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The perfect workflow …
… is the perfect workflow for the job that you are doing at any one time, and when it’s just right, it’s very hard to beat.
Over the last couple of days I have been working on a fashion merchandising promo for “a major studio”, which involved not just making it look super sexy, but also a lot of magazine-level retouching, by which I mean fine detail VFX work.
The initial edit was done in Premiere but I took it into Resolve and worked on it from there. Using Fusion Connect to send clips to Fusion for the retouching while at the same time having the power of Resolve grading, and the functionality of the Resolve editing timeline with its very powerful media relinking, was quite simply the best of all possible worlds. At least for me.
Bouncing seamlessly back and forth between the Fusion comp and the Resolve grade was an extremely satisfying, productive and efficient workflow. The power, simplicity and versatility of Fusion Connect is very considerable and combined with Resolve’s world-class grading is a very hard act to beat.
Of course, I could have worked in Premiere and used After Effects for the retouching, but Fusion’s node-based workflow is simply miles ahead in terms of efficiency for this kind of thing. And although Lumetri is an increasingly capable option for grading, I doubt that anyone thinks it’s any sort of competition for Resolve.
I could also have worked in the FCP X ecosystem and indeed I demo-ed a couple of the shots using Motion, but though I yield to no-one in my support for Motion, I can’t really pretend that it’s the best option for complex work like this. (Although in many respects it has advantages over After Effects …) However, this would still have required a round-trip to Resolve – I doubt that anyone will claim that FCP X has the capability to perform top-end grading either natively or with plug-ins.
I know some people attempt this kind of thing in Media Composer – as far as I’m concerned, life is too short to waste time with that kind of workflow.
Obviously there are other comparable solutions like Smoke, Mistika, Nuke Studio and more. In the past, I used to use AVID DS quite successfully for this kind of work too. I wonder if any of them can compete with my workflow above when you factor in the overwhelming advantage of the Resolve grading suite.
Suffice it to say, that on this particular job, everything just “felt right” and I couldn’t imagine it working better in any other environment.
All of which is to say that when a workflow solution comes together with the right project, it is indeed the perfect workflow.
By the same token, the same workflow with the wrong project is a disaster.
One of the motifs that keeps this fascinating forum alive is the question of what’s the best workflow/toolset, with the implicit assumption that one workflow/toolset is capable of delivering perfection for every kind of job.
I would be interested to hear more about how a particular workflow is suited to a particular task rather than generalised claims (which are great fun, of course) about the overall superiority of one option over another.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
35 Replies
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Interesting, but I kinda wonder what this has to do with FCP X Debates? (Not that THAT has ever stoped a post here! ; )
Nobody I know uses X as the primary tool for ” a lot of magazine-level retouching, by which I mean fine detail VFX work.”
It’s an NLE. As is Premiere Pro.
You indicate that both those tools would conceivably have done just fine cutting the initial work – and we know that both can feed Resolve perfectly well.
So what’s the topic here, and is it relevant to “FCP X the Debates?”
You don’t seem to be advocating that X is a poor first stop on such a workflow. Nor that Premiere Pro adds some magic before you get to Resolve – or is that it, Simon? Is there step you had trouble with that caused you to originate on Premiere Pro beyond happenstance, preference, or client request? Is there a flaw we should know about?
If not, wouldn’t this be a better discussion for a different forum? Or are you just seeing this as the “central hub” of NLE debate on the Cow?Which is fine. But I’m not sure I’m understanding why this is particularly story is particularly relevant to this particular Forum?
Can you help me out in understanding the reasoning? Thanks.
Addendum: I just checked that there are specific forums here for BlackMagic General, BlackMagic Fusion, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects (Expressions AND Techniques) and Apple Motion.
Yet this one, the one that is arguably LEAST commented relevant to your post – is the one where you posted it.
Seems a bit strange. Is it just for the eyeballs? If so, fine. But it just seems a bit odd to post it to the forum MOST concerned with the software you discuss the least.FWIW.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Bill Davis] “Can you help me out in understanding the reasoning?”
My thought was simply, as I stated right at the outset, that “the perfect workflow” is the perfect workflow for the job that you are doing at any one particular time. Which may not be the perfect workflow at other times.
As such, I thought this fed into many of the themes that have been discussed here over the years.
For once, it was not meant as a polemic of any kind. Nor as any form of brand promotion.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
We’ve discussed plenty of workflow strategies here in the past that haven’t always been FCPX-centric.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Thanks Simon. I really must wrap my head around Fusion and the connect function. As my workflow is to take edits from all NLEs into Resolve to finish this is totally relevant.
Totally appropriate to this forum Bill. File it under “Or Not” if you remember the original title for this forum. Would you prefer this forum to just morph into the FCPX ONLY Debates? How boring.
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I think that it fits here FINE. Goes along with the “there isn’t one NLE that’s best for everything,” motto. Because yes, there are those who will state, unequivocally, that FCX is the end all and be all of NLE’s…and that the rest are horribly antiquated and anyone who uses them is a dinosaur. This forum is the place to discuss…debate…why FCX is the best, or not the best, for each given post workflow. And this post was perfectly in line with “Well, FCX and Motion might have been fine, but really, the workflow between Resolve and Fusion was perfect for what I needed to do.
I think we all agree that different post workflows require different editing apps…Simon was pointing out “This is why I used this, and not X.”
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
No problem.
Clearly the readers in the other forums I listed must not care about seeing the posts that involve their tools.
Just the folks here.
So carry on.
; )
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
Time to change the forum name again….
Scott Witthaus
Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
1708 Inc./Editorial
Professor, VCU Brandcenter -
[Bill Davis] “Clearly the readers in the other forums I listed must not care about seeing the posts that involve their tools. Just the folks here.”
As Tim has pointed out numerous times this is one of the most popular and influential forums at the Cow. To emasculate it into a boring X love fest without debate is a small minded tedious idea. Don’t forget that debate requires questions and alternatives.
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Well, this is THE DEBATE forum. The other ones are all tech help, even the FCX TECHNIQUES one. Those are the help ones, this is the DEBATE one.
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
I think the original post fits in OK. Some people may not be aware of all the options.
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