In part 6 of our six-part video series The DaVinci Resolve 15 Crash Course, we take a look at the basic settings you need to know to use all these tips.
In the final episode of the new editor-friendly Resolve 15 crash course, we’re going to cover the remaining settings you need to know to put all these tutorials to use. Don’t worry though: we’re not diving headfirst into technical jargon and advanced settings — we’re just going to cover the settings that new editors might want to check before getting started in Resolve.
If you need to brush up on the series, you can watch the first episode here.
All right. Let’s get started.
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In Resolve, there are two settings menus: the system preferences and project settings. First, let’s look at the system preferences, which you can find by navigating to DaVinci Resolve > Preferences. Let’s look at a few settings that you may need to change when first loading up resolve.
Memory and GPU
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The very first window is the Memory and GPU panel; in here, you can limit how much RAM Resolve uses. Now, the more you allocate to Resolve, the less there is for other processes, which may, in turn, make things worse. However, if you find that Resolve is behaving sluggishly, see if you can increase the memory in this panel. (Even though I have 16gb installed, I can only use up to 75 percent.)
Audio I/O
I often switch between using my monitors and headphones, and sometimes, if it’s open when you’re changing the system volume, Resolve can get confused. If that’s ever the case, head into the Video & Audio I/O, and here you can configure your audio output.
Alternatively, if you want to keep your system volume oriented to the monitors, you can use this panel to change from the system default to your headset. On a basic level, I think these two are the only options you need to know. Although, I would say, for good measure, read up on the autosave feature.
Project Settings
If the system settings affect the hardware, the project settings affect the project and software, like the resolution and frame rate. To get here, you need to head to the bottom right, where we have a cog icon. Let’s first look at timeline resolution because this can sometimes catch people out.
As I mentioned in Episode 3, you set your timeline resolution when you create a project, when you create a timeline, or when you first import a clip that doesn’t match the default settings — Resolve will ask if you want to make adjustments. If for example, you want to switch from 4K to 1080p so you can crop the 4K footage, you would open the project settings, and change the timeline resolution to 1080p. (However, look at what happens when we do this — see video.)
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The 4K footage in the viewer has remained the same scale. If we were to insert a 4K file onto a 1080p timeline, then we would have to decrease the scale of the 4K file to fit into the viewer completely, right? But Resolve has an image scaling process that will change how your footage interacts with a timeline with a different resolution.
To adjust these properties, we need to drop down one panel to Image Scaling. Here, you will find an Input Scaling option, which controls the resolution of mismatched media. The default says “scale entire image to fit,” which is what happened to our footage. However, we can change that to “center crop with no resizing,” and when we do so, the image in the timeline has resorted to its recorded resolution.
There may be a time when you’re working with 4K and you want the majority of clips to decrease in scale, leaving only a few at the default size so you can crop and zoom in and so forth. Well, changing the entire timeline properties is going to be cumbersome. So, instead, after changing the timeline resolution, close the settings panel, select the 4K clip that you want to keep at default size, open the inspector, and scroll down to the scaling section. Statscenter 1 4 download free. Here, instead of using the project settings, change them to crop, which will then override the 1080p project setting.
Optimized Media
Let’s look at one more basic setting that may improve your Resolve workflow if you feel like playback is sluggish. There’s no denying that Resolve needs a somewhat-powerful machine to operate efficiently. However, even my computer, which is reasonably well-kitted-out, struggles with high-resolution files with a significant data rate. There are two things we can do to lighten the load. We can go to Playback > Proxy mode and lower the resolution of the playback.
You can see the drastic decrease when I switch playback to a quarter resolution. (It’s important to remember that when you’re doing this, you’re not doing anything to clips of the timeline; it’s just a playback setting.) However, as you can see, this isn’t ideal if we’re editing footage that requires close analysis of the details in the shot. Everything is blurred. So, what we can do is generate optimized media.
To do this, you right-click on a clip and select “generate optimized media.” Resolve will then create a proxy file at a lower resolution and format for real time playback. But what resolution and format? Well, let’s head back to Project Settings > Master Settings and scroll until you reach Optimized Media and Render Cache. Here you can choose what resolution and format you want for these files.
So, we’ve only skimmed the surface of editing in Resolve in this miniseries; there’s so much more to this software, but as with most things, you’ll primarily learn by running into an obstacle, searching for a solution, and implementing the fix. So, if you do get stuck, you can find a library of solutions here.
We hope, if you’re entirely new to editing in Resolve, that after this crash course you’ll have a basic understanding of how to edit with the software. Good luck!
Interested in the tracks we used to make this video?
“Relaxing in Vermont” by Chill Study
“Brooklyn Drive” by Chill Study
“Be Gentle” by Ben Beiny
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Increasing the size of a low-resolution image is not always a good idea. However, Resolve 15’s new Super Scale feature changes the game.
There are many ways to use SD footage on an HD timeline: you can give the SD layer a background (as most news broadcasts do), you could duplicate the SD layer and expand and blur the bottom layer (as documented here), or you could increase the scale of the low-resolution media to fit the resolution of the timeline. However, increasing low-resolution media causes a handful of problems, such as pixelation, noise, and a loss of sharpness. Simply put, it makes the image look tacky.
Many software features can help with the resizing process and make an image appear clearer than it would if you simply increased the scale of the media. Now In Resolve 15, there’s a new upscaling feature that can resize HD to 8K. It’s called Super Scale. Resolve already has a fantastic image rescaling filter, which you can set up according to the requirements of your project — either through the setup menu or in the inspector.
The Super Scale tool is different. It uses an advanced algorithm that improves image detail upon enlarging — so it’s a processor-intensive operation. Busy contacts 1 4 5 140501 7. For the first several seconds of a clip that I enlarged from 1080p to 4k, I was getting 9 frames-per-second playback. The tool is more for SD media in a UHD timeline — or for when you need to zoom way into a 1080p clip on a timeline with a significantly higher resolution.
Where Is It?
The Super Scale isn’t as accessible as many other features — you won’t find it in the inspector, nor in any menu panels. To get to Super Scale options, right-click your media, and select “Clip Attributes.”
From there, you’ll find the Super Scale menu at the bottom of the video tab with three settings to work with: Super Scale, Sharpness, and Noise Reduction. The first setting changes the size of the file. You can choose from 2x, 4x, and 6x. The sharpness and noise reduction settings will then help you fine-tune the resize.
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The still below is a screenshot zoomed in at 200% with the Super Scaled image on the right. It was a 1080p file Super Scaled to fit a UHD timeline. I’m not too sure how well the comparison image below is going to convey the results — perhaps not at all since we can only upload stills at a specific resolution (we have to make sure these tips load at lightning speed right?), but I encourage you to test out the Super Scale feature. There is a significant difference in quality between Resolve’s standard resize filter and the Super Scale feature. It’s magical.
Lewis McGregor is a certified DaVinci Resolve trainer.
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