[Marc Wielage]

At the bottom of the “Video” column in the Delivery page, the last item says “Add ___ frame handles.” Change that to “0” and it should render only from the first frame to the last frame.

[Marc Wielage]

ProTools is great if you used the paid HD version. I think it’s used on literally hundreds of Hollywood films & TV series every year. ProTools Free is an unknown commodity at this point. I think if your working on commercial projects for paying clients, you have to use actual paid software and not rely on free tools for your living.

It’s not impossible that Blackmagic will get into the audio mixing/editing business — they already have editing and color with Resolve, and they have VFX with Fusion. Audio would be that missing component to finish the show.

[Marc Wielage]

I think Pro Tools Free is going to be crippled and limited compared to the real Pro Tools. If you’re trying to save money, I’d look into buying the student version or perhaps buying a used version on eBay, along with an iLok, and plan on re-registering it with Avid.

[Marc Wielage]

This is a job for After Effects or Fusion, IMHO.

[Marc Wielage]

[aemilia scott] “This clip has only one node of color, one node of film grain matte, and NeatVideo.”
Wait a minute: you’re noise reducing and then adding back film grain? Or you’re adding film grain and then following it with Noise Reduction?

My first workaround would be, turn off Neat Video entirely and just render it out. Take the flattened file back into Resolve, slice it up into cuts (with Scene Detect), then leave on one Node on every shot that just has Neat Video applied and set that to whatever it needs to be, shot by shot. If Resolve only has to worry about one thing, then maybe it can chug through without a problem.

The alternative would be to use Neat Video through Premiere or After Effects and deal with it that way.

My last workaround would be to just not use Neat Video at all and use the TNR within Resolve. I honestly think the NR is good and holds its own with Neat. But in truth I rarely get that upset with a little bit of noise. I would worry if I had a massively underexposed shot or one sequence that was really grungy (particularly one screwed-up by mistake in production), but in general I don’t think noise-reduction is as necessary as people think. I get there are certain things — particularly fashion commercials — that have to be scrupulously bright and clean and perfect.

[Marc Wielage]

Thanks for the update, Ray. The only alternative I can think of is to re-import the XML into Avid, then export an AAF from there into Pro Tools.

One real issue is the ALE (Avid Log Exchange) file, which contains all the metadata on the sound reels, dates, video file names, timecodes, and so on. Keeping that straight is a huge task, and it’s a big part of why Avid works as well as it does.

I can tell you that I’ve been part of projects where the sound editors have been able to just rebuild the project over time, and (assuming the project is locked) it’s doable manually if you have somebody fast and experienced. It’s absolutely true that most sound editors & mixers throw out the picture editor’s pan & level decisions, but they do retain a source file to give them the gist of what was mixed in the offline.

I have no advice on how to improve the inter-operability with Resolve except to check in during NAB and see what happens with the next Resolve release.

[Marc Wielage]

What codec are you using? What color space are you working with? How is your monitor calibrated?

Read p. 572 of the Resolve 12.5 manual: “Limitations When Grading With the Viewer on a Computer Display.” This goes into some detail why you cannot accurately monitor directly from the computer and operating system. You have to have a color-managed output, like one from a Blackmagic display card, plus a calibrated grading monitor.

What I generally do is, I place a second or so of SMPTE color bars (and/or gray scale) at the head of the file, bring that back into Resolve, and check both files on the scopes. They should be identical. If the scope readings are identical, then they pictures must be identical.

Don’t try to make judgements on uncalibrated GUI displays. That will lead down a perilous road of pain and suffering. And if you do look at anything in the GUI display, don’t compare it to what you see in Resolve.

When the scopes are right, the pictures will be right. Without scopes and without calibration, you’re totally flying blind and at the mercy of the terrible lack of quality control in normal computer displays and operating systems.

[Marc Wielage]

[Ray Argall] “We tried Marc’s workflow with XML and using Conformalizer but haven’t been able to get that to work. We have a complete set of the source files copied, but PT is not reading the XML. Perhaps there are some options in export we’re not getting right? We exported the XML from the Edit page not the Deliver page.”
Did you ask the Conformalizer people for support? I guarantee you they’ll have an answer.

[Marc Wielage]

[Sascha Haber] “Just save the image with the graded LUT as a still or a memory key.”
You can also save a correction with the LUT as a Powergrade, then cycle through those using the split-screen windows options. It does take time to setup and label each one, but once it’s done, it’s done. This is a free feature that’s always been included with Resolve, plus you can have multiple Powergrade libraries if you choose.

[Marc Wielage]

For this, you need to use something with more precision like Mocha. Resolve’s tracking is great for what it is, but it’s not ideal for motion graphics. After Effects or Fusion could do it to a point.