How to go from Premiere to Davinci Resolve?

N

Neutral

Active member
Hi all,

So up until now my workflow has always consisted of doing all my editing in Premiere Pro, then I export the video to an uncompressed codec like AVI lossless or prores, import into Davinci Resolve and do all my coloring there. I always somehow felt like that's not the best way to go about things but it's the only way I've ever done it. I'm currently working on a new project that's ready for coloring so I thought I'd explore other methods of getting my videos to Davinci.

There's a whole bunch of cross fades/dissolves, nesting, warp stabilizing on the shots in my premiere project. I was looking into XML files but I've been seeing things about how some of that stuff won't translate to Davinci. This is all very daunting to me as I don't know much about this kind of stuff. So I was hoping someone could explain to me the fastest and easiest way to get your video into resolve without quality loss.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
Typically, you'll want to do all those effects in your finishing app, in this case, Resolve. I can't speak for Premiere, but I'll cut in Avid, and make note of any repos, stabilizers and transitions. I export the timeline as .aaf and bring that into Resolve. Then I go and recreate the effects I noted. Color, grade, export.
 
El Director said:
Typically, you'll want to do all those effects in your finishing app, in this case, Resolve. I can't speak for Premiere, but I'll cut in Avid, and make note of any repos, stabilizers and transitions. I export the timeline as .aaf and bring that into Resolve. Then I go and recreate the effects I noted. Color, grade, export.
Click to expand...

I see. Thanks for the suggestion. Would you say there is substantially less quality loss doing the method you suggested over exporting an uncompressed file and bringing that into resolve?
 
I have found resolve to work pretty well in translating repositions and transitions. I export an XML from Premiere and import it into resolve. A 1 second fade between two clips will usually look the same in Reolve as do repositions. I always double check that everything is right. For stabilized shots I will export only that clip.
 
Regardless of what you decide to do, you should also always export a reference video that you put on the top track in Resolve. You can toggle it on and off to make sure everything is working as it should.
 
If you have effects that do not translate from an XML I'd recommend finishing your grade in Resolve and exporting individual clips using original file names. After that relink the new clips and finalize from premiere.
 
hi neutral,

What you want to do is export your colored clips from Davinci Resolve BACK into your NLE. This way you don't have to worry about titles, transitions, fx in premiere, motion/position/scale settings or keyframes, etc…

So you export your edit into XML from your NLE, import that into Resolve, but then create new clips you will replace back in your NLE.

This is known as "round trip workflow" I wrote a step by step guide on it here that might help you: http://www.hingsberg.com/index.php/2014/09/roundtrip-workflow-in-resolve/
 
Out of curiosity, what what are you guys cutting which requires all the round-tripping? Features? Shorts? TVC's
(not questioning your decisions or saying it's a waste of time, I just genuinely want to know!)

For me I try to keep everything within Premiere as much as possible (especially since the Lumetri effect was added). I do primarily promotional and lifestyle/doco TV production, as opposed to narrative films. If I was doing narratives I might be inclined to spend more time coloring in Resolve, but in that case I would probably be happy to sacrifice some editing capability (don't need star-wipes for narratives!) and do most of my editing with DaVinci, too.

I guess what I'm wondering is what particular features of each program lead you to choose the round-trip workflow. I guess for me it also comes down to deadlines and budgets - if the clients were willing to pay for the time and effort of a round trip workflow, I'd be more inclined to try Resolve for my coloring needs!
 
When round tripping, what format do you use to export the graded clips from resolve? Is it a must to use a lossless format?
 
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