Asshray's VFX Level 01 Report
15 / 9 / 2024
Installation
For the installation of DaVinci Resolve, I searched for the software online. I navigated to the official Blackmagic Design website using the link provided: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/in/products/davinciresolve. I then selected the "Free Download" option and chose the appropriate version for my operating system. Once the download was complete, I followed the installation prompts to set up DaVinci Resolve on my system. The process was simple & straightforward, and the installation finished without any issues.
Basics
- Ctrl+S 🡪 Saves the project
- Ctrl+f in edit page 🡪 Enters editing media in full screen
- For Exporting project with all imp files & media, export as Archive file (.DRA)
Media Page
- If a particular source folder is used multiple times add them to favourites by right clicking or by drag-drop.
- I 🡪 Mark in
- O 🡪 Mark out
- If you select a group of media & right click You create timeline with selected clips. Then create Bins/ folders to segregate
Smart Bins:
- First select the needed clips and enter required metadata in the inspection section of the clip.
- Then in smart bins section and right click then click on add smart bins, then enter required filters/properties of the clip according to which clips are to be sorted then create the smart bin.
Power bins:
- To show power bins go to view (top most ribbon) then check on power bins.
- Bins which are common to all the Projects is power bins
- If a particular clip like logo is to be used across many projects keep them in favourites or power bins (preferred)
Edit Page
- Alt +Scroll wheel 🡪 Zoom in/out
- Shift+Scroll 🡪 Inc or Dec the size of video/audio in the timeline
- Ctrl+B 🡪 Cut at pointer head
- Reverse a clip/Change speed: Select the video/clip then go to inspector and scroll down to speed change and click on “🡪> or <🡨”. Speed can be changed by scrolling on the speed gear option.
- To stabilize the video/clip, select video/clip scroll down to stabilize and turn on stabilize, if the background is not well defined/dark then change from perspective mode to any other mode and then click stabilize.
- In & Out points can be marked just by clicking I and O while hovering over the video in the media pool, then drag and drop that footage into the timeline.
- Drag clips from media pool over the main footage screen to see the following option
(CLIP INSERTING OPTIONS):
- Place on top: Places the selected/dragged clip on a newly created timeline at the pointer head position just about the existing timeline. This does not disturb the existing timeline.
- Insert: Inserts clip on the timeline where there the pointer head is placed, even if there is not cut in the timeline, it automatically makes a cut in the timeline and inserts the clip.
- Replace: If there is a video clip of length AB and the pointer head is on C (between AB), then if you drag/select a clip and do replace operation, then AC video clip remains the same (initial clip) but from the pointer head to the end of the clip (CB) gets removed & replaced with the dragged/selected clip.
- Fit to fill: Completely replaces a particular clip in the timeline with the selected/dragged clip from the media pool, BUT USES THE SAME AMOUNT OF TIME/SPACE AS THE INITIALY EXISTING CLIP.
- Overwrite: Completely overwrites/replaces the existing clip in the timeline with the selected/dragged clip from the media pool, in this operation complete clip is replaced rather than fit to fill which replaces clip as long as the initial one.
- Overwrite and ripple: First Does the above operation (Overwrite) and then magnet connects other clips (at the end and beginning of the clip if any)
- Append at the end: Puts the selected/dragged clip at the end of the timeline. (Mainly used if the timeline is lengthy and you are at the staring of the timeline/if timeline is zoomed)
- If you want to select multiple random parts of a particular clip then do that placing markers at those position and by pressing alt and extending the marker for desired duration, then insert those specific clips/markers in the timeline selecting list view in the media pool and inserting those clips.
- For adding titles go to effects library and to customize them click on the title after bringing them in the timeline and then customize it in the inspector section.
- If you want to group multiple clips into one single clip then select all the necessary clips and right click, then click on new Compound clip. If you want to reverse this operation, right click on the compound clip and click on Decompose to original then click Decompose in place.
- If you want to edit the compound clip then go to media tab on bottom ribbon and right click on the compound clip, then choose open in timeline and edit the compound clip.
- Render in place: If you want to save/render just a particular edited clip in the timeline then right click on that particular clip and click on render in place. This is generally used when working with heavy clips/transitions/effects.
- If you want to inc/dec the speed multiple times in multiple parts of the same clip then use SPEED RAMP feature rather than cutting the clip multiple times and applying speed change individually because doing so will result in rough speed changes.
STEPS TO DO SPEED RAMPING
- First right click on the clip, click on retime controls and keep the pointer head on the section of the clip where you want to inc/dec the speed.
- Then click ‘Add Speed Point’.
- Then play with the top and bottom head of the speed change marker.
Transition and customization of transition:
- Smooth cut:
If there is a jerk or un-evenness in case of a cut then apply a transition called Smooth Cut at the cut position, which nullifies the jerk in case of a cut, the lengthier the effect the better it is, if the effect is set for a short time, then the cut jerk can be detected easily.
Effects:
For using filters/effects on a particular video drag the desired effect/filter on the clip needed and customize it accordingly in the inspector section.
- Adjustment layer:
It is a type of effect in which A-Z everything is customizable according to the user’s need mainly used to making effects like dynamic zoom, so that it can be used multiple times and there is no risk of the source clip getting damaged.
Optimized & Proxy media:
If the clips are of very high resolution say 4k then while scrubbing over the timeline the view media lags and jitters so to avoid that use optimized & Proxy media.
-Optimized media: Select all the high-resolution clips in the media pool then right click on them to select on ‘Generate optimized media’. While using optimized media the resolution of the view media remains same but uses very high storage in the storage (cache)/memory. Optimized media also takes more time compared to proxy media.
-Proxy media (Recommended): Select all the high-resolution clips in the media pool then right click on them to select on ‘Generate Proxy media’. While using proxy media the resolution of the view media reduces by 1/8th (if needed change by clicking gear icon of settings on the bottom most ribbon) as a result the space of the overall project reduces exponentially and the pointer head moves smoothly over the high-res clips.
PS: While rendering/saving the project, the original resolution is saved proxy/optimized media resolution & space is used just in the timeline for smoother movement of pointer head without lag.
Note: For de/activating Proxy/Optimized media go to playback on top most ribbon then click on ‘Use proxy/optimized media if available’.
Multi cam edit:
- First insert all the clips & audio files in the media page (bottom ribbon), then right click on the files and select, ‘Create new multicam clip using selected clips’.
The above step can also be done in the media pool section of the edit page.
- Then change angle sync to ‘Sound’ & angle name to ‘Sequential’.
- Then switch off inspector so that 2 screens are enabled.
- In the ribbon just above the timeline and just below the dual viewing screen there is screen option with down arrow(source), click on that and change it to multicam.
- If you want to synchronise audio and video only for a particular clip then select the desired clips and right clip on them to select auto align clips and then based on waveform.
- Then start doing multi cam edit by selecting the multi cam timeline and clicking on the desired image with blade icon (by default cursor changes to blade) at required points in the clip/video.
Cut page:
Few Cut/Edit page shortcuts:
L🡪Video moves forward in the project view tab**
L (multiple times)** 🡪 Video moves in fast forward in the project view tab
K🡪Video pauses in project view tab
J🡪Video moves backwards/reverse in the project view tab
J (multiple times) 🡪 Video moves in fast backward/reverse in the project view tab
K & L🡪Video moves in Slow forward
K & J🡪 Video moves in Slow backward
-Same as edit page but is used to do edits a bit faster, here there are 2 timelines top (blue bar timeline) and bottom zoomed in timeline, below timeline always has its pointer head fixed at the centre, whereas the above timeline has a mobile pointer head. Below timeline is just the zoomed in view of the top timeline. No matter how many clips you add to the bottom timeline the top timeline always fits in the given space and this also gives us the advantage of easily navigating through long/lengthy timelines, as we can just drag the mobile pointer head in the top timeline to desired location.
-Source tape:
Viewing all the media files which are there in the media pool (edit page/cut page) in a single timeline, just under the project view screen, where separate files are separated by a single white line.
-Audio trim feature: This feature is found in the cut page in case you are removing a part of the video with the help of scrubbing from any one end of the clip in the timeline with the help of audio & cannot see the audio waveform, since in cut page audio wave is small then enable this feature (Audio Trim- [IiIiIi]) present just beside the magnet icon in the right & top most bar of the bottom timeline, enabling this feature automatically enlarges the audio wave scrubbed from the corners for cutting the clip.
Fairlight (Core Audio Editing):
Click on the below video to view the file created on the Fairlight page
Deliver Page:
For explaination watch this:
Tips & Tricks:
- Render faster with less space:
If you want to render faster (using GPU), which saves time, saves final output storage, then in delivery page use the .265 codec. The only requirement for this is strong GPU. - Voice Isolation: If you want to remove/reduce background noise from a audio/video select that clip then go to Fairlight section, then click on mixer on the top ribbon, then in the mixer bar in the right most bar below the video clip, in the Track Fx column click on voice isolation and customize accordingly.