Major Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve 18.5 update brings over 150 new features

[20:05 Sun,16.April 2023 by Thomas Richter]

Blackmagic has just unveiled a new version of its free grading, editing, compositing and audio mastering program DaVinci Resolve. The new Resolve 18.5, in its first beta, is a major update that brings over 150 new features whose primary goal, according to Blackmagic CEO Grant Petty, is to speed up workflow. Four new AI tools and more than 150 feature upgrades serve this purpose - the update also comprehensively updates the Cut workspace and expanded the existing toolset for editing.

Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve 18.5

A key focus of the update is new audio AI features such as a transcription function that enables text search in voice recordings and automatic subtitling, as well as classification of all audio clips in a project. The new Relight FX AI feature can change the lighting of a scene after the fact using virtual light sources. However, these new AI features are reserved for the paid Studio version.

Other new features include grouping audio tracks in the Fairlight workspace for faster mixing; support for USD (Universal Scene Descriptor) files for better VFX collaboration; depth map generation; and a multi-merge tool.

Below are some of the major new features described in more detail:

New menus in the cut room

Three new menus for timelines in the Cut room provide new functionality. Timeline options, actions, and cut types can be used to enable or disable ripple cutting, set a cut point at the playhead, resynchronize audio, change the appearance of the timeline, and more. Scene cut detection can also now be done directly in the timeline in the cut room. With the new Split A/V function, the cut points for video and audio can be adjusted independently of each other, for example to direct visual attention to dialog scenes.

Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve 18.5 Cut Page

Timeline-level color management

.
Color management in Color Space in DaVinci Resolve can now be configured at the timeline level, meaning that custom timelines are automatically initialized with the project&s color management settings. This makes it possible to specify different timeline and output color spaces for mixed media projects.

Virtual light sources via Relight FX

.
With the new Relight FX, scenes can be lit with virtual light sources afterwards. This allows the ambient light to be creatively adjusted, dark shadows to be filled with light, or the lighting mood of a scene to be changed. The new virtual light sources can illuminate an area evenly like a soft light panel or be used as a spotlight for punctual illumination.

Relight FX

Now also TikTok upload and vertical video projects

.
In addition to the usual, suspect video portals, videos can now be uploaded directly to TikTok. With a new vertical aspect ratio output option, content for social media is even easier to create.

Support for OpenTimelineIO format - OTIO

.
OTIO (OpenTimelineIO format - OTIO for short) supports the exchange of entire timelines between various NLE applications. Metadata for clips, timing, tracks, transitions and markers as well as information about the order and length of cuts and references to external media can be transferred.

Speech-to-text

Automatic audio-to-text conversion brings new functionality

.
The automatic subtitling feature in both the Cut and Edit rooms can convert speech from an audio clip to text, which can be automatically used as an editable subtitle track in the timeline. Another option of the "Transcribe" feature is speech-to-text editing. This automatically transcribes video and audio clips. Users can use it to search for specific words or jump to the section in which the word occurs. However, the editing itself is still done classically "by hand" in the timeline at

unlike Adobe&s new Premiere feature.

Fusion with USD support

Fusion now supports universal scene description (USD) files. USD files contain data such as 3D geometry, lighting, cameras, materials. They can also be used to replace entire animations. Fusion&s new USD tools now also allow you to manipulate, light and render files using Hydra-based renderers such as Storm.

Multi-merge tool

Fusion: multi-merge tooland depth map

.
The new Multi-Merge tool allows you to combine multiple media sources into a single multi-layer stack. Clips, still images, and graphics are effortlessly stitched together into composites using layers. Each layer has its own controls for adjusting individual properties such as position and size, and for applying modes.

The new Depth Map effect can be used to create a 3D depth map of a scene in an instant to independently colorize the foreground or background for example, to draw special attention to objects in the foreground or background.

Advanced timeline backups

.
Automated timeline backups can now be enabled in the settings. Edited timelines are backed up locally, on the network, and in the Blackmagic Cloud Project Library for both collaborative and non-collaborative projects. This should provide increased security for multi-user projects.

Audio now with groups

.
Audio engineers can now group related audio tracks and mixer channels to enable cross-group mix automations or editing operations. Which parameters the groups share is determined when the group is created. And if you need to focus on a smaller group or individual tracks, other groups can be nested or temporarily overridden.

Audio classification by AI

Audio Classification by AI and Elastic Wave Retiming

.
The DaVinci Neural Engine is now able to classify audio clips based on their content. When sifting through unfamiliar material, this can help with editing decisions. After analysis, audio clips appear in categorized bins for dialogue, music, and effects, with detailed subcategories such as explosions, water, or insects. Elastic wave algorithms for retiming audio clips are designed to produce natural-sounding, high-quality results, even with extreme changes in speech or vocal speeds.

Remote Monitoring

A Blackmagic ID and session code are now all that is needed to initialize remote monitoring sessions. It can be streamed to multiple computers, iPads or even iPhones simultaneously.

Presentation Feature

.
With the help of the new Presentation feature, users can now export their timelines to the Blackmagic Cloud. The presentation feature allows multiple external users to view a timeline, leave comments and even have a live chat. Comments appear as markers in the DaVinci Resolve timeline, which can be responded to immediately.

Blackmagic offers

here a nice overview of the new features including pictures.

Here you can download DaVinci Resolve 18.5 Beta.

If you have any questions about the update post them under the news, we&ll put them to Blackmagic in our upcoming interview.

Key Features

- Multiple cut page improvements.
- Support for Blackmagic Cloud Presentations.
- DaVinci Neural Engine based subtitles from audio in Studio.
- DaVinci Neural Engine powered text based editing in Studio.
- Support for Universal Scene Description based workflows in Fusion.
- New Fusion multi-merge tool to composite and manage multiple layers.
- Multiple remote monitoring improvements.
- Support for fast per-timeline backups.
- Per-timeline Resolve Color Management.
- Support for edit and mix groups in Fairlight.
- Support for AI-based audio classification in Studio.

Cut

- Multiple timeline display improvements.
- - Support for subtitles in the cut timeline.
- - Enlarge a track by clicking on icon in the track header.
- - Options to display clip names and indicators.
- - Improved smart indicator and edit point display.
- - Out of sync indicators for edited sync clips.
- Multiple timeline action improvements.
- - Automatically detect and create captions from timeline audio.
- - Perform DaVinci Neural Engine scene cuts in the cut timeline.
- - Add audio, video and subtitle tracks.
- - Split and join adjacent clips.
- - Ripple option to toggle ripple edits on main track.
- - Add markers and set default marker color.
- New edit actions.
- - Ability to create split edits by rolling or trimming audio.
- - Alt or Option trim to bypass ripple and add a gap on the main track.
- - Trim and extend edit clip start or end to playhead.
- - Resync misaligned synced clips.
- Reorganized toolbar for quick access to view options and edit actions.
- Right click on smooth cut to access favorite transitions on the toolbar.
- Cut page track numbering unified with other pages.
- Export current frame as still from media, cut and edit viewers.
- New motion graphic effects templates and transitions in cut and edit.

Media

- Support for AI-based audio classification in Studio.*
- Support for fast per-timeline backups.*
- Support for additional automatic smart bins.
- Import and export timelines using the OpenTimelineIO format.
- New 2x Enhanced Super Scale algorithm.*
- Ability to set Super Scale settings for media from the inspector.*
- Metadata panel support for marker subclips.*
- Ability to clear in-out ranges for multiple clips.
- Ability to change the starting timecode for multiple timeline selections.
- Ability to reorder favorites in media storage.
- Ability to clear recent media history in the source viewer.
- Support for custom pixel aspect ratios in clip attributes.
- Improved proxy linking for clips without timecode.

Blackmagic DaVinci RFesolve 18.5 Edit Page

Edit

- DaVinci Neural Engine based subtitles from audio in Studio.*
- DaVinci Neural Engine powered text based editing in Studio.*
- Ability to add and delete keyframes using keyboard shortcuts.
- Ability to modify keyframes during playback on the edit timeline.
- Export current frame as still from media, cut and edit viewers.
- Ability to drag video tracks to reorder in the track index.
- Ability to stabilize multiple selected clips from the timeline.
- Retime curve now invokes the speed curve by default.
- Grades from flattened multicams are copied to multicam angles.*
- Ability to manage render caches across projects.*
- Ability to manually relink missing VFX Connect clips.
- Ability to select all clips under playhead in cut, edit and Fairlight.
- Ability to set key shortcuts for timeline view options and volume controls.
- Smoother video updates when the system cannot play in realtime.*
- Improved text wrapping for caption previews in the subtitle inspector.
- The timecode display window now shows timecode entry previews.
- The Export Edit Index action is now part of edit index options.

Fusion

- Support for importing Universal Scene Descriptor (USD) files.*
- Introduction of the USD toolset for managing USD assets.
- Support for USD Hydra based renderers including Storm.
- New multi-merge tool for compositing multiple layers.*
- Support for a native AI-based depth map tool in Studio.
- GPU accelerated Clean Plate.
- GPU accelerated Anaglyph.
- Up to 3x faster renders when using Fusion splitter tool.
- Find in media pool for clips and MediaIns in Fusion page.
- Support for OpenEXR DWA compression in Fusion savers.
- Support for BMD Film Gen 5 in Fusion&s CineonLog tool.
- Support for previewing individual shape tools.
- Project setting option to disable tone mapping for Fusion conversions.

Blackmagic DaVinci RFesolve 18.5 Fusion Page

Color

- Per-timeline Resolve Color Management.*
- Support for matte finesse post-filter controls in Magic Mask.
- Ability to undo Camera RAW changes for each clip.
- Ability to set composite mode in the corrector node.
- Support for marker overlays and annotations in the viewer.*
- Support for showing missing LUTs as a viewer overlay.*
- Ability to manage missing LUTs from the LUT manager.*
- Ability to sort stills, LUTs and PowerGrade albums in the gallery.
- Generated LUTs now include spatial Resolve FX DCTL effects.
- Automatic background refresh of gallery stills for multi user projects.
- Improved highlight mode behavior during HDR grading.*
- Ability to copy and paste Vivid HDR trim metadata between clips.
- Improved performance when grading HDR footage.
- Up to 2x faster spatial noise reduction in Apple silicon.
- Improved tracking and cache management for Magic Mask.
- Support for Dolby Vision controls in DaVinci Resolve Mini panels.
- Support for color warper controls in DaVinci Resolve Mini panels.
- External matte node labels now default to the matte file name.
- Node label is now retained when converting to a shared node.
- Support for Leica L Log color management.
- Color space and gamma options are now organized by vendor.

Resolve FX

- AI-based Resolve FX Relight to add virtual lighting in Studio.*
- Invert Effect option in Resolve FX Glow for a dark glow effect.
- Option to export Resolve FX Flicker Addition analysis as an alpha channel.
- Ability to swap in and out colorspaces in Resolve FX Color Transform.
- Improved handling of blanking in Resolve FX Depth map analysis.
- Improved patch replacer results at patch edges.
- Bright region recovery control for Resolve FX Glow and Light Rays.
- Automatic input and output management for Resolve FX grading nodes.*
- Dragging a Resolve FX now applies it as a color grading node.
- Alt or option drag a Resolve FX to create an FX node.
- Support for smart initialization of OFX alpha mixing state.
- Alt or option resize selection to preserve ratio in warper and surface tracker.
- Up to 2x faster Beauty, Water Color and Stylize on Nvidia systems.
- Up to 1.5x faster Lens Blur and Aperture Diffraction on Nvidia systems.

Fairlight

- Support for edit and mix groups in Fairlight.*
- Improved elastic wave pitch handling with voice-specific option.*
- Support for nesting VCAs.*
- Enhanced Dolby Atmos support in Studio.*
- Support for voice isolation in Studio for Linux.
- Support for dialog leveler for Linux.
- Improved metering previews for muted or soloed tracks and monitors.
- Ability to set key shortcuts to scroll to selected track in the mixer.
- Track solos are now retained across project sessions.
- Ability to pan busses.
- Ability to select all clips under playhead in cut, edit and Fairlight.
- Ability to designate track and bus monitor sources from the tracks index.
- Multiple voice isolation improvements in Studio.
- Fairlight FX Monitor Control allowing third party Rewire integration.
- Ability to stream and spot from applications like Soundminer.
- Shift modifier action for 0.1 dB resolution automation level trimming.

General

- Support for Blackmagic Cloud Presentations.
- Sign in and upload videos directly to TikTok from DaVinci Resolve.*
- Remote Monitoring Improvements in Studio*
- - Support for remote monitoring from Mac OS.
- - Improved Mac OS client with support for more formats.
- - New iOS client to monitor on iPad and iPhone.
- - Support for connecting clients using Blackmagic ID.
- - Support for streaming to multiple clients.
- - Support for viewing streams on computer displays.
- - Support for monitoring HDR streams.
- Ability to upload new versions to Dropbox Replay in Studio.
- Rocky Linux 8.6 based installation environment for DaVinci Resolve.*
- Press play multiple times for faster playback from the Advanced panel.
- DRT exports now include groups and shared nodes.
- DRA project archives now include VFX Connect media.
- Optimized Blackmagic Cloud project library connections.*
- New vertical resolution timelines and projects default to full frame with crop.
- Speed warp option for default motion estimation mode in project settings.
- Stabilization, scene cut and other progress dialogs show analysis speed.
- Quick export icon on edit and color pages.
- General performance and stability improvements.

Scripting & APIs

- Scripting API support to import and export DRT and DRB files.
- Scripting API support to load data burn presets.
- Scripting API support to get node label.
- Scripting API support to apply ARRI CDL and LUT to a clip.
- Scripting API support for querying and setting clip enabled state.
- Supported containers for selected codecs are now listed in the encode API.
- Ability to specify data and video range in the encode API.

Codec Support

- Support for Blackmagic RAW SDK 3.0.
- Support for rendering GIF, JPEG and PNG image sequences.
- Support for rendering animated GIF clips.
- Support for decoding AC3 audio in Linux.
- Ability to decode LogC3 ARRI clips as LogC4.
- Support for Sony XAVC raw controls.
- Ability to import MKV chapters as media markers.
- Ability to export timeline markers as MKV chapters.
- Hardware accelerated VP9 decodes in Resolve for supported Nvidia cards.
- Up to 50% faster encode speeds for Sony XAVC 420 8-bit clips.
- Support for decoding AV1 from MKV and WEBM clips.
- Support for encoding and decoding FFV1 formats.
- Encode support for ProRes, AV1, H.264, MP3, AAC in MKV containers.*
- Custom compression levels when rendering ZIP formatted EXRs.
- Hardware accelerated encode support for AV1 in AMD systems.
- Ability to use multiple hardware encoders in supported AMD systems.
- Up to 30% faster Apple ProRes hardware accelerated encode.
- Better disk usage estimates when rendering ProRes clips on Apple silicon.
- Quick export renders now include active subtitle and data burn in.

Pre-Installation Notes

For DaVinci Resolve 18.5, we have taken efforts to keep the project libraries compatible with DaVinci Resolve 18.1.4. While this allows you to access the project library with 18.1.4, individual projects created or opened in 18.5 will no longer be accessible in 18.1.4.

We recommend a full project library backup as well as individual project backups for projects before opening projects in 18.5.

more infos at bei www.blackmagicdesign.com

deutsche Version dieser Seite: Großes Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve 18.5 Update bringt über 150 neue Funktionen