Just bringing in some quad-copter GoPro footage shot at 50fps 1080p. Media Composer only supports 50fps up to 720p. Resolve can help you get around this (AfterFX can also do the job but isn't free). To convert your 50fps footage to 25fps in resolve:
- Create a new project
- Set timeline format to 25fps
- Add media to media pool
- Right click the clip and select Clip Attributes
- Change to 25 frames per second
- Render clip
- Import into Avid
It's that easy.
I also have Canon C300 footage shot at 720p 50fps. To get this footage playing back in slo-mo:
- Create a new Avid project
- Select 720 50p from project settings
- Import/consolidate/transcode footage
- Close project
- Open, in my case, 1080 50i project
- Open bin containing slo-mo clip
And that's it. clips should playback in slo-mo.
Btw while in Resolve I also find the stabilizer much better than in avid.
Showing posts with label davinci resolve. Show all posts
Showing posts with label davinci resolve. Show all posts
Monday, 17 November 2014
Thursday, 8 May 2014
DIY Build Editing & Colour Grading Suite
In November 2013 I began working on a series for Maori Television that has yet to be released. I am the sole editor / colorist for this 12 episode documentary series. I have completed 8 eps to date.
.JPG)
.JPG)
I'm cutting on Media Composer 7 and grading on Davinci Resolve 10 Lite.
Hardware. I started this series using my factory Dell XPS 8300 which performed well despite it's modest specs but strangely Dell computers aren't supported by Black Magic products. So even though Resolve worked ok on my Dell I wasn't able to connect a reference monitor via a Black Magic PCI card or USB hub. This is a problem since monitoring is essential for colour-grading. So I bit the bullet and upgraded my PC. I decided to do a DIY build. Why? Because I thought it would be fun and it was.
Black Magic have a list of certified motherboards so that was my starting point. I also found the videoguys guides very helpful. These are the components I went for:
Asus Z87 Expert
Intel i5 4573 (update: upgraded to i7 4773 K)
EVGA Geforce GTX760
2 X 8GB G.SKILL Ripjaws SDRAM (update: added 2 X 8GB)
Kingston 250GB SSD
Western Digital 4TB HD
Corsair HX750 PSU
Cooler Master case
Windows 7 Home Premium OEM (update: replaced with Windows 7 Pro OEM)
The Asus Z87 has on-board thunderbolt which will be useful to my future storage solutions.
I went for the i5 at first to cut cost and upgraded when I could afford to. My attempt to over-clock the cpu was pretty sad so I reverted to the default settings for stability. There are so many video cards on the market it was a nightmare choosing one but GTX760 has been working nicely so far.
When I wanted to upgrade the RAM I found out the hard way that Win 7 Home Premium only supports up to 16GB of RAM. What's more OEM versions can't be re-sold as they will not work on any other PC's. So I had to buy Windows Pro and let the Home Premium gather dust on the shelf.
.JPG)
I purchased an ex-demo Sony PVMA250 25" OLED from protel and yes the pictures are glorious!
To connect my monitor I purchased a Black Magic DeckLink Mini Monitor PCIe ($202 + GST).
The card is great BUT the audio is embedded in the video which means either playback the audio via the monitor or get an audio extractor to extract the audio from the HDMI signal. There are a variety of these on Ebay but I went for this unit from Jaycar Electronics ($99.90 + GST). Black Magic also sell products that are more expensive.
.JPG)
I have noticed a slight hum coming though but have yet to isolate it's source so will say no more. Sadly Media Composer and Resolve aren't so good at sharing so I have to close one of them to monitor the other which is a small pain. Otherwise my system is running sweet!
I will discuss the various workflow issues in my next post.
I went for the i5 at first to cut cost and upgraded when I could afford to. My attempt to over-clock the cpu was pretty sad so I reverted to the default settings for stability. There are so many video cards on the market it was a nightmare choosing one but GTX760 has been working nicely so far.
When I wanted to upgrade the RAM I found out the hard way that Win 7 Home Premium only supports up to 16GB of RAM. What's more OEM versions can't be re-sold as they will not work on any other PC's. So I had to buy Windows Pro and let the Home Premium gather dust on the shelf.
I purchased an ex-demo Sony PVMA250 25" OLED from protel and yes the pictures are glorious!
To connect my monitor I purchased a Black Magic DeckLink Mini Monitor PCIe ($202 + GST).
The card is great BUT the audio is embedded in the video which means either playback the audio via the monitor or get an audio extractor to extract the audio from the HDMI signal. There are a variety of these on Ebay but I went for this unit from Jaycar Electronics ($99.90 + GST). Black Magic also sell products that are more expensive.
I have noticed a slight hum coming though but have yet to isolate it's source so will say no more. Sadly Media Composer and Resolve aren't so good at sharing so I have to close one of them to monitor the other which is a small pain. Otherwise my system is running sweet!
I will discuss the various workflow issues in my next post.
Tuesday, 29 October 2013
Camera Test - 5D Mk3 Raw
I have just completed my first experiment with the 5D Mk3 + Magic Lantern RAW + Transcend 64 GB 1000x + Davinci Resolve 10 Lite...
Firstly, I'm pretty stoked about the huge improvement in image quality, not in the least because it was free. To put things in perspective this firmware has allowed 5D users to do things that only very expensive cameras do, such as the Canon 1D-C, Red Epic, Arri Alexa - that is, shoot/record in RAW. Black Magic continue to challenge the big brands with their competitively priced camera range, but they utilize a much smaller sensor than that of the 5D. The ML firmware has certainly super-charged these little units meaning the 5D (mk3) once again punches well above it's weight.
Check a single frame of raw footage and a 100% crop of that same image...
Clarity and Sharpness remain since by-passing the compression of the standard H.264 codec.
NZ is famous for the harshness of our sun and filming in the middle of the day it's hard to avoid extreme contrasts in light. Frequently skies blow out or shadows lose all detail. The image below was also taken from the RAW footage. I exposed for the highlights thus crushing the blacks. When 'developing' the raw file I was pleasantly surprised to find plenty detail retrievable in the shadows.
Workflow. Here comes the negative of working in RAW. The Raw files are many times larger than consumer codecs such as H.264 so you need bigger cards, greater storage and faster chips to deal with them. Larger file sizes takes us back to the days of offline/online editing when the computers weren't fast enough to handle the full resolution images. I'm sure raw movie files won't be an issue for pc's of the future but for now at least the process must be broken down into a number of steps. For this test I did the following:
1. Renamed files using Actions app.
2. converted RAW files to DNG's using RAW2CDNG app.
3. Imported files into Davinci Resolve.
4. Exported files as MXF files and an AAF to Avid MC.
5. Edited movie in Avid.
6. Exported AAF from Avid to Resolve.
7. Graded footage. in Resolve
8. Exported AAF to Avid.
9. Exported final movie.
I am still ironing out the wrinkles in my workflow. i.e. problems round-tripping AAF's to and from Avid and Resolve. The annoying teething problems will disappear once a solid workflow is established.
Davinci Resolve. Resolve is quite different in its layout to other programs I've worked with so it took me a while to get my head around it. Upgrading from version 9 to 10 also set me back a bit. BTW You have to upgrade to version 10 to be able to work in the BMFilm color space. I have only scratched the surface with this software and look forward to learning all the quick keys etc to get some good flow going.
Magic Lantern Firmware. To be honest I haven't fully investigated the functionality of this firmware except for the RAW aspect but overall it has been very stable without freezing once. I like how the firmware sits on the SD card and isn't permanently installed on the camera. The RAW module needs to be activated each time the camera restarts so set your automatic shut down to 5 or 8 minutes. I forgot to activate the RAW a few times and just shot H.264 and had no idea until afterwards. Playback of recorded RAW files is limited to the last file recorded. There was no message to say the card was full it just keep trying to record again but would stop and say skipped frame at...
Transcend 64GB 1000x. These cards are awesome. I had no problems at all and they performed as they should. Being in NZ Komputerbay was not an option so these were the next best thing and probably better.
Lenses. I used two main lenses for this test - canon 50mm f1.4, canon 135mm f2.0 L. Your lens choices are going to influence the look of your movie no matter what camera of what format you shoot in. The last lens I bought was the Canon 24-105mm f4 L which was sufficient when I was shooting H.624. The heavily compressed images were not inspiring me to invest in better glass. Now that I can see real clarity and greater detail I am once again seriously contemplating that perfect prime lens.
ND Filters. One thing I disregarded completely for this test was the shutter speed. Although I have ND filters I wanted to keep the test as simple as possible. As a result the shutter speed often rose towards the upper limit of 4000 meaning movement looked less filmic and more hip hop music video. For any serious work I would probably go for a matte box and some quality ND's.
Firstly, I'm pretty stoked about the huge improvement in image quality, not in the least because it was free. To put things in perspective this firmware has allowed 5D users to do things that only very expensive cameras do, such as the Canon 1D-C, Red Epic, Arri Alexa - that is, shoot/record in RAW. Black Magic continue to challenge the big brands with their competitively priced camera range, but they utilize a much smaller sensor than that of the 5D. The ML firmware has certainly super-charged these little units meaning the 5D (mk3) once again punches well above it's weight.
Check a single frame of raw footage and a 100% crop of that same image...
Clarity and Sharpness remain since by-passing the compression of the standard H.264 codec.
NZ is famous for the harshness of our sun and filming in the middle of the day it's hard to avoid extreme contrasts in light. Frequently skies blow out or shadows lose all detail. The image below was also taken from the RAW footage. I exposed for the highlights thus crushing the blacks. When 'developing' the raw file I was pleasantly surprised to find plenty detail retrievable in the shadows.
Workflow. Here comes the negative of working in RAW. The Raw files are many times larger than consumer codecs such as H.264 so you need bigger cards, greater storage and faster chips to deal with them. Larger file sizes takes us back to the days of offline/online editing when the computers weren't fast enough to handle the full resolution images. I'm sure raw movie files won't be an issue for pc's of the future but for now at least the process must be broken down into a number of steps. For this test I did the following:
1. Renamed files using Actions app.
2. converted RAW files to DNG's using RAW2CDNG app.
3. Imported files into Davinci Resolve.
4. Exported files as MXF files and an AAF to Avid MC.
5. Edited movie in Avid.
6. Exported AAF from Avid to Resolve.
7. Graded footage. in Resolve
8. Exported AAF to Avid.
9. Exported final movie.
I am still ironing out the wrinkles in my workflow. i.e. problems round-tripping AAF's to and from Avid and Resolve. The annoying teething problems will disappear once a solid workflow is established.
Davinci Resolve. Resolve is quite different in its layout to other programs I've worked with so it took me a while to get my head around it. Upgrading from version 9 to 10 also set me back a bit. BTW You have to upgrade to version 10 to be able to work in the BMFilm color space. I have only scratched the surface with this software and look forward to learning all the quick keys etc to get some good flow going.
Magic Lantern Firmware. To be honest I haven't fully investigated the functionality of this firmware except for the RAW aspect but overall it has been very stable without freezing once. I like how the firmware sits on the SD card and isn't permanently installed on the camera. The RAW module needs to be activated each time the camera restarts so set your automatic shut down to 5 or 8 minutes. I forgot to activate the RAW a few times and just shot H.264 and had no idea until afterwards. Playback of recorded RAW files is limited to the last file recorded. There was no message to say the card was full it just keep trying to record again but would stop and say skipped frame at...
Transcend 64GB 1000x. These cards are awesome. I had no problems at all and they performed as they should. Being in NZ Komputerbay was not an option so these were the next best thing and probably better.
Lenses. I used two main lenses for this test - canon 50mm f1.4, canon 135mm f2.0 L. Your lens choices are going to influence the look of your movie no matter what camera of what format you shoot in. The last lens I bought was the Canon 24-105mm f4 L which was sufficient when I was shooting H.624. The heavily compressed images were not inspiring me to invest in better glass. Now that I can see real clarity and greater detail I am once again seriously contemplating that perfect prime lens.
ND Filters. One thing I disregarded completely for this test was the shutter speed. Although I have ND filters I wanted to keep the test as simple as possible. As a result the shutter speed often rose towards the upper limit of 4000 meaning movement looked less filmic and more hip hop music video. For any serious work I would probably go for a matte box and some quality ND's.
Friday, 25 October 2013
RAW with Canon 5D mk3
There have been exciting developments in the DSLR world, particularly for owners of the Canon 5D mk3, thanks to the amazing work of the Magic Lantern team. They have brought 1920x1080 RAW capabilities to our mk 3's free of cost. This is a big deal as it really improves the image quality of our videos. Meanwhile Black Magic Design have also been offering their colour grading software Davinci Resolve for free for some time now. The combination of these tools is powerful indeed. There is plenty of information out there to help you get going with a raw workflow. I am not hugely technical but eventually managed to work it out from online info. And Now i am RAW ready! Here's a few pix of my set-up.
But you will need a couple of these - 1000x CF cards. 128GB will store 23 mins of RAW footage. I got mine from B&H for US$169 each. So far my only expense.
I will shoot some test footage this weekend so stay tuned!
Here is my set up.
Davinci Resolve Lite 10 (free download). I'm still getting my head around Resolve but I can already see the potential power of it.
Euphonix MC Color controller compatible with Resolve, Avid MC and more. Not essential but after using one you will struggle to go without.
Canon 5D mk3 with Varavon LCD viewfinder
Screen grab of Magic Lantern firmware RAW video page. The firmware is copied to the SD card so it runs in conjunction with the standard canon firmware. I haven't had any freezes nor over-heating.
I will shoot some test footage this weekend so stay tuned!
Sunday, 19 August 2012
Davinci Resolve
Hats off to pioneering company Black Magic Design for coming out with a couple of produts that are set to drasticaly change the landscape of the indie film industry. Firstly the release of Davinci Resolve - a powerful colour grading software. Resolve 9 Lite can be downloaded for free from the BMD website.
After a few days of playing around with it I am already seeing some pleasing results. Thes following grabs were taken from footage shot on my 5D Mk3.
Resolve uses nodes much like layers to add effects to your images. In the images above I used five nodes to add colour correction, reduced lumanance of the window, reduce lumanance in the face, add a blur and desaturate the background, and add a vignette.
This is an amazing tool that cost me nothing! thanks BMD you are awesome. Whats the catch? There really isn't one. You will need a reasonably fast computer to run the software and the free versions excludes a few features that professional colour grading suites will miss, i.e. the inability to utilize more than one GPU, but all the main functionality is there.
Keep in mind that this is a Beta version and there are a number of bugs still to be ironed out.
The second product from BMD is the Cinema Camera currently selling at B&H for USD$2,995.00. More test footage should be appearing very soon as these cameras roll out later this month. This camera doesn't have a large sensor and thus dosen't produce extreme shallow depth of field but it does produce 13 stops of dynamic range and... (wait for it) ships with a full version of Davinci Resolve! (save USD$995). The cameras latitude is up there with much more expensive cameras like the Arri Alexa and the Red Epic. And although we are still comparing apples with pears, this must surely be considered a minor victory for the little guy. =)
After a few days of playing around with it I am already seeing some pleasing results. Thes following grabs were taken from footage shot on my 5D Mk3.
Resolve uses nodes much like layers to add effects to your images. In the images above I used five nodes to add colour correction, reduced lumanance of the window, reduce lumanance in the face, add a blur and desaturate the background, and add a vignette.
This is an amazing tool that cost me nothing! thanks BMD you are awesome. Whats the catch? There really isn't one. You will need a reasonably fast computer to run the software and the free versions excludes a few features that professional colour grading suites will miss, i.e. the inability to utilize more than one GPU, but all the main functionality is there.
Keep in mind that this is a Beta version and there are a number of bugs still to be ironed out.
The second product from BMD is the Cinema Camera currently selling at B&H for USD$2,995.00. More test footage should be appearing very soon as these cameras roll out later this month. This camera doesn't have a large sensor and thus dosen't produce extreme shallow depth of field but it does produce 13 stops of dynamic range and... (wait for it) ships with a full version of Davinci Resolve! (save USD$995). The cameras latitude is up there with much more expensive cameras like the Arri Alexa and the Red Epic. And although we are still comparing apples with pears, this must surely be considered a minor victory for the little guy. =)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)