Are you looking for a powerful video editing application under Linux that offers professional functionality, efficient workflow support as a focal point and is very robust and stable? Take a look at the recently released DaVinci Resolve 15 from Blackmagic Design.
Video editing tools for Linux
If you are a fan of video editing, creating vlogs or editing semi-professional video, there are plenty of alternatives for the Linux operating system. There is a wide variety of applications available, from simple to very extensive, such as Shotcut, Openshot, Pitivi, Avidemux, Cinelerra and Flowblade. Video editing under Linux unfortunately has the name that it works well, but can be accompanied by frequent crashing. The Non Linear Editing solution Kdenlive proves itself to be a more stable application compared to the other Linux based editing applications, but has a steep learning curve. Kdenlive is one of the most powerful and feature rich open source non linear video editors (NLE) under Linux.
DaVinci Resolve 15 Linux
However, not long ago a very nice editing application for Linux has been added to this list: Davinci Resolve. Davinci Resolve from Blackmagic is a very professional application with its roots in color correction. When it was originally only a color correction tool, it was the go-to tool for many Hollywood films and major TV productions. In the following years, however, it has evolved into a complete editing suite with next to color correction, also non-linear editing and professional audio post production and is a serious alternative to Adobe Premiere and Final Cut X. And recently Davinci Resolve is also available for the Linux platform. And perhaps the best thing is that there is a free version that is almost equivalent to the paid full version. For the open source purist, keep in mind that this is a free version of a commercial closed source offering.
What has DaVinci Resolve to offer
DaVinci Resolve offers a set of powerful tools for video editing, color correction, audio post production and with release 15 visual effects as well. These functionalities are offered in a streamlined workflow. With a single click, you can instantly move between editing, color, effects, and audio. Plus, you never have to export or translate files between separate software tools because, with DaVinci Resolve 15, everything is in the same software application.
Start below video for a nice overview of all new stuff in this latest release.
Edit
Creative editing with a familiar multi track timeline, dozens of edit styles, precision trimming, customizable keyboard, stackable timelines and more. The advanced trimming environment offers fast, context sensitive trimming tools, asymmetric trimming, dynamic and realtime trimming during live playback. Speed Effects that quickly create constant or variable speed changes, complete with ramps and editable speed curves. A timeline curve editor where you can animate and add keyframes for virtually any parameter or plug-in using the inspector or the integrated timeline curve editor.
Fusion
Fusion is an advanced internal compositing solution for visual effects artists and motion graphic animators. It offers resolution independent paint tools with flexible brush styles, blend modes and strokes for removing items or painting new elements. Rotoscoping isolates objects and other elements in a scene using bezier and B-spline tools to quickly draw and animate custom shapes. With the 3D Particle Systems you create swirling, sparkling effects in full 3D, complete with physics and behavioral forces like gravity, avoidance and bounce. With True 3D Compositing you combine live action with 3D models, cameras, lights and more in a true 3D workspace to create amazing photorealistic effects.
Color
The color correction module once was the sole purpose of DaVinci Resolve and is still one of the best in the industry. It offers traditional temperature control, tint, mid-tone detail, and more. There are curve editors to quickly sculpt contrast and highlight different shadow areas of an image with separate curves and soft clipping for each channel. You can work in high dynamic range and wide color space formats including Dolby Vision, HDR10 +, Hybrid Log Gamma, and more.
Fairlight
With Fairlight audio built in, you get a complete digital audio workstation with professional mixer, automation, metering, monitoring and sample level editing. It offers a full professional mixer with input selection, effects, inserts, EQ and dynamic graphs, output selection and more. You can add plugins like VST. There is advanced equalization. It lets you produce multi-layered recordings quickly and easily. Real time punch in your record at any time during live playback and you get a complete set of sophisticated ADR tools for replacing dialog.
Media
DaVinci Resolve offers advanced media management. You use the media page to import footage, sync audio and prepare it for editing. Simply drag and drop files from your storage into bins or even your timeline. Create free form or metadata based smart bins to organize clips. Use embedded metadata or add your own sync clips, change display names, manage starts and stops in Multicam angles. Quickly add multiple jobs to the render queue for batch processing. You can even offload output to another workstation.
DaVinci Resolve available for Linux but …
What is a bit strange is that Blackmagic Design offers DaVinci Resolve in the base only for Linux Red Hat and CentOS Linux. That while the most popular Linux distributions are Ubuntu and Linux Mint. Design DaVinci Resolve does not run out of the box on distributions other than their preferred distributions, but that does not mean that it is not possible. In a separate blog I will explain how you can install DaVinci Resolve on Ubuntu-based distributions. That is not easy to do, but it is doable. Further in another later blog I will describe my own experiences with the use of DaVinci Resolve from a beginners perspective, as most of the readers of this website are in that section.
Credits: parts of the text in this blog are copied or partly based on text on the website of Blackmagic Design (https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/).
