Collaboration Means Location, Location, Location

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably reached a new milestone: How can I work together with others in DaVinci Resolve, and how easy would it be to work together from anywhere?

We’ll talk about that.

Also, stick around until the end for a bonus tip that’ll save you loads of time relinking media when working with others who use a different operating system than you do.

Ready? Alright, let's go to school...

Davinci Resolve Project Libraries

Let's start with the basics. There are three things you need to know upfront: 

• DaVinci Resolve stores your work in a Project.
• Projects are stored in a collection called a Project Library.
• Your collaboration workflow options are largely defined by where you store your Project Library.

Within this structure, you can create three types of Project Libraries:

1. Local Project Libraries

It sounds obvious, but a Local Project Library is meant to be stored on local storage and worked on by a solo user. This is you and your work isolated on one machine—a local solo workflow.

Yes, you can upload a Local Project Library to a shared storage location, but be wary: DaVinci Resolve doesn’t provide any native locking mechanism for Local Project Libraries.

This is important to note if you plan to share editing duties with others, so you avoid overwriting files.

But, don't worry, if you plan on working remotely or collaboratively with others, you can use...

2. Cloud Project Libraries

Cloud Project Libraries are designed to support what's becoming the "norm" in many color workflows: Remote or hybrid work with multiple collaborators in different locations.

More than likely, this is the workflow you’ve been dreaming about:

• One person is prepping media in the [Media] and [Cut] Pages.
• A second person is editing in the [Edit] Page.
• A third person is working in the [Color] or [Fairlight] Pages.

Plus:

• One person lives in New York.
• The second is in California.
• The third is located in Melbourne.

Yeah… that’s more like it. True remote collaboration in Davinci Resolve.

But, how does this happen? It all starts with Blackmagic Cloud.

Once you upload a Project Library to Blackmagic Cloud, it becomes a Cloud Project Library.

More on that in a bit... there's one more Project Library type to discuss...

3. Network Project Libraries

Before Cloud Project Libraries, there were Network Project Libraries, designed to facilitate collaborative work in a single location. This is where you or your IT cohorts deploy a Project Server inside your facility to host your Project Libraries from shared on-prem storage.

Once a Network Project Library is running on your local Project Server, you and your office-mates can collaborate… but only in the office. This is a solution for multiple editors in a single location.

So which approach is best for you?

Before we help you decide, let’s clear up one thing:

Blackmagic Cloud vs Blackmagic Cloud Store

Blackmagic Design (the company) offers two products with similar names:

1. Blackmagic Cloud
2. Blackmagic Cloud Store

Blackmagic Cloud is their dedicated cloud service for hosting your Project Libraries and media. Once you create your accounts and log into Blackmagic Cloud, DaVinci Resolve auto-enables its in-app collaboration features for you, and the Blackmagic Cloud service takes care of the rest.

Blackmagic Cloud Store is a portable shared storage appliance, actual hardware you can purchase. Blackmagic Cloud (the service) is accessible from a Blackmagic Cloud Store (the appliance).

Do you need a Blackmagic Cloud Store to use Blackmagic Cloud?

No. (Whew!)

Okay, so with all of that on the table, which workflow may be best for you?

Option 1: The Handoff

Although Local Project Libraries weren’t intended for collaboration, it’s possible to do a handoff-style workflow with Local Project Libraries in Davinci Resolve. The key ingredient? Communication.

“Are you working in _______ now?”, will be a frequent (but necessary) message to your teammates.

Then there’s PostLab by Hedge.

With PostLab, you can create a Team Bundle pointed to shared storage, then create a Local Project Library inside your Team Bundle. PostLab offers locking for your Project Libraries, plus some clever workflow extras, like Team Bundle versioning, logging, and multi-app support.

Option 2: Global Collaboration

Why put in all that extra effort if you don't have to? 

If you want the stuff dreams are made of (directly in DaVinci Resolve), you can simply:

1. Sign up for Blackmagic Cloud.
2. Upload your Project Libraries there.
3. Work from Cloud Project Libraries.
4. Choose where to store your media.

Note: While it’s possible to achieve this with Network Project Libraries hosted inside a facility, it takes a lot of admin work that can be avoided. Like, setting up remote access to workstations through a screen sharing platform, specialty remote access hardware, a VPN, or a combination thereof.

Option 3: File Syncing? No, File Streaming

There’s one more Blackmagic Cloud offering you might’ve heard of: Blackmagic Cloud Sync.

Blackmagic Cloud Sync is part of the Blackmagic Cloud service accessible from your Blackmagic Cloud Store. You can use that to perform full file syncs and then… wait those syncs to complete.

Or, you can swap out that wait time for file streaming.

So, which approach is best?

Here are a few questions to ask yourself to help guide your decision: 

Do you only need one team member working on one Project Library at a time?

Create a Local Project Library and store media on shared storage, then train your team to keep the communication open and free to avoid any file save collisions. If your team can abide, you can do a handoff-style workflow with Local Project Libraries without any further setup.

Do you want to go all-in on DaVinci Resolve’s collaboration vision?

Sign up for Blackmagic Cloud, upload your Project Libraries there, host your media wherever you wish, and enjoy working together on those Cloud Project Libraries from anywhere.

Want something in between? ‍

Use PostLab by Hedge to create a Local Project Library inside a Team Bundle on shared storage, and enjoy your newfound Local Project Library with included project locking power.

Bonus Tip: Path Mapping

If you really want to work with anyone, you’ll be working with everyone – macOS, Windows, and Linux. And if you’re working in DaVinci Resolve across operating systems, there will be relinking.

But it doesn’t have to stay that way...

DaVinci Resolve has Path Mapping, which lets you tell DaVinci Resolve: When I open this Project, change any media paths that use their computer’s style to my computer’s style.

As long as your media stays stored in the exact location on your shared storage, you won’t need to relink media when working with others across operating systems. If that sounds interesting to you, open your DaVinci Resolve Reference Manual PDF and do a [Find] for Path Mapping. Voilà!

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Ready to about File Streaming for Davinci Resolve? 

Click here to chat with our workflow experts.