da Vinci Systems, LLC, announced that its Resolve® v.6.2 software for R-series color grading systems for the first time enables Resolve to color grade native digital motion picture files – including debayered RED RAW files – and to grade between two remote systems. Available worldwide, new features in Resolve 6.2 also include enhanced support for 3-D color grading projects.
Resolve 6.2 dramatically accelerates workflows, improves performance, and shortens project completion times for commercials and motion pictures shot with RED cameras by eliminating the RED-to-DPX file conversion process and enabling colorists to grade the full dynamic range of RED files. da Vinci’s new Resolve Digital Powerhouse hardware system accelerates color grading of the highest quality .R3D files on R-series systems, and da Vinci plans to offer color grading for other native digital motion picture files, as well.
Before releasing Resolve 6.2, da Vinci Systems tested the new software and Digital Powerhouse at post-production facilities in Singapore and in Stockholm, Sweden, with impressive results.
“RED ONE jobs are now a ‘no brainer’ with da Vinci’s RED solution,” said Charlie Ellis, senior colorist and post-production manager for Blackmagic Design in Singapore. “da Vinci’s new software and Digital Powerhouse help us to forget how complex RED can sometimes be and instead lets us focus on creative grading rather than fixing RED conform issues.”
Relying on Resolve 6.2 and Digital Powerhouse, Ellis used the facility’s Resolve R-350™ to re-conform two RED projects. For the first project, 80 GB of RED raw files were added to the media pool, an offline CMX EDL was added to the timeline, the spots were conformed exactly, and Ellis was able to begin grading instantly. When he did the original project without Resolve 6.2, Ellis was forced to transcode 70 shots overnight on three Mac systems using REDrushes. With Resolve 6.2, there was no need for RED raw transcoding to DPX, and the .R3D files were debayered in real time without rendering the footage prior to grading.
In Sweden, Carl Skaff, head of telecine at Stockholm Postproduction, ran v.6.2 software on a Resolve RT™ with the latest music video directed by his brother, Anthony Skaff. Anthony Skaff had expected to spend two days grading using Final Cut Color. When he learned StoPP had implemented RED support, he moved the project to the facility, where it ran glitch-free and required only five hours of grading time.
Resolve 6.2 also enables two Resolve systems to be synchronized via an Internet connection so that color grading changes made on one colorist’s Resolve are immediately applied on another Resolve elsewhere in the world. “Therefore, a grading session being conducted in Los Angeles can be seen in a Resolve suite in Tokyo,” said Jim MacKrell, da Vinci’s services marketing manager.
The new Resolve software also delivers features that fine-tune stereoscopic grading and accelerate workflow in a 3-D environment, including managing gallery stills, providing output sizing, and displaying window outlines to facilitate placement of da Vinci PowerWindows™.
More features of Resolve 6.2 include ASC CDL export of primary grades to an EDL timeline with CDL comments; the ability to handle larger reel numbers from Final Cut Pro® EDLs; track mode support for matte files, enabling colorists to use matte clips to render subtitles; and extended format support, including support for legacy software formatting.
The Resolve software upgrade is included with new R-series systems and will be provided to existing customers currently using Resolve color grading systems.