Training resources for DaVinci Resolve?

Roger Van Duyn · September 25th, 2019, 06:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Knaggs

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread, but the title really says it all.

I installed DaVinci Studio last night and found that the manual is several thousand pages long! So I'm looking for some top-notch, rapid training.

When I was starting to learn Resolve, I found the bite-sized chunks of knowledge approach very helpful for learning the basics QUICKLY from a YouTube Channel called "Goat's Eye." Though the lessons are from an older version of Resolve, the basics haven't changed very much. Of course, you'll have to go somewhere else for all the newer features.

Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0x...7vnWuCKwqgw2ng

David Knaggs · March 12th, 2020, 06:36 AM

Hi Roger.

I've been meaning to answer this properly for months (because there are a few points I wanted to make), but I've been caught in too many activities. I just finished an important side project this week, which has suddenly freed up a bit of time, so here goes:

First, thanks for understanding my post.

Second, Goat's Eye looks like a really good trainer and Resolve is such a moving target (in terms of its rapid development) that most training will get dated somewhat, in my opinion.

I looked at BMD's own Resolve training before I made my first post on this thread. It's good, but too generic for my immediate needs. (And I'm super-impressed with the great job BMD are doing with issuing training for their products, plus their super-easy to read, user-friendly manuals. I'll get more into this in a little bit.)

When I want to be introduced to the fundamentals of a subject (or tool), I prefer to go to an elite trainer rather than a "good" one. I'm happy to pay for that service. (The fact that something is free means nothing to me if it doesn't meet my requirements.) Enter Doug. A lot of people on this board will know what I'm talking about when I refer to Doug as an outstanding, elite trainer.

In coming over to Resolve, I had a lot of questions. I didn't want someone to start by going straight to the interface. There's nothing wrong with that at all (and it's what BMD and Goat's Eye do), but it doesn't address my needs. Doug's Resolve tutorials start with a 41-minute tutorial where he doesn't even mention the interface at all! I've been working exclusively (before I bought the Pocket 6K) with baked-in Picture Profiles (Sony and JVC) for the past decade and a half and, boy, did I have an awful lot of questions!

Somehow, Doug seemed to predict every single question I had and answered them all in that 41 minutes. Uncanny. Further, he shared his personal set-up regarding monitoring. There's an old thread on the FCP X forum where I discuss my extreme dissatisfaction with various (expensive) monitoring solutions I'd attempted over the years. I've now got the set-up in my home editing suite per Doug's recommendations (broadcast monitor, 4K Consumer TV and BMD Mini Monitor box). And I love how, in the second tutorial, Doug introduced the interface in terms of the workflow. It makes it super-easy to remember. Three points to be aware of with these tutorials though: 1. These were made before the introduction of the Cut Page. (Not a problem for me as I'd already bought Mark Spencer's Cut Page tutorial.) 2. These tuts are more conversational and informal than his camera tutorials (still terrific though). 3. He's not trying to pass himself off as an expert colorist. He's just showing all of the things he wished that someone had shown him when he first started off with Resolve years ago. Perfect for a videographer like me. It might not suit everyone.

Now, I wanted to get onto the subject of "Visionary CEO's" and whether or not you're wasting your time to extensively learn a new piece of software, only to have it EOL'd (End of Life) by the manufacturer. Because, having been introduced to Resolve now, I'm mulling over whether it's really worth it to "deep dive" into learning it fully. I'm trying to predict the industry trends here.

When Steve Jobs came back to Apple, they bought FCP and really pumped it up over the following years. I think I started on FCP 2 (or was it FCP 1?) and loved how it evolved into FCP Studio. I was recently cleaning out a shelf of my office and found all of my old "Shake" training DVDs (remember Shake?), the DVD Studio Pro training (gosh, I used to be such an expert on that), Soundtrack Pro, Compressor 1, Color (remember Color?). And all of that extensive training was wasted when they EOL'd it all after Steve passed and they brought out FCP X. So many pros were so disgusted that they went over to Premiere Pro (as I did initially) because they didn't want to keep wasting valuable time re-learning their tools.

But now we have Grant Petty who, in my opinion, is very much a visionary CEO. He's putting in an extraordinary amount of work to make Resolve the all-in-one "go-to" video editing, effects and sound finishing application. Kind of like the old Final Cut Studio all rolled into one, only better. And he's working hard (as already discussed in this thread) to provide top-notch, free training for all the BMD tools.

At the moment, thanks to Doug's tutorials I know I can get into Resolve, grade my clips, export them and then edit in FCP X. But I think the day might be coming when I ditch FCP X and completely jump ship to Resolve. I can't help but notice how Ripple Training, which built its reputation exclusively on FCP when Steve Jobs was CEO, has spent the last year or two almost exclusively issuing Resolve training. They seem to sense which way the wind is blowing.

As long as Grant Petty remains in good health and as CEO of BMD, I'm suspecting I might jump ship sooner rather than later. The only question is when it will be mature enough (last week they upgraded Resolve with all of these new Fairlight tools, for example) that you can invest the valuable time to learn it without having to spend more time re-learning it every few months due to all of the profound changes currently occurring. (It's only an issue if you're time-poor like me.)

Christopher Young · March 12th, 2020, 10:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Troiano

Does anyone have any recommendations for books, or online course, or anything, with regards to Resolve? Jeff

They relate to Resolve 15 but are 95% applicable to Resolve 16. They are Blackmagic's own Resolve training video lessons on YouTube... and they are free. To get going on Resolve these are well worth downloading with a YouTube downloader of which there are many. Just click on the BMD logo to access the rest of the lessons.

Chris Young

AJ Lewis · November 22nd, 2021, 02:31 PM

I’d not heard of Doug Jensen, thanks for the tip. I’m also learning Resolve, finally making the leap from premiere after two decades. It seems like a great package so far, I’m really impressed with how easy it is to pick up. Loving the node based approach too,

Ron Evans · November 22nd, 2021, 03:07 PM

Lots of good training on YouTube for Resolve. Casey Faris, Creative Video Tips, Learn Color Grading, Darren Mostyn.

Doug Jensen · November 22nd, 2021, 04:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Knaggs

Doug's Resolve tutorials start with a 41-minute tutorial where he doesn't even mention the interface at all!

Hey David, Somehow I missed your post last year and I wanted to offer you a belated thank you for your comments. You made my day. When I do one of my master class tutorials I just try to put myself in the shoes of the viewer -- and imagine what I'd want to know if the tables were reversed. For a lot of people that seems to hit the mark. And it is always great to hear when I accomplished my goal. Thanks for the feedback.

Christopher Young · November 22nd, 2021, 10:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Troiano

Since I have preordered the pocket cinema camera, I've downloaded and started messing around with DaVinci Resolve Lite. I figure the BMCC ships Resolve, so I wanted to inquire about any good training material.

Check out BM's Resolve's own training resources. If you are just starting out I think you'll find the v15 training videos very useful to get you up and running. 90% of those are totally relevant to learning the current v17 versions.
https://www.youtube.com/c/Blackmagic...icial/featured

A couple of the v15 videos seem to no longer be on the BM site. If you want all of the v15 training videos I have uploaded them here. I'll leave them up for a week or so in case anyone else wants to grab them. This is a list of the videos in the download ZIP file.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QwV...ew?usp=sharing

Chris Young

Jeff Turkali · April 10th, 2022, 07:02 PM

Kind of odd how DV Info forums have cooled off of activity in recent years. Quite a few long term members disappeared beginning 2014, and by 2018 were gone like a wild goose in winter, except not coming back at all.

Anyway what I was going to say is that I find Davinci Resolve to be an interesting merge of Sony era Vegas, and Steve Jobs era Final Cut Pro NLE systems. Not at all a bad thing, especially if one is coming from one of these. I know more about those two than about any others.

So if one knows and likes those two older editing systems then Resolve is not too far a bridge to cross imo.

The only thing is Resolve is very system resource demanding.

March 12th, 2020, 06:36 AM	#17
David Knaggs Major Player Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 826	Re: Training resources for DaVinci Resolve? Hi Roger. I've been meaning to answer this properly for months (because there are a few points I wanted to make), but I've been caught in too many activities. I just finished an important side project this week, which has suddenly freed up a bit of time, so here goes: First, thanks for understanding my post. Second, Goat's Eye looks like a really good trainer and Resolve is such a moving target (in terms of its rapid development) that most training will get dated somewhat, in my opinion. I looked at BMD's own Resolve training before I made my first post on this thread. It's good, but too generic for my immediate needs. (And I'm super-impressed with the great job BMD are doing with issuing training for their products, plus their super-easy to read, user-friendly manuals. I'll get more into this in a little bit.) When I want to be introduced to the fundamentals of a subject (or tool), I prefer to go to an elite trainer rather than a "good" one. I'm happy to pay for that service. (The fact that something is free means nothing to me if it doesn't meet my requirements.) Enter Doug. A lot of people on this board will know what I'm talking about when I refer to Doug as an outstanding, elite trainer. In coming over to Resolve, I had a lot of questions. I didn't want someone to start by going straight to the interface. There's nothing wrong with that at all (and it's what BMD and Goat's Eye do), but it doesn't address my needs. Doug's Resolve tutorials start with a 41-minute tutorial where he doesn't even mention the interface at all! I've been working exclusively (before I bought the Pocket 6K) with baked-in Picture Profiles (Sony and JVC) for the past decade and a half and, boy, did I have an awful lot of questions! Somehow, Doug seemed to predict every single question I had and answered them all in that 41 minutes. Uncanny. Further, he shared his personal set-up regarding monitoring. There's an old thread on the FCP X forum where I discuss my extreme dissatisfaction with various (expensive) monitoring solutions I'd attempted over the years. I've now got the set-up in my home editing suite per Doug's recommendations (broadcast monitor, 4K Consumer TV and BMD Mini Monitor box). And I love how, in the second tutorial, Doug introduced the interface in terms of the workflow. It makes it super-easy to remember. Three points to be aware of with these tutorials though: 1. These were made before the introduction of the Cut Page. (Not a problem for me as I'd already bought Mark Spencer's Cut Page tutorial.) 2. These tuts are more conversational and informal than his camera tutorials (still terrific though). 3. He's not trying to pass himself off as an expert colorist. He's just showing all of the things he wished that someone had shown him when he first started off with Resolve years ago. Perfect for a videographer like me. It might not suit everyone. Now, I wanted to get onto the subject of "Visionary CEO's" and whether or not you're wasting your time to extensively learn a new piece of software, only to have it EOL'd (End of Life) by the manufacturer. Because, having been introduced to Resolve now, I'm mulling over whether it's really worth it to "deep dive" into learning it fully. I'm trying to predict the industry trends here. When Steve Jobs came back to Apple, they bought FCP and really pumped it up over the following years. I think I started on FCP 2 (or was it FCP 1?) and loved how it evolved into FCP Studio. I was recently cleaning out a shelf of my office and found all of my old "Shake" training DVDs (remember Shake?), the DVD Studio Pro training (gosh, I used to be such an expert on that), Soundtrack Pro, Compressor 1, Color (remember Color?). And all of that extensive training was wasted when they EOL'd it all after Steve passed and they brought out FCP X. So many pros were so disgusted that they went over to Premiere Pro (as I did initially) because they didn't want to keep wasting valuable time re-learning their tools. But now we have Grant Petty who, in my opinion, is very much a visionary CEO. He's putting in an extraordinary amount of work to make Resolve the all-in-one "go-to" video editing, effects and sound finishing application. Kind of like the old Final Cut Studio all rolled into one, only better. And he's working hard (as already discussed in this thread) to provide top-notch, free training for all the BMD tools. At the moment, thanks to Doug's tutorials I know I can get into Resolve, grade my clips, export them and then edit in FCP X. But I think the day might be coming when I ditch FCP X and completely jump ship to Resolve. I can't help but notice how Ripple Training, which built its reputation exclusively on FCP when Steve Jobs was CEO, has spent the last year or two almost exclusively issuing Resolve training. They seem to sense which way the wind is blowing. As long as Grant Petty remains in good health and as CEO of BMD, I'm suspecting I might jump ship sooner rather than later. The only question is when it will be mature enough (last week they upgraded Resolve with all of these new Fairlight tools, for example) that you can invest the valuable time to learn it without having to spend more time re-learning it every few months due to all of the profound changes currently occurring. (It's only an issue if you're time-poor like me.)

November 22nd, 2021, 02:31 PM	#19
AJ Lewis Tourist Join Date: Apr 2021 Location: Warwickshire, UK Posts: 3	Re: Training resources for DaVinci Resolve? I’d not heard of Doug Jensen, thanks for the tip. I’m also learning Resolve, finally making the leap from premiere after two decades. It seems like a great package so far, I’m really impressed with how easy it is to pick up. Loving the node based approach too,

November 22nd, 2021, 03:07 PM	#20
Ron Evans Inner Circle Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Posts: 4,220	Re: Training resources for DaVinci Resolve? Lots of good training on YouTube for Resolve. Casey Faris, Creative Video Tips, Learn Color Grading, Darren Mostyn.

April 10th, 2022, 07:02 PM	#23
Jeff Turkali Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Los Angeles, California Posts: 57	Re: Training resources for DaVinci Resolve? Kind of odd how DV Info forums have cooled off of activity in recent years. Quite a few long term members disappeared beginning 2014, and by 2018 were gone like a wild goose in winter, except not coming back at all. Anyway what I was going to say is that I find Davinci Resolve to be an interesting merge of Sony era Vegas, and Steve Jobs era Final Cut Pro NLE systems. Not at all a bad thing, especially if one is coming from one of these. I know more about those two than about any others. So if one knows and likes those two older editing systems then Resolve is not too far a bridge to cross imo. The only thing is Resolve is very system resource demanding.