OT Speedgrade vs Resolve

[Angelo Lorenzo]

Image-wise I think you’ll find you can get similar results. In terms of bells and whistles that improve the workflow surrounding the online process for conforming material other things, Resolve is ahead by 3-4 releases easily. The announced features will add a lot to ease of use and I can’t wait to give them a go.

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Angelo Lorenzo

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[Jon Howard]

I have a little experience with both applications, moreso with Resolve, but I can outline some differences between the current version of Resolve and SpeedGrade CC:

– Resolve installs database software on your computer to enable multiple users, each with their own presets, projects and saved grades and still frames, to coexist on a single system. This requires a bit of set up and can get funky during upgrades. SpeedGrade is more like any other Adobe application in that you just fire it up and get to work.

– Resolve is a node-based grading suite while SpeedGrade is layer-based. Even though I love a node-based workflow and am a huge fan of Nuke, Resolve’s node system is a little clunky. You can’t name your nodes and as such, they just kind of pile up and you have to turn them on and off to see what they’re doing. SpeedGrade’s layers have editable names and, when you use grading clips, are visible at any point in your timeline. They’re not totally comparable systems, but SpeedGrade’s layers feel really nice coming from someone who hasn’t used Resolve enough to get totally comfortable with their node system.

– Resolve only works with Blackmagic I/O hardware, Speedgrade only works with AJA and Matrox I/O hardware.

– Resolve appears to a better job of leveraging GPU for rendering. I made a post about this asking for some input, but I’m getting 4-5 times faster renders using Resolve than SpeedGrade. If there’s any question about what system you should use, this more than anything else is the clincher, at least for me.

– Resolve can do batch rendering whereas SpeedGrade cannot.

– Both systems have very good scopes built in. Both systems have a modular (i.e. tab-based) UI, which divides the workflow up into media ingest, grading and rendering interfaces. Both systems have excellent file format support.

– Resolve is scalable to very, very large facilities and has a multi-thousand dollar version with proprietary hardware, running on Linux. Company 3, which is one of the foremost color grading facilities in the world, uses Resolve. SpeedGrade seems at this time to be scaled more for individuals needing powerful grading tools that integrate well with Adobe Premiere. Given the years-long foothold that Baselight, Resolve, Scratch Lab and Pablo have in the arena of high-end, professional grading, it seems unlikely that Adobe is interested in competing in that market.

As a side note, SpeedGrade has some really killer features. It has a color matching tool that is incredible. If you’ve graded a still, or received a graded still, from Photoshop, you can load it into your snapshots and match the grade within SpeedGrade. Why more people aren’t soiling their britches over this is beyond me. It’s an amazing feature that should make any indie filmmaker, art director or mograph artist very happy.

There are plenty of very specific differences between the apps that are clear when you get into their respective approaches to workflow and UI, but the good news is that they’re both very, very good tools that can get you professional quality results if you know how to grade.

Hope this helps!

Jon

[Andy Mees]

Thats a nice summary Jon, I’ve been playing a bit with both the last day or two and was just casting about for exactly this sort of thing. One note tho, assuming I’m understanding you correctly … you mention that in Resolve you can’t name your nodes …what you’re looking for is the node label, find that and your naming problems are over 🙂
Cheers
Andy

[Michael Rothenberg]

Thanks for the thorough review. I have Speedgrade as part of the Creative Cloud and for me it looks like it may be OK for a newbie to rigorous color correction. I assume the general lessons learned would be applicable even if I were to switch to Resolve at some point in the future.

Thanks!

Michael Rothenberg
Peak Productions

[Steve Connor]

Thanks for the replies and of course now you can roundtrip from PPro CC to Resolve which is a great feature

Steve Connor

There’s nothing we can’t argue about on the FCPX COW Forum

[Jay Dantara]

@Steve,

Can you expand on that?
I’m having a tough time round-tripping between PPro CC 2015 and Resolve 11 Lite.
My sequences contain 25FPS & 50FPS footage. The 50 FPS is sometimes real-time and some times slowed down to 25 using the interpret footage function of Premiere. This interpretation doesn’t get carried on in XML for sure so is there another way?

[Deleted User]

Wow…thanks a TON for this informative post on your experience with Resolve and Speedgrade. I found it very direct, informed and helpful! Especially the distinction that was drawn between “very large facilities” and “individuals needing powerful grading tools”. This post hit the nail on the head for me! I love the Cow!!!

[Duke Sweden]

Being that we have a speedgrade expert or two here, let me ask a question I was going to put in its own thread.

The way I color grade, for best results considering my equipment, I open a SOOTC clip in Photoshop. I make my tweaks using Camera RAW, and then save as a .TGA file. I then open the clip in Speedgrade, apply the changes from the .TGA image using “camera matching”, and then save as a .look which I can then use on the rest of my clips shot under the same conditions, in Premiere Pro.

Is there an easier way to create a .look file from the .TGA without having to open the clip in Speedgrade and applying the .TGA to the clip with the camera matching feature?