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round trip workflow between AE and Davinci Resolve
I need to make some trips back and forth between adding FX in AE and editing in DR, and I don’t want to degrade my footage with serial compressions (I’m of the photographers’ “never do multiple saves on JPEGs” school).
What are my best choices for loseless (or minimally loseless) output settings when I render between these apps?
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce Gaber
OSX High Sierra 10.13.3
iMac 27\” late 2013
3.5 GHz Intel Core i7
24 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4 GB
DR 14.33.0.014
AE 15.0.0vimeo.com/BodhiBruce
visionrising.comDance Without Reason
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5 Replies
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We’re partial to QT animation Best. Its uncompressed but run length encoded so it ends up generating a smaller file (in MB) than say an AVI uncompressed. The down side is that its only 8bit.
There used to be a format of EXR that was RLE but gave you all the color head room you like. But if size isn’t an issue then EXR, Cineon or ACES should fit the bill – its what they were designed for. Just make sure to check the flavour of each as there are different modes. -
I think PNG is only 8 bit though and these days, especially for grading, you need that extra head room with 10 bit linear being the bare minimum.
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I wouldn’t call wanting smooth artifact-less gradients “fancy”. There aren’t even enough colors in the 8bit gamut to do a smooth blue gradient from one side of a 1920 frame to the other. 8 bit was fine back in the 640×480 days but when you combine the increase in fidelity we have now, with the rampant codec use/misuse, and then add in the dumbing down of how stuff is shot, you need all the head room you can get to “fix it in post”; instead of your client shooting it right the first time and providing you with a high quality master.
On the other hand, in TV land at least, by the time it gets to air and sent to TV (or burned to a disk), its been so crushed, footage is often a ghost of its original, so going the extra mile, er… bits, may not amount to a hill of beans.
But back to the original topic – EXR also has the advantage of holding multiple channels beyond the normal RGBA. What I don’t know though is if Davinci will pass those channels or just cuts them off.
And speaking of Davinci – doesn’t Black Magic own them now? What about the Black Magic codec. Its pretty clean, 10bit and provides nice compact files that play in real time (with a card). They must have an effortless work flow for DR by now. -
Thanks to all. This was really helpful. And yes, Blackmagic owns DaVinici and the app is FREE!
Bruce
Bruce Gaber
OSX High Sierra 10.13.3
iMac 27\” late 2013
3.5 GHz Intel Core i7
24 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4 GB
DR 14.33.0.014
AE 15.0.0vimeo.com/BodhiBruce
visionrising.comDance Without Reason
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I have a few questions that concern if I use davinci resolve to only edit a short film:
Q1: If my original color corrected & graded footages in AE 2019 are 14-bit cinemaDNG what should I render all my clips to before importing them to davinci?
Q2: If I have worked in ACEScg or ACEScc in AE to color grade what should my project settings be in davinci for the editing part? Do I need a special hardware?
The reason why I am avoiding davinci to color grade is how expensive it is to buy the proper hardware and monitor to color grade RAW in ACES. The second reason is that I find AE very easy for having used it for a long time.
Q3: Is the above workflow better or vice versa; editing first in davinci, render and then import in AE for color grading bearing in mind that I lack the proper monitor and blackmagic-recommended hardware? If so:
– To what format must I render to?
– What should the project settings be in AE and davinciThanks in advance for your assistance
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