Hello, welcome to this video! Let's get a simple and general overview on
the newest DaVinci Resolve 15 by Blackmagic Design.
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videos dedicated to DaVinci Resolve!
DaVinci Resolve is a professional video editing software, with advanced
media editing, color adjustments, and outstanding visual and audio
effects. This comes with two versions: a freeware called Lite, and
the Studio one, which collects more advanced effects. In this video you
will get a simple overview on all you need to start as a beginner.
When opening Resolve, the Project Manager page shows up, used to start
a new or existing project. As you make and save projects, these
are stored inside the default Local Database, as you can see from the
Databases panel on the left. These databases can be link to servers
online or to computer folders. To define a new database, just click on
New Database, providing name and location.
You can open a project by double-clicking on it. To come back to the
Project Manager, just use the Home button in the bottom right corner.
To start with a new project, you can use the New Project button,
or double-click on Untitled Project.
When opening a project, the main workspace opens, divided in six
different workspaces you can choose at the bottom. Media is used to
browse, import and then manage all the files inside the project; Edit is
where you modify and edit the appearance of any media; Fusion is a new
workspace dedicated to visual effects, and animations; Color
and Fairlight collect several color and audio adjustments respectively;
and Deliver is where you can render and export your final video. In
this video we will take a look at the Media, the Edit and the Deliver
workspaces.
When a new project is made, the first thing to do is to add all media
needed, such as videos, pictures and audio files. On the Media
workspace, you can import files by dragging and dropping them from the
Media Storage panel into the Master collection at the bottom. In
Edit workspace, these files are collected inside the Media Pool panel,
you can check them by double-clicking on them and using the Preview.
At this point, you can start editing files by dropping these into the
Timeline from either the Media Pool panel or from any computer window
directly. These files are shown as colored rectangles called clips, with
their names on them. Video frames and pictures are in blue, and
collected within Video Tracks, with a V letter and a number on the left.
Music and speech are in green color and are contained inside Audio
Tracks at the bottom, well separated from the Video Tracks.
You can check the Timeline content carefully by using your mouse wheel
and holding down the Shift key to move in time, and the ALT key to zoom
in and out around the red marker.
Remember to save your project with CMD+S (or CTRL+S on Windows). The
first time you save you are asked to fix a name for it. Your project
is stored as a .db file inside your database, and make sure to save it
often, especially when you see a red 'Edited' word on top.
You can get a quick preview on each clip according to what you set under
Timeline View Options. You can expand the clips to get visual frame
thumbnails in time, or show sound waves on all the audio files.
Whereas, to get a complete playback on the project, you have to use the
main Preview in the top right corner. This shows your project content
where the red marker is placed. You can click and drag on the timeline
to place and move the red marker, in order to check your project frame
after frame in time.
To playback in real-time, use the player below the Preview.
Now, let's see how to edit your clips with the Selection Mode enabled.
You can move clips by clicking and dragging these in time or in other
Tracks. New Tracks are added in case they are needed.
Videos with audio get frames and audio pieces linked, showing a chain
icon on these. These are always moved together, but you can make these
independent by right-clicking on them and going to Link Clips.
You can stretch and shorten clips in time by clicking and dragging their
edges. Just pay attention with videos and audio files, since these get
part of their content cut if shortened.
To stretch and shorten a clip without affecting its content, you can
change its speed or playback rate by right-clicking on it and going to
Change Clips Speed.... If you set a percentage below 100%, the clip is
played slower, and so it can last longer in time. If the percentage is
above 100%, the clip is played faster, and so it is shorter in time.
You can also playback the clip in the opposite way by enabling Reverse
speed.
To delete a clip, select it and use the Backspace key. In case you make
any mistake, you can undo the latest actions by CMD+Z (or CTRL+Z
for Windows).
To make quick copies of a clip, just click and drag it while holding
down the ALT key. Make sure not to overlap the two clips, or one of them
gets cut.
To split a clip into pieces, enable the Razor Edit Mode, and click on
the clip where you want to split it.
You can manage the content of each Track by using the buttons on the
extreme left. You can use the lock button to prevent any Track from any
modification on any of its clips.
On Video Tracks, use the frame button to hide or show its content. On
Audio Tracks, use the Mute (M) button to mute all its clips, or the Solo
(S) button to mute all the other Audio Tracks except interested one.
To delete a Track and all of its content, just right-click on it and go
to Delete Track.
Video Tracks also set an order of visibility between the clips that
overlap in time. All the clips inside the top Video Tracks are shown in
front of all the clips contained inside Video Tracks lower in position.
The main Video Preview is also used to edit the basic appearance of the
visual clips selected from the Timeline, according to the mode chosen in
the bottom left corner.
Use Transform to move the clip by clicking and dragging it; scale it by
using the white nodes; and rotate it by using the external node on top.
With Crop, you can use the nodes to crop the clip, in order to remove
all the parts you don't want on the project.
Moreover, use Dynamic Zoom to apply animated pan and zoom, and
Annotations to add colored arrows and lines on the clip.
You can edit all your media clip properties with the Inspector panel
in the top right corner. Depending on the clip selected, this panel
shows Video or Audio properties you can edit by sliding on the bars, or
typing the property value directly.
If you don't see any option, make sure to double-click on the property
name. You can also extend the whole panel by using the down arrow button
on top.
When selecting visual clips, you can use the Opacity to set the transparency
level, and Composite Mode to adjust the transparency according to the
clip colors.
Inside Transform, use Zoom to scale, Position to move, and Rotation
Angle to rotate the clip around the Anchor Point. Moreover, use Pitch
and Yaw to 3D rotate, and then Flip buttons to flip the clip horizontally
or vertically.
Inside Cropping, set how to crop the clip, applying any feather with
Softness.
When selecting audio clips, you can adjust the volume with Clip Volume;
the tone with Clip Pitch, and apply any audio filter under Clip
Equalizer.
When selecting videos with audio, you can edit both the visual and the
audio properties depending on the selection chosen on top.
After editing the clip with the Inspector or the Preview, a waveform
icon appears on it, used to open and close an envelope graph. This is
used to edit the clip properties in time by using markers called
keyframes.
Keyframes save a property value in the instant of time they are placed.
In this way, if you get two or more keyframes in time with different
values saved, you create an envelope curve where the clip property
changes in time according to it.
You can open the envelope graph on each property from the list in the
top left corner. By default, all of these have a flat envelope line.
To add keyframes on it, place the red marker on the right instant of
time, and click on the rhombus button in the top right corner from the
graph, or from the Inspector panel, next to the property name.
Once you have two or more keyframes, you can shape the envelope curve
by moving each keyframe horizontally through time, and vertically to
fix the property value.
Click on a keyframe to select it. You can edit the envelope curve on it
with the buttons on top, and remove the keyframe by right-clicking on it
and then going to Cut.
Whereas, to remove all the keyframes and reset the property value, use
the revert button on the right.
You can add transitions, titles and effects on your project by using
the Effects Library panel. Under Video and Audio Transitions you can
browse for amazing transitions to drag and drop on the extreme edges of
the clips. Visual transitions apply effects to make the clip appear and
disappear; whereas audio transitions increase or decrease the clip
volume.
You can also add visual transitions between two clips by adding the
transition on the first clip, with the second clip following.
You can manage any transition just like the clips. Click and drag its
edges to change its duration, and use the Inspector panel to change
its properties. You can also add keyframes and use the envelope graph to
change the transition in time. If you don't see any waveform button,
make sure to zoom in enough.
To change the effect of the transition, just drop another on it. To
remove the transition, just right-click on it and go to Delete.
You can also apply simple linear transitions directly on the clips by
clicking and dragging the white markers on the corners.
Inside the OpenFX and the AudioFX sections you can find several video
and audio effects you can browse and drop on the clips.
Clip with effects show an FX icon in a corner, and a new section
called OpenFX on the Inspector panel, where you can adjust and fine the
effect properties. You can also use the Preview in OpenFX Overlay to
edit the effect without using the Inspector panel.
Whereas, all the audio effects are inside Audio, below all the audio
clip properties.
Next to the effect name, use the bin button to delete the effect; the
revert button to reset its properties, and the orange button on the left
to turn the effect on or off.
New in DaVinci Resolve 15 is the Fusion workspace, used to apply
advanced visual effects on each clip before it is used on the Edit
Timeline. The appearance of each clip is the result of the path from
MediaIn to MediaOut, across several effects (or Tools) you can choose
from the Effects Library panel. We won't see this workspace in this
beginner tutorial.
In the Edit workspace, you can use the Titles section under the Effects
Library to import ready text templates by clicking and dragging these
on the Timeline. You can add standard static Titles, and also the new
Fusion Titles, which include animations.
The text imported creates a new title clip inside a Video Track and in
grey color, which can be managed just like other clips. You can use the
Inspector panel to edit its basic visual appearance under Video, and
everything regarding text font, style and color under Text (for static
titles) or Fusion (for the animated ones). The way to change, revert or
keyframe the text properties is the same as seen for other clips.
Let's see how to export your project with the Deliver workspace!
On the Timeline below, choose the part of the project to render by
adjusting the highlighted region. On the Render Settings panel, set
the video format and resolution to use. Choose Custom to apply the video
settings as you prefer; YouTube or Vimeo to use a ready suitable
template to upload to these sites, also in 2160p (or 4K); Final Cut,
Premiere or Pro Tools to export to these products; or Audio Only to
export just the audio part.
Then, set the video name under Filename, where to save it under
Location, and fine video settings, audio codec and metadata through the
options below.
Once done, click on Add to Render Queue to list a new rendering Job
under the Render Queue panel on the right, saving settings, file name,
and what to render from the project.
To start rendering, select the Job interested, and then go to Start
Render!
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