Project Settings - Getting Started in DaVinci Resolve (Part 2)

In this video, we take a look at setting up a new project and the project settings menu in DaVinci Resolve.

This is Part 2 of my Getting Started in DaVinci Resolve series. You can all of the currently available parts here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx9Sc2olDN-dN3coCXq9te4E7z8-DWYW4

How to set up a new Project in DaVinci Resolve

Welcome back to getting started in DaVinci resolve!

In this video, we're going to be taking a look at setting up a new project and the project settings.

To create a new project, click on the new project icon at the bottom of the project manager. This will give you the option to name it.

Your project settings will be whatever the defaults are set to unless you've changed them already.

You can access your project settings either from the top file menu and going down to Project Settings.

Or by clicking on the cog icon in the bottom right of the program.

At the top you have your Presets, this is where you can find your saved Project Settings and I'll explain how you can save your own presets later on in the video.

The first thing we'll take a look at is the Master Settings.

This is where you'll find your Timeline Resolution, this is the size you'll want your final video to be exported.

If you are filming in 4k but want to export in 1080p, set your timeline resolution to 1080p but if you want to export at 4k use a 4k timeline.

Your timeline frame rate can also be set here.

You can also make sure your playback and timeline framerate match.

Next up is the video monitoring settings, this refers to the monitor you will be playing your footage back on.

You can adjust the settings here for smoother playback if needed.

There are several options for how your monitor is connected, mine is just via mini DisplayPort and HDMI so I don't need to worry about these.

You can choose if you want full data levels or not. This can help if you have a slower PC.

Your bit depth will depend on what footage you are editing.

If you are working with really big files and your computer can't handle them, you may want to consider using Optimised Media

Both Optimised Media and Proxies are essentially files that are smaller, lower-res versions of your original source material. Although you can adjust your settings to have them be whatever you want.

Depending on what computer you're working on you may prefer to use lower resolution Optimised Media or stick to the original resolution.

Choosing where your proxy files are kept is important, as having them on a slow drive won't help you at all. It's always a good idea to keep them on a good fast drive like an M.2 or SSD.

Frame interpolation relates to how resolve determines the default state for all retiming and speed change effects. This includes when clips are in mixed frame rate timelines.

The real-time process is the default way Resolve interprets clips that don't match the timeline frame rate.

Nearest is the least processor-intensive and Optical flow is the most processor-intensive. So use your own discretion here.

Motion estimation mode and motion range are options that lets you choose the trade-off between speed and quality with regards to frame interpolation.

The larger will obviously be more processor intensive.

Image scaling

Resize filter - These settings affect the methods used to resize clips in various situations.

I tend to just leave this on Sharper, as often scale up 1080p footage to 4k.

Anti Aliasing - This is where you can choose how to handle edge anti-aliasing for source blanking.

Auto: Adds anti-aliasing when any of the Sizing controls are used to transform the image. Otherwise, anti-aliasing is disabled.

On: Just means it will be on all the time.

You may choose to have this off completely if you notice black blurring at the edges of blanking being applied to an image.

Color Management

Because Color Management is such a big topic, I'll go over it briefly here but we will cover this in more depth in another video.

This is where you choose your working color space.

You have a choice between resolve yrgb/ resolve yrgb color managed or Aces.

Resolve yrgb will let you manually adjust and tranfrom colorspaces as you see fit.

Color manged will do this for you but you still have control of how it does this using whatever settings best suit your need.

It's always recommended to use the widest gamut for your main delivery and then you can shrink it down as needed the web/ tv etc.

DaVinci Wide Gamut is the widest as far as I'm aware so far, even more so than Aces.

Which you can see from the chart.

If you are more familiar with working with rec 709, you may want to choose something smaller.

General Settings

There may not be a lot you need to change here, it all depends on how you like to work.

There are a couple of things I like to uncheck here

Luminance mixer defaults to zero and Use S-Curve for Contrast.

This is something that I picked up from the learning color grading channel.

Having these two options checked is asking Resolve to help stop you from clipping by making automatic adjustments for you when you either use the contrast control or adjust individual colour channels. I like to have as much manual control as possible and so I turn these off.

Once you are happy with all your settings for your project, you can go back to the preset tab and save them. You can also save them as your project defaults if you would like as well by right-clicking.