DaVinci Resolve 17 Color Training - Delivering Content

DARIA: Hi, my name is Daria.

And in this video,
I'll be showing you

how to set up a project
render in DaVinci Resolve's

Deliver page.

I've already got a project open.

This has been assembled
in DaVinci Resolve's Edit

page and then color
graded in the Color page.

So I am now ready to jump
into the Deliver page

by going to the very
bottom of the interface

and clicking on the little
rocket ship that says Deliver

to now access my Deliver page.

The interface features
just a few panels.

On the left hand side, we
have our render settings.

This is where you're
going to be spending

the majority of the time
setting up your parameters.

At the top, we have our
viewer, which is showing you

exactly what you're
going to be rendering.

And to the right of that,
we have our Render Queue,

which is going to contain
a list of all the jobs

that we're going to render.

Underneath the viewer, we have
two forms of the timeline.

We have a thumbnail timeline,
similar to the one that we

saw in the Color
page, which represents

every clip as its own
still thumbnail image.

And then under that is
the Edit page timeline,

which shows you the
exact relationship

between the clips, their
durations, the various video

and audio tracks.

At the very top of the page,
we have the interface toolbar,

which allows us to
further customize

the layout of the Deliver page.

So for example, the
render settings by default

takes up the entire
height of the page,

but I can use the Collapse
button to the left of it

to shrink the render settings
and prioritize the bottom half

of the screen to our timeline.

But I will click this arrow
to expand render settings so

that I can see the
full list of controls.

An important thing
to keep in mind

before we jump into the
details of the Deliver page

is that it takes only three
steps to set up a render job.

Number one is going
into the render settings

and setting up your
parameters as needed

for your particular project.

Number two is going
into the timeline panel,

where you will determine
the duration of your render.

So by default, the render
is set to entire timeline.

And then number
three is clicking

Add to Render Queue at the
bottom of the render settings.

This will place your job
into the Render Queue

panel in the top-right corner.

So just those three
steps-- render settings,

timeline duration, and
Add to Render Queue.

Once all of your
render jobs are ready,

you can select Render All at
the bottom of the Render Queue,

and they will all be output to
the location that you select.

We'll begin with the
Render Settings panel.

At the very top,
you can see a list

of presets that comply with
a series of various industry

standards.

On the far left, we
have our custom presets.

This offers us the widest set of
options in terms of parameters.

So it's entirely up to us to
decide what video container we

want to export in, what encoding
language we want to use,

our data rate, et cetera.

To the right of that, we have a
series of user-generated content

video sites presets.

These presets were developed
using the specifications offered

on these websites,
and in some cases,

directly in collaboration
with those websites

to produce the optimal
settings for your videos.

As you continue down
the preset list,

you can see that we have a
series of master presets.

We also have IMF
video deliverables

for high-end streaming services.

A little drop down arrow
next to some of the presets

allow you to specify
with more precision where

you're delivering to or what
resolution you're delivering.

So in this case, you can
see that Disney+ and Netflix

streaming services
are supported.

Then, as you continue
down this list,

we also support
roundtrip workflows,

in case you are working
with collaborators who

are not using DaVinci Resolve.

These type of
roundtrip presets tend

to generate two types of files.

One will be a set of trimmed
media of all your edits

on the timeline, and the
other will be an XML file

that they can use to reconstruct
the edit on their end.

So this is a pretty
popular workflow

if you're acting as just
a colorist on the project,

as opposed to an all-around
editor or collaborator.

I'm going to navigate all
the way back to the left.

And we will indeed set up
a job based on a preset.

So I'll have YouTube
set to 1080p,

but I'd like to modify
it a little bit.

So I'd like to
raise the data rate

so that the quality of
the video is increased.

If I want to have further
control over my parameters,

instead of just
relying on the preset,

I can click on the word
Custom next to YouTube,

and that will expand my controls
back to the custom selection,

but it will still carry across
all of the preset settings

from the previous
YouTube selection.

So when I click on the
Video tab at the top,

I can see that it's already set
to the QuickTime format, which

is what YouTube recommends in
the appropriate H.264 codec.

But here, I can navigate
to my quality controls,

which refer to my data rate, and
I could decide to increase this

to 12,000.

So I'll click on the numeric
field, type in 1-2-0-0-0.

And that's pretty much all
I wanted to do for this job.

The data rate will have
the greatest impact

on the visual quality
of your video,

and also on the
resulting file size.

Oftentimes, when you
are submitting a video

for a festival-- so there's
usually an online submission

form--

it will also give you a
limit on your video size.

And if you do a bit of math,
you can reverse engineer

and calculate exactly what
your data rate limitation is.

And that way, you can increase
the quality of your video

while still meeting the demands
of that video upload site.

Or likewise, if you
find that you're

going just a little
bit over the limit,

you know that if you reduce
that value, those kilobytes,

then you can actually shrink
the size of your video file.

So that's quite helpful.

I will next address
the name of my video.

So you can see, right
now, it's untitled.

But I can navigate to the File
tab in the middle of this panel

and see that rather than
using a custom name, which

I can go ahead and type directly
into the file name field,

I can also select Timeline Name.

And it's a pretty
good standard practice

to give your
timelines names that

are appropriate to
either the project

name or the
deliverable standard,

and also include
version numbers.

So if you have a good
naming convention,

then it makes sense to use the
timeline name a lot of the time.

So I'll have that selected.

And I'll also make sure that
the location makes sense.

So I'm going to click browse.

And on my desktop, I'm going
to create a new folder.

I'll call this Exports.

Click Open to select it.

And now, this is where this
file will be generated.

Step two will be to review
the duration of my render.

And as I mentioned at the
beginning, by default,

it's set to entire timeline,
which I'm very happy with.

So then I can jump to
step three, which is

to add it to the Render Queue.

And my first job
has now appeared.

To remind myself of what
this job was intended for,

I can click at the very top
of the job in the header

and rename it from
Job 1 to, let's say,

HD High Definition YouTube.

And then click off.

So I can either start to
render this right away,

or I can continue to create
new jobs with different render

settings and add
them onto this list.

Another common use
for the Render page

is to generate rushes
or dailies for editors.

So dailies are just compressed
versions of your original camera

takes.

With dailies, you
will usually assume

that there's a master timeline.

The audio has all been
synced to the video takes,

and there's also maybe a
preliminary grade or perhaps

LUTs-- lookup tables--

applied to the clips
in order for the editor

to see what the final colors are
more or less going to look like.

I should note that
DaVinci Resolve

has its own internal
proxy generator.

So if you're going to be
editing in DaVinci Resolve,

there's not really a reason
to generate these types

of external dailies.

But in case you're
collaborating with someone,

or perhaps you have
producers or a director who

wants to watch
these takes at home,

then it makes sense to
generate these lighter files.

For this, I am going
to use a custom preset.

So I already have
custom selected.

I'm going to return to the Video
tab on the left-hand side here.

And I will indicate that I want
all the video clips rendered

not as a single video clip, but
as a set of individual clips.

So when I click
Individual, that means

that every single
take on the timeline

is going to be exported
as its own video.

I'm going to keep the
format as QuickTime.

That's perfectly appropriate
for transcoded media or proxies.

But I will change the
codec from H.264, which

is a temporal compression.

It tends to be quite heavy to
play back in editing programs.

And instead, I'll set it to
an intermediary format, like,

for example, Apple ProRes, and
maybe lower my quality from

422HQ to something like 422LT.

Something else that I might want
to do when generating dailies is

apply a data burn-in
to the video.

So this is various information
that is burned into the video

or rendered in the
actual pixel data

that people can use as reference
and also as a form of protection

for the original video takes.

So to access your
data burn-in controls,

you need to go to the
very top of the program

into the Workspace menu
and choose Data Burn-In.

You'll end up with this
floating window interface.

On the left-hand side, you
have a series of parameters

that you can enable to
place onto the video.

And on the right-hand
side is your controls

for those parameters, so you
can change their appearance.

I'm going to pick up
this window by the header

so I can see my viewer.

And a lot of these
parameters are

quite common to include
in the burn-ins.

But this all depends on
who they're going to.

So what I send to a
director for review

might be different from what
I would send to a client who's

reviewing a final video.

In terms of dailies,
I probably want

to include the source
timecode, which

is going to show me the timecode
of the original video clips.

And that means that if
we're assembling something

like an online cut,
we know exactly which

clips we have to refer to
and at what point in time.

And then, of
course, for that, we

will also need the
source clip name.

So when I select that
parameter, the next label

appears in the viewer.

And now, I can see exactly what
the names of all the clips were.

Something else I
might want to do

is to include a semi-transparent
overlay to protect

this footage from being shared.

So we have a set of
custom text parameters,

as well as a set
of logo parameters.

So if you did have
a production logo,

you can superimpose
it as a watermark

and include that
in your renders.

I'm going to use custom text
and simply notify people not

to distribute this material.

However, right now, it's shrunk
at the bottom of the video,

so it could potentially
be cropped out.

What I would like
to do is make it

a little bit bolder,
a little bit more

dominating in this frame.

So I will go into the options
of the data burn-in panel,

and I will un-gang the
render text styles.

And what that means is that the
text styles for these parameters

will no longer be identical.

Instead, I can modify them as
I wish on an individual basis.

So I'm going to click
that to disconnect them.

And now, I can resize
my custom text,

reposition it, and even change
the font if I wanted to.

We also have opacity
controls for the background

and for the text
itself, so I'll probably

want to make it semi-opacity.

I'll type in 0.4.

And now, as I scrub
through the clips,

you can see that we
have text disrupting.

You know these clips
from being shared.

When I'm ready to
hide this interface,

I can click the x in
the top left corner

and continue with
my render setup.

One final thing I'd
like to do is, once

again, jump into the File tab
to check exactly what my naming

convention is going to be.

It's a good idea when you're
generating dailies or proxies

that you use the
original source names.

That means that when you
eventually replace them

with your camera takes, that
they will match up and instantly

replace.

You won't have to
manually hunt them down.

So I'll click Source Name.

However, if you're
aware that there

are multiple cuts
from the same source

take being used in
the timeline, then

you might also want to
indicate Use Unique File Names.

That way, the files won't
overwrite each other

as they're being generated.

If there is a file with
the same exact name,

it will then adopt
either a prefix, which

is a number sequence at
the start of the file name,

or a suffix, which
will append itself

to the end of the file name.

And now, I'm ready to
click Add to Render

Queue at the very
bottom of the panel.

And once again, I'm going to
change the name of the job

so I can keep track
of what it was doing.

In this case, I will
label Job 2 as Dailies.

I'll probably want to use
this setting again in future,

so I'm going to save
it as its own preset.

I'll navigate to the top-right
corner of the render settings

palette, and I will
choose Save as New Preset.

This is in the ProRes
standard, so it makes sense

to call these my ProRes Dailies.

Then I'll click OK, and I'll
see that my dailies preset now

appears to the left
of the custom preset.

And I can access
this again and again.

Something else to
keep in mind in terms

of selecting your
export range is

that if I did want to focus
on just a selection of clips,

I could use my in
and out shortcuts.

Press I to indicate
a start point.

Select a clip and press
O. And you can see,

the duration is
marked in the timeline

at the very bottom of the page.

And if you'd like to reset
your in and out range,

you can either use the
shortcut option X on a Mac,

or Alt-X on a PC, or you
could go to the drop-down menu

at the very top of the timeline
and switch from In-Out Range

to Entire Timeline to reset it.

If you have multiple
timelines in your project

that you would like to
add to the Render Queue,

you don't have to jump back
into the Edit or the Color page

to switch between them.

You can stay in Deliver
and use the drop-down

at the very top of the viewer
to switch between timelines.

So in this case,
I'm going to select

an alternative
cut of my trailer,

and you'll see that will appear.

And the data burn-in
has stayed in place.

So if I wanted to remove that, I
could go back into my Video tab,

enter my advanced settings at
the very bottom of this list.

Here, I can see that there
is a section for the data

burn-in, which by default will
be set to Same as Project, which

means that if I can
see it in the viewer,

then it will be
included in my render.

But I could also
choose to bypass it

by clicking on this
dropdown and choosing none.

I prefer to keep it
on Same as Project.

And instead, I'd rather
just go to my Workspace menu

at the top, select
Data Burn-In, and then

click the reset arrow
in the top-right corner

to get rid of all
these overlays.

I'm going to collapse my panel.

And I would like to add the
render for this timeline

to our Render Queue, as well.

So once again, I'll
select my YouTube preset.

This one, I will
leave untouched.

I will click on Add
to Render Queue.

And now, we have our third job.

I'll call this my
Teaser Trailer.

By the way, you don't
have to only concentrate

on the timelines in
your current project.

You can actually
have render jobs

from various projects all lined
up in the same Render Queue

that you can then set
off at the same time.

If I go into the Options menu
of the Render Queue panel,

I will find that there
is an option at the top

to Show All Projects.

When I select that, this
list becomes populated

with a few other
render jobs I created

from a couple of other projects
I had opened previously.

So that means that,
without having

to constantly start
and stop my renders

and open and close projects,
I could just send everything

to the Render Queue.

And then when I'm
ready to kick this off,

I can open up Show All Projects,
scroll across the list,

and then hold Shift and click
to select all of my jobs,

and then select Render
All when I'm ready.

And the benefit of
doing it this way

is that you're not waiting
for every single render

to complete in order to
kick off the next one.

That way, you could
lose hours of time

because it could be several
minutes or hours between you

returning to the project to
kick off the next render.

With batches, as soon as
one timeline is completed,

it will immediately
move on to the next job

so then you can keep
it running overnight,

and then wake up
the next morning,

and everything is already
completed for you.

By the way, if you
add a job, and you

decide that you want to
change some of the settings,

that's pretty easy to do.

In the top-right corner of every
job, you will find a few icons.

The X should be
self-explanatory.

You can use this to get rid of
a job that you no longer want.

But then the pencil next
to that is an edit tool.

So let's say, after we
completed our HD YouTube job,

and we added it to the
queue, we realized that we

want to change the resolution.

I'm going to click
on the Pencil icon.

And this job is now loaded
in the render settings.

I know that because we now
have these three new buttons

at the very bottom of the
Render Settings panel--

Cancel, Update Job,
and Add New Job.

So I can now go through my
Video, Audio and File tab

to determine, you know what?

I actually want the resolution
to be a little bit lower.

I want my collaborators
to review this for me

before I upload it.

So I'll set it to
720p, HD ready,

and maybe restrict my quality
to 8,000 instead of 12,000.

I can now click on Update Job
at the bottom of my render

settings, and the job is now
updated in the Render Queue,

so I don't have to recreate
it or add it to the list.

And once I'm all done, I
can select all of these jobs

and click Render All.

A couple of tips I can give
you for setting up your render

projects in case
you're not feeling

too confident about
your render settings

is to look at the destination,
where your project is going.

And usually, you will
find information there

about what is expected from you.

So for example, if you're
uploading it to a website,

there tends to be a
page of recommended

settings for uploads.

If you're sending your video
to a festival or to a theater,

you can usually communicate
with the organizers

or perhaps find a submission
guidelines page, which will also

tell you what they expect from
you in terms of formats and data

rates.

And then finally, if you're
sending your video to something

like a broadcaster or
a streaming service,

these can differ
quite dramatically

from one region to the next.

So again, it's the best idea to
talk to them directly and find

out exactly what they're
expecting from you in terms

of video and audio deliverables.

And of course, you can also come
to the Blackmagic Design forums

to get answers from
our developers,

from digital image technicians
and professional users

of our software.

Please make sure you
check out the remainder

of the videos in this
series to find out

how to use DaVinci
Resolve for your projects.