Simon Ubsdell
6
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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[Bill Davis] “The future of the system may hold things like capabilities to do basic database based mixing and effects at a clip level (speculatively) rather than needing to route audio signals through a virtual mixer – as it does with track based systems that still pretty much hold to the traditions borrowed from analog workflows. “
This is what has long fascinated me about FCP X enthusiasts and Apple enthusiasts generally. They would like us to see imaginary future developments as current product benefits.
We have seen this time and time again.
In this particular area of audio mixing, we have yet to see Apple come up with anything approaching these grand plans but that has done nothing to stem the flow of romantic speculation.
Don’t get me wrong. I admire the enthusiasm. It’s the logic I can’t quite follow. In every other field, users wait for a product benefit to actually materialise before getting very, very exicted about it.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
There is a different way you could do this and that’s by rendering OpenEXR which allows you to access the alpha channel as an external matte directly inside the Resolve Color node, but you can’t do this directly from the Fusion Connect clip and you’d have to bring in the EXR image sequence into the Media Pool. So this option would “break” the basic Connect functionality. You could create a workaround though …
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
[Michael McCune] “Is there a way to create a matte within Fusion and, using Fusion Connect, bring it into Resolve as a matte???”
First of all thanks for your kind words about the Connect tutorial.
This matte question is one that I know you have asked a lot about in various different ways. Without knowing exactly what it is you are wanting to do, I am not sure why you don’t find the matte creation tools in Resolve adequate for your needs. Between the various keying options and the window options with their very powerful built-in tracking, you can achieve almost anything in Resolve in terms of matte creation that you can do in Fusion with the exception of Paint, and certainly more than enough for most color correction purposes.
However, if you do need Fusion’s particular toolset for this and you want to use Connect, here’s how I’d suggest you go about it.
Make a copy of the clip you want to send to Fusion and stack it above the original. Send the copy to Fusion using Connect.
Make your matte in Fusion (e.g. using a Background with a Polyline Effect Mask), and using a Channel Booleans Copy it to the Alpha of your image. (Do Nothing to the RGB channels.)
Render the result making sure to use a format that supports the alpha channel.
Back in Resolve you now have the ability to grade the inside and outside of the masked area independently because you have two clips to play with: the clip on the lower layer being the outside of the mask, and the Connect clip being the inside. With the Clips view enabled in the Color Workspace you can select the layer you want to work on.
You use all the usual Connect options to revise your matte or create new versions as required.
Does that help? Or is there a very particular requirement that you have for this workflow?
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
[Shawn Miller] ” I have to wait until September to get Fusion Studio, but I’m really looking forward to diving into the Resolve/Fusion workflow.”
I think you’re going to like it a lot.
I’ve been working with the new planar tracker and camera tracker these last few days and I’m very impressed with how well they are both implemented. As others have pointed out, they are incredibly solid for a “first version”.
This to me is something that BMD seem to manage really well – there’s very little if any of the “roughness” that you get with so many new features from other developers. Of course, anyone who has ever used Resolve will know that their tracking pedigree is world class, but even so this is a very impressive release. Needless to say, at this point you’re still going to get more out of dedicated solutions like Mocha Pro and Syntheyes and PFTrack and so on, but I think it’s fair to say that at the new price Fusion Studio is easily worth it for the trackers alone.
And of course, the Studio price unlocks a lot of extra functionality, like the powerful optical flow options and the full range of Primatte features, as well as the rich collaborative features which make it an increasingly attractive option for VFX facilities.
But I think the way it all now stacks up the Studio offering is pretty much a must-have for anyone with even the most modest VFX requirements.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
[Shawn Miller] “I’m sorry, I should have been more clear – Does Fusion Connect only output video clips for Fusion, or can it also render out single image files like .DPX or .TIFF files”
Ah, OK. Got you.
Yes, Fusion and Fusion Connect work with image sequences very well.
In fact, I prefer to use image sequences (my preference is for OpenEXR) wherever possible since you can re-render just a section of a complicated composition rather than the whole thing.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
[Shawn Miller] “Do you (or anyone) know if Fusion Connect also works with graphics?”
What do you mean by that?
The thing about Fusion Connect is that you are rendering media rather than doing any kind of live “dynamic” linking, although Andrew Devis showed a cunning if cumbersome way of doing a kind of live linking.
That means that any type of project is going to work just as well …
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
[Walter Soyka] “Fusion Connect doesn’t have to connect only to Fusion:”
That’s fun!!
As I say, the Fusion Connect mechanics are beautifully simple, making this kind of workaround very easy to do.
For more on Fusion Connect, I have an intro tutorial here: https://youtu.be/Z2D58JPIa0o
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
[Shawn Miller] “it will be VERY interesting for me to see if I can get through a complete project without touching an Adobe application. I’m going to try.”
Please let us know how you get on.
I for one would be very interested to hear how it goes.
Fusion Connect is such an apparently “simple” concept (though no doubt not remotely so from a developer’s point of view!) that it’s easy to overlook how powerful it can be. The more we see Fusion mature, the more important this link in the chain is going to become.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
That’s certainly extremely annoying. It’s not encouraging to see some of the things that Adobe are doing around stuff like this.
I notice however that you are not using Apple Photos, for which I believe you and many others held out high hopes when it launched:
“It’s interesting to speculate that the many, many still-imaging driven folks MIGHT have more in store from Apple.
Certainly, the number of people who need or want to work with still images is at least as big as those who need or want to work with video. And if Apple has the engineering skills – why not someday either a Photos Pro – or at least a really robust 3rd party ecosystem that adds tons of modern capabilities to the underlying structure.
Fun to dream.”
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/335/84464#84519
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
[Shawn Miller] “This is nearly an understatement! The Mocha plugin alone is more expensive than Fusion Studio, add a camera tracker and you’re looking at (minimum) another $300 US. I’m really looking forward to trying these features myself. ☺”
Haha! Everything you can say about this development is an understatement, I think.
We were all quite rightly absolutely awestruck by Resolve 14 and the Fairlight integration, but I think it’s fair to say that this Fusion release is potentially significantly more awesome.
And that’s just the first half of 2017, folks!
Nobody, but nobody, is changing the game at anything even remotely approaching that pace that BMD have now achieved.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki