Fusion page proxy hidden menu.

I've always noticed the proxy mode in Fusion doesn't appear to work like it does in Fusion Studio.. And I think I just found out why:

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Bring back the buttons! Bring back the whole menu bar!

Obscuring features does not simplify the program it just makes understanding it more obtuse. All those buttons are there for a reason. Hiding them limits the feature ability of the program. Sometimes you need to use lower resolution proxies, disable motion blur etc, set a frame range... don't make us hunt for an obvious feature set.

As a matter of fact, pull up all the feature requests for reFusion and cross compare it to Fusion 9. Half(or more) of them are there.

My last comp job done in Fusion inside of Resolve had around 200+ nodes. 15 seconds per frame at 4K per render. I think Proxy resolution would have been a nice feature. For that matter, is there any reason that they don't use the exact setup for that area that is in Fusion Studio. The ability to play only a smaller range inside a comp is always needed. In Studio you can use the menu to set the range and there are areas for frame ranges. In reFusion you have nothing, unless you hold down the "Ctrl/Command" button and drag. Which nobody starting out would ever think to do. Might as well be a hidden feature. Why, because you certainly can't do that in any other Page in Resolve. You can have extra feature but keep the interface for normal use. CONSISTENCY.

It's not making reFusion easier to learn or use. It's actually harder because workflows are missing feature tweaks needed to overcome project issues. People walk away because they think they are missing a step or it's too complicated. It's not, you just hid obvious features people are used to in every other program, like setting a play range. Or proxies. Or motion blur.

Pro users can make reFusion work well because we know what it's supposed to look like and what it's supposed to do. We can compare it to Studio and "just know" to right click over certain areas. Or just type in a file extension into a Saver for it to work. Or pull up the subview 2D view to get a vertically stacked set of windows. For a normal user, you're just messing with them. Why can't you make a vertical set of windows? Why can't you save out as a PNG? Why can't you set a play back range? You're cutting out features without understanding what they do. A lot.

Hostile user interface design.

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Would be great to have a clearer link between the Fusion Proxy and Playback > Timeline Proxy Resolution. And the Fusion Settings proxy settings to be affected, or just hidden so the Resolve controls work as expected.

The hard part about proxy levels is that motion graphics and vfx stuff deal with huge files that are all over the place. The "one size fits all" proxy solution on the main edit page is to ensure smooth playback while editing. In Fusion you may never get smooth playback and sometimes you need smooth playback no matter what, so you crank the proxy level way up and look at a potato quality render but know that the movement is solid. Then you turn off proxy and move on to the next challenge.

Resolve's proxy resolutions are the industry standard ones for editing. It's a good system. It treats the output from Fusion material as a clip of footage and renders it accordingly. No big thing.

Inside reFusion is where using editing theory goes out the door. The flow can be made up of 8K images, EXRs with a gig of AOVs in one frame, random video clips and probably a kitchen sink. It can't treat everything the same so you need multilevel proxy playback. That is the industry standard and all this theory was worked out 15+ years ago with Discreet and Avid and Shake among other players. That's why it's frustrating when Blackmagic gets big ideas like removing the set of buttons we are talking about.

They are re-inventing the wheel. But badly, and ignoring that everyone else had already done the R&D and come up with the best solution over a decade ago. At this rate they are going to figure out that you should have the ability to create floating windows for extra image referencing sometime in the next five years. Or they could look at Fu9, eat some humble pie and move on.

If they used the program for actual VFX work they would know this.

Very mcCool, Matt

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