does anyone miss the virtual trackballs on the user interface?

[Chris Hall]

Kim, I’ve been using resolve since it was released last year and have gotten used to the lack of virtual track balls (i do use a wave control surface, and did before with color as well for years). Although I never manually manipulated the virtual track balls with a mouse, I did appreciate the quick visual reference they gave me for my primary adjustments. I could quickly see how far I’d gone with my adjustments and in what direction by eyeing the trackball marker and its position on the wheel. In resolve you have to look at your RGB levels for shadows, midtones, and highlights to discern what you’ve done. I’ve gotten used to it, but honestly I still miss the virtual trackball indicators as I feel they help a bit more with being a bit more precise with the “push/pull” techniques of primary grading. There’s not much room in the GUI for these with the way the resolve interface is laid out unfortunately.

Chris Hall
Colorist – Basher Films
Pasadena, CA

[Jon Georges]

Will they be in version 8? Seems sort of foolish to have a free version but no way to actually color without spending 1500 dollars to try a product.

[Joseph Owens]

[Jon Georges] “Will they be in version 8?”

I didn’t notice anything spectacularly different about the R8 UI except that it will work with Final Cut-like layers, plus a couple of other operations that that will support. In fact, more real estate gets used up with a poly-layer project, and those three-way balls, even in Apple COLOR, are seriously in the way for those of use who use control surfaces exclusively.

I think Blackmagic has designed the application to work most efficiently with their custom surface, acceptably with third-party controllers, and just barely with a mouse. That’s probably merciful with the Lite/Free laptop version and two nodes — operators won’t have the temptation to push the app far beyond its ergonomic limitations with that platform and approach.

I do understand and appreciate the economy, but again, its yet another illustration of Good/Fast/Cheap, pick any two, but not the same thing twice.

Kim, like trying to fly the space shuttle after a quick Apple-Store briefing, I’d expect that you, of all colorists I’ve had the pleasure of working with, would know that the most complex vehicle ever built won’t actually perform out to its envelope if you’re trying to pilot it with one arm tied behind your back.

jPo

You mean “Old Ben”? Ben Kenobi?

[Robert Houllahan]

They have space shuttles at the Apple Store now? Wow that is going to be messy….

-Rob-

Robert Houllahan
Director / Colorist
Cinelab Inc.
http://www.cinelab.com

MAHC-PRO 6-Core 3X GTX285 20Tb SAS Wave Panel Panny 11UK SDI Plasma.

[Kim Krause]

yeah they do…i got a 1 hour training from one of the pros and i’m gonna pilot the next shuttle mission….nothing like taking the easy way out….why bother taking all that time to learn something if you can just walk in and ask a few questions and become an expert?

[Sean Kapleton]

I have to say I agree – I really wish this was an added feature in v8…that is a pop-out window like the scopes where a user could see the color wheels even though we use the wave panel it’s great to see where you are at like in apple color.
feature request!!
cheers
s

[Joseph Mastantuono]

I have to say, Since I got my Wave panel and got used to Davinci, I don’t miss the visual representations at all. Actually, I feel like they’ve been a crutch that makes me more conservative and look at what I’ve done in a primary of an image, instead of trusting my eye, my monitor, and my vectorscope.

As one colorist to another. Coloring without a panel, is like trying to roll dough flat without a roller. or like trying to paint without an easel and a palette. or like trying to cook without tasting. Or perhaps most accurately, trying to sculpt clay without using your hands.

BUY A PANEL. best money you’ll ever spend.

Joseph Mastantuono
Online Editor – Colorist – Post Consultant
Brooklyn based finishing at reasonable prices
917.969.1583

[Jamie Allan]

You do have a visual representation in the levels at the bottom left of the screen, where you can also manually adjust them.

Not like Color, I know, but as that feature was never in Resolve…I don’t see how it can be ‘missed’ 🙂

The whole point of the lite version is to be limited, its not designed to be a free colour grading application so they won’t be putting in extra features just for it. It makes alot more sense when you look at it from the POV of training, DOPs, on set pre-vis and just getting an idea of the application before making an investment.

Jamie Allan
Post Production Consultant
DaVinci Specialist (Linux/Mac)
Jamie@Jigsaw24.com

Jigsaw Systems Ltd. – IT & Broadcast specialists for the UK
https://www.jigsaw24.com
https://www.jigsawbroadcast.com

[Sascha Haber]

Just to add my two cents, I would like to see another solution to the problem.
The current sliders don’t work like a virtual ball and it’s very hard to adjust them I a sensible way.
Balancing them out one after the other is like drinking a cocktail but every ingredient at a time…brrr 😉
But virtual balls also require you to look down or away from your image, position the mouse, grad em, look back to the image, move em slightly and go back to grab another.
If I would wish for a panel less method, I should point at Scratch where you just press a key and you whole image becomes one big color wheel and you can , well, scratch around to adjust color ON the image, not some tiny part of the ui.
But yes, if you make music, you need a mixer, if you drive a car , you need a wheel.
Buy the Wave, it’s worth it.

A slice of color…

DaVinci 7.1 OSX 10.6.6
Dual Xeon 2,4 RAM 24 GB
RAID0 8TB eSata 6TB
GTX 285 / GT 120
Extreme 3D+ WAVE

[Joseph Owens]

Everybody knows how easy it is… You just get in, fasten yor seatbelt (if you even feel the need for that), and press the “UP” button!

jPo

You mean “Old Ben”? Ben Kenobi?