Blackmagic Video Assist User Manual Using DaVinci Resolve
Recording clips with your video assist is only part of the process of creating film and television content, and just as important is the process of media backup and management as well as editing, color correction and encoding final master files. DaVinci Resolve for Mac and Windows is included with your video assist so you have a complete solution for recording and post production!
📘NOTE We recommend using the latest version of DaVinci Resolve for accurate color treatment of clips recorded using Video Assist.
After connecting your SD card to your computer, you can use DaVinci Resolve’s ‘clone’ tool, in the ‘media’ page, to create running backups as you shoot. This is recommended as any type of media is susceptible to becoming damaged or developing a fault so creating backups means your shots will be immune to loss. Once you have used DaVinci Resolve to back up your media, you can then add your clips to the DaVinci media pool, then edit, color correct, and finish your production without ever having to leave DaVinci Resolve.
DaVinci Resolve is the same tool used on most major blockbuster movies, so it’s much more than a simple NLE software tool, as it has extremely advanced technology built in for high end digital film. You get the advantage of this technology when you use DaVinci Resolve to edit and color correct your work.
Included here is information on how to get started using DaVinci Resolve with your recorded clips. Of course, DaVinci Resolve is extremely advanced and includes a lot more features than you immediately see when first looking at its user interface. To learn more about how to use DaVinci Resolve, please check for the DaVinci Resolve instruction manual on the Blackmagic website, where you can also find many training courses and tutorial videos.
Project Manager
Before you import your clips and start editing, you will need to set up your project using the project manager.
The project manager is the first screen you will see when launching DaVinci Resolve, but you can open the manager at any time by clicking on the ‘home’ icon at the bottom right of the user interface. This is helpful when you want to open previous projects and create new ones.
To create a new project, click on ‘new project’ at the bottom of the window and give your project a name. Click ‘create’.
Using the ‘cut’ page, you can start working on your edit immediately.
The project manager shows all projects belonging to the current user
For more information about the Project Manager, refer to the DaVinci Resolve manual which is available to download on the Blackmagic Design website support page.
Editing with the Cut Page
The ‘cut’ page gives you a fast, dynamic editing workflow that lets you quickly assemble, trim and edit clips efficiently.
Two active timelines let you work with your entire edit plus a detailed area simultaneously. This means you can drop clips anywhere on a large timeline, then refine your edit in a detailed timeline within the same workspace. Using this workflow, you can edit on a laptop without needing to zoom in and out and scroll as you work, which can be an enormous time saver.
The Cut Page Layout
When you open the cut page, you will see the media pool, viewer window and timeline. These three primary windows give you complete control over your edit.
The ‘cut’ page default workspace, with the media pool in icon view
For more information on the Cut page, see the ‘Using the Cut Page’ chapter in the DaVinci Resolve manual.
Media Tabs
At the top left corner of the user interface you will see five tabs.
Click on these tabs to open the media toolsets you will use when creating your edit. For example, the first tab is the media pool and you can see it is already selected. The other tabs are for the sync bin, media transitions, titles and effects.
Media Pool: The media pool contains all your clips, folders and files you imported using the media page. You can also import files directly from the cut page, so you don’t have to go back to the media page if you want to import a new clip.
Sync Bin: This powerful feature automatically syncs all your clips via timecode, date and time so you can choose angles from all cameras on a multi camera project.
Transitions: If you click on the neighboring transitions tab, you will see all the video and audio transitions you can use in your edit. These include common transitions such as cross dissolves and motion wipes.
Titles: Next to transitions is the ‘titles’ tab. Here you can select the title type you want to use. For example a scroll, standard text or lower thirds title. There are also a list of Fusion templates you can use for more animated dynamic titles which can be customized in DaVinci Resolve’s ‘Fusion’ page.
Effects: The fifth tab is the ‘effects’ tab. This provides all the different filters and effects you can use to bring more life to your edit, for example customizable blurs, glows and lens effects. There are many powerful effects to choose from and you can find them quickly using the search tool.
📘TIP Use the search tool near the media tab icons to find the exact items you are looking for. For example, if you have the transitions tab selected, type “dissolve” in the search tool and only dissolve transition types will be shown in the viewer, making it quicker for you to find the dissolve transition you want.
Viewer Tabs
In the top left corner of the viewer window you will see the viewer mode buttons.
The viewer mode buttons
These buttons control which viewer is currently being used, including ‘source clip’, ‘source tape’, and ‘timeline’. These viewer modes give you an enormous amount of control when selecting clips for your edit and it’s worth spending a moment to look at how they work.
 | Source Clip | The source clip viewer displays a single clip from the media pool and you can set in and out points along the entire length of the viewer timeline. This gives you greater control. Select a source clip to view by double clicking on a clip in the media pool, or dragging it into the viewer. |
 | Source Tape | Source tape lets you view all the source clips in the media pool. This powerful feature is helpful if you want to quickly search through all your clips to find a specific event. As you scrub the playhead over the clips, you will see their thumbnails selected in the media pool. This means once you have found the clip you want to edit, you can click on the source clip tab and its corresponding source clip will appear in the viewer automatically. The source tape viewer really lets you take advantage of non-linear editing, giving you the freedom to work on your edit, find shots quickly, try new ideas and stay in the moment. |
 | Timeline | The timeline viewer lets you view the edit timeline so you can play back your project and refine your edits. |
Importing Clips to the Media Pool
Now you can start importing media into your project. You can do this in the media pool window of the cut page using the import tools at the top.
Select one of the import options to add media to your project
 | Import Media | The import media option will import individual media files selected from your storage location. |
 | Import Media Folder | To import a folder from your media storage, select the import folder option. When importing a folder, DaVinci Resolve will keep the file structure, treating each folder as a separate bin so you can navigate between bins to find your videos and other media files. |
To import media:
Click on the import file or import media icon.
Navigate to your media storage for the media you want to import.
Select the file or folder and click ‘open’.
Once you’ve added media to your project, it is a good time to save your changes. DaVinci Resolve features a fast, on the go autosave called ‘live save’. Once you save you project once, ‘live save’ will save further changes as you make them, removing the risk of losing your work.
For more information on ‘live save’ and other auto save functions, refer to the DaVinci Resolve Manual.
Adding Clips to the Timeline
Now that you are familiar with the media tabs and viewer mode buttons, you can open the media pool and quickly start adding clips to your timeline.
The timeline of the cut page, comprising the upper timeline and the zoomed in timeline below
The timeline is where you will build your edit and is like a board with tracks you can attach clips to, move them around and trim their edits. Tracks let you layer clips over others which gives you more flexibility to try different edits and build transitions and effects. For example, you can try an edit with a clip on one track without affecting other clips on tracks below it.
There are different ways to add clips to the timeline, such as smart insert, append, place on top and more.
Appending Clips
When selecting takes and assembling an edit, you will likely want to add these shots to your timeline one after the other. The append tool is perfect for this task and will get you editing very fast.
Click on the append icon to quickly add clips to the end of the last clip
To append a clip:
Double click on a clip in the media pool to open it in the viewer.
Using the scratch trim tool, drag the in and out points to select the precise duration of your shot. You can also press the ‘i’ and ‘o’ keyboard shortcuts to set in and out points.
Now click the ‘append’ icon underneath the media pool. Your first clip will be placed at the head of the timeline. Repeat steps 1 to 3 to keep adding more clips and they will automatically append, ensuring there are no gaps in the timeline.
Appending clips ensures there are no gaps between them on the timeline
📘TIP You can speed up the process further by assigning a keyboard shortcut to the ‘append’ icon. For example, if you assign the ‘P’ key, you can set your in and out points using ‘I’ and ‘O’ then press ‘P’ to append the clip. Refer to the DaVinci Resolve manual for information on how to assign shortcut keys.
Trimming Clips on the Timeline
With clips added to the timeline, you have complete control to move them around and trim edits.
To trim an edit, hover the mouse over the start or end of a clip, then click and drag it left or right. For example, drag the end of the clip left or right to decrease or increase its duration. You might notice that all clips after that edit will shift on the timeline to accommodate the new adjustment. This is one way the ‘cut’ page helps to save you time.
You can even pick the clip up and drop it on a new video track in the large timeline without having to zoom in or out. This speeds up the edit process because it minimizes time navigating a long timeline.
Audio Trim View
Audio trim view helps you make accurate audio edits by expanding the audio waveform in the timeline. This is useful if you’re editing a dialogue scene or a music clip and makes it easy to find an edit point between words or beats.
To use Audio Trim view:
Click the audio trim icon between the snapping and marker tools to the left of the timeline.
The Audio Trim view button Now when you trim an edit you will see an expanded waveform in the timeline. When you finish trimming, the clips in the timeline will return to their normal size.
Audio trim view expands the audio waveform in the timeline.
After you have finished editing clips using the ‘cut’ page, you might want to add a title. The next section will show you how.
Adding Titles
Placing a title on your timeline is easy and you have many options.
To see the different types of titles you can use, click on the ‘titles’ media tab at the top left corner of the user interface. In the selection window you will see all the different title generators you can use displayed as thumbnails, from lower thirds, scrolls, to a standard text title. You can even add any of the Fusion titles which are animated titles that you can customize.
Previewing Titles
Before you add a title to your timeline you can preview it from the ‘titles’ selection window. This lets you quickly scan through all the available options before making a choice.
To preview a title:
Click the option menu to the top right-hand side of the titles panel and check ‘hover scrub preview’.
Enable Hover Scrub Preview from the option menu. In the ‘titles’ selection window, hover your mouse pointer over a thumbnail to preview a title in the viewer. If you are previewing an animated or Fusion title move the pointer across the title’s thumbnail from left to right to see the animation.
Hover over a title’s thumbnail to preview it in the viewer.
Once you’ve chosen a title you can add it to your timeline.
To add a standard title:
Click on the title and drag it onto the timeline. It doesn’t matter which timeline, but for greater accuracy we recommend using the detailed timeline. The title will automatically create a new video track for the title and will snap to the playhead.
Release the mouse and the title will appear on the new track. You can now move it or change its duration like you would another video clip.
To edit the title, click on the new title clip and then click the tools icon underneath the clip viewer. You will now see a row of tools you can use to modify the title clip. For example transform, crop, dynamic zoom and more.
Now click the inspector tab.
This will open the inspector window where you can type in the title you want and edit the text settings, for example tracking, line spacing, font type, color and more.
You have a lot of options to customize the title exactly how you want it. We recommend playing with all the different settings to see how they can change the appearance and shape of your title.
📘TIP You can also use the hover scrub function to preview effects, transitions, generators and filters on the ‘cut’ and ‘edit’ pages.
Working with Blackmagic RAW Files
Blackmagic RAW clips give you maximum flexibility in post production. This lets you make adjustments to clips, such as white balance and ISO settings, as if you were changing the original camera settings. Working with Blackmagic RAW also retains more tonal information within shadows and highlights, which is useful for recovering details, for example in blown out skies and dark areas of the picture.
It’s worth shooting in Blackmagic RAW if you are after the highest possible quality, or for shots where there is an extreme variance between highlights and shadows and you may need to push and pull those regions as much as possible in the grade.
The speed and small file size of Blackmagic RAW means you don’t need to make proxy files and playback is just like a standard video clip. This section of the manual describes the features of Blackmagic RAW and how to use Blackmagic RAW files in your DaVinci Resolve workflow.
📘TIP It is a good practice to adjust the Blackmagic RAW settings for your clips on the ‘color’ page before you start color grading.
Clip Settings for Blackmagic RAW
When you first import Blackmagic RAW files, DaVinci Resolve will decode the camera data contained in the files using the ISO, white balance and tint settings used at the time of shooting. If you’re happy with the look of these settings, you can start editing right away.
The great thing about shooting Blackmagic RAW is that you’re not tied to these settings at all! The breadth of available post processing options when working with Blackmagic RAW files mean that you’ll develop your own workflow over time. Experimenting with the ‘clip’ settings for each clip in the ‘camera raw’ tab will show you just how powerful and flexible working with Blackmagic RAW can be.
📘For Blackmagic RAW files from 12G video assist models, you have the flexibility to use the camera’s original gamut and gamma, or treat them as you would other .braw files using the Blackmagic Design color space and a Blackmagic gamma, such as Blackmagic Design Film.
Using the default camera settings
With your clip selected on the ‘color’ page, go to the ‘camera raw’ tab in the lower left corner. You will notice on the left hand side that the color space and gamma settings match your camera settings. You can change the exposure for any file by dragging the slider control. You can also adjust the white balance for files shot using Panasonic EVA1 using the color temp and tint sliders.
Using Blackmagic RAW settings
To use the Blackmagic color space, simply select Blackmagic Design from the drop down ‘color space’ menu and then select a Blackmagic Design gamma. Now you have all the gamma controls of .braw files recorded on Blackmagic Design cameras. It’s worth noting that highlight recovery and ISO controls are disabled for Blackmagic RAW clips recorded on Video Assist 12G HDR.
In the ‘camera raw’ tab, select ‘clip’ from the ‘decode using’ drop down menu to make adjustments to your clip’s Blackmagic RAW settings
Changing Blackmagic RAW Settings
Once you have set DaVinci Resolve to enable clip settings for Blackmagic RAW, the clip settings and gamma controls are now adjustable. Adjusting these settings to optimize your clips can bring them close to a full primaries grade. This is especially powerful when using DaVinci Resolve’s scopes which can help you neutralize and balance the clips ready for applying a look.
The following information contains descriptions for the clip and gamma controls.
ISO
The ISO value can be changed by increasing or decreasing this setting. This setting is helpful if you need to set the clip to a brighter or darker starting point for optimization.
Highlight Recovery
Check the box to reconstruct highlight information in clipped channels using information from non-clipped channels.
Color Temp
Adjust the color temperature to warm or cool the image. This can be used to help neutralize the color balance in each image.
Tint
Adjusting this setting will add green or magenta into the image to help balance the color.
Exposure
Use this setting to refine the overall brightness of the image.
Saturation
Saturation controls default at 1 and range from -1 for the minimum saturation to +4 for maximum saturation.
Contrast
Defaulting at 1.0, drag the slider to the left for the least amount of contrast at 0 or to the right to increase the contrast up to 2.
Midpoint
In Blackmagic Design Film, your middle gray value defaults to 0.38, or 38.4%. Drag the slider to the left to lower your midpoint or to the right to raise it to 100. When contrast is adjusted away from the default setting, you can modify your highlight and shadow rolloff.
Highlight Rolloff
Adjust the highlights by dragging the slider to the left to lower the value to 0, or to the right to increase the highlights to 2. The default value is 1.
Shadow Rolloff
Drag the slider to the left to lower your shadows to 0 or to the right to raise your shadows to 2.
White Level
Adjust the white point of the gamma curve by dragging the slider from the highest value of 2 to the lowest value of 0. The default value is 1.
Black Level
Raise the black point of the custom gamma curve by dragging the slider to the right from the lowest value of -1 to a maximum of 1. The default value is 0.
Use Video Black Level
Check the box to set your black levels to video.
Export Frame
Clicking the ‘export frame’ button lets you export a single frame from your Blackmagic RAW clip.
Update Sidecar
Click this button to update the Blackmagic RAW sidecar file for the current clip.
Any changes you have made to your Blackmagic RAW clips will be identified by the gamma setting changing to Blackmagic Design Custom.
If you want to revert your clip to one of the default gamma options available, simply select it from the gamma dropdown menu.
📘TIP Gamma controls are disabled for footage shot with the ‘video’ dynamic range, but you have not lost your Blackmagic RAW data. Simply select Blackmagic Design Film or Blackmagic Design Extended Video from the dropdown gamma menu and make your adjustments.
Saving your Blackmagic RAW changes
Adjust the gamma controls for your Blackmagic RAW clip.
Click the ‘update sidecar’ button.
A ‘sidecar’ file will now be created in the same folder as your .braw file. When another user imports the Blackmagic RAW files, the sidecar files will automatically be read by DaVinci Resolve. If you make additional adjustments, press ‘update sidecar’ again.
📘TIP To remove your sidecar file, you can simply delete it from its location on your media drive.
Project Settings for Blackmagic RAW
If you need to make a setting change that is common to all the clips, for example a global change to the white balance or ISO setting, you can set the clips to use the project ‘camera raw’ settings and make global changes from there.
To set project settings for Blackmagic RAW:
Enter the project settings menu by clicking ‘file,’ and selecting ‘project settings.’
In the ‘Camera RAW’ tab, you’ll see a dropdown menu next to RAW profile. Click on the arrow to select Blackmagic RAW from the list.
Select ‘project’ in the ‘Decode Using’ dropdown menu.
Set the white balance setting to ‘custom’.
Select ‘Blackmagic Design Custom’ from the dropdown gamma menu. Set the color space to ‘Blackmagic Design’. This will also set the gamma setting to ‘Blackmagic Design Film’.
Choose your resolution from the ‘Decode Quality’ menu. A lower resolution will give you better playback on limited systems. You also have the flexibility to change to full resolution later on before delivery for the highest quality output.
Now you can adjust the camera settings for your clips such as saturation, contrast and midpoint. This will affect all clips in your project that are set to decode using ‘project’.
Color Correcting your Clips with the Color Page
Now with your clips on the timeline and titles added, you can start color correcting using the ‘color’ page. The color page is extremely powerful and will define the overall look of your film, but for this example a good place to start is to neutralize all your clips so they are consistent. You can also return to the ‘cut’ or ‘edit’ page at any time if you want to make changes to your edit.
The color page lets you adjust the look of your edit and in many ways color correction is an art form in itself. You are really adding emotion to your work when you add color correction. It’s an incredibly creative part of the workflow and very satisfying when you learn these skills and can see your work come alive! This is usually the first step and is referred to as primary color correction, or adjusting the primaries. After primary color correction is done, you can then make secondary color correction adjustments which is where you can make extremely precise color adjustments of specific objects in your images. That is a lot of fun, but is normally done after primaries because it helps make the process more efficient and you will get a better result!
First click on the ‘color’ tab to open the color page.
You’ll see the camera raw settings, color wheels, curves palettes and general color correction tools as well as the preview and nodes window. Don’t feel overwhelmed by the vast array of features in front of you, they are all there to help you get the most amazing looking pictures.
This getting started section will show the basics, but for more detailed information refer to the relevant sections in the manual. They will show you exactly what all the tools are for and how to use them in easy to follow steps. You’ll learn the same techniques the professionals use in high end color correction facilities.
Generally, the first step for primary color correction is to optimize the levels for shadows, mid tones and highlights in your clips. In other words adjust the ‘lift’, ‘gamma’ and ‘gain’ settings. This will help get your pictures looking their brightest and best with a clean, balanced starting point from where you can begin grading the ‘look’ of your film. To optimize the levels, it’s helpful to use the scopes.
Using Scopes
Most colorists make creative color choices by focusing on the emotion and the look they want their program to have and then simply work using the monitor to achieve that look. You can look at everyday objects and how different types of light interact with them to generate ideas on what you can do with your images and a little practice.
The parade scope helps you optimize highlights, mid tones and shadows
Another way to color grade is to use the built in scopes to help you balance shots. You can open a single video scope by clicking the ‘scope’ button, which is the second from the right on the palette toolbar. You can choose to display a waveform, parade, vectorscope and histogram. Using these scopes you can monitor your tonal balance, check the levels of your video to avoid crushing your blacks and clipping the highlights, plus monitor any color cast in your clips.
The ‘color wheels’ palette contains the ‘lift’, ‘gamma’ and ‘gain’ controls which will generally constitute your first adjustment. If you’ve previously had experience with color correction, these should resemble controls you’ve seen in other applications for doing color and contrast adjustments.
The ‘lift, ‘gamma’, ‘gain’ and ‘offset’ color wheels give you total control over the color and tonal balance of your clips. To make a uniform adjustment to all colors for each tonal region, drag the dial underneath the color wheels back and forth
The primaries bars make color adjustments easier when using a mouse.
For more accurate control of each color using a mouse, you can change the color wheels to ‘primaries bars’ which let you adjust each color and luminance channel for the lift, gamma and gain controls separately. Simply select ‘primaries bars’ from the dropdown menu near the top right of the color wheels.
Adjusting the ‘lift’: With your clip selected on the color timeline, click on the ‘lift’ dial underneath the first color wheel. Slide it back and forth and watch how it affects your image. You’ll see the brightness of the dark regions of your picture increase and decrease. Set it to where you want the dark areas to look their best. If you decrease the lift too much, you’ll lose details in the blacks and you can use the parade scope to help avoid this. The optimal position for blacks on the waveform is just above the bottom line of the parade scope.
Adjusting the ‘gain’: Click on the ‘gain’ dial and slide it back and forth. This adjusts the highlights which are the brightest areas of your clip. The highlights are shown on the top section of the waveform on the parade scope. For a brightly lit shot, these are best positioned just below the top line of the waveform scope. If the highlights rise above the top line of the waveform scope, they will clip and you will lose details in the brightest regions of your image.
Adjusting the ‘gamma’: Click on the ‘gamma’ dial underneath the color wheel and slide it back and forth. As you increase the gamma you’ll see the brightness of the image increase. Notice the middle section of the waveform will also move as you adjust the gamma. This represents the mid tones of your clip. The optimal position for mid tones generally falls between 50 to 70% on the waveform scope. However, this can be subjective based on the look you are creating and the lighting conditions in the clip.
You can also use the curves palette to make primary color corrections. Simply click to create control points on the diagonal line inside the curve graph, and drag them up or down to adjust the master RGB contrast at different areas of image tonality. The optimum points to adjust are the bottom third, mid, and top third of the curve line.
There are many more ways of doing primary color correction in DaVinci Resolve.
The curves palette is another tool you can use to make primary color corrections, or enhance specific areas of your clip when using a power window
Secondary Color Correction
If you want to adjust a specific part of your image then you need to use secondary corrections. The adjustments you have been doing up until now using the lift, gamma and gain adjustments affect the whole image at the same time and so they are called primary color corrections.
However, if you need to adjust specific parts of your image, say for example you wanted to improve the color in the grass in a scene, or you wanted to deepen the blue in a sky, then you can use secondary corrections. Secondary color corrections are where you select a part of the image and then adjust only that part. With nodes, you can stack multiple secondary corrections so you can keep working parts of your image until everything is just right! You can even use windows and tracking to allow the selections to follow movement in your images.
Qualifying a Color
Often you’ll find a specific color in your clip can be enhanced, for example grass by the side of a road, or the blue in a sky, or you may need to adjust color on a specific object to focus the audience’s attention on it. You can easily do this by using the HSL qualifier tool.
Using the HSL qualifier to select colors in your image is helpful when you want to make areas of your image ‘pop’, to add contrast, or to help draw the audience’s attention to certain areas of your shot
To qualify a color:
Add a new serial node.
Open the ‘qualifier’ palette and make sure the ‘selection range’ picker tool is selected.
Click on the color in your clip you want to affect.
Usually you’ll need to make some adjustments to soften the edges of your selection and limit the region to only the desired color. Click on the ‘highlight’ button above the viewer to see your selection.
Adjust the ‘width’ control in the ‘hue’ window to broaden or narrow your selection.
Experiment with the high, low and softness controls to see how to refine your selection. Now you can make corrections to your selected color using the color wheels or custom curves.
Sometimes your selection can spill into areas of the shot you don’t want to affect. You can easily mask out the unwanted areas using a power window. Simply create a new window and shape it to select only the area of color you want. If your selected color moves in the shot, you can use the tracking feature to track your power window.
Adding a Power Window
Power windows are an extremely effective secondary color correction tool that can be used to isolate specific regions of your clips. These regions don’t have to be static, but can be tracked to move with a camera pan, tilt or rotation, plus the movement of the region itself.
Use power windows to mask out areas you don’t want to be affected by the HSL qualifier secondary adjustments
For example, you can track a window on a person in order to make color and contrast changes just to that person without affecting his or her surroundings. By making corrections like this you can influence the audience’s attention on areas you want them to notice.
To add a power window to your clip:
Add a new serial node.
Open the ‘window’ palette and select a window shape by clicking on a shape icon. Your selected window shape will appear on the node.
Resize the shape by clicking and dragging the blue points around the shape. The red points adjust the edge softness. You can position the shape by clicking the center point and moving it to the area you want to isolate. Rotate the window using the point connected to the center.
Now you can make color corrections to your image in just the area you want.
Power windows let you make secondary corrections to specific parts of your image
Tracking a Window
The camera, object or area in your shot may be moving, so to make sure your window stays on your selected object or area, you can use DaVinci Resolve’s powerful tracking feature. The tracker analyzes the pan, tilt, zoom and rotation of the camera or object in your clip so you can match your windows to that movement. If this isn’t done, your correction can move off the selected target and call attention to itself, which you probably don’t want.
You can track objects or areas in your clip using the tracker feature so power windows can follow the action
To track a window to a moving object:
Create a new serial node and add a power window.
Go to the start of your clip and position and size the window to highlight just the object or area you want.
Open the ‘tracker’ palette. Select the pan, tilt, zoom, rotate, and perspective 3D settings appropriate for the movement in your clip by checking or unchecking the relevant ‘analyze’ checkboxes.
Click on the ‘forward’ arrow to the left of the checkboxes. DaVinci Resolve will now apply a cluster of tracking points on your clip and then step through the frames to analyze the movement. When the tracking is done, your power window will follow the path of the movement in your clip.
Most of the time automatic tracking is successful, but scenes can be complex and sometimes an object can pass in front of your selected area, interrupting or affecting your track. This can be solved manually using the keyframe editor. Refer to the DaVinci Resolve manual to find out more.
Using Plugins
While making secondary color corrections you can also add ResolveFX or OpenFX plugins to create fast, interesting looks and effects using the ‘color’ page, or imaginative transitions and effects on your clips on the ‘edit’ page. ResolveFX are installed with DaVinci Resolve, OFX plugins can be purchased and downloaded from third party suppliers.
After installing a set of OFX plugins, you can access them or ResolveFX plugins on the color page by opening the OpenFX inspector to the right of the ‘node editor’. Once you create a new serial node, simply click the ‘OpenFX’ button to open the FX library and drag and drop a plugin onto the new node. If the plugin has editable settings, you can adjust these in the adjoining ‘settings’ panel.
In the ‘edit’ page you can add plugin filters, generators and transitions to clips by opening the ‘OpenFX’ panel in the ‘effects library’ and dragging your selected plugin onto the video clip or track above your clip on the timeline depending on the plugin requirements.
OFX plugins are a quick and easy way to create an imaginative and interesting look
Mixing Your Audio
Mixing Audio in the Edit Page
Once you have edited and color corrected your project, you can begin to mix your audio. DaVinci Resolve has a helpful set of features for editing, mixing and mastering audio for your project directly in the ‘edit’ page. For projects requiring more advanced audio tools, the Fairlight page provides you with a full audio post production environment. If you are already familiar with the edit page and want to move straight to Fairlight, skip this section and move onto the next.
Adding Audio Tracks
If you are working in the edit page and want to mix a basic sound edit with lots of sound effects and music, you can easily add more audio tracks when you need them. This can be helpful when building your sound, and separating your audio elements into individual tracks, for example, dialogue, sound effects and music.
To Add an Audio Track to the Edit Page
Right click next to the name of any audio track on your timeline and select ‘add track’ and choose from the options, including ‘mono’, ‘stereo’, and ‘5.1’. This will add the track to the bottom of the track list. Alternatively select ‘add tracks’ and select the position you would like the new track or multiple tracks placed.
Your new audio track will appear on the timeline.
📘TIP If you wish to change the type of track after creating it, right click next to the name of the track and select ‘change track type to’ and select the type of audio track you want, such as stereo, mono or 5.1.
Adjusting Audio Levels in the Timeline
Each clip of audio in the timeline has a volume overlay that lets you set that clip’s level by simply dragging it up or down with the pointer. This overlay corresponds to the Volume parameter in the Inspector.
Dragging a volume overlay to adjust the clip level
For projects requiring more advanced audio tools, the Fairlight page provides you with a full audio post production environment.
The Fairlight Page
The ‘Fairlight’ page in DaVinci Resolve is where you adjust your project audio. In single monitor mode, this page gives you an optimized look at the audio tracks of your project, with an expanded mixer and custom monitoring controls that make it easy to evaluate and adjust levels in order to create a smooth and harmonious mix. Don’t feel overwhelmed by the vast array of features in front of you, they are all there to help you deliver the best audio quality for your project.
This guide provides a basic overview of the features on the Fairlight page, but to learn more about all the details for each feature, refer to the DaVinci Resolve manual. The DaVinci Resolve manual provides details on the purpose of each tool and describes how to use them in easy to follow steps.
The Audio Timeline
Track Header: At the left of each track is a header area that displays the track number, track name, track color, audio channels, fader value and audio meters. The track header also contains different controls for locking and unlocking tracks, plus solo and muting controls. These controls can help to keep your tracks organized, and let you preview individual tracks one at a time.
Tracks: Each track on the Fairlight page is divided into lanes, which show each individual channel of clip audio for editing and mixing. The edit page hides these individual audio channels, displaying only a single clip in the timeline to make it easier to edit multi channel sources without needing to manage a huge number of tracks.
The track header on track A1 indicates a mono track with a single lane for mono audio, and the A2 track header indicates a stereo track with two lanes to accommodate stereo audio
What is a Bus?
A bus is essentially a destination channel made up of audio sources grouped together into a single signal that can be controlled via a single channel strip. Fairlight automatically creates a bus for you and all the audio tracks in your timeline are sent to this bus by default, this means you can adjust the overall level of your audio mix once you have adjusted the level of each individual track.
If your edit is a bit more complex you can create more buses and combine multiple tracks of audio that belong to the same category such as dialogue, music or effects so that everything in that category can be mixed as a single audio signal. For example, if you have five dialogue tracks, you can route the output of all five dialogue tracks to a separate bus, and the level of all dialogue can then be mixed with a single set of controls.
The Fairlight Flexbus structure gives you complete flexibility over bus types and signal routing including the option for bus-to-bus, track-to-bus and bus-to-track routing. For more information on audio bus settings in Fairlight, refer to the DaVinci Resolve manual.
The Mixer
Each audio track in your timeline corresponds to an individual channel strip in the Mixer, and by default there’s a single strip on the right for the default bus labeled ‘Bus 1’. Additional channel strips will appear on the right hand side with a set of controls for each additional bus you create. A set of graphical controls allows you to assign track channels to output channels, adjust EQ and dynamics, set levels and record automation, pan stereo and surround audio, and mute and solo tracks.
The audio mixer, with channel strips corresponding to the tracks in the timeline
Using the Equalizer to Enhance your Audio
After adjusting the audio levels of your audio clips in your project, you may find that the audio needs further finessing. In some cases you may find that the dialogue, music and sound effects are competing for the same frequency on the audio spectrum, making your audio too busy and unclear. This is where using EQ can help, as it allows you to specify the parts of the audio spectrum that each track occupies. You can also use an equalizer to help remove unwanted elements from your audio by isolating and reducing the level on particular frequencies that contain low rumbles, hums, wind noise and hiss, or simply to improve the overall quality of your sound so it is more pleasing to listen to.
DaVinci Resolve provides EQ filters that can be applied at a clip level to each individual clip or at the track level to affect entire tracks. Each audio clip in the timeline has a four band equalizer in the inspector panel, and each track has a 6 band parametric equalizer in the mixer panel. The graphical and numeric controls for boosting or attenuating different ranges of frequencies, and different filter types allow you to define the shape of the EQ curve.
The four band equalizer can be applied to every clip in the timeline
Outer bands let you make band filter adjustments using hi-shelf, lo-shelf, hi-pass and lo-pass filters. A pass filter affects all the frequencies above or below a particular frequency, by removing those frequencies completely from the signal. For example, a high pass filter will allow the high frequencies to pass through the filter while cutting the low frequencies. Any frequencies outside the cutoff frequency are cut gradually in a downward sloping curve.
A shelf filter is less aggressive, and is useful when you want to shape the overall top end or low end of the signal without completely removing those frequencies. The shelf filter boosts or cuts the target frequency and every frequency either above or below it evenly, depending on whether you use a high shelf or low shelf.
The middle sets of band controls let you make a wide variety of equalization adjustments, and can be switched between lo-shelf, bell, notch, and hi-shelf filtering options.
Bell: Bell filters boost or cut frequencies around a given center point of the bell curve, and as the name suggests the shape of the curve is like a bell.
Notch: Notch filters allow you to specifically target a very narrow range of frequencies. For example, removing a mains hum at 50 or 60Hz.
Lo-Shelf: Low shelf filters boost or cut the target frequency at the low end, and every frequency below it
Hi-Shelf: High shelf filters boost or cut the target frequency at the high end, and every frequency above it
To add EQ to an individual clip:
Select the clip in the timeline that you want to add the EQ filter to.
Click on the inspector and then click the ‘clip equalizer’ enable button.
To add EQ to a track:
Double click in the EQ section for one of your tracks in the mixer to open the equalizer for that track.
Select the band filter type from the dropdown menu for the band you want to adjust.
The EQ section in the mixer panel indicating an EQ curve has been applied to track one
The 6 Band parametric equalizer that can be applied to every track
Once you have added EQ to your clip or track, you can adjust the EQ for each band. Note that controls may vary depending on which band filter type is selected.
To adjust the EQ for a band filter:
Select the band filter type from the dropdown menu for the band you want to adjust.
Adjust the ‘frequency’ value to select the center frequency of the EQ adjustment.
Adjust the ‘gain’ value to boost or attenuate the frequencies governed by that band.
Use the ‘Q factor’ value to adjust the width of affected frequencies.
Use the reset button to reset all controls in the EQ window to their defaults.
Fairlight has many controls you can use to improve the quality of each audio track. You can add more tracks and arrange buses to organize them, plus add effects like delay or reverb, and generally perfect your audio mix.
Adding VFX and Compositing on the Fusion Page
Now that you have completed your edit, you can open the Fusion page to add 2D or 3D visual effects and motion graphics right within DaVinci Resolve. Unlike layer based compositing software, Fusion uses nodes, giving you the freedom to build complex effects while routing image data in any direction. The nodes window clearly shows every tool used along the way. If you have experienced the node workflow in the color page, this will feel familiar to you.
The Fusion Page
The Fusion page features 2 viewer windows across the top with transport controls to view your media, an inspector window to the right to access tool settings, and a nodes window at the bottom where you build your composition. While the viewers and transport controls are always visible, clicking on the icons on the interface toolbar at the very top of the display will let you show or hide the nodes and inspector windows, or reveal or hide additional windows including the effects library and editors for spline and keyframes.
Media Pool: The media pool functions the same way as it appears in the edit page. Simply drag additional media from your bins directly to your composition.
Effects Library: The effects library is where you will find your Fusion tools and templates sorted into categories including particle, tracking, filters and generators. You can either click on the tool or drag it to the nodes area to add it to your composition. The media pool and effects library take up the same screen area, so you can swap between the two to keep your viewers as large as possible.
Clips: Clicking the clips tab will reveal or hide thumbnails representing clips on your timeline. The thumbnails are located underneath the nodes editor, letting you instantly navigate to other clips.
Create a new version of your composition by right clicking on a thumbnail and selecting ‘create new composition’. Viewers: The viewers are always visible and let you see the different views of your composition, for example an overall 3D perspective via the merge 3D node, a camera output, or your final render output. These viewers also let you see how your changes are affecting a specific element. You can choose which nodes to view by clicking on a node and typing ‘1’ for the left viewer or ‘2’ for the right viewer. White button icons appear beneath the node to let you know which viewer it is assigned to. If you’re using external video monitoring, there will be a third button available to route your media to your external video monitor.
📘TIP You can also assign a node to a viewer by dragging the node into the viewer itself.
The transport controls underneath the viewers let you skip to the start or end of the clip, play forward or reverse, or stop playback. The time ruler displays the entire range of a clip, with yellow marks indicating the in and out points.
The yellow marks on the time ruler indicate your clip’s in and out points on your timeline. If you are using a Fusion clip or compound clip, the time ruler will only show you the duration of the clip as it appears on the timeline, without handles.
Nodes: The nodes window is the heart of the Fusion page where you build your node tree by connecting tools together from one node’s output to another node’s input. This area will change size depending on which editors are open, for example the spline or keyframes editor. A toolbar at the top of the nodes area features the most commonly used tools for fast access.
Spline: When the spline editor is open, it will appear to the right of the nodes window. This editor lets you make precise adjustments to each node, such as smoothing the animation between two keyframes using bezier curves.
Keyframes: Keyframes for each tool can be added, removed or modified using the keyframes editor. This also appears to the right of the nodes viewer.
Metadata: The metadata window will show you metadata available for the active clip, including the codec, frame rate and timecode.
Inspector: The inspector in the top right corner displays all settings and modifiers available for one or more selected nodes. Additional tab options will appear to provide quick access to other settings for nodes sorted by category.
The text inspector contains additional tabs for text, layout, transform, shading, image and settings.
Getting Started with Fusion
To get started with Fusion, simply position your playhead over any clip on your timeline and click on the ‘Fusion’ tab to open the Fusion page.
On the Fusion page, your clip is immediately available in a media input node labelled ‘MediaIn’. Every composition will begin with a ‘mediain’ and a ‘mediaout’ node. This mediain node represents the top most clip of your timeline at the playhead, and ignores any clips underneath. Any adjustments you’ve applied to the clip on the edit page, such as transform tools and cropping changes, are also included.
The media output node, named ‘MediaOut’, is the node that sends the output back to your timeline on DaVinci Resolve’s edit page.
📘TIP ResolveFX or OFX plug-ins applied to clips in the cut or edit pages are not applied in the Fusion page. This is because Fusion effects occur prior to color correction and OFX/ResolveFX processing. If you want OFX applied before Fusion effects, right click the clip in the edit page and select ‘new fusion clip’ before clicking on the Fusion page.
Understanding Nodes
It can be helpful to think of each node as a visual icon representing a single tool or effect. Nodes are connected to other nodes to build the overall composition, much like ingredients in a cake. It’s important to understand the inputs and outputs of each node as this will help you navigate the flow of your composition while building detailed visual effects.
Some tools have multiple inputs and outputs you can connect to other nodes. The merge node, for example, lets you attach a foreground input, background input, and a mask input for mattes or keys.
Multiple outputs on nodes means a single node can connect to many different nodes in your composition, so you don’t have to duplicate clips as you would in layer based software. Arrows on the line between connected nodes are a great visual indicator to show you which direction the image data is flowing.
Adding Nodes to the Node Editor
Adding effects is as simple as placing nodes on the line between the ‘mediain’ and ‘mediaout’ nodes.
There are a few ways you can do this. You can hold down the shift button and drop a node between two nodes, or click on the node you want to attach an effect to and select the tool you want to add. The new node will automatically connect to the tool selected. You can also add a node anywhere on the node window and manually connect nodes by dragging the output of one to the input on another.
The most commonly used tool is the 2D or 3D merge node. This node is like a central hub that combines tools on the node editor into a single output.
The merge node has controls for how the inputs are managed, including settings for size, position, and blend. These settings are all accessible in the inspector panel when the merge node is selected.
The toolbar above the node panel contains the most commonly used tools as icons that you can either click on to add the node, or drag the tool to the node panel. If you want to see all the complete tools available, click on the ‘effects library’ in the top left corner and expand the ‘tools’ option. Here you’ll find all the tools sorted by category, as well as a set of pre-built ‘templates’ you can use, for example lens flares, shaders and backgrounds.
📘TIP Once you’re familiar with the tool names, you can hold down ‘shift’ and press ‘spacebar’ on your keyboard and a ‘select tools’ menu will appear. As you type the tool name, the menu will suggest the relevant tool. This is a very fast way to select the tool you want.
Adjusting Nodes Using the Inspector Panel
Adjust your node settings using the inspector panel. Simply click on the node you want to modify and the panel will update to display its settings and controls.
With Fusion, you don’t have to be viewing the node you’re editing, as you can modify one node while viewing another in your composition. For example, you can modify the size and center position of a ‘text+’ node while the merge node is in the viewer, letting you view the text relative to the background.
Selected nodes appear with a red border. Here the inspector panel is displaying the layout tab controls for the text node.
There are different parameters and settings you can adjust for every node depending on its task, from sizing and center positions to changing the number of particles in an emitter node. Setting keyframes and changing the settings over time will animate the effect.
Working with Keyframes
In the inspector window, set a keyframe by right clicking on a setting and choosing ‘animate’ from the contextual menu. The keyframe icon to the right of the setting will turn red. This means keyframes are now active and any changes you make will be applied to the current frame only. When two or more keyframes are created by changing the setting parameters on a different frame, a transition is interpolated between them. Arrows on each side of the keyframe icon let you move the playhead to those exact positions on the timeline.
The splines panel gives you further control over keyframe animation. You can select keyframes, such as the first and last, and smooth the animation between them into a bezier curve by typing ‘shift’ + ’s’, or right clicking on a keyframe and selecting ‘smooth’.
Here, the ‘size’ keyframe animation has been smoothed into a bezier curve. You can click the bezier handles to shorten or lengthen the curve, or the keyframe square icons to move the keyframe location.
Using the Motion Tracker and Adding Text
To get a better idea of how to use Fusion, we have included the following examples to show how to use the tracker tool to track an element in a clip, plus add text and attach it to the element using the tracking data.
The ‘tracker’ tool tracks pixels over time on the x & y axis, and generates data you can use to attach other elements. This is great for when you want to match the position of text to a moving object, such as a car driving along the road, or a bird as it flies across frame.
In the ‘effects library’, select the ‘tracking’ tool and drag it to the line between the ‘mediain’ and the ‘mediaout’ nodes. Now click the tracker node to reveal its properties in the inspector.
Type ‘1’ on your keyboard to see the ‘tracker’ node on the left viewer. The clip will appear in the viewer together with the tracker at its default position. Hover your mouse pointer over the tracker to reveal the tracker handle. Click on the tracker handle at the top left corner and drag the tracker to an area of interest on your clip. High contrast areas work well, for example the badge on the hood of a car. The tracker will magnify the image area for extra precision.
In the inspector window, click on the ‘track forward’ button to start tracking. A notification window will appear when the tracking is done. Click OK.
Tracking options in the inspector panel include track reverse from last frame or current frame, stop track or track forward from current frame or first frame.
TIP Track reverse or forward from current frame is great for situations where your area of interest disappears during the render range, such as a car or bird moving out of frame. This lets you track only the relevant footage.
Now you can take that tracking data and apply the motion path to a text tool.
Click on the ‘text+’ node icon from the toolbar of commonly used nodes and drag it to the node panel near the ‘tracker’ node. Connect the ‘text’ output square to the green foreground input on the ‘tracker’.
Click on the ‘tracker’ node and type ‘1’ so you can see the merged results on your left hand viewer. In the ‘tracker’ inspector panel, click on the ‘operations’ tab. You can see the tab’s name by hovering the mouse pointer over it. Click the dropdown menu next to operation and select ‘match move’.
Click the ‘text’ node to reveal the properties in the inspector. Type your text into the text box and change the font, color and size to suit your composition.
This will apply the tracking position data from your tracker to your text. If you want to change the text offset, click on the ‘trackers’ tab back in the inspector panel and use the x and y offset scroll wheels to modify the position.
Scroll wheels at the bottom of the tracker inspector panel let you adjust the offset position for the text.
Now you can play back your composition and see your text attached to the object you have tracked!
The green square is the tracker’s current position along the green path, and the red dashed line is the offset position used to animate the text.
For some shots you might want to remove track points after tracking, such as when the object you are tracking disappears off the screen. The keyframe editor makes this a very simple process.
Click on the keyframes tab above the inspector to open the keyframes editor. Any nodes with keyframes applied will have a small arrow next to the node label, and only the parameter with keyframes added will appear in the list below. Click on the magnify icon and drag a box around the area you want to edit. This will zoom into that area so you can see the keyframes easier.
Move the playhead to the location of the last keyframe you want. Now select the keyframes you wish to remove by drawing a box around them with your mouse. The keyframes will highlight yellow. Right click and choose delete from the menu.
📘TIP If your effects are particularly system intensive, right clicking on the transport controls area will give you viewer options, including proxy playback, helping you get the most out of your system while you build your composition. Refer to the DaVinci Resolve manual for further detail on all the playback options.
You have now completed your first composition animating text to match a movement in your footage!
If you want to track an area of the image that contains a flat surface you want to enhance or replace, you can use the planar tracker. Tracking 2D planes can be helpful for changing labels and signs in a moving image, or even adding an image to a monitor or TV in your shot.
For more information about the planar tracker and the many powerful tools in the DaVinci Resolve Fusion page, see the DaVinci Resolve manual.
📘TIP As you build visual effects in the Fusion page, it’s worth noting if the effect you are building is a 2D effect, or a 3D effect, as this will determine which merge tool is used. You may discover yourself frequently combining 2D and 3D effects in the one composite. In this scenario, it’s helpful to remember that any visual effect using the 3D space needs to be rendered as a 2D image before it can be merged into a 2D composite.
We believe you will have lots of fun with Fusion and exploring Fusion’s visual effects with the power of DaVinci Resolve’s edit, color, and Fairlight pages. With all these tools at your finger tips, DaVinci Resolve is incredibly powerful and there is really no limit to what you can create!
Mastering Your Edit
Now you’ve edited, graded, added vfx and mixed your audio, you’ll want to share it with others. You can use the Quick Export button, or menu selection, to output the contents of the Timeline as a self contained file in one of a variety of different formats, or use the additional features of the ‘deliver’ page.
The ‘deliver’ page is where you export your edit. You can select from many different video formats and codecs
Quick Export
You can choose File > Quick Export to use one of a variety of export presets to export your program from any page of DaVinci Resolve. You can even use quick export to export and upload your program to one of the supported video sharing services, including YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter and Frame.io.
To use Quick Export:
In the ‘edit’, ‘fusion’, or ‘color’ page, optionally set in and out points in the timeline to choose a range of the current program to export. If no timeline in or out points have been set, the entire timeline will be exported.
Choose File > Quick Export.
Select a preset to use from the top row of icons in the quick export dialog, and click ‘export’.
Choose a directory location and enter a file name using the export dialog, then click ‘save’. A progress bar dialog appears to let you know how long the export will take.
The quick export dialog
The Deliver Page
This page lets you select the range of clips you want to export, plus the format, codec and resolution you want. You can export in many types of formats such as QuickTime, AVI, MXF and DPX using codecs such as 8-bit or 10-bit uncompressed RGB/YUV, ProRes, DNxHD, H.264 and more.
To export a single clip of your edit:
Click on the ‘deliver’ tab to open the deliver page.
Go to the ‘render settings’ window on the top left of the page. Choose from a number of export presets, for example YouTube, Vimeo and audio presets, or you can set your own export settings manually by leaving it set to the default ‘custom’ preset and entering your own parameters. For this example, select YouTube, then click on the arrow next to the preset and select the 1080p video format. The frame rate will be locked to your project frame rate setting.
Underneath the presets you will see the timeline filename and the target location for your exported video. Click the ‘browse’ button and choose the location where you want to save your exported file and then select ‘single clip’ from the render option.
Immediately above the timeline, you’ll see an options box with ‘entire timeline’ selected. This will export the entire timeline, however you can select a range of the timeline if you want to. Simply choose ‘in/out range’ and then use the ‘i’ and ‘o’ hot key shortcuts to choose the in and out points in your timeline.
Go to the bottom of the ‘render settings’ and click on the ‘add to render queue’ button. Your render settings will be added to the render queue on the right side of the page. Now all you have to do is click ‘start render’ and monitor the progress of your render in the render queue. When your render is complete you can open the folder location, double click on your new rendered clip and watch your finished edit.
📘Now that you have a basic knowledge of how to edit, color, mix audio and add visual effects, we recommend experimenting with DaVinci Resolve. Refer to the DaVinci Resolve manual for more details on how each feature can help you make the most of your project!
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