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DaVinci Resolve
Free (at least for what I want to do) is a hard price to beat. DaVinci Resolve
Recommended Tutorials For Beginners
Note, some tutorials are specific to different screens/areas within DaVinci Resolve. Some people will be interested in things like the colour tab, while others won't be interested in more than the basics for their work.
Official Training Resources
There are lots of great oficial resources here:
-
- Training Videos
- Training Books
- Certification (See “Complete Online Exam” sections by Training Books)
Direct Video Links
The video links under “Training Videos” above include links to sample project files to follow through on and are much better. I have linked below to the same videos from Blackmagic Design on DaVinci Resolve. They published a number of tutorials for version 15, most of the core information is unchanged. Then there are some “what's new” videos which cover the big changes.
- DaVinci Resolve 15 Training - Official Playlist, some key extracts below:
- Fairlight Audio:
- What's New in DaVinci Resolve 16 - Key new stuff in version 16 (If you have done the 15 videos, this will be quite quick and easy to pick up)
- Introducing DaVinci Resolve 17 - Key new stuff in version 17 (If you have done the 15 videos, this will be quite quick and easy to pick up)
Guide Videos From Around The Web
Have a look at my playlist of DaVinci Resolve & Video Editing, that's where I try and list the videos I think are most useful. Below is a collection of videos I think are useful either as they explore a screen/tab within resolve. Or because the tutorial itself covers the key areas of the screen/tab.
- General:
- ToDo
- Editing:
- Color Grading:
- DoDo
- Fusion:
- Fusion For Beginners in DaVinci Resolve 17 - JayAreTV
- Getting Started with Fusion in DaVinci Resolve 17 - JayAreTV: Adding an animation (text) to a moving object in video.
- Fairlight (audio):
- ToDo
People/Playlists to follow
shortcuts
- Shift-1: project manager
- Shift-2: media page
- Shift-3: cut page
- Shift-4: edit page
- Shift-5: Fusion
- Shift-6: Colour
- Shift-7: Fairlight
- Shift-8: Deliver
- Shift-9: project settings
Free Stuff
Transitions:
Text:
Effects:
- plugins: Official FAQ Friday: Plugins
Installation Locations
The latest way of distributing third party content is via 'packs' (requires Resolve 17.2 or later) which have a .drfx
file which can be dragged into node graph the Fusion page. Then just restart Resolve and you'll be good to go.
Directories to copy .settings
files to:
C:\Program Files\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Fusion\Templates\Edit\Transitions
C:\Program Files\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Fusion\Templates\Edit\Titles
C:\Program Files\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Fusion\Templates\Edit\Effects
If you wish to install other things, then these locations might be useful:
C:\ProgramData\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\LUT
- In Resolve 17, you select LUT locations in Resolve Preferences - System - General - LUT Locations
Extracting Macros
This is because Motion Array (and others) don't distribute Resolve content in the most accessable/usable way (.setting
files or the new .drfx
packages).
Some extra bits are distributed as macros, sometimes embedded in a timeline… They can be extracted https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=59989
Open a template (you might need to save as .setting
from fusion if it's embedded in a timeline), change the MacroOperator
to GroupOperator
[Case Sensitive], save the file (under a new name), using the .setting
extension. Restart Resolve and loaded my the renamed template. Ungroup it in the Fusion section and it shows the nodes.
Specific Techniques/Effects
Need to collect & colate notes from: https://www.reddit.com/user/want_to_be_a_fish/comments/
Rotoscoping & 'Door Opening' Transitions
Rotoscoping is the art of cutting something out in a video, think of it as the manual version of green screen.
Technical Install & Uninstall
This changes between versions, but this is where I've found/put stuff and I use as a reference when backing up or restoring files.
Locations as of DaVinci Resolve 18
Locations, thanks to [Install Titles, Transitions, Effects, and Generators DaVinci Resolve 18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I8rZwq7Fnk&ab_channel=JayAreTV) - JayAreTV.
Inside the the edit folder everything should be put in one of four folders to match what the template is:
- Titles
- Transitions
- Effects
- Generators
Those locations are (user):
- On macOS:
Macintosh HD/Users/username/Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/Fusion/Templates/Edit
- On Windows:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\Fusion\Templates\Edit
- On Linux:
home/username/.local/share/DaVinciResolve/Fusion/Templates/Edit
All users of a machine:
- On Windows:
C:\Program Files\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Fusion\Templates\Edit
You can group all the types in subfolders (andy for sets of titles/transitions) such as:
- System:
C:\Program Files\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Fusion\Templates\Edit\Titles\Underwater Text
- User:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\Fusion\Templates\Edit\Titles\Underwater Text
Legacy Locations
General Base Directories:
C:\Program Files\Blackmagic Design\ C:\ProgramData\Blackmagic Design\ C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Blackmagic Design C:\Users\Public\Documents\Blackmagic Design\ C:\Users\<user>\Documents\Blackmagic Design\
User project files/customisation
C:\Users\<user>\Resolve Projects C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Blackmagic Design\ C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Blackmagic Design
PostgreSQL (If project server is installed)
C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL C:\Users\postgres
Other bits that you might have copied in/installed:
Transitions C:\Program Files\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Fusion\Templates\Edit\Transitions LUTs C:\ProgramData\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\LUT Project DB C:\ProgramData\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\Resolve Disk Database User Files: C:\Users\Public\Documents\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\Resolve Disk Database C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve Project Server C:\Users\<user>\Resolve Projects