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first national .R3D :30 national TV spot in RESOLVE, the good, the bad and the ugly!
Hello All, so I finished my first national TV spot in DaVinci. It was everything you would want it to be. SUPER TIGHT turnaround, clients who waited until hours before delivery to make changes and lots and lots of cleanup.
here the breakdown.
1. :30 TV commercial, shot on 4K RED, editing offline in FCP. ONLINE is HD 1920×1080 digital delivery.
2. Logo Removal(baseball caps, shirts, sunglasses) This was NOT blurring, but logo removal or replacement.
3. Extensive Complicated MATTS to brighten and darken, stuff that could not be pulled using any type of key.
4. PANS, REPOS, FLIPS, FLOPS, and REVERSALS.I was handed a FCP file, .R3D files and a list of the logos to remove and what to brighten or darken.
OK So I got to work.
First off the CONFORM.
So since it was a FCP project I had to go through and make everything a single layer, I have not had a FCP editor ever give me a single layer, it’s usually about 4 to 6 layers. So I had to go through and make any L cuts and dissolves 1 layer. I got a WAV file from the audio house and matched all that up.
I exported my EDL to RESOLVE and found my .R3D media and started my conform. I was able to link the EDL to the .R3D files fine, and I was also able to bring in a offline reference video clip fine with window burn to match the conform.First Set of problems.
1. I couldn’t figure out a way to have both my new project conform on the left and my reference video on the right scrub together. I understand I can just click through each sides timecode and match up the timecode and see if the picture matches, but is there no way to link the two files together? So I can just scrub through and see where they aren’t in sync??.
2. for REPOS and PANS it is really difficult to sometimes match the offline reference clip to the new media, since all REPOS and RESIZES are done in the COLOR AREA and not in the CONFORM AREA. The only way for me to get around this was to actually go into Final Cut Pro, look at the Pan and Scan numbers for the shot then type those numbers into the COLOR AREA of DaVinci. Is there a better more efficient way to do this?
After all that, I was finally able to edit the EDL and get everything linked up, with all my ins and outs and with a little tweaking on a clip or two using the CONFORM editing features. I got my .R3D files to match up to the offline, but I still have to color and composite.
My compositing tool is NUKE, so I went through and found each shot that I needed to do some compositing on and I exported 1920×1080 DPX sequences with frame numbers that are timecode.
So my shots where like shot_01A.xxxxxx.dpx
That was fine since NUKE can deal with frame numbers as timecode, but I couldn’t figure out another way to export the DPX sequences? Is there another way?Did my compositing on my DPX sequences, then I took them back into DaVinci to do the color. Then a whole bunch of problems arose.
First off when I brought back in the DPX sequences, and I then replaced the .R3D sequence with a .DPX sequence, the .R3D files when HAYWIRE. One the first shot of DPX went into my Resolve Project all my .R3D files would jump around. They would stutter, jump around, play the last frame of a shot for 2 seconds then play the first frame, it was a total mess. I thought the project was dead, but then reading around I found this.
In Preferences:
In Debug settings, add the following line:
DPDecoder.Count = 0
I have no idea what this did, but it worked and my .R3D files would play back fine, BUT it made them seem slower, I have a super fast RAID so I can CACHE on the FLY to DPX, but when I added that line to my preferences it make the DEBAYER about 3x slower. Anyone know why?
Anyway, I was just glad to have it fixed, but I still had more DPX sequences to import.
Import Problems.
1. A lot of my DPX sequences timecode was off, like almost 1/2, I was able to change the timecode in the CONFORM area so they slid into the CONFORM at the right place, it could have been human error, but so many? It seemed like a bug.
2. Also why can’t I replace a clip in the CONFORM? So say I have a .R3D sequence, why can’t I just replace that with a new DPX? The only what I could figure out how to bring in the DPX, then I would have two identical shots next to each other, one DPX and one .R3d, so I would then delete the .R3D. Is there a REPLACE?
So from here I had my CONFORM done and my COMPOSITES done, now I need to color. Coloring went great, even when some shots where DPX and some .R3D right next to each other, I couldn’t tell the difference between the two, which was great!!
Now I had a few very tricky shots to color, they required a lot of extensive ROTO or Matt Import. The problem was I didn’t have a lot of time to do the ROTO and MATT work in NUKE, so I decided to tackle it in DaVinci.
I am not sure if these are just the quarks of DaVinci or what, but the roto shapes are really SLOW and hard to move, I mostly used the CURVE POWER WINDOW and had to do frame by frame movement. You can’t track complicated shapes.
Also the keyframing was a mess, DaVinci calls it DYNAMICS. But if you have really complicated frame by frame roto and you have to add a MARK, then SET TO DISSOLVE MARK, for almost every frame in the shot!! By the end I wanted to shoot myself.
Is there anyway to automatically keyframe the POWER WINDOWS?
Anyway, I think that is it, aside from the Problems it was an Amazing ride, DaVinci is pretty amazing and hopefully its just gonna get better.
Thanks !!
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4 Replies
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I think the majority of your problems are addressable. Here’s what I can remember off the top of my head:
1 (ref video scrub): this definitely works. The 2 videos scrub together. The key is to have the timecodes match. A lot of times your EDL timeline starts at hour 1, and the quicktime at hour 0. Changing qt timecode to start at 1 is usually the first thing I do. Also, you could be in “source” mode or whatever that’s called, where you scrub only the offline. But all things working, they should scrub together.
2 (pan, resize): you can enable your offline as your still on the color page. You play a still, then under still mode (one of the right hand menus there) choose “offline” – then you can do either a wipe or overlay (overlay makes repo pretty easy)
2.2 (replacing r3d with dpx) – I think you can use folders for this. In the media manager, create a new subfolder, call it “r3d” or what have you. Then drag all your source R3Ds in there. Then, effected shots can be placed into another folder “vfx” – you should be able to then click on your timeline, and say “reconform from folder”, pick “vfx” and it will reconform everything it finds in that subfolder.
As far as your work with roto and power windows, I can’t say too much since I’m not too clear on what exactly you were doing. But I do believe there’s shortcut to directly add a dissolve dynamic, as opposed to changing it to that later on. I could be wrong – I’ll have to check that tomorrow.
But I’m really glad to hear that even with all these issues you had you were still able to meet delivery turnaround and sound happy about it! Congrats
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I wrote this out and then saw Vladimir posted, so excuse the redundancies:
“1. I couldn’t figure out a way to have both my new project conform on the left and my reference video on the right scrub together.”
If the offline clip was added to the media pool as an offline clip in the browse page, and selected as that timeline’s offline clip in the conform page, they should both scrub together when you scrub across the upper timeline – you don’t even have a separate scroll bar. If you do have a separate scroll bar for the right window, you’ve toggled the right window into “source clip” mode. Just right click in the window and hit “toggle offline/source clip” and it should behave exactly as you want…2. for REPOS and PANS it is really difficult to sometimes match the offline reference clip to the new media, since all REPOS and RESIZES are done in the COLOR AREA
If you have your offline clip synced correctly, in the color or format page you can enable the wipe, then toggle wipe mode from “gallery/still” (the one most people use most often) to “offline” (in the color page you can see your current mode in the bottom left) and you will be able to wipe back and forth between your offline and your online. Even better, you can change the wipe shape to “mix” and control a A/B blend, and line it up exactly…
DPDecoder.Count = 0
This is solved in an update prior to 7.1, I believe. I used it for a different issue though so let us know what version you’re using…
That was fine since NUKE can deal with frame numbers as timecode, but I couldn’t figure out another way to export the DPX sequences? Is there another way?
In the render window you can select “target” or “source” mode – target will output with your timeline timecode/frame number unless you change it with the “start recording at” function. But if you just want to output the same source timecode to facilitate the round-trip, then select “source” mode and it will render with the source timecode. This should also be handy if you take the “reconform from folders” approach…
2. Also why can’t I replace a clip in the CONFORM?
There’s a nice under-explained function called “re-conform from folders” (in other words, the manual isn’t very detailed and I haven’t played around with it yet), where you put all your clips to be sent out for VFX into a folder in the media browser (called, say, originals) and put all your final composites into a folder (called, say, comps). Then right click in the conform timeline and select “re-conform from folders” and select the folders you want to use at this moment…and it will replace all the shots at once, assuming they have the same source timecode… I think there’s also a way now to drag and drop individual shots to replace a shot, but I haven’t gotten to that either.
1. A lot of my DPX sequences timecode was off, like almost 1/2, It seemed like a bug
A number of other folks and I have been having issues with “target” mode rendering DPX (and especially quicktimes) with incorrect timecode and filenames, with or without using the “start recording at” piece. Check if those clips were rendered out from Davinci with functional but incorrect file names… I haven’t updated to 7.1 so I’m hoping it’s been worked out.
keyframing was a mess
Yup.
Is there anyway to automatically keyframe the POWER WINDOWS?
There is an Auto Keyframing function that you can turn on (it’s a square next to the lock of the each node in the Dynamics window) but I’m not sure offhand if it will autokey every handle and point on the Bezier curve or just the TRS of the CPWindow…
Hope these help,
Cheers,
KC
prehistoricdigital.com
hardworkingpixels.com -
Regarding the offline sync…
I have exactly the same problems…
Maybe its just me not used to the system, but its really far from intuitive 🙂
I tried a bunch of Quicktimes, timecode from 0 or one hour, doesnt matter.
Nothing scrubs in the Conform window.
I always have the scroll bar and can scroll through it, I also can select it as a source clip.
but when set to offline, nothing scrubs together.
Also i seem unable to load a DPX sequence as offline clip…is that normal ?
The same sequence has been loaded already into the media pool.
Maybe thats the conflict.
But can I define or tag a loaded clip to be used as offline clip somehow ?UPDATE…
HAHA..ok, its all me…its working now 🙂
A slice of color…
DaVinci 7.1 OSX 10.6.6
Dual Xeon 2,4 RAM 24 GB
RAID0 8TB eSata 6TB
GTX 285 / GT 120
Extreme 3D+ WAVE -
Hi Sascha,
For the offline clip to sync with the conform you need to make sure the offline clip timecode matches or overlaps with the start timecode of the timeline. If there is no timecode on the clip, you can use the “Change timecode” in the media pool to assign a timecode to the clip.
e.g. if you have 3 EDLs containing a 10sec, 15sec and 30sec version of a commercial, you might get a single offline clip, but separate EDLs for each of the versions.
Regards,
Rohit
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