Announced at NAB 2018, DaVinci Resolve 15 took a big step forward adding visual effects and motion graphics tools inside an already powerful NLE. Since that time, Blackmagic has been releasing beta updates with the latest one dropping just last Monday, August 6.
Today, the company has announced the full shipping version is now available.
If you were already using public beta 8, you won't notice much of a difference between it and the shipping version, but if you're working in version 14 or earlier, there will be a lot to experience. Before upgrading, it's always good practice to look at the minimum system requirement to run the software. It's compatible with macOS, Windows, and Linux operating systems and Blackmagic suggest 16GB of system memory (32GB if you want to run Fusion) along with a NVIDIA/AMD graphics card to get you going.
The biggest improvements are the software's integration of visual effects and motion graphics into the interface, the new Fusion page that offers over 250 tools for compositing, paint, particles, animated titles, and others as well as the substantial update to Fairlight audio. Blackmagic also says there are "300 new features and improvements that professional editors and colorists have asked for" but we won't be fact-checking that count any time soon.
Here's what you're getting with this update:
- Improved performance when rendering H.264 clips.
- Clip names can be added as part of a window burn.
- Added support for HTML text formatting in subtitles.
- Added support for 2D and 3D title templates.
- Subclip extents can now be changed from the Edit timeline.
- Dynamic Trim icon has been added to the toolbar with slip and slide indicators.
- Audio automation data can now be edited on Fairlight page.
- FairlightFX now include presets and customers can now create their own.
- Sound libraries can now be created using DaVinci Resolve disk databases.
- Initial ResolveFX and OpenFX plugin support has been added to the Fusion page.
- New bypass Color and Fusion effects button has been added to all pages.
- Fusion compositions can now be copied and applied to additional clips.
- MediaIn nodes now let customers modify trim and media properties.
- Saver nodes have been added to the Fusion page.
- Clip level blanking output is now supported on the Color page.
- Nodes can now be assigned custom colors on the Color page.
- Compositing images with transparency has been improved.
- Optical flow performance has been dramatically improved.
- DCTL support has been extended and now supports ResolveFX.
- On-screen control for OpenFX and ResolveFX are now more responsive.
- Added support for encoding CEA-708 closed captions in MXF OP1a clips.
- Added support for encoding EXR clips with alpha channels.
- Added support for importing audio clip levels from AAF imports.
- New French and Portuguese language localization.
- Improved codec and format listing on the Deliver page.
- Simultaneous monitoring of SDR and HDR for DolbyVisionTM and HDR10+.
- New support for importing audio only AAF timelines.
- New support for Final Cut Pro X XML version 1.8.
The software also supports Apple Metal, multiple GPUs and CUDA acceleration to make your Fusion experience fast and reliable. Adding visual effects or motion graphics is as simple as selecting a clip on the timeline edit page and then clicking over to Fusion to use dedicated node base interface. If you have a standalone version of Fusion, it can be copied and pasted into DaVinci Resolve 15.
While we personally like working in Pro Tools for finishing sound, the new Fairlight audio page took a big step in the right direction. The page has a complete ADR toolset, static and variable audio retiming with pitch correction, and other tools like audio normalization, 3D panners, audio and video scrollers. It also has functionality for shared sound libraries and is stacked with audio plug-in effects like de-hummer, reverb, pitch, and noise reduction.
The ability to pull out the render settings menu would be a great addition.
We've been using the public beta version of DaVinci Resolve 15 since its initial release and our overall experience with it has been great. It's extremely stable and fast while editing Canon C200 4K footage (with no crashing or lag) and that was on a system with only 8GB of RAM. The interface features an easy to use "tab system" on the bottom to quickly switch between media, editing, Fusion, color correction, audio, and delivery.
The one sore spot we do have is the "render setting section" in delivery menu and that's only because we're used to Adobe Premiere and prefer its aesthetics and functionality. We wish there was a way to "pull out the menu and expand it" instead of scrolling down through the options. It's a tougher navigation on smaller screens.
While DaVinici Resolve 15 is free to download, the Studio version only costs $299 and offers a slew of advanced workflow options like multi-userr collaboration, 3D, VR, more filters, effects, temporal and spatial noise reduction, and unlimited network rendering.
If you've never used DaVinci Resolve before it's definitely worth a look. You can grab bother versions here.
