Blackmagic Design have been updating their flagship grading and editing software suite DaVinci Resolve with warp speed in the last couple of years, and the software is now at version 12.5 which up until recently was only available as a beta version. As of now, DaVinci Resolve 12.5 and Resolve 12.5 Studio are both available in their full update versions and can be downloaded from Blackmagic Design’s website. Resolve owners get the update for free, and new users who want the full functionality will have to shell out around $995 to get a license. However, if you buy a Blackmagic URSA Mini 4.6K, or any of the other big 4K cameras – URSA 4K and 4.6K and the URSA Mini 4K, as well as the 4K Production Camera that Blackmagic sells you get it included for free in the box.
Resolve 12.5 comes loaded with a tone of new features and functionality including over 1,000 enhancements and 250 new features, DaVinci Resolve 12.5 Studio features everything found in the free version, plus adds multiple GPU support, 4K mastering, HDR grading, motion blur effects, noise reduction, 3D, multi-user tools and more.
Resolve 12.5 has been increasingly growing in popularity among editors and we recently reported on a few ways you can speed your editing workflow in Resolve here, and also grade LOG footage easier in Resolve – you can check out our article on that here.
Major New Features DaVinci Resolve 12.5
- Improved edit timeline and color page UI performance
- Fusion Connect lets users send a clip(s) from the edit timeline to Fusion for compositing
- When returned from Fusion they automatically replace the originating edit timeline clips
- The Source viewer now includes an optional Audio Overlay on Video
- Primary color palettes now include Temperature and Tint sliders
- Resolve FX – Film Grain, Lens Flares, Lens Blur, Light Rays and others
- Dramatically improved Spatial Noise Reduction – DaVinci Resolve Studio only
- Extended HDR grading controls, HDR scopes, HDR support for 16bit cache formats and HDMI 2.0a metadata – DaVinci Resolve Studio only
- Redesigned and improved Log grading controls with a Project Setting option to switch between legacy and new behavior
- Improved management of nodes and links in the Node editor
- Expanded Marker feature set
- Improved Titles with support in place editing
- Metadata keywords are now stored as text bubbles which are saved in a user dictionary and can easily be appended to multiple clips
- Easy to use Tags are now supported in Display Name, Burn-ins, render filenames and render paths
- New Media Pool Power Bins allow sharing content between multiple user projects
- You now have the ability to adjust via the inspector parameters for all selected clips or transitions
- Ability to create User Transition Presets
- Power Windows and ResolveFX can now be tracked with a Point tracker
- Edit Sizing now includes Lens Distortion Correction – DaVinci Resolve Studio only
- Added selection for 3:2 rendering of 23.976 and 24fps to 29.79fps and 30fps
- Audio can now be rendered in a single track or one track per channel
- Clip Retime effects are now adjustable using a Retime Curve in context with the timeline clip
- Dynamic Zoom for fast start and end positioning of still image transforms
- Expanded Multicam feature set
- Interlaced media can now be de-interlaced with optional normal and for some clips a high setting – DaVinci Resolve Studio only
- Added support for DaVinci Color Transform Language, .dctl for user defined color transforms – DaVinci Resolve Studio only
- Resolve Color Management now includes a checkbox and dropdown menu to separate gamut and gamma options
- Support for several new edit Transitions
- Expanded Keyframe and Curves feature set in the Edit timeline
- Clip metadata for selected or all Media Pool clips can now be imported with selection rules or exported using .csv format
- Spanish interface support
Key new Editing features
- Improved edit page timeline performance
- Editing commands have been reorganized into Edit, Trim, Timeline, and Clip menus for speed and ease of use
- The Cinema mode is now available for Edit Page viewers
- You can now seamlessly switch in and out of Cinema mode during playback
- Metadata palette is now available on the Edit Page
- The header of the metadata window indicates focus between Media Pool, Media Storage and Timeline
- You now have the ability to adjust via the inspector parameters for all selected clips or transitions
- Users can now select, drag, Copy, Cut, Paste and Delete Individual and multiple Keyframes at the same time in the timeline keyframe window
- Dynamic Zoom for fast start and end positioning of still image transforms
- Option to soften the crop in the Edit Inspector
- Users can now swap timelines between timeline and source viewers
- Clip Colors can be assigned on Media Pool clips via metadata window and on the edit timeline clips via contextual menu
- All clips in the timeline including titles, audio clips, generators can now be dragged into any Media Pool bin to make a copy
- The zoom range for transforms is now increased to 0 up to 100
- Edit Sizing now includes Lens Distortion Correction – DaVinci Resolve Studio only
Edit Speed Improvements
- Swap and Shuffle edits can now be performed with multiple clips and including those with different video and audio in and out points
- Added new Trim operations with shortcuts;
- Resize In or Out Point to Playhead
- Ripple In or Out Point to Playhead
- Roll In or Out Point to Playhead
- Select Nearest Edit and Resize In or Out
- Select Nearest Edit and Ripple In or Out
- Select Nearest Edit and Roll or Slip
- Select Nearest Clip and Slide or Move
- Timeline In and Out points can now define the Copy and Cut operation limits
- Ripple Cut clips from the timeline using keyboard shortcut or contextual menu
- Paste Insert clips into the timeline using keyboard shortcut or contextual menu
- Fit To Fill now automatically uses the duration of the timeline clip or gap that intersects the playhead if not otherwise defined
- Ripple Overwrite and Append edits now have overlays when dragging a source clip into the Timeline Viewer to create an edit
- Preview Marks are now optionally displayed for three point edits. If you define three of the In-Out points, the automatic fourth edit point is indicated with a mark to let you preview the edit you’re about to perform
- An optional and adjustable length shadow around Playhead selectable in View menu
- Using the Go to In or Go To Out shortcuts you can jump to in or out Preview marks
- With a Project Settings option, dragging a clip from the Source Viewer to the Timeline Viewer to perform an edit will use the last edit overlay you used when dragging the clip into the large undefined region of the Timeline Viewer
- It’s now possible to add video-only or audio-only transitions separately using two new menu commands and keyboard shortcuts
- The previous Paste Attributes selections are now saved for the next paste attribute operation
- With Command + Drag a compound clip or timeline from the Media Pool or source viewer will decompose nested sequences prior to adding to the timeline
- Command + Drag a compound clip or timeline from the Media Pool or source viewer can be changed dynamically while dragging
- A popup dialog, with an option to automatically trim clips, is displayed when Transitions are added to timeline clips with insufficient handles
- New Trim Menu items to switch between Slip and Slide mode
- Multiple In or Out points can now be trimmed in single frame increments or multiple frame increments (using Command key)
Speed Effects
- Retime controls now follow Trim or Normal mode to either ripple or overwrite adjacent clips
- Within the Retime control window clips can be retimed from the top left handle and top right handle
- Clip Retime effects are now adjustable using a Retime Curve in context with the timeline clip
- Clip Retime effects now include a positive and negative Speed Curve
- A new Clip Retime Curve includes variable speed changes with interactive speed and position curves
Keyframes and curve control points
- Shift Command C now opens the Keyframe editor
- Shift C now opens the Curve editor
- Clip keyframes and curves can now be toggled on or off independent of each another
- The current curve can be selected by clicking on the parameter text
- Clicking a curve highlights the corresponding parameter in the inspector
- In the keyframe curve editor the command arrow keys now allow you to move one or more selected keyframes by frames
- Keyframes can now be navigated on the curve editor using navigation buttons
- Option clicking on the keyframe curve now adds a control point and keyframe
- Keyframes and Keyframe curve control points can be selected via lasso
- Multiple keyframes control points can be cut, copied and pasted
- Multiple keyframe curve control points can be copied, pasted or deleted
- Option-dragging one or more selected keyframes now duplicates them
- Option clicking on the keyframe editor now adds a keyframe
- Keyframes control points in the curve editor can now be freely dragged in any direction
- Shift-dragging keyframes control points lets you constrain the movement in only one direction
- Hover over keyframe curves displays the curve name and setting
- Improved curve UI refresh with Inspector performance
- Retime Keyframe curves display includes adjustable scaling range values on the left side top and bottom
Markers
- While in Trim mode a new Ripple Marker option ripples timeline markers
- Markers with duration are now supported
- Option dragging an existing marker converts the marker to a duration marker
- Dragging the in or out point of a duration marker extends or shortens the duration
- Click dragging the duration marker moves along the timeline
- During source playback you can add and edit markers
- Markers with notes now support a hover tooltip for easy marker information review
- Improved Markers and Flags UI with more info and ability to switch flag colors, remove current marker or flag and set marker durations
- Viewers and Timeline ruler now have a context menu for easy marker action access
- Multiple Viewer Markers can now be selected, moved, and deleted
- Multiple Timeline Markers can now be selected, moved, and deleted
Titles
- Improved title editing performance of titles with in-place editing and re-sizing control within the timeline viewer
- Title and Video parameters are now in separate tabs in the Inspector
- Title elements within a multi-title item like Lower 3rd can be transformed independently
- Color picker dialog changes are now displayed in real time on the viewer
Multicam
- Multicam editing now includes additional menus and keyboard shortcuts for:
- Switching pages of angles
- Switching to the next and previous angle
- Changing between audio/video/both switching
- You can now review and select multicam angle in the Media page viewer
- New Multicam viewer settings include a one up and side by side display
- Clips from the same camera can be put into the same Multicam angle by Camera ID, Angle, Reel Number, and Roll/Card metadata
- Multicam angle sync can now use the first marker
- Multicam angle names can now be set by Sequential order (Default), the Angle or Camera shown in the clip metadata or by the clip name
- Multicam editing supports drag and drop multicam clips from the source viewer to the timeline viewer to perform an edit
- Users can now flatten Multicam clip in Resolve timeline
Transitions And Composite Modes
- Ability to create User Transition Presets
- Added new transitions;
- New dissolve transition: Non-Additive Dissolve
- New wipe transitions: Barn Door, Band Wipe, Radial Wipe, X Wipe, Eye Iris, Spiral, Split Wipe
- New transform transitions: Slide, Push
- New Iris transitions: Arrow Iris, Star, Hexagon Iris, Pentagon Iris and Triangle Iris transitions
- Added new Compositing modes
- Divide, Linear Burn, Linear Dodge, Linear Light, Vivid Light, Pin Light, Hard Mix, Lighter Colour, Darker Colour
For a full list of new features and to download your copy of Resolve 12.5 (free) or Resolve 12.5 Studio ($995) head over to Blackmagic Design.
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