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bittersweet…
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I think its very important to realise that you cant use the free version for professional work that requires more than 2 nodes or any of the new features, its a tool to seed the market, provide schools with an easy way to teach the software and for anyone to get used to the UI before investing
From the website:
“The free DaVinci Resolve Lite includes the same high quality processing as the full DaVinci Resolve, however it limits projects to SD and HD resolutions, two color correction nodes, a single processing GPU and a single RED rocket card. Stereoscopic 3D features, 2K, noise reduction, power mastering, remote grading and sharing projects with an external database server are features only offered in the full DaVinci Resolve and are not included in this free DaVinci Resolve Lite edition”
Blackmagic have, once again, announced a raft of products that seem both insanely cheap and ridiculously high quality at the same time. Having spent alot of time with V8 on the booth at NAB I can happily say it has answered all of the shortcomings of V7 – and they’ve achieved that in one year of development. That’s unheard of in this industry.
This update hasnt made the DaVinci systems any cheaper. The software costs the same. The hardware, wether it be a 4GPU Linux system or a 3GPU Cubix-Mac system, still costs the same. So those who’ve invested are not being shortchanged – they’re getting a complete version update for free – also unheard of.
What has changed is the quality, its gone up, certainly beyond even what I was expecting. Yeah, I kicked off with the developers and EMEA team when they told me at the reseller meeting there was a free version, but then I was told the limitations and calmed down almost instantly.
When you see the new features in action, I belive all gripes will be forgiven 😉
Jamie Allan
Post Production Consultant
DaVinci Specialist (Linux/Mac)
Jamie@Jigsaw24.comJigsaw Systems Ltd. – IT & Broadcast specialists for the UK
https://www.jigsaw24.com
https://www.jigsawbroadcast.com -
But Jamie,
Those limitations are not that limiting. Alot of the TV documentaries that I color would not need any of those features. I think HD resolution would be perfect for most of the projects out there. I think you are not seeing that for many people the Free version will do everything they need to do and there will be no reason to go to the paid version. I know many clients and shops where the Free version would be more than adequate.
If it was just schools and people wanting to checkout the UI.. that would be one thing, but I see many people in my side of the business grabbing the Free copy and suddenly they are a DaVinci shop. I’m not that worried about the new competition (other than they can charge like $50/day to color grade) but I’m still confused how it makes good business sense for Blackmagic. But I guess not all corporate moves need to be logical.
-Peter
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[Peter Berg] “Those limitations are not that limiting. Alot of the TV documentaries that I color would not need any of those features.”
There are lots of shots where you might not end up using more than two nodes, but having the option to do so for shots that do require it is fairly important. Some people might be able to live with this limitation for in-house projects, but they probably weren’t going to pay for a color grade anyway. I think it will be nearly impossible to set yourself up as a colorist who charges for his services with the free version. How does that work in client sessions?
Client: “Can we maybe put a window on the right over there, to bring down that wall?”
Colorist: “Well, we could, but I was too cheap to buy the full version of Resolve, and I’m out of nodes.”
The truth is, by the time you’re done building the rest of a real-time Resolve system, the cost of the software isn’t even that significant. The free version will be used for prepping, as an on-set DIT utility, and by do-it-yourself types. Not in grading suites. Blackmagic will probably see almost no cannibalization of the paid version.
Digital Workflow/Colorist
You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read First thoughts on Final Cut Pro X on our blog. -
Initially I agreed with you Peter, and you I’m sure there will be simple HD projects that are balanced using the Lite version, but as Chris has already pointed out for me:
Client: “Can we maybe put a window on the right over there, to bring down that wall?”Colorist: “Well, we could, but I was too cheap to buy the full version of Resolve, and I’m out of nodes.”
The truth is, by the time you’re done building the rest of a real-time Resolve system, the cost of the software isn’t even that significant. The free version will be used for prepping, as an on-set DIT utility, and by do-it-yourself types. Not in grading suites. Blackmagic will probably see almost no cannibalization of the paid version
Jamie Allan
Post Production Consultant
DaVinci Specialist (Linux/Mac)
Jamie@Jigsaw24.comJigsaw Systems Ltd. – IT & Broadcast specialists for the UK
https://www.jigsaw24.com
https://www.jigsawbroadcast.com -
Two years ago I never dreamed I could say ” hey I am going to put a davinci in my studio”. Now I can and will because I want to learn and practice using the tool I will need to get a good result for my clients. Just because I will have a system does not mean I will be able to grade a show with multiple horribly exposed cameras with 1500 shots in two days. Here is one of mutliple catches. I am also paralyzed and commuting to various post houses and using their systems creates logistic and ergonomic hassles that do not make me any more money.
Rejoice you now have the power to make images sing from your house. Work get home on time and be paid! More importantly feel free to share knowledge. Nobody learned how they do everything they do by themselves. We are all in the together.
Keep your stick on the ice,
James Sullivan
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I think one thing that is being forgotten here is that, because of a lack of color wheels in Resolve, it will be harder to simulate the proper Resolve experience without a hardware controller, and how many new budding colorists with their Resolve-lite will have those?
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Honestly, a lot of this seems like insecurity. Evolve your skills, evolve your capabilities. If you’re relying on your tools being expensive and not available to most people, you’ve already stagnated and lost. As the saying goes, the end of pyramid building put a lot of pyramid builders out of business.
The best will rise to the top, this isn’t about expensive equipment, this is about talent and customer service. The nice thing is that we’re going to get many more potential colorist talents that will be able to develop on the free version.
Lots of equipment is still too expensive for what it does, and I’m grateful to BMD for democratizing the tools. I hope they add mouse-operated color wheels to future versions of Resolve too, to make it even more flexible.
You realize that you’re all complaining about getting too much too cheap, right? There’s no pleasing some people.
And I say this as someone who’s in the middle of the process of getting a large Resolve Linux system. Bring it on.
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Joakim Ziegler – Postproduction Supervisor -
Joakim….you’re going to love your Resolve Linux system…I’m very sure of that 🙂
Which GPU model are you going for ?
-chrispy
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Joakim, apologies for being blunt, and please take this in the spirit of discussion, but I think you’re missing the point, this discussion has little to do with the evolution of skills, talent and customer service, although these are key things in keeping your clients, I think many of us are referring to building a client base on the basis of using Resolve.
The perception of the tools we use in the post production is a key point in securing work in this industry and it would be naive to think otherwise, free sends the wrong signals. There is already a post on this board (Cheap Suites) describing a situation of a post house installing ‘cheap’ grading stations, based on Resolve, which are basically no less powerful or functional than their existing “Expensive Suites” this we all know is ludicrous, but there you go, the erosion has already begun, and this time it’s by the very industry itself.
The more potential clients think of Resolve as cheap, the less it will be taken seriously, the less relevant our investments become and the less work I envisage Resolve users will get, particularly in the UK market, where the market is unfortunately largely driven by brand perception rather than any technical understanding (Baselight vs Resolve or Lustre vs Quantal etc etc), I get asked all the time which system I use, by people who wouldn’t know the difference if they saw it, but know the name of the one they think is the superior system), we are all susceptible to the same thing when we go shopping for a stereo or whatever, I think it’s human nature. So, this may not effect you where you’re based, but it effects many of us over here in the UK and I suspect elsewhere.
This hedonistic nonsense about power to the people is all very well when you’re living at your mum’s house or have a full time job and playing with Resolve in your spare time, but when it’s how you earn your living in a very competitive market in one of the three largest post production industries in the world, things become a little more serious.
I can only congratulate Black Magic on their continuing work on the application, but let’s hope it’s not for nothing.
J
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I think the development towards “cheap” color grading systems is going to have something of the opposite effect. When BlackMagic released Resolve for cheap last year, we immediately saw FilmLight dropping the prices on their BaseLight systems. Assimilate just announced radically lower pricing on Scratch at NAB (they didn’t use to publicize their prices, but a quote I got from them once was well in excess of 70k dollars just for the software, and now it’s 18k dollars). Scratch is now also going to be available for MacOS.
All this is driven by BlackMagic and Resolve.
And please, spare me the “out here in the real world” thing. It’s a bit insulting, first because I make a living as a post supervisor on feature films, and secondly because it seems to me to be the same whining that always happens when the tools get cheaper. We saw it from companies with Avid suites when FCP came along, for instance, and we’ve seen it to a large extent in DAWs too.
This development is inevitable, as the hardware gets cheaper and more powerful, the technology and workflows more established and well-known, and the “magic” disappears.
The question isn’t “are color grading systems in the future going to be cheap and widely available”, that’s a given. The question is, what are you going to do when it happens? Whining about your customers not valuing you highly enough is hardly the right answer.
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Joakim Ziegler – Postproduction Supervisor
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