DaVinci Resolve Ext Matte issues in Color Page

OK so I am running into some issues on  DaVinci Resolve right now using an Ext Matte in a color correct node, and I am wondering if I am doing something wrong, if this is how it is supposed to function.
I have some shots that were shot just as the sun was going down at the end of a shoot without enough lighting. So the exterior is way too dark, and it has to match the daylight exteriors. Now I tried to do matte’s in DaVinci and even tried the new smart mask on the people, but I found I could get a better matte in After Effects with the Roto Brush. The matte is the exact same size as the shot in the sequence in the show, for this shot 1 second and 10 frames, so I made a matte that started at the first frame and is exactly 1:10 in the frame, but when I add the Ext Matte to the shot, while the scale matches up, it certainly does not match first frame to first frame.

So I unchecked Lock Matte to be able to  adjust the clip manually. And had to adjust the zoom, tilt and offset to get it to work. I don’t get why I have to set the offset to -14, since the matte is the same length as the visible portion of the shot in the sequence, and the full shot is much longer than 14 frames. SO I AM TOTALLY CONFUSED BY THE OFFSET.

 

Even weirder to me than the Offset though is the tilt. I had to set it at -571 to get it to line up (and why can’t there by a match for position, but change the offset?) and that is weird to me, because I have below the transform for that clip within the edit panel. The zoom matches at .6, but the position is -150, so where does the -571 come from? I should be able to match the 2 clips by using the same numbers, not completely different numbers! WTF!

Not sure what I am doing wrong here, but if anyone can explain to me why the offset and tilt are like they are it would be greatly appreciated.

Some really cool online editing tools at EditiingTools.io

EditingTools.io is a very cool web site with some very useful tools online. You might not need them right now, but when you do it is going to be great to remember they are there.

EditingTools.io is a collection of generators, scripts, converters and machine learning applications made over the last years for various projects & productions. 

They accept donations to keep their free tools online.

There are some very useful tools for converting or combining AVID Log Exchange files or ALE files.

XML to Splitscreen XML to perfectly do split screens.

A very useful Marker Converter to convert timeline markers from Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Frame.io, SubRip Subtitle, CSV, PDF and more.

A subtitle tool & converter.

A tool to generate an Editor’s Codebook from ALE files.

A Music Cut Sheet creator from XML files (woohoo, awesome if you have to make them).

A Edit Shot List / VFX Shot List from XML.

And so much more. These are great tools to know about in case you need them.

Apple Quicktime on Mac and it’s awful issue of Gamma Shift in Video from Premiere and DaVinci Resolve

An image from a short film I have been grading, on the left is the image as shown by quicktime, and the right is in VLC matching what you see in DaVinci, you can see that they are quite different. It is the damn Apple Quicktime Gamma shift!

So I have been having issues with the gamma problem with my producers viewing my movies, since I am working from home, and we are running Premiere. I knew about the issue in the past, but have been looking into any solutions, and found some amazing articles on the subject that you should certainly read to know more about this frustrating issue.

Todd Dominey has an awesome article on the issue from Janurary 24th, 2021, that is a must read.

And Dan Swierenga has another great read on DaVinci and the issue at his blog The Post Process.

For those who don’t know is that basically Apple and Quicktime have a Gamma shift issue with Video Footage that has to do with Apple Colorsync and how it tags video. So if you play your videos on a Mac in Quicktime or in any Colorsync application (life Safari) a video from Adobe Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve they will be brighter and less contrasty than they actually are. It can be a huge issue when sending to clients.

The issue does not occur with Final Cut Pro X because it uses ColorSync (not having to be cross platform).

The solution is to use a non-colorsync application to play the video back and it will look correct (or at least more as it was intended). This can be done with Mozilla Firefox or VLC.

You could add a LUT to try and fix it (and Adobe actually has one) but for people on windows or using a non-color sync app the image will be too dark, and the the fix is never going to be perfect.

So the problem become getting people to use VLC as Apple is never going to fix it’s messed up Gamma settings.

Blackmagic Design has released the full version of DaVinci Resolve 17

 

So Blackmagic Design has brought DaVinci Resolve 17 out of Beta and released it today.

Check out the What’s New section for the new features, which are extensive.

Some highlights include

  • Next Generation HDR Grading Tools, let you grade in very specific tonal ranges, and control the exposure and saturation for each zone. (this is awesome, as I loved have more granular controls in speedgrade way back when).
  • Color Warper for Refined Grading.
  • Targeted Grading with Magic Mask. I have not tried this out yet, but look forward to giving it a try as anything to get better masks easier is a good thing and will speed up any work flow.
  • DaVinci Wide Gammut Color Space and Advanced Color Management
  • Updated 3D Professional Scopes
  • Additional LUT support (easier to make 17 point 3D luts from Timeline
  • New Viewer Wipe Modes including diagonal, venetian blond and checkerboard.
And many many more.
Looking forward to diving into the 350 page New Feature Guide and really seeing what this thing can do.

Blackmagic Design announces Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro

 
Blackmagic Design has announced the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 6K Pro camera, and even more impressively released it at the previous price of the BMPC 6K $2499. This camera includes the same sensor as the 6K camera, but with some features people have been clamoring for. 

First off is the articulated screen which can tilt up or down (though not to the side for vlogging) which is hdr and 1500 nit brightness. This is huge, there have been kits to upgrade the screen in previous models, but this is built in.

Next are 3 motorized ND filters with infared, including, 2, 4 and 6 stops of ND.
 
The battery has been changed to the larger Sony NP-F570 battery, which should provide longer run times and the Battery Pro grip which adds 2 more batteries doesn’t replace the internal battery and lets the 2 batteries in it to be swapped while still recording.

Then we have an additional mini xlr input, for 2 mini xlr inputs.

 

And it will now include the color science 5 from the 12K camera, though that is also coming to the 6K and 4K models.

And you can aslo add for $499 an EVF eye piece with glass lenses that will shut off the touch screen when in use.

All this does mean the camera is even larger than the previous 6k model (which will make it interesting for stabilizers), and people are already complaining about the still having an ef mount and not the new rf mount at least. 

I don’t see any of that as a problem, this is a very impressive camera, and I want one.

ProVideoCoalition Speed Editor Review Part 2 Multi-Cam Editing

Scott Simmons at ProVideo Coalition has posted his second part of his review of the DaVinci Resolve Speed Editor, this one focused on Multicam Editing, which seems to be mostly a mess.

While The Speed Editor seems great overall, it’s basis in the Cut Page and the buttons chosen on it seem to be the main problems of it., and the reason I will likely never get it, though maybe a version 2 more focused on Editing?

ProVideoCoalition Reviews the DaVinci Resolve Speed Editor, which seems to be mostly for Cut Page

Scott Simmons at the Pro Video Coaition has posted part 1 of 2 of an in depth review of the DaVinci Resolve Speed Editor Keyboard. This part 1 is about all the functionality minus the multi-cam functionality which will be in part 2.

It is a great review, and shows that this is really for the Cut Page of DaVinci resolve, a page that is likely going to slow down experienced editors until they use it for a long time. I have barely used the cut page yet, as I think the Edit page needs more depth, and I am much more comfortable with a less Final Cut Pro X type interface, though there are some things for scanning footage that seem great.

Honestly it makes me not care so much about it or the full DaVinci keyboard as I don’t want keys that are just for the cut page, but would like things for the edit page as well.

And in depth and well worth it read.

Bare Feats does speed tests on M1 MacBook Pro on DaVinci Resolve 17 and it shows the power of GPUs

 

Bare Feats has run speed comparison tests with DaVinci Resolve 17.0 beta 4 on the m1 MacBook Pro and the 2017 iMac Pro, 2 variations of the 2019 MacPro and the 2013 MacPro.

And the results are not surprising, the M1 currently gets stomped in 4K Noise Reduction by more than 2x, almost 3x for the slowest Mac (the 2017 iMac Pro Pro Vega 64).

And at least currently it seems to show the power of GPU adds to Macs, over what the M1 can do. Now surely the M1 will scale, but we will have to see just how far it goes.

I missed this, the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K Data rates are insane!

Ok so I missed this first looking at the URSA Mini Pro 12k, but they have listed the data rates for it’s video settings in the tech specs and they look great!

Storage Rates

Storage rates based on 24 frames per second.

12K – 12,288 x 6480
Blackmagic RAW 5:1 – 578 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW 8:1 – 361 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW 12:1 – 241 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW 18:1 – 160 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW Q0 – 241 to 578 MB/s 1
Blackmagic RAW Q1 – 144 to 361 MB/s 2
Blackmagic RAW Q3 – 96 to 241 MB/s 3
Blackmagic RAW Q5 – 72 to 180 MB/s 4

8K – 8192 x 4320
Blackmagic RAW 5:1 – 258 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW 8:1 – 161 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW 12:1 – 107 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW 18:1 – 72 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW Q0 – 107 to 258 MB/s 1
Blackmagic RAW Q1 – 64 to 161 MB/s 2
Blackmagic RAW Q3 – 43 to 107 MB/s 3
Blackmagic RAW Q5 – 32 to 81 MB/s 4

6K – 6144 x 3240
Blackmagic RAW 5:1 – 145 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW 8:1 – 91 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW 12:1 – 61 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW 18:1 – 40 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW Q0 – 61 to 145 MB/s 1
Blackmagic RAW Q1 – 36 to 91 MB/s 2
Blackmagic RAW Q3 – 24 to 61 MB/s 3
Blackmagic RAW Q5 – 18 to 45 MB/s 4

4K – 4096 x 2160
Blackmagic RAW 5:1 – 65 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW 8:1 – 41 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW 12:1 – 27 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW 18:1 – 18 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW Q0 – 27 to 65 MB/s 1
Blackmagic RAW Q1 – 16 to 41 MB/s 2
Blackmagic RAW Q3 – 11 to 27 MB/s 3
Blackmagic RAW Q5 – 8 to 20 MB/s 4

Recording Formats

Blackmagic RAW Q0, Q1, Q3, Q5, 5:1, 8:1, 12:1 and 18:1 at 12,288 x 6480, 11,520 x 6480, 12,288 x 5112, 7680 x 6408, 8192 x 4320, 7680 x 4320, 8192 x 3408, 5120 x 4272, 6144 x 3240, 4096 x 2160, 3840 x 2160, 4096 x 1704 and 2560 x 2136 stored as 12 bit non-linear with film, extended video, video or custom 3D LUT embedded in metadata.

1 Constant Quality setting Q0 storage rates quoted are indicative only, based on a 5:1 – 12:1 compression range.
2 Constant Quality setting Q1 storage rates quoted are indicative only, based on a 8:1 – 20:1 compression range.
3 Constant Quality setting Q3 storage rates quoted are indicative only, based on a 12:1 – 30:1 compression range.
4 Constant Quality setting Q5 storage rates quoted are indicative only, based on a 16:1 – 40:1 compression range.
Actual storage rates are entirely dependent on image subject matter.

These data rates are insanely low, wow! Honestly this blows the Canon R5 and R6 out of the water. Wow, will this move down to the BMPCC? Lets hope so!

BlackMagic updates the Ursa Mini Pro to 12K and improves BlackMagic RAW to deal with it

Wow, so BlackMagic has done it again and instead of going full throttle with 8K like Canon, has jumped right to 12K for $9.999 with the new 12K Ursa Mini Pro! And with a full 35mm sensor that has no pixel binning and can supposedly do different resolutions with the full sensor. Wow, will have to see it, but if so that is really impressive. And they showed playback with BlackMagic RAW 12K on an Apple Macbook, and they said that Metal is in fact ahead of windows right now.

I have to admit I was hoping for a full frame BPCC 6K or 8K, but this is a very impressive high end camera. Wonder what it is going to do for high end cinema.