User Manual

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. These parameters are not automatically
set if the project already has media in the Media Pool, and you may have problems if
they don’t match your media.
3 Right-click the media file, and choose Scene Cut Detection.
4 When the Scene Detect window appears, click the Options drop-down menu and
choose Auto Cue (it should be on by default, but it’s always good to check), then click
Auto Scene Detect.
Scene detection initiates, and you can evaluate each scene cut as it’s found. If any
scene cut looks wrong (three sequential frames in a row), note its place in the list for
future evaluation.
5 When DaVinci Resolve has finished scene detection, move the playhead to some of
the shorter scene cuts, and verify if they’re actual cuts by checking the three viewers
above. If the frames being displayed are “different-same-same,” then it’s a genuine cut.
If the frames being displayed are “same-same-same” (actually three sequential frames),
then these aren’t cuts.
TIP: Fast camera motion such as whip pans, sudden changes in lightness such
as camera flashes, or even film coming up to speed causing the shutter to
“flash” can confuse the analysis, which looks for large changes in the image.
6 If there are numerous low-confidence scene cuts that you’ve verified aren’t cuts, drag
the magenta confidence bar so that the low-confidence scene cuts fall below it to
automatically remove them all from the list.
7 Next, you may want to move down the Cut List, evaluating each scene cut to verify
that it’s correct. Click the first scene cut in the list, check it, then press the keyboard
Down Arrow key to select the next list item down, check it, and repeat until you’ve
checked every item in the list. If you need to move back up the list, you can press the
Up Arrow key to select the previous list item. If any item is not a cut point, click the
“Delete” button at the bottom left corner of the Scene Detect window to eliminate that
scene cut.
8 If there are sections in the Scene Detect Graph with dense groups of spikes, these are
probably frames with types of motion that confused the Scene Cut Detector. To delete
this unwanted “noise” in the data, use the In and Out buttons to isolate the data, and
then click “Prune” to delete these unwanted scene cuts.
Chapter – 15 Using SceneDetection 363