Do you conform inside Resolve?

[Timo Teravainen]

If you want to finish without a second compression round, use an uncompressed rendering format, like DPX or QT 10-bit uncompressed. It will require a lot of diskspace and fast disk array.

I wouldn’t worry about 2 rounds of compression with codecs like DNxHD 10-bit or Prores HQ, especially if rendering out to broadcast. For the big screen, an uncompressed codec out from Davinci might be a good idea.

[Michaelmaier]

This is what I’m talking about. I think rendering out of Resolve as DPX 16bit (at least) would be best. Maybe EXR is even better. But then there’s the question of where to finish it. Not all NLE work well with DPX let alone EXR.

[Michaelmaier]

[stig olsen]“Davinci is for grading, only.”

I have been thinking about this. I think this can be a bit subjective. Sure Resolve is mainly a grading suite. But finishing means for example do cosmetic touch ups, working on skin blemishes etc and making the image look as good as possible. This is something Resolve can do very well or? I think saying Resolve is not a finishing tool may be only half true. More accurate would be to say Resolve is not a mastering tool. I think you could do pretty much everything in Resolve but mastering. Roto, matchmoving and effects can be done before it gets to the grade in Resolve inside something like Nuke.

[Stig Olsen]

Hi,

In a professional environment you distinguish between grading and online. Resolve is a grading tool and Smoke / Flame is an online tool.
You have some basic editing- and onlining tools in Resolve as well, but this is primarily a grading tool.

If you are looking for a “all in one”-package – go with Mistika or similar that is built for that.

Stig

[Michaelmaier]

I’m not looking for an all in one package. I’m just looking for a viable way to finish without spending a million dollars. Mistika is definitely nice but insanely priced. I’m just wondering if Smoke 2013 is the only affordable finishing solution out there at this point.

[Stig Olsen]

AE is also a budget friendly online tool if that fits your needs and mastering can be done in your editing tool as well as client screenings.

Stig

[Mike Most]

Define “affordable.”

To do it yourselfers working on personal projects, these days it means “free.” To small companies without a proven customer base but wanting to start out offering services, it can mean anything from “free” to “under 5 grand.” To service companies that are already in business, have a customer base, a good reputation, and an ability to attract clients with “real”, substantial projects, it means something completely different because they’re more interested in performance and throughput to allow for more work to be put through the system. That changes the equation because the cost of anything in a business is always relative to the revenue it can generate. So if something that’s $1000 doesn’t pay for itself, it’s actually worth less than something that costs $10,000 that does. A copy of Resolve Lite might be great for someone doing their personal short in their living room, but in an actual working facility catering to studio clients, a Baselight at $90,000 might be a better choice.

So, once again, define “affordable.”

[Michaelmaier]

[Mike Most]“A copy of Resolve Lite might be great for someone doing their personal short in their living room, but in an actual working facility catering to studio clients, a Baselight at $90,000 might be a better choice.”

Sorry but I can’t see that at all. Of course if you really only mean Resolve Lite then I see the point as it’s limited. But by your tone I have the impression you mean Resolve at all, including the paid version. And then, I don’t see your point at all. Unless it’s just for bragging rights because it costs more.

[Mike Most]

Well, I can see you completely missed my point, in part because you seem to be a bit unaware of what competing products offer, and also the notion that different artists choose different toolsets because they see things they like in them. I would point out that in many facilities and for many colorists a seat of Resolve isn’t $1000. It’s more like $40,000, because the DaVinci panels ($30K), more GPUs, scopes, and a professional monitoring setup are what they need to do their job with enough precision and efficiency to move more work through their facility and thus generate some profit, as well as meet the client’s expectations when they walk into the room.

My point was not to say one should buy Baselight, although in many cases, the combination of color management, flexible user configuration, availability of separate render nodes, scalability, colorist preference, and other things might make it the right choice. The same can easily be said for Nucoda Film Master, Lustre, and even Scratch and Mistika. If that weren’t the case, these products wouldn’t exist and nobody would use them. The entire point of my post is that price alone is not always the sole determining factor in these things. The comfort of the artists, the expectations and preferences of the clients, and some very specific capabilities are all part of the equation. And in the end, it’s about what can make a company money. The cost of the equipment is only relevant in relation to the revenues it can help generate. Thus the term “affordable” does not necessarily mean “ultra cheap.” THAT was my point.

[Michaelmaier]

Ok Mike, I get what you mean now. Makes sense.

Since you mentioned do it yourselfers, what do you think would be an option for a finishing tool for indies? Besides the $3.5 Smoke which is Mac only.

So far the best option I can see is After Effects. I use Resolve for grading but it lack the tools as a finisher as discussed in this thread.