DaVinci Resolve 18 Public Beta 2 released

BlackMagic Design after just 2 weeks has already updated the Beta of DaVinci Resolve 18 to beta 2. This software update adds new object mask capability in magic mask, improvements to Dolby Atmos immersive mixing, support for Dolby Atmos production for Linux and Apple silicon as well as support for rendering Dolby Vision compatible H.265 clips. In addition, this update improves collaboration workflows when working with restrictive firewalls, adds better proxy indicator status and improved performance for sizing presets. You can download the regular or studio versions at their support page.

Forbes on Blackmagic an amazing article

Matt Schifrin at Forbes has written an amazing article at Forbes on Blackmagic Design, "How an Aussie from the housing projects became a billionare making geat for Next-Gen Spielbergs." An awesome article, I didn't know quite how much I love this company. They are the company I get all my gear from.

Blackmagic Design releases DaVinci Resolve 18 Beta and a whole Cloud workflow with new hardware

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr8ft07qX_g&t=1923s They have released the Beta of DaVinci Resolve 18. It has extensive new features in addition to Cloud Collaboration. This includes Blackmagic Cloud, a new Proxy generator with simplified proxy workflow, intelligent Media Management. New features include Intuitive object mask, automatic depth map, track moving warped surfaces, and updated resolve fx beauty. It also has enhanced subtitles, reverse shape, iris and wipe transitions, it can view 25 multicam angles, and has YouTube and Quicktime Chapter Markers. Fusion updates include GPU Accelerated Paint and Text and Shape Acceleration. Fairlight updates can convert legacy projects to flexbus for high track counts, automatic binaural rendering, decomposition of nested timelines and innovative space view 3d display. Other new features include DaVinci Neural Engine Acceleration, Laptop HDR Monitoring on Apple Displays, Atmostpheric Simulation, Edge Detection, DaVinci WIde Gamut Color Space, 8K Real Time Color Correction and better M1 Ultra Performance. AI Tools include a Person Mask, Superscale uprez, smart reframe for Social Media, Stylize with Open FX Library, Fave Refinement, Dead Pixel Fixer, Object Removal, Patch Replacer. For Content Creators it adds upload to YouTube, Vimeo and Twitter, Import ATEM Mini Projects, Advanced Noise Reduction, optical flow speed change, Mix 2000 tracks in reral time, track and follow objects, and upgraded Color Warper for Refined Grading. Also new is the Blackmagic Cloud Store drive with 4 10G Ethernet Ports for local network and built in cloud share via dropbox, with proxy creation. It has super fast SSD drives. There is also a Cloud Store Mini for smaller situations or where you will use your own 10GB switch. And the Cloud Store Pod, which can have 2 USB C drives connected to it. And the HyperDeck Shuttle HD a desktop recorder and player for ATEM MIni Switchers, that can also be used with the Cloud Store. Wow, this is huge. A full cloud solution for DaVinci including sync. This is so impressive. I wonder if there will ever be solutions to use this with Premiere?

Chadwick Shoults at Creative Video Tips on DaVinci Resolve Project Server Collaboration – Shared Database Tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jSxQfLOR2s Chadwick Shoults at Creative Video Tips has a great tutorial on using Multi User Collaboration in DaVinci Resolve. Shoults always has awesome and easy to follow Tutorials, and so if you need to do multi-user in DaVinci this is a great one to check out.

Darren Mostyn on using the new Halation Tool in DaVinci Resolve and the 3rd party Dehancer Plugin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RcgBopXIGA Darren Mostyn has posted this 22 minute video on the new Halation plug in DaVinci Resolve and Dehancer the 3rd party Halation Plug-in. Halation is a film effect on lighting that happened with film and both these tools are for getting them in digital. And it is Studio version only

File Naming Conventions, my two cents

OK, so not always the most thrilling subject, but after arguing with a post super about this, I wanted to give my 2 cents on file and sequence naming conventions, and for some of the reasons behind why I think the way I do. So first off is spaces, and I am a firm believer that there should be no spaces in your file/sequence names. I know that modern computers mostly deal fine with spaces, but to be on the safe size I think you should use underscores instead of spaces. Now file names should start with the job identification and name that your company specifies that you should figure out, and as much identifying info as you need. So lets say you are doing a short Star Wars commercial that is 2 minutes long and is job 040477, and it is titled Millennium Falcon Kessel Run in so I would say it should be SW_040477_120_MFKR_ to start. And a quick note, 120 for 120 seconds, and you would do 060 for a 60 second. And then as shown in my earlier posts about using PostHaste to set up sequences, I use STRINGOUTS, ROUGHCUT, OFFLINE and ONLINE as the nomenclature for the sequence. Now I have been told by a post super from television that they only use the job name, info and title and a version number, nothing else, but at least for commercial work, bts works and short films I have worked on, I totally don't agree. Personally I think if you can do it, ROUGHCUTS are for internal distribution mostly and the OFFLINE is when it starts going to the client, and should be much more finished, and have a decent audio mix, color correct, graphics, as much as you can get so you don't end up with the I don't know how to watch a rough cut lady. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MNg3sSZ9F8 And I think you need ONLINE to designate the final exports, so you can keep track of them, as sometimes you go back to Ofllines and keep working then make new ones, and just version numbers can be confusing. Honestly I have had 3 or 4 Onlines at times, because you can't guarantee the client won't come back. Now this is something else that I think should be in your filenames, especially with remote work, and that is Initials of the editor/graphics artist. And even more so because with the job I am on, we have a graphics guy, who has been doing the graphics, but not only is too busy, but the ProRES 4444 takes a long time to upload and download, so he has been handing off his After Effects Projects, and After Effects projects are big and unwieldy, and hard to break down into individual comps. This means different people are rendering out graphics, and to make changes, it would be easiest to have initials in the file name of the graphics. And our Online editor also prefers initials in the file name, so…

Randi Altman’s Post Perspective Colorist Chat with Fotokem’s Dave Cole on working on Dune

OK I had to post this article on the Colorist of Dune because of the insane process for Color Grading that they did. I watched the new Dune at home on HBO Max, being a huge fan of the original David Lynch version, and having read all of Frank Herbert's original novels around the time the original film came out. I still am trying to wrap my head around the fact that they Shot the film on ARRI Alexa LF for the most part, then color graded in DaVinci Resolve, then scanned back to 35 mm film and then scanned back for grading. Which is to say at the least an incredibly expensive process. And how did it integrate with FX, did they do the scan first or after effects were added?