Did you know that multiple editors, colorists, vfx artists and audio engineers can all work together
in the same app in the same project with one copy of the same shared footage on their computers at
the same time? Yeah i know it's so cool and what's even better is that this multi-user collaboration
workflow works with the free version of davinci resolve after setting this up you'll have bin
timeline and clip locking so that everyone can work together you can chat within the app and
it costs next to nothing because you get to pick your own storage today i'm going to show you how
to do this with just an off the shelf ssd we're covering a lot today but as usual i've broken the
tutorial into four sequential chapters and if you stick around until the end i'll even show you how
to delete a shared database because that's not something that's built into blackmagic design
software and it's vital to know so if you're ready to eliminate the conform process or
just get some help from other creatives to help turn around projects faster then let's jump in
pick a computer pick your favorite computer for me it's the new m1 max macbook pro this computer
is going to do three tasks it's going to act as a video editing station a file server and a project
server that's going to run the shared postgresql database and the two reasons you might need to
set up a postgres sql database for resolve instead of the default disk database are one
if you want to open the same project in another edit bay in the same facility without needing to
import and export a project or two if you're going to use resolve's multi-user collaborative workflow
features the point of this tutorial the computer you pick to run the project server should stay
on and be available anytime other computers need access and it needs to be on premise on the same
network if you have the luxury of a high speed fiber internet connection you could potentially
tunnel in through a vpn connection remotely but that's beyond the scope of this tutorial
go to blackmagic design's support page links are in the description to download the davinci resolve
project server software it's a standalone app and the best way to find the latest version is
by clicking on davinci resolve and fusion software icon box and then scrolling down to the latest
downloads follow the prompts to complete the installation like any other application
and reboot the computer when you first open the project server you're going to notice it looks a
lot like the project manager in resolve but it is in fact different and it's stripped down to only
performing database management the correct version of postgresql comes with the davinci resolve
project server so it's an old version so don't be tempted to go get the new version on your own
that's not going to work i already tried that click the icon in the header section to create
a new database within project server the naming rules are not going to allow for spaces just like
disk databases so feel free to use underscores to make it readable a simple visual flair that you
can add is to right-click to load a small image like this 200x200 jpeg to help quickly identify
each database for instance you might use a client logo to use different databases for each client or
brand now we need to share the database click the enable share button at the top which will ask you
to authorize the configuration of the postgresql server just enter your user admin credentials and
you'll see blue left and right arrows to indicate that the database is now shared blackmagic created
kind of a cheat sheet text file if you click on the top right to generate and export an
access key this will include the ip address of the project server and login information so you don't
have to think about it suppose you're curious about this information and i always am curious
in that case you can open the access key with text edit or see the ip address from the project server
up under file with the network interface drop down menu the point of this file is to send it to
a computer that needs access to the database it's tiny so you can email it or use airdrop and since
i'm editing from the project server computer i'll just drag that access key into the davinci resolve
project manager time for me to run upstairs to my son's computer which is going to act as
the assistant client computer before i add this access key it's a good idea to make sure you're
running the same version of davinci resolve on all the machines they don't all need to be the
paid studio version but they should be the same number the free and paid versions come out in
tandem so you can grab the latest version from the blackmagic support page and for reference today
i'm working with 17.4.3 now on the assist client computer after you've launched resolve click the
upper left icon in the project manager to show and hide databases and simply drag the access key file
into the project manager window and bam sorry i grew up with too much Emeril Lagasee in my home
anyways as you can see you don't need any of the project server installation stuff going on for
the client computers however the project server does not store any of the footage or media assets
it only keeps the databases that hold the projects that point to your media assets
the footage is stored wherever the heck you want it to live so next up let me show you how to share
a single ssd to collaborate with one copy of the footage we're going to connect two macs using
a cheap but long gigabit ethernet cable for a basic scenario that could even be used on set
and if your workstations sit closer together you could use a thunderbolt cable to bridge them for
much faster speeds on my macbook i needed to use a thunderbolt to ethernet adapter which of
course i'm going to link this in the description you don't need a specialty crossover cable like
in the olden days an off-the-shelf ethernet cable is going to give you about 75 to 95 megabytes per
second of real-world video data transfer once you plug in both computers go to system preferences
network and allow them to connect over dhcp with a self-assigned ip address dhcp is an
automatic way for computers to generate a unique ip address it can change over time so you might
want to set a manual static ip for long term use but this is going to get you quickly started with
no networking knowledge needed at all this ssd has all the footage on it it's a good idea that
the drive be as fast as possible nvme ssds like the samsung t7s or the sandisk extreme
pros they fit this build perfectly and they're very accessible you can go get them at costco
so to share it out plug it into the project server computer my macbook pro
head over to system preferences again click sharing then check the box for file sharing
and hit the plus button to add your volume or ssd that you want to share you can also drag
it in there from the desktop this is going to share the drive out over smb protocol under the
user section make sure your user account on this computer has read and write access on that drive
read and write means precisely what it sounds like it means you can see the files and manipulate or
edit any changes keep this in mind when we get to bin locking now over here on the client assistant
computer open finder click the go drop down menu and go down to network the shortcut is command
shift k find the editor server computer that was shared and connect as and enter the login
information as if you're logging in on the server computer an alternate way of connecting is to go
to the bottom of the go menu and connect to server or use command k using connect to server you can
enter the local ip address of the server computer the macbook pro by typing in smb colon slash and
then the address that you want to mount to the advantage here is that you can also bookmark
the server computer's ip address with the plus icon for future use real quick before we move
on i want to welcome you if you're new here and introduce myself i'm chadwick this is creative
video tips where i help you craft stories that make a difference and stand out i'm an editor that
loves teaching davinci resolve so if you're into that subscribe right now so you don't miss out on
next week's tip i also have a lot of tutorials on the channel already that you're not going to find
in other places to cover the common pitfalls thank you so much for that support now let's
dive into resolve so i can show you the magic of collaborating in the same project at the same time
dynamic project switching lets you have multiple projects open simultaneously which i use to copy
and paste between projects or queue up a batch of deliverables all at once however
dynamic project switching does not work with shared postgresql projects so you need to
disable dynamic project switching if it's on this is a simple right click create a new project in
the project manager and open it up go to the file menu and down to enable collaboration
save it and from now on live save is turned on for every click or change note here that you're going
to need to turn on enable collaboration for every new project that you want to work on together
with your buddies create proxies feel free to add footage to your project on the client computer and
i suggest creating proxy files on a low bandwidth solution like gigabit ethernet one of my favorite
codecs is 4k blackmagic raw 12:1 compression that's what you're watching right now which is
relatively small and high quality but it does use about 370 megabits per second and a smaller proxy
at 2k resolution with h.265 compression only uses about 10 megabits per second not only is it going
to play easier through the ethernet cable but it also takes much less hard drive space and sidenote
it makes a project archive easy to send over the internet now if you don't have a recent computer
with h.265 decoders prores proxy and dnxhr lb at 2k are about 40 megabits per second and they're
both battle tested workhorse codecs prores proxy is more for a mac workflow and dnxhr for windows
essentially you're going to edit with the proxy files and then export with the full resolution
originals the proxy files link behind the scenes and get used whenever you have the checkbox
selected under the playback menu for use proxy media if available uncheck it and you're back
to the raw clips i have a full tutorial on this with a link in the description it's also worth
pointing out that each client computer can locally have its own cache files for the best performance
you can set that location in the project settings under master settings and working folders for
cache files location and if by chance on the assistant computer you see red offline media
there is an issue with resolve not looking at the same file path but it can be relinked easily with
the broken chain link icon on the edit page and pointing to the closest folder that you know the
media resides one more quick thing to point out with offline media is that some of the newest
cameras will shoot 10-bit formats that are simply not supported in the free version of davinci
resolve instead of saying not supported it's going to say offline this is the moment when you need to
either upgrade to the paid version or just decide not to film with 10-bit settings on the camera
identity badges in the lower right let you change your name to be something more personal than the
computer host name and if you click on the person icon you can choose your favorite color too
the color is helpful because it lets you visually see what been another project another member is
working on and if you need to get access to a locked bin you can click the chat window
down in the lower right to message them within davinci resolve no slack or microsoft teams or
even internet is needed after sending a message it'll appear orange on the other computer to see
a new message notification bin timeline and clip blocking bin locking is one of my favorite three
things that avid media composer does an excellent job at this is the crux of post in most big budget
productions davinci resolve kicks this up a notch by not restricting collaboration to editorial
but also finishing mixing and color and it does this by utilizing bin timeline and clip locking
which depends on which page you're working on this locking term prevents version conflicts
and means the first person to access it gets read and write permissions everyone else gets read-only
permissions as soon as a project member clicks away from their timeline bin or clip in the case
of the color or fusion page it becomes unlocked so anybody else can gain full access to it it's
helpful to organize a project so an assistant has their working folders of bins and the editor
has theirs because the first person to open a bin has read write access you can see who has
this full access to the contents of a bin by the colored icon from the other creative's computer
suppose an assistant needs to help add graphics to an editor's timeline in that case the editor
can go to the color page to unlock the bin so the assistant can duplicate the timeline and then drag
it into his own working bin blackmagic please make this a keyboard shortcut i'm dying here, duplicate
timeline, that's all i'm asking for or you could copy and paste the clips into their own timeline
in their own bin so you have full access to it the same principle applies to an audio engineer
working in the fairlight page since both the edit and fairlight pages work on an entire timeline at
once in contrast a colorist or vfx artist can work on one clip at a time in the color or fusion pages
and they can both work on the same shot simultaneously because fusion and color manage the
changes independently can you see the power this has to work effectively with everyone together
to refresh the changes from another creative click the refresh icon in the upper right of
the timeline viewer to get the latest color grade this is a manual refresh so it's not
changing on you unexpectedly during a supervised session with people sitting over there behind you
you can also click to update on the clip in the timeline or refresh by clicking the bin
in the media pool if you want to always have read and write access to a specific bin because you're
worried another person will jump in and hog it you can manually lock it so even after you leave it
you'll still be the only editor with read write control to do this right click and choose lock
bins and a lock icon will indicate that nobody else can mess with it and then you can manually
unlock it with the right click option as well i wouldn't keep a bin manually locked from day
to day because of the overused getting hit by a bus metaphor on the flip side if you're the first
one into a bin and don't want read write access because you're just window shopping you can option
click the bin alt on a pc so someone else can go in and make the changes the read only mode has an
eyeball icon timeline comparison tool is a cool feature that's not unique to shared collaborative
projects and resolve and it's something i haven't used much yet but i plan to in 2022 it's a window
that offers a stacked visual timeline representing the differences between two different versions
of sequences to use it go to the media pool right click on the timeline you want to compare against
and choose to compare with the current timeline you can change the zoom level using the slider
on the right open a difference index on the left and right click to accept the changes from one
timeline to the next close the window out in the lower right now are you as pumped as me
i can almost guarantee that you might set up a test database that you'll want to delete in this
new postgresql project server and blackmagic design safeguards you from doing so that makes
sense but if you need to get rid of it here's how you do it in the davinci resolve project manager
right click the database you no longer want to disconnect it it's not deleted at this point you
need a tool like pgadmin 4 which you can download for free the link is in the description pg admin
4 can remove it from the system altogether install it like any other app and create a quick password
so no freelancers come messing with your precious work click the servers and enter the password
davinci to get access right click the database you want gone forever no turning back and choose
delete drop i hope you found this tutorial helpful since the demystifying database tutorial has been
out it's been highly requested all year so this is my thank you check out this tutorial on screen
right now to learn more about disk databases and best practices or if you'd like to learn
about what they don't teach you in film school about davinci resolve click on the playlist on
screen right now and because there's so much more to learn i'll see you in the next video