DaVinci Resolve 21 • Hacker News Board

Re: DaVinci Resolve 21

#121

Post by Forgeties79 » Wed, Jun 03, 2026, 6:01 PM UTC

httpsterio wrote: post #83

Forgeties79 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>They also added a ton of motion graphics stuff which from the beta seem to be enough to undercut a lot of basic uses of after effects out. I moved my team to Resolve about 2.5 years ago and I can say with absolute confidence Fusion > AE. Resolve Studio is all you need, period. Lightroom is clearly better right now than their Photo editor but like all their other offerings (ehhh except fairlight lol still mediocre),…

This has not been my experience. I have frequent crashes with Fusion that seem to be related to specific nodes. Checking my computers usage it doesn't seem like I'm running out of juice either. When it works, it's really nice and I'm sold on the node based workflows, but it's not all entirely roses. Resolve itself is excellent, Fairlight works just Ok and is still heaps better than Audition ever was. But Fusion I fee…

That’s interesting, our experience with fusion has been fantastic. But maybe you’re doing certain kind of work or more advanced work than we are

Re: DaVinci Resolve 21

#122

Post by mistic92 » Wed, Jun 03, 2026, 6:02 PM UTC

bbatha wrote: post #9

For all the potshots about AI, this update is huge even if you take away the AI features. They basically added lightroom to this release. There's some polish before you'd want to change your subscription, but its really tempting. It may be the best photo management/editor on linux. Yes, I know about darktable and rawtherapee and I stand by what I said. They also added a ton of motion graphics stuff which from the bet…

Unfortunately they are far from Lightroom, maybe next year they'll be closer. I really would like to ditch Lightroom but there is no alternative

Re: DaVinci Resolve 21

#123

Post by justinator » Wed, Jun 03, 2026, 6:02 PM UTC

The only thing wrong with Resolve is there is no "just get out of my way and let me get something done" mode. No easy/beginner mode. This is a very sizable, complicated piece of a software that has little bounds on what you can do with it. The learning curve is as steep and tall as the granite walls of El Capitan.

That's not really a critique on the software -- it's not trying to be what it's not. But the criticism of the software is painted by the fact that it's hard to get good at it. Well ok I will critique it: the user interface is garbage. Like they studied old versions of Gimp and thought, "let's do even worse".

The metaphor isn't perfect, but it's got some of that ol' TIMTOWTDI Perl feeling to it.

Re: DaVinci Resolve 21

#124

Post by switchbak » Wed, Jun 03, 2026, 6:09 PM UTC

BuildTheRobots wrote: post #110

bbatha wrote: post #9

For all the potshots about AI, this update is huge even if you take away the AI features. They basically added lightroom to this release. There's some polish before you'd want to change your subscription, but its really tempting. It may be the best photo management/editor on linux. Yes, I know about darktable and rawtherapee and I stand by what I said. They also added a ton of motion graphics stuff which from the bet…

> ...before you'd want to change your subscription... For anyone not in the know, Resolve has an exceptionally capable and feature rich free version. A lot of the AI features (and >4k editing) are locked to the Studio licence which is a one-time payment, but works simultaneously on two computers (including different OS's) and allows upgrades across major versions. I spent less than $300 on it a decade ago and my lice…

I was a lightroom user for almost 20 years, and their licensing ridiculousness was enough for me to: - change up my workflow, avoiding raw so I can use simpler editing processes - do way less editing - take way fewer photos

It sucks, but I just can't justify their insane pricing scheme. I've been looking for Linux-capable tools for a while, and Darktable / Rawtherapee are a long way from what I'm after. What you describe sounds like a dream.

Re: DaVinci Resolve 21

#125

Post by rafram » Wed, Jun 03, 2026, 6:10 PM UTC

rightbyte wrote: post #85

rafram wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure that does not cover a face database indexing your own photos/videos, running locally on your own computer. If it did, that would be extremely silly.

Why would the law make exemptions for running the search on on a computer that has the database.

Because outlawing the local facial recognition that software like Lightroom and Apple Photos has offered for decades would be extraordinarily silly?

Re: DaVinci Resolve 21

#126

Post by MoonWalk » Wed, Jun 03, 2026, 6:10 PM UTC

bluelightning2k wrote: post #25

So much respect for Black Magic. They are absolutely World Class and their business model is extremely generous. Having said that, for all the AI features, the big one would be setting key frames etc. with an agent, driving the general editing workflow with text,etc. I realize this is non trivial but it's certainly viable for a team of this calibre. I think if BM added a paid for agent which helped execute their trad…

BlackMagic does quite a few innovative things. I have one of their cameras, and thus a paid license for Resolve. It's my primary editing tool. I've even done a music remix in Fairlight just to see if it could be done.

But their priorities are not always well-set. In Resolve, significant problems remain while more and more functionality is hastily slapped on.

The so-called "integration" with Fusion remains very poor. Compositions' presence in timelines is extremely fragile, and inexplicably degrades source material's resolution to that of the target timeline. This means that if one of your timelines is HD but you bring UHD clips into Fusion, they will be degraded to HD upon ENTRY to your Fusion comp, before they ever get to the timeline. So in Fusion all of your keys and other selective image processing will be chunky garbage.

Also: If you start a project, import your footage, and then drag a clip to the timeline... Resolve will offer to change the frame rate of the timeline to match. But NOTHING ELSE. Every other major NLE offers to match the timeline to the first incoming footage in ALL regards. But not Resolve, despite years and years of vociferous complaints in their forum. This is a basic, expected feature but ignored by BMD.

And finally a core issue: multiple, unrelated node views scattered about. Resolve needs to consolidate them into a single node view for all processing. That would flesh out Resolve's half-assed "integration" of four or five other products and provide a game-changing workflow that is long overdue.

Re: DaVinci Resolve 21

#127

Post by Sohcahtoa82 » Wed, Jun 03, 2026, 6:14 PM UTC

scottyah wrote: post #108

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My opinion is that, for end users, if you name your feature "AI" to market it, you kind of already failed to read the room. You're writing to VCs while hoping it convinces customers. 100% this. Maybe I live in a bubble, but consumer sentiment regarding AI seems extremely negative. Boasting "AI" features is more likely to lose sales than to create them.

But their target audience are creators, not consumers. Creators love AI.

Good point, though I think it depends on the creator.

Professional creators working at a corporation probably love AI.

Amateur independent creators that weren't making any money from their art hate AI and use it as a scapegoat. They weren't getting commissions before, and now they're claiming it's because AI is replacing commissioned art.

Re: DaVinci Resolve 21

#128

Post by Voultapher » Wed, Jun 03, 2026, 6:14 PM UTC

I despise AI generated no-effort art as much as the next person but what they are offering here is fine-grained application of AI tools which is completely different to one-shot do the art for me. Does anyone have experience with the processing cost it takes to run these effects locally? Topaz takes a minutes to do superresolution on a single picture and this has to work for many frames so I'd assume it is faster?

Also excited about the picture stuff. I'm on an aging Lightroom version and wouldn't mind something that works well on Linux. Also huge plus point is the licensing model.

Re: DaVinci Resolve 21

#129

Post by __mharrison__ » Wed, Jun 03, 2026, 6:19 PM UTC

Just last week I made some automations for my recording and editing process in Resolve. Using Python to script initial editing.

It works pretty well. I tried it this morning and in about 15 minutes I had recorded and edited a three minute video.

(I've used AI transcription in resolve before, not this is actually editing the transcript with an llm and then inserting the clips. I also did breath detection and b roll placement. The Python scripting later is poorly documented and only supports a subset of the functionality of Resolve.)

Re: DaVinci Resolve 21

#130

Post by echelon » Wed, Jun 03, 2026, 6:23 PM UTC

swatcoder wrote: post #32

echelon wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> Most video is going to be AI in the near future That's like saying all fine art would be photography, all film would be CGI, or all music would be synthesized electronica. That's not how aesthetics seem to work. Artists will make more or less good use of generative AI in their work, and it will probably seep into most media in some way or another, effecting them, but arts mostly don't get replaced and AI doesn't re…

It's saying most art will be created with AI.

Like saying most pictures will be made with digital cameras.

Like saying most music will be captured and edited digitally.

You guys have an anti-AI bug and it's eating you alive and blinding you to the future that is unfolding. It's toxic and you're all 100% wrong. Your hate makes it impossible to see all of the improvements.

I've been a filmmaker for decades. This tech is the most amazing thing I've ever witnessed. And it's just getting started.

Stop being old men yelling at clouds. If you don't like it, you can continue doing things the way you're used to.