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  • How to Install DaVinci Resolve 16.1 on Manjaro

    Method 0:

    The simplest and quickest way to get up and running with DaVinci Resolve on Manjaro is to simply open the default package manager that comes with Manjaro and searching for davinci-resolve. This will give you a few results, because Resolve comes in free and paid versions. If you want to install and use the paid version, search davinci-resolve. If you have an activation key or USB key for the paid version of Resolve, then just search for davinci-resolve-studio. Click on the package you want, click “Build”, type in your password, and you’re good to go!

    Method 1:

    This is likely the more common way to install Davinci Resolve 16.1 on Manjaro. Just head over to the official Blackmagic site to guarantee yourself the latest and greatest version of DaVinci Resolve. From there, you can register and download the latest .zip file. Once you unzip, the installation is pretty easy, just execute the file named “DaVinci_Resolve_{yourVersionNumber}_Linux.run”. That’ll launch an installation wizard that will walk you through the terms and conditions, licensing agreements, and installation process.

    The only catch with this method is that there’s a chance you might not have all the required dependencies in order to run Resolve on your machine. In order to avoid this… I’d recommend the second method.

    Method 2:

    Use the user-created AUR package. This can’t be found inside the “Add/Remove Software” program that comes with Manjaro, as it’s not an officially supported repository. However, as of the writing of this post, it’s up-to-date and appears to be pretty well maintained. To install DaVinci Resolve 16.1 on Manjaro using this method, there is one prerequisite. You’ll need a group of packages called base-devel and git. To install these, just run:

    sudo pacman -Syu base-devel git

    You’ll be prompted for your password, and pacman will automatically go and grab all the required packages you need. Once that’s done, go to the official AUR package page and find the GIT Clone URL (usually linked at near the top of the page on the left).

    Copy that link, because you’ll need it in just a second. Next, create a new folder in your home directory called Programs, and inside Programs, create a new folder called DavinciResolve. Next, open a terminal window in your newly created DavinciResolve folder, and type git clone and paste that URL you copied earlier like so:

    git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/davinci-resolve/

    Once you hit enter, you’ll create a copy of the AUR repository on your machine. Inside your folder, there should be a file called PKGBUILD just for peace of mind, you can optionally run less PKGBUILD to take a look at the script, just to make sure that you’re pulling official copies of Davinci Resolve 16.1 from Blackmagic’s official website. Once you see the official URL in the code, you’re ready for the final step!

    To build and install DiVinci Resolve 16.1 on Manjaro, all you need to do now is run makepkg -si. That will begin building resolve, -s to sync your local repositories with the remote ones, and -i to install the packages once you’ve built them. And that’s it! You’re now running Davinci Resolve 16.1 on Manjaro. Have fun!

    matt

    December 11, 2019
    DaVinci Resolve, General Computing, Linux
    davinci resolve, linux, manjaro

  • A Note About Running DaVinci Resolve on Ubuntu 18.04

    A follow-up to my previous post

    Earlier this week I decided to run DaVinci Resolve on Ubuntu 18.04. This was a terrible idea. I spent the last 3 days banging my head against a wall and scouring countless forums, blogs, articles, and all for nothing. Here’s my situation. I have an AMD Threadripper with a pair of RTX 2080TIs that I was trying to use with Ubutnu and Davinci Resolve.

    Of course, if you plan to run Davinci Resolve on Ubuntu 18.04, the default Ubuntu install pretty much gives you the generic graphics drivers and it’s up to you to install the ones you need. Since I want to run Resolve, I’ll be needing the latest Nvidia drivers for Linux. Downloaded and installed from the website, but it didn’t work. Installed CUDA, but it didn’t work.

    I tried so many different drivers that they started conflicting with each other and it became an even bigger mess than what I started with. I rebooted a ton of times and sometimes the drivers would work, and other times they wouldn’t even switch from the old driver. I tried with and without CUDA and with and without OpenCL, but nothing worked. I couldn’t get anywhere beyond the opening splash page.

    TL;DR

    Guys, just save yourself the trouble. Seriously. If you’re wanting to run Davinci Resolve on Linux, but you don’t want the official CentOS build… Do yourself a huge favor, avoid the headache and just install Manjaro. Seriously. I was up and running in Davinci Resolve cutting 5K RED footage in 15 minutes. It’s the easiest Linux video workstation setup ever. I’m never going back.

    Full disclosure: I’m not being paid to write this. Opinions are my own. This is just my experience. As always, keep your passwords secure, and your sources open. Cheers.

    matt

    December 5, 2019
    DaVinci Resolve, Linux, Ubuntu
    davinci resolve, linux, manjaro, ubuntu, video editing

  • Desire: Making of

    Behind The Scenes of Desire

    Welcome to a behind the scenes look at Desire, a short video project created to tell a story using only macro shots.

    Preproduction

    A month or so ago, I was tasked with a brand new challenge: Make a video about sex… for a church… that’s not a joke, or takes the topic lightly. It took me a week or so of pondering, but the resulting concept, I think, was pretty cool. Most of the preproduction work was done for us, as the project follows very closely a video that inspired me a several years ago. So in essense, our preproduction was already done for us. The biggest challenge was reverse-engineering the shots. I’d never worked with macro shots that were close enough to make the human eye fill the entire frame.

    Production

    The entire project was a relatively quick turnaround, which actually worked out because all of it was filmed in a single location. The trick was trying to convey different locations and moods, almost entirely with lighting.

    Postproduction

    This project was one of the first (professional) projects I cut in Davinci Resolve. My experience was nearly seamless coming from Premiere Pro. Didn’t have to search for much, and instantly fell in love with the tab system. Overall, had a great experience with this project and it’s probably my favorite of 2019. Check out the final below!

    Final Result

    matt

    November 15, 2019
    3D Animation, DaVinci Resolve, Video Editing
    b3d, davinci resolve, postproduction, preproduction, resolve, studio

  • Projects Disappear After Updating Resolve

    Projects Disappear After Updating Resolve

    Projects disappear after updating Resolve. Oh crap.

    So this happened to me this week. I started a project in Resolve 15, got to a good stopping point, was waiting on client reviews before I could move forward, and figured I’d update to Resolve 16 while I wait on feedback. My bad. As soon as I opened up the new version 16, all my projects disappeared after updating Resolve.

    Windows 10

    After doing some serious digging and scouring every online resource I could find, I finally figured it out. In short, Resolve references your project database in a crazy long file path buried under AppData. This is your ACTIVE database directory. Resolve is always referencing this file path for all your projects. In my case, this directory was empty, resulting in my blank projects panel when I launched Resolve. The full file path is:

    C:\Users\[your username]\AppData\Roaming\Blackmagic Design\ DaVinci Resolve\Support\Resolve Disk Database\Resolve Projects\

    The Fix

    To fix this, I found my projects in a similar, but different file path under ProgramData. Inside the following filepath, I found all my projects! Yay! They exist!

    C:\ProgramData\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\Resolve Disk Database\Resolve Projects\

    So all I did was copy everything inside the last folder \Resolve Projects\ and pasted inside my empty \AppData\ directory. That fixed it!

    AppData = Active database directory

    ProgramData = Where I found all my old projects

    Hope that helps!

    matt

    October 29, 2019
    DaVinci Resolve, General Computing, Linux

  • How to Fix Write Permissions For DaVinci Resolve

    Here’s how to fix write permissions for DaVinci Resolve.

    Oh snap

    To fix this, just open a terminal and run:

    chmod -R 766 /your/problem/drive/or/directory

    What’s Going On?

    On linux, security is brilliantly built in. By default, files and folders that you create have a set level of permissions (defined by the umask command). Typically, the default is the user (you) have permission to read and write files that you own, as well as search directories you own. All others have read-only access to your files and directories.

    Knowing this, other applications (aka Resolve) do not have permission by default to write to hard drives, folders, or files that you (the user) own. So how do we change this?

    chmod

    To change permissions of a single file or a whole directory, use the chmod command. chmod gives you the ability to change permissions using short, 3-digit number formats. These are known as octal numbers.

    Octal NumberPermissionsFile Listing
    7read, write, and executerwx
    6read and writerw-
    5read and executer-x
    4read onlyr–
    3write and execute-wx
    2write only-w-
    1execute only–x
    0none—

    So in the chmod command, you use the above table to define permissions for the file user/owner, members of the file group, and other people, in that order. The -R flag used in the code above, simply makes the command recursive, applying to every single file and folder inside the directory you apply the command to.

    Examples

    Readable by owner only: chmod 400 examplefile.txt

    Allow the owner and group to read, write, and execute, and anyone else to read and write: chmod 776 examplefile.txt

    Also, there’s an awesome tool for those of you, like me, who can’t keep all those chmod codes straight!

    After this post made it to Twitter, @rohit_bmd made a great point- check Davinci Resolve > Preferences and under the Media Storage tab, you’ll see a list of drives on your system. Make sure you have read/write privileges on the drive at the very top of that list, because that’s where Resolve will be storing all your cache files. Here’s the the tab:

    If you’re new to Resolve on Linux, feel free to check out my other posts.

    matt

    October 4, 2019
    DaVinci Resolve, General Computing, Linux, Ubuntu
    blackmagic design, command line, davinci resolve, file permissions, linux, terminal, video editing

Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 1 Thess 5:21