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Da Vinci Resolve

Oct 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Lars Palmqvist
Digital Film Lab

Centralizing DI to Improve Workflow

In 1998, Digital Film Lab became one of the first postproduction facilities in Europe to introduce the digital intermediate (DI) process for long-format films. Since then, we've posted more than 65 full-length features and 40 short films using this approach to post.

DI allows for incredible flexibility and creative freedom, while delivering pristine image quality. To further improve our DI workflow, we decided to create a single DI mastering system, one robust enough to do it all. After evaluating most of the available products on the market, we chose Da Vinci Systems' Resolve digital mastering suite, becoming one of its first beta sites.

Da Vinci Resolve, a software-based, open-architecture system, features toolsets that have evolved from the da Vinci 2K Plus. Although the 2K Plus has been widely used for DI work, Resolve takes it to the next level by offering a comprehensive management and control suite.

Resolve includes integrated nonlinear color enhancement, conforming, in-context grading, realtime 2K image processing and playback, and mastering. Because all DI processes within our facility revolve around a shared storage hub, Resolve can easily access materials from other systems within a facility. For instance, the operator can bring in material produced on editing, special effects, and 3D graphics workstations.

This ability to share media across the network allows Resolve to operate smoothly and efficiently with our Autodesk systems, allowing us, for example, to move material between Inferno and Resolve quite rapidly. Designing a centralized system has dramatically reduced the time and effort required to complete a DI project. Networked SAN, which uses 10Gb Infiniband, is key. We split Resolve over eight channels of Fibre Channel 2, which allows us to move images around at a rate of 700MBps.

Almost immediately after we began our tests, we decided Resolve would become our preferred system for color grading and conforming. It did everything we needed, allowing us to view, process, and record full-resolution 2K images in realtime, as well as handle images of mixed resolution up to 4K and beyond with internal 64-bit processing of RGBY.

Our colorists like how the da Vinci system links vital tasks closer together for significant timesavings. For example, Resolve's unique node graph architecture enables our colorists to open nodes in parallel or cascade. This setup allows them to immediately view and make changes at any point in the signal processing workflow, which means they can work faster and more efficiently without having to re-render the entire clip when they change or modify color grades.

Because Resolve provides the ability to access, move, and process data at an extremely fast rate, even between other vendors' products within our facility, our colorists now have the power to apply their color correction decisions for one clip to any number of versions in an instant. Because all of the image data for the conformed project is sitting on a disk array, the colorist can see everything in context; there is no more winding on the scanner — a laborious task that used to consume an enormous amount of our project time.

As we brought Resolve online, we also found it to be an easy fit: The functionality and intuitive interface the system provides frees users from technical restraints, enabling them to focus on the creative aspects of their work as colorists. The tools work just as they're expected to work, so we were able to leverage the full power of Resolve right from the start.

We recently used the Resolve system to complete the short film The Funniest Man. For the project, we brought negatives inhouse and scanned them on a Spirit DataCine or single-frame scanner. Following the offline edit and full-resolution scanning of all select takes into our servers, we imported the EDL into Resolve. Resolve gave us the ability to do a “pre-conform” immediately. During this process, we loaded the EDL, enabling us to automatically arrange the full-resolution material in edit order with Resolve's conform tools.

We could then compare the final conform against the offline edit. This visual side-by-side comparison allowed us to catch any potential discrepancies between the offline and the final conform. Once we were assured the offline and online materials matched perfectly, we then began the color-grading process.

One reason we like to use Resolve is for its ability to connect color enhancement decisions to the source material as metadata. Norman Nisbet, the colorist working on the film, was able to begin work immediately, knowing that all of his decisions would be maintained even if the director or editor made changes to the EDL later.

When reviewing The Funniest Man images with the client, Nisbet freely moved from segment to segment to refine the distinct look and feel of each part of the film. Because all the color grades are clip-based, any changes he made with the client were automatically applied to the same clips used throughout the film. He was also able to approach the color grading similar to the way he would have used 2K Plus because Resolve maintains the familiar da Vinci interface he's worked with before — there was no learning curve.

The Funniest Man was an ideal project on which to try out Resolve. Although the director wanted to portray a very cold look overall, some scenes included a variety of red objects that needed to stand out. Resolve's color enhancement toolset helped to isolate and refine red objects like a bath mat or dress, with Nisbet using a few nodes in parallel to work out the desired tone and colors. First, he gave the images an overall cold, desaturated look, and then he used a second node to add in and boost a clean red source from the original. Resolve's slick integration with the server made it easy for Nisbet to access the original material as he worked.

We worked through The Funniest Man project in half the time we anticipated, and now there is no going back. Our clients see the flexibility this new tool offers; we already have a backlog of projects in line for Resolve.

Within our own facility, Resolve has provided the right mix of efficiency along with the trademark da Vinci quality. Now that storage options are becoming more affordable, there's no question that Resolve's flexibility will open the door to DI processing in virtually any setting, post houses large and small.

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Lars Palmqvist is the technical manager at Digital Film Lab (DFL). Located in Copenhagen, Denmark, DFL offers digital finishing for feature films, commercials, documentaries, and shorts as well as restoration projects. DFL's services include negative processing, scanning, grading, editing, compositing, and film recording. For more information, visit www.digitalfilmlab.com.

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