Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve 19 Color Panels
Blackmagic is all about its hardware. Many may think of DaVinci Resolve when they think of Blackmagic, but the software is driven by the hardware: the cameras, switchers, mixers and color panels. And these devices range from those used by small indie users to full-blown studios. Recently, a series of color panels was released that includes the Micro Color Panel, which is the smallest of the series, but it’s also darn powerful.
The upgrade from the last version includes a number of cool features: It has similar fabrication to its big brothers for the trackballs and wheels — the driving controls for color grading. They are weighty, and the resistance is key to restraining the movements you make when doing very slight adjustments.
Along the top of the panel are 12 dials with a similar feel and resistance to the balls and wheels. These control additional color variables: lift, gamma, gain, contrast, etc.
The rest of the panel is filled on the left, top and right with buttons that give you edit functions, still control, viewer control, reset buttons, adding nodes/windows/keyframes, and then transport controls (frame forward and back, previous/next clip, play forward, playback, etc.)
Further, there are shift-up and shift-down modifier buttons on the lower left, which adjust the functionality of the panel controls. So, essentially, you have three different panels, just by modifying things with the shift keys. For example, your balls and wheels by default control the “Primaries,” which are the broad color controls. But a shift button switches the mode to “Log,” which allows finer detail control. However, you can switch it again, and if you create a power window (used for isolated color correction), the balls and wheels become controls for the position, size, feathering, etc., for the mask — and then you click over on the “play” button, and you activate Resolve’s tracker, which locks your mask to the object. That is just one example.
The concept behind the panel is to change how you interface with the software from a mouse-point-and-click method to one where you never take your eyes off the screen when making adjustments. It’s meant to become muscle memory, like playing an instrument. Your hands don’t leave the panel.
Let’s not forget some of the technical aspects. The Micro Color Panel can be connected to your computer via Bluetooth or USB-C cable. The cable is also used as a charger for the internal battery and it can connect through Bluetooth. It’s meant to be used on the go. It literally fits in my backpack, and it even has a slot built into the top that fits an iPad Pro — and since you can connect via Bluetooth, the USB-C port on the iPad can remain open for external drives.
I kind of love it, and I just may get one for myself to keep. Of course, at around $500, it’s totally worth it, which is also a comparable price reduction from the previous model.
Price: $509
blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/panels
Wacom’s Movink
I was quite impressed with the Blackmagic Micro Color Panel. But then, I also had the great fortune of having Wacom send me its Movink OLED tablet, so I was blown away once again. To be perfectly transparent, when Wacom contacted me and said it wanted to send it to me, I said, “Sure!” because I don’t question Wacom sending me things. But I didn’t research what was being sent to be reviewed. So when it arrived, it was like Christmas, and I said to myself, “Let’s see what we’ve got! Wait, this is a really thin tablet — and OMG, it’s a display tablet!”
The Movink is only 4mm thick (at its thinnest, which is most of it) and 420 grams. Literally, a featherweight — of a bigger bird. There is no power supply; the power comes through the USB-C cable. Past Cintiqs have come with a flurry of cables and boxes to keep track of, and that has gotten better as technology progressed. But now, we are down to one cable, which can be plugged in ambidextrously on the left or right edge of the tablet.
I plugged the cable into my laptop, and Windows just said, “Oh, look! A new display!” My desktop mirrored the Movink. Granted, I needed to update my Wacom drivers, but that’s to be expected. The point is, though, that it just worked. The display is crisp with a 100,000:1 contrast ratio and Pantone/Skintone-validated colors, while the anti-glares coating helps keep all that vibrant color clear without much reflection pollution.
There is zero latency (caveat: I haven’t tried ZBrush with it yet). The Pro Pen 3’s thin, pencil-style form feels good with three buttons on the side, replacing the rocker button on older pen models. But if you like the older pens, the tablet still supports them, and it also supports third- party styluses such as Dr. Grip Digital, Lamy and Staedtler.
Physical ExpressKey buttons for modifying tablet functions are on the left and right sides. In addition, the screen is also touch-activated, which makes for a more integrated experience as you pinch-zoom or rotate canvases or objects while laying down paint strokes. This isn’t new to this device, but I’m very happy Wacom didn’t leave it out.
As with most Wacom tablets, there are trial versions of software to get you going. The Movink is bundled with trials of Rebelle 7 for painting, Capture One for photo editing, MAGMA (a browser-based drawing and painting tool), MASV for transferring large files and Clip Studio Paint EX for illustrations, manga and comic design.
When you get a Movink, I highly recommend the carrying sleeve. With devices that are this portable, they end up going in your backpack, and it would be tragic to scratch the screen. Also, maybe go for the stand as well. I’ve been using it in my hands and lap, but I’m not a 24/7 Wacom creator.
The Movink 13 clocks in at $750.95, which is less than half the cost of the smallest Cintiq. On the Wacom page, the Movink is not categorized under the Pro Displays, but, frankly, I don’t see why not.
Price: $750.95
wacom.com
Silhouette Studio 2024
It’s been a few years since I reviewed Silhouette, and that was before AI became ubiquitous, so it comes as no surprise that many of the newer tools for this powerful roto/paint/prep software incorporate machine learning. But to be honest, that description is a little deceptive, since Silhouette can be used as a full-fledged composing tool.
Matte Assist ML is meant to save time making masks by using AI trained on footage to decipher what is foreground and what is background. But it requires some initial guidance in the form of a sample mask from the user. This could be from traditional roto and paint tools. Or it could be generated from the EZMask node, in which you use broad paint strokes to tell Silhouette what is FG and what is BG. Or you can use another AI tool called Mask ML, in which you can click on or drag a box around an area to select a piece of the FG object, and Mask ML will attempt to figure out where the mask should be. You can fine-tune this with additional clicks.
Each of these methods feeds Matte Assist ML the initial suggestion, and if the circumstances are right, you get a decent mask. In my testing experience, it does a good job and gets you really far. Then, you take other keying and masking methods to refine troublesome areas that the AI couldn’t figure out. I threw some characters sitting in a low-light situation, one of them with messy blond hair, which was pretty tough stuff. Matte Assist ML driven by EZMask got a pretty darn good core matte.
The downside of ML-based masking is that there is no sense of what the mask was before and after the frame, so there is no motion blur. Fortunately, Silhouette 2024.5 has another ML node: Optical Flow ML Tracker. This node can track pixels and derive a vector pass from the color footage, which can then be used to add motion blur. It’s great for footage that has been over-cranked and then retimed to normal speed, because there isn’t any motion blur. Yet the vectors can also be used to blur your Matte Assist ML-created masks
Machine learning has also sneaked its way into a Realtime ML node, which uses the training to smoothly retime the footage and alleviate artifacting that would normally appear in footage with lots of detail or crisscrossing elements. Full disclosure: I didn’t have a readily accessible clip that I thought would break Realtime ML. But the ones I tried worked really well, and I like the curve interface to control the retimes.
This isn’t the end of the list of features, but these are the biggest (and coolest) ones. If you already have the Boris FX Suite, then you know, but if you are looking for a powerful tool to help with your prep (or a replacement for your other compositing tool), you can go with a subscription at $67/month (or $42/month if you want to use it inside of an Adobe or OFX host) or, shockingly, you can get a perpetual license for $2000!
Price: $795 (Subscription: $66.25 per month for 12 months)
borisfx.com/products/silhouette
Todd Sheridan Perry is an award-winning VFX supervisor and digital artist whose recent credits include I’m a Virgo, For All Mankind and Black Panther. He can be reached at todd@teaspoonfx.com.
