I am attempting to take an edit that was done in Davinci resolve and bring it into After Effects for titling, using “Basic Text” title generators in Resolve. Prior to After Effects 2020, a.k.a. 17.0.2, you could select XML files for import into After Effects directly using the automatic duck plug-in, i.e. “import premiere pro project” function. Adobe claims that binaries in Mac OS 11-12 have broken this function, and instead of repairing it, they have chosen to abandon functionally.

I can import AAF and “plain” XML files from Resolve, but .fcpxml files from 1.3-1.7 do not import, and those files seem to be the only ones that support passing the text through so it doesn’t need to be retyped in After Effects.

A year ago I worked on a documentary which was edited in avid and all the titles in motion graphics are done and After Effects. The editor passed me five reels worth of XML files which each had about 20 to 50 lower third graphics in them, with timing and text embedded. This process worked extremely smoothly when trying to create a bunch of materials to be directly animated but then after effects. It also put the focus on the editor to get the spelling right, because it passed directly from the editor which reduced the amount of back-and-forth needed as well as repetitive typographical errors.

Now two years later in 2022, an XML file coming out of resolve shows up as empty text layers with the correct duration in adobe premiere pro; however when you select all in premiere pro and then try to create a new After Effects composition, it launches After Effects, and shows me one edit per layer, resulting in almost 45 new files when you also include the text. That’s not so much the issue, but when trying to truly round-trip the files, it loses all connections with the original media and then you need to sync everything by hand when you do the final export, which I still prefer to do and resolve. My request is for Adobe to really take a look at the XML file structure that comes from Davinci resolve and find a suitable way of importing it without losing vital information, such as length of layer, duration, and text within it, so that I can continue to use Adobe products for what I feel they excel at, which is titling, animation, and visual effects.