Davinci Keying without noise

[Peter Chamberlain]

I think you may just need more practice. The DaVinci keyers in their current form have been used for 1000’s films and tvcs and there are no changes in v9. Try a little key blur and use shrink and grow. Often it’s the finesse with the soft and symmetry that makes the key look tight.

I would avoid using the NR for the average key as it complicates the adjustment unnecessarilary. Just work through the qualifier palette controls should be enough.
Peter

[Sean Ross]

Thanks Peter. I will keep practicing, although I am dubious. I feel like I’m quite good at keying in several of the autodesk keyers and I hope you are right, though, as it is the largest weak point that I am finding in Davinci.

[Gabriele Turchi]

resolve keyer is good , but honesty not has good as flame and smoke ,

autodesk have much deeper refining tools for the keyer , i think i can say that i know how to use the keyer ,

obviously i would if resolve had such a sophisticated keyer , not saying that the current is bad , but it could be better knowing the autodesk ones and what those can accomplish …

g

Davinci Resolve Control Surface
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[Andrew Smith]

Just wanted to chime in here –

This week I was on a project where I couldn’t get a decent key of the actor’s t-shirt so i sent the shot to the Nuke compositor at the studio I was working for – I sat with this operator and watched the standard tools he had at his disposal in Nuke and was just blown away with the job he did on the key – I have to agree that programs like Nuke, Smoke, Flame..and even just regular old After Effects 😉 have much better keying tools let alone the paint, tracking and roto tools obviously.

I also had a chance to sit with a friend who uses Baselight’s various keying tools and was also super impressed with what he could do – I think DaVinci seriously needs to step up there game in a variety of areas to even remotely compete with these other finishing tools – Regardless I have made my investment in DaVinci so luckily I will continue to have AE, Nuke & Flame guys to help me out but seriously there is a TON of room for improvement in this application. I plan to learn Mocha, Nuke, etc just to be able to do some of this more precise work myself.

Just my 2 cents in the field.

ps. the NR tool in DaVinci just does NOT work (read the forums or just ask around in the industry..its laughable at best) – I use Neat Video for AE or FCP to get decent results myself but I have also seen what Nuke and Flame can do for noise reduction or adding grain etc. and its just superior all around. If I had the money I would probably move to Baselight as it seems to have a wide range of tools and way more control. I hope that BMD will really try to make DaVinci Resolve the grading application it COULD be.

[John Pilgrim]

DaVinci Resolve is a color grading tool, not a compositing app.
Resolve’s HSL and RGB qualifiers are there to isolate secondary color corrections, not to perform chroma keying for compositing.
You’re right that AFX, Nuke, Flame, etc can pull better keys, as well they should since they’re compositing apps.
If Resolve’s qualifiers aren’t working for you, I wonder if your workflow is such that you’re asking your grading app to do your VFX tasks for you.

[Paul Provost]

How much would you pay for a version of resolve that was as good as lustre, baselight, etc?

[Andrew Smith]

Well mind you with a Decklink and Quadro4000 alone its not just $1K for the software obviously (its $3K+ and that’s without a control surface, a proper calibrated monitor, newer MacPro, RAM, RAID, etc etc) but the same goes for the equipment requirements on a Lustre or baselight I suppose right??

Don’t get me wrong, I think BMD is doing a good job and V9 looks like a step in the right direction, its insane that only a few years ago a high-end grading app like DaVinci was not even close to accessible like it is now. I just see the tools available in Baselight, and think about the substantial investment i have made in building my own DaVinci room, and want some of that in the system i have built for myself. I have been advising / promoting smaller shops to invest in DaVinci and I just want it to be everything it can be..wow I sound like a GoArmy commercial!

I mean well and hopefully have not pissed anyone off here, I just hope for more improvements, and really prey they are listening and striving to better compete in some ways with the competition in the high-end finishing market. I am speaking for myself at the high end of expensive commercial workflows – not davinci-light using college students grading there skate videos at home on a laptop.

[Sean Ross]

Thanks for all the response. I am still working away trying to get better keys. One thing which is helping is that I am doing my keys after color balancing on the first node. This helps alot, especially if there is a color cast. Also, despite the warnings from Mr. Chamberlain, I am using a denoised version of my file just to create my Alphas; and then keeping my RGB image data on a separate node tree without the noise reduction. This has been super helpful in lessening the amount of noise that I am picking up in qualifying colors (and something that is in Lustre’s keyer).

I have a question, is there a way to add contrast to an alpha? (ie., use curves to an alpha?)

I do have some responses to some of the responses above:

“If Resolve’s qualifiers aren’t working for you, I wonder if your workflow is such that you’re asking your grading app to do your VFX tasks for you.”

I believe that quick and accurate keying gives me an incredible amount of creative flexibility and reduces the amount of time that I have to roto and/or key (ie., send out for VFX).

How much would you pay for a version of resolve that was as good as lustre, baselight, etc?

I want to pay about $50K for a tricked out Resolve for mac. I already have a lesser version with the Tangent and 4000 card. And I really love so many things about Resolve. Really a top notch application that runs on a Macintosh, and reads prores and with the Cubix runs super fast, sees my multiple layered timelines, and is a very powerful tool for manipulating color.

I have a Flame Premium with the Lustre Panels, which cost a lot more. I am considering a BaseLight. I am also considering a stand-alone Lustre, but I am a bit frustrated by its lack of color flexibility. Both of these are expensive, but powerful tools.

[Sascha Haber]

I would pay as much as it would cost to license Primatte , keylight ,Ultimatte or any of the other good keyers.
As long as I can make money with a tool, its worth buying it.
Rather that that than a free one which is not working as effective as my clients are used too.

A slice of color…

DaVinci 8.2.1 OSX 10.7.2
MacPro 5.1 2×2,4 24GB
RAID0 8TB
GTX 470 / Quadro 4000
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ICA Instructor
https://www.icolorist.com/Sascha.html

[Peter Chamberlain]

Thanks for feedback guys. It’s always valuable to get different references.
Peter