional) Press MODES, then press RIPPLE MODES. Four commands appear mapped to the middle soft keys of the Center panel, which can be used later to execute different types of ripple operations. 2 Move the playhead to the clip you want to adjust. 3 Adjust the current clip that you want to ripple to other clips in the Timeline. 4 Define the range of clips you want to ripple to using the number pad on the Transport panel.
The adjustment you made in step 4 is applied to the designated range of clips. Admittedly, that was a long and detailed procedure, but the actual button sequences are straightforward once you put them together. Here are some examples of button sequences that ripple an adjustment you’ve just made in different ways: “10 , 15” then SHIFT DOWN then RIPPLE VALUE: Copies the change you’ve made to the current clip, and applies it as a new node that’s appended to the end of clips ten through fifteen.
Shared nodes are extremely flexible.
Ways of copying Shared nodes among multiple clips: Add a Shared node to another clip’s grade using the Node Editor contextual menu: Once you save a node as a Shared node, it becomes available from the bottom of the Add Node submenu of the Node Editor contextual menu, making it easy to add any Shared node to any clip. If you customize the label of the Shared node, that custom label appears in the contextual menu, making it easier to find what you’re looking for.
Using Adjustment Clips You can also apply a single grade to multiple clips in the Timeline using Adjustment clips that have been superimposed over numerous other clips in the Timeline. They can be used to apply a single grade to all clips in a scene, or to add further color adjustments or trims to a section of clips via a second grade that’s applied on top of the individual clip grades that are already applied.
Effects clips are a fast and easily revised way to apply one or more grades and effects to a range of clips. TIP: Multiple adjustment layers can be grouped together so that you can apply Group and Clip grades to adjustment layers, linking multiple adjustment layers together in situations where you want to apply the exact same trim or stylistic adjustment to multiple scenes in non-contiguous areas of the Timeline.
Creating and Managing Groups The following procedures describe how to create, load, modify, and delete groups. To create a new group: 1 Select one or more clip thumbnails in the Timeline. You can select a contiguous range of clips by clicking one and then Shift-clicking another, or you can make a noncontiguous selection by Command-clicking individual clip thumbnails anywhere in the Timeline. 2 Right-click one of the selected clip thumbnails, and choose Add Into New Group.
To delete a group: – Right-click a clip belonging the group you want to delete, and choose Group > “Name of group” > Delete. – This clears the group, while preserving the last applied grade within each clip. Using Group Modes to Control Which Grades Ripple and Which Don’t When you create a group and then select any clip that is a member of that group, additional Node Editor modes become available that let you apply multiple levels of grades to the clips in that group.
Group Post-Clip: Node trees assembled in this mode also affect every clip in the group simultaneously, but these adjustments are applied after the Clip adjustments. Post-Clip adjustments can be useful for applying a creative look to an overall scene, so that later revisions to a scene’s look can be accomplished with a single set of adjustments that automatically affect the entire group. Timeline: Node trees assembled in this mode affect every single clip in the entire Timeline.
A primary adjustment applied to the Group Pre-Clip mode With this accomplished, you can see there’s some variation among the clips in the scene that needs to be corrected in order for every clip to match. Choose Clip from the Node Editor mode drop-down.
A stylistic adjustment applied to the Group Post-Clip mode At this point, the scene is graded via a well organized set of corrections. If the client later wants a change affecting the underlying primary grade that everything is built on, you can adjust the Pre-Clip grade. If you spot an inconsistency with your shot matching at any point, you can make a fast tweak to the relevant Clip grade.
(Top) The Clip node tree, (Bottom) After using the Collapse Group Grades command to flatten the Pre-Group and Post-Group nodes into the Clip node tree To flatten all group grades into a single Clip mode node tree: Right-click a clip’s thumbnail in the Thumbnail timeline, and choose Collapse Group Grades from the contextual menu. Using Collapse Group Grades on a clip always removes that clip from whatever group it was previously a member of.
Exporting Grades and LUTs If you find it necessary to exchange grades with other workstations, there are two ways you can do so directly: by exporting grades, or LUTs. This section discusses the export of Grades; for more information about exporting LUTs, see Chapter 130, “Using LUTs.” To export a grade: 1 Save the grade you want to export as a still in the Gallery. 2 Right-click the saved still in the Gallery, and choose Export. 3 Select the image format you want to save the still as.
Chapter 124 Node Editing Basics This chapter covers the basics of using the Node Editor in DaVinci Resolve to manage all of the adjustments you decide to apply to a clip, as well as the fundamental procedures for editing and organizing nodes within a tree that are the basis for creating more sophisticated effects.
Contents Node Editor Basics 2824 Thumbnail-Optional Nodes 2824 The Node Editor Interface 2825 The Components of a Node Tree 2826 Node Badges and Labels 2828 Selecting Nodes 2829 Disabling Nodes 2830 Turning Grades and/or Fusion Effects Off 2831 Resetting Nodes 2831 Previewing and Restoring Node Trees 2832 Caching Specific Nodes to Improve Performance 2832 Editing Node Trees 2833 Adding Nodes 2833 Adding Nodes with Windows Turned On 2834 Deleting Nodes 2834 Connecting and Discon
Node Editor Basics By default, every clip has one node in the Node Editor that contains the first corrections you make. However, you also have the option of creating multiple nodes, where each node contains one or more corrections that affect the image. The Node Editor showing a reasonably full-featured grade The specific arrangement of nodes you create lets you exert precise control over the order of operations performed by your grade, which provides many advantages.
How Many Nodes Do I Need to Use? In this chapter and the ones that follow, you’ll learn many different techniques for combining adjustments and nodes in different ways to achieve highly specific effects.
The Node Editor’s Pan (Hand) tool The Components of a Node Tree Ambitious grades may require trees of multiple nodes to create the necessary effect. This section covers the mechanics of putting nodes together into the structures that are described in more detail later in this chapter. Every node you add is a “Corrector” node, which is capable of either primary or secondary correction, depending on whether or not you enable the Qualifier/Window/Matte controls.
Here’s an explanation of the different components of a basic node tree where all nodes are connected in serial, one after the other, and how they work together: Source Input: The green source node to the far left is the clip’s image data as processed by the Sizing and Source decode settings, ungraded. The Source input feeds RGB data to the grade, and is connected to the RGB input of the first node in your tree.
Node Badges and Labels Nodes appear with various labels and badges to help you identify what each node is contributing to the overall grade. How long a label and how many badges appear depends on the size of each node, as set by the Node Editor’s Zoom slider.
Selecting Nodes The node that’s currently selected in the Node Editor is highlighted in orange, and is referred to as the current node. When you adjust any of the parameters or settings in the Color page, you’re adjusting parameters within the current node. You can only select one node at a time. To select a node, making it the current node, do one of the following: Click any node in the node graph.
Disabling Nodes In the process of creating a node tree, it’s often useful to turn one or more selected nodes off to disable their effect on your grade. It’s also useful to turn the entire node tree off and on in order to see “before and after” views of the current clip. Disabled nodes are not processed during rendering, and they remain disabled when you save that grade along with a still in the Gallery and then apply that grade to another shot.
Turning Grades and/or Fusion Effects Off The Bypass Color Grades and Fusion Effects button/drop-down commands in the Viewer’s title bar are also available via View > Bypass Color and Fusion menu commands. Turning off Fusion effects in the Color page is an easy way to improve playback performance on low power systems when you just need to make a quick set of grading adjustments.
Methods of resetting nodes with the keyboard: To reset a selected node: Press (Shift-home). To reset all grades and nodes: Press (Command-home). To reset all grades and keep nodes: Press (Shift-Command-home). Previewing and Restoring Node Trees There are two other methods of quickly dealing with unwanted changes you’ve made to node trees, without needing to use undo. Preview Memory: Lets you preview the effect of any saved grade on the current clip.
Editing Node Trees There is no limit to the number of nodes you can create and connect to one another, and you can make as many or as few parameter adjustments as you like within each node. The following procedures describe the ways you can add nodes to the node graph as you build each grade’s node tree. Adding Nodes The simplest thing you can do to add to the complexity of a node tree is to add additional nodes, in order to add more adjustments to the current grade.
Adding Nodes with Windows Turned On There are also dedicated commands for adding serial nodes with Circular/Linear/Polygon/Curve windows automatically turned on, for convenience.
To change the connection from one node to another: Move the pointer over the second half of any connection line between two nodes until it highlights blue, then click and drag it to reconnect it to another input, on that node or another. To disconnect two nodes, do one of the following: Position the pointer over the right-hand side of a node connection so it highlights, and click it to delete it. Click a link to select it (selected links turn orange), and then press the Delete or Forward-Delete key.
Rearranging Node Order The order in which nodes are connected in your tree affects the result of a grade. For example, if you boost the highlights in the first node, and then you try to isolate a portion of the picture in a second node that you now realize has been clipped, you may to need to change your order of operations to optimize your corrections. To swap the contents of two nodes: Command-drag any node and drop it onto another node to swap the operations within each node.
Keeping Node Trees Organized It’s a good idea to keep the arrangement of your nodes in the node graph clean and neat. It’ll make it easier to read your tree if you need to revisit a grade later on, and it will also make it easier for other colorists working on the same project to figure out what you’re doing. The following procedures describe how to rearrange the nodes in your tree, and the node tree working area, to help you keep on top of your grades.
Using Compound Nodes Another node structure you can use to keep complex node trees organized is the compound node. You can Command-click to select any number of nodes in the node tree (selected nodes are highlighted white), and then use the “Create Compound Node” command to nest all selected nodes inside of a single node.
To exit a compound node you’re editing: To return to the top level node tree, doubleclick the leftmost item in the path control at the bottom of the Node Editor, or click the name of the compound node. You can also right-click in the compound Node Editor and choose “Exit Compound Node” from the contextual menu. To label a compound node: Right-click a compound node, choose Change Label from the contextual menu, and type a new label for that node. Press the Return key when you’re finished.
Identifying Nodes As you make various adjustments to nodes, small badges appear underneath that indicate what each node is actually doing. Since nodes are capable of holding multiple adjustments, any given node may have multiple badges; how many badges a node can show depends on the zoom level of the Node Editor. Larger nodes will show more badges, whereas smaller nodes will show fewer badges, hiding whichever badges don’t fit.
Clip vs. Timeline Grading Ordinarily, the Node Editor has two modes. The default Clip mode lets you create individual grades for each clip or group in the Timeline. However, the Timeline grade mode lets you apply a single grade simultaneously to every clip in the Timeline, as seen in the Thumbnail timeline in the following screenshot.
Timeline Grades and Saved Stills When you save a Gallery still, the Clip and Timeline grades are both saved. However, when you apply a grade from that still, you only apply either the Clip grade, or the Timeline grade, depending on which mode the Node Editor is in. For more information on saving and applying grades, see Chapter 123, “Grade Management.
Chapter 125 Serial, Parallel, and Layer Nodes This chapter covers the four fundamental node structures you can use to combine Color page adjustments in even more detailed ways. These methods let you control your order of operations and re-combine multiple versions of the graded image in much more specific ways.
Contents Serial, Parallel, and Layer Node Tree Structures 2845 Serial Node Structures 2845 Controlling What Feeds a Node’s RGB Input 2845 Parallel Node Structures 2846 Layer Mixer Node Structures 2848 Layer Mixer Prioritization 2848 Using Composite Modes With the Layer Mixer 2849 Adjusting Layer Node Strength Using Key Output Gain 2850 Converting Layer Mixers to Parallel Mixers 2851 Chapter – 125 Serial, Parallel, and Layer Nodes 2844
Serial, Parallel, and Layer Node Tree Structures There are several ways you can organize nodes in a tree. Each method lets you control a group of image processing operations in different ways to achieve specific results. This section covers how to use Serial nodes, Parallel nodes, and Layer nodes, as well as how to use LUTs, work with HDR media that lets you combine two different exposures using two different Source inputs, and apply additional project-wide adjustments using the Timeline grade.
By comparison, Node 3 pulls a less then optimal key from the image data fed it by Node 2 Because the secondary operation is sampling the desaturated image, rather than the source, the HSL Qualifier’s key has less image data to work with, and thus you may get an inferior result. Parallel Node Structures Another way to organize your corrections is to use a Parallel node structure, which lets you apply two or more overlapping adjustments at a single stage of a node tree.
To create an additional, unconnected input on a Parallel Mixer node: Right-click a Parallel Mixer node and choose Add One Input. Ordinarily, the RGB input of every Corrector node that’s connected to a Parallel node is connected to the output of the same node. This results in a stack of nodes that take the same state of the image as their input. This makes it easy to apply multiple secondary operations without worrying about whether or not a change to one will affect the keys of the others.
Converting Parallel Mixers to Layer Mixers On the other hand, if you need your overlapping color adjustments to have priority over one another, or if you want to combine multiple adjustments using composite modes, then you may want to use the Layer Mixer node instead. If you’ve created a Parallel Mixer structure and you want to convert it to a Layer Mixer, you can. To change a Parallel Mixer node into a Layer Mixer node: Right-click a Parallel Mixer node and choose Morph Into Layer Mixer Node.
The Layer Mixer’s prioritization is most useful when you have an overlapping adjustment that you need to override any other adjustments happening on that stack. In the following example, two nodes are connected to the Layer Mixer node. Node 2 is applying a high-contrast, cool look to the entire clip. Node 3 isolates the skin tone, which is unflattering with the background stylization, and applies a different, more naturalistic adjustment.
Combining two nodes using the Layer Mixer set to Add to create a glowing effect By adding both treatments together, a hot glow has been created, blowing out the highlights of the image. Many, many other effects are possible using the different composite modes that are available. For more information on composite modes, see Chapter 41, “Compositing and Transforms in the Timeline.
You can use Key Output Gain to mix the proportion of any number of overlapping adjustments in order to create the perfect combination for your purposes. TIP: You can also use the Key Output Gain parameter to mix the proportion of adjustments being combined using the Parallel Mixer node. Converting Layer Mixers to Parallel Mixers You can easily convert a Layer Mixer to a Parallel Mixer should you discover that you need to mix your overlapping corrections evenly rather than combine them with priority.
Chapter 126 Combining Keys and Using Mattes A key is the actual image channel that’s generated by different secondary operations to isolate specific portions of images to work on. This chapter covers different ways you can manipulate and combine keys from multiple nodes, or propagate keys among nodes. It also shows different ways you can use mattes that are imported from other applications, as well as how to use the Key palette to further manipulate keys in different ways.
Contents Introduction to Manipulating and Combining Keys 2854 Outside Nodes 2854 Feeding Keys From One Node to Another 2855 Connecting Key Outputs to RGB Inputs, and Vice Versa 2857 Using External Mattes 2859 External Mattes to Limit Adjustments 2860 Extracting External Mattes from OpenEXR Layers 2862 Using External Mattes to Add Texture 2863 Using External Mattes to Create Transparency 2864 Key Palette Controls for the External Matte Node 2865 Using Mattes From the Fusion Page 2866 Us
Introduction to Manipulating and Combining Keys Each node’s key input and key output makes it possible to route key channel data from one node to another so you can apply isolated corrections. Furthermore, the Key Mixer lets you combine a variety of keys from different nodes to create more detailed keys with which to tackle complex operations.
When selecting the new node and opening the Key palette, you can see that the Key Input’s Invert control is on by default, which is what inverts the key from the previous node. The Key Input Invert control is on by default for each node If, instead of using the Outside node to invert the incoming key, you want to copy the existing key in order to perform another operation to the same isolated region, you can disable the key input’s Invert control.
The resulting stylized image may be difficult to key accurately 3 Add another node after the Layer Mixer (Node 5 in the screenshot), and then right-click in the gray background area of the Node Editor, and choose Add Node > Corrector to create an unattached node, (Node 6). 4 Connect the RGB output of Node 1 to the RGB input of Node 6, and then connect the key output of Node 6 to the key input of Node 5.
(Top) An entire clip with a high-contrast grade, (Bottom) The skin tone graded differently from the high-contrast grade using a key This example could have been handled in a variety of different ways, but the point is that you can add nodes that connect to the state of the image at any part of a node tree, and use them to generate keys to feed to any other node, regardless of what’s happening to the picture in between.
Keep in mind that a key is just a grayscale image. Setting up this kind of node structure lets you use any of the second node’s controls, such as the Custom Curves, Noise Reduction or Motion Blur controls, Sharpen, Midtone Contrast, Lift/Gamma/Gain, Contrast, or Log controls, to manipulate the key in ways you couldn’t do using only the Matte Finesse controls.
Using External Mattes The External Matte node has evolved over the years. What was once purely a means for importing matte channels for defining opacity and limiting adjustments has expanded to become a way to import the RGB channels of a media file to be used for overlaying grain, texture, and stylized distress onto an image, and even as a way to use the channels of a clip itself as a matte.
written simultaneously to all three RGB channels. However, you could also render separate pure primary-colored mattes to each color channel (a so-called “disco” matte), so that the Red channel has one matte, the Green channel another, and the Blue channels still another, thereby exporting three separate mattes within a single media file, for convenience. If you add another matte to the Alpha channel, you can even export four mattes within a single file.
Node Editor displaying the influence of the external matte on multiple nodes when the keys are linked 3 If necessary, select Node 1, and use the Key palette controls to modify the incoming key, inverting or blurring it as necessary to create the isolation you need. NOTE: Don’t select the EXT MATTE node, because it exposes different controls in the Key palette for transforming, flipping, looping, and freezing the matte.
To slip the sync of a matte relative to the clip it’s attached to: 1 Select the Ext Matte node you want to slip. 2 Open the Key palette, and turn off the Lock Matte checkbox. 3 Raise or lower the Offset parameter until the matte is perfectly aligned with the clip it’s supposed to match.. To transform a matte: 1 Select the Ext Matte you want to transform. 2 Open the Key palette, and turn off the Lock Matte checkbox.
OpenEXR files with multiple RGBA layers (or passes) embedded within them (RGBA + RGBA + RGBA and so on) or OpenEXR files with multiple alpha channels (RGBA + A + A) expose multiple entries in this submenu. Whichever one you choose is the layer that will be used as a matte by that EXT MATTE node.
A node tree set up to feed an EXT MATTE node’s RGB output to the input of a node connected to a Layer Mixer, in order to blend it with the grade using composite modes 5 Right-click the Layer Mixer node, and choose Overlay from the Composite Mode submenu to blend the Ext Matte node most effectively with the grade.
2 Right-click any empty area of the Node Editor, and choose Add Alpha Output to reveal the Node Tree output on the right that lets you assign a key to be used to define clip transparency. 3 Connect one of the EXT MATTE node’s triangular key outputs to the Alpha output at the right of the Node Editor. The node setup for using an external matte to composite two layer The areas of the matte defined by the key are now rendered transparent.
Freeze: Turning on this checkbox freezes the matte clip on a single frame. Adjust the Offset parameter to choose which frame to freeze on. Loop: Turning on this checkbox enables matte clips to loop endlessly, which lets shorter matte clips cover longer durations. Lock Matte: When turned on, locks the sizing of a matte to whatever changes are made to the Input Sizing of that clip, so the matte transforms to follow the clip. You can also use external mattes as creative tools.
Because the Merge1 node outputs the entire composition as a single image, a second MediaOut node (highlighted) is added to output the matte, just in case the colorist might want to use it later.
Hovering the pointer over a source identifies it in a tooltip Generally, sources are arranged from top to bottom from the first MediaOut node appearing in a Fusion composition to the last. At this point, you can connect the second Source to the Key input of a second corrector node, using that key to selectively grade just the woman in the foreground (grade exaggerated for effect), without affecting the background.
3 Next, attach the key output of the Key Mixer node to the key input of the node you want to use to make the correction. Remember, the objective is to use the key that’s output by the Key Mixer to limit the adjustment being made using another node, in this case Node 3. Setting up the node tree you’ll need to combine two keys together Keep in mind, especially since this is a significant reordering of nodes in the Node Editor, that every node needs to be connected properly for the overall grade to work.
Final grade, the talent in color with a B&W background Subtracting One Key from Another The way multiple keys are combined within the Key Mixer depends on a pair of Key Input buttons you can toggle using the Key palette. In the following example, a partial green tint is washed throughout the midtones of the image using a qualifier, but you want to exclude the man’s skin tone from this operation. Using the Key Mixer, you can subtract one key from another to accomplish this with ease.
2 To reveal the controls you’ll use to change how the key from Node 3 interacts with the key from Node 2, double-click the Key Mixer node to select it. 3 Open the Key palette; a list of all input links that are connected to the Key Mixer appears at the right. The input list of the Key Mixer node 4 Within each list entry is the input name (Input Link 1, Input Link 2, etc.), a Matte control, a Mask control, a gain parameter, and an offset parameter.
To limit the output to the intersection of both keys: Turn on the Key Input Matte button for either Input Link 1 or Input Link 2. Turning on Matte for Input Link 1 to output the intersection of two mattes To invert the resulting matte you’ve created: Turn on the Output Link Invert button. When you’re finished, if you choose to subtract Node 3’s key from that of Node 2, the result should resemble the following screenshot.
Using the Key Palette For example, the Key Input Invert control is always enabled when you add an Outside node, which is why the Outside node applies adjustments to the inverse area of the previous node. If you turn this control off, that node’s key will exactly mirror the original key being fed to it from the previous node. The controls that are available in the Key palette vary depending on what kind of node you have selected: Corrector Nodes: Have three sets of parameters.
Key Input Controls Input invert: Inverts the key being fed into the key input. Off by default. Input matte: Lets you switch the key input between Matte and Mask modes. In Matte mode (on by default) the key input combines via intersection with keys generated internally using the Qualifier or Windows palette. In Mask mode, the key input is added to the internal key instead. Gain: Controls the strength of the key connected to the key input.
Using the Key Palette to Adjust Key Mixer Controls When you open the Key palette for a selected Key Mixer node, you can adjust the following controls: Key palette showing controls when a Key Mixer is selected Input list: A list of every input that’s connected to the Key Mixer. Each entry on the list has the following controls: – Input name: The name of each node connection attached to that key mixer, such as Input Link 1, Input Link 2, and so on.
The Many Uses of Key Output Gain Several of the techniques discussed in here and in “Secondary Qualifiers,” can be further customized using the Key Output Gain parameter, which makes it easy to control the strength of a node’s effect on your grade with a single adjustment. In the following example, two simple Serial nodes are applied to a clip, with the first one expanding image contrast, and the second one using a variety of controls to add some extreme warmth to the highlights.
Chapter 127 Channel Splitting and Image Compositing This chapter begins by showing node structures you can use to isolate, split apart, convert, and recombine the image channels of clip in different ways. This includes ways of using the additional image channels that are provided in some types of media.
Contents Isolating, Splitting, and Converting Color Channels 2879 Enabling, Disabling, and Converting Node Channels 2879 Splitting Channels with the Splitter/Combiner Nodes 2881 Multi-Channel RED HDRx Support 2883 Introduction to Compositing Using the Alpha Output 2886 Using a Qualifier Key to Create Transparency 2886 Using a Matte to Create Transparency 2889 Use an OFX Plug-in to Create Transparency 2890 Chapter – 127 Channel Splitting and Image Compositing 2878
Isolating, Splitting, and Converting Color Channels DaVinci Resolve provides two different methods of making channel-specific adjustments, depending on whether you need to apply an adjustment to just one channel within a single node, or apply separate adjustments to all three channels across several nodes.
3 Apply sharpening by doing one of the following: Using that node’s contextual menu, uncheck Enable Channel 2 and Enable Channel 3, which correspond to the U (Cb) and V (Cr) channels, leaving only Channel 1 (Y) enabled. Then, open the Blur palette, and drag the ganged Radius sliders down to sharpen the Y channel.
HSL converts the image into Hue, Saturation, and Lightness channels. Lightness is identical to Luminance, while Hue and Saturation are exactly as described. LAB operates on the L, A, and B channels. The L channel governs luminance, while the A and B channels are color difference channels; A adjusts color on an axis from magenta to green, B adjusts color on an axis from yellow to blue.
Blue channels out of each node connected to its three inputs, and reassembles them into a single RGB image again. Of course, what happens in between the Splitter and Combiner is entirely up to you. One of the simplest ways of showing the possibilities of this node structure is to combine it with Node Sizing in the Sizing palette. Using Node Sizing, you can correct for misaligned channels in older archived video, or create channel misalignments for creative looks.
Multi-Channel RED HDRx Support The RED EPIC, SCARLET, DRAGON, and WEAPON cameras are all capable of shooting in an HDR mode that effectively “brackets” two different exposures of each frame. The resulting image data stores two channels of image data: the regular exposure, and a “highlight exposure” that’s underexposed by a user-selectable margin (+3, +4, +5, or +6 ƒ-stops difference). By default, the Input bar in the node graph feeds the regular exposure to your grade’s node tree.
3 Right-click anywhere within the node graph (except on a node) and choose Add Source from the contextual menu. A second Source input appears underneath the first, which outputs the highlight exposure of the image as a separate image stream. A node tree that uses a Layer Mixer node to mix two Corrector nodes, each connected to separate outputs for the regular and highlight exposures.
To use the highlight exposure to selectively put detail back into the image (for example, to retrieve blown-out windows), use a Power Window, HSL Qualification, or a combination of the two to isolate the region you want to retrieve in Node 3. (Be careful if you’re using HSL Qualification to combine both exposures, as keyed edges can be tricky to blend.
Introduction to Compositing Using the Alpha Output While DaVinci Resolve can use the alpha channel of imported media for compositing, the Alpha Output in the Node Editor is an optional output that you can turn on to create clip transparency using operations inside DaVinci Resolve to create composites against other clips on lower video tracks. There are many ways of using the Alpha Output, but this section will focus on three examples.
2 You’ll want to use Node 1 to color correct the image to optimize it for keying. In this example, the foreground plate is log-encoded, so a LUT is added to Node 1 to normalize it. 3 Add a Serial node after Node 1 and connect its key output to the Alpha Output. This is a fast way to build this composite if you’re confident that the corrections you’ve made in Node 1 won’t adversely affect the key (or if you know they’ll improve it by expanding the contrast of a flat-contrast source clip).
5 If there’s green spill in the composite (or blue in cases where you’re keying a bluescreen) you can turn on the Despill checkbox to eliminate it. 6 You can also use a Power Window to garbage matte out any elements you don’t want intruding into the shot, using the Tracker palette if necessary to make the window follow the motion of the foreground subject.
Using a Matte to Create Transparency If you’ve been provided with a separate Matte clip for defining clip transparency, you can use that Matte clip within the node tree of a superimposed clip to create a composite using the Alpha Output.
Use an OFX Plug-in to Create Transparency If you’ve installed an OFX plug-in capable of keying, you can right-click the node you’ve applied it to and choose Use OFX Alpha to route the key created by the plug-in out the key output of that node. When Use OFX Alpha is enabled, the HSL Qualifier and Window palette output is ignored, the only key that’s output is from the OFX plug-in.
Combining an OFX key with a window using a Key Mixer to add a Garbage matte Compositing Entirely Within an OFX Plug-In Certain OFX plug-ins that are capable of combining two image streams to create a composite can be used as of DaVinci Resolve version 11.1 by exposing a “second layer input” on the node to which that plug-in has been applied. This makes it possible to composite the image you’re grading with the RGB output from an EXT MATTE node.
3 Open the Media page, locate the clip you want to composite in the Library, and import it as an unassigned matte. 4 Open the Color page again, right-click the node with the OpenFX plug-in applied to it, and choose Add Matte > Track Mattes > “name of matte imported in step 3” from the contextual menu. 5 By default, the EXT MATTE node that appears is connected via one of its key outputs.
Chapter 128 Keyframing in the Color Page The Color page has a dedicated Keyframe Editor, found at the right of the palette area, that you can use to animate grading changes from one frame to another. Because grading is a fundamentally different task than editing, the Color page Keyframe Editor operates somewhat differently from the Curve Editor in the Edit page.
Contents Introduction to Keyframing 2895 The Keyframe Editor Interface 2896 All/Color/Sizing 2898 Keyframing Methods 2899 Dynamic Keyframes (Dynamics) 2899 Static Keyframes (Marks) 2900 Mixing and Converting Dynamic and Static Keyframes 2900 Keyframed Nodes Have a Badge 2901 Using Specific Keyframing Tracks 2902 Corrector Keyframing Tracks 2903 ResolveFX Keyframe Tracks 2903 The Sizing Keyframing Tracks 2904 The Ext Matte Node’s Freeform Isolation Track 2904 Automatic Keyframing 2
Introduction to Keyframing Whether it’s referred to as keyframing, dynamics, or marks, DaVinci Resolve provides an interface for automatically interpolating color adjustment parameters in various ways from one setting to another. For example, if you have a clip with varying exposure settings, you can animate a series of contrast adjustments using Dynamic keyframes to make the changes in exposure less distracting.
The Keyframe Editor Interface The Keyframe Editor has all the controls necessary to create and modify keyframes for the currently selected clip. If necessary, you can even make it wider in a single screen layout by clicking its expand button (at the top right of the Keyframe Editor). If you have two computer displays, you can use the Color page’s Dual Screen layout which places the Keyframe Editor on a second screen and uses the entire width of the monitor, for even more room.
Auto-Keyframe button: Turn this button on to automatically create a Dynamic keyframe every time you adjust any parameter within that node. Track disclosure triangle: Exposes individually keyframable groups of parameters underneath the main keyframe track. Keyframe tracks: To the right of the track header, the keyframe tracks are where you create and edit the keyframes that animate parameter changes.
All/Color/Sizing Perhaps the most important control for keyframing, the Keyframe Timeline mode, lets you switch the scope of what tracks get keyframed when you use the Start Dynamic or Add Static Keyframe commands, either from the keyboard or via the buttons of your control panel. This command alternates among three modes: All: The default mode. Adds keyframes to every track in the Keyframe Editor, keyframing every parameter in every node all at once, including the Sizing settings.
Keyframing Methods There are two different types of keyframes used by DaVinci Resolve to create automated changes. Each type of keyframe interpolates parameters differently. Dynamic Keyframes (Dynamics) Dynamic keyframes are the most conventional type of keyframe you’ll use, and are the type of keyframe used for creating animated changes from one state to another. For example, if you need a grade to become brighter over time to compensate for a change in lighting conditions, you’ll use Dynamic keyframes.
Static Keyframes (Marks) Static keyframes, or marks, are keyframes that are used to create abrupt, one frame changes from one state to another. They’re typically used to mark edit points separating one shot from another when multiple shots appear within a single clip. However, Static keyframes are also useful in any situation where you need a sudden change from one setting to another, such as when creating a lightning effect.
No dynamic interpolation following the static keyframe If you accidentally create the wrong kind of keyframe, it’s easy to convert it into the type of keyframe you need. To change one kind of keyframe into another: 1 Click the keyframe you want to convert to select it. 2 Right-click the selected keyframe, and choose either Change to Dynamic Keyframe or Change to Static Keyframe.
Using Specific Keyframing Tracks If you’re simply using the Color mode of the All/Color/Sizing command to do keyframing, then you’ll be adding keyframes to every parameter of the currently selected node whenever you apply a single keyframe. However, often that’s overkill in situations where you only need to keyframe a single setting or group of settings.
Now, you can make whatever changes you need to the controls governed by the keyframing track you keyframed, in order to create the necessary animated effect. TIP: You can also animate individual keyframing tracks using automatic keyframing, explained in more detail later in this chapter.
Plug-ins that have been added as standalone nodes appear within a new FX track of the Keyframe Editor. Each plug-in that’s added as a separate node has a separate FX track. The keyframe track of a ResolveFX plug-in added as a standalone node The Sizing Keyframing Tracks The Sizing keyframing tracks govern sizing transforms and stereoscopic adjustments separately from the color controls. Input Sizing: Controls the Input Sizing parameters found within the Sizing palette.
Auto-keyframing selected for Circular window on Node 1 When auto-keyframing is disabled, changes you make alter existing keyframes. How this alteration works depends on the location of the playhead, and the type of keyframes in the Keyframe Editor. For more information, see the next section. Modifying Keyframes Once you’ve started adding keyframes to animate changes to a grade, there are a variety of methods available to navigate and edit these keyframes to further customize these effects.
To move multiple keyframes at the same time: 1 If necessary, open the keyframe track with the keyframes you want to move. 2 Drag a bounding box around the keyframes you want to move. Selected keyframes appear highlighted in red. 3 Drag any of the selected keyframes to move them to the left or right. Changing Keyframe Values Unlike many other applications, DaVinci Resolve lets you alter keyframe values when the playhead isn’t directly on an existing keyframe.
Changing the dissolve profile 4 When you’re happy with the curve, click OK. By using different Start and End values, you can make animated adjustments “ease in” or “ease out” of a particular keyframe, to create a more gradual or abrupt transition. TIP:The default dynamic profile start and end of each new keyframe can be set via the Dynamics Profile values in the General Options panel of the Project Settings.
Copying Keyframes It’s possible to copy a set of keyframes from one node to another, either within the current grade, or in another clip entirely. It’s also possible to copy an entire grade with keyframes from one clip to another. To copy a set of keyframes from one node to another: 1 Select a node to copy keyframes from, and choose Edit > Copy (Command-C).
Keyframes and Saved Stills If you save a still from a clip using keyframes within the grade, by default keyframes are not saved. However, the still and grade that are saved reflect whatever parameter values are contained by the next keyframe to the left of the position of the playhead.
Chapter 129 Copying and Importing Grades Using ColorTrace ColorTrace is a key feature of DaVinci Resolve, which lets you copy grades quickly and easily from the clips of one timeline to those within another, based on the source timecode of each clip (or using clip names when in Automatic mode). You can even use ColorTrace to copy grades between timelines within the same project, and ColorTrace one stereo timeline to another.
Contents Copying Grades Using ColorTrace 2912 Using ColorTrace in Automatic Mode 2913 Using ColorTrace in Manual Mode 2916 Importing CDL Data Using ColorTrace 2919 Using CDL Adjustments 2920 Calculating CDL Functions 2920 Chapter – 129 Copying and Importing Grades Using ColorTrace 2911
Copying Grades Using ColorTrace ColorTrace copies whichever version of a clip’s grade was applied in the Source timeline you’re copying from, either local or remote, depending on which grades each clip in the Source timeline is set to use. Furthermore, ColorTrace copies Group Pre-Clip and Group Post-Clip grades, as well as Fusion compositions. These improvements make this an extremely reliable tool for copying grades from one timeline to another in a wide variety of situations.
3 (Optional) If you’re using ColorTrace with a project that has numerous VFX clips in a workflow where all VFX clips have specific reel names that identify them, you can enter these names (with asterisks (*) used as wildcards that indicate text in each reel name that can vary) in the “Effects Shot Definitions” field.
ColorTrace Thumbnail outlines indicate matching, overlapping, and non matching clips In Automatic mode the correspondence between each clip in the Source timeline and each clip in the Target timeline should be automatically made. However, overlapping timecode and reel names can cause problems. The other controls in the ColorTrace window help you deal with the subset of clips that can’t be automatically matched, or are matched in error.
– Version Camera Raw Settings: Enables the copying of versioned Raw settings, rather than just the current Raw setting. – Track Marks: Enables the copying of keyframes. – Flags and Markers: Enables copying of all flags and markers. – Hide Matching Clips: Hides all clips which have been successfully matched, and only show the clips with multiple or no matches. This lets you focus on the subset of problem clips within a potentially long timeline.
3 Once you’ve decided on a clip correspondence, double-click the Matching Source Clip thumbnail you want to copy from. If no clip in the Matching Source Clip pane is a good match, double-click the “Set As New Shot” box. The Source and Target thumbnails both turn purple, to show that you’ve created a correspondence.
ColorTrace Manual window Manual mode has the following controls: Source timeline: Shows all clips in the Source timeline you selected; the clips you’re copying grades from. Click any one clip thumbnail to select it, or click a thumbnail, and then Shift-click another thumbnail to select a contiguous range of clips. You cannot select a noncontiguous range of clips.
To copy one source grade to one target clip: Click a thumbnail in the Source timeline (on top) to copy from, then click a thumbnail in the Target timeline (on the bottom), and click Paste. You can also simultaneously copy the grades of entire scenes of clips from one timeline to another.
Importing CDL Data Using ColorTrace The ColorTrace CDL command lets you import ASC CDL file formats from other applications into DaVinci Resolve. DaVinci Resolve also has the ability to read DRX filenames from CDL files, allowing a CDL to load exported DaVinci Resolve grades. There are three supported file formats: CMX EDL: An EDL with comments referring to CCC/CDL XML files, or even Slope, Offset, and Power (SOP) data within the comment area.
Example CCC File test corrections for ref_input_image.1920 for mathematical analysis only for ref_output_image.0100 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
Chapter 130 Using LUTs Lookup Tables, also known as LUTs, are one of the most ubiquitous means of creating, exchanging, and applying image processing operations there is for purposes of color management, display calibration, look management, and general-purpose processing of image color and contrast. DaVinci Resolve has robust support for LUTs throughout its image processing pipeline.
Contents What is a LUT? 2923 Supported LUTs 2924 LUTs and ACES 2925 Adding Lookup Tables of Your Own 2925 LUT Controls in the Project Settings 2926 Applying a LUT to the Source 2926 Using the Color Page LUT Browser 2927 Applying a LUT Within a Node 2929 LUTs Are the Last Operation Within a Node 2929 Favorite LUTs Submenu in Node Editor 2929 Exporting LUTs 2930 Chapter – 130 Using LUTs 2922
What is a LUT? LUTs are simply files, similar to plug-ins but far more focused and with no user interface, that specify image processing operations. These operations are accomplished in a variety of ways. The traditional approach is to use a 1D table or 3D “cube” of pre-calculated values to perform an image color transform. However, newer LUT formats including CLF and DCTL let you use mathematical scripts to process an image.
Supported LUTs DaVinci Resolve uses both 1D and 3D LUTs, and supports LUTs in a variety of formats. .cube: DaVinci Resolve uses both 1D and 3D LUTs in the .cube format. 3D LUTs are exported as 33x33x33 cubes with 32-bit floating point processing. 65x65x65 cubes created outside of DaVinci Resolve are also compatible but may cause issues with performance. DaVinci Resolve can also read and use Shaper LUTs in the .cube format, but these must also be created outside of DaVinci Resolve. The .
LUTs and ACES The academy that promotes the correct use of ACES strongly recommends that LUTs be processed in the ACES color space. For this reason, two project settings let you choose how this will be done: ACEScc AP1 Timeline Space: This setting works for either the ACEScc or ACEScct Color Science settings depending on what you’ve selected in the Color Science popup at the top of the Color Management panel in the Project Settings.
LUT Controls in the Project Settings While there’s an entire group of LUT controls in the Color Management panel of the Project Settings, those are designed to apply LUTs, in different parts of the image processing pipeline, to the entire Timeline. This is useful when you want to apply a single color and contrast transformation to the entire program at once, but less so if you want to apply different LUTs on a per clip basis.
Using the Color Page LUT Browser The LUT Browser on the Color page provides a centralized area for browsing and previewing all of the LUTs installed on your workstation. All LUTs appear in the sidebar, by category.
To sort LUTs in Column view: Click the column header to sort by that column. Click a header repeatedly to toggle between ascending and descending modes. To update the thumbnail of a LUT with an image from a clip: Choose a clip and frame that you want to use as the new thumbnail for a particular LUT, then right-click that LUT and choose Update Thumbnail With Timeline Frame.
Applying a LUT Within a Node DaVinci Resolve lets you apply LUTs within a grade by connecting a LUT to a particular node in the Node Editor. This gives you the greatest amount of control over where the LUT is applied in your image processing pipeline, and it also gives you the opportunity to apply image adjustments prior to the LUT, and after the LUT, as you require.
Exporting LUTs If you find it necessary to exchange image adjustments with other grading applications, compositing applications, or NLEs, often the easiest inter-application solution is to export a LUT. This can be done whether your grade consists of one node or several nodes, so long as they contain only Primaries palette adjustments, Custom Curves palette adjustments, and compatible ResolveFX plug-ins that include Color Space Transform, ACES Transform, and Gamut Mapping.
PART 10 Color Page Effects
Chapter 131 DaVinci Resolve Control Panels The DaVinci Resolve control panels make it easier to make more adjustments in the same amount of time than using a mouse, pen, or trackpad with the on-screen interface. Additionally, using a DaVinci Resolve control panel to control the Color page provides vastly superior ergonomic comfort to clutching a mouse or pen all day, which is important when you’re potentially grading a thousand shots per day.
Contents About The DaVinci Resolve Control Panels 2934 DaVinci Resolve Micro Panel 2935 Trackballs 2935 Control Knobs 2936 Control Buttons 2937 DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel 2939 Palette Selection Buttons 2939 Quick Selection Buttons 2940 DaVinci Resolve Advanced Control Panel 2942 Menus, Soft Keys, and Soft Knob Controls 2942 Trackball Panel 2943 T-bar Panel 2944 Transport Panel 2950 Copying Grades Using the Advanced Control Panel 2954 Copy Forward Keys 2954 Scroll 2954 Ripplin
About The DaVinci Resolve Control Panels There are three DaVinci Resolve control panel options available and each are designed to meet modern workflow ergonomics and ease of use so colorists can quickly and accurately construct both simple and complex creative grades with minimal fatigue. This chapter provides details of the each of the panel functions and should be read in conjunction with the previous grading chapters to get the best from your panel.
DaVinci Resolve Advanced control panels DaVinci Resolve Micro Panel The Micro control panel features a row of direct control knobs at the top of the panel, three trackballs with rings for color grading, and to the right, transport and commonly used keys to speed up your grading session. Above the trackballs are reset buttons and also mode selection buttons for Log, Offset, and the Viewer selector.
Above the three trackballs are three buttons for resetting the grade: RGB: This key only resets the RGB balance to default detent. All: Select All to reset both RGB and level. Level: Select the Level key to reset the level while maintaining RGB differential. Log, Offset, Viewer, and Trackball reset buttons Control Knobs The top of the panel features 12 high resolution endless turn optical encoder control knobs with detent resets. These are spaced in groups of three for fast operation in dark suites.
Highlight: Makes it easy to selectively retrieve blown-out highlight detail in high dynamic range media by lowering this parameter, and achieves a smooth blend between the retrieved highlights and the unadjusted midtones for a naturalistic result. Saturation: Increases or decreases overall image saturation. At higher values, colors appear more intense, while at lower values, color intensity diminishes until, at 0, all color is gone, leaving you with a grayscale image.
Top group Middle group Bottom group Control buttons The middle group of buttons include: Prev Node: Within the Node Editor on the Color page you are likely to have a number of nodes. These are numbered based on the order that you added them. DaVinci Resolve node graphs are completely user configurable, so you can add nodes anywhere and in any order you like. Thus, the Previous Node key selects the node one lower in numerical order.
DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel The Mini control panel has an identical feature set and controls as the Micro panel for the lower trackball deck. In addition the panel has an upper sloped desk with dual high resolution LCD displays with four soft knobs and keys that are menu driven. There are also two banks of control buttons, on the left hand side for palette selection and on the right hand side for commonly used operations. Please refer to the Micro panel details above for the lower deck features.
Qualifier: When you select and isolate a particular color, and change that color, you are making a secondary correction. The qualifier key updates the menus to provide all the Secondary controls, including the 3D, HSL, RGB, or Luma key, with which to isolate the correction you need. Window: Power Windows are another way of making secondary correction, being essentially shapes you can use to isolate regions of the image.
Parallel: Unlike adding a Serial node, adding a Parallel node first actually adds two nodes. One behaves like a Serial node with full color correction capabilities. The second is a Parallel Mixer node. This mixer accepts the image from the original Serial node and from the new Serial node and the output is a mix of these two.
DaVinci Resolve Advanced Control Panel There are three panels in the Advanced control panel set. The center Trackball panel is where the majority of controls and feedback for the colorist are found and it includes a slideout keyboard. On either side of the Trackball panel are two interchangeable panels, the position of which is determined by operator preference. The T-bar panel, shown above on the left, has a T-bar Mix/ Wipe control and a number of menu and function keys.
If you select Shift Up and then Base Mem, the All operation is to Base Mem All or reset the current color correction of every node in the node graph for the current clip, leaving the nodes in place. To “Reset” the selected node graph or “Reset Grades and Nodes,” first select Shift Down, then Base Mem.
Under the leftmost and rightmost trackballs there are three unmarked buttons. On the left hand side of the panel, the right-most of the three unlabelled buttons below the trackball toggles the right hand side (fourth) trackball in and out of offset adjust mode. The keys under the right-hand side trackball provide left, center, and right mouse buttons. Above the rightmost trackball, the three keys have two modes.
Scene (Shift Down Revival): To select the Scene Cut Detection window, select the Shift Down key followed by the Revival key. Current ~ Viewer: This key toggles between the Color page and the Enhanced Viewer page. Object Track Mode: This key selects the Tracking menus. Clip/Track/Unmix: This is a toggle key between the Clip/Timeline modes of the node graph and the Unmix mode. User (Shift Up Cache Mode): This marks a clip for render cache of the clip output.
Default Version: If you have multiple versions of grades for a clip, this key is used to select the Default version, regardless of which version is currently displayed. Previous Version: This selects the grade one version lower in order. For example, if you are on version three, select Previous Version to get to version two. Once the Default version is reached, selecting Previous Version again will select the highest version. Next Version: Use this key to select the next higher version of the grade.
Preview Mem: To preview one of the Memory grades on any clip, select the clip on the Timeline, select Preview Mem and then the Memory letter. This key is a toggle so if you do not like the grade on the memory for that clip, select Preview Mem again and the grade will revert to the original. Original Mem: Each clip by default has a memory of its grade and sizing, etc. If you are grading a clip and move from it to another clip, the grade for the first clip is saved automatically in a memory for that clip.
Primary: The first grade for every clip will be likely be a primary. This is where you balance the clip and correct for offsets in the black and white balance. Selecting Primary switches DaVinci Resolve from other grading modes and automatically selects the Primary and Custom Curve menus for the LCD displays. Vectors: When you select and isolate a particular color, and change that color, you are making a secondary correction.
you select Add Parallel again, another input to the mixer will be created as will another preceding Serial node. In each case, the input to these Serial nodes will be common, effectively making them in parallel to each other. The key advantage is that the source image is available to many nodes, whereas in a straight Serial node graph, each time you restrict a color in a node the following nodes have little ability or limited range to use that color.
Transport Panel The Transport panel, typically located on the right for a right-handed colorist, has an LCD display with four variable controls and nine soft keys. The lower section of the panel houses the Jog/Shuttle knob and six groups of hard keys. Each group and their keys are described below. Reference Configuration Group Located at the top left-hand side of the Transport panel are the Deck and Still selection keys.
Preroll: The Preroll key is used in conjunction with the numerical keypad to select a preroll time for tape operations. Cue: Selecting Cue will force the transport to the preroll position. Previous Still: If you have a still selected, the Previous Still key selects the one preceding. Next Still: The next still is selected if this key is used. Play Still: Using Play Still, DaVinci Resolve will automatically display a wipe on the Viewer between the current scene and the current still.
Last Frame: Selects the last frame of the current clip. Step Reverse: To step the viewer one frame in reverse along the Timeline. Step Reverse Keyframe: (Shift Down Step Reverse) This key steps backward one keyframe on the Clip/Track Timeline display. Step Forward: A single frame step forward for each key press. Step Forward Keyframe: (Shift Down Step Forward) For keyframe steps forward on the Clip/Track Timeline display. Previous Scene: Selects the first frame of the previous scene.
Numerical Entry Key Group On the center right-hand side of the Transport panel is the Numerical Entry key group. Here you will find numbers 0 to 9 and associated keys for entering timecode and clip numbers. You will notice the numbers you type are displayed in a scratchpad area at the bottom of the Keyframe palette. Current: To store a new grade in any memory, first select the Current key and then the memory of your choice.
Mark: Like the Start Dynamic key, Mark is a major key. It places a Static keyframe on the Clip timeline. Scene (Shift Down Mark): This selection is reserved for future use. Copying Grades Using the Advanced Control Panel There are a number of methods of copying grades that are exclusive to the Advanced control panel.
4 When you’re finished, do one of the following to either accept or reject a scrolled grade: – Press EXIT AS WAS if none of the grades you scrolled through was suitable. This exits Scroll mode and leaves the clip as it was previously. – Press EXIT AS IS if you’ve found a grade that works for the current clip. This exits Scroll mode and copies the scrolled grade.
The following procedure describes in detail how you can use the control panel to ripple a change to a range of other clips. While this procedure may appear complicated, it’s just that there are several options. Once you learn the sequence of commands, this process is actually quite fast. To ripple a change using the Ripple Mode soft key commands: 1 (Optional) Press MODES, then press RIPPLE MODES.
Absolute Ripple: Changes made to the current clip are rippled to the specified clips by the same delta of change, using whichever units make sense for the affected parameter. For example, if the current clip had a Lift of 0.80 and you increased it to 0.90, each rippled scene’s master gain level increases by 0.10. Identical to the “Unit value changed” ripple setting.
Chapter 132 Using OpenFX and ResolveFX This chapter covers the use of ResolveFX and OpenFX plug-ins, that allow you to use the built-in filters that come with DaVinci Resolve, as well as third-party filters from a variety of companies, to create complex effects and adjustments that aren’t possible using the ordinary palette tools in the Color page.
Contents ResolveFX 2960 OpenFX 2960 Where are OFX Installed? 2961 OpenFX Plug-Ins Can Be Processor Intensive 2961 Browsing the OpenFX Library 2962 OpenFX Library Favorites 2963 Using ResolveFX and OpenFX in the Color Page 2964 Applying ResolveFX and OpenFX Plug-Ins 2964 Adding a Plug-In to a Corrector Node 2964 Adding a Plug-In as a Stand-Alone OFX Node 2965 ResolveFX and OpenFX Settings 2966 Editing Effects Using the Full Screen Viewer 2966 ResolveFX and OpenFX Onscreen Controls 29
ResolveFX ResolveFX are the built-in plug-ins that come with DaVinci Resolve. These plug-ins span the gamut from blurs and complex color adjustments to stylized image treatments and lighting effects to sharpen and repair operations that are too complex to accomplish using the palette controls of the Color page.
One of the many Sapphire OFX plug-ins from GenArts The installation and licensing of OpenFX plug-ins is handled by a vendor’s own installer. Once installed, OpenFX plug-ins appear within the Library of the Open FX panel, which can be opened by clicking the FX button at the top right of the Color page or Edit page Interface toolbar.
Browsing the OpenFX Library All of these built-in plug-ins appear within categories at the top of the OpenFX Library. Click the FX button to open the OpenFX Library When you click the FX button, the Open FX panel opens out of the right side of the Node Editor to show the Library, resizing the Viewer, Gallery, and Node Editor to make room. The OpenFX Library is organized hierarchically.
OpenFX Library Favorites You can click on the far right of any ResolveFX or OFX filter to flag it with a star as a favorite filter. When you do so, choosing Favorites from the Effects Library option menu filters out all clips that are not favorites, letting you see only effects you most commonly use. To “de-favorite” any effect, click its star to turn it off. Stars indicate a flagged favorite effect OFX Random Frame Access Previous to DaVinci Resolve 12.
Using ResolveFX and OpenFX in the Color Page This section provides an overview of procedures that describe how you can work with OpenFX plug-ins within the Color page. Methods of working with OpenFX: To add an OpenFX plug-in to a node: Drag a plug-in from the OpenFX Library onto a node. If you drag a plug-in onto a node that already has a plug-in, the previous plug-in will be overwritten.
You can only apply one OpenFX plug-in to a node at a time, but by using multiple nodes you can add as many OpenFX plug-ins to your grade as you need. When added to a corrector node, OpenFX are applied after Motion Blur and Noise Reduction, but before anything else. This means you can use Motion Blur and Noise Reduction to preprocess the image before it’s handed off to the OpenFX plug-in. This also means that all other adjustments you make within that node are applied to the OpenFX plug-in’s output.
ResolveFX and OpenFX Settings When you select a node with a ResolveFX or OpenFX plug-in applied to it, the Open FX panel switches to the Settings, which show you every single parameter associated with that plug-in, ready for customization The parameters of the VHS plugin from Red Giant Universe Adjust any of the standard controls to manipulate that plug-in’s effect on the image.
TIP: You can also open and close the Node Editor while in Full Screen Viewer mode, if you need to switch nodes while doing effects work. ResolveFX and OpenFX Onscreen Controls In the Edit page, Fusion page, and Color page, ResolveFX and OpenFX display on-screen controls that you can use to visually edit an effect.
The three keyframe controls that appear in the Inspector, from left to right: Previous keyframe, Create/ Delete keyframe, Next keyframe Methods of keyframing parameters in the Inspector: To add a keyframe: Select a clip, open the Inspector, then move the Timeline playhead to the frame where you want to place a keyframe, and click the Keyframe button next to the parameter of the Inspector you want to animate.
Motion Tracking ResolveFX and Compatible OFX Plug-Ins When using ResolveFX in the Color page, ResolveFX that have position parameters, including Dent, Lens Flare, Light Rays (when “From a Location” is selected), Mirrors, Radial Blur, Ripples, Vortex, and Zoom Blur can all be motion tracked to follow the position of a moving subject in the frame using the point-based tracking in the FX mode of the Tracker palette.
Adding a point tracker 5 Drag the crosshairs to a high-contrast detail (such as a small object or corner), and click the Track Forward button. In this example, there’s a rock out at sea that will make a good plane of motion for tracking a far-away sun. There is no inner or outer box to position or resize while you do this; you just need to drag the crosshairs to center on the feature you want to track.
Chapter 133 Sizing and Image Stabilization DaVinci Resolve has a powerful toolset for making geometric transforms, using advanced algorithms for optical-quality sizing operations. This section covers the nuts and bolts of resolution independence in DaVinci Resolve, and how to use the Sizing palette. This chapter also covers how to use the Stabilizer mode of the Tracker palette to subdue unwanted camera wiggle.
Contents The Five Color Page Sizing Modes 2973 Sizing Order of Processing on the Color Page 2973 Sizing Controls 2973 Blanking Controls 2975 Resetting the Sizing Palette 2975 Input and Output Sizing Presets 2976 Sizing Controls with the DaVinci Control Panel 2976 Using Node Sizing for Channel and Paint Effects 2977 Image Stabilization in the Tracker Palette 2979 Using the Stabilizer 2979 Using the Classic Stabilizer 2981 Using Stabilization to Create a Match Move 2986 Tracking and St
The Five Color Page Sizing Modes The Sizing Palette on the Color page can be put into one of five modes, each of which accomplishes a different task. Edit Sizing: These controls mirror those found in the Inspector of the Edit page. Input Sizing: These controls let you make sizing adjustments to individual clips that affect their overall geometry (pan, tilt, zoom, and rotation). These controls are useful for doing clip-by-clip pan and scan adjustments.
Pan: Moves the clip along the horizontal, X axis. Positive values move the clip right, negative values move the clip left. Tilt: Moves the clip along the vertical, Y axis. Positive values move the clip up, negative values move the clip down. Zoom: Adjusts the overall dimensions of the clip. The range is from 0.250 (1/4x size) to 4.000 (4x size). Normal size is 1.000. Rotate: Positive values rotate the clip clockwise. Negative values rotate the clip counter-clockwise.
Blanking Controls Output Sizing mode also has a set of Blanking controls that you can use to add custom blanking to a clip or project. For example, you can use these controls to add nonstandard letterboxing or pillarboxing to an image. Along with all other Output Sizing adjustments, blanking is added last in the image processing pipeline, so it’s not affected by any of the color or contrast adjustments you make. Top: Adjusts the top letterbox. Right: Adjusts the right pillarbox.
Input and Output Sizing Presets If there are Input or Output Sizing settings that you find yourself using repeatedly, you can save them as presets for easy recall. For example, if there’s a group of input settings that you use to resize a clip of a particular format to match the current project, you can save it as a preset that you can use whenever. Preset drop-down menu: Provides access to all the currently saved presets in the current database.
Input Sizing Adjustments: The Input Sizing controls are displayed on the right screen of the Center panel. These are similar to the mappings on the Transport panel, but the Center panel’s second row of knobs also exposes PITCH, YAW, H SIZE, and V SIZE controls, and there’s an additional MODIFY PAR button that lets you change the pixel aspect ratio of a clip. Output Sizing Adjustments: If you press the OUTPUT soft key on the Center panel, the knobs and soft keys change to show the Output Sizing controls.
Adding the Splitter/Combiner nodes to use Node Sizing on individual color channels 3 Open the Sizing palette, choose Node Sizing from the mode drop-down, and use the Sizing parameters to transform that channel as necessary. For example, if you have an old video clip with misaligned color components, you could pan a misaligned channel to the left or right to try and improve its alignment.
Before/after using Node Sizing to clone an area of the image to cover up the actor with a plant to create a clean background When you’re done, playing through the clip should show that the duplicated area of the image is still tracking the feature you want to remove. Image Stabilization in the Tracker Palette The Image Stabilization mode of the Tracker palette lets you smooth out or even steady unwanted camera motion within a clip.
A drop-down menu provides three different options that determine how the selected clip is analyzed and transformed during stabilization. You must choose an option first, before clicking the Stabilize button, because the option you choose changes how the image analysis is performed. If you choose another option, you must click the Stabilize button again to reanalyze the clip. Perspective: Enables perspective, pan, tilt, zoom, and rotation analysis and stabilization.
Using the Classic Stabilizer The “classic” image stabilizer controls available in DaVinci Resolve version 12.5 and earlier are still available, simply select “Classic Stabilizer” from the option menu of the Tracker palette. Classic image stabilization in DaVinci Resolve consists of three steps. First, you analyze the clip. Second, you choose the Stabilization settings you want to use. Third, you click Stabilize to calculate the result.
The five direction buttons let you perform the stabilization analysis. Track One Frame Reverse: Initiates tracking from the current frame backward by a duration of one frame. Track Reverse: Initiates tracking from the current frame backward, ending at the first frame of the clip. Pause: Stops tracking (if you’re fast enough to click this button before tracking is finished). Track Forward: Initiates tracking from the current frame forward, ending at the last frame of the clip.
100 lets a percentage of the original camera motion show through. Zero (0) disables stabilization altogether. Additionally, you can invert the stabilization by choosing –100, as described in the section on performing a match move below, and you can use a negative value either lower or higher than –100 to under or overcompensate when inverting the stabilization, simulating the effects of parallax where foreground and background planes move together but at different speeds.
Multiple tracking points are automatically placed to analyze the motion of the image for stabilization This analyzes the clip, but no stabilization is yet applied. 4 Adjust the Strong parameter to reflect what kind of stabilization you want. If you want to eliminate all possible motion from the shot, leave Strong set to 100. If you want to use stabilization to smooth out the shot but leave some motion in the frame, reduce the strong parameter to be less than 100 but greater than 0.
Classic Stabilizing Using the Point Tracker For clips in which there are too many moving subjects for the Cloud Tracker to get a solid lock, you need to track a very specific feature in order to successfully stabilize the image. In these cases, it’s often faster to use the Point Tracker for stabilization. To stabilize an image using the Point Tracker: 1 Open the Tracker palette, and choose Stabilizer from the Palette mode drop-down menu. Select Classic Stabilizer from the option menu.
7 Choose how you want the edges of the stabilized clip to be handled using the Zoom checkbox: – If you want DaVinci Resolve to zoom into the image as much as is necessary to prevent blanking (black edges) from intruding into the frame (the result of repositioning the image to steady camera motion), then turn on the Viewer Zoom checkbox.
Before (top) and after setting up a sky replacement by connecting an HSL qualifier of the blue in the sky to the Alpha Output to create transparency This procedure works equally well with still images or movie clips. Also, depending on the range of motion you’re going to be matching, you’ll probably need to use a background image that’s somewhat larger than the region you’re keying, to make sure you have full coverage as the layer moves to match the foreground motion.
The background sky layer after it’s been matched to the motion of the foreground layer, the sky now follows along with the motion of the camera in the superimposed clip Tracking and Stabilizing with the DaVinci Control Panel All of the tracking commands are available via the DaVinci Resolve control panel. To open and close tracking controls: Press OBJECT TRACK MODE at the top of the T-bar panel. All of the tracking controls appear on the soft keys of the Center and T-bar panels.
– If you marked the first tracked frame in the second half of the clip, then use the transport controls to move the playhead to the last tracked frame of the first half of the clip and press the INTRPLT FWD soft key. To move the playhead to different “cue” frames: Press the CUE START, CUE LOWER, CUE UPPER, or CUE END soft keys on the T-bar panel. To use Interactive mode: 1 Press the INTERACTIVE soft key at the left of the Center panel.
Chapter 134 The Motion Effects and Blur Palettes This chapter covers the Noise Reduction and Motion Blur effects found in the Motion Effects palette. It also goes into detail about the Blur, Sharpen, and Mist features of the Blur palette.
Contents Motion Effects Palette 2992 Noise Reduction Controls 2992 Limiting Noise Reduction in Useful Ways 2997 Controlling the Order of Operations for Noise Reduction 2997 Motion Blur 2998 The Blur Palette 2998 Blur 2999 Sharpen 3000 Mist 3001 Chapter – 134 The Motion Effects and Blur Palettes 2991
Motion Effects Palette The Motion Effects palette (only available in the Studio version) contains two sets of controls for applying optical-flow-calculated effects to clips in your program. These include enhanced Spatial and Temporal noise reduction, and motion-estimated artificial motion blur.
of the image at a given Motion Threshold setting. A Large setting assumes fast motion with blur occupying a larger area of the image, which excludes more of the image from Temporal NR at the same Motion Threshold setting. Choose the setting that gives you the best compromise between a reduction in noise and the introduction of motion artifacts when adjusting the Motion Threshold parameter. Luma Threshold: Lets you determine how much or how little Temporal NR to apply to the luma component of the image.
(what constitutes “high” varies with the image you’re working on). At lower values, the improvement may be more subtle when compared to the “Better” mode, which is less processor intensive than the computationally expensive “Enhanced” setting. Additionally, “Enhanced” lets you decouple the Luma and Chroma threshold sliders so you can add different amounts of noise reduction to each color component, as the image requires. Radius: Options include Large, Medium, and Small.
3 With Luma and Chroma Threshold linked, slowly raise either parameter until you just start to see a reduction in noise within the nonmoving areas of the image, then make smaller adjustments to determine the maximum amount of Temporal NR you can add without creating motion artifacts, or overly softening image detail you want to preserve.
8 If there’s obviously more chroma than luma noise in the image, you can disable Luma/ Chroma linking at a satisfactory level of luma noise reduction, and then raise the Chroma Threshold to apply more aggressive Spatial NR to address color speckling in the picture.
Spatial NR Radius, How Large Should You Go? Larger NR Radius settings can dramatically improve the quality of high-detail regions in shots where you’re using aggressive Spatial noise reduction, but it’s not necessary to always jump to the large Radius setting, which provides the highest precision.
NOTE: If you apply noise reduction and make color adjustments within the same node, noise reduction is processed first, followed by color adjustments. Using Noise Reduction Controls with the DaVinci Control Panel All three Noise Reduction controls are available via knobs on the PRIMARIES, NOISE REDUCTION control group on the Center panel.
By default, these ganged sliders move together as one, resulting in each color channel of the image being equally affected. A small white button to the left of each control’s name lets you ungang these sliders, in order to apply degrees of adjustment to individual color channels. Blur The default mode, Blur lets you apply an exceptionally high-quality Gaussian blur, or another equally high-quality sharpening operation to your image. This mode of operation has the simplest controls.
Sharpen While the Blur controls also let you apply sharpening simply by lowering, rather than raising, the Radius sliders, the actual Sharpen mode provides additional controls specifically for tailoring sharpening operations. Sharpening with Coring Softness and Level Radius: This is the primary control for adding blur or sharpening. The default value of 0.50 results in no effect being applied to the image. Raising the radius slider increases blur, to a maximum value of 1.00.
Mist The Mist mode lets you combine blur and sharpen operations in such a way as to create effects similar to those achieved via “Vaseline on the lens” or Pro-Mist optical filters. Mist including Mist Mix control Unlike the Blur or Sharpen modes, where the Radius sliders provide immediate access to the desired effect, the Mist mode requires you to lower the Radius and Mix sliders together to get a desirable result.
Chapter 135 Dust Removal This chapter shows how you can use the legacy Dust Removal feature that’s built into the Color page. There’s also a pair of ResolveFX plug-ins: “Automatic Dirt Removal” and “Dust Buster,” found in the Revival category of the ResolveFX plug-ins. For more information on those, see Chapter 143, “ResolveFX Revival.
Contents Introduction to Dust Removal 3004 Dirt and ROI Settings Parameters 3004 Algorithms for Dirt and Dust Removal 3005 Chapter – 129 Dust Removal 3003
Introduction to Dust Removal The interactive Dirt and Dust Removal tool provides an interface for dustbusting right from within DaVinci Resolve. This is a raster-based effect, and results in a duplicate set of “dustbusted” media being created within a hidden subdirectory. If, at any point, you’re unsatisfied with the adjustment you’ve made, you need only use the undo command to return the clip you’re working on to its prior state. IMPORTANT The Dirt and Dust Removal tool only works with DPX image sequences.
Blend: Sets the % of the original image to be feathered at the edges of the repair. Optimize: Turning this option on provides better-looking results, at the expense of increased processing time. ROI Mode: Determines whether a correction is applied with a single click, or via a paint stroke. There are three options. Click and Clean: Applies a correction with one click, and is fast to use on small dust spots.
Chapter 136 Data Burn This chapter covers how to use the Data Burn window that’s available in the Edit, Color, Fairlight and Deliver pages of DaVinci Resolve. Data Burn‑Ins allow you to superimpose crucial metadata information directly onto the picture itself, making it easier to visually track and troubleshoot your edit in progress.
Contents Data Burn 3008 Project vs.
Data Burn The Data Burn window lets you display select metadata as a timeline-wide “window burn” that’s superimposed over the image in the Viewer. This window burn is written into files that you render in the Deliver page, and it’s also output to video, for viewing on your external display, or for outputting to tape. The Data Burn window is available by choosing Workspace > Data Burn-In.
Project vs. Clip Mode Two buttons at the top of the Data Burn window let you choose whether you want to edit one set of burned-in metadata that will be displayed for the entire duration of the Timeline, or edit burned-in metadata on a clip-by-clip basis. You can combine the two, having timeline-wide window burn settings and separate clip-specific window burn settings for a handful of clips in that timeline at the same time.
To delete a burn-in preset: 1 Choose a preset from the Option menu. 2 Click the Option menu, and choose Delete. 3 A dialogue box appears asking you to confirm the deletion. To modify a burn-in preset: 1 Choose a preset from the Option menu. 2 Edit it however you like. 3 Click the Option menu, and choose Update. Data Burn Metadata The leftmost column in the Data Burn window contains a list of all the options that you can add to the video output as a window burn.
Custom Text1: A line of text that you type into the Text field of the Custom Output parameters. You can use any characters you like. When editing any of the three custom text fields that are available, you can use “metadata variables” that you can add as graphical tags that let you display clip metadata. For example, you could add the corresponding metadata variable tags %scene_%shot_%take and the custom text would display “12_A_3” if “scene 12,” “shot A,” “take 3” were its metadata.
Last x frames: Turning on this checkbox lets you specify a number of frames before the end of each clip during which the current item of metadata will appear onscreen after fading up over one second, before cutting away with the end of the clip. Font: Defaults to Courier, but you can choose any font that’s installed on your system. Size: Defaults to 48, but you can choose standard increments from 6 to 72. Alignment: Defaults to Center. The only other option is Left.
PART 11 ResolveFX
Chapter 137 ResolveFX This section provides detailed explanations for each ResolveFX filter that’s available on the Cut, Edit, Fusion, and Color pages. For more information on how to apply and adjust ResolveFX on the Cut page, see Chapter 22, “Video and Audio Effects in the Cut Page.” For more information on how to apply and adjust ResolveFX on the Edit page, see Chapter 39, “Editing, Adding, and Copying Effects and Filters.
Contents Catalogue of ResolveFX Filters 3016 Chapter – 137 ResolveFX 3015
Catalogue of ResolveFX Filters DaVinci Resolve comes with a set of ResolveFX filters, many of which have been optimized for real time playback. These are located within their own category in the Effects Library of the Edit page and in the OpenFX browser of the Color page. These effects (or filters) work just like any other OpenFX plug-in. ResolveFX come in two types. Some are CPU-based, while most are GPU-accelerated, depending on which type of processing is faster for a particular effect.
Chapter 138 ResolveFX Blur The plug-ins in this category offer a wider variety of different blur methods than those found in the Blur palette.
Contents Box Blur 3019 Directional Blur 3019 Gaussian Blur 3019 Lens Blur (Studio Version Only) 3020 Shape 3020 Speed 3021 Controls 3021 Mosaic Blur 3022 Radial Blur 3022 Zoom Blur 3022 Chapter – 138 ResolveFX Blur 3018
Box Blur A variable quality blur that ranges from very low quality to very soft. Horizontal and Vertical Strength: These sliders let you adjust the width and height of blur. Gang: This checkbox lets you adjust these parameters together or separately. Number of Iterations: Controls how smooth the resulting blur is, with 0 being the lowest and most “boxy” level of quality and 1 being the highest and smoothest level of quality. At low iteration values, box blurs can appear somewhat similar to lens blurs.
Lens Blur (Studio Version Only) A high-quality simulation of optical lens blurring. Adjustable parameters let you achieve different kinds of “bokeh” effects, which are similar to those produced by different combinations of aperture design and lens spherical aberration corrections that affect the “circle of confusion” that creates visible shapes in areas of the picture with pinpoint highlights.
Speed The Speed Options group lets you adjust the quality/speed tradeoff of this plug-in. Quality: Three options, Full, Half (Faster), and Quarter (Fast), let you choose a suitable tradeoff between image quality and plug-in performance. Horizontal and Vertical Crop: Crops the shape image being used to influence the bokeh to a smaller size, in the event the large size of the graphic is slowing things down and you can crop out extra black from the edges.
Mosaic Blur A simple, pixelated blur suitable for hiding the face of anonymous witnesses. Pixel Frequency: Lets you adjust the size of each pixel, thus determining the density and resolution of the resulting grid of pixels. Smooth Strength: Lets you blur the edges of adjacent pixels. Border Type: Lets you choose how the edges of the image are affected by this blur; options include Black, Replicate, Reflect, and Wrap Around.
Chapter 139 ResolveFX Color These plug-ins provide color processing methods that aren’t available in any of the Color Page palettes of the Color page, and include several color management tools that can be applied outside of Resolve Color Management (RCM).
Contents ACES Transform 3025 Chromatic Adaptation 3025 Color Compressor (Studio Version Only) 3026 Color Space Transform 3027 Color Space Transform 3027 Gamut Mapping 3027 Color Stabilizer (Studio Version Only) 3028 Analysis Region 3029 Channels to Stabilize 3029 Captured Analysis Values 3030 Contrast Pop (Studio Version Only) 3030 DCTL 3030 Dehaze (Studio Version Only) 3030 Gamut Limiter 3031 Gamut Mapping (Studio Version Only) 3031 Invert Color 3032 Chapter – 139 ResolveFX
ACES Transform Lets you perform the kind of color transforms that the ACES Input Device Transform and ACES Output Device Transform parameters of the Color Management panel do, without the need to have ACEScc or ACEScct enabled. ACES Version: When you’ve chosen one of the ACES color science options, this popup becomes available to let you choose which version of ACES you want to use. As of DaVinci Resolve 15, you can choose from ACES 1.0.3 or ACES 1.1 (the latest version).
The Method pop-up menu provides a variety of different transform methods to choose from, defaulting to CAT02. Each option in the Method pop-up menu uses different measurement datasets to create individual CAT matrixes to guide this transformation. As a result, each method prioritizes different levels of accuracy for different sets of colors. For example: CAT02 has a non-linear component that compensates for the tendency of extremely saturated blues to go purple, a typical weakness of other methods.
Target Color: A color control with an eyedropper button that you choose or sample a single set of Hue/Saturation/Luminance values you want to push all other colors toward. Compress Hue, Compress Saturation, and Compress Luminance: These sliders let you individually compress the range of colors you’re adjusting in the image to more and more closely match the image. At 0, no compression is applied, at 0.
– The Adaptation slider is designed to compensate for large differences in the viewer’s state of visual adaptation when viewing a bright image on an HDR display versus seeing that same image an SDR display. For most “average” images this setting works best set between 0–10. However, when you’re converting very bright images (for example, a snow scene at noon), then using a higher value will yield more image detail within the highlights. Choosing “Clip” hard clips all out-of-bounds values.
There are two ways of using the Color Stabilizer: The easiest way is to choose Entire Frame from the Region For Analysis pop-up menu. Then, move the playhead in the Viewer to the frame that represents the contrast and color you want the entire clip to have, and click the Analyze This Frame. Now, if you play through the clip, changes in contrast and color should be gone. This method works best for clips where the inconsistency you’re trying to eliminate is fairly uniform, affecting the entire picture.
Captured Analysis Values Once you’ve analyzed the frame, another set of parameters appear showing the captured analysis values upon which the automated correction is based, so that you can make manual adjustments if necessary to improve the result. The parameters that are shown depend on the option you chose from the What to Stabilize pop-up menu. If you chose White Balance and Brightness, then you’ll have a Normalized White Balance color control, and Low Level and High Level sliders.
Dehaze Strength: This slider applies a simultaneous color and contrast adjustment. Raising Dehaze Strength subtly increases contrast (especially in the shadows) while rebalancing color toward the complement of the currently selected Haze Color and selectively intensifying saturation. Lowering Dehaze Strength decreases contrast and rebalances color toward the selected Haze Color itself while selectively lowering saturation.
Tone Mapping Method: Lets you enable tone mapping, to accommodate workflows where you need to transform one color space into another with a dramatically larger or smaller dynamic range by automating an expansion or contraction of image contrast in such a way as to give a pleasing result with no clipping. There are three options, None, Simple, and Luminance Mapping.
Chapter 140 ResolveFX Generate These plug-ins generate imagery that can be used within grades and composites in different ways.
Contents Color Generator 3035 Color Palette (Studio Version Only) 3035 Grid 3036 General 3036 Line Properties 3036 Chapter – 140 ResolveFX Generate 3034
Color Generator Generates a single color using a color picker control. Useful in conjunction with a layer node’s ability to mix a color with an image using different composite modes. Color picker: You can click the color picker and use the resulting color controls to choose a color to be generated.
Grid As the name implies, this plug-in generates a grid with two sets of properties. General These controls let you adjust the overall density and orientation of the grid. Row Cells and Column Cells: These sliders let you choose how many cells to divide the grid into, both vertically and horizontally. Pan, Tilt, Zoom, Rotate, Width, Height, ShearX, ShearY, Pitch, and Yaw: These controls let you transform the grid to serve whatever purpose is necessary.
Chapter 141 ResolveFX Light The plug-ins in this category all replicate different optical and lighting effects. While most have been designed to quickly give you realistic results, all can be pushed harder to provide many artistic effects.
Contents Aperture Diffraction 3039 Output 3039 Isolation Controls 3040 Aperture Controls 3040 Compositing Controls 3040 Glow 3041 Lens Flare (Studio Version Only) 3041 Lens Flare Preset 3041 Select Output 3041 Light Source Masking 3042 Position 3042 Global Corrections 3042 Aperture 3043 Elements 3043 Lens Reflections 3045 Output 3045 Isolation Controls 3045 Global Controls 3046 Presets 3046 Reflecting Elements 3046 Light Rays 3047 Main Controls 3047 Position 3047
Aperture Diffraction Found in the ResolveFX Light category, Aperture Diffraction models the starburst effect usually seen when shooting bright lights with small apertures, the physical cause of which is lightdiffraction on the aperture blades of a lens. This plug-in simulates this, with the result being automatically applied to scene highlights that you can isolate and refine, with customizable virtual apertures. Small regions of brightness exhibit a star pattern glow, as seen in the following image.
Isolation Controls The Isolation controls let you choose which highlights in the scene generate visible glow and patterns. The effect of these controls can be directly monitored by setting Select Output to Isolated Source. Color Mode: A pop-up menu that lets you either choose to keep the colors of the different highlight regions that generate glow, or treat them all as grayscale brightness only (color controls later can change the effect).
Glow A sophisticated, soft glow effect that’s highly customizable with only a few key parameters. Select Output: Lets you preview the image with different stages of the glow effect applied, viewing the Shiny Regions, the isolated Glow Alone, or the Glowing Image. Shine Threshold: Defines the luminance level at which glow is triggered to appear on the image. Spread: Defines how far out shine extends from areas of the picture that trigger it.
Light Source Masking Three additional controls at the top let you create a quick and dirty luma key to create a mask that you can use for occluding the lens flare effect behind foreground elements in the scene. For example, if you’re using lens flare to simulate the sun in the sky, these controls let you mask trees in the foreground so that the lens flare appears to be behind the trees, as the sun would be.
Aperture The Aperture parameters let you define the aperture of the simulated camera apparatus through which the flare is being generated. The shape defined by these parameters affects the look of the “starburst element” of each flare, as well as the look of any aperture-shaped “ghost elements” you’re turning on. Aperture Blades: Defines how many blades make up the aperture. You can choose from 3 to 16 (defaults to 6). Angle: Sets the angle of the resulting Aperture shape (defaults to 0.183).
Ghost elements share many parameters in common, although specific elements have unique parameters. These parameters are as follows: – Color: A color picker and eyedropper combination that lets you colorize that specific element. – Position: A slider lets you set that element’s position along the optical path that’s defined by the angle from the (Flare) Position X and Y to the Lens Center X and Y parameters.
Lens Reflections Found in the ResolveFX Light category, Lens Reflections simulates intense highlights reflecting off the various optical elements within a lens to create flaring and scattering effects based on the shape and motion of highlights you isolate in the scene.
Color Filter: Lets you choose a particular color of highlight to isolate (an eyedropper lets you select a value from the Viewer). Operation: A pop-up lets you adjust the resulting Isolation matte (options include Shrink, Grow, Opening, Closing), and a slider lets you define how much. Global Controls The Global controls let you quickly and easily adjust the overall quality of the Lens Reflections effect using a centralized group of parameters.
Light Rays A “rays of light” effect that simulates volumetric lighting emerging from light sources defined by a threshold you define. The effect mimics what are sometimes called “god rays” in the sky, or other highly directional glow effects. Main Controls The Main controls include: Select Output: Lets you preview the image with different stages of the Lightray effect applied, viewing the Final Image, Lightrays Alone, and Source Regions.
Chapter 142 ResolveFX Refine These plug-ins let you make different kinds of targeted improvements.
Contents Alpha Matte Shrink and Grow (Studio Version Only) 3050 Beauty (Studio Version Only) 3050 Operating Mode 3051 Auto Controls 3051 Advanced Controls 3052 Face Refinement (Studio Version Only) 3053 Main Controls 3054 Skin Mask 3054 Texture 3055 Color Grading 3056 Eye Retouching 3056 Lip Retouching 3057 Blush Retouching 3057 About Forehead, Cheek, and Chin Retouching 3057 Forehead Retouching 3058 Cheek Retouching 3058 Chin Retouching 3058 Chapter – 142 ResolveFX Refine
Alpha Matte Shrink and Grow (Studio Version Only) This filter lets you refine the edges of alpha and key mattes in a variety of ways, shrinking and growing the edges, and opening and closing holes that appear within a matte. In the Color page, this filter can be applied to Qualifier or Window keys that have been routed to the RGB input of a corrector node, for adjustment and refinement, before connecting the result to the key input of a subsequent node for use isolating an adjustment.
(Left) The original image, (Right) A face with Beauty applied to soften the complexion while retaining fine facial detail Please note that this plug-in is not only for skin detail, and it’s not only for softening. Once you isolate the fine detail you want to preserve in a subject, you also have the option of exaggerating it to create highly textured results. This plug-in is effective for any subject with textures that need refinement.
Advanced Controls Advanced controls reveal the full power of the Beauty plug-in, with preview modes to examine different aspects of this plug-in’s behavior, while specifically adjusting the level of smoothing or coarsening you want, the amount of texture to preserve, and which additional features of the subject you want to recover from this operation to fine tune the result.
Face Refinement (Studio Version Only) Face Refinement is an incredibly sophisticated yet easy-to-use filter that lets you quickly make very targeted adjustments to people’s complexions. When you apply this filter, imaging techniques are used to automatically detect a face, which is automatically tracked so long as it’s somewhat turned toward the camera.
Main Controls The top two controls let you initiate the Face Refinement process. Analyze: This button initiates the process of using the facial detection of the Face Refinement plug-in to detect the face you want to make adjustments for, and track its motion throughout the range of the clip. You only need to do this once, and the data will be stored.
Texture The Texture controls have three Operating Modes that let you choose the method you want to use to control skin texture. Beauty Automatic and Beauty Advanced provide the texture controls available in the Beauty plug-in, while Smoothing provides the previously available texture adjustment controls. Beauty Automatic Controls Automatic mode reveals easy-to-use controls for smoothing or coarsening detail. Amount: Lets you choose how much smoothing or coarsening to apply.
Beauty Advanced These controls are identical to the Advanced controls of the Beauty plug-in, covered previously in this chapter. Color Grading These controls let you make color adjustments to the overall face. Contrast: This slider lets you lighten the face in a natural way by keeping the shadows dark even while you brighten the face, making it easy to bring actors out of the background. Midtone: Lets you add a more luminous quality to the skin tone.
Lip Retouching These controls target just the lips and surrounding area of the mouth. Hue: This slider lets you adjust the color of a subject’s lips or lipstick. Saturation: This slider lets you adjust the intensity of lip color. Upper Lip Smooth: Lets you smooth out fine age lines that can appear above lips.
Forehead Retouching As the name implies, adjusts color and texture on the forehead. Hue and Saturation: These sliders let you adjust forehead color. Smooth: This slider lets you apply a specific smoothing operation to the forehead to ameliorate wrinkles and worry-lines. Cheek Retouching Simple color adjustment controls affecting the entire cheek area, and not just the blush area. Hue and Saturation: These sliders let you adjust the color of the cheek, eye, and nose area.
Chapter 143 ResolveFX Revival This category consists of plug-ins that let you fix common technical, damage, and quality problems that bedevil programs being finished, remastered, or restored.
Contents Automatic Dirt Removal (Studio Version Only) 3061 Main Controls 3061 Fine Controls 3062 Chromatic Aberration (Studio Version Only) 3062 Dead Pixel Fixer (Studio Version Only) 3063 Deband (Studio Version Only) 3064 Deband Parameters 3064 Deflicker (Studio Version Only) 3065 Main Parameters 3065 Isolate Flicker 3065 Speed Optimization Options 3066 Restore Original Detail After Deflicker 3066 Output 3066 Dust Buster (Studio Version Only) 3067 Object Removal (Studio Version
Automatic Dirt Removal (Studio Version Only) The Automatic Dirt Removal plug-in uses optical flow technology to target and repair temporally unstable bits of dust, dirt, hair, tape hits, and other unwanted artifacts that last for one or two frames and then disappear. All repairs are made while maintaining structurally consistent detail in the underlying frame, resulting in a high quality restoration of the image.
Fine Controls These controls let you fine tune the effect in an effort to perfect the tradeoff between removing dirt successfully and preserving true image detail. Motion Threshold: This slider lets you choose the threshold at which pixels in motion are considered to be dirt and artifacts. At lower values more dirt may escape correction, but you’ll experience fewer motion artifacts.
Dead Pixel Fixer (Studio Version Only) If you have clips that were shot on a camera with one or more “dead” or “stuck” pixels in the sensor, you may have black or white spots that are fixed in place in the image. This filter is designed to let you place crosshairs on each dead or stuck pixel, identifying them so you can use different methods of fixing the problem.
Deband (Studio Version Only) Low bit-depth media that has areas with shallow gradients of color, such as a sky or a wall, often exhibit color banding, seen as visible stripes, because there aren’t enough color values to smoothly represent the gradiation from light blue to darker blue in the sky. An example of banding in the sky of an image This filter is designed to isolate the edges of color banding and minimize them by dithering pixels from either side to soften the transition.
Deflicker (Studio Version Only) Introduced in DaVinci Resolve 15, this plug-in replaces the previous Timelapse Deflicker filter, and solves a far broader variety of problems in a much more automatic way. The new Deflicker plug-in handles such diverse issues as flickering exposure in timelapse clips, flickering fluorescent lighting, flickering in archival film sources, and in certain subtle cases even the “rolling bars” found on video screens shot with cameras having mismatched shutter speeds.
Motion Range: Three settings, Small, Medium, and Large, let you choose the speed of the motion in the frame that should be detected. Gang Luma Chroma: Lets you choose whether to gang the Luma and Chroma Threshold sliders or not. Luma Threshold: Determines the threshold above which changes in luma will not be considered flicker. The range is 0–100, 0 deflickers nothing, 100 applies deflickering to everything. The default is 100.
Dust Buster (Studio Version Only) This plug-in is also designed to eliminate dust, dirt, and other imperfections and artifacts from clips, but it does so only with user guidance, for clips where the Automatic Dirt Removal plug-in yields unsatisfactory results. This guidance consists of moving through the clip frame-by-frame and drawing boxes around imperfections you want to eliminate. Once you’ve drawn a box, the offending imperfection is auto-magically eliminated in the most seamless way possible.
Object Removal (Studio Version Only) A Revival category plug-in that’s best used in the Color page, Object Removal uses the DaVinci Neural Engine to attempt to remove an object in the frame as automatically as possible. This plug-in works best when removing a moving object that passes over a temporally stable background, or dirt on the lens of a shot where the camera is in motion. Smaller objects get better results than larger objects, but your results really depend on the footage.
5 Right-click the node in the Node Editor and choose “Use OFX Alpha” to enable the Object Removal plug-in to use whatever key has been created within that node to do its work. 6 Click the Scene Analysis button, and wait for the analysis to finish. If the object you’re removing is moving but the camera is locked, you can turn on the “Assume No Motion” checkbox to improve your results in this case.
Patch Replacer (Studio Version Only) The Patch Replacer is a quick fix when you need to “paint out” an unwanted feature from the image. For those of you who’ve been using windows and Node Sizing to do small digital paint jobs, this plug-in offers more options and a streamlined workflow. On adding the plug-in, an onscreen control consisting of two oval patches appears, with an arrow connecting them indicating which patch is being copied into the other.
Patch Positions Source X and Y, Target X and Y, and Target Width and Height are provided as explicit controls both for numeric adjustment, should that be necessary, and also to allow for keyframing in case you need to change the position and/or size of the source and fill patches over time. Keep in mind that the source and target patches can be motion tracked using the FX tracker, although two checkboxes, Source Follows Track and Target Follows Track, let you disable FX tracker match moving when necessary.
Chapter 144 ResolveFX Sharpen These plug-ins offer a newer and more detailed method of sharpening specific details in images than the sharpen operation found in the Blur palette. Three different plug-ins offer different ways of using the same fundamental algorithm to perform different tasks.
Contents Sharpen (Studio Version Only) 3074 Main Controls 3074 Detail Levels 3074 Chroma 3074 Sharpen Edges (Studio Version Only) 3075 Main Controls 3075 Edge Detection Controls 3075 Soften and Sharpen (Studio Version Only) 3076 Main Controls 3076 Adjust Small Skin Texture Granularity 3076 Chapter – 144 ResolveFX Sharpen 3073
Sharpen (Studio Version Only) The Sharpen filter functions by separating the image into four levels of detail, the underlying structure, the fine scale details, the medium scale details, and the large scale details, each of which encompasses differently sized structures that comprise the overall image.
Sharpen Edges (Studio Version Only) A variation of the Sharpen filter that’s streamlined for detecting edges to create a key used to limit sharpening to the selected edge details of an image. This is a good filter to use when attempting to make mildly soft-focus clips less objectionable. Main Controls Controls the overall sharpening effect accomplished with this plug-in. Sharpen Amount: The primary global control for adding sharpening to the edges detected by this filter.
Soften and Sharpen (Studio Version Only) A variation of the Sharpen filter that’s streamlined for letting you both smooth some details and add sharpness to other details of the image based on the size of the structures. It can be used with any image for which you want to smooth some features while sharpening others, but this is an operation that’s often used for minimizing unwanted blemishes, wrinkles, or scarring when used within a window or qualifier that’s isolating the skin.
Chapter 145 ResolveFX Stylize The plug-ins found in this category all enable different ways of creating artistic modifications to the image.
Contents Abstraction (Studio Version Only) 3079 Main Controls 3079 Quantization Controls 3079 Draw Edge Controls 3079 Blanking Fill 3080 Source 3080 Fill Extent 3080 Fill Appearance 3081 Drop Shadow 3081 Edge Detect 3082 Emboss 3082 Channels 3082 JPEG Damage 3082 Mirrors 3083 Main Controls 3083 Individual Controls 3083 Rosette Controls 3083 Kaleidoscope Controls 3083 Pencil Sketch in DaVinci (Studio Version Only) 3084 Prism Blur 3084 Scanlines 3085 Appearance 3085
Abstraction (Studio Version Only) A deceptively powerful filter that lets you create a wide range of cartoon-like renders by simplifying an image into adjustable pools of similar color with optional outlines. Main Controls These controls create the foundation of this effect. Pre Blur: Simplifies the image by blurring unwanted details prior to this filter taking effect.
Blanking Fill This plug-in is specifically designed to quickly fill black frame blanking with a stylized image derived from the clip itself, to make blanking less intrusive for viewers in documentaries and news segments. In the following example, the Blanking Fill plug-in is used to add image to the left and right of “pillarboxed” standard definition 4:3 video that appears within a High Definition or Ultra High Definition 16:9 aspect ratio.
– Warp Top Layer: lets you use onscreen controls to choose a section of the edge of an image to stretch out to fill blanking in the frame. In this mode, there are two sets of onscreen controls you can use to customize the result: A set of outer handles let you choose how far out to warp the edges of the image to fill whatever blanking there is. These default to the project frame size. A set of inner handles lets you choose how much of the image you want to stretch out.
Edge Detect An edge detection effect with options for customizing which edges create outlines. Mode: Lets you choose between RGB and Grayscale edges. RGB is the default. Edge color: (only enabled if Mode is set to Grayscale) Lets you colorize the edge outlines that are generated. Threshold: Determines the lightness level that’s used for edge creation. Smooth: Lets you soften these edges. Brightness: Lets you adjust edge intensity.
Mirrors An effect that lets you reflect part of the image in any direction you like. At its simplest, this can create a split mirror effect like that found at the end of Prince’s “When Doves Cry.” At its most complicated, multiple reflections can be set up, to create whirling Kaleidoscope patterns in the image. Main Controls These controls let you choose what kind of effect this plug-in has.
Pencil Sketch in DaVinci (Studio Version Only) A plug-in with highly customizable controls for making an image look like it was drawn. Sketch Stroke Controls: Parameters to control the thickness of outlines, the threshold at which they appear around objects in the frame, and their length. Sketch Tone Controls: Parameters to control how many levels of tonality are in the rendered result, and contrast controls to influence how much of the image falls into shadows, mid-tones, and highlights.
Scanlines Simulates television scanlines, or any effect where you want alternating lines to darken the image. A variety of parameters makes this an extremely flexible effect that can be applied in numerous ways. Appearance Let you customize the type of scanline effect you want. Line Frequency: Lets you choose how many or few lines are superimposed on the image; fewer lines automatically space themselves to be thicker as they’re uniformly distributed across the image.
The controls for the Stop Motion ResolveFX The Main controls are: Frame Repeat: Selects how many frames (from 1-10) to duplicate in the shot. A larger number makes a more staggered cadence. Blend: Lets you adjust the amount of blending of the clips original frame rate, with the repeating frames you’ve selected above. 0 is none, and 1.00 is the full frame rate of the clip.
Tilt-Shift Blur Simulates depth-of-field effects using a progressive blur that’s applied with a generated Z-depth map. The default settings create a “miniaturization” illusion, where the image appears to be tiny due to the top and bottom depth-of-field settings used. Main Controls These controls select and control the overall effect. Blur Type: You can choose between Fast Blur and Lens Blur (Lens Blur is the default). Blur Strength: A slider lets you adjust the amount of blur you add.
Vignette A plug-in with two modes for creating vignette effects of different kinds. Basic mode gives you Size, Anamorphism, and Softness controls for quickly creating a traditional lens vignetting effect to darken the edges of the frame. A Color control lets you tint the vignette. Advanced mode adds Border Shape, Rotation, Center, Transparency, and Composite Type controls for customizing this vignetting effect even more specifically.
Chapter 146 ResolveFX Texture These plug-ins are designed to add texture to images, to replicate both naturalistic and other effects.
Contents Analog Damage (Studio Version Only) 3091 Film Damage 3092 Blur and Shift Controls 3092 Add Vignetting 3092 Add Dirt 3093 Add Scratch 3093 Film Grain (Studio Version Only) 3094 Main Controls 3094 Grain Params 3094 Advanced Controls 3094 Chapter – 146 ResolveFX Texture 3090
Analog Damage (Studio Version Only) A Texture category plug-in that simulates different kinds of signal degradation resulting from analog transmission and recording, Analog Damage can be used to create “old TV” or “junky videotape” effects of various kinds. A Preset pop-up menu lets you choose from a variety of different looks, while a Custom option lets you create your own.
Film Damage Found in the ResolveFX Texture category. After you’ve used the new ResolveFX Revival plug-ins to fix damage in archival footage, you can turn around and use the Film Damage plug-in to make brand new digital clips look worn, dirty, and scratched instead. When used in conjunction with the Film Grain and Flicker Addition plug-ins, you can convincingly recreate the feel of poorly kept vintage archival footage.
Add Dirt These parameters let you simulate dirt particles (not dust) that have adhered to the film. These are larger specks, although there’s several ways you can customize these. Dirt Color: This control lets you choose what color you want the dirt particles to be (black simulates dirt on a print, while white simulates dirt on a negative).
Film Grain (Studio Version Only) Composites a procedurally generated layer of simulated “film grain” over the image. Individual simulated grains with falloff are generated to match the resolution of the project. Main Controls These controls let you quickly choose and apply a film grain effect. Film Grain Presets: This pop-up lets you quickly choose from among different 8mm, 16mm, and 35mm film grain effects.
Chapter 147 ResolveFX Transform The plug-ins in this category allow different types of animated and non-animated transforms than are possible in the Sizing palette or Clip Transform controls of the Inspector.
Contents Camera Shake (Studio Version Only) 3097 Main Controls 3097 Shake Levels 3097 Shake Quality 3097 Blanking Handling 3098 Flicker Addition 3098 Main Controls 3098 Flicker Quality 3099 Match Move (Studio Version Only) 3099 A Match Move Workflow 3100 Main Controls 3103 Tracking Controls 3104 Positioning 3105 Compositing 3105 Stabilizing 3106 Chapter – 147 ResolveFX Transform 3096
Camera Shake (Studio Version Only) This effect replicates random camera motion for Horizontal and Vertical position, Rotation, and Zoom. A variety of parameters are provided to let you customize the quality of motion, from slow meandering drift to abrupt, jagged jerks and pops. Main Controls The primary controls governing how much camera shake is added. Motion Scale and Speed Scale: These sliders let you adjust the overall amplitude and speed of camera shake that’s introduced to the image.
Pause Interval: This slider lets you adjust the duration of intermittent pauses that break up the random motion added by this filter. Pause Randomness: This lets you add a degree of randomness to the intervals that happen. Random Seed: This slider lets you alter the value that sets what random values are being produced. Identical values result in identical randomness. Blanking Handling These controls let you determine what to do when camera shake causes blanking past the edge of the image.
Flicker Quality These controls let you adjust the details of how the flickering animates. Randomness Scale: This slider lets you introduce irregularity to the Horizontal, Vertical, and Rotational motion of the camera shake. The greater this value, the more irregularity will be introduced. Pause Length: This slider lets you adjust the frequency of intermittent pauses that break up the random motion added by this filter.
Once placed, you can choose how much image detail is considered for analysis by resizing that tracker control. To resize a tracker, move the pointer over the edge of the inner box, and drag to shrink or enlarge it. This plug-in will automatically derive as much motion data as the number of trackers you’ve placed allows: One tracker tracks horizontal and vertical position (pan and tilt). Two or more trackers also track rotation. Four or more trackers also track perspective.
Connecting the foreground image to the second input of the FX node 4 Select the FX node, make sure the OpenFX onscreen controls are enabled, choose whether you want to start at the first or last frames of the clip to begin the tracking process, and then click within the Viewer to place tracker controls on the surface of the image you’re going to attach the foreground image to.
7 (Optional) If anything occludes a patch that’s being tracked, or if the tracked feature starts going off the edge of the frame, that tracker control may veer off course and will eventually turn off. If this happens, there’s a way to continue the track that’s surprisingly easy: a Click the Track Forward or Track Backward button again to stop the analysis.
9 A grid appears, covering the Viewer. This is the positioning canvas, and it lets you corner-pin the area in which the foreground image you connected in step 3 will be composited and tracked. You can corner-pin and resize it by dragging it by the corners, and you can move it by dragging the center. Resizing the canvas to fit the foreground image into the background 10 Once you’ve positioned the grid, scrub back and forth to verify that it tracks correctly and looks right once it’s in motion.
Tracking Controls The Tracking Controls govern the first stage of the match moving process, and this page of controls provides everything you need for setting up, executing, and refining multi-patch motion tracks. The controls that are exposed when Main Controls is set to Tracking Controls The Tracking Controls group The primary controls used to initiate tracking.
The Display Options group This group lets you turn the visibility of different onscreen controls off and on. Checkboxes let you Show Trackers, Show Center (the red tracking center point), Show Paths (the tracked motion paths), and Show Active Patches. A slider lets you adjust the size of each patch window. Show Comp Result lets you see the composited foreground layer against the background layer. Positioning The Positioning controls govern the second stage of the match moving process.
The controls that are exposed when Main Controls is set to Compositing Rendering Options The Composite Type pop-up menu lets you choose whether the composite that’s being output is an overlay of the Ext. Matte over the background, or the background Plate only. Plate Cropping Four sliders let you crop the Left, Right, Top, and Bottom of the image, if necessary.
Chapter 148 ResolveFX Warp The filters in this category let you warp the image in different ways, creating procedural or custom distortion effects, some of which can be automatically animated. The Warper plug-in is a point-based free-form Warp tool.
Contents Dent 3109 Lens Distortion 3109 Ripples 3110 Main Controls 3110 Ripple Controls 3110 Vortex 3111 Warper (Studio Version Only) 3111 Effect Options 3112 Onscreen Controls 3113 Waviness 3114 Chapter – 148 ResolveFX Warp 3108
Dent A warp effect that creates different types of circular bowing and folding effects. DentType: This lets you choose from six different types of “dent” warping effects. The options are Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, Sine, Cosine, and Black Hole. X and Y: Position sliders let you offset the center of the warp. Size: This lets you adjust the diameter of the warp.
Ripples A warp effect that creates different types of ripples. Main Controls These controls govern the type of ripple and the quality of optional ripple shine that you want. Ripple Shape: Lets you choose from Circular, Square, Horizontal, Vertical, Exponential, Star, and Radial ripples. Wave Shape: Lets you choose from Sinusoidal, Triangular, Fresnel In, Fresnel Out, and Natural waves. A set of Shine parameters lets you overlay a simulated shine on top of these ripples.
Vortex Vortex begins as an S shaped warp effect, but you can adjust the parameters to create many types of warping effects. X and Y position: Two sliders let you offset the center of the warp. Size: Adjusts the diameter of the warp. Angle: Adjusts the direction and intensity of the warp effect; setting Angle below 0 twists the image to the left, while raising Angle over 0 twists the image to the right.
Additionally, you can use the FX mode of the Tracker palette to motion track the feature you’re warping. Then, by setting the Tracking pop-up menu to FXTracker, every warp and limiter point you’ve placed will move along with the feature you’re tracking, meaning you can create warp effects that move along with someone’s face, with a car driving on the road, or with something in a shot with camera motion.
Rounded Edge Behavior: A pop-up menu eliminates any blanking caused by warping that affects the edge of the image by filling black areas in one of several user-defined ways; options include Black (do nothing and leave the blanking), Reflect, Wrap-Around, and Replicate. Quality: A pop-up menu lets you choose from among three methods of calculating the warping effect you’re creating: Faster, Default, and Better. Each choice is an obvious trade-off between image smoothness and performance.
Show: This pop-up menu lets you choose how to represent warp points, and there are two options. – Warp Points (the default) simply shows warp points as gray dots. – Warp Vectors display pairs of controls connected by a line; a round dot shows the anchor, or the part of the image the warped portion of the image came from, and an arrow shows the destination, where you’ve warped that part of the image to.
PART 12 Fairlight
Chapter 149 Using the Fairlight Page This chapter covers the basic user interface controls found on the Fairlight page, where they are and what they do, in order to give you an overall orientation of how to work with this integrated audio environment.
Contents The Fairlight Page User Interface 3119 The Interface Toolbar 3119 Showing Which Panel Has Focus 3120 The Audio Timeline 3120 Controls in the Audio Timeline 3121 Zooming Audio Waveform Height 3123 Track Layering 3124 Switching Among Multiple Timelines 3124 Toolbar 3125 Customizing Clip Display in the Timeline 3126 Customizing the Timeline’s Display 3127 Fixed Playhead Mode 3127 Visible Video Tracks 3127 Video and Audio Scrollers 3127 Mixer 3129 The Monitoring Panel 313
Sound Library Browser 3142 Library Controls 3143 Display Controls and the Search Field 3143 Preview and Audition Controls 3145 Sound Effect List 3146 Index 3147 Edit Index 3147 Tracks 3147 Markers: 3150 Inspector 3150 Metadata Editor 3151 Test Tone Settings for Generating Tone, Noise, and Beeps 3151 Pro Tools AAF Import 3152 Dual Monitor Layout 3152 Customizing the Fairlight Page 3153 Undo and Redo in DaVinci Resolve 3154 Chapter – 149 Using the Fairlight Page 3118
The Fairlight Page User Interface In single monitor mode, the Fairlight page is an optimized look at the audio tracks of your project, with an expanded mixer and custom monitoring controls that make it easy to evaluate and adjust the levels of your program in order to create a smooth and harmonious mix. Audio page The Interface Toolbar At the very top of the Fairlight page is a toolbar with buttons that let you show and hide different parts of the user interface.
Showing Which Panel Has Focus Whenever you click somewhere on the DaVinci Resolve interface using the pointer, or use a keyboard shortcut to “select” a particular panel (such as in the Edit page), you give that panel of the user interface “focus.” A panel with focus will capture specific keyboard shortcuts to do something within that panel, as opposed to doing something elsewhere in the interface.
Controls in the Audio Timeline The Audio Timeline has the following controls. Timecode fields and Range buttons: Four timecode fields show the current timecode value corresponding to the position of the playhead (at the very top), the Range In point, the Range Out point, and the Range duration. Clicking the Range In and Range Out buttons (to the left of the timecode fields) set these points and their corresponding timecode value.
Audio tracks: The Fairlight page of DaVinci Resolve supports multiple audio tracks, and each audio track may contain multiple lanes with which to accommodate the audio channels that are contained within multi-channel audio clips using track mappings such as stereo, 5.1, 7.1, or Adaptive (1–24 channels). All audio clips that have been edited into the Timeline appear within each track, with the recorded channels within each clip occupying as many lanes as that clip has available.
– Arm button: This button arms recording onto that track. – Solo button: Disables all other tracks but the current one, enabling you to quickly hear a single track in isolation. This affects rendering, so if one or more tracks are soloed, the muted tracks won’t be output or rendered. – Mute button: Temporarily disables audio on that track so it’s neither monitored nor output. This affects rendering, so if one or more tracks are muted, they won’t be output or rendered.
You can also use commands that are accessed by right-clicking any track on the Timeline and choosing a command from the Track Waveform Zoom submenu of the contextual menu. You can also select multiple tracks and resize their waveforms all at once.
Toolbar The Toolbar has buttons that let you choose modes of functionality and other buttons that let you execute commands such as placing markers and flags. Buttons in the Fairlight Page toolbar Normal Edit mode: The default mode in which you can move and resize clips in the Timeline, roll edits, and do other basic editing tasks.
– Audio View Options: The left button lets you toggle full waveforms on and off, optionally hiding the divider bar that keeps the waveform separate from the file name area of each audio clip, so the waveform occupies the full space of each audio bar in the Timeline. The right button lets you toggle waveform outlines on and off, drawing a dark border around the edges of each waveform to make them easier to see. – Zoom Presets: These buttons let you choose from one of 7 zoom levels.
Customizing the Timeline’s Display There are a variety of ways you can customize the Timeline to better see what you’re working on. Fixed Playhead Mode Turning on the Fixed Playhead mode in the Timeline View Options drop-down menu, or choosing View > Show Fixed Playhead, puts the Fairlight timeline into an audio-centric mode where the playhead remains fixed in place, and the Timeline scrolls underneath it as you use the transport controls or JKL to play, shuttle, or scrub forward or back.
video. Each of the two Audio Scrollers, on the other hand, let you focus on a continuous waveform view of a particular audio track. You choose which track populates an Audio Scroller via a drop-down menu in the Timeline header. Audio Scrollers showing the drop-down menu that selects which track they display What Are They Used For? The Audio Scrollers always provide a zoomed-in view of specific audio tracks that you’re focused on, regardless of the zoom level of the Timeline tracks above.
Mixer The Audio Mixer provides a set of graphical controls you can use to assign track channels to output channels, adjust EQ and Dynamics, set levels and record automation, pan stereo and surround audio, and mute and solo tracks. The Audio Mixer exposes two sets of channel strips with controls that correspond to the tracks in the Timeline.
The channel strip EQ window Dynamics: Double-clicking exposes a set of dynamics controls with three sets of controls corresponding to an Expander or Gate, a Compressor, and a Limiter that can be used separately or in concert to manage the dynamics of the audio on that track. The channel strip Dynamics control window Aux: Lets you route that track’s channels through an Aux send bus. Each Aux bar corresponds to a specific Aux bus that you created.
Whatever level you set an Aux bus will be shown in the bar that represents that Aux bus in the Mixer’s channel strip. The Auxiliaries levels shown in the channel strip of the Mixer Pan: A pan control compatible with stereo and surround panning. You can drag within this control to adjust pan, or you can double-click to expose a pan window.
Main: These buttons let you assign a track or Sub’s channels to one or more of the main buses. Submix: These buttons let you assign that track’s channels to one or more submix buses. Track name: This mirrors the track name found in the header controls of the Timeline. If you customize a track’s name in the Timeline, that name appears here. dB: Shows you the volume, in decibels, that track is currently set to.
The Monitoring panel The Media Pool In the Fairlight page, the Media Pool serves as the repository of all audio clips in your project, both clips that appear within the Timeline, and clips that you’ve added to your project but have not yet used. When you record audio into the Timeline, the resulting clips are stored in the Media Pool as well, for future use. The Media Pool is also mirrored on the Media and Edit pages, and contains all of the video clips and timelines within that project.
The browser area to the right shows the contents of the currently selected bin in the bin list. Every clip you import, every timeline you create, and every AAF, XML, or EDL file you import appears here. You can create or import as many timelines as you need within a single project. As elsewhere, the Media Pool can be displayed in either Icon or List view. In List view, you can sort the contents by any one of a subset of the total metadata that’s available in the Metadata Editor of the Media page.
The preview player in the Media Pool Various viewing controls populate the title bar at the top. A drop-down menu at the upper left lets you choose a zoom level for the audio waveform that’s displayed. To the right of that, a Timecode window shows you the duration of the clip or the duration that’s marked with In and Out points. Next to the right, a real-time performance indicator shows you playback performance.
Smart Bins: These are procedurally populated bins, meaning that custom rules employing metadata are used to dynamically filter the contents of the Media Pool whenever you select a Smart Bin.
Using Color Tag filtering to isolate the red bins To go back to seeing all available bins, choose Show All from the Color Tag Filter drop-down. Sorting the Bin List The Bin list (and Smart Bin list) of the Media Pool can be sorted by bin Name, Date Created, or Date Modified, in either ascending or descending order. Simply right-click anywhere within the Bin list and choose the options you want from the Sort by submenu of the contextual menu.
The Media Pool filter options in the option menu Searching for Content in the Media Pool An optional Search field can be opened at the top of the Media Pool that lets you quickly find clips by name, partial name, or any of a wide variety of Media Pool metadata. To search for a clip by name: 1 Select which bin or bins you want to search. 2 Click the magnifying glass button at the upper right-hand corner of the Media Pool.
Effects Library The Effects Library on the Fairlight page displays both the built-in FairlightFX audio plug-ins that accompany DaVinci Resolve on macOS, Windows, and Linux, as well as whatever Audio FX are available on your workstation. FairlightFX are built-in audio processing effects that are fully cross-platform on all platforms DaVinci Resolve supports. On macOS and Windows, DaVinci Resolve supports the use of third-party VST audio plug-ins.
ADR The Fairlight page of DaVinci Resolve has a sophisticated interface for doing ADR, or automated dialog replacement, in a structured and straightforward manner. Simple yet powerful cue list management, industry-standard audio beeps and visual cues, and sophisticated take management with star ratings and layered take organization help you manage the resulting recordings to use the best parts of each take in your program.
The List panel of the ADR interface The Record Panel This is where you actually run the ADR recording session you’ve set up, using the dialog cues you’ve put into the Cue list. It presents controls for displaying and selecting which cues to record, previewing and initiating recording, and adding metadata to rate the different takes you’ve recorded and to keep track of which cues have been completed.
Sound Library Browser A Sound Library panel is available from the Interface toolbar for browsing sound effects libraries that you have available to you, on your system or on a SAN you’re connected to. It includes the capability of scanning specified file paths to catalog available sound files and their metadata, storing this data within the currently selected project database (or another database that you select) to use when searching for the perfect sound effect within your library.
Library Controls Clicking the Library button (to the right of the Search field) reveals a menu that lets you choose which database to use for searching (and cataloging) sound effects collections. Each PostgreSQL database can have a different catalog. Choosing a library to search NOTE: The Sound Library is now capable of using the Mapped Mount option in the Media Storage panel of the Preferences, in order to access sound effects located on remote volumes using other operating systems.
Underneath, a text field lets you enter search terms, while a drop-down menu to the right lets you choose whether to search the current database for sound effects by name, description metadata, or all. The Search field and Filter By menu To search for a specific sound effect and edit it into the Timeline: Type a search term into the Search field. The case of search terms is ignored, except for boolean operators.
Literal Searches Using quotations specifies a literal search for only the specified term, separated from other text by a space. For example, if you type: “cat” every sound effect in your library with the standalone word “cat” appears. Sound effects with “cats” and “caterpillar” will be omitted. Results will include “Space cat drone” or “Cat meowing.” Wildcard and Range Searches The * (asterisk) specifies a wildcard search of any number of characters.
Navigation waveform: The waveform of the entire sound effect appears here, making it easy to jump to different parts of the selected clip. All channels are summed together in this display. Playthrough waveform: A zoomed-in section of the selected clip that lets you see more waveform detail for setting In, Out, and Sync points. Jog bar: Lets you scrub around the clip. Transport controls: Stop, play, and Loop buttons let you control playback, although you can also use the space bar and JKL controls.
Star rating: A clickable control you can use to rate sound effects within DaVinci Resolve. Star rating information is not saved outside of DaVinci Resolve. Embedded Metadata: Any metadata that’s embedded within the files of professionally created sound effect libraries appears here. Waveform: The overall waveform of the entire sound effect library is stretched or compressed within the available width of the Sound Library, regardless of the actual duration of each clip.
The Tracks panel shows a row of information for each of the tracks in the Timeline If you have MPEG-H enabled for immersive audio authoring, additional columns appear in this panel. When MPEG-H is enabled in the Project Settings, the Tracks panel shows additional columns of information for defining each track in the Timeline These columns include: Track Type: Allows definition of either a static component or a dynamic object.
The Switch Group Manager Once one or more groups has been created, they’re available for selection in the drop-down menu of any cell in the SW Groups column. This lets you quickly make a variety of custom assignments. The drop-down in the SW Group column • Presets: Allows a track to be assigned to a user-defined preset. For example, a Bed Mix and Language switch group could form one preset, while the same tracks and a spoken subtitle could form another.
The drop-down in the Presets column Once configured, the metadata from these presets form how the content is exported in the final deliverable, so there will be a set of presets that contain all configured components and switch groups. Markers: The markers panel can be displayed in either thumbnail or list mode. In thumbnails mode, each marker in your timeline corresponds to a thumbnail displaying the timecode of its location underneath it, and the color of the marker to the left of the timecode location.
Metadata Editor Lets you view and edit the metadata of selected clips in the Fairlight page. Test Tone Settings for Generating Tone, Noise, and Beeps The Fairlight page has a general purpose oscillator, the settings of which you can customize by choosing Fairlight > Test Tone Settings. This opens the Test Tone Settings window that you can configure to generate tones, noise, or beeps using five sets of controls: Enable/Disable Test Tones toggle: Lets you turn the Oscillator on or off system-wide.
To record a tone or noise from the Oscillator to an audio track: 1 Choose Fairlight > Patch Input/Output to open the Patch Input/Output window. 2 Choose System Generator from the Source drop-down menu, and choose Track Input from the Destination drop-down menu. 3 At the left, click the button of what you want to output, Osc (Oscillator) or Noise. 4 At the right, click the connected audio outputs that you want to patch to, and click Patch. Close the Patch Input/Output window.
The Fairlight page in dual screen mode To switch which UI elements appear on which monitors: Choose Workspace > Primary Display > (Monitor Name), which reverses the contents of both monitors in dual screen mode. Customizing the Fairlight Page The default layout is quite efficient for a number of tasks on most displays. You can always return to the default layout by choosing Workspace > Reset UI Layout.
Undo and Redo in DaVinci Resolve No matter where you are in DaVinci Resolve, Undo and Redo commands let you back out of steps you’ve taken or commands you’ve executed, and reapply them if you change your mind. DaVinci Resolve is capable of undoing the entire history of things you’ve done since creating or opening a particular project. When you close a project, its entire undo history is purged. The next time you begin work on a project, its undo history starts anew.
The History submenu, which lets you undo several steps at once Once you’ve selected a step to undo to, the menu closes and the project updates to show you its current state. To undo and redo using the Undo window: 1 Choose Edit > History > Open History Window. 2 When the History dialog appears, click an item on the list to undo back to that point. Unlike the menu, in this window the most recent thing you’ve done appears at the bottom of this list.
Chapter 150 Setting Up Tracks, Buses, and Patching One of the first things you need to do when you’re setting up a new project for mixing in the Fairlight page is to define all of the audio tracks and buses you’re going to need, including submixes and mains that route and combine the audio being output. This chapter covers how to create audio tracks, and how to use buses to manage your mixes in the most efficient possible way.
Contents Audio Tracks 3158 What Is a Bus? 3159 Types of Buses 3159 Buses in Nested Timelines 3160 Exposing Bus Tracks in the Timeline 3160 Controlling Signal Flow 3160 Managing Audio Tracks 3160 Defining Timeline Audio Track Channels at Creation 3161 Creating Tracks 3161 Rearranging Tracks 3161 Changing How Many Channels an Audio Track Has 3161 Deleting Tracks 3161 Linked Groups of Mono Tracks 3162 Creating Buses 3164 Assigning Buses 3165 Patching Signal Paths 3166 Using the
Audio Tracks Each audio track in a Resolve timeline corresponds to a single channel strip on the Mixer’s left side. Depending on how an audio track has been configured, each audio track is assigned a specific audio format such as mono, stereo, LCRS, 5.1 surround, or 7.1 surround, so that multiple audio channels within the clips on that track can be correctly routed to the proper audio output for monitoring and rendering via the lanes that can be seen within each track on the Fairlight timeline.
Now that you understand how tracks work on the Fairlight page, the next important concept you need to understand in order to unlock the power of the Fairlight page is the audio bus, which lets you combine multiple audio tracks in different ways.
Multi Track Multitrack buses provide bus paths for combining feeds that you want to re-record to disk, or route to other I/O. Buses in Nested Timelines When you nest a timeline inside of another timeline that has buses set up for mixing in the Fairlight page, all Sub and Aux routings work as intended within the nested timeline, which exposes all channels of Main 1 in the enclosing timeline.
Defining Timeline Audio Track Channels at Creation If you decide to create a new audio track, you have to choose what kind of audio track it will be. Right-clicking in the bottom audio portion of the Timeline track header reveals a contextual sub‑menu that lets you create different kinds of audio tracks. Mono: Holds a single channel with only one lane. Stereo: Holds stereo left and right channels, with two lanes. 5.1: Holds the six channels corresponding to a 5.
Linked Groups of Mono Tracks Linked groups are an organizational construct that you can create using mono tracks (other kinds of tracks such as stereo, 5.1, 7.1, or Adaptive cannot be used in a Linked Group). Unlike a multi-channel track with lanes, a linked group of mono tracks functions as five independently editable tracks in the Timeline. However, each track is mapped just like an audio channel using one of the standard multi-channel mappings (stereo, 5.1, 7.
5 Close the Link Group window when you’re finished. Once you’ve created a linked group, the mono tracks in the timeline that you linked appear with a bar to the left in the track header that spans every track that’s linked. If the tracks are tall enough, they’ll also be labeled to identify which track corresponds to which surround channel, L, R, C, Lfe, Ls, Rs, and so on. At this point, you can edit each channel of a surround mix into the appropriate track.
Creating Buses Choosing Fairlight > Bus Format opens the Bus Format window, which lets you create as many buses as you need (up to the limitations of your system) to organize the tracks and channels of your program. The Bus Format window lets you add buses to the mixer Four buttons at the top of the window let you create any type of bus Fairlight supports. Creating a new bus, whether it’s a Main, Sub, Aux, or Multi Track, adds the new bus to the list that appears below.
Assigning Buses Once you’ve created one or more buses, you’ll want to assign different tracks to specific buses, and different Subs to specific Mains. This is accomplished in the Bus Assign window, which you can open by choosing Fairlight > Bus Assign, or by clicking the Bus Assign button in the Bus Format window.
Patching Signal Paths While bus creation and assignment is a straightforward way of creating a cascade of routing from tracks to Subs to Mains, sometimes you need to create more specific signal paths. For example, if you need to record audio to a track, you need to patch the audio input you want to record from to the track you want to record to. This, and many other scenarios, are accomplished using the Patch Input/Output window.
4 Click the button or list item of the destination you want to patch on the right side. A selected audio source and audio destination pair 5 Click the Patch button at the bottom right of the window. The source and destination will both display the connection they’re patched to. To unpatch a source and destination pair: 1 Click a button or list item corresponding to a source or destination you want to unpatch. 2 Click Unpatch.
Main Dir: Main Bus Direct Out, can be pre or post the Main bus master fader, with an offset Main Out: Main Bus Out, always post the Main bus master fader Osc: Oscillator outputs. Sine, Pink noise, White noise. Solo Out: AFL and PFL Solo Bus Out, always post the respective bus master fader The following Audio Destination options are available: Track Input: Input to the Record and Thru path; simply put, the available audio tracks in the current timeline.
Path Settings Choosing Path Settings opens the Path Settings window for that track. This window contains controls for adjusting the input level of audio signals being input via a BMD input/output device. The Path Settings window showing audio inputs and track inputs These parameters control the following: Mic/Instr.: Adjusts the Mic/Instrument level for this source, from 0 to 100 dB. – On: Enables Microphone/Instrument level for this source. – 48V: Enables phantom power for that input.
Chapter 151 Transport Controls, Timeline Navigation, and Markers The Fairlight page has unique transport control, zooming, and scrolling options not found in the other pages of DaVinci Resolve that help you to work with audio more efficiently. This chapter covers how to get around the Fairlight version of the Timeline.
Contents Transport Controls and JKL Navigation 3172 Transport Controls 3172 Using JKL to Control Playback 3172 Dragging the Playhead to Scrub 3173 Looping Playback 3173 Loop Jog Scrubbing 3173 Moving the Playhead Using Timecode 3174 Clip, Marker, and Track Navigation 3175 Selecting Tracks 3175 Moving the Clip Selection 3175 Moving the Track Selection 3176 Zooming and Scrolling 3176 Setting the Zoom Level of the Timeline 3176 Scrolling Through the Timeline 3177 Using Flags 3177
Transport Controls and JKL Navigation Because of the Fairlight page’s audio-focused workflow, the transport and playback controls differ from those found in the Media, Edit, Color, and Deliver pages. Transport Controls Fairlight page transport controls The Fairlight transport controls are also designed to mirror their counterparts on the Fairlight control panels. They include the following functions: Rewind and Fast Forward: Initiates accelerated playback through the Timeline in either direction.
K+J Plays backward at slow motion (with slow motion audio playback). K+L Plays forward at slow motion (with pitch-corrected audio playback on OS X). Pressing K while tapping J Moves the playhead back one frame. Pressing K while tapping L Moves the playhead forward one frame. If you’re using Fairlight with the keyboard, then this will probably become one of the main ways you move the playhead around in DaVinci Resolve.
Moving the Playhead Using Timecode You can use absolute or relative timecode entry to move the playhead in the Timeline. Timecode entry lets you move the playhead very precisely or jump to specific timecode values really quickly. How to Enter Timecode Values When entering timecode, type each pair of hour, minute, second, and frame values from left to right, with a period representing a pair of zeros for fast entry.
Relative Timecode Entry Relative timecode is entered by starting the timecode value with a plus (+) or minus (–). Adding a plus results in the value you type being added to the current timecode value for purposes of offsetting the playhead from its current position. Adding a minus will subtract the value you type from the current timecode value. Here are three examples of relative timecode entry: User-Typed Value Result +20. 00:00:20:00 is added to the current timecode value. +3..
Moving the Track Selection The Command-Option-Up and Command-Option-Down Arrow key shortcuts are used to move the track selection up and down in the Timeline, changing which tracks are selected. By changing which tracks are selected, you can alter which clip’s In and Out points are used to jump the playhead around the Timeline. If no tracks are selected, then nothing happens.
Scrolling Through the Timeline However closely you’re zoomed into the Timeline, if you’re zoomed enough so that clips extend past the visible area of the Timeline, scroll bars appear below. If the playhead is offscreen, a small orange tic mark indicates its position relative to the entire timeline, which is represented by the total width of the scroll bar’s background.
Adding Markers to Clips The following procedures describe how to add markers to clips in the Timeline of the Media page. To mark a clip in the Timeline, do one of the following: Select one or more clips you want to mark, then move the playhead to the frame of a selected clip in the Timeline, and click the Marker button in the toolbar (or press M) to place a marker at that frame, using the current color (if multiple overlapping clips are selected, you’ll add a marker to all clips).
Chapter 152 Recording It’s possible to record to one or more tracks on the Fairlight page, accommodating workflows as varied as editors recording scratch voiceover or temp sound effects, recording engineers recording narration, ADR, or foley as part of the audio finishing process, music studios recording orchestras for the music score, or garage bands recording their latest magnum opus.
Contents Setting Up to Record 3181 Patching Inputs 3181 Arming Tracks 3182 Choosing Where to Record Audio Clips To 3182 User-Selectable Input Monitoring Options 3182 Recording Using the Onscreen Controls 3183 Recording and Editing Multiple Takes Using Layering 3183 Recording VSTi Instruments 3184 Chapter – 152 Recording 3180
Setting Up to Record Depending on how your workstation is set up, it’s possible to simultaneously record to multiple tracks in the Fairlight page at once. How many tracks you can record to depend entirely on what hardware you have available. This section describes the process of recording to tracks in the Fairlight page. Patching Inputs Before you can record anything, you need to use the Patch Input/Output window to patch an available audio input to a track.
5 Continue steps 2 and 3 until you’ve patched all the inputs you want to record from to all of the tracks that you want to record onto. You can patch as many inputs to as many tracks as your system is set up to accommodate. In this example, there are two available audio sources, but there’s only a microphone connected to the first channel, so that’s the only one being connected. 6 When you’re finished, close the window. Arming Tracks To record on a track, it must be armed.
Recording Using the Onscreen Controls You can record anywhere you want on the currently armed track or tracks by placing the playhead where you want recording to begin. In this way, you can record to specific areas of your program as you record voiceover, sound effects, foley, or other timed performances that need to fit into a particular region of the edit. To begin recording: 1 Position the playhead where you want recording to begin. 2 Click the Record button in the transport controls.
Overlapping recordings with Audio Track Layers turned on, showing layering within the same track The layering of audio clips in DaVinci Resolve means that the topmost superimposed clips in a layered stack like this mutes the audio of overlapping clips that are lower in the stack. Using layering, it’s easy to edit the best segments of the best takes, while preserving all other takes, simply by adding edits and rearranging clips in the stack so the best parts are on top.
To enable a MIDI controller in macOS: 1 If DaVinci Resolve is running, quit before connecting your MIDI controller and setting it up. 2 On macOS you’ll use the Audio Midi Setup utility to choose output hardware and select a speaker configuration to be made available on your system. In the Finder, use Spotlight and search for Audio MIDI Setup to open it. 3 In Audio MIDI Setup, choose Window > Show MIDI Studio. A window showing icons for all connected MIDI controllers appears.
Enabling MIDI control 5 Next, configure the VSTi instrument you’re using to play the sound effects you want to use for foley. In this example, the Serato Sample VSTi plug-in is being used to automatically slice up a recording of footsteps from one of Sound Ideas’ many sound effects libraries. Because the VSTi you added is patched to that track’s Insert (if you look at the Mixer you should see that the I button is enabled on the channel strip the instrument is patched to), the Send is PRE the Instrument.
Chapter 153 ADR (Automated Dialog Replacement) The Fairlight page of DaVinci Resolve has a sophisticated interface for doing ADR, or automated dialog replacement, in a structured and straightforward manner. Simple, yet powerful, the ADR panel incorporates Cue list management, industry-standard audio beeps and visual cues, and sophisticated take management with star ratings and layered take organization to create and manage the re-recording of dialog in any program.
Contents ADR (Automated Dialog Replacement) 3189 The ADR Interface 3189 Setting up to Do an ADR Session 3193 Creating and Importing ADR Cue Lists 3194 Manually Creating an ADR Cue List 3194 Importing Cues 3195 Recording ADR to the Timeline 3196 Chapter – 153 ADR (Automated Dialog Replacement) 3188
ADR (Automated Dialog Replacement) Clicking the ADR button on the Interface toolbar opens up the celebrated Fairlight ADR panel, which provides a thoroughly professional workflow for doing automated dialog replacement. Dialog replacement, for those who don’t know, is the process whereby audio professionals bring in actors to re-record unsalvageably bad dialog recordings from the comfort of their recording studios, line by line and with a great deal of patience.
This panel presents the following controls: Pre Roll and Post Roll: Specifies how many seconds to play before and after each cue’s specified In and Out points, giving actors a chance to listen to what comes before and after each cue in order to prepare. If you enable the Beep options below, beeps provide a countdown during the specified pre-roll.
The List Panel This is where you create a list of cues you need to re-record, either from within the Fairlight page, or imported from a .csv file that someone provides you. The List panel of the ADR interface This panel presents the following controls: Cue editing controls: Displays the data for the currently selected cue (or a cue that was just created). In and Out timecode fields store the Timeline In and Out points that were set when the cue was created but can be manually edited for fine tuning.
The Record Panel This is where you actually run the ADR recording session you’ve set up, using the dialog cues you’ve put into the Cue list. The Record panel of the ADR Interface This panel presents the following controls: Record and rehearse controls: Four transport controls and two buttons let you control recording during ADR sessions. These controls are only clickable when you’ve selected a cue from the Cue list to record.
Cue list: The list of all cues that have been entered or imported. The Cue list can be filtered using the Filter drop-down menu at the top-right of the ADR panel (next to the Option menu). You can choose to show the cues for all characters, or for any selected combination of characters. You can also choose to hide all cues that are marked as done to experience the joy of this list shrinking more and more the closer you are to being finished.
Patching the Oscillator to play beeps over your audio output: 1 Choose Fairlight > Patch Input/Output to open the Patch Input/Output window. 2 Choose System Generator from the Source drop-down menu, and click to select Beeps. 3 Choose Audio Outputs from the Destination drop-down, and choose the left/right outputs you want these preview beeps to play out of. You can drag a bounding box to select multiple outputs, thereby connecting the mono Beeps input to stereo output for comfortable listening.
5 If necessary, select the text field below, and type the dialog that needs to be re-recorded. 6 Repeat steps 2 through 5 until you’re finished creating all the cues you intend to rerecord. If you need to edit any cue, simply click to select that cue, and edit it in the Cue Editing section above.
Recording ADR to the Timeline Once you’ve configured your workstation for recording, and you’ve set up a Cue list to work with, it’s time to start recording each cue. To record a cue from the Cue list: 1 Open the Record panel of the ADR interface. 2 If you want to record a particular character’s cues, you can select each unnecessary character in the ADR Option menu to uncheck that character, hiding their dialog in the Cue list.
Chapter 154 Editing Basics in the Fairlight Page You can use the Fairlight page to refine the editing of audio that was initially assembled in the Edit page, or you can use the Fairlight page to both record and edit audio programs from scratch. Because audio clips have properties that video clips do not, audio editing encompasses additional procedures that are not available in the Edit page. This chapter takes you through the fundamental steps of editing audio the Fairlight way.
Contents Compatible Audio Formats 3200 Editing Audio Clips Into the Timeline 3200 Overwriting Vs.
Paste and Remove Attributes 3223 Copying and Pasting Clip Attributes 3223 Copying and Pasting Track Attributes 3224 Removing Attributes 3224 Audio Clip Layering 3224 Audio Compound Clips 3226 Audio Crossfades 3226 Fades and Crossfades 3227 Using Fades 3227 Fade In and Out to Playhead 3228 Creating Crossfades With Overlapping Fades 3228 Using Crossfades From the Edit Page 3229 Finding Clips in the Media Pool 3229 Changing Clip Color in the Timeline 3230 Editing Audio Clips in Exte
Compatible Audio Formats DaVinci Resolve is compatible with WAVE, Broadcast WAVE, AIFF, MP3, AAC (M4A), CAF (macOS only), both MTS and QuickTime containers that use the AC3 audio format, and Enhanced AC-3 (macOS and Windows only). DaVinci Resolve is compatible with audio at sample rates including 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, and 192 kHz.
The preview player in the Media Pool Various viewing controls populate the title bar at the top. A drop-down menu at the upper left lets you choose a zoom level for the audio waveform that’s displayed. To the right of that, a Timecode window shows you the duration of the clip or the duration that’s marked with In and Out points. Next to the right, a real-time performance indicator shows you playback performance.
Dragging several clips into the Timeline as one contiguous series of edited clips: 1 Change the sort order of the Media Pool’s browser area to put the clips into the order in which you want them to appear. In Thumbnail view you can use the Sort Order menu, but in List view you can click the header of any metadata column to sort by that column’s data.
A series of audio clips edited into the Timeline by timecode position You can also edit two or more audio clips into the Timeline as a stack, in preparation for layering multiple sound effects for doing sound design work.
Making Audio Clip Selections in the Timeline Nearly every editing operation described in this chapter and others requires you to make a selection to define which clips will be affected. Three editing modes in the toolbar give you different ways of selecting clips, depending on what you’re trying to do, and how you like to work. These are (from left to right) the Selection mode, the Range mode, and the Edit Selection mode.
Command-clicking multiple track headers selects those tracks Additionally, there are times when clicking or dragging on one or more clips with the pointer results in both those clips being selected, along with the tracks on which they sit. For example, selecting clips using the Edit Selection mode will also select the tracks those clips are on.
Using Selection Mode Selection mode uses the position of the playhead to make automatic selections when using the Fairlight Editing console or keyboard shortcuts to make clip selections on selected tracks. However, you can also use this mode in conjunction with the pointer and keyboard shortcuts to make selections in a different style. Selection mode is primarily intended to allow efficient editing of whole clips. If no tracks have been selected: Clips that intersect the playhead are not selected.
Methods of selecting clips using the pointer in Selection mode: Click any clip to select it. Click a clip to select it Command-click multiple clips to select them all at once. Command-clicking multiple clips selects those clips, even if they’re separated by other clips Click anywhere in the background of the Timeline and drag a bounding box over multiple clips.
If you set In and Out points: Partial regions of all clips on all selected tracks between the In and Out points will be highlighted in gray. Clips on unselected tracks are ignored. While In and Out points are set, the playhead no longer makes automatic selections; you must set new In and Out points to modify the selection in this mode. To choose Range Selection mode: Click the Range Selection tool (the crosshairs) in the toolbar. Choose Trim > Range Selection Mode. Press R.
Using the Range mode to select clip segments on selected tracks using In and Out points Methods of selecting clips in Range Selection mode via clicking and dragging: To select a single clip: Click any clip to select both it and the track it’s on, and define a range in the Timeline that matches the duration of that clip.
Range selection by Command-clicking multiple clips To drag to select a range within a single clip: With the Range Selection tool selected, drag anywhere on top of a clip to drag a bounding box over whatever segment of that clip (or of one or more clips) to select both that clip segment and the track it appears on. This is a good way of selecting part of a recording you want to move or delete.
Ranged selection across multiple clips using a bounding box In Range Selection mode, whenever you make a selection, the In and Out point fields update with the range that you’ve created. The range fields showing you the In and Out point values that define the current range These ranges can be cleared if necessary. Methods of clearing In and Out points to clear the current range: Press Option-I to clear the current In point. Press Option-O to clear the current Out point.
If tracks have been selected: Any clip on a selected track that intersects the playhead will be automatically highlighted in gray. Clips on de-selected tracks will be ignored. Dragging a crosshairs over one one or more clips with the pointer overrides all automatic selections and selects the regions of the clips you drag over, and the tracks they’re on.
Using the crosshairs, you can also Command-click to expand or contract the selected region across one or more clips. Using the crosshairs, you can also double-click to select an entire clip. To select a single frame using the Crosshairs tool of the Edit Selection mode: Move the pointer to the top half of a clip until a cross-hairs cursor appears, and click once to place a point selection at the frame you clicked. The playhead also moves to this frame.
Commands For Editing and Extending the Selection Once you’ve made one or more selections in the Timeline, there are a series of commands you can use to modify or expand the selection. These commands were designed to be used alongside the Edit Selection mode, but they can be used in any mode. Editing the Selection There are six commands for changing the current selection, moving it from one clip or group of clips in the Timeline to another.
Clips on locked tracks cannot be moved, deleted, cut, or otherwise affected by editorial operations. Furthermore, parameters of locked clips cannot be edited in the Inspector. However, clips on locked tracks can be played back and mixed like any other audio clips. To toggle the lock or unlock state of audio tracks in the Fairlight page, do one of the following: Click any track’s lock control to toggle lock on and off.
Multi-Point Editing Overview Each clip in the Timeline has several draggable handles and click targets that let you perform different editing tasks using the pointer. In point: The left edge of the clip can be dragged to resize the beginning of the clip. Out point: The right edge of the clip can be dragged to resize the end of the clip.
To quickly resize the beginning or end of a clip to the very beginning or end of available media: Double-click the In point of the clip to move the In point to the very beginning of that clip’s media. Double-click the Out point of the clip to move the Out point to the very end of that clip’s media. If you resize a clip’s In or Out point to overlap one or more neighboring clips in the Timeline, the overlapping parts of the neighboring clips will be overwritten by the clip you’ve resized.
Moving (Sliding) and Overwriting Clips Formerly called slipping in previous versions of Fairlight, sliding refers to moving a clip to the left or right in the Timeline, changing the timing of that clip’s position in the edit. To move or slide clips in the Timeline, do one of the following: To move one or more selected clips in the Timeline: Drag any clip in the Timeline to any other position. If you’re in Edit Selection mode, you must drag using the bottom half of the selection.
Using the Duplicate Selection command to duplicate a selected region You can also hold the Option key down while dragging a clip in the Timeline; you’ll place a duplicate clip wherever you drop it.
Cut, Copy, and Paste The Fairlight page has a unique copy and paste methodology that takes advantage of the “ghost” overlays that are used for the waveforms of selected audio clips. This method makes it easy to copy and paste clips using keyboard shortcuts and the JKL keys.
b To cut or copy segment of a clip, move the playhead so that it intersects the clip you want to cut or copy. If the playhead intersects a clip on a selected track, that clip should become selected. Then, using JKL and the I (In) and O (Out) keys, mark a range in the Timeline that includes the segment of the clip you want. That segment should appear highlighted as a result.
b If you want to move the cut or copied clip to another track, use the Control-OptionUp or Down Arrow key shortcuts to change the selected track; the ghost clip will move along with change in track selection. Positioning the cut or copied clip before you paste it This way, you can use the playhead to align the ghost waveform with other audio clips surrounding it in preparation for pasting it.
3 Move the playhead so that it intersects the clip you want to cut or copy at the frame you want to define, either the end of the head or the beginning of the tail. If the playhead intersects a clip on a selected track, that clip should automatically become selected.
Copying and Pasting Track Attributes For tracks, it works a little differently. Right-click on a track header and choose Copy Attributes to copy all track settings and effects. Then, select one or more other track headers, right-click the selection, and choose Paste Attributes. A dialog appears letting you choose which track attributes you want to paste before clicking Apply.
To enable audio layering: Choose Timeline > Layered Audio Editing so that a check mark appears by the command. All overlapping audio will be layered instead of overwritten from that point forward. To view audio layering: 1 Choose View > Show Audio Track Layers to reveal track layers for each audio track (and each lane within a given audio track) in the Timeline. When layering is on, space appears at the top of each track in the Timeline which provides a region into which you can edit layered audio clips.
Audio Compound Clips DaVinci Resolve supports audio compound clips, which are created just like any other compound clip, by selecting multiple audio clips, right-clicking one of them, and choosing New Compound Clip. Alternately, compound clips with video clips may now contain multiple audio items as well.
Fade In/Fade Out levels: There are three options that affect the incoming and outgoing halves of the Cross Fade effect independently. 0dB applies a linear fade (this is the default). +3dB applies a boosted curve; when applied to both Fade In and Fade Out, this can compensate for diminished levels in the middle of a Cross Fade. –3dB applies an attenuating curve, which deliberately lowers the level of the Cross Fade. Crossfades can be created and edited on both the Edit and Fairlight pages.
Fade In and Out to Playhead A pair of commands in the Trim menu let you move the playhead over a clip, and use the playhead position to “Fade In to Playhead” or “Fade Out to Playhead.” These commands work in both the Edit and Fairlight pages.
3 Drop the clip. The overlapping fades will both be preserved thanks to clip layering, and a crossfade will appear in the Timeline. The resulting crossfade To create a crossfade over two clips that are already layered: Drag a fader handle at the beginning or end of a clip that’s layered, and a crossfade will automatically appear.
Changing Clip Color in the Timeline You can right-click one or more selected clips in the Timeline to change the clip color, to be more organized. For example, you might set production audio clips containing dialog from different actors to different colors, or you could set clips with dialog, music, and effects to different colors in order to easily differentiate each clip’s purpose.
Once the bounced audio is opened in the external application, you can process it however you need to and bake in any changes made by saving/rendering/outputting and overwriting the original copied audio media file. DaVinci Resolve detects when changes have been made, and the altered result is automatically reimported as an additional audio layer on top of the original clip in the Timeline.
Sample Editing You can zoom quite far into audio clips on the Fairlight page timeline, until you see the individual samples that comprise the audio waveform of each clip. Samples are represented by control points once you’ve zoomed in far enough. When you zoom in far enough, you can see the individual samples of an audio clip as control points You can non-destructively edit these control points to eliminate clicks and pops, and to effect other fixes to problem audio clips.
Chapter 155 Audio Clip Specific Inspector Adjustments Each audio clip in a track has individual settings that are specific to that clip, which can be adjusted and animated in the Inspector. This makes it easy to adjust the levels and EQ of several clips to match one another, while reserving the track level for your overall mix. An additional set of clip-specific pitch controls make it easy to make small pitch adjustments, either static or keyframed, where necessary.
Contents Audio Settings in the Inspector 3235 Making Adjustments in the Inspector 3235 Using the Inspector 3235 Making Simple Adjustments 3236 Adjusting Multiple Clips at the Same Time 3236 Animated Inspector Adjustments 3237 Paste and Remove Attributes 3238 Seeing Effects in the Timeline 3238 Setting Clip Volume 3238 Adjusting Volume in the Inspector 3238 Adjusting Volume in the Timeline 3239 Adding and Adjusting Volume Keyframes in the Timeline 3239 Normalize Audio Levels Command
Audio Settings in the Inspector Each selected clip, and each selected Main, Submix, or Auxiliary bus channel strip in the Mixer exposes some simple audio-related parameters in the Audio panel of the Inspector. Clip Volume: Each clip has a single volume control, which corresponds to the volume overlay over each audio clip. Clip Pan: (Only exposed for clips) A simple Pan slider that controls stereo panning.
These controls include: Enable button: A toggle control to the left of the parameter group’s name lets you disable and re-enable every parameter within that group at once. Orange means that track’s enabled. Gray is disabled. Parameter group title bar: Double-clicking the title bar of any group of parameters collapses or opens them. Even more exciting than that, Option-double-clicking the title bar of one parameter group collapses or opens all parameter groups at once.
Animated Inspector Adjustments Keyframing in the Edit page works slightly differently than when using the Keyframe Editor in the Color page. Most simple keyframing tasks can be performed in the Inspector using three buttons that appear to the right of any parameter that’s capable of being keyframed. It takes two keyframes at minimum to create an animated effect.
To disable or enable a single parameter’s keyframed effect: In the Timeline, click the toggle control at the left of a parameter’s keyframe track. Orange means that track’s enabled. Gray is disabled. To disable or enable a group of parameters in the Inspector: Click the toggle control at the left of a parameter group’s title bar in the Inspector. Orange means that group is enabled. Gray is disabled.
Selecting an audio clip in the Timeline and adjusting its Volume only alters the volume levels of that clip, which lets you adjust basic levels for individual clips in your program. The Volume control affects every channel within that clip simultaneously. If you select multiple clips in the Timeline, then adjusting the Volume or Pan sliders or virtual sliders for all of them simultaneously will make a relative adjustment to all of the clips, preserving their offsets from one another.
To select one or more keyframes: Click any keyframe to select it. To select multiple discontiguous keyframes: Command-click all keyframes you want to select, whether they’re next to one another or not. To select multiple contiguous keyframes: Click the first keyframe you want to select, and then shift-click the last keyframe you want to select, and all keyframes between will also be selected.
4 Choose how you want to set the level of multiple selected clips: – When Set Level is set to Relative, all selected clips are treated as if they’re one clip, so that the highest peak level of all selected clips is used to define the adjustment, and the volume of all selected clips is adjusted by the same amount. This is good if you have a series of clips, such as a dialog recording, where the levels are consistent with one another, and you want to normalize all of them together.
When a channel strip’s EQ is enabled, the EQ button displays the equalization curve that’s being applied. This indicator cannot be adjusted; you must open the EQ window to make modifications. The channel strip’s EQ indicator, (Left) EQ is at detent, (Right) EQ is adjusted Master EQ Controls The Equalizer window has the following overall controls: Enable button: Turns the overall EQ effect off and on, without resetting the controls. Reset button: Resets all controls of the EQ window to their defaults.
Bands 1 and 4 The outer two sets of band controls let you make high-pass and low-pass adjustments, if necessary. Band enable button: Turns each band of EQ on and off. Band filter type: Bands 1 and 4 can be switched among four specific filtering options for processing the lowest or highest frequencies in the signal. These include (from top to bottom) Hi-Shelf, Hi-Pass, Bell, Notch, Lo-Pass, and Lo-Shelf. Bands 2 and 3 can be switched among Lo-Shelf, Bell, Notch, and Hi-Shelf.
Chapter 156 Mixing in the Fairlight Page The Mixer is the spider at the center of the web that is the Fairlight page, and provides the primary tools you’ll use to mix the various audio tracks of your program into a harmonious whole using EQ, Dynamics, Panning, level control, and VST and Audio Units audio effects of all kinds, all with full automation, to hone your sound and balance each track’s elements with the others.
Contents Introduction to Mixing 3246 The Mixer 3246 Tracks and Buses 3246 Customizing the Onscreen Mixer Controls 3247 Managing Channel Strips Using the Index 3248 Selecting Channel Strips and Tracks 3249 Track Organization 3249 Input 3250 Effects 3250 Insert 3251 EQ 3251 Master EQ Controls 3251 Graphical EQ Controls 3252 Bands 1 and 6 3252 Bands 2–5 3253 Dynamics 3253 Master Dynamics Controls 3255 Expander/Gate 3255 Compressor 3256 Limiter 3258 Aux 3258 Pan 3259
Introduction to Mixing This chapter describes the use of the Mixer to adjust the levels and fine-tune the audio of each track in the timeline. It’s focused on the function of the channel strip controls, with the following exceptions: For more information about busing, see Chapter 150, “Setting Up Tracks, Buses, and Patching.” For more information about recording audio, see Chapter 152, “Recording.” For more information about recording automation, see Chapter 157, “Automation Recording.
The Audio Mixer is divided into two sections, one for tracks (at left) and one for buses (at right) If you have more tracks and buses than can be displayed all at once given the width of your computer display, then each half of the mixer has independent scroll bars so you can choose which tracks and which buses you want to see next to one another.
Second, there’s an option to Show Labels, which are the control names listed in a column to the left of the mixer channel strip area. If you’re first getting started, these Labels are useful, but once you’ve gotten used to the layout of the Mixer, hiding these will give you a bit more room to work with for another channel strip or two.
Reassigning Channel Mappings Select one or more tracks, then right click one of the selected tracks and choose a channel assignment from the Change Track Type to submenu of the contextual menu. Selecting Channel Strips and Tracks When you select a track in the Timeline, you also select that track’s accompanying channel strip, and vice versa.
Input A drop-down menu that lets you patch inputs, patch buses, and configure the input settings of audio signals routed through Blackmagic hardware interfaces. The Input drop-down menu provides shortcuts for patching different buses using the Patch Input/Output window For more information on using the options of the insert menu, see Chapter 144, “Setting Up Tracks, Buses, and Patching.” Effects When you apply VST or Audio Unit effects to a track from the Effects Library, those effects appear here.
Insert Enables the routing of effects from Blackmagic audio interface hardware to outboard effects boxes and back again. This button can be toggled to enable/disable such routing. EQ Double-clicking exposes a four-band parametric equalizer with additional Hi and Lo Pass filters, that has both graphical and numeric controls for boosting or attenuating different ranges of frequencies of audio on each track.
Equalizer Type: Changes the EQ control functionality to emulate different EQ characteristics from “classic” mixing consoles. There are four options: – Earth: (Default) Native Fairlight controls – Air: Emulates the SSL 4K – Ice: Emulates the Neve V – Fire: Emulates the Focusrite Gain fader: A post-EQ level control that lets you boost or attenuate the signal to compensate for the EQ adjustment you’re making raising or lowering the level.
Frequency: Adjusts the center frequency of the EQ adjustment Gain: Adjusts the amount by which the affected frequencies are affected. Negative values attenuate those frequencies, while positive values boost those frequencies. Bands 2–5 The middle four sets of band controls let you make a wide variety of equalization adjustments. They’re on by default, to make it easy to begin making adjustments. The Band 3 controls Band enable button: Turns each band of EQ on and off.
The channel strip Dynamics control window When you enable whatever combination of dynamics controls you need for that track, the dynamics graph updates with curves that show you how the signal is being affected by the Expander or Gate, Compressor, and/or Limiter settings that are being applied.
Master Dynamics Controls The Dynamics window contains the following overall controls at the top of the window: Reset button: Resets all controls of the EQ window to their defaults. Make Up fader: A post-Dynamics level control that lets you boost the signal to compensate for dynamics settings that have lowered the level. Expander/Gate The first of three sets of dynamics parameters, these controls can be switched between expansion and gating.
Compressor The second set of dynamics parameters let you apply compression, which detects the envelope of an audio signal in order to automatically change its level. Typically used to detect and reduce the peaks of an audio signal so that the overall level can be boosted without clipping, thus reducing the dynamic range of a given signal.
2 Click the track header or channel strip of a track with dialog to select that track, and then double-click the Dynamics indicator on the channel strip to open the Dynamics window. 3 Turn on the Send button to automatically send all levels from that track to the sidechain of a Compressor on another track (it’s not necessary to turn on Compressor for this). If you hover the pointer over the Send button, a tooltip will show you which tracks of the current timeline are set to Send.
If you’ve set this up correctly, then during playback the Sidechain meter should show the levels of the dialog tracks with Send enabled, and the Gain Reduction meter should show you how much the gain of the music track is being reduced when triggered by the dialog being fed to the Sidechain. As a result, you should hear that whenever speech plays, the music volume is automatically lowered.
Aux bus to continue to produce a “wet” version of that track’s audio while the mixing level is set all the way down, while raising the mixing level up mixes a “dry” version of the audio track against the “wet” levels produced by the Aux bus effect.
When a channel strip’s Pan control is enabled, the Pan area displays the panning that’s being applied. Unlike the EQ or Dynamics controls, you can adjust a channel’s panning by dragging the handles that appear within this small area of the channel strip. The channel strip’s Pan indicator The Audio Pan window contains the following controls: Left/Right: Changes the balance of signal between the left and right side speakers you’re outputting to, depending on what speaker format you’re mixing to.
The 3D Audio Pan window has a few more controls than the ordinary Pan window: Pan enable: Toggles the entire panning effect on and off. Panner viewer: A large 3D representation of the listener’s perceived sound stage, with a blue sphere that represents the position of the track’s audio being positioned within that space, which casts a shadow straight down on the floor and projects a blue box on the four walls of this space to indicate its position more concretely.
Fader Groups (VCA Groups) You can assign multiple faders to a Fader Group, also referred to as “VCA group,” which is controlled by a dedicated group channel strip that appears at the right of the mixer. Fader Groups let you simultaneously adjust multiple faders using one group fader, for instances where that will help you manage the levels of complex collections of audio tracks.
Using Fader Groups Once you’ve assigned multiple faders to a group, a dedicated channel strip for that group appears. Making adjustments to the group channel strip simultaneously controls all the faders, solo buttons, and mute buttons of all channel strips that are members of that group, as seen below.
Record Arm: (highlights red when enabled) Lets you enable a track to be recorded onto. Solo: (highlights green for Solo, blue for Solo Safe) Lets you mute all other tracks in order to play a track you need to focus on in isolation. If solo is enabled for multiple tracks, all soloed tracks will play, and all non-soloed tracks will be muted. This affects rendering, so if one or more tracks are soloed, the muted tracks won’t be output or rendered.
dB: Shows you the volume, in decibels, that track is currently set to. Fader: Each track’s vertical fader can be dragged with your mouse or other pointing device to adjust the volume of that track and perform automation recording. Dragging up increases volume, dragging down decreases volume. Fader handles turn red while you record levels automation, and they turn green when automation has been recorded for that track.
The specified mix is processed, mixed, and bounced to the specified track as a new piece of audio. This creates new audio media that’s written to the directory location specified by the “Save clips to” field of the Capture and Playback panel of the Project Settings. TIP: There’s also a Bounce Audio Effects command in the contextual menu of audio clips in the Timeline that have audio plug-ins applied to them. For more information, see Chapter 158, “Audio Effects.
Marker buttons: – Marker to add a marker – Pressing the Marker+Stop buttons sets Home – Pressing the Marker+FF/REW buttons jumps the playhead forward or backward Additional supported controls for control panels that have them include: – Master Solo clear/restore – Undo (pressing the Undo+Option buttons does Redo) – Arrows to move the selection – Zoom horizontal and vertical controls – Audio Tracks, to turn Automation On/Off – Write/Trim/Touch/Latch switches – Nudge controls – Cut, Copy, and Paste Monitori
Chapter 157 Automation Recording The Fairlight page provides simple, flexible, and comprehensive facilities for recording and editing mix automation data. Once recorded, all feed and bus mix parameter automation can be played back in perfect synchronization with the audio, including channel parameters, bus assignments, inserts, and direct outs.
Contents Automation Recording 3270 What You Can Automate 3270 Automation Controls 3270 How to Record Automation 3271 Recording Automation for Multiple Tracks 3271 Recording Automation for Specific Individual Tracks 3272 Automation Preview Mode 3273 Viewing Automation in the Timeline 3274 Overwriting Automation 3274 Editing Automation 3275 Drawing Automation Keyframes 3275 Adjusting and Deleting Multiple Keyframes 3276 Playing Automation 3277 Chapter – 157 Automation Recording 326
Automation Recording While the recording of keyframe automation is most commonly associated with either the onscreen mixer or the Fairlight console, you can also record automation using controls found in the Inspector, or using the controls of the EQ, Dynamics, and Pan windows, thereby enabling you to record automation for the various audio effects that you’ve applied to a track.
On Stop: Defines what happens when you release an automatable control. – Event: The last recorded automation value overwrites previous levels to the start of the next available recorded automation data (or event) in that track. – Hold: Deletes all previously recorded mixing data after what you’ve just recorded, to hold the last recorded level for the rest of that track. – Return: The last recorded automation value is interpolated to ramp back to the previously recorded automation values on that track.
Recording Automation for Specific Individual Tracks You can use the following steps to record automated changes to controls in specifically armed control strips: 1 Open the Automation toolbar, and do the following three preparatory steps: a Choose whether you’re going to write new automation, or trim automation that’s already recorded. Write mode is appropriate when you’re recording automation for the first time, or when you’re overwriting previous automation with brand new values.
5 When you’re finished, stop playback using any method (Spacebar, K, Stop button, thirdparty or Fairlight audio control panel). Automation recording stops as well. Displayed automation turns green once recording has stopped. If you don’t like what you’ve done, you can undo and start over, or you can edit the automation using methods described later in this chapter. Or, you can back the playhead up and overwrite automation at any time with new automation.
Viewing Automation in the Timeline Once you’ve recorded automation keyframes for a particular parameter, they can be made visible in an automation graph in the Timeline. While the automation controls are visible, an additional pair of controls appear in the header of each audio track. A drop-down lets you choose which automation waveform to view, with options for Fader, Mute, Pan, EQ, Compressor, limiter, Aux, and Plugins controls.
Editing Automation When the automation toolbar is displayed, two additional tools appear in the regular toolbar. From left to right, these are the Pencil and the Select Range tools. These tools let you edit automation in different ways. The Pencil and Select Range tools appear when you open the Automation toolbar Drawing Automation Keyframes You can use the pencil tool to literally draw new automation curves in the Timeline for whichever parameter’s automation data is visible.
Using the Select Range tool to adjust an automation keyframe Adjusting and Deleting Multiple Keyframes You can also use the Select Range tool to drag a bounding box to select multiple keyframes, in preparation for moving them or deleting them. Dragging a bounding box over a section of automation using the Select Range tool Once you release the box, that section of keyframes becomes highlighted.
Adding New Keyframes You can also use the Select Range tool to add new keyframes to an automation curve. However, these are not Bezier keyframes, so they only let you create a single level adjustment at that frame. If you make a large adjustment with only a single new keyframe, you’ll end up with a squared off section of automation. For this reason, adding new keyframes should only be done when making small adjustments, unless you intend to create an abrupt change.
Chapter 158 Audio Effects Audio plug-ins let you apply effects to the audio clips in your mix, such as echo or reverb, noise reduction, aural enhancement, click and pop removal, and so on. DaVinci Resolve is compatible with a wide variety of third-party VST and Audio Unit effects for audio processing, and these can then be used either in the Edit or Fairlight pages. This chapter goes through the different methods available for applying and customizing effects for clips and for tracks.
Contents Elastic Wave Audio Retiming 3280 About Audio Plug-Ins 3282 FairlightFX 3282 VST and VSTi 3282 Audio Units 3283 Using Audio Plug-Ins 3283 Applying Audio Plug-Ins to Buses 3287 Dealing With Processor Intensive Plug-Ins 3287 Caching Audio Clips With Plug-Ins 3287 Bouncing Audio Clips With Plug-Ins 3288 Chapter – 158 Audio Effects 3279
Elastic Wave Audio Retiming Elastic Wave retiming is a fast and easy keyframe-based way of dynamically retiming audio, squishing and stretching different parts of a waveform to subtly retime audio playback for a variety of reasons, all while maintaining constant pitch.
4 Dragging the speed keyframe to the left or right speeds up the audio on one side of the keyframe and slows down the audio on the other side of the keyframe, from that keyframe to the neighboring keyframes applied to that clip. Using an audio clip’s waveform as your guide, you can use multiple speed keyframes to match the waveform of one performance to the waveform of another, in order to make the timing match.
To remove Elastic Wave retiming keyframes, do one of the following: To remove a single speed keyframes: Right-click on a speed keyframe and choose Remove Speed Keyframe from the contextual menu. To remove all speed keyframes and eliminate the Elastic Wave retiming effect: Rightclick a clip and choose Reset Speed Curve. NOTE: All Elastic Wave retiming adjustments you make in the Fairlight page appear in the Edit page as variable speed effects, accessible using the Retime controls.
Audio Units Audio Units are an audio plug-in API created by Apple. Similarly to VST, Audio Units (AU) can either process audio, or work as instruments. Audio Units are only available on macOS workstations. Using Audio Plug-Ins FairlightFX are pre-installed on all DaVinci Resolve installations. If you install additional VST or Audio Unit effects on your workstation, they appear in the Audio FX panel of the Effects Library, organized in separate categories.
Methods of applying audio plug-ins to clips on the Fairlight page: To apply an audio filter to a clip: Drag any filter from the Audio FX panel of the Effects Library onto the clip in the Timeline you want to apply it to. To apply an audio filter to multiple clips: Select all of the clips you want to apply an audio filter to, then drag any filter from the Audio FX panel of the Effects Library onto any of the selected clips.
To apply an audio filter to a track or bus using the Mixer controls: Click the plus button in the channel strip of the track you want to apply an effect to, and then choose a filter from the drop-down menu that appears. All filters appear within categories to make them easier to find. If you’ve clicked the star button of any filters in the Effects Library to favorite them, these favorite filters appear at the top of the plus button’s drop-down list.
Move the pointer over the plugin’s name in the Effects area of the Mixer, and click on the custom UI button to open its controls. The custom UI button for audio plug-ins in the Mixer Nearly all FairlightFX, VST, and Audio Unit audio plug-ins have a custom user interface that makes it much easier to manipulate that filter’s controls. These can be opened from within DaVinci Resolve.
Applying Audio Plug-Ins to Buses You can apply audio plug-ins to Main and Sub buses just like any other track, with which to apply any audio mastering effects operations you require to individual submixes, or even to an entire main. Dealing With Processor Intensive Plug-Ins As you apply more and more plug-ins directly to clips in complicated mixes, you may discover you lack the processing power to play all audio tracks and effects in real time.
Bouncing Audio Clips With Plug-Ins Another way of easing the burden of audio clip effects on your system is to bounce the effected clip to another layer. This creates a new piece of audio media with the effect “baked in,” which is written to the directory location specified by the “Save clips to” field of the Capture and Playback panel of the Project Settings.
Chapter 159 FairlightFX FairlightFX are a DaVinci Resolve-specific audio plug-in format that runs natively on macOS, Windows, and Linux, providing high-quality audio effects with professional features to all DaVinci Resolve users on all platforms. Thirteen new audio plug-ins that can be used both in the Edit and the Fairlight page include a wide variety of plug-ins for repairing faulty audio, creating effects, and simulating spaces. This chapter explains what they do and how to use them.
Contents Common Controls For All FairlightFX 3291 Chorus 3291 De-Esser 3293 De-Hummer 3294 Delay 3295 Dialog Processor 3296 Distortion 3296 Echo 3297 Flanger 3298 Foley Sampler 3300 Frequency Analyzer 3304 LFE 3304 Limiter 3305 Meter 3305 Modulation 3306 Noise Reduction 3308 Phase Meter 3309 Pitch 3310 Reverb 3310 Soft Clipper 3312 Stereo Fixer 3313 Stereo Width 3314 Vocal Channel 3315 Chapter – 159 FairlightFX 3290
Common Controls For All FairlightFX Before going into the specific controls of each FairlightFX plug-in, there are some common controls that all plug-ins share, found at the top of the custom GUI window for each plug-in. Common controls for all FairlightFX Presets: A cluster of controls that let you recall and save presets specific to each plug‑in. – Add Preset button: Click this button to save the current settings of the FairlightFX you’re using. A dialog lets you enter a Preset name and click OK.
Chorus has the following controls: Bypass: Toggles this plug-in on and off. Input Format: (Only visible when Echo is inserted on a multi-channel track.) Lets you choose how multiple channels are input to the echo. Stereo sets separate Left and Right channels. Mono sums Left and Right to both channels. Left inputs the Left channel only, and Right inputs the Right channel only. Delay: The amount of delay between the original sound and the Chorus effect. – Delay Time: Length of the Chorus delay lines.
De-Esser A repair plug-in specific to dialog. The De-Esser is a specialized filter that’s designed to reduce excessive sibilance, such as hissing “s” sounds or sharp “ts” sounds, in dialog or vocals. A graph shows you which part of the signal the controls are set up to adjust, while reduction and output meters let you see which part of the signal is affected and what level is being output. The De-Esser FairlightFX The De-Esser has the following controls: Bypass: Toggles this plug-in on and off.
De-Hummer A repair plug-in with general applications to any recording. Eliminates hum noise that often stems from electrical interference with audio equipment due to improper cabling or grounding. Typically 50 or 60 cycle hum is a harmonic noise, consisting of a fundamental frequency and subsequent partial harmonics starting at twice this fundamental frequency. A graph lets you see the frequency and harmonics being targeted as you adjust this plugin’s controls.
Delay An effects plug-in. A general purpose stereo delay effect, suitable for tasks varying from track doubling, to early reflection generation, through simple harmonic enhancement. Processes in stereo or mono, depending on the track it’s applied to. A graph shows the timing and intensity of the echoes generated by this plug-in on each channel, and an Output meter displays the output level of the resulting signal.
Dialog Processor The Dialog Processor chains together six different common audio processing operations inside of a single plug-in, each tuned to the specific needs of making adjustments to improve human speech. The specialized De-Rumble, De-Pop, De-Ess, Comp(ressor), Expander, and Excite controls each have a streamlined set of controls tailored to speeding up the types of common adjustments every dialog track uses. The Dialog Processor plug-in Distortion An effects plug-in.
Distortion has the following controls: Bypass: Toggles this plug-in on and off. Filters: Two filters let you simulate devices reproducing limited frequency ranges. – LF Cut: Low frequency distortion shaping. – HF Cut: High frequency distortion shaping. Distortion: Three sets of controls let you create the type and intensity of distortion you want. – Mode buttons: Switch the operational mode of distortion. The one to the left, Distortion, creates harmonic distortion.
Echo has the following controls: Bypass: Toggles this plug-in on and off. Input Format: (Only visible when Echo is inserted on a multi-channel track.) Lets you choose how multiple channels are input to the echo. Stereo sets separate Left and Right channels. Mono sums Left and Right to both channels. Left inputs the Left channel only, and Right inputs the Right channel only. Filters: Alters the proportion of frequencies that are included in the delay effect.
The Flanger FairlightFX The Flanger has the following controls: Bypass: Toggles this plug-in on and off. Input mode: (Only visible when the Flanger is inserted on a multi-channel track.) Lets you choose how multiple channels are input to the Flanger. Stereo sets separate Left and Right channels. Mono sums Left and Right to both channels. Left inputs the Left channel only, and Right inputs the Right channel only. Modulation: A low frequency oscillator (LFO) used to drive the Flanger effect.
Output: Controls for adjusting the final output from this plug-in. – Dry/Wet (%): A percentage control of the output mix of “dry” or original signal to “wet” or processed signal. 0 is completely dry, 100% is completely wet. – Output Level (dB): Adjusts the overall output level of the affected sound.
A footsteps recording loaded into the Foley Sampler Splitting Sound Effects It’s common to use pre-recorded library sound effects that consist of a series of recorded footsteps, cloth rustles, punches, or other “foleyed” sound recordings, in order to play variations of a specific kind of repetitive sound effect in sync to action that’s happening on screen. The Foley Sampler lets you do this easily.
A single slice of the footsteps recording after being split in the Foley Sampler, with the range of the effect adjusted Assigning Sound Effects Manually When you first load sound effects into the Foley Sampler, they’re automatically assigned to a series of notes. Each additional sound effect that you load is automatically assigned to the next series of notes to the right. Once all notes are occupied, additional sound effects will shuffle all previous assignments to the left.
Adjusting Sound Effects If you want to customize a sample or slice further, you can select it above the virtual keyboard and use the controls on the Level panel to control the dynamics of audio playback, or you can use the controls on the Filter panel to EQ the sound. TIP: If a sample or slice is set to loop, you can press the Control key and click a key on the virtual keyboard to initiate looping, so you can hear these adjustments as you’re making them.
Frequency Analyzer This lets you see a visualization of the levels across all frequencies of a clip or track. A Mode drop-down lets you choose to see the full audible spectrum, or to restrict the visualization to low, medium, or high frequencies. The Frequency Analyzer plug-in LFE A low-pass filter that you can apply to a main that’s in a surround sound format, to feed lowfrequency sound to an LFE channel as part of a surround sound mix. If there is no LFE channel available, this plug-in does nothing.
Limiter A true peak limiter that is capable of looking 64 samples ahead of the input, in order to limit the audio in a very smooth fashion. An Input control lets you adjust the level of the incoming signal, while Threshold and Release controls let you adjust the limiting that’s being done. A graph shows you an analysis of the audio as it’s processed, with a visual indication of what parts of the signal are being affected by this plug-in.
Meter has the following controls, all located in the option menu: Width: Lets you resize the width of the meter window. Options are: Narrow, Normal, and Wide. Height: Lets you resize the height of the meter window. Options are: Small, Medium, and Large. Reset Peak on Play: When enabled, the numeric peak level is reset every time playback stops and starts again. When disabled, the numeric peak level persists until changed by a higher peak. Reset: Resets the numeric peak level.
Frequency: Frequency modulation (FM) of a secondary oscillator, shown as green in the animated graph. – Level (%): Controls the amount of Frequency Modulation that’s applied, intensifying or easing off the effect. – Phase: Since each of the four primary effects within this plug-in can be applied together, along with the fact that modulation with level components (Tremelo/ Rotation/Filter) have the ability to combine or cancel out one another, phase controls are available.
Noise Reduction A repair plug-in designed to reduce a wide variety of noise in all kinds of recordings. Based on spectral subtraction, it’s able to automatically detect noise in sections of dialog, or it can be used manually by “learning” a section of noise that can be subsequently extracted from the signal. A graph shows a spectral analysis of the audio being targeted, along with a purple overlay that shows what noise is being targeted.
Attack (in ms): Primarily useful in Auto Speech mode, this controls the duration over which the noise profile is detected. Ideally, the attack time should match the variability of the unwanted noise. A low value corresponds to a faster update rate of the noise profile and is useful for quickly varying noise; a high value corresponds to a slower update rate and can be used for noise that’s more consistent.
Pitch An effects plug-in. Shifts audio pitch without altering clip speed. The Pitch FairlighFX Pitch has the following controls: Bypass: Toggles this plug-in on and off. Semitones: A “coarse” adjustment that can shift audio pitch up to +/- 12 semitones. Cents: A “fine” adjustment that can tune audio pitch in +/- 100ths of a semitone. Dry/Wet: A percentage control of the output mix of “dry” or original signal to “wet” or processed signal. 0 is completely dry, 100% is completely wet.
The Reverb FairlightFX Reverb has the following controls: Bypass: Toggles this plug-in on and off. – Room Dimensions: By controlling the size of the virtual room a sound is to inhabit, these parameters simultaneously control the configuration of Early Reflection and Late Reverberation processing. The acoustic modes from this simulated room are computed and fed to Late Reverberation processing. The shape, gain, and delay of the first reflections are computed and then fed to Early Reflection processing.
Reverb Tone: Four post equalization controls modify the tone of the reverb tail to suit a particular room’s characteristics. – Reverb Tail Low Gain – Reverb Tail Low Frequency – Reverb Tail High Gain – Reverb Tail High Frequency Output: These controls recombine the three audio processing paths into a single output signal. – Dry/Wet: A percentage control of the output mix of “dry” or original signal to “wet” or processed signal. 0 is completely dry, 100% is completely wet.
Stereo Fixer A simple plug-in designed to fix stereo source material in cases where only one side of a stereo signal was recorded, where one side of a stereo recording is a different level to the other, or where the stereo channels have been incorrectly Left/Right swapped. This plug-in can also be used as a “Mid/Side” decoder, for recordings that were made using this microphone technique. This plug-in is for stereo clips only.
Stereo Width An enhancement plug-in that increases or reduces the spread of a stereo signal in order to widen or reduce the separation between channels. If this plug-in is added to a Mono channel, it will be disabled, as there is no stereo width to either distribute or control. A graph shows the currently selected width of stereo distribution as a purple arc, while inside of that graph a stereo meter shows the Left and Right distribution of the audio signal.
Vocal Channel An enhancement plug-in for general purpose vocal processing consisting of High Pass filtering, EQ, and Compressor controls. Side by side EQ and Dynamics graphs are presented above the controls. An output audio meter lets you monitor the final signal being produced by this plug-in. The Vocal Channel FairlightFX Vocal Channel has the following controls: High Pass: Enabled by a toggle, off by default.
Chapter 160 Audio Meters and Audio Monitoring The Meters panel, which appears at the top of the Fairlight page when it’s enabled, provides a visual reference of the levels of each track in your mix, along with specialized meters showing the buses, monitoring mix, loudness, and a Viewer for seeing the video of the current project as you work. This chapter describes the use of these meters, and provides information about the different options that are available.
Contents The Monitoring Panel 3318 Track Meters and Monitoring Controls 3318 Using Post Fader or Track Source Meters 3319 Bus Meters 3319 Meter Plug-in 3320 Compound Meters and Output Bus Selection Menu 3320 Monitoring Menus 3321 Control Room Meters 3321 Loudness Meters 3321 Viewer 3325 Chapter – 160 Audio Meters and Audio Monitoring 3317
The Monitoring Panel Turning on the meters in the UI toolbar displays the Monitoring panel that runs along the top of the Fairlight page, which shows all of the audio meters that correspond to the tracks in the Timeline, as well as the Bus meters that correspond to the Mains, Subs, and Aux buses of your mix, the Control Room meters, and a video viewer.
The peak meter at top Each meter is identified by the track number it represents (track names are not shown over track meters) as well as the color of that track. Using Post Fader or Track Source Meters The Track Meters setting in the General Options of the Project Settings lets you choose how meters in the Fairlight page display their audio analysis. There are two options: Post Fader: Meters always display the level of each clip’s signal after whatever fader adjustments have taken place.
Meter Plug-in There is a Meter plug-in available for temporarily adding a meter to a specific track, Sub, Aux, or Main. These are sample peak processing meters that are useful for instances where you want a large meter that focuses on a specific bus while you’re working. These meters are presented very simply, with a gray bar indicating level and a red peak line that holds for two seconds, which indicates the highest peak. A numeric reading at the top of the meter gives the exact level, in dB.
Monitoring Menus The monitoring menus determine which bus gets analyzed by the compound meters. When the compound meters are displayed, the Monitoring drop-down menu that otherwise appears to the left of the monitoring controls in the Transport toolbar instead moves to a position underneath the Loudness meters. This drop-down menu lets you choose which bus you want to monitor as you work. You can choose one of your mains, or you can choose a Sub or an Aux that you want to focus on for more detailed work.
What Is LU? A value of 1 LU (loudness unit) represents the smallest difference in audio levels that humans can actually perceive. Human hearing naturally sums all channels that reach the ear, so the summed channel meter to the right in the compound meters is an analysis of the loudness you actually hear. Loudness Meter Options Two options in the General Options of the Project Settings let you customize the Loudness meters.
Graphical Loudness Meters Two separate meters give you a dynamic graphical measurement of the loudness of the selected bus being monitored according to the loudness standard you’ve selected, which determines how to analyze the subjective loudness of a given audio mix for purposes of compliance with required quality control (QC) standards.
Visualizing Loudness Monitoring When you show the track of a Main bus in the Timeline, as long as the track is high enough (ahem, tall enough), you can show or hide a series of “Loudness History” curves to visualize the loudness analysis of the mix on that bus over the duration of the mix. The available curves are: Integrated: A thick curve shows the averaged “integrated” loudness analysis of the current mix, which is a measurement that’s taken from the beginning to the end of playback.
Viewer A small viewer to the left of the Monitoring panel shows the frame of video at the position of the playhead. This is the same image that’s output to the external broadcast display of your workstation if you have one connected. The Viewer lets you see the picture you’re mixing to Clicking the Expand Viewer button at the bottom right-hand corner lets you open the Viewer into a floating window, which you can then position anywhere you want.
Chapter 161 Signal Flow Diagrams The diagrams in this chapter describe the audio signal flow that takes place within the Fairlight audio processing used by DaVinci Resolve. They’re intended for people who want an in-depth understanding of how audio is processed.
Contents Signal Flow Overview 3328 Audio Processing Path 3329 Chapter – 161 Signal Flow Diagrams 3327
MULTI TRACK AUX SUB 2 24 24 24 Stereo Mono MAIN SOLO Signal Flow Overview 8 24 24 24 Bus Number Max Format AUX SENDS SOLO MAIN BUS 1–8 AUX INTERCHANGEABLE ORDER BETWEEN EQ, DYNAMICS AND INSERTS BUS OUTPUT DIRECT DISK DYNAMICS EQ INSERTS AND PLUGINS CHANNEL FADER, PAN AND MUTE SOLO SUB BUS 1–24 CHANNEL INPUT MAINS BUS OUTPUT DIRECT SUBS METER MULTI TRACK BUS ASSIGGNMENT – SUB TO MAIN SOLO SOLO AUX BUS 1–24 SIDE CHAIN INPUT BUS OUTPUT DIRECT DIRECT BUS ASSIGGNMENT – A
MULTI TRACK AUX SUB 2 24 24 24 Stereo Mono MAIN SOLO Audio Processing Path 8 24 24 24 Bus Number Max Format Aux Sends may be taken pre or post fade, pre or post mute, and pre or post pan, in any combination.
Chapter 162 Using the Fairlight Audio Editor The Fairlight Audio Editor lets you quickly navigate large projects and precisely edit audio much faster than using a regular mouse and keyboard. Using the Audio Editor to control the Fairlight page provides fingertip access to nearly every Audio tool, function and workflow you’ll need to create incredible soundtracks within DaVinci Resolve.
Contents About the Fairlight Audio Editor 3332 Audio Editor Functional Overview 3333 Types of Controls 3333 Audio Editing Modes 3334 Transport, Modifier, and Escape Keys 3335 Latch, Long, and Momentary Key Press Functions 3337 Track Selection Keys 3339 Moving Track Selection with the Jog Wheel 3342 Switching Pages 3342 Fairlight Audio Editor 3343 Monitor Section 3343 Numeric Keypad 3346 Jog Wheel with Fixed Keys and Soft Menu Picture Keys 3349 Self-Labeling Picture Keyboard 3357
About the Fairlight Audio Editor Fairlight Audio Editor panels are designed to meet modern audio post production workflow demands while providing ease of use so that audio professionals can quickly and precisely execute both simple and demanding audio editing tasks. These dedicated Fairlight editing control panels are available in either desktop or console models.
playback and Jog response keys. To the left of the jog wheel and control buttons is the fullsized QWERTY keyboard with multi-functional self-labeling picture keys for nearly every audio action, tool, function, or workflow. Located directly above the keyboard is the built-in Editor screen which offers an interactive graphical display of the signal processing parameters for the selected track or master bus.
the knob’s current parameter to its default value. For example, if the Audio Editor is in Monitor mode, holding the Control key while touching the knob controlling Fixed Level resets the parameter to 0 dB. Fixed Keys: These keys are located along the top and right side of the Audio Editor. Unlike the multi-functional soft menu buttons and picture keys, the fixed keys have printed labels based on their designated purpose.
Mix: Transforms the Fairlight Audio Editor into a robust mixing tool with full control of Fairlight page Mixer functions like track EQ, Dynamics and Pan settings, copy and paste settings between tracks, as well as utilizing the full automation recording and editing toolset.
Escape Modifier Keys Transport Keys Escape key Modifier keys: Shift, Control, Command, and ALT Transport keys: Rewind, Fast Forward, Play, Stop, and Record Transport keys with Control modifier engaged to reveal Project Start and Project End keys NOTE: If your Audio Editor is connected to a Fairlight console, the Control key on the Editor works in tandem with the Control buttons on the Fairlight Console Channel Control panel and Channel Fader panels to access secondary functions, parameters and contro
Latch, Long, and Momentary Key Press Functions Unlike standard keyboard and numeric keypad keys, which deliver the same result whether the keys are typed or held down, many Fairlight Audio Editor keys have multiple operational states which elicit different results depending on how you press or hold the key. The three types of key presses are: Latch: Quickly pressing and releasing a key, just as you would with normal typing, is referred to as latching and results in toggling on or off that key’s function.
Editor screen displaying EQ processing controls assigned to adjacent soft buttons and knobs DaVinci Resolve Fairlight interface displaying EQ window that can be opened and closed with a long-press on the EQ key NOTE: Once you open a signal processing window using a long-press, the GUI window will automatically change to follow the current latched signal processing displayed in the Editor Screen and vice versa.
For example, you could be monitoring playback levels and recording automation data in Mix mode when you decide to reset the Loudness meters to check the section that is coming up. The Loudness Reset controls are accessed via the Monitor mode Editor Screen controls. To get to them, momentarily hold the Monitor mode button with your left hand to reveal the Monitor mode picture keys and Editor screen controls.
CONTROL ROOM STUDIO CONTROL ROOM MACRO 1 MACRO 2 MACRO 3 MACRO 4 MACRO 5 MACRO 6 MACRO 7 MACRO 8 MACRO 9 MACRO 10 MACRO 11 MACRO 12 MACRO 13 MACRO 14 MACRO 15 ESC Track Selection Keys Audio 1 R S M STUDIO DIM MUTE TALK MUTE 7 8 9 CLEAR 4 5 6 BAR 1 2 3 : + 0 – GO TO BLUE Audio 2 R S M Audio 3 R S M Audio 4 R S M Audio 5 R Audio 6 S M R NUDGE REC MIXER Audio 8 R IN SPLIT R S M Audio 10 R CUT FADE OUT COPY Audio 12 S M R EQ All Tracks
Master buses showing in the Track Selection keys with Main 1 active and the main named 5.1 muted. NOTE: Pressing a Track Selection key is the same as clicking a track header or channel strip in the Fairlight page Mixer with your mouse. Pressing a Track Selection key does all of the following simultaneously: Latches or unlatches that Track Selection key with visual feedback accordingly. Selects or deselects that track in the Fairlight page Timeline and Mixer.
Page Up ( ): Pages up to display the previous 12 tracks in the top row of Track Selection keys, or the previous 48 tracks when the picture keyboard is set to display 48 Track Selection keys. Holding Ctrl- changes the Page Up key to a Bank button for loading a user-defined bank of tracks. Page Down ( ): Pages down to display the next 12 tracks in the top row of Track Selection keys, or the next 48 tracks when the picture keyboard is set to display 48 Track Selection keys.
Menu key next to Modifier keys in lower-left of keyboard; momentary-press on Menu key reveals QWERTY and DaVinci Resolve Page keys NOTE: The Fairlight Audio Editor is designed to work with the Fairlight page. If you switch to a different page in DaVinci Resolve, you’ll need to use your computer keyboard and mouse for any operations in the user interface.
Control Room monitoring controls include: Control Room knob: this can be used to quickly dial the level of the speakers selected in the control room. You can select alternate control room speaker sets in the Monitor mode toolset. DIM: This button reduces the Control Room monitor volume by a user-defined amount. Press to toggle Dim on or off. You can set the Dim level on the Editor screen in Monitor mode. MUTE: Use this button to mute or unmute the Control Room monitors.
User-defined Fixed Control Room and Dim levels Sometimes the monitoring environment must be set to a standard level and not changed. This is called Fixed Level monitoring. For example, if your control room has been calibrated with a sound pressure level (SPL) meter, you will probably want to set a Fixed monitoring level. When fixed, the Control Room knob has no affect on the monitoring levels. You’ll find controls for Fixed Level monitoring on the built-in Editor screen in Monitor mode.
TIP: Setting monitor levels is an example of how different areas of the Fairlight Audio Editor work together to quickly achieve a goal. To further define an example, a user could be in the middle of a session and decide to change the Dim level. Without interrupting the current task, the user could momentarily hold the Monitor mode key with one hand and with the other hand, quickly adjust the Dim Level. When finished, the user only needs to release the Monitor key to resume whatever they were working on.
GoTo: When latched, the numeric keypad is in GoTo entry mode and numbers you enter determine where the playhead will move when you unlatch the GoTo key. Numeric entry can include numbers, timecode, or timecode increments. Positive numbers move forward in the Timeline and negative numbers move back. – Use a momentary press on the GoTo key to jump to one of the three user-definable locator positions in the Timeline.
TIP: Timecode entry appears in the upper-left corner of the Fairlight Timeline on the computer screen. If you wish to change the timecode to display subframes, you can right-click the timecode display and choose the display setting you wish from the drop-down menu. You can also open a floating Timecode window that displays the playhead position (CTI) from the Workspace menu.
Numeric keypad with Locator keys illuminated during momentary hold of the GoTo key Jog Wheel with Fixed Keys and Soft Menu Picture Keys The jog wheel and surrounding Fixed keys offer a complete set of transport commands, designed to let you keep your hand in one position while editing.
Shuttle/Jog Wheel The jog wheel is the most versatile control on the Fairlight Audio Editor, and is designed for ease-of-use with all of the associated keys within reach. As a means of navigation and playback, the wheel has two modes of operation, shuttle and jog, that are initiated by the respective Shuttle Position and Play Jog keys above the wheel.
A long-press on the Loop key displays the Loop Playback Options menu keys: Loop Range: Loops playback around the marked range, from In Point to Out Point in the Timeline. Loop Clip: This operation loops playback around the clip beneath the playhead on the most-recently-selected track. If there is not a clip beneath the playhead on the active track, the next clip in the track is played. If a track is not selected, this key has no affect on playback.
TIP: When the shuttle is set to Fixed Shuttle mode you can temporarily override the fixed setting with a long-press on the Shuttle/Position key after it is latched. Review: This key jumps the playhead back a number of second, then plays. Press this key repeatedly to make multiple jumps. The default review jump back time is four seconds. You can change this setting to any number of seconds by long-pressing the Review button and pressing any button between one and nine on the numeric keypad.
Play/Jog: Use this key to start playback or engage the jog wheel for manual jog control. By default, the first press of the Play/Jog key engages the jog wheel. The second press latches the key in Play mode and starts playback. If the Play/Jog key is latched, unlatching the key re-engages the jog wheel. Once the key has been latched, it toggles between Play and Jog. To disable the jog wheel, press the Stop key.
track for recording, press and hold the Record key, then press the Track Selection key for the track you want to arm. Tracks must be patched to an input before they can be armed for recording. Stop: As you may have guessed, this key stops playback or recording. Up: You can use this key to move the track selection up to the previous track in the Timeline. Down: Use this key to move the track selection down to the next track in the Timeline. Redo: Reverses the effect of the last Undo.
– Hold Control + Zoom to show a secondary set of Zoom menu option keys, including the following: 32 Tracks Vertically scales the Timeline to show 32 tracks, including the active track. 48 Tracks Vertically scales the Timeline tracks to show 48 tracks, including the active track. U1 Scales the Timeline to a user-defined view. U2 Scales the Timeline to a user-defined view. U3 Scales the Timeline to a user-defined view. U4 Scales the Timeline to a user-defined view.
The Review, Shuttle mode, Rewind, and Fast Forward keys can all be customized and used in a variety of ways. To change the Review jump back amount, do the following: 1 Momentary-press the Review key to illuminate the current Review setting in the numeric keypad. 2 Long-press a different number of seconds from 1 to 9 on the numeric keypad until it tallys on to set a new review duration. 3 Release the number and the Review key.
To use a user-defined Zoom view in the Timeline. 1 Momentary-press the Zoom and CTRL keys. 2 In the soft menu picture keys to the left of the jog wheel, press the user view key (U1, U2, U3, or U4) to choose that view. 3 Release the Zoom and CTRL keys. 4 Latch or unlatch track selection keys to add or remove them from the current zoomed view. Self-Labeling Picture Keyboard The picture keyboard offers six different key layouts based on the six Editor modes.
Toolset Group Keys: These are groups of similar operation keys that are placed together within an Editor mode toolset. For example, in Mix mode there is a group of Paste tools for pasting attributes from one track to others, including Paste EQ, Paste Dynamics, Paste Aux, Paste Path, Paste Plug-ins, and Paste All. This toolset group offers the same options that are available in the Paste Attributes sub-menu options in the Edit menu and right-click menu on a Track Header.
As you learn the different Record and Edit mode toolsets, remember that they will change based on the state of the Range key and the type of selection you have at the time of the operation.
Setup mode keys for enhanced features only available in the Fairlight Audio Editor: Video Online/Offline: When toggled On (Online) the playhead is sync locked to the current video timecode in the Timeline. When toggled off (Offline), the playhead moves freely, and can be used to go to another area of the Timeline or Media Pool to add or edit a clip. Toggling this key back On (Online), returns the playhead to the exact position it was prior to going offline.
Fairlight - Video I/O Offset settings in DaVinci Resolve User Preferences that mirror the DL Offset and ADV in Jog picture key functions on the Audio Editor. Talk Setup: This menu key reveals three menu option toggle keys to customize the Editor’s Talkback functionality: – Smart Talk/Push-2-Talk: This key toggles between the default unlatched Smart Talk option and the latched Push-2-Talk option.
To return to the normal layout of the picture keyboard, do the following: 1 Press the white SETUP mode key, if necessary. 2 Press the yellow UTILS (Utilities) key. To reveal the Utilities menu options keys in the row above the UTILS key. The yellow tag in the upper-left corner of the UTILS key indicates it is a menu key. 3 Press the orange ALT LAYOUT menu options key to return to the normal layout in Text Only mode.
Additional enhanced features only available in the Fairlight Audio Editor: Call Follows key: In addition to selecting a track, there are other criteria for making a track active and “calling” its information into the Editor screen and corresponding Channel Control bay if you are on a Fairlight Audio Editor connected to a Fairlight console. These Call Follows menu options depend on the physical buttons, touch‑sensitive knobs, and faders on the Fairlight console.
3 Move the playhead to another location in the Timeline where there is a door closing sound effect that you’d like to copy. 4 Select the track with the clip you want to copy, and move the playhead over the frame that you want to sync with the door closing frame. 5 In Edit mode, press the Copy Clip key. 6 Latch the Video Online/Offline key so that it is Online.
Record Mode Manual Recording special toolset keys include: Record Here: Playhead goes back the pre-roll duration, then punches into Record at the location where you issued the command. This can be useful when you zoom in to find the exact timecode position where you want to punch in to record, then simply issue this command by pressing the Record Here key and the system does everything for you.
Alt Source: Use this key to toggle between the Main system bus and the most recently selected Alternative source. The standard monitoring source is the Main system bus. However, you can choose many other sources, including other system buses or external sources, such as a CD player. The system remembers the last non-standard source that you chose as the Alternative source. Mono Comp: If your current speaker set is not mono, you can press this button to monitor playback in mono.
Macro Mode action keys: Delete: Press and hold this key and press a Macro key to delete the macro. Rename: Press and hold this key and press a Macro key to open the User Macros dialog and rename the macro. Record: Press and hold this key and press a numbered Macro key to record. Press Control and the Menu key to stop recording. The Menu modifier key changes to Menu (rec) when recording a macro and Stop Recording when you press the Control modifier key while recording a macro.
Example of recording a simple macro to move a clip from one track to the track below: 1 Prepare the Editor for recording the first macro. In this case, press the Edit mode key and latch the A1 track selection key to select that track. Move the playhead over the first clip in the track. 2 Momentary press the Macros key with the left hand. Do not release the Macros mode key. 3 In the Macros toolset, press the Record key and the Macro 1 key, to initiate recording of the Macros 1 key. Release both keys.
Named Macro 1 in the Macros Mode keys TIP: If you are going to name your macros, it’s a good idea to give them a brief but literal name to help you remember the macro’s function. In the above example, the macro was named A1 to A2 because it was designed to move a clip from the A1 track to the A2 track.
Mix Mode keys with Mix On latched; the automation toolset showing and Copy/Paste unlatched The Mix Mode automation keys are organized and grouped as action keys, toggles and menus with related submenu keys with the same tools and menu choices that you’ll find on the Fairlight page and Fairlight menu in DaVinci Resolve. Mix Mode toolset toggles, groups, and menu keys: Copy/Paste: This key automatically toggles on when automation is turned off.
Edit Mode Toolset If you’re read the previous Fairlight chapters, you’re already familiar with the Audio Editing tools and menu options. The Edit mode toolset includes over twenty specialized picture keys for adding, moving, editing, and trimming clips in the Timeline. The keys represent all of the audio editing options available in the Fairlight page via the Edit and Trim menus as well as a handful of tools that are only available in the Audio Editor.
Trim: Trim Head, Trim Tail uses the playhead’s position to remove the current clip’s head or tail. You can also press and hold Trim Head or Trim Tail while using the jog wheel to extend either the head or tail of the current clip. While doing this, you see the full waveform the clip you’re trimming as you turn the jog wheel, but when you release the Trim Head or Trim Tail button, the Head or Tail of the selected clip appears trimmed at the current frame at the playhead.
Slip: Slip Head, Slip Clip, and Slip Tail keys are located on the same keys as Copy Head, Copy Clip, and Copy Tail. That way you can seamlessly copy, move, and paste material to a new location, then hold the Control key while pressing the respective Slip key, and turn the jog wheel to refine the Head, Clip position or Tail based on the jog movement of the playhead.
Fill: Fills the current range on a track from end to end with the clipboard clip. Without the need to cut, copy and paste, Fill automatically duplicates the clipboard clip, with a slight overlap and fade to stitch together background noise or room tone within the marked range. B/F Fill: Back/Front Fill works exactly the same as Fill, except that it reverses the audio in every second copy of the clipboard used for filling.
Alternate Record toolset Alternate Monitor toolset with Phase, Main/Near Speaker selection, and Alt Source keys available near the jog wheel Alternate Mixer toolset with Mix On unlatched, Copy/Paste latched, and Copy/Paste keys available near the jog wheel Chapter – 162 Using the Fairlight Audio Editor 3375
Alternate Mixer toolset with Mix On latched and Mix automation keys available near the jog wheel Alternate Editor toolset with Copy latched and Copy action keys available near the jog wheel TIP: One way to get to know your way around the Audio Editor keyboard is to start with knowing how to perform a task in the Fairlight page using a mouse and standard keyboard. Then, consider which Editor mode category the task belongs to, and find the associated keys from there.
Editor Screen with Soft Controls The Editor screen, located above the picture keyboard, displays all signal processing and mixing information related to the most-recently-selected (active) track or master bus. It also displays labels and visual feedback for the soft keys and knobs that surround the screen. Additionally, the ALT key below the screen extends its functionality with an alternative set of parameters when necessary.
Standard Mixing layout used in all Editor modes, except Monitor, or when the Aux controls are showing. At a glance you can see that the Pan controls are active based on the illuminated soft button in the bottom row with the bright red line over the Pan label adjacent to the latched button. Plug-In layout used to control first plug-in on the selected track and is available in all Editor modes. except Monitor mode and when Aux controls are showing.
Monitoring mode layout with visual feedback for Dim and Fixed levels, Control Room, Loudness, and Studio meters, as well as a graphical representation of the speaker configuration and listening environment. Visual Feedback between Soft Controls and the Editor Screen The Editor screen offers highly visual feedback that is easy to follow and corresponds with the identical controls in the Fairlight page, as well as the visual feedback on the Channel bay if you are working with a Fairlight Console.
Visual cues, like the red line over the illuminated soft button below the screen and the darkened parameter control next to the active knob on the left of the screen, indicate which EQ parameters are currently assigned to the control knobs, as well as which touch-sensitive knob is in use Macro Quick Keys The top row of the Fairlight Audio Editor is dedicated to the Macros quick keys. Here you’ll find Macro quick keys for triggering each of the first 14 programmed macros.
Chapter 163 Fairlight Consoles The Fairlight consoles make it easier to perform audio editing, recording, and mixing tasks by providing professional audio controls for nearly every function and feature in the DaVinci Resolve Fairlight page. Additionally, using a Fairlight console to control the Fairlight page is vastly more efficient and ergonomic than working with a traditional mouse and keyboard.
Contents About the Fairlight Console Components 3383 Fairlight Console Audio Editor 3386 Channel Control Modes 3387 Fairlight Console Channel Control 3389 Channel Control Buttons and Channel Control Knobs 3395 In-Line Channel Extension Buttons 3397 Fairlight Console Channel Fader 3398 LCD Fader Channel Display 3398 Rotary Knob 3399 Fader Channel Control Buttons 3399 Touch-Sensitive Faders 3400 Fader Bank Display Buttons 3400 Fairlight LCD Monitors 3407 Fairlight Console Configuratio
About the Fairlight Console Components Fairlight consoles are a modular design that let you build your console to suit your production requirements. Within each console, four different Fairlight console components work together as Fairlight page control panels in a stand-alone chassis. These modular console components are either channel bay panels or audio-editing bay panels, and are paired with an adjoining Fairlight LCD Monitor component.
This chapter provides details and functions descriptions of each console component and should be read in conjunction with the previous Fairlight chapters to get the best from your console. Standard Fairlight Console 5-bay For professional sound editors working on tight deadlines, the Fairlight Audio Editor, gives you quick access controls for high speed, precision audio editing. This dedicated Fairlight editing control panel is available in either desktop or console models.
Fairlight Console LCD Monitor displaying the Master mode Fairlight Console LCD Monitor displaying the DaVinci Resolve UI The Fairlight Console Channel Control is a multi-functional panel that works in conjunction with the Fairlight Console Channel Fader and LCD Monitor to provide 12 groups of touch-sensitive control knobs, buttons, and visual feedback for each of the 12 fader channels. These controls offer instant access to the parameters available in the DaVinci Resolve Fairlight page Mixer.
For precision recording, mixing, and mastering, the Fairlight Console Channel Fader module offers 12 touch-sensitive motorized faders and Pan knobs with corresponding Fader Channel Control buttons, automation controls, and bank buttons for mapping tracks and buses to the 12 faders.
Although the three channel bay components are separate modules, they work together in tandem as a single multifaceted unit to display and control various channel parameters. The Channel Fader panel offers traditional channel mixing controls, while the multi functional Channel Control panel focuses on controlling specific parameters as needed as well as how they are displayed on the Channel LCD monitor.
Channel: Use Channel mode to control up to 192 parameters on one channel. In channel mode, the12 groups of controls on the channel control module are used collectively to adjust parameters for a specific channel from left to right as displayed on the LCD Monitor.
Fairlight Console Channel Control The secret to managing high track counts for large projects is the Fairlight Console Channel Control, because it provides instant knob-per-function access to channel parameters along with real-time high resolution visual feedback on-screen. The Fairlight Console Channel Control module fits directly below the LCD monitor so that you can always see the graphical representation of each parameter as it is modified with the adjacent channel controls.
The default color for all display buttons is yellow, except for the Control button, which is always blue. When the Control button is pressed, inactive display buttons with secondary functions turn blue or purple. Active display buttons remain in their active state color until another display button is selected. For example, if a secondary function is selected, that display button remains purple as long as it is active, while the other display buttons return to yellow when the Control button is released.
Right side of panel, In-Line Channel display buttons from top to bottom: CTL: Use this button to select the secondary functions for the dual-function display buttons below. Also, holding the Control button while touching one of the knobs or faders will reset any of the touch-sensitive controls to their default values. This is one of three identical Control buttons on the channel control components set, and it works the same as pressing the Control modifier key on a computer keyboard.
The left-side Channel Display buttons without modifiers and with Control button pressed to show secondary functions NOTE: Non-functioning Channel Display buttons, such as PLUG and ENAB, remain unlit. These buttons will be operational in future software updates.
The right-side In-Line Channel Display buttons with Pan/Path button pressed and corresponding Pan controls in the Channel Control LCD The right-side In-Line Channel Display buttons with ALT + Pan/Path button pressed and corresponding ALT-Pan controls in the Channel Controls LCD Chapter – 163 Fairlight Consoles 3393
Path Settings window in the Fairlight page interface, available in the Mixer, Input drop-down menu The right-side In-Line Channel Display buttons with CTRL + Pan/Path button pressed and corresponding Path controls in the Channel Controls LCD The right-side In-Line Channel Display buttons with ALT + CTRL + Pan/Path button pressed and corresponding ALT-Path controls in the Channel Controls LCD Chapter – 163 Fairlight Consoles 3394
Channel Control Buttons and Channel Control Knobs Spanning the middle of the Channel Control panel, you’ll find 12 parallel groups of multi functional channel controls that align with the 12 faders on the Channel Fader panel. Within each of the 12 groups are four highly visible LED buttons and four touch-sensitive rotary knobs. If you touch knobs with Control held this will reset the value, and if you turn a knob with Shift held you will have fine control for the parameter.
In-line Pan display mode showing one green In/Out toggle switch and four dial controls for each channel. Additionally, Channel Control buttons brighten to show that they have been pressed, or remain unlit and therefore without color when there is no corresponding parameter with a switch in the current channel display mode. Channel display mode showing alternating colored buttons to separate parameter groups and unlit buttons where there are no matching on-screen parameters.
In-Line Channel Extension Buttons Along the bottom of the Channel Control panel are 12 groups of six In-Line Channel Control Extension buttons that match the buttons at the bottom of the Channel LCD Monitor. These dedicated LED buttons are toggle switches for channel-specific controls like Select, Solo Safe, and Arm.
Fairlight Console Channel Fader In addition to 12 Channel strips complete with designated control buttons, touch-sensitive faders, and pan knobs, the Fairlight Console Channel Fader panel includes an LCD display of channel information and eight display buttons for bank selection and mapping of up to 144 tracks and buses to the 12 faders.
Rotary Knob Below the LCD display on each channel strip you’ll find the touch-sensitive rotary knob designated as the panoramic potentiometer, or pan pot for short. This versatile dial control is assigned to Left-Right track panning by default, but may also be assigned to other parameters. Press the Control button while you press and release the 2/FDR button to use the rotary knob to control the last-used alternate parameter.
the Fairlight page Timeline and Mixer, which enables additional editing options. Using the Call button while tracks are selected does not change the state of the selected tracks. Call buttons are also used for manually mapping banks of channel faders and spilling the member tracks of a master bus to nearby faders. Call buttons tally on or off when pressed and change color based on the current task as follows: – Yellow Call buttons: The default color and indicate standard call functionality.
Fader Bank Display Buttons from top to bottom: CTL: This button selects secondary functions for the seven display buttons below and works the same as the Control key on the computer keyboard or the two identical Control display buttons on the Channel Control panel. BANK/FLIP: You can use the Bank button to switch between the primary fader set for each of the numbered bank buttons labeled 1 to 6, or the additional fader set for the same numbered buttons to show banks 7 to 12.
Manually mapping faders to banks: 1 In the Fader Bank Display buttons, press CTRL and the 3/Map key to enter fader mapping mode. You’ll know that you entered bank mapping mode because all of the Call buttons turn red. The bank mapping is set to Auto mode by default, which automatically maps channels to faders in sequential order in groups of 12 up to 144.
Picture keyboard in Auto Fader Bank mapping mode Auto Fader Bank mapping action keys in the lower left corner of the picture keyboard Example of Fader Bank 1 in Manual Mapping Mode Fader Bank 1 in Manual mapping mode showing the custom mapping: A21, blank, A30, A40, and DIALOG to the first five tracks Chapter – 163 Fairlight Consoles 3403
Fader Bank 1 in Manual mapping mode showing custom mapping: A21, blank, A30, A40, and DIALOG mapped to the first five faders; red Call buttons indicate bank mapping is engaged, with the first fader’s Call button active Manual Fader Bank mapping action keys in the bottom row of the picture keyboard Spilling bus member tracks to nearby faders: 1 In the Fader Bank Display buttons, select a fader bank that contains at least one bus. Buses include main, submix, Aux buses, and VCA groups.
Spill Any/Spill Tracks: When in the default (unlatched) state the Spill: Any menu option allows member tracks of a bus to be spilled to the nearest faders to the left or right, including faders assigned to Master buses and VCA groups. When latched to the Spill: Tracks option, member tracks of a bus spill either left or right starting with the nearest track fader in the designated direction.
Channel LCD displays Sub 2 bus, including A8, A10, A11, and A12, spilled on the nearest tracks to the left of the Sub 2 bus Purple Bank/Flip button indicates there is a spilled bus in the current bank. In this case, Bank 5 is showing, with Sub 2 spilled to the left of the the other buses, and includes A8, A10, A11, and A12 as the member tracks that comprise Sub 2. NOTE: While a bus fader is spilled, you may still use the standard bank display buttons to display any of the other banks normally.
Sub 2 bus with active (tallied) green Call button, which indicates it has been spilled to neighboring faders NOTE: You can only spill bus member tracks to faders within the same fader bank. Use the Fader Spill option keys in the Audio Editor Setup mode toolset to spill either left or right within the current bank of 12 faders. Additionally, if you press the Bank/Flip button on a bank without any bus faders, you will not see any green Call buttons or subsequent bus faders to spill.
Each Fairlight LCD Monitor is paired with either Channel Control modules as a dedicated channel control display, or the Audio Editing module as a dedicated DaVinci Resolve GUI edit screen. Additionally, the switchable HDMI and SDI inputs on the back of each screen allow flexible display of plug-ins and reference video. Fairlight Console 3-bay with three Fairlight LCD monitors forming a display bridge across the top of the console.
Standard Fairlight Console 3-bay. NOTE: For more information about the Fairlight Console Chassis, bundles, and hardware options, go to the Fairlight Console page on the Blackmagic Design website. https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/ Additional Fairlight Hardware To effectively connect to and operate a Fairlight console with DaVinci Resolve Studio, you’ll also need a supported audio interface and PCIe audio card.
Fairlight PCIe Audio Accelerator. Fairlight PCIe MADI Upgrade. Fairlight Audio Interface. NOTE: For more information about the Fairlight PCIe Audio Accelerator, Fairlight Audio Interface and the Fairlight PCIe MADI Upgrade, go to the Fairlight Console page on the Blackmagic Design website. www.blackmagicdesign.
PART 13 Deliver
Chapter 164 Delivery Effects Processing This chapter discusses how different video effects will be handled when you use the controls of the Deliver page.
Contents Delivery Effects Processing 3414 When Rendering a Single Clip or When Outputting to Tape 3414 When Rendering Individual Source Clips for Round-Trip Workflows 3414 More About Rendering Speed Effects 3415 Determining the Rendered Output Resolution of Clips in Mixed Timelines 3415 Rendering Edit and Input Sizing Adjustments 3415 Rendering Mixed Frame Rate Timelines 3416 Export Alpha Channels 3417 Chapter – 164 Delivery Effects Processing 3413
Delivery Effects Processing For your final output, how effects are rendered depends on whether you’re rendering in Single Clip or Individual Clips mode. When Rendering a Single Clip or When Outputting to Tape Whether you’re rendering a QuickTime or MXF master of your project as a single clip, rendering a DPX image sequence for film output, or outputting directly to tape, all supported compositing, speed, and transform effects are rendered by DaVinci Resolve and “baked” into the output media.
After you’ve reimported your project back into your NLE or finishing application, you’re free to readjust these effects while completing your program, without the need to re-render individual clips in DaVinci Resolve. IMPORTANT One exception to the preservation of media and effects in round-trip workflows is that nested sequences from Final Cut Pro 7 and Media Composer are not compatible with DaVinci Resolve; XML and AAF files containing nested sequences cannot be imported.
If “Disable sizing and blanking output” is turned off: Output Blanking, Cut and Edit page sizing adjustments, Color page Input and Output Sizing adjustments, and Image Stabilization are rendered into the final rendered media using the optical-quality sizing algorithms available to DaVinci Resolve. This is best if your sizing adjustments are approved and final, and you want to “bake” sizing adjustments into the final media you’re delivering.
Export Alpha Channels This option only appears if you’re rendering to a media format that supports alpha channels. If your media contains an Alpha Channel, you have the option to turn on the Export Alpha checkbox in the Video panel of the render settings whenever you render individual source clips.
Chapter 165 Using the Deliver Page Once you’ve finished grading your project, you need to either render it, or output it to tape to deliver it to your client. This is where the Quick Export window and Deliver page comes in. This chapter describes how to use Quick Export, how to use the overall interface of the Deliver page, and provides some general information about how effects are output from DaVinci Resolve in different situations.
Contents Using Quick Export 3420 The Deliver Page 3421 The Interface Toolbar 3421 Rendering Files vs.
Using Quick Export Not every situation requires a complicated delivery setup. When you just need to quickly export a project, and the full power of the Deliver page is unneeded, you can choose File > Quick Export to use one of a variety of export presets to export your program from any page of DaVinci Resolve. You can even use Quick Export to export and upload your program to one of the supported video sharing services, including YouTube, Vimeo, and Frame.io.
The Deliver Page The Deliver page is divided into five areas of functionality, each of which lets you set up a different part of a render or output to tape. Deliver page The Interface Toolbar At the very top of the Deliver page is a toolbar with buttons that let you show and hide different parts of the user interface.
Rendering Files vs. Outputting to Tape Because the Deliver page does double duty, you control whether you’re rendering files or outputting to tape using the Tape button in the Interface toolbar. Doing so replaces the controls in the Viewer with tape controls. Render or Edit to Tape modes The Render Settings The Render Settings contains the customizable settings that determine how media is rendered out of DaVinci Resolve. If you’re using the Tape option, these settings are disabled.
For more information on all of these settings, see Chapter 166, “Rendering Media.” The Deliver Page Timeline You’ll use the Timeline in the Deliver page to define the range of clips you want to render or output to tape, and to choose which versions for each clip you want to output.
An orange line under the Clips button shows that filtering is enabled The Viewer When rendering file-based media, the Viewer shows you exactly how the media being output will look using the current settings, and the transport controls move the playhead throughout the current Timeline. Deliver page Viewer When outputting to tape, the Viewer shows you the tape output so you can set up insert or assembly edit points, and the transport controls move the tape in the deck if device control is enabled.
The Render Queue The Render Queue is a list of all the jobs you’ve queued up for delivery. Each job can have an individualized range of clips and render settings, which you can use to render multiple sections or clips of a timeline, the same timeline output to multiple formats, or multiple timelines.
Chapter 166 Rendering Media This section describes the options that are available for file-based delivery. The workflow is simple; you define the format and other settings that dictate how the media is to be rendered, define a range of clips in the currently selected session, and then add a job containing these settings to the Render Queue.
Contents Using Presets for Fast Rendering 3428 Custom 3428 YouTube and Vimeo Presets 3428 ProRes Master 3430 H.264 Master 3430 H.265 Master 3430 IMF 3430 Frame.io 3430 Final Cut Pro 7 or X XML 3431 Premiere XML 3432 Avid AAF 3432 Pro Tools 3432 Audio Only 3433 Creating and Using Your Own Presets 3434 Choosing a Location to Render 3434 Single Clip vs.
Using Presets for Fast Rendering The very top of the Render Settings list has a set of presets for many of the most common rendering workflows you’ll need to accomplish. If you want to create your very own settings, then choose custom. Each preset automatically sets up what you need and locks you out of settings that are not necessary for rendering that type of media.
For each service you sign into, a floating window presents the interface in which you’ll need to enter your login name and password to enable integration, followed by whatever two-factor identification and other required steps are necessary. Once entered, DaVinci Resolve will sign in to each of these services automatically when DaVinci Resolve opens. The Internet Accounts panel of the System tab of the DaVinci Resolve Preferences window NOTE: For Frame.
ProRes Master For quickly outputting ProRes Master files of a whole program. When selected, defaults to rendering in single clip mode, with the Format set to QuickTime, the Codec set to Apple ProRes, and the Type set to Apple ProRes 422 HQ. Audio defaults to the Codec being Linear PCM and the Bit Depth being 16. H.264 Master For outputting H.264 files of a whole program. When selected, defaults to rendering in single clip mode, with the Format set to QuickTime, and the Codec set to H.264.
When you choose the Frame.io preset, the Location field turns into a Frame.io field, and the Browse button lets you choose a project and folder path to which to upload the exported result. Choosing a Frame.io account to deliver a program to When you export to Frame.io, the available choices in the Resolution, Format, Video Codec, and Type drop-down menus are limited to those that are most suitable for Frame.io file sharing.
Premiere XML Selects the appropriate settings for projects that were sent from Premiere Pro to DaVinci Resolve using XML. This is meant for situations when you’re rendering media intended for a return trip to Premiere Pro. Renders Individual Clips, the “Codec” setting on macOS defaults to Apple ProRes 422 (HQ), Output Size defaults to the current Timeline Resolution (as set in the Master Settings panel of the Project Settings), and Use Unique Filenames is turned on.
2 You can also choose to include handles using the “Add X frame handles” option in the Advanced Settings of the Video panel to add extra frames to the beginning and end of each exported audio clip. This will provide needed editing flexibility to whomever is refining your audio. 3 The type of audio file that’s exported is determined by your choice of video format in the Video panel: – If you choose the MXF OP-Atom video format, then MXF audio files will be exported.
Creating and Using Your Own Presets If there is a particular group of settings that you find yourself using repeatedly, you can turn it into a custom Easy Setup, for easy recall. To create a new Easy Setup: 1 If you want to start from scratch, make sure to choose Custom from the preset panel to unlock every setting in the Render Settings pane. 2 Choose the particular settings you require in the Video, Audio, and File panels for your new preset.
Single Clip vs. Individual Clips While there are numerous options available in the Render Settings of the Deliver page, there are basically two overarching ways you can render your project, depending on which of the “Render” radio buttons you click in the Output group. Render a single clip or individual clips Single Clip When you select the Single clip option, you’re setting up a render wherein all clips in the session are output together, as a single media file in whatever format you choose.
All Other Render Settings for Output This section covers the different render settings that are available for customizing your output. Depending on which Render Setting mode you chose, some of these may be hidden, but this section covers the full list found in the Advanced panel of controls. If you choose one of the Easy Setups, then some of these settings will be locked, and others will be editable, depending on the requirements of that setup.
– IMF: A native IMF encoding option that lets you export to the SMPTE ST.2067 Interoperable Master Format (IMF) for tapeless deliverables to networks and distributors, with support for encoding of JPEG2000 using a library licensed from Kakadu software. No additional licenses or plug-ins are required to output to IMF.
Export HDR10 Metadata: (Available in Single clip mode if HDR10+ is enabled in Project Settings) Exports HDR10 metadata to the rendered file when you’re doing an HDR workflow. Embed HDR10 Metadata: (Available in Single clip mode if HDR10+ is enabled in Project Settings) Exports HDR10 metadata to the rendered file when you’re doing an HDR workflow. Embeds HDR10 metadata within the exported media of selected formats.
Optional MP4, H.264, H.265, VP9, or HEVC Controls If you choose MP4 as the format, or QuickTime with H.264 or VP9 as the codec, additional options appear, described below. Workstations using NVidia GPUs that offer NVENC will present alternative accelerated options, while other workstations offering QuickSync hardware encoding instead will be able to use that option. Use hardware acceleration if available: DaVinci Resolve supports QuickSync hardware encoding of H.
Optional DCP and IMF Controls If you choose DCP or IMF as the Format, additional options appear, described below. Use interop packaging: (DCP only, located under Type parameter) Lets you create an Interop DCP package, based on an earlier standard of DCP delivery that is not forward compatible with SMPTE DCP packages. Package Type: (IMF) Defaults to App2 Extended (App2e), for encoding JPEG 2000 up to 4K. Bit Depth: (IMF) The bit depth of the encoded IMF video.
Use optimized media: When this checkbox is turned on, DaVinci Resolve will use optimized media, when available, to do the final render, to save time. If your media has been optimized to the same format as the one you’re outputting to (or better), this is convenient. However, if you’ve optimized to a lower quality format than what you’re outputting to, you should turn this checkbox off to force DaVinci Resolve to process all clips using the original media, guaranteeing the best quality available.
Add X frame handles: (When rendering Individual Clips) Lets you specify front and rear handles to be output in frames. This is particularly useful in round trips, when the finishing editor might want additional handles with which to roll edit points or add transitions while fine-tuning the graded edit. Tone Mapping: (Available in Single clip mode if Dolby Vision or HDR10+ is enabled in Project Settings) When set to None, the timeline is output using the current color management settings.
DCP and IMF Composition Settings If you’ve selected either DCP or IMF from the Format, a Composition Settings group appears with the following parameters when you click the disclosure control, which let you populate standard DCP and IMF composition metadata: Composition name: The name of the exported composition. Issuer: The organization providing the composition. Use current date: A checkbox that lets the current date be used as the Issue date automatically.
– WAVE: Generates media in the WAVE format. – MP4: Generates media in the MPEG-4 file format. Codec: Lets you choose between Linear PCM (the default), AAC audio, and IEEE Float (Wave only). AAC audio encoding is only available on macOS. Bit Rate Strategy: (Available for AAC encoding) You can choose among Constant Bit Rate, Average Bit Rate, Variable Bit Rate Constrained, and Variable Bit Rate.
– Use Timeline Name: (When rendering a Single Clip) When this option is selected, the name of the Timeline is used. – Use Source Filename: (When rendering Individual Clips) When this option is selected, the filename of each clip’s corresponding source media file is cloned, and used as the filename of media being output by DaVinci Resolve. This is preferred when you’re generating offline media for use by an editor that you later want to reconform to the originating DaVinci Resolve project.
Start timeline timecode at: (When rendering Single Clip) This option is only available when rendering clips in Single clip order. Specifies the timecode that will be written to the media being output by DaVinci Resolve. For DPX files, timecode is written into the header data, and is simultaneously converted to a frame count that’s inserted into the filename of each frame file, which provides a logical count of the frame numbers.
– Place reels in separate folders: Automatically places all media that’s output using a particular reel name into corresponding folders. – Place clips in separate folders: Automatically places alternate grades of clips into separate folders. – Use version name for folders: Labels each folder with the name of the version when using the Commercial Workflow option. Render speed: A drop-down menu lets you throttle the speed at which media is rendered.
To remove an additional output: Open the additional output panel you want to remove, and click the Delete button at the bottom. How to Avoid Overwriting Clips When Rendering Output Media Three of the options described previously, “Use unique filenames,” “Place clips in separate folders,” and “Use commercial workflow,” are all ways of organizing your rendered media to avoid overwriting rendered clips that happen to share the same file name.
To clear clip filtering: Choose All Clips from the Timeline Filter drop-down to the right of the Clips button in the Interface toolbar. To define a continuous range of clips to render: 1 To define the first clip in the range you want to render, do one of the following: – Right-click a clip thumbnail in the Thumbnail timeline and choose Mark In. – Position the playhead in the Timeline or the Viewer, and press the I key, or right-click the Timeline ruler and choose Mark In.
Using the Render Queue Once you’ve defined the settings necessary to render the type of media you require, and the range of the current session you want to render, you need to add all that information as a job to the Render Queue. You can add as many jobs to the Render Queue as you need, depending on what files you need to output.
To rename a job: Jobs can be given custom names simply by clicking on the default job name (Job 1, Job 2, and so on) and typing a new name of your own. This can be useful for setting up jobs that you may be re-rendering over and over as you work on a project.
2 Change whichever settings you need to. 3 When you’re finished editing the job, click the Update Job button that appears at the bottom of the Render Settings, or you can click Add New Job to create a new job with the changes you’ve made, leaving the previous job untouched. NOTE: If you click the Pencil button again without clicking Update Job, you’ll be prompted to Save, Cancel, or Don’t Save.
In order to use remote rendering, you must adhere to the following three criteria: Both the artist workstation and the remote workstation must have DaVinci Resolve Studio installed. Remote rendering does not work with the free version of DaVinci Resolve. Both the artist workstation and the remote workstation must be using the same Postgres shared database, either on one of the machines, or on a dedicated Remote Database Server.
Clicking the Remote Render button to remotely render a job 5 Click Start Render. The job is sent to the remote workstation you selected and is rendered, while you’re free to continue working on your artist workstation. When You’re Finished Remote Rendering Once you’re done using a particular DaVinci Resolve workstation in Remote Rendering mode and you want to go back to using it as an artist workstation, choose Workspace > Remote Rendering to exit remote rendering and return to the Project Manager.
On a Linux CentOS 6.8 system – Open Terminal. – Change the directory to: cd /home/resolve/Cyclone/ – Run the following command: ./script.start -rr On a Linux CentOS 7.x system – Open Terminal. – Change the directory to: cd /opt/resolve/bin – Run the following command: .
Chapter 167 Delivering DCP and IMF For projects requiring Digital Cinema Package (DCP) or Interoperable Master Format (IMF) mastering for digital cinema or broadcast distribution, DaVinci Resolve allows native DCP and IMF encoding and decoding for the creation and playback of unencrypted DCP and IMF deliverables, or it can be integrated with Fraunhofer’s easyDCP application in order to master fully encrypted DCP files, play them back for testing, and generate Key Delivery Messages (KDMs) for theatrical dis
Contents Native IMF Encoding and Decoding 3458 Native Unencoded DCP Encoding and Decoding 3460 Native DCP Encoding Parameters 3460 Creating DCP/IMF Supplemental Packages 3462 Importing a DCP or IMF Into a Timeline 3462 Editing the Resulting Timeline 3464 Dolby Vision Metadata 3464 Exporting 3465 Photon Validation of IMF Packages 3466 Validating in the Media Pool 3466 Validating on Export 3466 Using and Licensing EasyDCP 3467 Requesting Your Server Certificate Set 3467 Importing You
Native IMF Encoding and Decoding Available in DaVinci Resolve Studio Only The Format drop-down in the Video panel of the Render Settings now has a native IMF option that lets you export to the SMPTE ST.2067 Interoperable Master Format (IMF) for tapeless deliverables to networks and distributors. No additional licenses or plug-ins are required to output to IMF.
Render settings in the Export Video section for the IMF format A separate group of parameters named Composition Settings, underneath the Advanced Settings, lets you add metadata to your IMF package, including: Composition name: The name of the exported composition. Issuer: The organization providing the composition. Use current date: A checkbox that lets the current date be used as the Issue date automatically. Issue date: The date the composition is issued.
Native Unencoded DCP Encoding and Decoding (Available in DaVinci Resolve Studio Only) DaVinci Resolve also has native DCP encoding and decoding support built-in, for unencoded DCP files only. That means that you can output and import (for test playback) unencoded DCP files without needing to purchase a license of EasyDCP.
If you’ve selected DCP from the Format drop-down menu, a Composition Settings group appears with the following parameters when you click the disclosure control, which let you populate standard DCP composition metadata: Composition name: The name of the exported composition. DCPs use specific naming conventions for the composition name that include metadata about the file itself for DCP projectors and playback equipment.
Parameters for adding composition metadata Creating DCP/IMF Supplemental Packages Once created, DaVinci Resolve has the ability to reimport a DCP or IMF so that you can overwrite parts that need to be updated with new media, in order to export a “Supplemental Package,” which is effectively a new version of the program that combines the new overwritten parts of the program with the old version, such that you can deliver just the changes.
2 Create a new project and add the DCP/IMF package you need to modify to the Media Pool. If a dialog appears asking if you want to change your timeline frame rate to match the incoming media, click Change to make your project match the media. 3 Create a timeline from the composition playlist (XML) within the imported DCP or IMF by right clicking the imported package in the media pool and choosing “Create New Timeline Using Composition Playlist” from the contextual menu.
Editing the Resulting Timeline At this point, you can edit the program in the Timeline as necessary. You can overwrite sections of the Timeline with new clips. All modifications will be automatically included into the supplemental package. You can use the Blade tool or Insert Edit command to cut sections of the existing program to which you want to add Fusion effects, audio grading, or color correction.
Exporting You can export a supplemental package by turning on “Supplemental Package” in the the video panel of the Deliver page Render Settings list. Setting an export to be a Supplemental Package The codec type and profile will be automatically selected to match the original version of the DCP/IMF package, and the audio tracks are set to match the Timeline tracks. Please ensure the rest of these audio settings are matched to the original version, since they start out set to the default values.
Photon Validation of IMF Packages Photon is Netflix’s validation software for IMF App2/App2e packages. The option for using Photon validation will only be shown on Resolve Studio with JDK/JRE version 1.8 and above installed, which is available at https://github.com/Netflix/photon. NOTE: Please disable “Use easyDCP decoder” from “Preference” as there can be issues decoding IMF packages without an easyDCP license.
Enabling Photon validation on export Using and Licensing EasyDCP Both DaVinci Resolve and DaVinci Resolve Studio include a demo version of easyDCP. Details of operation and restrictions of the demo version can be found later in this chapter. The fully functional version of easyDCP operates via licensing modules purchased from http://www.easyDCP.com (info@easyDCP.
The Server Certificate Set generated for your DaVinci Resolve will contain files based on your purchased modules and your specific DaVinci Resolve server hardware. The table below shows the modules and the licenses and certificates generated, followed by a brief description of each item.
Switching Between Native DCP and EasyDCP Encoding A checkbox in the Configuration panel of the System Preferences, “Use EasyDCP Encoder,” lets you choose whether to use the native DCP/IMF encoding in DaVinci Resolve, or your licensed EasyDCP software. In either case, all set up happens from within the Deliver page of DaVinci Resolve.
6 There are two DCP package types you can output, determined by the “Use Interop packaging” checkbox: – The standard package conforms to the “Interop” specifications for DCPs, which is turned on by default. With “Use Interop packaging” turned on, however, the frame rate of your output is limited to either 24fps or 48fps, so you need to make sure that your timeline conforms to these frame rates.
Publishing Your Encrypted Digital Cinema Package While you can play your encrypted DCP on the same DaVinci Resolve system that generated it, if you wish to publish the DCP so other players can decode and play you need to generate a KDM to send to the player. The user of the other player, or players, will need to generate a Server Certificate for each of their players and send this to you so when you generate the KDM it will be just for those players. Select the DCP in the Media page Library.
Chapter 168 Delivering to Tape This section covers how to use the Deliver page to output a timeline, either in whole or in part, to a device-controllable VTR connected to a compatible Blackmagic Design video interface. For whichever output interface you use, you need to make sure that the RS-422 interface is connected to that of the VTR, and that device control has been established.
Contents The Tape Output Interface 3474 Gang Timecode to Tape 3474 Insert/Assemble Drop-down Menu 3475 Start Record Button 3475 Setting Up for Tape Output 3476 General Options 3476 Capture and Playout Settings 3476 Capture 3477 Playout Settings 3477 Edit to Tape Queue Option Menu Settings 3478 Tape Output Procedures 3479 Power Mastering 3479 Outputting a Program From the Timeline 3479 Batch Outputting Multiple Clips 3480 Chapter – 168 Delivering to Tape 3473
The Tape Output Interface Tape output is accomplished on the Deliver page, which has to be placed in the Tape mode before you can proceed. To switch to tape output in the Deliver page: Click the Tape button, which is the third button from the left on the Interface toolbar at the top of DaVinci Resolve. The Deliver page updates to reflect the relevant controls for editing to tape.
The Gang Timecode to Tape option Insert/Assemble Drop-down Menu A drop-down menu under the In and Out buttons lets you choose how to edit the selected part of the Timeline to tape. There are two options: Insert: Performs an insert edit to tape, in which selected tape tracks are seamlessly and frame-accurately overwritten without interrupting the timecode or control track. You must be outputting to either a blacked tape, or a prerecorded tape to make an insert edit.
Setting Up for Tape Output Before you perform an edit to tape, the Capture and Playback panel of the Project Settings has a number of options that you should set to match the format and type of tape output you’re doing. General Options The Output LTC checkbox, when turned on, directs DaVinci Resolve to output LTC timecode. Capture and Playout Settings These settings affect both capture and playback when using the Tape Ingest options of the Media page, or the Tape Output options of the Deliver page.
Capture These settings are used when you use the Capture mode in the Media page to capture clips from tape into the Media Pool. Media is captured as DPX image sequences. Capture: Lets you choose whether to capture both Video and Audio, or Video Only. Video Format: The format that scanned film frames are saved as. When capturing from tape, the available options are DPX and QuickTime.
Output LTC: With a Blackmagic Design DeckLink or UltraStudio device using HD-SDI, longitudinal timecode (LTC) is available on track 16 of the HD-SDI video signal, making it easy to use a Mini Converter de-embedder to extract this analog timecode audio signal and feed it directly to a recording device. This is particularly helpful if you have outboard video processing equipment such as a noise reducer or format converter that does not pass through the VITC timecode.
Tape Output Procedures There are a few different ways you can output media to tape, depending on what you need to accomplish, and on how intensive your grades are relative to the processing capabilities of your workstation. Power Mastering Power Mastering allows you to select either a range of clips, or an entire timeline, to be output to tape in real time, without rendering. This can save you from a time-consuming render, and it also saves disk space.
To output a pre-rendered media file to tape: 1 Click the Add Clips button at the bottom of the tape settings, and use the VTR Record dialog to select the media file you rendered in step 1, and click Add Clip(s) to Queue. The media file you selected is added to the Edit to Tape Queue as a Power Mastering job, and will be output in its entirety. 2 Use the transport controls to find the In point on the tape at which you want to start recording, and click the In button.
Chapter 169 Exporting Timelines and Metadata Once you’ve completed editing and grading a program, you may need to export your final graded timeline as EDL, AAF, or XML files in order to send it to another application for further finishing, effects work, or to complete a round trip from an NLE. To send a graded project to another application, you need to render the graded clips first using the controls on the Deliver page to render the Timeline as individual source clips.
Contents Exporting to AAF/XML 3483 More About Exporting to AAF 3484 Exporting an EDL 3484 Exporting a Missing Clips EDL 3485 Exporting Timeline Markers to EDL 3485 Exporting to CDL 3486 Exporting the Edit Index as a CSV or TXT File 3487 Exporting to ALE 3487 Exporting to ALE with CDL 3489 Exporting Timeline Markers to EDL 3490 Exporting and Importing Media Pool Metadata 3490 Chapter – 169 Exporting Timelines and Metadata 3482
Exporting to AAF/XML Whether you’ve edited your project from scratch inside of DaVinci Resolve, or you’re doing a round trip with an application that uses AAF, Final Cut Pro 7 XML, or Final Cut X XML project exchange formats, you can export any DaVinci Resolve timeline in the Edit page to any project format DaVinci Resolve supports.
More About Exporting to AAF When you export to AAF, there are actually two options that are available to you, depending on whether you made editorial changes to the Timeline in the Edit page: If you didn’t make any editing changes to the Timeline you imported: You can choose File > Export AAF, XML, and choose “AAF Files” from the Format drop-down menu.
Exporting a Missing Clips EDL This command lets you export a quick report listing all clips that are offline in the currently selected track of the Timeline in the Edit page. This report is in EDL format, with one event for each clip that’s offline, which describes the reel number and source timecode of the missing media, as well as the record timecode of the missing media’s position on the Timeline.
Exporting to CDL DaVinci Resolve can export and import basic grading data to and from other applications via a Color Decision List (CDL). CDLs are an industry-standard file format originally developed by the American Society of Cinematographers’ technology committee. DaVinci Resolve supports the 1.2 CDL standard that defines the slope, offset, and power for each of the red, green, and blue channels, as well as the overall saturation of each clip in a program.
Exporting the Edit Index as a CSV or TXT File You can export the current contents of the Edit Index, in the Edit page, as a self-contained file to use for reference in a variety of ways. To export the Edit Index: 1 Open the Edit Index, and choose one of the Edit Index filters from the Edit Index option menu, if necessary. For example, you could filter the edit index by Offline Clips Only if you wanted to export a list of all offline clips in the current timeline.
If you’re exporting ALE files from projects using ARRIRAW clips, the following additional columns of metadata can be included: – Temperature – Tint To export an ALE file: 1 Open the Edit page, right-click the Timeline you want to export in the Media Pool, and choose Timelines > Export > ALE from the contextual menu. 2 Enter a name for the ALE file, choose a location to save it to, and click OK.
To export an ALE file: 1 Open the Edit page, right-click the Timeline you want to export in the Media Pool, and choose Timelines > Export > ALE from the contextual menu. 2 Enter a name for the ALE, choose a location to save it to, and click OK. Exporting to ALE with CDL Avid Media Composer and Symphony also support the import of ALE files with additional CDL metadata columns with which to associate SOP (Slope/Offset/Power) and SAT (Saturation) adjustment metadata to each clip that’s logged in the ALE.
Exporting Timeline Markers to EDL This command lets you export a quick report listing the text of all markers that have been added to the Timeline as notes in an EDL. Clip markers are ignored. This report is in EDL format, with one event for each Timeline marker, with a placeholder reel number (001 by default), and source and record timecodes that correspond to each marker’s position in the Timeline (with a duration of one frame). An EDL note for each event lists the Marker note, if there is one.
To import Media Pool metadata: 1 Open a project containing clips you want to populate with imported metadata. 2 Optionally, select which clips in the Media Pool you want to import metadata to. 3 Choose File > Import Metadata To > Media Pool to import metadata to potentially every clip in the Media Pool, or choose File > Import Metadata To > Selected Clips to only import metadata to clips you selected in step 2. 4 When the Import Metadata dialog appears, choose a metadata .
PART 14 Advanced Workflows
Chapter 170 Frame.io Integration DaVinci Resolve has sophisticated integration with Frame.io, a video review and collaboration service designed specifically for the postproduction industry. This integration consists of the ability to render and upload directly to Frame.io, maintain sync between Frame.io comments and timeline markers, and import media from Frame.io directly into the Media Pool. Chapter – 170 Frame.
Contents Enabling Frame.io Integration in Preferences 3495 Deliver and Upload to Frame.io 3495 Frame.io Comments Sync with Timeline Markers 3496 Importing Media from Frame.io 3498 Linking Media Pool Clips and Timelines with Frame.io Clips 3498 Chapter – 170 Frame.
Enabling Frame.io Integration in Preferences An Internet Accounts panel in the System tab of the DaVinci Resolve Preferences lets you sign into your Frame.io account and specify a local cache location for media being synced with Frame.io. You’ll need to enter your login name and password to enable Frame.io integration, but once entered, DaVinci Resolve will sign in automatically when DaVinci Resolve opens.
When you choose the Frame.io preset, the Location field turns into an Upload To field, and the Browse button lets you choose a project and folder path to which to upload the exported result. Choosing a Frame.io account to deliver a program to When you export to Frame.io, the available choices in the Resolution, Format, Video Codec, and Type pop-up menus are limited to those that are most suitable for Frame.io file sharing.
Drawings and arrows from Frame.io are converted into their equivalent DaVinci Resolve annotation graphics for visibility in DaVinci Resolve. Comments and graphical annotations from Frame.io appear as markers with their corresponding overlays in your DaVinci Resolve Timeline Working With Frame.io Markers Double-clicking any Frame.io marker in the Timeline opens a dialog that lets you send replies to comments that appear on Frame.io, enabling editors to respond directly to commenters.
Importing Media from Frame.io A Frame.io volume appears in the Media Storage panel of the Media page that lets you access the media available from your Frame.io account. Within this Frame.io volume, a top-level directory represents your account directory, and within that each project you’ve created in Frame.io appears as a sub-directory. Accessing the directories of a Frame.
Chapter 171 Resolve Live The Color page has another mode available to aid you in using DaVinci Resolve in on-set grading workflows. Turning the Resolve Live option on puts DaVinci Resolve into a live grading mode, in which an incoming video signal from a camera can be monitored and graded during a shoot.
Contents More About Resolve Live 3501 Configuring Your System for Resolve Live 3501 Grading Live 3502 Getting Started 3502 Going Live 3502 Using Freeze 3503 Using Snapshot 3503 Using Resolve Live Grades Later 3504 Using LUTs in Resolve Live Workflows 3504 Chapter – 171 Resolve Live 3500
More About Resolve Live Resolve Live has been designed to let you use all of the features of DaVinci Resolve to grade these on-set video previews, in the process saving video snapshots that contain a captured image, your grade, and reference timecode from the camera.
Grading Live Once your camera and computer are appropriately connected and configured, using Resolve Live is straightforward. This section describes the live grading workflow as it was designed to be used. Once you’re familiar with the capabilities of Resolve Live, you may find your own ways of working that are more in tune to the needs of your particular project.
At this point, the video from the connected camera should become visible within the Viewer, the camera timecode should be displayed in the Viewer’s timecode window, and you can begin using all of the capabilities of the Color page to begin grading whatever is onscreen, including Gallery split-screens for matching and comparing. The current color adjustments in all palettes are automatically applied to both the image in the Viewer and the video output to an external display (if there is one).
For example, you may begin the process of building and refining a grade for a particular scene during an unrecorded run-through. Then, once shooting starts, you may take snapshots of each shot’s slate, and then of significant takes that follow, tweaking where necessary and in conjunction with the DP’s feedback once things get going.
Chapter 172 Stereoscopic Workflows DaVinci Resolve has robust support for a wide variety of stereoscopic workflows. Using the built-in tools of the Studio version of DaVinci Resolve, you can edit using stereoscopic clips, grade the resulting program, adjust each clip’s stereo-specific properties such as convergence and floating windows, and master stereoscopic output, all within DaVinci Resolve.
Contents Stereoscopic Workflows 3507 Hardware Requirements for Working in Stereo 3D 3507 Setting Up to Display Stereo 3D via SDI 3507 Setting Up to Display Stereo 3D via HDMI 3508 Supported Stereo 3D Media 3508 Using Dual Sets of Media in Any Supported Format 3508 Using Stereoscopic OpenEXR Media 3509 Using Stereoscopic CineForm Media 3509 Creating Stereo 3D Clips From Separate Files 3510 Step 1—Import and Organize Your Media 3510 Step 2—Generate 3D Stereo Clips 3510 Step 3—(Optional)
Stereoscopic Workflows Creating a stereo 3D project is a multi-step process that benefits from careful media organization. This chapter covers how to set up for working on stereoscopic projects, how to import stereoscopic projects, and how to export stereoscopic media. First, stereoscopic pairs of clips, i.e., the individual left- and right-eye media files, are imported into the Media Pool, organized, and then linked together using the “Stereo 3D Sync” command to create a new set of linked stereo clips.
NOTE: If your stereo display is not capable of multiplexing the two incoming SDI signals by itself, you can accomplish this using an external device to multiplex both SDI signals into a single stereo 3G signal that will be compatible. Check with your display manufacturer in advance to see if this is necessary. The following procedures describe how to set up stereo 3D monitoring in two different ways.
Using Stereoscopic OpenEXR Media DaVinci Resolve is compatible with stereo OpenEXR files to accommodate professional cinema and specialty workflows. Stereo OpenEXR clips include the media for both eyes stored as separate parts so that a single OpenEXR file may output either a single image or stereo 3D images when used with an application that supports it, such as DaVinci Resolve.
Creating Stereo 3D Clips From Separate Files If you’re working with stereo media that was either captured or created as individual left- and right-eye files, then you need to convert each matching pair of clips into the stereo 3D clips that you’ll need to work in DaVinci Resolve. This is a two-step procedure. Step 1—Import and Organize Your Media You need to import all of the left-eye and right-eye media into separate bins.
3 Click the Browse button corresponding to “Choose left eye folder” and then use the hierarchical list of bins that appears to choose the bin you named “Left.” Follow the same procedure to choose the right-eye media. 4 Click the Browse button corresponding to “Output folder” and then use the hierarchical list of bins that appears to choose the bin you named “Stereo Clips.” 5 Choose which matching criteria to use. Ideally, you only need to use whichever one of the three criteria that apply.
To convert stereo clips into mono clips: 1 Select one or more stereo clips in the Media Pool. 2 Right-click one of the selected clips and choose Split Stereo 3D Clips from the contextual menu. Afterwards, two new bins are created named Left and Right, containing the individual left- and right-eye clips that you’ve split apart.
Attaching Mattes to Stereo 3D Clips If you have left- and right-eye mattes that need to be attached to stereo clips, the process works identically to importing mattes for regular clips, except that when you’ve selected a stereo 3D clip in the Media Pool, you have two matte import commands, “Add As Left Eye Matte,” and “Add As Right Eye Matte.” Organizing and Grading Stereo 3D Dailies A common workflow is the creation of digital dailies within DaVinci Resolve before editing in an NLE.
Step 4—Grading Stereo Media Grade the clips in the Timeline as you would any other digital dailies, with the sole addition of using the controls in the Stereo 3D palette to control monitoring and manage the adjustments made to each eye as necessary. As when creating any other kind of dailies, you can use LUTs, the Timeline Grade, and individual clip grading to make whatever adjustments are necessary to create useful media for editing.
Matching Media From Left and Right Eyes To help you manage the visual differences between left- and right-eye clips, there are also three automatic color matching commands that can be used to batch process as many clips as you need to adjust at once. Stereo Color Match (Primary Controls): Uses the Lift/Gamma/Gain controls to match one eye to the other. The result is a simple adjustment that’s easy to customize, but may not work as well as Custom Curves in some instances.
Conforming Projects to Stereo 3D Media Since DaVinci Resolve manages stereo via a single set of specially created stereo 3D clips, you can use the same project import methods to import stereo 3D projects as you would for any other project. Only a single imported timeline is necessary. This also means that you can edit stereo projects in NLEs that aren’t otherwise stereo-aware, and finish them in full stereo 3D in DaVinci Resolve.
Adjusting Clips using the Stereo 3D Palette Once you’ve either created or imported a stereoscopic 3D-identified timeline, you’re ready to begin grading. The left eye will be displayed in the Edit and Color pages by default; however, you can right-click on the Timeline and select Stereo 3D Mode to view the other eye.
You can also choose which eye you’re viewing and grading by right-clicking a clip’s thumbnail and choosing Stereo 3D > Switch Eye or by choosing View > Switch Eye To > Left Eye or Right Eye. Using Ripple Link When Grading Stereo 3D Clips You would turn Ripple Link off to suspend rippling when you want to make an individual adjustment to the grade of one eye to obtain a better match between the two. When you’re finished matching the two clips, you can turn it back on to resume automatic grade rippling.
Linked Zoom button: When enabled (white), both the left- and right-eye clips are automatically zoomed whenever Convergence is adjusted so that both eyes always fill the screen. When disabled (gray), changes to Convergence will cause the opposing left and right edges of each eye’s clip to have blanking intrude. Pitch: Pivots the image around the horizontal center plane of the frame. Yaw: Pivots the image around the vertical center plane of the frame.
Swap Grade: Exchanges the grades that are applied to the left- and right-eye clips. Swap Shot: A checkbox that, when enabled, switches the actual media used by two corresponding left- and right-eye clips. Useful in situations where the eyes of a stereo 3D clip were mislabeled, and you want to switch the clips without rebuilding both EDLs. Copy Right to Left: Copies the right-clip grade to the corresponding left-eye clip.
To align one or more clips automatically: 1 Select one or more stereo clips in the Thumbnail timeline of the Color page. 2 Choose which frame of each clip you want to use for the analysis by opening the Stereo 3D palette, clicking the Option menu, and choosing Auto Process > First or Auto Process > Middle. 3 Click either of the Stereo Alignment buttons. The button to the left is for Automatic Transform, while the button to the right is for Automatic Vertical Skew.
To match an ungraded clip automatically to a paired stereo clip that’s graded: 1 To suspend stereo grade linking temporarily: – Open the Stereo 3D palette, and turn off the Ripple Link button. – Right-click the Thumbnail timeline, and choose Stereo 3D > Ripple Link > Solo. 2 Make a primary adjustment to a clip in the left-eye timeline to create a simple base grade. The left-eye clip now has a grade, and the right-eye clip does not.
Dual 4:2:2 Y’CbCr stereoscopic video streams are output via HD-SDI on selected Blackmagic I/O devices when you turn on the ”Use left and right eye SDI output” checkbox on the Master Settings panel of the Project Settings. You can select either Side-by-Side or Line-by-Line output to be fed to your stereo-capable display, depending on your display’s compatibility. Stereo 3D Output Options Additionally, the Viewer and video scopes can be set to display both “eyes” in one of a variety of different modes.
The Viewer set to display an anaglyph stereo image in color Floating Windows Floating Windows are meant to correct for “Window violations,” where elements of the image with negative parallax, that project forward from the screen plane towards the audience, are cut off by the edge of the frame. In these instances, differences between the images being shown to the left and right eyes can result in a visual paradox that’s difficult for viewers to reconcile.
Animating Floating Windows Floating Windows can be animated using the Float Window keyframing track, found within the Sizing track of the Keyframe Editor, to push the edge of the frame in as needed, and then pull it back out when the partially occluded subject has moved fully into the frame. For more information about animating keyframing tracks, see Chapter 128, “Keyframing in the Color Page.” Floating Windows have the following controls and parameters.
Outputting Stereo 3D Media in the Deliver Page To render full frame media, you’ll need to render each stereo 3D eye separately using the controls of the Deliver page, outputting whatever media format is required by the client. Rendering Frame-Compatible Media Frame-compatible media has both the left- and right-eye images squeezed anamorphically into a single media file.
Chapter 173 Using Variables and Keywords This chapter describes how to use metadata variables and keywords to help you manage your clips.
Contents Using Metadata Variables 3529 Where Variables Can Be Used 3529 How to Edit Metadata Variables 3529 Available Variables in DaVinci Resolve 3530 Using Keywords 3532 Chapter – 173 Using Variables and Keywords 3528
Using Metadata Variables If you’re an enthusiastic user of clip metadata (and you should be), you can use “metadata variables” that you can add into supported text fields that let you reference other metadata for that clip. For example, you could add the combination of variables and text seen in the following screenshot. Variables, once they’ve been entered, are represented as graphical tags shown with a background, while regular text characters that you enter appear before and after these tags.
To add a variable to a text field that supports the use of variables: 1 Type the percentage sign (%) and a scrolling list appears showing all variables that are available. 2 To find a specific variable quickly, start typing that variable’s name and this list automatically filters itself to show only variables that contain the characters you’ve just typed. 3 Choose which variable you want to use using the Up and Down Arrow keys, and press Return to choose that variable to add.
Media Pool Metadata – File name – Reel name – File path – Video Codec – IDT – Input LUT – PAR – Data Level – Description – Comments – Keyword – Shot – Scene – Take – Roll/Card # – Input Color Space – Input Sizing Preset – Start TC – End TC – Optimized Media Timeline and Project Metadata – Group – Timeline Name – Project Name – Track Number – Track Name Legacy Metadata EDL Tape Number: Tape number extracted from imported EDL Render Resolution: Resolution of the rendered file EDL Event Number: DaVinci
Using Keywords While most metadata in the Metadata Editor is edited via text fields, checkboxes, or multiple button selections (such as Flags and Clip Color), the Keyword field is unique in that it uses a graphical “tag” based method of data entry. The purpose of this is to facilitate consistency with keyword spelling by making it easy to reference both a built-in list of standardized keywords, as well as other keywords that you’ve already entered to other clips.
Chapter 174 Creating DCTL LUTs This chapter describes how to create DCTL LUTs to perform your own custom mathematical transformations in DaVinci Resolve.
Contents About DCTL 3535 DCTL Syntax 3535 A Simple DCT LUT Example 3537 A Matrix DCT LUT Example 3537 A More Complex DCT LUT Example 3538 Chapter – 174 Creating DCTL LUTs 3534
About DCTL DCTL files are actually color transformation scripts that DaVinci Resolve sees and applies just like any other LUT. Unlike other LUTs, which are 1D or 3D lookup tables of values that approximate image transformations using interpolation, DCTL files are actually comprised of computer code that directly transforms images using combinations of math functions that you devise. Additionally, DCTL files run natively on the GPU of your workstation, so they can be fast.
float _sqrtf(float) // Square root int _ceil(float // Round to integer toward + infinity int _floor(float) // Round to integer toward - infinity float _fmod(float x, float y) // Modulus.
A Simple DCT LUT Example The following code shows an example of how to create a simple color gain transformation using the DCT LUT syntax. // Example to demonstrate simple color gain transformation __DEVICE__ float3 transform(float p_R, float p_G, float p_B) { const float r = p_R * 1.2f; const float g = p_G * 1.1f; const float b = p_B * 1.2f; return make_float3(r, g, b); } A Matrix DCT LUT Example The following code shows an example of creating a matrix transform using the DCT LUT syntax.
A More Complex DCT LUT Example The following code shows an example of creating a mirror effect, illustrating how you can access pixels spatially.
Chapter 175 TCP Protocol for DaVinci Resolve Transport Control This chapter describes how to create third-party utilities that use Transport Control with DaVinci Resolve.
Contents About the TCP Protocol Version 1.
About the TCP Protocol Version 1.2 This protocol defines the communication standard between third-party applications (“Client”) and DaVinci Resolve (“Server”) using the TCP protocol. Port number 9060 will be used by the server. SSL will not be used in this protocol. Communication takes the form of request-response messages, where the Client initiates a command, and the Server responds appropriately.
TCP Protocol Stream The following commands can be sent over the protocol stream. connect The client initiates the stream by sending a connect command string. There is no payload. The server responds with a status value of 0x00. goto The client sends a goto command string followed by four unsigned chars representing the hour, minute, second, and frame of the timecode. The server responds with an appropriate status byte based on the execution of the command.
{ printf(“\n Socket creation error \n”); return -1; } serv_addr.sin_family = AF_INET; serv_addr.sin_port = htons(PORT); // Convert IPv4 and IPv6 addresses from text to binary form if(inet_pton(AF_INET, “127.0.0.1”, &serv_addr.sin_addr)<=0) { printf(“\nInvalid address/ Address not supported \n”); return -1; } if (connect(sock, (struct sockaddr *)&serv_addr, sizeof(serv_addr)) < 0) { printf(“\nConnection Failed \n”); return -1; } char* connectStr = “connect”; int length = strlen(connectStr); send(sock , &leng
Chapter 176 Immersive Audio Workflows DaVinci Resolve 16 introduced support for additional object and channelbased surround or immersive audio formats. This chapter describes how to set up and mix with these formats when mixing in the Fairlight page.
Contents About Immersive Audio Formats 3546 Immersive Format Configuration 3546 Object-Based Format Support (Studio Only) 3546 Auro-3D Support (Studio Only) 3546 Dolby Atmos Configuration Controls 3547 MPEG-H Authoring 3547 Track Configuration 3548 Export 3548 Quality Control 3549 B-Chain Support for Audio Monitoring (Studio Only) 3550 Overview of Setting Up a B-Chain Configuration 3550 Space View Channel Monitoring 3554 Chapter – 176 Immersive Audio Workflows 3545
About Immersive Audio Formats Immersive audio formats use multiple channels of audio to position audio around an audience, to add a specially creative dimension to sound design. At their simplest, formats such as 5.1 and 7.1 surround allow the mixer to send varying amounts of any given track to the combination of speakers that makes audio sound centered in front, ambient from the rear, or weighted towards the left or right of an auditorium or living room.
Dolby Atmos Configuration Controls The Video and Audio I/O panel of the Resolve System Preferences lets you enable and configure the use of a Dolby RMU for doing Dolby Atmos mixing. You can enter the IP address of the RMU, and choose the base audio output. Configuring Dolby Atmos in the Resolve System Preferences MPEG-H Authoring DaVinci Resolve enables MPEG-H authoring.
Tracks are mixed natively in a similar manner to most immersive content, with the creation of a bed mix consisting of a set of immersive object tracks that use dynamic panning. These are combined onto the main bus to form the immersive mix. Track Configuration In addition to this process, once the format is enabled, a set of MPEG-H meta-data columns become enabled in the DaVinci Resolve Track index, including Track Type, Kind, Language, SW Group, and Preset.
To export an MPEG-H mix: 1 Choose Fairlight > Immersive > Generate MPEG-H Audio File. 2 Choose a save location and name, and click Save. At this point, all defined busses are rendered. Then, track loudness is measured for compliance. Lastly, the source audio is exported and the metadata embedded into the deliverable MPEG-H wav file. There are several error conditions, which are deleted during the export process, that will all cause the export to fail. For example, all tracks must contain audio.
B-Chain Support for Audio Monitoring (Studio Only) Choosing Fairlight > Immersive > B-Chain Control opens the B-Chain Control window. Using traditional cinema audio postproduction terminology, the “A-Chain” is all of the bussing and signal processing that happens within the mix (in our case using the Fairlight page) and the “B-Chain” is the signal processing, amplification and speaker system that takes the sound from your workstation’s output and gets it “into your ears.
5 Choose Input Mode > Fixed Format, and Input > 5.1 from the pop-up menus. These define the signal coming out of your mix. (Input Mode > Monitor Feed sets the B-Chain to listen to the selected monitor source, while Input Mode > Custom Format lets you choose an arbitrary number of channels.) 6 Choose an Output Mode > Fixed Format, and Output > LCR from the next set of pop-up menus. These define the speaker setup you’ll be playing the mix out of.
At this point, we’ve fully defined how much of which Input channels go to which Output channels. In the process, you can see that this table interface makes it possible to assign the full levels of Input channels to Output channels, to assign partial levels of Input channels to Output channels, and to assign fractions of Input channels to multiple Output channels.
NOTE: While the B-Chain is enabled, the Speaker Setup controls in the Video and Audio I/O panel of the Resolve System Preferences is disabled. The B-Chain Control Window where you can choose and enable a B-Chain preset to affect the output To name the various outputs of your system’s channels for easy assignment: 1 Choose Fairlight > Immersive > B-Chain Control to open the B-Chain Control dialog. 2 Click the Option menu in this window and choose Setup I/O Names.
Space View Channel Monitoring Once you’ve configured your DaVinci Resolve workstation to mix audio via an Immersive format, you can use the Space View to facilitate surround sound mixing. Choose Fairlight > Immersive > Space View Scope to open the Space View window, which is a virtual representation of your control room with all defined source channels positioned in space according to the speaker that channel is intended to play out of.
PART 15 Project Databases, Collaborative, and Remote Workflows
Chapter 177 Managing Databases and Project Servers This chapter describes how to set up and use databases in greater detail, giving you more control over how projects are saved and organized, including how to set up project servers you can use to administer DaVinci Resolve projects that are available to multiple DaVinci Resolve workstations on the same network.
Contents Why Use a Project Server? 3558 Multiple Users Sharing Projects 3558 Using Collaborative Workflow 3558 Know Which Version of PostgreSQL You’re Using 3559 Using the DaVinci Resolve Project Server Application 3559 The DaVinci Resolve Project Server Interface 3560 Using the Project Server Application to Manage Databases 3561 Creating New PostgreSQL Databases 3561 Backing Up and Restoring Databases 3561 Upgrading Databases 3562 Reconnecting Databases You Previously Disconnected 3562
Why Use a Project Server? Multiple DaVinci Resolve workstations can access the same project when you set up a Project Server that shares one or more PostgreSQL databases over a local network. Once you’ve set this up, there are two ways of using a shared database. Multiple Users Sharing Projects The simplest case is for users to simply open up a project on the Project Server and work on it.
Know Which Version of PostgreSQL You’re Using Starting with DaVinci Resolve 12.5.4 on macOS, DaVinci Resolve requires PostgreSQL 9.5, which is necessary for compatibility with macOS versions above 10.12 Sierra. All previous versions of DaVinci Resolve on macOS use PostgreSQL 8.4, and you must upgrade PostgreSQL before upgrading to macOS 10.12 Sierra or later. IMPORTANT If you’re upgrading from a previous version of DaVinci Resolve that uses 8.4 to a new version of DaVinci Resolve that uses 9.
The DaVinci Resolve Project Server Interface The DaVinci Resolve Project Server interface greatly resembles the DaVinci Resolve Project Manager with the Databases sidebar open. However, a toolbar at the top exposes all of the database management tools that are available for creating and managing databases, including controls for sharing databases and creating access keys that are essential for quickly and easily creating and connecting to Project Servers.
Optimize Project command directly from the Project Manager window. Simply hover the mouse over your project in the Project Manager, hold down the Option key, and right-click. Then select Optimize Project in the menu. – Backup: You can back up databases just like any other file. This provides added protection should your system drive fail, but a database backup can also be used to move multiple projects between systems (particularly if you’re using PostgreSQL).
To restore a database you’ve backed up previously: 1 Click the Restore button in the toolbar. The Import Database button 2 Find the database you need to import using the file import dialog, and click Open. The database you’ve restored should now appear in the Databases list.
The following procedures describe how to set up a shared Project Server, and how to export an access key with which to easily set up other workstations to connect to it. To set up a workstation as a DaVinci Resolve Project Server: 1 Open the DaVinci Resolve Project Server application, found in the DaVinci Resolve application folder. 2 Select or create a DaVinci Resolve project database you want to share, and click the Enable Sharing button.
Manually Setting Up a Linux Project Server These instructions are only appropriate for systems created with the DaVinci Resolve CentOS 6.x/7.3 build image ISO. The default PostgreSQL install is set up to only allow connections to the database from the local host IP address. Remote systems will not be able to access the database. To change this, you need to modify the “pg_hba.conf” file as detailed below. Open a shell on the desktop and type: su You’ll be prompted for the password.
Chapter 178 Collaborative Workflow Multi-user collaborative workflow has been significantly altered after DaVinci Resolve 14, using “bin locking” to manage who has access to what when multiple collaborators open the same project. However, collaborative workflow also allows multiple artists to do simultaneous editing, compositing, grading, and metadata entry to clips on the same timeline within a single project for which Collaboration has been enabled.
Contents Introduction to Collaborative Workflow 3567 Collaborative Render Cache Support 3567 Collaborative Support for Individual Monitoring 3567 Collaborative Marker, Flag, and Clip Color Support 3567 Read Only Mode 3567 Collaborative Support for HDR 3567 Requirements for Collaboration 3568 Enabling Project Collaboration 3568 Opening Projects to Collaborate 3569 Customizing Your Collaborator Identification 3569 How Collaboration Works 3570 Automatic Bin and Timeline Locking 3571 Man
Introduction to Collaborative Workflow Multi-user collaborative workflow allows simultaneous editing, compositing, grading, and Media Pool clip management by multiple people within a single project that has been enabled for collaboration. Collaboration takes three different forms: Using bin locking, multiple editors can simultaneously edit different timelines in different bins of the same project, while assistant editors can reorganize clips and edit the metadata in other bins within the same project.
Requirements for Collaboration In order to use collaborative workflow: All users must be using the paid Studio version of DaVinci Resolve. All users must be working on a project that’s been saved on a properly configured Remote Database Server.
Opening Projects to Collaborate Projects that have Collaboration enabled appear with a badge below their thumbnail in the Project Manager to let you know that project is available for collaboration. An icon indicates that a project in the Project Manager is available for collaboration At this point, anyone else who has access to this Remote Database Server can simply open this project up and work collaboratively with you.
Opening the Collaboration list shows all the current project members The top member is you, and you can change the name you use by editing the text field. Additionally, you can click the icon to the left and choose a new color for yourself from the icons in the pop-up menu below. All the badges that indicate who has a lock on which folders, timelines, and shots are color-coded, so it’s a good idea for everyone to choose their own custom color so you can tell who’s doing what.
Automatic Bin and Timeline Locking Whenever a collaborator opens a particular bin, that bin and its contents are locked, preventing any other collaborators who open that project from making alterations to anything inside that same bin. This prevents versioning conflicts while work is in progress. When a bin is locked, you can still view its contents, if for instance you just need to figure out where a particular clip has been put, but you can’t make changes.
Managing Bin Locks Manually You can also manually control the locked state of bins, during instances where you want to keep bins locked for future use or prevent them from becoming locked when you only want to browse the contents.
To unlock a timeline to let other collaborators work on it: 1 Right-click that timeline in the Media Pool and choose Timelines > Unlock Timeline from the contextual menu. 2 Your collaborator will then need to right-click the Media Pool bin the timeline is in to be able to edit it. Automatic Clip Locking Clip locking in the Fusion and Color pages works similarly.
Receiving Changes On the Edit Page While compositors are compositing and colorists are grading clips within the same timeline of the same project, each clip that’s adjusted in the Fusion or Color page triggers a Refresh badge to appear in three areas of the Edit page, so the collaborating editor(s) can decide when to update their timeline to see the changes that have been made. At the upper right corner of the Timeline Viewer.
Receiving Changes On the Fusion and Color Pages For collaborators working on the Fusion or Color pages, other badges indicate when editors have made changes to the Timeline, or when other compositing artists or colorists have made changes to other clips in that timeline.
Examples of Collaborators Working Together The first collaborator that opens a timeline is the only person that can make editorial changes to that timeline in the Edit or Fairlight pages. Other collaborators who open that project are “locked out” of making changes to the Edit or Fairlight pages, but they can see the Timeline, and they can make grading changes in the Fusion or Color pages.
Using the Compare With Current Timeline command lets you see the differences between two differently edited versions of the same timeline, and merge a scene’s worth of changes that a collaborator has made (at right) back to the original timeline For more information on comparing timelines, see Chapter 26, “Creating and Working with Timelines.” Editors and Assistant Editors Working Together Collaborators can edit metadata, create new bins, and reorganize clips within unlocked bins only.
Multiple Compositing Artists Working Together To prevent versioning issues, only one compositing artist can work on a particular clip at a particular time in the Fusion page, and the first compositing artist to select a clip puts a lock on that clip. Other collaborators looking at the Thumbnail timeline in the Fusion page will see a small icon that shows it’s locked, letting them know they can’t make any changes to it until whoever is working on that composition moves to another clip.
Multiple Colorists Working Together Only one colorist can work on a particular clip at a particular time, and the first colorist to select a clip puts a lock on that clip. Other collaborators looking at the Thumbnail timeline in the Color page will see a small icon that shows it’s locked, letting them know they can’t make any changes to it until whoever is grading that clip moves to another clip.
Collaboration Chat To facilitate communication among collaborators, DaVinci Resolve has built-in text chat, called Collaboration Chat. Simply click the Collaboration Chat button to open the chat window, and chat away. The Collaboration Chat window for communication among collaborators The Collaboration Chat button at the bottom of the DaVinci Resolve interface highlights whenever someone texts while this window is closed, letting you know you have messages that are waiting.
Chapter 179 Remote Grading This chapter describes how to set up and use two separate DaVinci Resolve systems in different locations via the internet, to have one system remotely control the other for color grading.
Contents Introduction to Remote Grading 3583 Requirements for Remote Grading 3583 Setting Up for Remote Grading 3584 Remote Grading Restrictions 3584 Chapter – 179 Remote Grading 3582
Introduction to Remote Grading To enable colorists to work interactively with clients across the globe, DaVinci Resolve offers a remote grading option. It allows two matching DaVinci Resolve systems to be synchronized via an Internet connection such that changes made on the colorist’s workstation are immediately applied on the remote client’s workstation. Cue commands are also synchronized to ensure that both systems are always on the same frame in the Timeline.
Setting Up for Remote Grading To start a remote grading session, the client’s DaVinci Resolve must be able to connect to the colorist’s system using TCP/IP. 1 Open DaVinci Resolve on the remote client’s workstation (the one that’s being remotely controlled), log in, and open the project that will be remotely graded. 2 Choose Workspace > Remote Grading (Ctrl-G) on the remote client’s workstation. A window is displayed with text fields to enter the IP address and port number of the colorist’s system.
PART 16 Other Information
Chapter 180 Regulatory Notices, Safety Information and Warranty Chapter – 180 Regulatory Notices, Safety Information and Warranty 3586
Contents Regulatory Notices 3588 Safety Information 3589 Warranty 3590 Chapter – 180 Regulatory Notices, Safety Information and Warranty 3587
Regulatory Notices Disposal of waste of electrical and electronic equipment within the European union. The symbol on the product indicates that this equipment must not be disposed of with other waste materials. In order to dispose of your waste equipment, it must be handed over to a designated collection point for recycling.
Safety Information Weight Warning The Fairlight Console has considerable weight even when empty. For example, a 3 Bay console weighs up to 110 kg empty, and 157 kg fully assembled. You should always move a Fairlight console with at least 4 people using safe lifting procedures, such as keeping the back straight, bending the knees and lifting with careful, controlled movements.
Warranty 12 Months Limited Warranty Blackmagic Design warrants that DaVinci Resolve control surface will be free from defects in materials and workmanship for a period of 12 months from the date of purchase. If a product proves to be defective during this warranty period, Blackmagic Design, at its option, either will repair the defective product without charge for parts and labor, or will provide a replacement in exchange for the defective product.
