Disclaimer: A Hollow Flame is a non-commercial fan cinematic. Fallout, Brotherhood of Steel, Vault-Tec and related logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Bethesda Softworks LLC in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Nikita’s family bought their first computer when he was just 10 years old. Like most people living in the 1980s and 1990s, the purchase of a home PC opened up a world of gaming. It was 1999, and the game was Fallout. His infatuation continued, and those who know it are not surprised that it garnered so much praise and has been consistently ranked among the best video games of all time for the past 25 years. After playing the game, Nikita was a completely different boy than before and decided to work as a 3D artist and later as a game designer and game producer. His parents had no idea at the time that their child’s contact with this new technology would have such an impact on his life. When he was thinking about a personal project, he decided to design a tribute to the game.

Why BMD and Blender?

Before Nikita decided on his editing, colour grading and compositing software, he first had to decide how he wanted to create the footage himself. He wanted to create everything in 3D without the luxury of shooting his film in real time. As a hobby filmmaker, he also needed to keep costs as low as possible to make the project financially viable. Fortunately, Blender exists and it was Nikita’s choice for this project.
He only used a small package of branches and some video assets. Apart from that, all cinematic assets (models, textures, animations, mocap, effects) were created just for Hollow Flame – all assets used can be viewed here: bit.ly/hollow_assets

Those familiar with Blender will know that it has a range of compositing features and functionalities. Like Fusion, it is node-based and has a number of features that allow modelling, rendering, comp and post to be performed in the same application. With version 3.5 of Blender, a new feature has also been added to the compositing toolset: a real-time compositor. The fact that compositing can now be done interactively and on the GPU means that the results are almost instantaneous and the efficiency of the creative workflow is greatly accelerated.
However, Nikita decided against using Blender for this part of the workflow and instead opted for DaVinci Resolve with Fusion. DaVinci Resolve and Fusion have a more powerful and comprehensive set of tools that are essential for complex projects. They are also faster and more responsive, which proved to be perfect when editing, colour correcting and compositing shots. Nikita knew that with DaVinci Resolve Studio and Fusion he would have a one-stop shop, and although he had never used Fusion before, he was willing to give it a try, mainly because he had previously found DaVinci Resolve to be very intuitive.
As well as all the editing, colour grading and compositing features, he found the audio editing features of DaVinci Resolve Studio more than adequate. He could have opted for a programme like Adobe Audition, but he found this alternative less intuitive. He also didn’t like the subscription pricing structure and the unnecessarily slow installation process. The ability to consolidate everything into a single application was a big win for Nikita.

Floating Pipeline

Nikita wanted a strong cinematic feel, especially in the area of colour grading. It was important that his files had the high dynamic range required to handle this – for a 32-bit workflow.

For live action filming, videographers can use cameras such as the Alexa, RED or Blackmagic Ursa to record in file formats that support this amount of data. Traditional DSLR cameras like Canon and Nikon can record in a RAW format, which can then be converted to EXR files that can be used in Resolve. In 3D, it works a little differently, but still pretty simple: export directly from Blender to 32-bit EXRs and bring all that beautiful data directly into DaVinci Resolve.

One of the advantages of working in a 3D pipeline is that you can export a lot more data from a 3D application like Blender than just the final rendered image. Nikita took advantage of this by exporting depth and motion blur data. These additional layers to each image were included in each exported EXR file. Once the files were rendered, Nikita was able to bring all of these layers into Resolve Studio to target his grading and post-production effects. Unfortunately, access to these different layers of information is not always possible in traditional live action film projects.

Colour grading

One of the most iconic types of colour grading in the film industry is the contrast of teal and orange. These two colours are particularly popular because they look beautiful in contrast to each other, and Nikita has taken advantage of this. One of the best implementations of this technique in the film is the shot with the industrial fans and the metal bar. The fans on the left and right side of the shots are fiery orange in colour, while the walkway is turquoise. This effect is achieved by pushing the blues into the shadows and the oranges into the highlights. This is something that is very easy to achieve in DaVinci Resolve, and Nikita has used it to great effect.
The debate over whether colour correction is an art or a science continues – some colourists are very much guided by their eye and what feels good for the scene, while others rely on histograms and charts to determine what changes need to be made. Nikita, as an amateur and inexperienced colour grader, did everything by eye.

Using reference images from the original game, he was able to play with curves, colour wheels and other colour adjustments to get something that matched the original game. This is probably most evident towards the end of the film when the monster is bathed in aggressive red light, which is compared to the sickly greenish light that fills the scene outside. This kind of cinematic effect is easy to achieve in Resolve – especially if the artist has spent the necessary render layers to isolate parts of the image.

Post Effects

Fusion in DaVinci Resolve Studio and Fusion Studio are true compositing powerhouses. Nikita used only a small portion of Fusion’s features, but used them effectively. He also utilised a range of post-production effects that took his work to a new level and added layers of depth to his already impressive work. The post-production effects he used were motion blur, film grain, lens distortion, chromatic aberration and a vignette. These effects are easy to add if they are not present in the original material. Rendering these effects in 3D is often very time consuming and when using film cameras it is also difficult to get them perfect.
There are no such problems when adding effects in post-production. Effects can be added or removed and customised for a perfect look and feel. Fusion’s node-based workflow allows for a completely non-destructive choice for any digital production pipeline.

Lessons learnt

The advantage of not having a client was that Nikita could do exactly what he wanted. For hobbyists, these projects offer a high level of experimentation and the flexibility to learn new skills while still in the middle of the project. When a project comes to an end, there are still lessons to be learnt and implemented next time.

Nikita would have chosen to implement a lot more of the post-production effects in DaVinci Resolve Studio with Fusion instead of shooting them with the 3D camera. Effects such as particle effects, volumetrics, steam and smoke can be time consuming and difficult to set up in 3D or on the film set, whereas this is much easier and cheaper in post production.

Conclusion

A Hollow Flame is a rarity: an enthusiastic fan has created a beautiful homage to a game he loves. He skilfully uses Blender and DaVinci Resolve Studio with Fusion to create something truly cinematic. By combining 3D footage, audio, colour grading, compositing and post-production effects, Nikita has created something amazing. His heart and dedication will hopefully inspire other creatives to get their hands on some excellent free tools and try something similar themselves. And now let’s dive into the actual pipeline and creation of “Hollow Flame”!

Resolve/Fusion for Hollow Flame!

Now in the tutorial I want to show you how I used DaVinci Resolve and Fusion to give my short CGI film “Fallout” a cinematic look. I used Blender to create the footage, but this workflow will work with any footage you have created, whether it’s 3D or live action. I rendered a footage in 32-bit, which is ideal for extensive colour grading and post-processing. It provides the necessary data to make significant changes to the colours without unsightly results. Only the best cameras allow output with such a wide dynamic range, but if possible, always record at the highest possible bit rate, then at least you have the best chance of getting good results. In terms of time, I was able to use the Colour tab immediately and make adjustments straight after importing capture sequences. With Fusion, it took a little longer because I’m not familiar with the node system (I mainly used Blender nodes), but I quickly got used to it. After that, colours and post-processing were done in a few minutes. In this tutorial, I assume that the footage is already imported into DaVinci Resolve and ready for colour grading. It’s important to realise that the workflow in DaVinci Resolve is perfect for experimenting with different ideas. With good hardware, the results can be seen quickly and you can make comparisons. I encourage you to play around with the parameters and controls to get a good feel for what’s possible.

Step 1: First steps in colour correction

Now that the files are imported, we can start colour grading. I’m not a professional colourist, but it’s pretty easy to make basic adjustments. You can use colour wheels to do this. First try changing “Contrast”, “Pivot” and “Shadow/Highlight” to adjust the contrast, highlights and shadow intensity. For basic colour correction, use “Log Wheels” to change the colours of the shadows, midtones and highlights separately. Then you can use “Temp” to apply a colour filter to the entire image
Image. Later you can use more sophisticated methods such as colour curves, qualifiers and colour distortion for detailed corrections.

Step 2: Save colour edits

You can save your edits for later use by using the “Still image” function. Simply right-click on the sequence preview and then click on “Still image”. The preset will be saved in the gallery. You can simply drag this preset onto the preview to apply it to the sequence. It’s worth noting that you can experiment with colours on the “Colour” tab without worrying about messing up the image. Simply create a new “Serial Node” and make any changes here. If you delete this node, the standard sequence will still be available to you.

I’m a hobbyist and a novice when it comes to colour correction/grading, so I used my knowledge of colour correction in Photoshop and optimised the colours by eye. To do this, I used “stills” to test colour correction “samples” I had created, but ended up using a LUT as a base, correcting them for brightness/contrast and adding some masks to highlight some important parts of the shots. I worked with a very specific colour management profile, “Blender Filmic”, because I rendered all my shots in Blender with this profile. So before colour grading, I tweaked DaVinci a bit and installed the Blender Filmic
LUT to make sure that the colours in Blender and DaVinci matched.

Step 3: LUTs

LUTs (or Lookup Tables) are sets of predefined colour values. They are easy to use and can give the sequence a specific look in seconds
in seconds. However, it can happen that you spend too much time searching for the “perfect” LUT and end up using some favourite preset that makes the video look very “standard”. I used the LUT “Matilde – Rec709” as a base preset and optimised each clip. You can easily install and use all these LUTs by placing them in the “LUTs” folder on the “Colour” tab.

Step 4: Compare LUTs

You can add different LUTs to different serial nodes and compare them by using the key combination “Ctrl D” to deactivate the node and
to see a different image and adding new serial nodes to optimise each LUT the way you want. You can use colour wheels or curves to edit the LUT, or simply mix two nodes with different LUTs applied – it’s up to you,
the software gives you many options to work with colours.

Step 5: Shot Alignment

We’ve sorted the shots and we like them, but we still need help with the overall consistency. Some shots look too light or too dark. That’s why we need to
align all the shots together. I did this “by eye” with the help of clips in the “Colour” tab. The clips show all the shots of the video in one place, which is
useful – by taking a quick look at them, you can already spot inconsistencies and optimise individual shots. In my case, I needed to emphasise some bright areas. To do this, I used a simple mask, added a “Parallel” node and created a simple mask with the “Curve Mask” tool. Then I edited the node to increase the intensity of the light from the arc.

Step 6: First post effects

Now that we’ve edited and graded our video, what’s next? To make the look of the video even more cinematic, I added some effects that simulate an old, analogue film look. To do this, we need to go to the “Fusion” tab and use special “Fusion” nodes. I used the “Film grain” node to add some grain to my video. Then I used “Lens Distortion” to simulate the imperfections of a real camera lens. In addition, I used “Chromatic Aberration” to simulate a slight colour channel deviation.

Step 7: Even more pose effects!

Following on from the previous step, I scaled the image a little using the “Transform” node. Finally, I used “Vignette” to slightly darken the edges. All these nodes are available in the “Effects” list on the “Fusion” tab. Each node has its properties that can be easily customised, so the result depends entirely on your taste and vision.
And – this also applies to chromatic aberration – I believe that subtle effects create a more believable, natural image. It’s easy to overdo the effects, so I prefer to add just a touch.

DaVinci Resolve is nimble and perfect for quick editing. The nodes of the Fusion and Colour tabs are different entities and work independently, so it’s better to split the colour correction and post effects into different stages.

Step 7.5: Motion Blur

Another post effect I added was motion blur. This one was the most complicated to set up, but a quick note: Normally, motion blur takes a lot of processing power to render directly from the 3D software. I was using the EEVEE renderer in Blender, and although EEVEE is a very fast renderer (almost real time), rendering motion blur takes quite a long time. I therefore decided to add the motion blur only in the comp.
I used Cycles for the motion blur, rendered the V-Pass in Cycles and used it in Fusion to get the motion blur with the “Vector Motion Blur” node, but then used the “Optical Flow” node for most scenes instead because the result was better. I tried to render the motion blur in Eevee, but each frame took ~40 minutes, which was too long (considering I have more than 3500 frames). Basically, I used Eevee instead of Cycles because I wanted to create a good looking cinematic with a real-time renderer. And of course, because Eevee is much faster than Cycles (well, was, until the current time).
I ended up rendering a separate vector layer in Cycles and saving it as a sequence in MultiLayer EXR format. Then I imported the sequence into DaVinci Resolve and added it as a parallel input to Fusion. To use the layers in Resolve (they are called channels here), you need to select the sequence node in Fusion and click on “Inspector” to open the node settings, go to “Channels” and assign the vector layer to the speed channel (both X and Y). Then both inputs need to be routed through the “Vector Motion Blur” node (also in the effects list) to add motion blur to the shot.
This is one option, but there is another. With the built-in functions, you can add motion blur much more easily. Instead of rendering a vector layer and blending it with the sequence, you can simply add the “Optical Flow” node and connect it to the “Vector Motion Blur” node, and voilà – you have motion blur in your shot
blur in your shot! I used the optical flow in almost all of my shots and it saved me a lot of time.

Step 8: Final check

After all these steps, it’s time to render the video. All output settings can be found on the “Deliver” tab. Here you can set the file format, output quality and file path. Resolve offers several presets I recommend rendering your video in the lowest output quality first – just to check that everything fits. I rendered my short film several times in low quality, and each time I found minor errors, fixed them and rendered it again. To speed up this process, you can render individual clips or a custom area to check specific parts of the video.

Step 9: Output

Okay, we’ve checked our project and found no problems. Let’s set it to high quality and render the final result! Set the settings, click “Add to Render Queue” and then click “Render” on the right side of the screen. That’s it! With DaVinci Resolve and Fusion we can cut, colour correct, apply post effects and edit audio in a single package. The fact that it fully supports a 32-bit workflow makes it an unbeatable tool.