As befits anything having the phrase ‘V12’ as part of its name, the latest version of Blackmagic’s editing and grading package is a powerful beast with a lot of new features under the hood.
Grant Petty has been talking up this version of Resolve and it’s easy to see why. It’s not so much that it boasts 80 new features, but rather that they’re pretty useful ones to boot.
Visually it looks very different due to a new interface. Graders spend many, many hours with their tools and any refinements in this area are both welcome and extremely amplified for them. Change a button in the wrong way and the grumblings start on forums fairly instantly. New fonts for Resolve 12 though should hopefully make long sessions pass a bit easier on the eyes, the overall colour scheme has been lightened, while Blackmagic also promises a scalable interface that will look great on the latest clutch of high DPI monitors, as well as boasting a lot of new flexibility in workspace customisation.
There are a lot of grading tweaks — in fact given that they include ACES 1.0 transforms, a new accurate 3D perspective tracker, a new 3D keyer, the ability for colorists to define their own smart filters and more, ‘tweaks’ is a fairly mealy-mouthed way of describing them. But you can’t help picking up the fact that, with Resolve 12, Blackmagic is accelerating the process of turning the software from a grading package into a fully fledged finishing tool as there is a lot — and we mean a lot — of new editing grunt.
Multi-camera editing lets editors cut programmes from multiple sources in realtime; timelines can be nested, edited together and expanded or collapsed in place; editors can now select multiple points for dynamic trimming and asymmetric trimming of clips; the ability to round-trip with other NLEs has been souped up; there are new transition curves and on-screen controls; and there’s even an entirely new audio engine that offers higher sampling rates and greatly improved realtime audio playback performance, including reverse playback and tape style slow motion scrubbing during dynamic JKL trimming.
And those are just some of the highlights.
“DaVinci Resolve 12 is an incredible release that we think both editors and colorists are going to love,” says Grant Petty.
Keeping both disparate camps happy within the same software can be a challenge, but there’s a chance that that’s a trick Blackmagic might be starting to pull off with some adroitness. You can find out when the new release becomes available in July.
Read the full press release over the page...
NAB 2015, Las Vegas, USA - April 13, 2015 - Blackmagic Design today announced DaVinci Resolve 12, a major upgrade with over 80 new features for professional editing and color grading. This new update includes a new modern interface, multi-cam editing, powerful new media management tools, an entirely new professional audio engine with support for VST/AU plug-ins, shot matching, 3D keyer, new 3D perspective tracker, enhanced curve editing and much more.
DaVinci Resolve 12 will be demonstrated on the Blackmagic Design NAB 2015 booth at #SL219.
DaVinci Resolve 12 features a new, modern interface with a lighter overall color scheme and new fonts that help reduce eye strain and make it easier to work for long sessions. The new interface is scalable and has been designed to look great on high DPI monitors, such as retina displays. New top down navigation speeds up layout selections and also gives users more flexibility to customize their workspace.
The new multi-camera editing feature of DaVinci Resolve 12 lets editors cut programs from multiple sources in real time. DaVinci Resolve 12 can synchronize camera angles based on timecode, audio waveforms, or in/out points. The source monitor displays a grid containing the camera angles and plays them all back in sync while the editor makes cuts to the audio and/or video.
In addition to multi-camera editing, DaVinci Resolve 12 also features several enhancements to the core editing tools. All trim modes, multi-slip, slide, ripple and roll have been extended and editors can now select multiple points for dynamic trimming and asymmetric trimming of clips, even if they’re on the same track. Timelines can be nested, edited together and expanded or collapsed in place to greatly simplify editing of large multi scene projects. New transition curves let editors create and edit custom curves for transition parameters and new on-screen controls let editors see and adjust motion paths directly in the timeline viewer.
DaVinci Resolve 12 includes an entirely new, high performance audio engine that offers higher sampling rates and greatly improved realtime audio playback performance, including reverse playback and tape style slow motion scrubbing during dynamic JKL trimming. Both VST and AU audio plug-ins, along with their custom interfaces, are now supported and can be used on individual clips or entire tracks. Audio parameter adjustments can be recorded and now contain editable automation and full curve editor support. For the first time, editors will be able to export projects directly to ProTools via AAF for audio finishing.
Media Management in DaVinci Resolve 12 has been redesigned to accommodate editorial workflows. Customers can now manage projects and media using new copy, move, transcode, relink and consolidate tools. Whole projects, including media can be archived and restored with ease. Resolve 12 makes it easier to find media in large projects by letting users create smart bins that can display footage based on metadata tags. Users can now import media by simply dragging it in from the Finder or Windows Explorer, or by using new “Favorites” for one click access to commonly used media folders on disk.
DaVinci Resolve colorists will find incredible new tools that give them even more creative grading options than ever before. Resolve 12 improves upon DaVinci’s legendary advanced color science by adding support for DaVinci’s own color managed timelines as well as ACES 1.0 transforms, making it easier to get consistent results, especially when working in facilities with managed pipelines.
The core grading and color correction tools have also been improved with a new, easier to use curves interface, automatic color analysis and matching between two or more clips, an incredibly accurate 3D perspective tracker, and a new 3D keyer with improved matte finesse options. Colorists can now define their own smart filters, convert any window to a bezier, collapse multiple nodes into compound nodes to simplify their view, ripple grades across multiple clips, and flatten pre and post-group grades into a clip’s individual grade.
DaVinci Resolve 12 also now supports remote rendering so customers working in larger facilities can distribute rendering jobs to other Resolve systems that are on the same shared database and shared storage.
With dramatically improved editing, DaVinci Resolve 12 now has the ability to integrate with other NLEs even better. Edit timelines can "round trip" to other editing software and more of settings, plug-ins and edits are preserved. For example when importing XMLs from Final Cut Pro X, DaVinci Resolve 12 can now import multi-cam clips and preserve all the original camera angles. Also, audio support is greatly improved to match the audio timeline in Final Cut Pro X. This makes collaborative workflows better and allows different people in a facility to use the tools they prefer instead of being forced into an inflexible company wide platform.
“DaVinci Resolve 12 is an incredible release that we think both editors and colorists are going to love,” said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design. “We’ve built in the features customers have been asking for and, with the addition of multi-cam and some of the other great new editing features, we think that Resolve is perfect for both creative editing and finishing. It’s still the only system that lets customers switch from editing to grading with the click of a button, giving them the fastest, highest quality no compromise workflow. Best of all, customers can install DaVinci Resolve Lite and use it on real projects for free. There is no monthly subscription, you don’t need to be connected to the cloud, and you don’t need to buy any proprietary hardware!”
The update to DaVinci Resolve 12 will be available in July for download from the Blackmagic Design website free of charge for all current DaVinci Resolve customers.