Dear all, welcome to this new tutorial dedicated to BlackmagicDesign
DaVinci Resolve 18, one of the best video editors offering professional
tools for everyone without asking for any paid license or subscription!
This comes with loads of different workspaces, in order to trim media,
correct colors and apply outstanding effects and audio adjustments, all in
one single place. It is available for Windows, MacOS and Linux in two main
versions, one free and another on payment called Studio, offering more
effects and tools such as neural engine, 3D audio and much more! In this
video we will run the free DaVinci Resolve in a MacOS machine.
As you open DaVinci Resolve, the Project Manager page opens, showing all
your existing projects made. These can be either local (saved in your
computer or hard-drive) or shared online by using any network or the newest
Blackmagic Cloud service, requiring your own Blackmagic account. They can
also be collected within Project Libraries, such as folders with proper
name and location.
To start with a new project click on New Project at the bottom. You can
always come back to the previous dialog with the Home button.
The new project opens on the main interface divided in several workspaces
at the bottom: inside Media you import, manage and organize your files;
with Cut you trim these files properly; switch to Edit to make and build
the main video; open Fusion to add professional and custom effects; with
Color you apply professional color adjustments; inside Fairlight you make
proper audio corrections, recordings and remixes and finally you open
Deliver to render and export your final video.
In this video you are going to see the most important workspaces you need
as a beginner. Do not forget to watch our dedicated playlist to extend your
knowledge on DaVinci Resolve!!
The first thing to do is import all your files to work with, such as
photos, videos and sound files. Switch to Media and drag and drop these
files from any folder into the Media Pool panel at the bottom. Here you can
select any file to get a quick preview above. If you do not see any file
make sure to import supported formats, such as .mov and .mp4.
This Media Pool is also present inside the Edit workspace, from which you
can drag and import files inside the main project Timeline, which is the
place where you build your main video. Your footages become blocks called
clips as much long as they last in time. Visual files like videos and
photos are collected within Video Tracks in blue color; whereas audio,
speech and music within Audio Tracks in green color.
You can adjust the timeline preview with Timeline View Options on the left,
in order to show or resize thumbnails, audio waveforms or resize tracks
height.
You can also zoom in and zoom out with your mouse wheel while holding down the
ALT key and move in time with the CMD (or CTRL) key down.
To get a preview on your video in progress, use the player above and watch
the Video Preview. You can also place or drag the red marker to check
specific frames or a sequence of them.
Make sure to check your Project Settings in the bottom right corner. Under
Timeline Format you can adjust the video preview options, such as
resolution and frame rate to use. You shall relax these if you do not have
a good hardware and especially if you do not have a smooth preview.
To save your project use CMD (or CTRL on Windows) and S. Resolve shows an
Edited label above to remind you to save.
Now let's see how to edit clips with the Selection mode! Click and drag any
clip to move it in time or within Tracks. These Tracks are also created
automatically if necessary. Videos containing audio are moved and kept
together, unless you right-click and go to Link Clips to make these
independent.
If visual clips overlap in time in different tracks, the clip placed on top
is always shown in front of all the others inside lower Tracks. Whereas if
clips get overlapped within the same track the second clip gets cut. If
this happens you can quickly undo with CMD (or CTRL) and Z.
To adjust any clip length just drag from its edges. Depending on the cursor
shape you can extend the clip over the following one or stop at it.
Consider that this action removes part of the clip content if this is
reduced in length.
You can adjust the clip length by acting on its playback speed. In this
case right-click and go to Change Clip Speed... and define the proper
percentage: above 100% to fasten it and reduce its length or below 100% to
make it slower and longer in time, without touching its content. You can
also reverse the clip and correct its audio pitch if you like.
To make copies of any clip, just drag it while holding down the ALT key. To
delete any clip just select it and use the Backspace key. Whereas to split
any clip in two or more independent parts, enable the Blade Edit Mode and
click on it.
On the left you get several options to manage the content inside each
Track.
Click on the lock button to block any modification on the current track and
use the frame button to hide any Video Track content. Whereas click on M
(or Mute) to mute an entire Audio Track and on S (or Solo) to mute all the other
Tracks except the current one. To delete any track right-click on it and go
to Delete Track.
Open the Inspector panel on the right to enhance the clip selected from the
timeline. Depending on the kind of clip you get several sections enabled
from Video to File, each with several properties to customize the
sliders or precise values. In this case double-click to type in and apply
with the Enter key. Moreover use the revert button to reset any edited
property and the orange button to turn it ON or OFF.
Check the preview to see the result of your modifications. If you do not
see anything applied make sure to preview the current clip!
When dealing with videos and pictures you can open the Video section to
adjust their appearance. With Transform you can move, scale and rotate the
clip and also 3D-rotate with Pitch and Yaw and flip horizontally or
vertically. Switch to Cropping to crop the clip from any side, adding
feathers with Softness. Whereas open Dynamic Zoom to add a nice motion
effect by following any ready template chosen.
These three properties are also available as tools in the bottom left
corner. For example you can enable Transform to move the clip by dragging
its box on the preview and also scale and rotate it with its nodes. If
you do not see these nodes make sure that the tool is enabled.
In particular with the Dynamic Zoom tool you can make a custom motion
effect on the clip. Once you move and transform the Start (or green) rectangle
and the End (or red) rectangle, you build a pan and zoom effect going from
the first rectangle to the second one.
Furthermore you can open Composite to adjust transparency; Stabilization to
remove shakiness from videos and Lens Correction to correct lens
distortion.
From the tools list you can also enable Annotations to draw markers showing
sketches, arrows and rectangles!
When selecting audio files you can adjust volume, balance the stereo
channels with Pan, correct the Pitch and apply audio filters with
Equalizer.
If you deal with RAW images you also get the Image section to apply
advanced corrections on colors, exposure, details, brightness and much
more. These are only part of the possible corrections you can make with the
Color workspace, which is totally dedicated to color adjustments and
grading with wheels, tone curves, scopes and much more!
Do not lose our dedicated tutorial to learn more about the Color
workspace!!
All the Inspector properties can be also changed in time by using the
keyframes. If you click on the diamond node next to any property you also
enable the envelope button on such clip, that you can see if you zoom in on
the clip enough. This button opens the Property Graph, showing how the
selected property changes in time through a simple envelope curve.
At first this curve is flat and constant in value. You can pull it up and
down to change its value. If you move the red marker and click on the
diamond button above, you add a new keyframe. Each keyframe saves its
instant of time (horizontally) and property value (vertically), so a proper
placement of several keyframes shape the envelope curve, modifying the
property in time as you like. Make sure to use the options on top to refine
the curve around each keyframe.
To remove any keyframe just select it and use CMD (or CTRL) and X. To
remove all keyframes just reset the whole property.
Now let's see the Effects panel. This collects several outstanding Effects,
Transitions and Text you can add to your project!
You can apply three different effects. Toolbox, Effects collects ready
effects made with the Fusion workspace that we won't see in this video.
To learn more about the Fusion workspace check our dedicated tutorial!!
You also get Open FX (or Resolve FX) to apply outstanding effects on visual
clips and Audio FX for amazing audio effects. Resolve 18 includes new
effects, such as Despill, Edge Detection and the improved Blur and Lens
Flare. You can hover over any effect to get a quick preview of it and drag
and drop it on any clip to apply it. This clip shows an fx icon and a new
Effects section on the Inspector, showing all the different properties you can
customize just like any other Inspector property just seen.
On the right side use the arrows to change the effects order and the bin
button to remove the effect definitely.
The Effects panel also includes loads of video and audio transitions that
introduce or end any content with nice effects. You can drag and drop any
transition to the edge of any clip or between two clips if these are put
next to each other. You can manage transitions just like clips, as they
can be moved, adjusted in length and speed and edited in properties with
the Inspector.
To change the transition effect just drag another on it. Whereas to remove
the transition just select it and use the Backspace key.
Besides Effects and Transitions you can also add amazing Titles. These
include loads of ready text templates, including static Titles, animated
Fusion Titles (made with a Fusion composition) and Subtitles.
Drag and drop any template to create a grey text clip, possibly placed on a
top Video Track not to get overlapped by other clips. Just like standard
clips you can open the Inspector panel to adjust text font, style, color
and also correct the animation applied. Whereas switch to Settings to
adjust the video options as seen for visual clips.
If your video is ready open the Deliver workspace to export it!
At the bottom adjust the In/Out region to select what to export and
check the Render Settings panel on top. Set file name and destination
folder on Location and select the color template on top, such as the
optimized H.264 for .mp4, Apple ProRes, up to Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro
or Audio Only to export just the audio content, including the .mp3 format.
Make sure to set how to render the timeline, such as obtaining the single
final video or the single edited media you have selected from the clips section.
Resolve also includes ready templates and either render or upload directly
on YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter in HD and 4K resolution! If you prefer to get
full control you can switch to Custom and set the complete video and audio
options such as video codec, format, resolution and frame rate as well as
audio codec, data rate and bit depth.
At this point go to Add to Render Queue to add a new job on the Render
Queue panel on the right with the chosen video and audio options. Then
select the job and go to Render at the bottom to extract your video!
Resolve will never add watermarks on such video, even if you use the free
version!
Thank you very much for watching this tutorial! Make sure to visit our
channel to discover more about DaVinci Resolve and other outstanding
software!