Color Grade Projects WAY Faster - DaVinci Resolve Tutorial

Use a remote grading workflow to Grade your Projects way faster in DaVinci Resolve 17
Download Davinci Resolve for Free: www.blackmagicdesign.com/prod...
Notes:
Remotes grades are a great way to blast through a project that cuts back to the same clip multiple time. In the demonstration I use a music video, however interviews are very effective for this workflow as well. I will note that you do love the ability to make quick changes once you copy the remote grades to local, as to make clip changes you'll need to work in local. In this case working with groups can really help.
References:
Check out the DaVinci Resolve reference manual to learn more you can find it in the help tab of Resolve.
Gear I use:
Camera - Black Magic Pocket 4k
Microphone - Rode NTK
Main Lens - Meike 12mm f2.8
Other lenses - Meike 35 mm f1.7, Rokinon 50mm T1.5, Rokinon 24mm T1.5
Tripod - Velbon Videomate 638
Computer Specs:
CPU - Ryzen 1700x
GPU - GTX 1070
Monitor - Eizo CG2420

[@NathanCarterVids]

Just a quick one today going over Remote grades and how they can help you quickly get a look for a project.

[@RichardCejas]

great tutorial, watching in 2023 thank you!

[@govideo22]

Great video. This will save a lot of my time and make me work smarter and not harder. Thank you

[@mrnessss]

As a full time videographer, this is one of THE most usefully tutorials I've ever come across! Thanks for this!

[@NathanCarterVids]

Happy to help.

[@Lexicon345]

I think you justsaved me hours of work. can i have your children? do you need a kidney? Seriously dude, THANK YOU!

[@TiagoFlores]

This video is a must watch. Amazing!

[@klsimedia8427]

This is exactly what I was looking for. AWESOME VIDEO THANK YOU !!!

[@anthonygagliardi5559]

This is the exact tutorial I needed thank you!

[@keithdennis5085]

Thank you for this informative video. I'll need to watch it several times before I understand it, but I see where this will be very useful in saving time. I always look forward to watching your tutorials!

[@NathanCarterVids]

Thank you. Is there anything I can help clarify in the comments?

[@reginaldworthington7558]

Great vid Nathan, I don’t know how many Davinci Resolve tutorials I’ve ingested here on YT but it’s hundreds of hours by now and nobody has explained this as fully or as well as you have here. I finally feel like I have a handle on remote vs local grades to the point I can put this to use effectively. Thank you.

[@NathanCarterVids]

That's great. I can see how they can be confusing, as they are essentially two different systems that don't have any impact on eachother unless you copy grades over. Thanks for the support

[@JimRobinson-colors]

Good topic Nathan, People should be aware that when they copy remote to local, that they can't go back to remote without affecting all the clips. But the trick is that you can still use group nodes to fix some things and it keeps it seperate from the other clips - if you haven't added them to the group. Also I like that you mentioned that this case scenario happens when someone sends you the xml or a flattened timeline from a multicam. If it is a multicam - it is a lot easier to go to the multicam - open it in "Timeline" do the grade on full clips - then secondaries on multicam cut clips - which is essentially the same result as "Remote" and "Local", but easier to go back and forth without fear of losing any work. I can see this video helping a lot of people though to save time. Which when you start doing this professionally, is really important. "Work smarter, not harder" is a great way to think - it is similar to how I have always taught people that have worked for me. ( This applies to everything, not just color grading ) If you are doing anything where you think to yourself- "this is torture, there has to be a better way to do this." There probably is, but you just haven't learned it or created it. This makes you learn and find more efficient workflows. So your slogan is 100% accurate - especially in technology. Rambling a bit here - but I once had a situation where I was training for a job where the girl that was training me, told me to input into a spreadsheet ( excel )- Product name - Cost of Goods - and selling price. She then said to take a column and use the calculator on the desk and add each column and input the total under the column - then back to the calculator, and subtract the cost of goods from the selling price to show the profit. I sat there dumbfounded that someone could have her job and do this day after day, without questioning if there might be a better way. You can imagine the look on her face when I showed her the "Sum" button. To cap off this story - she had quit her job, because she couldn't keep up.

[@NathanCarterVids]

I totally agree. Also for the timeline grading, that's exactly what I did for the music video, so fast.

[@kmal16]

Thank you so much. Such a useful set of tools, that is even a faster method than the group nodes system.

[@kmal16]

There is only a small issue to be aware of, if you copy the remote grade into the local grade it will erase whatever grade is in the local side and replace it with the grade which is in the remote side. It doesn't offer the choice to append to the local grade, so that's just something I just saw as I was experimenting.

[@jerwared]

very useful :) Thank Nathan

[@CaseySchneider]

I just found you and I now have a better understanding of the associated feeling when meeting somebody of your dreams! Only not in the same context lol! You do amazing tutorials! I have watched hundreds of Davinci tutorials and while there are some top-notch ones, there are tons to sift through to find them. You have a very easy and informative approach that is very practical and of course super helpful. The fact that you explain methods that aren’t the best really help illustrate why there are better methods. Absolutely love it. Definitely subscribing and eager to see the content you publish! Keep up the good work mate!!! P.S. - I never take the time to comment but I just had to this time

[@NathanCarterVids]

Wow thank you. I really appreciate that. My goal is to hopefully prove things in these videos, so I'm not just giving my opinion, but also demonstrating how things work. Thanks for subscribing. I really appreciate the support

[@JWalking]

5:27 Once you’ve clicked on Copy Remote Grades to Local I don’t think you then need to select Use Local Grades as Resolve is already in Local grades because of your previous step.. at least in DR 17.3.1 Thanks for the video.

[@zaywajumbe3324]

This is amazing, it will help me to color grade music videos so much faster. It has always annoyed me how hard it was to grade many cuts of the same clip. Thanks so much!

[@NathanCarterVids]

Totally. I find it's great for interviews too.

[@user-ll9ln1uu4b]

@@NathanCarterVids It's great for any primary correction. And funny, you always do different corrections when matching clip by clip the same source :)))

[@CalvinPowers]

super helpful!

[@NathanCarterVids]

Glad it was helpful!

[@MindfulGamer]

Legend. I'm a newb and this will save me tons of time!

[@NathanCarterVids]

Awesome. Happy to help

[@derblondetuerke9674]

Thaaaanks!

[@NathanCarterVids]

No worries!

[@CGVega]

I COULD HAVE USED THIS A COUPLE OF WEEEEKS AGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! dang, i searched so hard. anyways. thanks Nate

[@NathanCarterVids]

No worries. Happy to help

[@TheToganivalu]

Sheeeeeesh what a freaking time saver. Wish I knew with before editing the recent music videos I've done 😭😭😭😭

[@NathanCarterVids]

Isn't that always how it goes eh? Well on the bright side, you'll get through the next one's super fast.

[@TheToganivalu]

@@NathanCarterVids I am sped now

[@Art-FX]

Good job, like always :)

[@NathanCarterVids]

Thanks Eryk, gotta check out your new packs. Looks pretty sweet.

[@Art-FX]

@@NathanCarterVids I send you an email with new packs :)

[@MarcSchreiberRealtor]

Excellent video! TY! Would it not be more efficient to have a master timeline(s) of all the same such as the hallway and use group in that TL which allows for local adjustments to individual clips then use a “final” TL for the cut up parts? Changes are made in the masters. Even more efficient is to have each master timeline have adjustment layer(s) to cover all or some files such as the hallway and then adjust individual files as needed. Not using groups.

[@NathanCarterVids]

That would be great for sure. However if the edit was not set up that way, like in the case of recieving an XML. Or for example this project where for the actual music video edit I did everything with multicam editing (for the actual project I then added the grade in the multicam timeline so it was super fast). For this example I flattened the multicam timeline to just the original clips to simulate recieving a picture lock edit with no grading applied. You could set up a system like you're suggesting after receiving the project, though it would take quite a bit longer than using remote grading.

[@MarcSchreiberRealtor]

@@NathanCarterVids Gotcha. Certain situations call for different ways. Thanks 😀

[@ww1www]

What do you recommend in case of multicam clips? Remote grading will not sense the different camera angles as separate sources, therefore remote grading will be applied to the whole of the multicam clip which is less than ideal.

[@NathanCarterVids]

What I'd recommend in that case is to edit with a multicam clip, then once you have picture lock, flatten the multicam clips which then uses the original source clip so each angle behaves as demonstrated.

[@ww1www]

@@NathanCarterVids It works great, thank you. But I cannot then just return to multicam mode to make corrections, right?

[@NathanCarterVids]

@@ww1www as far as I understand theres no simple way to revert back to a multicam clip. Though making a change or two with the source clips isn't really much of a hassle. I actually often grade within the multicam timeline. Provided the shots aren't changing two often it works great

[@MaxMustermann-cj1wk]

Nathan you can't imagine how much I appreciate your Videos. It is absolutely crazy how many of my Problems and Questions you adress. I'm a musician and started to get into Video editing to make the best of the Pandemic. Since no one can play, we all try to get our Music and performance out in the next best way, which is Video and Streaming. We can't afford to pay professionals, since we didn't make a dime last year. Your work is very valuable to me and all friends I do this for. You are collecting awesome Karma with this, I hope financially you're doing good aswell. Do you have a patreon Page? I can't send more than maybe the equivalent to some cups of Coffee, but I would like to support you! PS: If I may suggest a Video Topic, do you have Tips for speeding up a Computer for Editing? I bought a decent used Gaming PC to edit, but even with optimized media, proxy half solution etc. it doesn't play back smooth with all the multicam stuff that I always have going with the live performances. :) In my example I have a i5-7500 Processor with 16 GB Ram, 250G SSD and 1TB HDD Drives. I wonder what I could do to get some more out of it, maybe some more RAM would help?

[@NathanCarterVids]

Wow I'm really happy to hear that. I hope 2021 turns things around and you and your friends and you're all are able to land on your feet. With regards to payment, I really appreciate that however I don't have anything set up right now. It's not quite at the point where I feel like I can dedicate enough time for me to feel like it's worth someone's hard earned money (though I really do appreciate that you think so right now). With regards to your computer problems. What GPU do you have? That's a big portion of Resolve. I also recommend using some type of activity monitor (task manager may do the trick, but there's lots more in-depth ones out there) and you can real time monitor what's getting hit hard when you're trying to play back the footage.

[@MaxMustermann-cj1wk]

@@NathanCarterVids Thank you for the reply and the tip to look at the Taskmanager! I have a Nvidia GTX 1060 with 6GB. Looking at the Task Manager while running the playback in Resolve was a surprise. Nothing is running on maximum Capacity, CPU at about 30-50% max, GPU at only 4% My Hard Drive seems to have a mximum Speed of 20 Mb/s. Maybe that is the Problem? Thank you again, almost bought more RAM hoping to get faster Playback than "potato Speed"!

[@MaxMustermann-cj1wk]

I found the issue. I used a Data-Burn In Timecode when I rendered the first version of the current project to discuss. That Timecode slowed the playback down tremendously. No it's smooth again! Thank you for your time!

[@NathanCarterVids]

@@MaxMustermann-cj1wk that's super weird. I don't know how that would cause slowdown, but hey that's awesome it's working for yah now

[@haroldmorganTulsa]

I'm confused about one thing. After I copy remote to local, am I not still under control of the remote grading? Which I cannot remove?

[@NathanCarterVids]

Changes made in remote will not affect local or visa versa, unless those grades are copied over like shown in the video. Hope that clears it up

[@haroldmorganTulsa]

@@NathanCarterVids No, what am I am saying am I not working under the remote grade, where I cannot dismiss it and start from scratch? If i switch to local all clips would be locsl, right? Thanks in advance.

[@NathanCarterVids]

@@haroldmorganTulsa Ohh just switching back and forth nothing will be lost. If it makes you feel more comfortable, you could save some stills before hand, but just by switching I've never had anything get lost.

[@philreises]

Nice Turotial! :P jk. thanks for this!

[@NathanCarterVids]

Happy you found it helpful

[@n5iln]

"Turotial"?

[@NathanCarterVids]

Yes

[@o0Dr0o]

thank you for sharing , however , too advanced to me

[@NathanCarterVids]

Is there anything I can help clarify?

[@o0Dr0o]

@@NathanCarterVids thank you for you reply, not really, it just needs learning curve , definitely i am sub Thank you again for the content

[@NathanCarterVids]

Thanks for the support.