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Previously in this Series
- Getting your bearings: Switching from Premiere to Resolve
- Switching to Resolve: Your first cut
- Switching to Resolve: Selects and assembly in Multicam editing
- Switching to Resolve: Sharing and delivery
Transferring to another editing software can be tough, since we’re already fast and efficient with the current tool. No matter what your reasons for switching are, this and the previous articles will help you to get started in Resolve. We’ve already looked into the basics of the software. How to edit your first video, so in this article, we’ll cover the final steps: delivering your video and sharing and archiving your project files.
Sharing formats and what they do
We already established the differences between the Resolves Project Library-based system and Premiere Pro projects. But how does that affect sharing files? Firstly, it’s good to know that there are different file formats you can share. In Resolve, you can share the whole project (like in Premiere Pro, .drp), share individual Timelines (.drt), or create a DaVinci Resolve Project Archive (.dra). The big Advantage: Resolve offers the flexibility to export only what is needed or to export everything.
Like in Premiere Pro, Project files don’t include the project’s footage. They can be exported by navigating to file > export project, or by using the shortcut strg/cmd + E. Alternatively, they can be exported from the project manager by right-clicking the project and choosing export project. Exporting a project is useful for creating backups, switching devices, or handing the project over to another person.
Very useful and different from Premiere Pro: If you only need to transfer an individual Timeline to another project or to another person, Timeline Export is the thing for you. This also doesn’t include footage. To export the Timeline, go to File > Export > Timeline.
If you’re done with your edit and want to archive it, or if you need to transfer your project with footage to another person, Davinci Resolve Archives can be quite useful. These include the project file with all the timelines and the project’s footage. To export an Archive, open the Project Manager, right-click on the project and choose Export Project Archive.
Reminder: all exported files discussed can not be opened directly. They need to be loaded into a project library first.
Media Management: trimming and packaging media
When handing over a project to another person for grading, effects or sound, they usually need a copy of the footage. This can be annoying when the projects get quite big, and only a few parts of the footage are actually used in the Timeline. In this case, Media Management comes in handy. Media Management offers several options for reducing data when working with large amounts of footage before going on. The Key advantage: this offers flexibility to export only what is needed or to export everything
Navigate to File> Media Management to open the Media Management window. In Media Management, we have the option to export the entire project, selected Timelines, or Clips. For all these options, we can then choose between copying or transcoding the media. When choosing to copy, we had the option to copy all media from the project, copy only used media, or copy used media trimmed with handles.
In the last case, we can decide how many frames from each clip to render before and after each cut. All media will stay in the original file format. Important to know: if there are multiple instances of the same clip, Resolve will subclip them, adding a suffix to the files. When relinking the new footage to the original project, it might not match. In this case, try using the “Relink To New Files” option when working with the trimmed media.
When transcoding, all footage will be transcoded to the same file format. This can be chosen for audio and video individually when transcode is selected, and gives us the same options: use all media, use media, or trim used media. Hit start to create a copy of your Project, Timeline or Clips with your chosen settings to the set destination.
Adding and styling Subtitles
It doesn’t matter whether you’re working on a documentary or on social media clips; subtitles are essential today. Thankfully, Resolve has great options to help you get yours in fast and easy. Firstly, there’s the manual way: To add a subtitle track, right-click on the videotracks header and choose Add Subtitle Track from the menu. After clicking on that track, the Inspector will go into Subtitle Mode and give you the option to manually add a caption by clicking Create Caption.
The style of subtitles can be changed for an individual caption by checking “custom caption” or by switching to the “Track” Tab to customise the whole subtitle track. For fast subtitles, Resolve offers various Subtitle style Presets. To apply one, go to the Effects Panel and open the Titles. Scroll down until you find Subtitles and drag and drop the chosen one onto the subtitle tracks header.
The style will then be applied to the whole track. The little extra when you’re working on social media Clips: There’s a handful of animation presets, which will automatically animate our subtitles directly in Resolve—no need to search for an external tool.
Manual and Automatic Subtitles
I know, typing subtitles manually isn’t really fast. Luckily, Resolve offers the option to generate subtitles from a transcript automatically. Personally, I love this feature, since I most of the time edit from a transcript anyway. To use this, right-click on the timeline > AI tools > auto transcription> transcribe. In this case, the subtitle track doesn’t need to be created before.
In the auto transcription menu, speaker detection is available. When activated, Resolve will automatically detect multiple speakers, which can then be named. After transcribing, a transcription window will open. To create Subtitles from the Transcript, click on the three-dotted menu and choose “create subtitles from audio”. This will save you a lot of time typing, since you only need to check the automatically created subtitles.
Deliver page and rendering.
Once your subtitles are created, it’s finally time to deliver your video, and we’ve got plenty of options to configure how it’s rendered on the Deliver page. The Advantage of Resolve: its encoding engine is integrated into the Deliver page, while Premiere’s companion encoding program, Media Encoder, is an external tool that must be installed and updated separately from Premiere Pro.
When you open the page, you’ll still see our bottom Timeline, but you’ll soon notice it’s not editable here. Still, in-and-out marks can be set. The left side shows all available delivery settings, while the right side shows our render queue.
For a fast render, Resolve offers rendering presets at the top of your Render Settings, e.g., H.264 Master, ProRes422 HQ, YouTube, or Vimeo 1080p. If you don’t want to use presets, you can choose between various Codecs and file formats from the master file, from QuickTime ProRes to a small, lightweight share file with .mp4 h.264 or h.265. Resolve can also be used to deliver advanced formats such as DCPs and Dolby Vision.
The settings to do this are right below the Presets and are split into Video, Audio and File settings.
Entering the Render Queue
When set the way you need, click Add to Render Queue to do exactly that.
Note that there’s no need to create new render jobs when changes are made. Already-added render jobs can be updated by clicking the pen icon in the top-right corner of the render job. It will then be opened in the render settings, where it can be either updated or added as a new job by clicking the button at the bottom.
What I like to point out: the render queue is not project but database-specific. This lets you add render jobs from different projects to one queue. Why is this awesome? It saves me time, since I can work on different projects and hit render at the end of the day. Even better: When working on a network database, everybody can add their render jobs to the render queue, which can be rendered from another powerful computer in the network.
There are three options for exporting the subtitles we’ve created: burned in, embedded in the file, or exported as a separate file. Scroll down to the end of the Render settings to find the Subtitle Settings.
Data burn-in options and where to enable them
Clearly, not every render is a final render straight away. Most of the time, there’s some review loop. To make this easier, burning Data into the render can be very helpful. Resolve offers lots of options for what can be burned into a video. To see them go to Workspace > Data Burn-In.
To select a data type, check the box next to its name. It can then be customised on the right side. After selecting, close the window. The Set Data will automatically be burned into the renderers added after the Data burn-in is set up. To deactivate this, uncheck the boxes in the same menu, or go to advanced settings in Render settings to disable Data burn-in for individual renders.
Creating Dailies with metadata burn-in
If working on a bigger production, rendering dailies might be necessary. For this, burning in metadata is very helpful. Resolve makes it incredibly easy to create dailies due to its built-in colour management, data-burning-in functionality, wide codec compatibility, timecode support and handling of tags and metadata.
To transcode clips for dailies with data burn-in, go to the media pool, right-click on the bin you want to render and choose “create new timeline using selected bin”. With the new Timeline created, go to the deliver page and activate the data burn-in as discussed. This time, the clips should not be rendered as one single clip but individually. To do so, choose Individual Clips at the point render right below the Location Settings.
Creating vertical versions
Since people are often consuming content on smartphones, creating an extra vertical version of your edit might be necessary. Thankfully, Resolve makes this extraordinarily easy.
Before creating your vertical Timeline, make sure you duplicate your Timeline and add _vertical to your title. To change the Timeline Resolution, right-click on your new timeline and choose Timelines > Timeline Settings. In the menu, uncheck the Use Project Settings Checkbox. What I really love is how simple it is to change to vertical Resolution: click the Use vertical resolution checkbox and hit the OK button.
Even though Resolve automatically adapts to the new resolution, some shots in your Timeline might need reframing to keep the object of interest in frame. To do this, the Inspector would be the right place to go. You can either move your shot with the position parameter and keyframe if necessary, or use the smart reframe tool.
This studio version-only tool can be activated by clicking on the AI smart reframe. When clicking the reframe button, Resolve will automatically reframe your shot to fit the frame. If you want, you can manually set a region of interest, which Auto Reframe will try to keep in frame.
Hopefully, with all that said, you’re already a little faster and feel more secure using Resolve instead of Premiere Pro. For more tips and learning materials, check out the DaVinci Resolve Training website, which has books and tutorials on every page.
