[Shawn Larkin]

Many thanks indeed, Bob.

[Shawn Larkin]

As soon as it becomes a bottom tab in Davinci Resolve, I’ll jump right on and dump AE.

[Shawn Larkin]

Yes, it’s a nightmare.

Until it’s not.

No one really knows what the deal is with collaboration in R11 until they use it.

I care more about the dit/editor/mgfx/compositor/colorist “one man band” functionality.

But if I can get individuals to work on sections with their specialty, that is even better for some projects.

So I do want Resolve to be all things to all people, but the reality is it is not going to be.

However, it may be the solution for me and all my needs. And I’ll settle for that.

[Shawn Larkin]

I want it to do what Smoke does now, but with more ease and better design.

For the round tripping, AE and Motion projects would allow for mgfx guys to use their favorite package and for you to not need locked media in the timeline. But again, I don’t see this actually happening. There was a time when Motion could import AE projects, but they are so much more complex by design now.

[Shawn Larkin]

To all the ado over what to use and when:

For smaller projects, I would just use Resolve. Why go from one EDL to the next?

For larger stuff, I see using X kind of like Adobe Prelude now. More of a setup and rough in tool.

So I guess if you like working in X, then you stay in it as long as possible. And if you like the tool set and paradigm in Resolve, you jump in as soon as you feel things are setup enough in X.

I’m obviously in the latter camp, but do feel comfortable and appreciate X too.

My perfect world scenario would have Resolve add 3D Compositing — which I am sure will happen — and some sort of amazing roundtrip feature for AE and Motion projects so it really was “all in one” but I won’t hold my breath on that last one.

[Shawn Larkin]

I struggled with X for a while too. It has matured enough so you can “get around” the timeline now without being super creative because Apple have figured out how to allow you to do all those things you need to without tracks (most of the time anyways).

My gripe has always been: Sometimes tracks are better for particular tasks and I wish you could switch them on / off.

This version of Resolve kind addresses that with how it’s rippling feature set is integrated. At least in the demo. I have not used R11 yet.

Jeremy:

For the collaboration side, the demo also shoes how this works with accepting or denying a change in the timeline. I have a feeling, that if you deny a change, there is a tracked way to keep what was there while the other person continues with the change. I mean, the BMD guys get those things happen.

Anyhow, my final feelings with Resolve is if people “get it” then it will get a lot of people jumping on it — pros and tinkerers. I mean, it’s free and it’s so powerful and it’s design is impeccable.

[Shawn Larkin]

I know some of the development of the product (without going into details) and can say one thing for sure: It’s no accident editing occurred in Resolve last release and they started rolling this software out as “NLE agnostic” for finishing and onlining before adding:

1) A feature set that takes the best ideas from FCP7, X, PP, Avid, Smoke which they will continue to build on.

2) A way for developers to build more stuff — even a plugin for 3D Compositing if they don’t build it in first.

3) Collaborative timeline tools so multiple editors, mgfx, and colorists can work off the same project at the same time.

You would have to be blind to ignore what their strategy is. But this fits how the approached the camera market and basically every part of the production-to-post tooling they have their hand into. They are playing for keeps. And this software is WAY more advanced with more tools developed faster than I knew was even possible. Look at how long it took Smoke to get 2013 off the ground and continue to develop; it’s still not the most beautiful / functional design, but it works well finally. But BMD are killing it. And yes, I DO USE R10 regularly and FCPX regularly — together.

I really was sort of hoping I could use Resolve for most jobs and fall back on X for organization, ingest, and jobs with a lot of footage to manage until they reach a tipping point. By design I think it is better for that stuff. But once you have a build and most media — as others have mentioned in this thread — you might as well just finish it *** including deliverables *** with Resolve. Small or medium projects can just be Resolve only UNLESS you need lots of gfx or compositing.

[Shawn Larkin]

It’s been a while since I’ve chimed in on this stuff, but…

R11 can ripple its timeline very much the way X does without tracks. It’s really like a trackless-track NLE.

So they have ingest, edit, grade, master (export) all covered in one system.

They also have a plugin architecture that will allow for any number of things; including plugins to help motion graphic creation. OR..

If they build in 3D compositing, then it is basically a Smoke for free, and I have a feeling they will by the next release.

So for my money, I see this as an end-to-end tool for a ton of situations.

Maybe unscripted content is best off in X for tagging and logging with its superior metadata. And multi cam is an obvious choice in X now.

But wait a year or two. BMD is aiming for most of post creation with Resolve.

Didn’t you guys see this coming based upon how they roll each year?

[Shawn Larkin]

Hi Puali,

Pixel Conduit is a rather impressive piece of software that was on my radar a while back. I read your blog post about your decision to give it away and I wanted to say think you for your generosity.

Since it can handle DPX (at all popular bit depths), I was wondering if you had any motivation for creating or modifying a plugin so that DPX can be read and manipulated in FCPX / M5.

I realize this is not really an extension of your current plugin or standalone app. But since you did the color science and programming to handle DPX, can that be applied to FCPX/M5 so that one can have the freedom to work off those files natively?

Thanks in advance.

[Shawn Larkin]

Jeremy pretty much sums up the reality of the alternatives: Smoke, AE, Etc.

i think the A/V foundation + a New(er) Mac = a giant performance gain between Apple’s Pro Apps vs. those of Adobe or Autodesk or Avid.

I am curious to know if Apple will create a more independent eco-system for doing your work. Perhaps, you do all the heavy lifting in FCPX with some Motion in your timeline and then jump into Logic X for your final mix.

I mean in my dream world, M5 would have some additional compositing functionality added and you would be able to do some kind of high-end grading in Aperture. But that ain’t gonna happen so you still might need to go out to Nuke, AE, Resolve or Smoke for the final touches on shots or the whole show. But maybe not for audio if they can make it work with Logic X right.