Da Vinci Resolve questions

[wco81]

I think several people use Da Vinci Resolve for video?

So I shot mostly DLOG with my M2P and now I wanted to see if I can grade it so it doesn't have the pale, muted look. I can tell definitely that the video is sharper than the regular mode.

Just downloaded the latest Da Vince Resolve 16 beta for Mac OS X.

Not looking to do anything complicated, just dropped one of my DLOG clips and played around with the different color profiles. I don't know if that is the same as applying different LUTs but they named them after a lot of cameras, probably professional ones that I've never heard of.

Played around with several but the one I liked best for this clip, which shows some blue-green water in a harbor and greenery in the surrounding coast, is a DJI Phantom 4 DLOG Rec709. All it takes is a mouse click and the color change is applied instantly, no real rendering time or anything. Or at least that must be the preview?


1. Is there more to color grading? Do you guys import different LUTs than the color profiles built into DVR 16 beta?

2. I downloaded a royalty-free instrumental MP3 from freemusicarchive.org. Dropped it into DVR but I couldn't get the audio and video to play together. No way to preview how they'd work together?

3. I hit the "Deliver" tab at the bottom and there are save output settings, like the name of the file, resolution, format, etc. I set those up and clicked "Start Render" and it's been going for 15 minutes but there's no sign of the saved file and there's nothing happening on the app. screen. But it is drawing about 10-15% of my iMac's CPU.

I don't know if it's actually rendering or waiting for something else. It's a 5-minute 4K clip. Will it take hours?

 

[cyeung]

Hello, fellow DaVinci Resolve user! I have been using it on my Mavic Air. Hopefully I can help!

1. For starters, you should go download the LUT from DJI's web site: Mavic 2 - Specifications, FAQs, Videos, Tutorials, Manuals - DJI - find the entry labeled "DLog-M to Rec709 LUT." You can also use a ColorChecker Video, but whatever you get there is only good for that one shot.

2. When you said, "Dropped it into DVR," does that mean into the media pool? If so, you will need to drop the music into the timeline under one of the audio tracks in order to make the video play alongside the audio.

3. Was this "Start Render" button that you hit on the left or right side of the screen? If it is on the left side, you have merely added a clip to the render queue. You will need to hit the button near the right side of the screen to actually start the process. When it is rendering, you will see the timeline start to play and show you what frame it's rendering at.

 

[wco81]

Yes I added both audio and video and was able to render after all.

How do you add the .cube files to DVR? I don't see an import button and in the Color window , I don't even see the same color profiles that you see in the Edit window.

 

[cyeung]

Yes I added both audio and video and was able to render after all.

How do you add the .cube files to DVR? I don't see an import button and in the Color window , I don't even see the same color profiles that you see in the Edit window.

To make the LUT available in the color page:

1. Go to File, then select Project Settings.
2. Select Color Management from the left pane.
3. Find the Lookup Tables section. Near the bottom should be a button that says Open LUT Folder. Click it.
4. Drag the LUT you downloaded into that folder.
5. Click Update Lists, wait a few seconds, and then Save.
6. Go to the Color page of the applicable item.
7. Right-click on the node (usually 01), then select LUTs, and then 3D LUT.
8. You should be able to find the LUT.

Edited with screenshots ... If you have $55, pick up Dion Scoppettuolo's "The Definitive Guide to DaVinci Resolve 15" and go through it cover-to-cover. I did, and it took my editing to the next level! Good luck!

 

[wco81]

Thanks!

Any other good LUTs out there worth trying?

The other DJI ones really mess up the colors.

 

[wco81]

One other question,I had a 5-minute video which was 3.76 GB in size.

I did a simple applying of a LUT and then added in a MP3 track and once rendered, that video is under 400 MB, as a MP4.

Seems like a huge reduction. Almost 1/10th the size or the original. Are you getting anything similar?

I didn't bother editing out frames, kept it the same length.

 

[cyeung]

I only have a Mavic Air, so I only get D-Cinelike. In terms of colors getting messed up, can you give us a screenshot? Remember, the LUT only gets you so far. The rest is up to you.

 

[wco81]

I just tried the different ones and the water color would be darker than it was, like dark blue instead of blue green for instance.

Skies might be more saturated blue too.

The other thing I just found out, I did a 5 minute clip, saved it with new color profile and music and it looked okay.

A second 5-minute clip, which came from 5 separate videos and 3 separate audio files at the very end showed a Da Vinci Resolve Studio watermark across the whole screen. So I guess if you want to assemble more than 4 clips on the free version, you're going to get that watermark and would have to pay to eliminate it.

 

[cyeung]

Based on my experience working with someone else's video from a Canon C300, videos recorded in log with a standard LUT do usually come out over-saturated. In which case, it is up to you to make the adjustments using the various tools available to you.

Whether the watermark shows up depends on what effects you have applied to the video. I also have the free version of DaVinci Resolve (upgrading soon); but as you see in my second screenshot of Post #4, I have 14 clips in my timeline, and I can export with no watermarks.

 

[wco81]

Hmm, I only added cross dissolves between the videos.

I also tried making some color changes by moving around the curves but didn't like the result so I trashed the project and started again.

Then I tried sharpening a little.

So my audio clips combined was about 10 seconds longer than all my video clips. So while the last of the last audio clip was playing there was this big red symbol and the letters Media Not Found. So I tried to cut the video I would render by setting a Mark Out point.

Then I rendered.

I don't know if it's a coincidence that the overlap or watermark appears over the entirely of the last video clip. I don't think I did anything special to it that I didn't do to the other clips.

I understand they want to upsell you to the pay version, though they seem to be selling a lot of hardware too.

 

[Corthan]

Any other good LUTs out there worth trying?

I find that the DJI LUT is pretty good. Another one I use a lot is the Leeming LUT (Leeming LUT Pro). It's cheap, around $15 US, and made specifically for the Mavic 2 Pro. It provides very natural colours and still grades well after application. You have to follow the recommendations to ETTR (expose to the right on your histogram). On darker shots, I find the DJI LUT works better, though is a little saturated for a truly natural look. I'ts easy to dial down a little. Cheers.

 

[cyeung]

Hmm, I only added cross dissolves between the videos.

I also tried making some color changes by moving around the curves but didn't like the result so I trashed the project and started again.

Then I tried sharpening a little.

So my audio clips combined was about 10 seconds longer than all my video clips. So while the last of the last audio clip was playing there was this big red symbol and the letters Media Not Found. So I tried to cut the video I would render by setting a Mark Out point.

Then I rendered.

I don't know if it's a coincidence that the overlap or watermark appears over the entirely of the last video clip. I don't think I did anything special to it that I didn't do to the other clips.

I understand they want to upsell you to the pay version, though they seem to be selling a lot of hardware too.

There is no need to trash the project and start again. Let's walk through the Color page, because chances are that's where you triggered the watermark.



In reference to the above screenshot, if you've made a change in a certain aspect, you'll see a red dot (1). To reset an adjustment, click (2). You can also reset the entire pane by clicking (3). Chances are that you triggered the watermark using one of the OpenFX items. To take it out, right-click on the node (4) and select Remove OFX plugin. Lastly, to start over, you can right-click on a node and select Reset Node Grade.

If you have $55, I suggest you pick up Dion Scoppettuolo's The Definitive Guide to DaVinci Resolve 15: Editing, Color, Audio, and Effects (The Blackmagic Design Learning Series), available here: The Definitive Guide to DaVinci Resolve 15: Editing, Color, Audio, and Effects (The Blackmagic Design Learning Series): Dion Scoppettuolo, Paul Saccone: 9780999391365: Amazon.com: Books

 

[Cinebird]

Thanks!

Any other good LUTs out there worth trying?

The other DJI ones really mess up the colors.

 

[Cinebird]

I have purchased quite a lot of LUTS and realised that despite the very beautiful advertising I saw, most of them are worthless: too exaggerated by all means: saturation, contrast...The only ones which are really useful in my opinion are those from SKygrade. The Dlog to Rec.709 (natural grade) are still a little bit too greenish but let enough room to tweak. You can combine them with their Cinema grade package, each at 50% for example which works really well.

 

[cyeung]

As for me, I'm a "no-LUTs" guy. Just feel out the video, think about what effect I want, and dial in my grade manually. Usually, I focus on making the picture as faithful of a reproduction of what I saw as possible.

 

[Cinebird]

As for me, I'm a "no-LUTs" guy. Just feel out the video, think about what effect I want, and dial in my grade manually. Usually, I focus on making the picture as faithful of a reproduction of what I saw as possible.

 

[Cinebird]

Depending on the project, I completely agree not to use LUTs. Don’t agree completely that final look has to match reality. LUTs add a look to your project which deliberately differs from reality: that’s the whole sense of LUTs...

 

[wco81]

THanks, I checked the contextual manual and I guess I enabled HDR on that last clip.

That's the reason I got that overlay.

 

[wco81]

But are you guys also seeing a 10 to 1 compression between the raw footage and the finished video you export?

I choose the Youtube preset for 2160p, 25 fps, H.265.

 

[Kilrah]

These are presets, obviously you can change anything you want after that. Below the preset you should see a Bitrate setting, that what determines how big your file is going to be. The source footage is 100Mbps, if I remember well the Youtube 4K preset sets 10M so a 10x reduction is expected.