DaVinci Resolve 12 Beta New Features and First Impressions

The DaVinci Resolve 12 first public beta is out now (today in fact) and so if you’re eager to get your hands on the sparkly new features then you might want to rush over and download it. I’ll be updating this post (or writing a new one) with more insights, tutorials and tips on DaVinci Resolve 12 as they emerge.

If you’re grading a project in Resolve 11 you might want to heed colorist and trainer Patrick Inhofer’s excellent advice on how best to make the leap up if you’re so inclined:

Here are three quick tips I’ve been following that have kept me from getting backed into a corner: Be prepared to downgrade to Resolve 11

Create backups of databases before opening them in Resolve 12—or better yet…

Create brand new, fresh databases and import your Resolve 11 projects into those newly minted databases That last tip has been super-useful to me and I suggest you follow it.

Whats new in Resolve 12?

Automatic color match grade from one to many clips.

Automatic 3D perspective object multi point tracker.

Offline clip icon displayed if media is missing from media pool or storage.

Custom Curves™ with bezier handle control.

Image contrast adjustable with flexable curve end points.

HDR curve control for extended dynamic range images

Additional advanced 3D keyer with multiple additive isolation qualifiers.

Keyer Finesse controls also include Clean Black and Clean White.

Conversion of circle, linear and pologon windows to PowerCurve window.

3D Perspective object tracking….

For an extensive look at the demos and feature set that have been previously announced check out these two previous posts here and here. For a one click list of all the new features check out this post from Cinescopophilia.com or head over to the compare page on the official site and scan the list for those little blue ‘new’ boxes.

One thing that does need clarifying is the new name change, seemingly mostly to match Fusion’s naming convention, which is that the free version, previously suffixed ‘Lite’ is, now just ‘DaVinci Resolve 12’ and the fully featured version, is now ‘DaVinci Resolve 12 Studio’.

The DaVinci Resolve 12 Manual

I’ve always been a huge fan of the DaVinci Resolve User manual – you can’t beat it for a (now) 1000+ page guide to colour correction and (obviously) how to master the software. You can download the manual only and directly as a pdf here. You can also download a 68 page configuration guide here too. (Thanks Alex4D for the links!)

Alexis Van Hurkman, colorist, trainer and author of the manual, has posted a fantastic guide on where to look in the new manual if you want to get a heads up on some of the new features and functionality.

…The Resolve 12 User Manual is divided into 44 chapters, with many valuable topics now appearing within their very own chapter for the first time. Check out the table of contents on pages 3-19 and you’ll see what I mean. So, you ask, where do I start if I’m looking for what’s new?

Chapter 5, “Improving Performance, Proxies, and the Render Cache,” is required reading. This chapter consolidates everything you can do to make Resolve run faster, which now includes the all-new ability to use “Optimized Media” (an updated spin on the old Pre-Rendered proxies mechanism Resolve had before) to work faster by turning processor-intensive media formats into faster-to-work-with clips using a format and proxy size of your choosing. Once you’ve optimized media, you can switch back and forth between the optimized and original media without needing to reconform or relink—it’s all managed by Resolve. Additionally, optimized media works with the real-time proxy command (which now lets you choose from Half and Quarter proxies), the Smart cache, and all of Resolve’s other features for improving performance, so this is a chapter worth understanding in its entirety if you want to get the most performance out of Resolve 12.

Filmmaker DL Watson shares his first impressions of editing in Resolve 12 and his appreciation of details like the ability to ‘unnest a sequence’ right in the timeline.

Colorist Jason Bowdach shares his top 5 favourite features for previous Resolve users on the Cinetic Studios blog.

5. UI Update While the new user interface takes a little getting used to, it’s a sleek and modern revamp which gives you more space and control, especially with dual monitors. It scales extremely well between a 15″ MacBook Pro Retina, HD and 4K+ displays. I’ve yet to test up to 4K on my GUI monitors, but I’ve been told the trend of using the new space well continues even at those resolutions. Its the “small” updates like having the lightbox on your second display, docked scopes & clip/info pages, and the ability to customize a lot more of the layout which really show attention to detail.

DaVinci Resolve 12 – The FCPX Evolution

@Blackmagic_News This is sooo awesome! Finally working on Macbook Air at almost same performance as FCPX. Thank you BMD! — The Dahon Diaries (@thedahondiaries) July 27, 2015

This last tweet from Alex Golner provides an interesting glimpse at the evolution of the DaVinci Resolve interface. Thankfully we live in an era of decent user interface design! Alex has a few thoughts on the similarities and differences between Resolve and FCPX in this quick post and also handily points out the differences between Resolve and Resolve Studio, quoted from the extensive beta Read Me file.

The free DaVinci Resolve 12 includes all of the same high quality processing as DaVinci Resolve 12 Studio and can handle unlimited resolution media files. However it does limit project mastering and output to Ultra HD resolutions or lower. DaVinci Resolve 12 only supports a single processing GPU on Windows and 2 GPUs on the latest Mac Pro. If you need features such as support for multiple GPUs, 4K output, motion blur effects, temporal and spatial noise reduction, 3D stereoscopic tools, remote rendering, an external database server and collaboration tools that let multiple users work on the same project at the same time, please upgrade to DaVinci Resolve 12 Studio.

Professional Colorists on DaVinci Resolve 12 beta

with #resolve12 coming shortly & having used the app for the past couple weeks I have to say this update is just amazing — Robbie Carman (@robbiecarman) July 26, 2015

A quick scan of Twitter reveals what a few early private beta testers of DaVinci Resolve 12 Studio think of the latest release. It is great to hear from professional colorists sharing their experienced thoughts with the rest of us, who might not be used to using it day-in-day-out as they are. Update – I’ve separated these tweets into Tips and Opinions for easier browsing!

UPDATE – The three professional colorists behind Mixing Light.com – Patrick Inhofer, Robbie Carman and Dan Moran – have put together a free 3-part special report in which they discuss the public beta, their favourite new features in Resolve and the areas where the application could still improve. Having all had access to the private beta, they know of what they speak. They cover topics like interoperability between 11 and 12, best practices for working with beta software, and much, much more. Well worth the time to listen in!

Part 1 – Public Beta | Part 2 – Favourite Features | Part 3 – Further Improvements

Tips for working in DaVinci Resolve 12

#Resolve12 tip: press Command + double-clic on a compound node to open it directly, & right-clic on the path below to go back to root level. — Christophe Delaunay (@cdel89) July 29, 2015

#Resolve12 tip: Getting used to the new curves? Hold "Option" "Alt" to show the "neutral position on the curve. Thx @patInhofer — Jason Bowdach (@JBowdacious) July 29, 2015

Get USER window back in #Resolve12, go to

DaVInci Resolve/Preferences/System overview/Show multi user login window. pic.twitter.com/N8GodiRlUk — Mathieu Marano (@ilovehue) July 28, 2015

#Resolve12: Timelines are NOW stored w your clips, like w every other NLE. DONT blindly delete your timeline by accident. thx @MixingLight — Jason Bowdach (@JBowdacious) July 29, 2015

#Resolve 12 Tip—Resolve now supports MP3, AAC, AIF, and CAF audio formats up to 192 kHz. No more having to convert to WAV first. — Alexis Van Hurkman (@hurkman) July 31, 2015

#Resolve 12 Tip (Part 1)—Edit page now prioritizes audio playback, dropping video frames if necessary to maintain performance. — Alexis Van Hurkman (@hurkman) July 30, 2015

#Resolve 12 Tip (Part 2)—Choose "Show All Video Frames" (Viewer option menu) to prioritize video playback, dropping audio if necessary. — Alexis Van Hurkman (@hurkman) July 30, 2015

oh yeah! #resolve12 User manual is EXCEPTIONAL. @hurkman finest work. Resolve team has put love into documentation #thankyou — Robbie Carman (@robbiecarman) July 26, 2015

Please backup your Resolve 11 databases before installing Resolve 12. This way you'l be able to go back to R11 if R12 is too buggy. — Mathieu Marano (@ilovehue) July 27, 2015

#Resolve 12 Tip—When KeyFraming windows w/Tracker palette's Frame mode, Option menu has commands to go to Prev/Next KF, and delete KFs. — Alexis Van Hurkman (@hurkman) July 29, 2015

New for #Resolve 12, Smooth Cut. Also copy paste of timelines and clips between projects pic.twitter.com/NbWZWnYBOb — Jamie Dickinson (@dickij10) July 22, 2015

Don't keep both versions installed. You can keep lite and beta, but it will potentially cause issues #Resolve11 #Resolve12 #betatesting — Jason Bowdach (@JBowdacious) July 29, 2015

@dickij10 Use Option/Alt + mouse wheel — Rohit Gupta (@rohit_bmd) July 30, 2015

DaVinci Resolve 12 mac min requirements:

OS 10.10.3. 8GB RAM (16 recommend) — Juan Salvo (@j_salvo) July 24, 2015

Worth noting, re: Resolve 12. Resolve lite is no more. It's now just Resolve, paid version is Resolve Studio. — Juan Salvo (@j_salvo) July 24, 2015

First Impressions of DaVinci Resolve 12

Look at that. #Resolve12 now has luminance change indicator for each color wheel just like SpeedGrade. That's handy! pic.twitter.com/d5QsRbHSTY — Mathieu Marano (@ilovehue) July 27, 2015

Loving Resolve 12 so far. So many new features that make grading quicker and easier. Expect lots of @MixingLight goodness! — Dan Moran (@DanMoranColor) July 27, 2015

#resolve12 just rendered a 2 hour feature in 10 minutes…. For anyone asking if its an improvement. Im in love with this thing — Chris Young ? (@CrisSpookShow) July 29, 2015

DaVinci Resolve 12 public beta release is imminent. It's an insanely great update. New perspective tracker is fantastic. — Juan Salvo (@j_salvo) July 24, 2015

@rohit_bmd works especially well with power curve windows. See manual for more details #roto #resolve12 — Rohit Gupta (@rohit_bmd) July 27, 2015

still messing around with new edit features – but see #resolve12 as an extremely viable edit platform. I’m impressed by new audio tools — Robbie Carman (@robbiecarman) July 26, 2015

@dickij10 @ilovehue the new tracker has been the most impressive feature. I thought it was good before, but it's next level awesome now. — Josh Petok (@joshpetok) July 25, 2015

I was iffy about Resolve Color Management but it’s exceptional. For Basic keys 3D keyer is intuitive and fast. Perspective tracker is killer — Robbie Carman (@robbiecarman) July 26, 2015

Can’t wait to use try these new Resolve 12 tools! pic.twitter.com/dNsC9OroRx — Mathieu Marano (@ilovehue) July 25, 2015

@ilovehue Ripple Grade features seem interesting — Jamie Dickinson (@dickij10) July 25, 2015

while I don’t often use internal scopes – new docked scopes in main UI is HUGE for many users #resolve12 — Robbie Carman (@robbiecarman) July 26, 2015

#resolve12 new UI is so well thought out and eliminates many of my gripes from previous versions and just feels modern and clean — Robbie Carman (@robbiecarman) July 26, 2015

I've been editing my demo in #Resolve12 all day with different frame sizes, rates and codecs. So far so good. pic.twitter.com/mL81Yj6p53 — Mathieu Marano (@ilovehue) July 28, 2015

Resolve 12 supports Intel GPUs so you can run it on 13" MacBook Air and even 12" retina MacBook. Also on base 15" rMBP #irispro! #resolve12 — Rohit Gupta (@rohit_bmd) July 27, 2015

Resolve 12 has a lot of performance optimizations for @nvidia GPUs so you should get much better CUDA performance! @NVIDIAQuadro — Rohit Gupta (@rohit_bmd) July 27, 2015

DaVinci Resolve has OpenFX extensions for fast multi-GPU CUDA/OpenCL support – get details here https://t.co/MCQChzgN8P #resolve12 — Rohit Gupta (@rohit_bmd) July 27, 2015

new #resolve12 curves with splines are great but take some getting used to. New window layouts are exceptional – dual screen — Robbie Carman (@robbiecarman) July 26, 2015