Quick tips

  • Import png & jpeg as a sequence
    • By default it seems like exr will import as a sequence but jpeg and png as stills.
    • If you want to import png & jpeg as sequences
      • On the media page, click on the “3 dot menu” in the Media Storage section (top left)
      • Frame Display Mode > Sequence
  • Auto Save
    • Auto save (live save) is on by default and you might want to turn it off.
    • DaVinci Resolve > Preferences > Project Save and Load > Save Settings > Live save
  • Keyboard Customization

    • DaVinci Resolve > Keyboard Customization

  • Project settings
    • Shift 9
    • click the home icon in the lower right corner of the main ui

    • File > Project Settings

  • Projects Manager
    • Shift 1
    • click the cog icon in the lower right corner of the main ui

    • File > Project Manager

  • Reset UI

    • Workspace > Reset UI Layout

  • Copy multiple attributes
    • select src clip and press Cmd C
    • select dst clips and press Alt V
    • This will bring up a dialog where you can select which attributes to copy.
  • Fade handles
    • The video and audio tracks has handles in the beginning and end that allows for a quick fade in and out. Just drag to adjsut the length.
  • Bypass Grades and FX
    • Shift + D

Import media

We can LMB drag and drop files or directories to the media pool. If we drag a directory with media in sub dirs the structure will be respected and bins will be created for the content. The media can be viewed as a list or as thumbnails. In the list view we can click the “three dot” menu to the right to displa a filmstrip of the selected item. By RMB click the list view header we can choose which columns to display. We can also rearrange the columns. The smart bins are bins that can be auto created based on metadata.

Still duration

I did an animation in a “stop motion” style (I only rendered every 4th frame) and needed a way to easily create a timeline from this non “consecutive” frames. One way to do this is this:

  • DaVinci Resolve > Preferences > User Tab > Editing > Standard Still Duration
    • set to 4 frames
  • Drag an drop the files in the media pool
  • Select the frames RMB click > Create New Timeline Using Selected Clips

Source & timeline viewer

In the edit tab there are two viewers. The source viewer and the timeline viewer. In the top right corner of the timeline monitor there is a button to bypass grades and fx (Shift D) you can also hide and show source viewer.

Note that you can display the audio waveform in the source viewer through the “three dot” menu in the upper right corner (of the source viewer)

In the lower left corner (left side of the playback buttons) timeline viewer you can toggle the display of on screen controls like transformation handles.

In & out

To set in and out points of a clip we double click it in the media pool. In the source viewer we can use i and o keys to set in and out points. We can also use the mark in and mark out buttons in the right corner of the source viewer.

Function Key
Mark in I
Mark out O
Mark clip X
Mark Selection Shift A
Clear in Alt I
Clear out Alt O
Clear in & out Alt X

You will find more commands in the mark menu.

Jump to time

We can use the keyboard to specify a specific time code to jump to. It works the same for the source and timeline viewer. To choose a time code in the source viewer click on the viewer to make it the active one.

Function Type
Jump to 1 second and 10 frames 110
step back 5 frames -5
Step forward 15 frames +15

Note that we can click both on the timeline viewer or have on the timeline itself to make the timeline viewer the focus.

insert media

If we LMB drag the source viewer and drop at the timeline we add the clip with the in and out points. When we mouse over the source viewer we get icons that we can drag and drop to only get the video ar only the audio. We can obvoiusly also drag directly from the media pool.

If we LMB drag a clip from the source viewer to the timeline viewer we get a popup with 7 of the most common operations:

  • Insert
  • Overwrite
  • Replace
  • Fit to fill
  • Place on top
  • Append at end
  • Ripple overwrite
    • This will overwrite the old clip and move the other clips if needed (if the clips is shorter or longer than the clips it overwrites)

Rearrange clips

  • Swap & shuffle
    • LMB click and drag clips while holding down Shift Cmd
      move out of the way and fill gaps.

Timeline & Edit

If you have multiple timelines you can switch between them using the dropdown menu in the center of the timeline viewer. You can also enable Stacked Timelines in the timeline view options menu in the timline toolbar. With this enabled you can open multiple timeline tabs. You can also stack them so that you can view multiple timelines at the same time. This is down with the button on the right hand side of the stacked timeline menu bar.

Function Key
Play forward L
Step one frame forward K + L
Play backward J
Step one frame backward K + J
Stop K
Fullscreen P (or Cmd F)
Zoom in Cmd +
Zoom in Cmd -
Toggle zoom min / max Shift Z
Change Clip Duration Cmd D

To control the playback range of the timeline we use playback > play around/to menu. What I like to do is to set the play in > OUT > Ctrl Enter since I use it all the time.

Timecode & Frame number

Sine I work with animation and motion graphic I prefer to work with frame numbers instead of time code. To display the time code you can RMB click the timecode widget in the top right corner of the monitor in the edit page. To set a custom start timecode per timeline we RMB click the timeline (item in the media pool) and choose > Timelines > Starting Timecode and then set the starting time code.

Toolbar

The tools of the timeline toolbar (in order left to right)

  • Selection mode - A
  • Trim edit mode - T
    • It will change from a roll, ripple, slip & slide tool based on where you click.
      If we click on the edge of a clip it is a ripple tool (which allows shortening the clip and the rest of the clips moves to fill the gap)
      If it is between two clips it is a roll tool which can make one side shorter and the other one longer (rest of clips stay in place)
      In ripple and rool tool the timeline viewer will show 2 images, the first and last frame of the current edit.
      If we click in the middle in the upper part (where the thumbnail is) it becomes a slip tool. meaning it will keep the length edit but it will shift the content back or forward. If we click in the middle in the lower part it is a slide tool meaning it will keep the length of the edit and move the entire clip back and forward on the timeline (resulting in that the sorounding clips will be edited)
      In the slip and slide the time line viewer will show 4 images, the 2 clips that will change edit and the 2 clips that are surounding the edit.
  • Dynamic Trim Mode (slip) mode - W
  • Blade edit mode - B
  • Insert clip - F9
  • Overwrite clip - F10
  • Replace clip - F11
  • Snapping - N
  • Linked selection - Shift Cmd L
    • To link clips we can use (Alt Cmd L) or right click menu.
      Note that the vide and audio tracks are linked by default.
  • Position lock
    • Locks all tracks?
  • Flags - G
  • Markers - M
  • Timeline view options
    • Stacked timelines
    • Subtitle tracks
    • Audio waveforms
    • and more …
  • Zoom level
  • Volume
Select nearest edit to playhead V
Select clip intersecting playhead Shift V
Select clips forward (from playhead) on all tracks Alt Y
Select clips backward (from playhead) on all tracks Cmd AltY
Select clips forward (from playhead) on current track Y
Select clips backward (from playhead) on current track Cmd Y
Toggle timeline snapping off and on N
Insert Edit selected clip(s) F9
Overwrite Edit selected clip(s) F10
Replace Edit the first of selected clip(s) F11
Place On Top Edit F12
Ripple Overwrite Shift F10
Fit to Fill Shift F11
Append To End Edit Shift F12

Tracks

The video clip header has 3 buttons and the audio track has 4. The first button locks the clip. If the second button (auto select) is enabled the track will be affected be media insertions. Lets say if you have a background music that you want to have for the entire timeline it makes sense to disable this (so the clip will not be edited when new media is inserted)

Markers

The fastest way to add a marker is using the m key. If you tap m over en existing marker you will get the marker popup window where you can add additional info. You can also use the merker button in the timeline header toolbar. The marker shows up in the timeline viewer when the playhead is on the marker. With the “three dot” menu in the timeline viewer you can choose to display the markers. All markers of the current clip is also listed in this menu and you can jump to them through this menu.

Duration marker

Add text

Retiming

Constant clip speed

To change the speed of a clip we can RMB click and choose Change Clip Speed. In the popup we can choose a speed and also let the speed change ripple (the change in length will move the rest of the clips to adapt)

Variable clip speed

RMB click the video track ond choose Retime Controls Cmd R. Move the play head where you want the speed to change and click the down arrow next to the speed percentage and choose Add Speed Point. Then we can set the speed using the same menu.

Retime Curve

RMB click the clip and click this menu. This will open up a curve editor under the clip. If we click the top center icons we can select linear or weighted tangents.

Effects Library

To add a transition we can click the Effects Library tab.

Transistions

Under Toolbox > Video Transitions we find various transitions. Note that the transition is “on top” of both the clips so to get the inspector for the transitiuon we select the transition itself. Then We can adjust the dissolve in the inspector. If we have modified we can RMB clivk and save the transition preset.

If we have a jump cut we can use smooth cut to smooth out the motion. This effects uses optical flow to calculate new frames to blend the original frames. Usually you just do this over a few frames.

Open FX

If we add an effect to a video clip a new tab will be created in the inspector of the clip. Here we tweak the parameters or remove the effect by clicking the thrash can icon.

Audio

Audio can be moved in sub-frame increments. To quickly adjust the levels of an audio track you can LMB click and drag (up/down) the thin white line that runs through the track. We can also select the clip and open the inspector and select the audio tab. Here we can adjust the clip volume and other properties.

A fast way to animate the volume is to Alt LMB click on the thin white audio line on the audio clips. Thois will add keyframes and we can adjust the volume.

Mixer

The mixer will show the levels of each track under the playhead aswell as the main track. In the mixer we can switch to meters that just shows the output of the entire timeline.

Animations

You can set keyframes for various transform properties and display the on screen handles to assist you. You can also use the dynamic zoom to quickly setup zooms. Display the dynamic zoom on screen controls. The green rectangle is the start of the zoom the red is the end. The benefit of this is that there are no keyframes so if the clip length changes there is no need to move keyframes.

Black Magic Design has a really nice video giving an Introduction to editing in DaVinci Resolve.

How To

Reverse Clip

  • Ctrl R or RMB click (the clip) > Retime Controls
  • Click the arrow at the bottom of the clip > Reverse Segment