DaVinci color grade doesn’t translate to FCP X

[David Roth weiss]

You could always lock picture before color grading, which in all honesty is the ONLY way you will ever be 100% satisfied when moving between applications.

FYI, this was discussed at length at Wednesday’s LACPUG meeting, and the gurus all agreed that NONE of the apps have good enough XML fidelity to handle seamless movement between apps. And, that’s especially true of trying to “round trip” back to the original application.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist & Workflow Consultant
David Weiss Productions
Los Angeles

David is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.

[Tero Ahlfors]

[Phil Snyder] “What can I do to hold the grades in FCP X?”

You need to render your grade out to new files from Resolve. You just can’t move the grade to FCPX with an XML.

[Phil Snyder]

Do you mean export it as an mov file or h.264?

[Andi Winter]

oh my god! yes! this is too basic to be true!

of course you have to render your color correction! (eg. proresHQ) and then (if you really have to go back)
create a new xml and relink to the graded files in fcpx.

[Phil Snyder]

Thanks, that’s the message I’ve been getting.
I’m just learning Resolve. I’m on my first week.

Thanks.

[Bret Williams]

Of course you have to go back. Can’t do much fx or titling in Resolve. Especially the titling you already did in FCP X or premiere. That stuff just doesn’t translate.

[Marc Wielage]

Note you could do the VFX and title sequences and just cut those back into Resolve, then render the final out from Resolve. It can work.