DaVinci Resolve 17 Reference Manual

May 2021

Reference Manual

DaVinci
Resolve 17

Welcome

Welcome to DaVinci Resolve for Mac, Linux and Windows!

DaVinci is the world’s most trusted name in color and has been used to grade more
Hollywood films, TV shows, and commercials than anything else. With DaVinci Resolve,
you get a complete set of editing, advanced color correction, professional Fairlight audio
post production tools and Fusion visual effects combined in one application so you can
edit, compose, grade, mix and master deliverables from start to finish, all in a single tool!

DaVinci Resolve has the features professional editors, colorists, audio engineers and
VFX artists need, and is built on completely modern technology with advanced audio,
color and image processing that goes far beyond what any other system can do.
With this release, we hope to inspire creativity by letting you work in a comfortable,
familiar way, while also giving you an entirely new creative toolset that will help you cut
and finish projects at higher quality than ever before!

We hope you enjoy reading this manual. With its customizable interface and
keyboard shortcuts, DaVinci Resolve is easy to learn, especially if you’re switching from
another editor, and has all of the tools you need to create breathtaking, high end work!

The DaVinci Resolve Engineering Team

Grant Petty

CEO Blackmagic Design

2DaVinci Resolve 17 Welcome

Getting Started

Contents

The Project Manager  14

Preferences and ProjectSettings  14

Individual Preferences
and Settings Based on Login  14

Preferences  15

System Preferences  15

User Preferences  16

Project Settings  16

Switching Among Pages  17

Minimizing the Resolve Page Bar  17

Switching Pages Using Keyboard Shor tcuts  18

Hide Pages You Don’t Use  18

Hide Page Navigation Altog ether  18

The Media Page  18

The Media Storage Browser  19

Viewer  19

Media Pool  20

Metadata Editor  21

Audio Panel  21

The Cut Page  22

The Media Pool  22

The Viewer  23

Audio Meter  24

The Timeline  24

The Edit Page  25

The Media Pool  26

Eects Library Bro wsing  26

Edit Index  27

Source/Oine and Timeline Viewers  27

Inspector  28

Toolbar  29

Timeline  29

Floating Timecode Window  29

Motion Graphics and Visual Ef fects
in DaVinci Resolve  30

VFX Connect  30

The Fusion Page  31

The Work Area  31

Viewers  32

Toolbar  32

Eects Library  32

Node Editor  33

Inspector  34

Thumbnail Timeline  34

Media Pool  35

Status Bar  35

The Console  35

The Color Page  36

Viewer  37

Gallery  37

Node Editor  38

Timeline  38

Left Palettes  39

Keyframe Editor  40

The Fairlight Page  40

The Audio Timeline  41

Toolbar  42

Mixer  42

Dedicated Channel Strip Cont rols  43

The Monitoring Panel  45

Floating Timecode Window  45

The Deliver Page  45

The Render Settings List  46

The Deliver Page Timeline  47

The Viewer  47

The Render Queue  48

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 13

When you install DaVinci Resolve and then open it for the first time, there are a few things you’re
going to want to know before you begin learning how to work.

Automatic DaVinci Resolve Updates

To make it easier to ensure you’re using the latest version of DaVinci Resolve, you can now
choose DaVinci Resolve > Check For Updates to notify you of new versions and download them
when available.

Why Is This Manual So Big?

Over the years, DaVinci Resolve has evolved to encompass professional editing, compositing,
and audio mixing tools and workflows in addition to the grading tools that were the original
core of DaVinci Resolve. Each one of these domains of functionality is incredibly deep.
Consequently, the documentation has grown with each new page, tool, and parameter that’s
been added, to make life easier and to solve the countless problems that can emerge during the
postproduction process.

While it is regretted that this user manual contains such a staggeringly overwhelming amount of
information, our emphasis has always been to ensure that (hopefully) every control and workflow
you encounter in DaVinci Resolve is explained somewhere within the contents of these pages.
Consequently, we hope that you find the hyperlinked table of contents (TOC) and search
functionality of your preferred PDF browser helpful in finding the information you need, along with
context and tips to help you get the most out of the tools provided.

Navigation Guide

Hover over and click the C onten ts
Heading and it opens the
Main Contents Page on page 4

Hover over and click
each ti tle and it open s
the Page accordingly

Hover over and click thefooter
on each pageand i t opens the
Chapter Content Page

3DaVinci Resolve 17 Getting Started

Contents

PART 1

DaVinci Resolve Interface

1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 12

2 Using the DaVinci Resolve User Interface 49

PART 2

Setup and Workflows

3 Managing Projects and Databases 67

4 System and User Preferences 85

5 Project Settings 112

6 Camera Raw Settings 135

7 Improving Performance, Proxies, and the Render Cache 159

8 Data Levels, Color Management, and ACES 181

9 HDR Setup and Grading 209

10 Image Sizing and Resolution Independence 232

11 Data Burn 246

12 Frame.io Integration 252

13 Resolve Live 258

14 Stereoscopic Workflows 263

15 Using Variables and Keywords 284

PART 3

Ingest and Organize Media

16 Using the Media Page 290

17 Adding and Organizing Media with the Media Pool 309

18 Using Clip Metadata 340

19 Using the Inspector in the Media Page 352

20 Syncing Audio and Video 360

21 Modifying Clips and Clip Attributes 366

22 Using Scene Detection 378

23 Ingesting From Tape 386

24 Capturing From the Cintel Film Scanner 393

DaVinci Resolve 17 Contents 4

PART 4

The Cut Page

25 Using the Cut Page 412

26 Importing and Organizing Media in the Cut Page 425

27 Fast Editing in the Cut Page 440

28 Trimming in the Cut Page 466

29 Using the Inspector in the Cut Page 480

30 Video and Audio Effects in the Cut Page 492

31 Quick Export 504

32 Using the DaVinci Editor Keyboard with the Cut Page 506

33 Using the DaVinci Resolve Speed Editor 524

PART 5

Edit

34 Using the Edit Page 541

35 Creating and Working with Timelines 577

36 Preparing Clips for Editing and Viewer Playback 591

37 Editing Basics 609

38 Using the Inspector in the Edit Page 637

39 Modifying Clips in the Timeline 649

40 Three- and Four-Point Editing 668

41 Marking and Finding Clips in the Timeline 694

42 Multicam Editing 717

43 Take Selectors, Compound Clips, and Nested Timelines 727

44 Trimming 737

45 Working with Audio in the Edit Page 769

46 Media Management 797

47 Using the DaVinci Editor Keyboard with the Edit Page 804

PART 6

Editing Eects and Transitions

48 Editing, Adding, and Copying Effects and Filters 820

49 Using Transitions 833

50 Titles, Generators, and Stills 850

51 Compositing and Transforms in the Timeline 863

52 Speed Effects 878

53 Subtitles and Closed Captioning 890

54 Keyframing Effects in the Edit Page 901

55 VFX Connect 913

DaVinci Resolve 17 Contents 5

Import and Conform Projects

PART 7

56 Preparing Timelines for Import and Comparison 921

57 Conforming and Relinking Clips 934

58 Creating Digital Dailies for Round Trip Workflows 958

59 Conforming XML Files 964

60 Conforming AAF Files 969

61 Conforming EDL Files 983

PART 8

Fusion Fundamentals

62 Introduction to Compositing in Fusion 990

63 Exploring the Fusion Interface 995

64 Getting Clips into Fusion 1041

65 Rendering Using Saver Nodes 1062

66 Working in the Node Editor 1085

67 Node Groups, Macros, and Fusion Templates 1129

68 Using Viewers 1148

69 Editing Parameters in the Inspector 1186

70 Animating in Fusion’s Keyframes Editor 1209

71 Animating in Fusion’s Spline Editor 1226

72 Animating with Motion Paths 1255

73 Using Modifiers, Expressions, and Custom Controls 1272

74 Bins 1284

75 Fusion Connect 1303

76 Preferences 1316

77 Controlling Image Processing and Resolution 1361

78 Managing Color for Visual Effects 1370

79 Understanding Image Channels 1382

80 Compositing Layers in Fusion 1416

81 Rotoscoping with Masks 1438

82 Paint 1460

83 Using the Tracker Node 1484

84 Planar Tracking 1516

85 Using Open FX, Resolve FX, and Fuse Plug-Ins 1522

86 3D Compositing Basics 1525

87 3D Camera Tracking 1577

88 Particle Systems 1594

89 Optical Flow and Stereoscopic Nodes 1602

DaVinci Resolve 17 Contents 6

PART 9

Fusion Page Eects

90 3D Nodes 1616

91 3D Light Nodes 1725

92 3D Material Nodes 1738

93 3D Texture Nodes 1765

94 Blur Nodes 1790

95 Color Nodes 1814

96 Composite Nodes 1869

97 Deep Pixel Nodes 1883

98 Effect Nodes 1899

99 Film Nodes 1930

100 Filter Nodes 1947

101 Flow Nodes 1963

102 Flow Organizational Nodes 1966

103 Fuses 1971

104 Generator Nodes 1973

105 I/O Nodes 2010

106 LUT Nodes 2033

107 Mask Nodes 2042

108 Matte Nodes 2079

109 Metadata Nodes 2132

110 Miscellaneous Nodes 2139

111 Optical Flow 2174

112 Paint Node 2187

113 Particle Nodes 2196

114 Position Nodes 2253

115 Resolve Connect 2271

116 Shape Nodes 2277

117 Stereo Nodes 2308

118 Tracker Nodes 2338

119 Transform Nodes 2383

120 VR Nodes 2408

121 Warp Nodes 2418

122 Modifiers 2446

DaVinci Resolve 17 Contents 7

PART 1 0

Color

123 Introduction to Color Grading 2483

124 Using the Color Page 2494

125 Viewers, Monitoring, and Video Scopes 2510

126 Color Page Timeline and Lightbox 2544

127 Automated Grading Commands and Imported Grades 2559

128 Camera Raw Palette 2573

129 Primaries Palette 2579

130 HDR Palette 2596

131 Primary Grading Controls 2619

132 Curves 2623

133 Color Warper 2642

134 Secondary Qualifiers 2659

135 Secondary Windows and Tracking 2683

136 Magic Mask 2697

137 Motion Tracking Windows 2715

138 Using the Gallery 2738

139 Grade Management 2754

140 Node Editing Basics 2788

141 Image Processing Order of Operations 2806

142 Serial, Parallel, and Layer Nodes 2809

143 Combining Keys and Using Mattes 2816

144 Channel Splitting and Image Compositing 2838

145 Keyframing in the Color Page 2852

146 Copying and Importing Grades Using ColorTrace 2866

147 Using LUTs 2875

148 DaVinci Resolve Control Panels 2884

PART 11

Color Page Eects

149 Using Open FX and Resolve FX 2958

150 Sizing and Image Stabilization 2969

151 The Motion Effects and Blur Palettes 2985

152 Dust Removal 2995

DaVinci Resolve 17 Contents 8

PART 12

Resolve FX Overview

153 Resolve FX 2999

154 Resolve FX Blur 3001

155 Resolve FX Color 3006

156 Resolve FX Generate 3017

157 Resolve FX Key 3020

158 Resolve FX Light 3031

159 Resolve FX Refine 3040

160 Resolve FX Revival 3049

161 Resolve FX Sharpen 3067

162 Resolve FX Stylize 3071

163 Resolve FX Temporal 3081

164 Resolve FX Texture 3084

165 Resolve FX Transform 3092

166 Resolve FX Warp 3115

PART 13

Fairlight

167 Using the Fairlight Page 3123

168 Setting Up Tracks, Buses, and Patching 3161

169 Transport Controls, Timeline Navigation, and Markers 3178

170 Recording 3186

171 ADR (Automated Dialog Replacement) 3193

172 Editing Basics in the Fairlight Page 3202

173 Audio Clip Specific Inspector Adjustments 3238

174 Mixing in the Fairlight Page 3250

175 Automation Recording 3276

176 Audio Effects 3287

177 Fairlight FX 3296

178 Audio Meters and Audio Monitoring 3323

179 Signal Flow Diagrams 3333

180 Immersive Audio Workflows 3335

181 Using the Fairlight Desktop Console 3347

182 Using the Fairlight Audio Editor 3396

183 Modular Fairlight Consoles 3443

DaVinci Resolve 17 Contents 9

PART 14

Deliver

184 Delivery Effects Processing 3474

185 Using the Deliver Page 3479

186 Rendering Media 3486

187 Delivering DCP and IMF 3515

188 Delivering to Tape 3530

189 Exporting Timelines and Metadata 3537

PART 15

Advanced Workflows

190 Creating DCTL LUTs 3548

191 TCP Protocol for DaVinci Resolve Transport Control 3553

PART 1 6

Project Databases, Collaborative, and Remote Workflows

192 Managing Databases and Project Servers 3558

193 Collaborative Workflow 3565

194 Remote Grading 3579

PART 17

Other Information

195 Regulatory Notices, Safety Information and Warranty 3583

DaVinci Resolve 17 Contents 10

PART 1

DaVinci Resolve

Interface

Chapter 1

Introduction to
DaVinci Resolve

DaVinci Resolve integrates editing, compositing and motion graphics, color correction, audio
recording and mixing, and finishing within a single, easy to learn application. The editing,
compositing, grading, and audio tools found in DaVinci Resolve should be immediately
familiar to experienced artists who’ve used other applications, but they’re also approachable
to folks who are new to post-production.

Additionally, dedicated tools available for on-set workflows integrate tasks such as media
duplication, shot and metadata organization, and on-location look management into a
complete toolset that lets you smoothly segue from the camera original media being
acquired in the field to the organization and use of that media in a wide variety of
post-production workflows with DaVinci Resolve at their heart. In particular, the tight
integration in DaVinci Resolve means that you can freely move from one task to the next of
your project’s workflow without skipping a beat, making it easy to back up and organize a
shoot’s media before immediately diving into editing, while switching over to add a quick
composite or to color-correct clips in the middle of your editing spree, and then getting right
back to cutting, with a bit of mixing to make sure things sound right, all without needing to
export projects or launch other applications.

And you can go further, using the collaborative features of DaVinci Resolve to enable
multiple artists, for example an editor, a colorist, and assistants, to work together on the
same timeline simultaneously, for the ultimate integrated workflow.

Of course, no post-production professional works in a vacuum, and DaVinci Resolve makes it
easy to work with other facilities by importing projects and exporting project exchange
formats and rendered or managed media among applications such as Apple’s Final Cut Pro
X, Adobe’s Premiere Pro, Avid’s Media Composer and Pro Tools, Autodesk’s Flame Premium,
and many other applications via robust support of XML, AAF, and EDL import and
export workflows.

This chapter introduces the DaVinci Resolve user interface (UI), explaining where to find
each group of features, and how the highly focused and tightly integrated Media, Edit,
Fusion, Color, Fairlight, and Deliver pages work together to let you pursue nearly any
post-production workflow you can imagine. After this brief tour, the rest of Part 1 of this
manual provides much more in-depth information about project management, preferences,
project settings, and other topics of general interest for getting started.

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 12

Contents

The Project Manager  14

Preferences and ProjectSettings  14

Individual Preferences
and Settings Based on Login  14

Preferences  15

System Preferences  15

User Preferences  16

Project Settings  16

Switching Among Pages  17

Minimizing the Resolve Page Bar  17

Switching Pages Using Keyboard Shortcuts  18

Hide Pages You Don’t Use  18

Hide Page Navigation Altogether  18

The Media Page  18

The Media Storage Browser  19

Viewer  19

Media Pool  20

Motion Graphics and Visual Effects
in DaVinci Resolve  30

VFX Connect  30

The Fusion Page  31

The Work Area  31

Viewers  32

Toolbar  32

Eects Library  32

Node Editor  33

Inspector  34

Thumbnail Timeline  34

Media Pool  35

Status Bar  35

The Console  35

The Color Page  36

Viewer  37

Gallery  37

Metadata Editor  21

Audio Panel  21

The Cut Page  22

The Media Pool  22

The Viewer  23

Audio Meter  24

The Timeline  24

The Edit Page  25

The Media Pool  26

Eects Library Browsing  26

Edit Index  27

Source/Oine and Timeline Viewers  27

Inspector  28

Toolbar  29

Timeline  29

Floating Timecode Window  29

Node Editor  38

Timeline  38

Left Palettes  39

Keyframe Editor  40

The Fairlight Page  40

The Audio Timeline  41

Toolbar  42

Mixer  42

Dedicated Channel Strip Controls  43

The Monitoring Panel  45

Floating Timecode Window  45

The Deliver Page  45

The Render Settings List  46

The Deliver Page Timeline  47

The Viewer  47

The Render Queue  48

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 13

The Project Manager

For most users, Project Manager is the first window you’ll see when you open DaVinci Resolve.
The Project Manager is a centralized interface for managing all projects belonging to the user who’s
currently logged in, whose name appears at the upper right-hand corner in a project title bar.
The Project Manager is also the place where you import and export projects to and from
DaVinci Resolve, whether you’re moving projects around from user to user, or moving projects from
one DaVinci Resolve workstation to another. Finally, the Project Manager also lets you organize the
databases that are used to manage everything in DaVinci Resolve using the Database Sidebar.

To open any project, double-click it. To create a new project, double-click the Untitled Project icon, or
click the New Project button.

For more information about the Project Manager, see Chapter 3, “Managing Projects and Databases.”

The Project Manager shows all projects belonging to the current user.

For more information about the Project Manager, see Chapter 3, “Managing Projects and Databases.”

Preferences and ProjectSettings

Once you open a project, you have the option of adjusting the System and User Preferences that
govern the installation of DaVinci Resolve on your workstation, and the Project Settings governing the
currently open project. When you first install DaVinci Resolve, the most important of these settings are
selected via the installer’s on boarding questions. However, ifyou’re opening DaVinci Resolve for the
first time, you should probably check these settings to make sure they’re optimal for your system.

Individual Preferences and Settings Based on Login

As of DaVinci Resolve 16, there are individual preferences and settings for each login account on a
given computer. This means that multiple artists can each have their own login, and DaVinci Resolve
will maintain separate workspace layouts and preference states for each artist, depending on who’s
logged in.

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 14

Preferences

The Preferences window, divided into System preferences and User preferences panels, lets you set
up the overall environment of your DaVinci workstation, choosing what hardware to use with
DaVinci Resolve and what user interface settings you prefer as you work.

The DaVinci Resolve preferences let you set up your environment

A quick overview of the most important System and User preferences appears below, with guidance
about the first settings you should adjust when you first set DaVinci Resolve up on your workstation.
However, for a comprehensive overview and for more information, see Chapter 4, “System and User
Preferences.”

System Preferences

The System preferences let you configure the hardware DaVinci Resolve works with. If you have a
system that doesn’t change very often, then you may only rarely use the Preferences window. On the
other hand, if you’re working with a mobile system with changing video interfaces, control panels, and
scratch volumes, then you may use this window more frequently.

NOTE: Whenever you change certain core System Settings in the Preferences, you may have

to quit and restart DaVinci Resolve for those changes to take effect.

Hardware Configuration

Lets you choose various options governing how to use the GPUs attached to your computer, and how
to configure Viewers in different pages. This panel also provides an overview, for reference, of all
hardware and computer characteristics that are relevant to DaVinci Resolve running smoothly,
including a listing of installed GPUs.

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 15

Media Storage

This is a list within which you define the scratch disk used by your system. The first volume in this list is
where Gallery stills and cache files are stored, so you want to make sure that you choose the fastest
storage volume that’s connected.

Video and Audio I/O

The preferences in this panel let you choose which video and audio interfaces you want
DaVinci Resolve to use on your workstation. If you have multiple Blackmagic Design I/O interfaces
connected to your computer, you can choose one to use for monitoring video output, and one to use
for Resolve Live, a feature that lets you grade camera output during a shoot as part of an on­set workflow.

Control Panels

Lets you choose and configure (if necessary) a control panel that’s connected for use during grading in
DaVinci Resolve.

User Preferences

User preferences govern the setup of the user interface in DaVinci Resolve, letting you customize
it to work the way you like.

UI Settings

A Language drop-down at top lets you specify which language the DaVinci Resolve user interface
displays. DaVinci Resolve currently supports English, Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish. Additional
checkboxes let you choose options for which project to open during startup, and how to configure the
Viewers that appear in every page of DaVinci Resolve.

Project Save and Load

This panel contains the all-important auto-save controls, including the Live Save option that enables
Resolve to incrementally save your changes as you work.

Editing

Numerous controls in this panel let you customize the editing experience in the Edit page, including
default settings to use when making new timelines, and general settings that govern standard effects
durations and trim behaviors.

Color

These controls let you customize the grading experience in the Color page, with options controlling
video scope display, the look of UI overlays, and other color-specific functions.

Keyboard Mapping

This panel has all the controls you need for searching for and customizing the keyboard shortcuts
used for different commands throughout DaVinci Resolve.

Project Settings

Once you’ve created a project, all project-specific settings are found in the Project Settings window.
To open the Project Settings window, just click the gear button at the bottom right on any page.

Project Manager and Project Settings buttons

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 16

The Project Settings open in the middle of the screen, divided into a series of panels which can be
selected from a sidebar to the left. Each panel contains a collection of related settings that affects
some category of DaVinci Resolve functionality. To open a panel of settings, simply click its name in
the sidebar at the left.

The Project Settings show all project-specific settings and attributes.

The Master Settings define the principal attributes of a project, such as the timeline resolution, timeline
frame rate, color science, and bit depth. Image Scaling settings define how clips that don’t match the
timeline resolution are scaled to fit. There are other panels for Color Management, Camera Raw,
Capture and Playback, etc.

For more information about Project Settings, see Chapter 4, “System and User Preferences.”

Switching Among Pages

Buttons for switching pages appear at the bottom of the UI.

DaVinci Resolve is divided into seven main pages of functionality, each of which facilitates a different
specialization of a typical post production workflow, and each of which can be accessed using buttons
at the very bottom of the DaVinci Resolve interface. These buttons are organized in order of workflow,
and they’re always available, letting you quickly switch between importing media, fast editing, detailed
editing, compositing, grading, audio mixing, and outputting your project in a structured manner.

Minimizing the Resolve Page Bar

If you right-click anywhere within the Resolve Page bar at the bottom of the DaVinci Resolve UI,
two options appear in a contextual menu: “Show Icons and Labels” and “ Show Icons Only.” If you
show icons only, the Resolve Page bar at the bottom takes less room.

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 17

The Page bar showing icons only, to save space

Switching Pages Using Keyboard Shortcuts

You can also switch pages using the following keyboard shortcuts, which can be referenced from the
Workspace > Switch to Page submenu.

Hide Pages You Don’t Use

You can leave the page navigation bar showing and just hide the buttons of specific pages.
For example:

– If you like the quick navigation of this bar but there are pages you simply don’t want to use

– If you’re setting up a DaVinci Resolve workstation for an artist making specific contributions to a

project, and you want to hide easy access to pages of functionality they won’t (or shouldn’t) be
using; this can be especially useful in collaborative workflow projects

You can disable/re-enable each page’s buttons using the Workspace > Show Page submenu.
Effects and adjustments that have been applied on hidden pages continue to affect

the current project, they’re only hidden, and you can still navigate to them using the Workspace >
Switch to Page submenu commands or keyboard shortcuts.

Hide Page Navigation Altogether

If you’re an artist that only uses a single page of the DaVinci Resolve experience, or if you want more
screen real estate to work with given your existing computer display’s parsimonious resolution, you
can choose Workspace > Show Page Navigation to hide the page navigation bar at the bottom of the
DaVinci Resolve user interface. While this bar is closed, you can still navigate to other pages using the
Workspace > Switch to Page submenu commands or keyboard shortcuts.

To toggle the Show Page Navigation function:

– Check Workspace > Show Page Navigation.

With this interface element hidden, you can use keyboard shortcuts to access the individual pages
(Shift - 2 through 8), Project manager (Shift - 1), and Project settings (Shift - 9). You can also access
these functions from DaVinci Resolve’s main menu bar.

The Media Page

The Media page is the primary interface for clip import, media management, and clip organization in
DaVinci Resolve. It’s central to the way DaVinci Resolve works that the source media used by a project
is organized separately from the project data that you import and manage in the Edit page. In this way,
you can manage and update the clips used by timelines in the current project with ease, switching
between offline and online media, reorganizing clips, and troubleshooting any problems that occur.

The Media page also contains much of the core functionality that will be used for on-set workflows,
and in the ingest, organizational, and sound-syncing steps of digital dailies workflows. This chapter
covers most of the functionality found in the Media page, including functions in detail that are
referenced throughout this manual.

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 18

The Media page is divided into six different areas, designed to make it easy to find, select, and work
with media in your project. Much of the functionality and most of the commands are found within the
contextual menus that appear when you right-click clips in the Library, File Browser, or Media Pool.

Media page

For more information on using the Media page, see Chapter 16, “Using the Media Page.”

The Media Storage Browser

The Media Storage browser shows a list of all volumes that are currently available to your Resolve
workstation. It’s used to locate media that you want to import manually into your project.

Media Storage with scrubbable Clip view

Viewer

Clips that you select in any area of the Media page show their contents in the Viewer. A jog bar
appears at the bottom, letting you drag the playhead directly with the pointer, while a jog control
between the mode drop-down and transport controls lets you move through a long clip more slowly.

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 19

The full width of the jog bar represents the full duration of the clip in the Viewer. The current position
of the playhead is shown in the timecode field at the upper right-hand corner of the Viewer.

Simple transport controls appear underneath the jog bar, letting you Jump to First Frame, Play/Stop,
and Jump to Last Frame.

Media page Viewer

You can also put the Viewer into Cinema Viewer mode by choosing Workspace > Viewer Mode >
Cinema Viewer (Command-F), so that it fills the entire screen. This command toggles Cinema Viewer
mode on and off.

If you have two monitors connected to your computer, you can make the Viewer fill one entire screen
and keep the Resolve UI in the other monitor by choosing Workspace > Full Screen Viewer On, and
selecting the display you wish to use for the Viewer.

Media Pool

The Media Pool contains all of the video, audio, and still image media that you import into the current
project. It also contains any media that’s automatically imported along with timelines that have been
imported into DaVinci Resolve. Ordinarily, all media imported into a project goes into the Master bin,
however the Media Pool can be organized into as many user-definable bins as you like, depending on
your needs. Media can be freely moved from one bin to another from within the Media Pool. The
Media Pool also appears on the Edit, Fusion, Color, and Fairlight pages, making it possible to browse
and open clips and timelines everywhere they’re relevant.

Media Pool showing the selected bins’ clips

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 20

Metadata Editor

When you select a clip in any area of the Media page, its metadata is displayed within the Metadata
Editor. If you select multiple clips, only the last clip’s information appears. The Metadata Editor’s
header contains uneditable information about the selected clip, including the file name, directory,
duration, frame rate, resolution, and codec. A series of editable fields within the Metadata Editor lets
you review and edit the different metadata items that are available.

A drop-down menu at the upper-right of the Metadata Editor lets you choose from many different sets
of metadata fields and checkboxes, each grouped for a specific task or workflow.

Clip Metadata Editor

Audio Panel

The Audio panel can be put into one of two modes via a pair of buttons above the audio meters. In the
default Meters mode, Audio Meters are displayed that show the levels of audio in clips you’re playing.
In Waveform mode, you can load audio clips side by side with video clips opened in the Viewer in
order to sync them together manually. The Audio panel can also be hidden.

Audio Meters exposed

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 21

The Cut Page

The Cut page is a focused environment for fast editing. It’s useful in situations where you need to
quickly cut a news segment, build an episode of web content, edit a straightforward program,
experiment with multiple arrangements of a scene, or put together a first assembly edit.

The Cut page is also a good introductory editing interface for people who are new to editing, as it
presents a streamlined set of tools that are fast to learn and simple to use. Whatever your background,
you’ll find the Cut page to be a valuable addition to your editing experience in DaVinci Resolve.

The default workspace of the Cut page consists of the Media Pool, a single Viewer, and the Timeline
area. These three regions let you quickly import and organize clips, edit clips, and even export the
result, all from within the Cut page.

The Cut page default workspace, with the Media Pool in filmstrip view

For more information on the Cut page, see Chapter 25, “Using the Cut Page.”

The Media Pool

The Media Pool appears in the Cut page as well, and contains all video clips, audio clips, graphics, and
other media that you import into your project. You can create Bins with which to organize all of this
media, to make it easier to find what you need quickly. These bins are opened via the bin drop-down
at the upper left-hand corner.

Each piece of media you import, whether it’s video, audio, or graphics, appears as an individual clip,
and they can be selected, scrubbed for fast viewing, reorganized into bins, opened into the Viewer for
playback, or edited into a timeline using the edit buttons or via drag and drop.

Owing to the Cut page’s mission to make editing faster, the Media Pool has different options for
viewing (such as the filmstrip view) and customizing.

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 22

The Filmstrip View mode

The Viewer

The Viewer lets you see clips from the Media Pool or clips in the Timeline play, and has numerous
controls to control what you see and how things play.

The single Viewer in the Cut page

The Viewer has three options. Which option is currently in use can be seen, and switched, by three
buttons in the upper lefthand corner of the Viewer.

The Viewer option buttons

Different options are entered automatically by various actions:

– You can double-click any clip to open it into the Viewer as a Source Clip (the left button)

– You can view an entire bin full of clips in the Source Tape (the middle button)

– You can play your edited program in the Timeline (the right button)

Eight controls sit at the bottom of the Viewer. These let you play through and otherwise navigate clips
and the Timeline in different ways.

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 23

Clicking the Tools button in the lower left of the Viewer reveals an effects toolbar that you can use to
add and edit clip effects, right within the Viewer with no Inspector needed. The Tools button reveals a
variety of controls over sizing, cropping, audio, speed effects, stabilization, dynamic zoom, and
compositing, covered in more detail later in this chapter.

The Tools bar shown opened

Audio Meter

An audio meter to the right of the Viewer shows you a graphical representation of the audio levels
playing in the current clip or in the Timeline as you play through the Viewer, via animated vertical bars
that are tinted to indicate how loud the levels are.

The Timeline

The word “timeline” refers both to an edited sequence of clips which constitutes a program that is
stored in the Media Pool, and to the area of the Cut page interface where you can open this sequence
of clips to see its contents, and for playback and editing.

For the Cut page user, the timeline is divided into an Upper Timeline at the top, and a larger and more
detailed Timeline Editor showing a zoomed in portion of the timeline around the playhead at the
bottom. Working together, these two views of your edited sequence make it possible to navigate your
entire project and cut in great detail.

The Timeline of the Cut page, comprising the Upper Timeline and the zoomed in Timeline

A pair of buttons at the upper left-hand corner of the Timeline lets you choose whether you use a
locked or free playhead.

Two buttons let you choose to use
a locked or free playhead

The Timeline is divided into multiple tracks, with each track capable of holding a sequence of clips in
order to create a program. The main tracks, which are labeled numerically, combine a clip’s video and
audio into a single item in the Timeline, for simplicity. Editing the In or Out point of a clip edits the video
and audio together.

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 24

Track 1 shows combined Video+Audio tracks in the Cut page Timeline.

TIP: In the Edit page, Video+Audio clips are presented as separated Video and Audio items

on different tracks. When you open the Fairlight page, audio is presented on tracks with
lanes, where each audio channel can be seen. In this way, each page gives you different sets
of controls over the contents of the timeline that are appropriate for each page.

The Edit Page

The Edit page exposes a source-record style NLE that incorporates many specialized features for both
creative editing and finishing. The Edit page is divided into three main regions: the browsers found at
the left, the Viewers at the top, and the Timeline at the bottom, all of which work together to let you
import, edit, and trim timelines with a flexible variety of tools and methods.

The Edit page

For more information on the Edit page, see Chapter 34, “Using the Edit Page.”

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 25

The Media Pool

As with everywhere else it appears in DaVinci Resolve, the Media Pool lets you organize and peruse
all of the media and timelines in a project. DaVinci Resolve projects may contain one or more edited
timelines (sometimes called a sequence in other applications).

The Media Pool in the Edit page is identical to that shown on the Media, Fusion, Color, and Fairlight
pages, and shows you all of the source clips and timelines that are available for editing. A Bin list at the
left shows a hierarchical list of folders that you can use to organize your media. By default, the Media
Pool has a single bin, named “Master,” but you can add more bins as necessary to organize your clips,
opening any of them to expose their contents with a single click. The Bin list can be hidden or shown
via the button at the upper-left of the Media Pool. A browser to the right shows the contents of the
currently selected bin.

The Media Pool in Thumbnail mode

Effects Library Browsing

The Effects Library contains a folder with the different Video Transitions, Title Effects, Generators, and
Filters that are available for editing in the Timeline. The Effects Library has two panels, a Toolbox panel
that contains the default Transitions, Titles, and Generators that Resolve comes with, and an OpenFX
panel that contains any OpenFX transitions and generators you might have installed on your system.

The Effects Librar y

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 26

Edit Index

Clicking the Edit Index button opens the Edit Index. By default, this shows an EDL-style list view of all
the edit events in the current timeline. Whichever timeline is selected in the Timeline list displays its
events here; each clip and transition is shown as an individual event, each of which contains multiple
columns of information. If you re-edit a timeline, your changes are automatically reflected in this list.

Edit Index List shown open

Source/Offline and Timeline Viewers

The Source Viewer lets you view individual clips from the Media Pool to prepare them for editing.
Meanwhile, the Timeline Viewer shows the frame at the position of the playhead in the Timeline. You
can select either viewer by clicking, and the name of the viewer that currently has focus appears in
orange. The color shown in the Source Viewer usually reflects that of the original source media, while
the Timeline Viewer shows whatever grading you’ve done in the Color page.

Source and Timeline Viewers

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 27

If you want to change the Edit page layout to hide the Source Viewer, you can choose Workspace >
Single Viewer Mode to hide the Source Viewer and instead use just a single viewer to contextually
display either a selected Source Clip or the current frame of the Timeline.

Single Viewer mode

In Single Viewer mode, whatever you select in the Media Pool or Timeline determines which controls
appear in the Viewer, which lets you do nearly everything you can do with two simultaneously
open viewers.

You can also put either the Source or Timeline Viewers into Cinema Viewer mode by choosing
Workspace > Viewer Mode > Cinema Viewer (Command-F), causing whichever viewer is currently
selected to fill the entire screen. This command toggles Cinema Viewer mode on and off.

Inspector

The Inspector can be opened to let you customize compositing, transform, and cropping parameters
for clips, as well as clip-specific retime and scaling options. Furthermore, the Inspector lets you edit
the parameters of transitions, titles, and generators used in the Timeline, in order to customize their
effect. Ordinarily, the Inspector opens alongside the Source and Timeline Viewers, but on smaller
displays, opening the Inspector switches the Edit page to a single-viewer mode, showing you the
Timeline item that you’re inspecting alongside the Inspector with that clip’s parameters.

The Inspector, opened and showing a clip’s parameters

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 28

Toolbar

Eleven buttons starting from the left, running along the top of the Timeline, let you choose different
tools for performing various editing functions.

Buttons in the toolbar

Timeline

The Timeline shows whichever timeline you’ve double-clicked in the Timelines browser. It’s the
workspace where you either edit programs together from scratch, or import sequences from other
applications to work on inside of Resolve. You can only have one Timeline open at a time.

The Timeline is divided into audio and video tracks, each of which has a series of header controls at
the left that let you choose destination tracks for editing, name tracks, and turn tracks on and off,
among other things. The appearance of the Timeline can be customized using the Timeline View
Options drop-down in the toolbar.

An edited timeline

Floating Timecode Window

A timecode window is available from the Workspace menu on every page, including the Edit page.
Choosing this option displays a floating timecode window that shows the timecode of the Viewer or
Timeline that currently has focus. This window is resizable so you can make the timecode larger
or smaller.

A new floating timecode window is available

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 29

Motion Graphics and Visual Effects
in DaVinci Resolve

To begin with, DaVinci Resolve has a wealth of effects in both the Edit and Color pages for creating
titles, transforming and animating clips, compositing and creating transparency effects, cutting mattes,
applying filters, image stabilization, lens dewarping, and so on.

Then of course there’s the Fusion page, which adds considerably more powerful VFX and motion
graphics capabilities via its node-based interface and deep toolset of effects nodes, keyframing and
curve editing controls, and 2D and 3D compositing features.

To use DaVinci Resolve to the best effect, it’s prudent to begin to think of the Edit, Fusion, and Color
pages as complementary sets of controls.

– For editors, the Fusion and Color pages are really just two giant inspectors; one filled with every

compositing tool you could hope to use, and the other filled with every control for color and visual
adjustment you could want, each of which are only one click away.

– For compositing artists, the Edit page can be considered a robust shot management interface as

well as an opportunity to do VFX work that’s deeply integrated with the edit of the program you’re
working on.

– For colorists, the Edit page is a refined environment for dealing with conform issues and taking

care of myriad finishing tasks quickly and easily, that itself is only one click away. For more
information on the effects that are available in DaVinci Resolve, see the chapters available within
Part 4, “Edit Page Effects,” and Part 7, “Color Page Effects.”

VFX Connect

As robust as the built-in compositing capabilities of DaVinci Resolve now are, when you run into
instances where the various capabilities found in the Edit, Fusion, and Color pages aren’t enough to
achieve the effect you require, you can use the VFX Connect features of DaVinci Resolve to send one
or more clips from the Edit page Timeline to Blackmagic Fusion, the powerful node-based compositing
application from Blackmagic Design, in order to do more robust compositing and effects work there.
Furthermore, the VFX Connect feature can also be used to round-trip media to and render results from
third-party applications such as The Foundry’s Nuke, Autodesk Flame, or Blender.

This is a simple round-trip operation that lets you send clips from the DaVinci Resolve timeline to
Fusion or another application, where you’ll add effects and do whatever work needs to be done
before rendering a finished effect file that, if properly named, will automatically appear back in your
timeline. When you use VFX Connect with Blackmagic Fusion, a project file is automatically generated
and the render path is automatically named for automatic linking from the DaVinci Resolve timeline. If
you use this feature with third-party applications, you’ll need to set up the naming of your rendered
effect file manually. For more information, see Chapter 62, “Introduction to Compositing in Fusion.”

The New VFX Connect Clip dialog

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 30

The Fusion Page

The Fusion page is intended, eventually, to be a feature-complete integration of Blackmagic Design
Fusion, a powerful 2D and 3D compositing application with over thirty years of evolution serving the
film and broadcast industry, creating effects that have been seen in countless films and
television series.

Merged right into DaVinci Resolve with a newly updated user interface, the Fusion page makes it
possible to jump immediately from editing right into compositing, with no need to export media, relink
files, or launch another application to get your work done. Everything you need now lives right inside
DaVinci Resolve.

The Fusion page showing Viewers, the Node Editor, and the Inspector

For more information on using the Fusion page, see Chapter 62, “Introduction to Compositing
in Fusion.”

The Work Area

You’ll probably not see this term used much, in favor of the specific panels within the work area that
you’ll be using, but the area referred to as the Work Area is the region at the bottom half of the Fusion
page UI, within which you can expose the three main panels used to construct compositions and edit
animations in the Fusion page. These are the Node Editor, the Spline Editor, and the Keyframes Editor.
By default, the Node Editor is the first thing you’ll see, and the main area you’ll be working within, but it
can sit side-by-side with the Spline Editor and Keyframes Editor as necessary, and you can make more
horizontal room on your display for these three panels by putting the Effects Library and Inspector into
half-height mode, if necessary.

The Work Area showing the Node Editor, the Spline Editor, and Keyframes Editor

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 31

Viewers

The Viewer Area area encompasses the Time Ruler and transport controls. The Time Ruler is the
principal “timeline” of the Fusion page, which focuses exclusively on the current composition you’re
working on and may consist of one clip or several. This area can be set to display either one or two
viewers at the top of the Fusion page, chosen via the Viewer button at the far right of the Viewer title
bar. Each viewer can show a single node’s output from anywhere in the node tree. You assign which
node is displayed in which viewer. This makes it easy to load separate nodes into each viewer for
comparison. For example, you can load a Keyer node into the left Viewer and the final composite into
the right Viewer, so you can see the image you’re adjusting and the final result at the same time.

Dual viewers let you edit an upstream node in one while seeing its effect on the overall composition in the other

Ordinarily, each viewer shows 2D nodes from your composition as a single image. However, when
you’re viewing a 3D node, you have the option to set that viewer to one of several 3D views, including
a perspective view that gives you a repositionable stage on which to arrange the elements of the
world you’re creating, or a quad view that lets you see your composition from four angles, making it
easier to arrange and edit objects and layers within the XYZ axes of the 3D space in which
you’re working.

Toolbar

The toolbar, located underneath the Time Ruler, contains buttons that let you quickly add commonly
used nodes to the Node Editor. Clicking any of these buttons adds that node after the currently
selected node in the node tree, or adds an unconnected instance of that node if no nodes are
selected. The toolbar is divided into six sections that group commonly used nodes together. As you
hover the pointer over any button, a tooltip shows you that node’s name.

The toolbar has buttons for adding commonly used nodes to the Node Editor

Effects Library

The Effects Library on the Fusion page shows all of the nodes and effects that are available in the
Fusion page, including effects that come with DaVinci Resolve and third-party OFX, if available. While
the toolbar shows many of the most common nodes you’ll be using in any composite, the Effects
Library contains every single tool available in the Fusion page, organized by category, with each node
ready to be quickly added to the Node Editor. Suffice it to say there are many, many more nodes
available in the Effects Library than on the toolbar, spanning a wide range of uses.

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 32

The Effects Librar y with Tools open

Node Editor

The Node Editor is the heart of the Fusion page, because it’s where you build the tree of nodes that
makes up each composition. Each node you add to the node tree adds a specific operation that
creates one effect, whether it’s blurring the image, adjusting color, painting strokes, drawing and
adding a mask, extracting a key, creating text, or compositing two images into one.

You can think of each node as a layer in an effects stack, except that you have the freedom to route
image data in any direction to branch and merge different segments of your composite in completely
nonlinear ways. This makes it easy to build complex effects, but it also makes it easy to see what’s
happening, since the node tree doubles as a flowchart that clearly shows you everything that’s
happening, once you learn to read it.

The Node Editor displaying a node tree creating a composition

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 33

Inspector

The Inspector is a panel on the right side of the Fusion page that you use to display and manipulate
the parameters of one or more selected nodes. When a node is selected in the Node Editor, its
parameters and settings appear in the Inspector, ready for you to modify. The Fusion Inspector is
divided into two panels. The Tools panel shows you the parameters of selected nodes. The Modifiers
panel shows you different things for different nodes. For all nodes, it shows you the controls for
Modifiers, or adjustable expressions, that you’ve added to specific parameters to automatically
animate them in different ways.

The Inspector shows parameters
from one or more selected nodes

Additionally, many nodes expose multiple tabs’ worth of controls in the Inspector, seen as icons at the
top of the parameter section for each node. Click any tab to expose that set of controls.

Nodes with several tabs worth of parameters

Thumbnail Timeline

Hidden by default, the Thumbnail timeline can be opened by clicking the Clips button in the UI Toolbar
and appears underneath the Node Editor when it’s open. The Thumbnail timeline shows you every clip
in the current Timeline, giving you a way to navigate from one clip to another when working on multiple
compositions in your project and providing an interface for creating and switching among multiple
versions of compositions and resetting the current composition, when necessary.

The Thumbnail timeline lets you navigate the Timeline and manage versions of compositions

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 34

Media Pool

In the Fusion page, the Media Pool continues to serve its purpose as the repository of all media you’ve
imported into your project. This makes it easy to add additional clips to your compositions simply by
dragging the clip you want from the Media Pool into the Node Editor. The media you add appears as a
new MediaIn node in your composition, ready to be integrated into your node tree however you need.

The Media Pool in Thumbnail mode showing video clips

Status Bar

The status bar at the bottom of the Fusion page, immediately above the Resolve Page bar, shows you
a variety of up-to-date information about things you’re selecting and what’s happening in the Fusion
page. For example, hovering the pointer over any node displays information about that node in the
status bar (as well as in a floating tooltip), while the currently achieved frame rate appears whenever
you initiate playback, and the percentage of the RAM cache that’s used appears at all times. Other
information, updates, and warnings appears in this area as you work.

The status bar under the Node Editor showing you
information about a node under the pointer

The Console

The console, available by choosing Workspace > Console, is a window in which you can see the error,
log, script, and input messages that may explain something the Fusion page is trying to do in greater
detail. The console is also where you can read FusionScript outputs or input FusionScripts directly.
Occasionally, the status bar (described above) will display a badge to let you know there’s a message
in the console you might be interested in. The badge will indicate if the message is an error, log, or
script message.

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 35

The Console window

The Color Page

The Color page is where you color correct, or grade, your program. It has all of the controls available
for manipulating color and contrast, reducing noise, creating limited secondary color corrections,
building image effects of different kinds, adjusting clip geometry, and making many other corrective
and stylistic adjustments. The Color page is divided into seven main areas that work together to let
you build a grade.

The Color page

For more detailed information about the Color page, see Chapter 124, “Using the Color Page.”

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 36

Viewer

The Viewer shows the frame at the current position of the playhead in the Timeline. The contents of
the Viewer are almost always output to video via whichever I/O interface you have connected. At the
top of the Viewer is a header that displays the Project and Timeline names, as well as a Viewer
Timecode display that shows the source timecode of each clip by default. The Timeline name is also a
drop-down display that lets you switch to any other timeline in the project. A jog bar (sometimes
referred to as a scrubber bar) underneath the image lets you drag the playhead across the entire
duration of the clip, while transport controls underneath that let you control playback. A toolbar at the
top provides controls governing Image Wipes, Split-Screen controls, and Highlight display. Additional
controls let you turn audio playback on and off, and choose which onscreen controls are currently
displayed.

Viewer with transport controls

You can also put the Viewer into Cinema Viewer mode by choosing Workspace > Viewer Mode >
Cinema Viewer (Command-F), so that it fills the entire screen. This command toggles Cinema Viewer
mode on and off. Two other modes, Enhanced Viewer (Option-F) and Full Screen Viewer (Shift-F), are
available to provide more working area for tasks such as window positioning and rotoscoping.

Gallery

The Gallery is used for storing still frames to use as reference when comparing clips to one another.
Each still frame also stores that clip’s grade so you can copy it later; stills and grades are stored
together. A button lets you open up the Album browser, used for organizing your stills. At the top of the
Gallery, Memories let you store grade information that you can apply using a control panel or keyboard
shortcuts. You can also open a larger Gallery window within the Color page that provides more room
for organizing your saved stills and grades. For more information on the Gallery page, see Chapter 138,
“Using the Gallery.”

The Gallery has Memories, stills saved in albums, and your PowerGrades

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 37

Node Editor

The Node Editor is where you assemble one or more individual corrections (nodes) together to create
multi-correction grades (seen as node trees). This is a powerful way of assembling grades, since
different combinations of nodes let you create different corrections and very specific adjustments by
reordering operations, combining keys, or changing the layer order of different adjustments. For more
information about the Node Editor, see Chapter 140, “Node Editing Basics.”

Node Editor to construc t your grade processing signal flow

Timeline

The Timeline in the Color page reflects the contents of the Timeline in the Edit page, but has a
different appearance that’s tailored to the requirements of the colorist. However, the content is
identical, and changes made to the Timeline in the Edit page are immediately seen in the Color page
as you switch back and forth. The Color page Timeline provides several ways of navigating the clips in
your project, as well as keeping track of what has been done to which clips.

The Timeline is divided into three parts, each of which shows different information and provides
differing controls. A Timeline Ruler at the top lets you scrub the playhead across multiple clips, and can
be zoomed out enough to show every clip in your entire program. Underneath, the Mini-Timeline
(which can be opened or closed via a button at the right of the palette bar) shows a small
representation of the Timeline in the Edit page wherein each clip is as long as its actual duration. At
the bottom of the Timeline is the Thumbnail timeline, in which each clip is represented by a single
frame. The currently selected clip is outlined in orange, and information appears above and below
each thumbnail such as each clip’s source timecode, clip number and track number, version name,
whether it’s been graded, whether it’s been tracked, if it’s been flagged, and so on.

The Color page Timeline

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 38

Left Palettes

A series of palettes at the bottom left of the Color page provide access to different sets of grading
tools, used principally for manipulating color, contrast, and raw media format settings. Each individual
palette is opened by clicking the corresponding icon at the top of the Palette panel.

The available palettes are the Camera Raw palette (for making metadata adjustments to raw media
formats), the Color Match palette (for creating automatic grades by sampling on-camera color charts),
the Color Wheels (graphical color balance controls and master wheels or sliders for adjusting YRGB
Lift /Gamma/Gain), HDR Grade for enhanced High Dynamic Range grading, the RGB Mixer (for mixing
color channels into one another), and the Motion Effects palette (with controls for noise reduction and
artificial motion blur).

Left palette selection buttons in the top bar

Center Palettes

At 1920x1080 resolution or higher, a second set of palettes is organized at the bottom center of the
Color page. These palettes span a wide range of functionality, and the adjustments you make with
them can be combined with those made using the Color palettes.

Center palette selection buttons

NOTE: At lower resolutions, the Left and Center palettes are merged to fit the

DaVinci Resolve interface into a smaller area.

The eight available Center palettes include the Curves palette, the Color Warper palette, the Qualifiers
palette, the Windows palette, the Tracker palette, the Magic Mask palette, the Blur palette, the Key
palette, the Sizing palette, and the Stereoscopic 3D palette.

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 39

Keyframe Editor

The Keyframe Editor provides an interface for animating Color, Sizing, and Stereo Format adjustments
over time. Each node in the Node Editor corresponds to a track in the Keyframe Editor, which lets you
animate each node’s adjustments independently.

Keyframe Editor displaying dynamic grade changes

Furthermore, each node’s track can be opened up to reveal parameter groups, so that you can
animate subsets of an individual node’s functions independently of other functions within the
same node.

The Fairlight Page

In single monitor mode, the Fairlight page is 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 the levels
of your program in order to create a smooth and harmonious mix.

Fairlight page

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 40

About Audio Monitoring and Audio Input

The audio processing throughout DaVinci Resolve, including on the Fairlight page and audio
processing using Fairlight FX plug-ins, is equally compatible with all platforms that
DaVinci Resolve runs on, including macOS, Windows, and Linux. In particular, DaVinci Resolve
supports audio monitoring and audio input using (i) the audio of a supported
Blackmagic Design I/O device such as an UltraStudio or Decklink, (ii) your macOS, Windows,
or Linux workstation’s on-board audio, (iii) any Core Audio compatible, Windows compatible,
or Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA)-supported third-party audio interface.

Alternately, you can monitor audio with the optional Fairlight Audio Accelerator, which is a PCI
card that’s designed to handle even more channels of audio I/O monitoring and recording, and
that’s also capable of accelerating audio processing operations to provide better performance
for audio operations.

The Audio Timeline

The heart of the Fairlight page, the Audio Timeline presents the audio channels and tracks of the
currently selected timeline differently than the Edit page does, in a one-channel-per-track format that’s
optimized for audio mixing and sweetening. The Audio page Timeline cannot be closed.

The Audio Timeline

The Fairlight page of DaVinci Resolve supports multiple audio tracks, and each audio track may
contain multiple lanes. The clips edited into the Timeline appear within each track, with the recorded
channels within each clip occupying as many lanes as that clip has available. At the left of each track is
a header area that contains a number of controls.

Audio layering in a mono audio track

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 41

The Fairlight page differs in another unique respect from the Edit page Timeline, in that it supports
audio layering. Audio layering is a special audio editing mode that lets you superimpose multiple audio
clips in the same track, and whatever audio clip is on top dictates which audio will play. In a way, when
audio layering is enabled, superimposed audio clips are treated the same as superimposed video clips
that all have opacity set to 100%, with clips on top obscuring (or muting) clips underneath.

Audio layering is incredibly useful for any situation where you’re combining pieces of multiple takes
together to create a single VO, audio vocal track, or dramatic performance, as you can choose which
pieces to prioritize via their superimposed position in the track, while you’re preserving the other takes
underneath in case you want them later.

TIP: Track Layering can be used on the Edit page as well.

Turning on Track Layers opens up space to edit more audio into each track

Toolbar

The toolbar has buttons that let you choose modes of audio-specific functionality and other buttons
that let you execute commands, such as placing markers and flags.

Buttons in the Fairlight page toolbar

Mixer

The Audio Mixer provides a set of graphical controls you can use 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, all while you continue to edit.

The Audio Mixer exposes a set of channel strips with controls that correspond to the tracks in the
Timeline, one for each track, plus a Master strip corresponding to the Master audio track in the
Timeline, that lets you choose the number of audio channels to output, and also lets you adjust the
overall level of the mix.

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 42

The Audio Mixer, with channel strips
corresponding to the tracks in the Timeline

Dedicated Channel Strip Controls

The Mixer also has a series of dedicated channel strip controls that add powerful mastering
capabilities to DaVinci Resolve. These include:

– EQ: Double-clicking exposes a four-band parametric equalizer with additional Hi and Lo Pass

filters, that has both graphical and numeric controls for tuning the frequencies of the audio on
each track. You can select from among four types of EQ filtering from the Equalizer Type drop­down menu, with options for Earth (the default), Air, Ice, and Fire. Each band has controls for the
filter type (Bell, Lo-Shelf, Hi-Shelf, Notch), Frequency, Gain, and Q-factor (sharpness of the band).

The channel strip EQ window

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 43

– Dynamics: Double-clicking exposes a set of dynamics controls with compressor, limiter, and

expander or gate sections. The Equalizer button at the upper left-hand corner lets you turn all EQ
on and off. The first section can be switched between working as an Expander or a Gate, with
attendant Threshold/Range/Ratio and Attack/Hold/Release controls. The second section provides
Compressor controls, while the third section provides Limiter controls. These controls may be
used either singly or in concert to manage the dynamics of the audio on that track.

The channel strip Dynamics control window

– Pan: A pan control compatible with stereo and surround panning. You can drag within this control

to adjust pan, or you can double-click to expose a Pan window. What controls are available in the
Pan window depend on the mapping of the audio track, but both stereo and surround panning
controls are available, with corresponding numeric controls.

The Pan control window

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 44

The Monitoring Panel

The Monitoring panel shows all of the audio meters corresponding to the tracks in the Timeline, as well
as the Master Output meter, Control Room meters, and a video viewer.

The Monitoring panel

At left, a row of audio meters corresponds to the channel strips of the Mixer, one meter for every audio
track in the Timeline. To the right of these, all buses appear, showing you meters for the Mains and
Subs (submixes) you’re using to mix down your show. Farther to the right of these, a set of Control
Room meters show you the monitored output and loudness meters for a precise analysis of your mix’s
perceived loudness.

Finally, a small viewer to the right of the Monitoring panel shows the frame of video at the position of
the playhead. This viewer can be undocked via a button at the lower right-hand corner.

Floating Timecode Window

A timecode window is available from the Workspace menu on every page, including the Fairlight page.
Choosing this option displays a floating timecode window that shows the timecode of the Viewer or
Timeline that currently has focus. This window is resizable so you can make the timecode larger
or smaller.

A new floating timecode window is available

The Deliver Page

Once you’ve finished grading your project, you need to either render it, or output it to tape to deliver it
to your client. This is where the Deliver page comes in. The Deliver page can be used both to output
digital deliverables, or to output tape, depending on which mode you enable. Either way, the Deliver
page is divided into five areas of functionality, each of which lets you set up a different part of a render
or output to tape.

The Deliver page is set up to let you queue a series of individual jobs, each of which can have different
settings, or be set up to render different parts of the Timeline. In this way, you can output multiple
deliverables, or re-render multiple areas of a timeline, as your needs require.

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 45

The Deliver page

For more information about using the Deliver page, see Chapter 185, “Using the Deliver Page.”

The Render Settings List

The Render Settings list contains the customizable settings that affect how media is rendered out of
DaVinci Resolve. These settings are covered in more detail later in “Output Scaling.” The Render
Settings you can choose from for outputting from DaVinci Resolve appear in three panels, separating
the Video, Audio, and File information-based settings in a logical fashion. By default, this list shows
only the most important criteria necessary for defining a render. However, additional controls can be
exposed by clicking the “Advanced settings” disclosure triangle at the bottom of each group
of settings.

Render settings

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 46

The Deliver Page Timeline

The Timeline mirrors the Timeline seen in the Color page. You can use the Timeline in the Deliver
page to turn off tracks with clips you don’t want to include in the operation, define the range of clips
you want to render or output to tape, and to choose which versions for each clip you want to output.
You also have the option of switching the Deliver page Timeline to look like the Color page Timeline
instead, if that’s what you’re more comfortable with.

The Deliver page’s Thumbnail and Mini-Timeline match the Color page

The Deliver page Timeline also has the Timeline Filter drop-down at the right-hand side of the toolbar.
Using this drop-down to filter the contents of the Timeline lets you restrict the range of media you
want to output in different ways. For example, if you’ve already rendered a timeline, but you’ve since
made some changes, you can use the “Show Modified Clips” option to display only the clips that have
changed within a particular timeframe. Another possibility is to choose the “Show Unrendered Clips”
option to show all clips that have not yet been rendered.

The Viewer

When rendering file-based media, the Viewer shows you exactly how the media being output will look
using the current settings, and the transport controls move the playhead throughout the current
Timeline.

Deliver page Viewer

When outputting to tape, the Viewer shows you the tape output so you can set up insert or assembly
edit points, and the transport controls move the tape in the deck if device control is enabled. You can
also put the Viewer into Cinema Viewer mode by choosing Workspace > Viewer Mode > Cinema
Viewer (Command-F), so that it fills the entire screen. This command toggles Cinema Viewer mode
on and off.

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 47

The Render Queue

The Render Queue is a list of all the jobs you’ve queued up for file-based rendering. Each job can
have an individualized range of clips and render settings, which you can use to render multiple
sections or clips of a timeline, the same timeline output to multiple formats, or multiple timelines.

The Render Queue displays all jobs

The Render Queue also has the option to show either just the jobs within the current project, or jobs
queued up and saved within all projects for the current user.

Chapter 1 Introduction to DaVinci Resolve 48

Chapter 2

Using the
DaVinci Resolve
User Interface

This chapter provides an overview of the various unspoken conventions and
interaction methods employed by the DaVinci Resolve graphical user interface (GUI).
These include how the various buttons of your mouse, pen and tablet, or trackpad are
used by different windows and interface widgets, how commands are distributed
throughout the application using the menu bar, contextual menus, and option menus,
and how to interact with fields and other controls. While many of these conventions
overlap with common user interface conventions found in the file system of your
platform of choice, and with other media applications, some of these are unique to
DaVinci Resolve, so this chapter is worth reviewing even if you consider yourself an
expert user of other applications.

Contents

Basic Documentation Terminology  51

What Is the “UI” or “GUI”  51

What Is “the Pointer”  51

About Keyboard Shortcuts  51

Customizing the DaVinci Resolve Interface  51

Working Full Screen vs. Within a Floating Window  51

Panels and Panel Focus  51

Showing and Hiding Panels Using the Interface Toolbar  52

Showing and Hiding Panels in the Workspace Submenu  53

Chapter 2 Using the DaVinci Resolve User Interface 49

Adjusting the Size of Dierent Panels  53

Using Single vs. Dual Monitor Layouts  55

Video Clean Feed  56

Saving Custom Screen Layouts  57

Resetting to the Default Layout  57

Undocking Specific Panels of the Interface  57

DaVinci Resolve User Interface Conventions  59

Contextual Menus  59

Drop-down Menus  59

Adjusting Parameters  60

Using a Mouse or Other Input Device  61

Mouse, Trackpad, and Tablet Behaviors  62

Timeline Scroll Behavior  63

Viewer Behavior  63

Keyboard Shortcuts  64

Undo and Redo in DaVinci Resolve  64

Basic Documentation Terminology

Here is a brief word about some of the basic terminology used in this manual for brand new users.

What Is the “UI” or “GUI”

In this documentation, UI refers to “user interface,” while GUI refers to “graphical user interface.” This
refers to the windows, screens, and controls that let you create in DaVinci Resolve. If you didn’t know
this, don’t be embarrassed, you’d be surprised how many times this question gets asked.

What Is “the Pointer”

Whenever this documentation refers to “the pointer,” the reference is to the on-screen arrow you use
to click on elements of the user interface, which is controlled by the mouse, trackpad, pen and tablet,
trackball, or any other device you may be using. Because there are so many different ways to control
computers, simply referring to “the mouse” is inaccurate.

About Keyboard Shortcuts

Since the majority of DaVinci Resolve users currently appear to be on macOS, this manual presents all
keyboard shortcuts using the macOS conventions of the Command key and the Option key.
For compatibility with Windows and Linux, the Control key in macOS is not used by default for any
keyboard shortcuts (although it can be assigned if you customize your keyboard shortcuts).

All keyboard shortcuts that use the Option key in macOS use the ALT key in Windows and Linux, and
all keyboard shortcuts that use the Command key in macOS use the Control key in Windows
and Linux.

Chapter 2 Using the DaVinci Resolve User Interface 50

Customizing the DaVinci Resolve Interface

While the DaVinci Resolve interface may not seem very customizable at first, there are actually many
ways in which you can tailor the panels found within each page to your specific needs.

Working Full Screen vs. Within a Floating Window

Depending on how you like to work, you can choose to work with DaVinci Resolve in a floating window
with a title bar that can be resized, moved, minimized, and used alongside other windows. Or, you can
choose Workspace > Full Screen to put DaVinci Resolve into Full Screen mode, where the title bar
disappears and DaVinci Resolve takes up the full dimensions of your computer display.

Editors may prefer to work within a window if they’re working among multiple applications. Colorists
and mixers may prefer Full Screen mode as it hides the light-colored title bar that some find distracting
and provides a tiny bit more screen real estate for the rest of the application.

Panels and Panel Focus

Each page of DaVinci Resolve consists of multiple panels. Each panel contains all the controls and
information necessary for a particular aspect of that page’s functionality. In the following partial
screenshot of the top of the Media page, the Media Storage panel lets you browse files, the Viewer is
a panel that lets you watch video, and the Audio panel lets you see the strength of audio playing back
via a set of audio meters. Each of these panels has separate controls, but they all appear within the
main window of the DaVinci Resolve user interface.

Three panels side by side on the Media Page, showing Media Storage, the Viewer, and the Audio panel

Each panel you use has “focus,” meaning that clicking an item or control within a particular panel
makes that panel the active panel, which serves to direct keyboard shortcuts that are shared among
many panels to the particular panel you’re using. If you want to see which panel is in focus, you can
turn on the “Show focus indicators in the User Interface” checkbox in the UI Settings panel of the User
Preferences. When on, a red line at the top of the active panel indicates that it has focus.

Chapter 2 Using the DaVinci Resolve User Interface 51

A red line at the top of the Media Pool in the Edit page shows that it has focus

Showing and Hiding Panels Using the Interface Toolbar

Each page in DaVinci Resolve has an Interface Toolbar that runs along the top. This toolbar contains
buttons that let you show and hide different panels of functionality to accomplish different things:

– You can show panels that aren’t displayed by default, since most pages have many available

panels of functionality that are hidden until you need them.

– You can assign keyboard shortcuts to show and hide individual panels in your workspace for

instant configuration of the UI. Keyboard shortcuts to toggle these panels on or off can be
assigned using the Keyboard Customization window.

– You can switch which panel appears within a particular geographical location of the UI, for

example switching between showing the Media Pool or Effects in the upper-lefthand corner of the
Cut or Edit pages.

– You can hide panels you don’t need in order to create more room in the specific panels

you’re working within.

The Interface toolbar for the Color page lets you customize the Color page controls

If you right-click anywhere within the UI toolbar, two options appear: “Show Icons and Labels” and “
Show Icons Only.” If you show icons only, the UI toolbar becomes less cluttered.

The UI Toolbar for the Edit page, showing icons only, to save space

Each page has a different set of options that reflect the capabilities of that page.

Chapter 2 Using the DaVinci Resolve User Interface 52

Showing and Hiding Panels in the Workspace Submenu

This function provides the ability to turn on or off panels by choosing them in the Workspace > Show
Panel in Workspace drop-down menu. The exact panels, such as Inspector, Media Pool, Metadata,
etc., are dependent on which page you are working in. Alternatively, you can assign these panels
keyboard shortcuts as well.

Adjusting the Size of Different Panels

You can resize adjacent panels in the interface by positioning the pointer at the border between any
two panels, and dragging it to enlarge one and shrink the other.

(Before/After) Resizing UI regions

Certain panels and palettes can be expanded, in the process rearranging another part of the UI, by
clicking a small gray Expand button. For example, an expand button at the top right of the Keyframe
Editor in the Color page can be clicked to make the Keyframe Editor wider, while at the same time
hiding controls at the center to make room.

(Before/After) Expanding the Keyframe Editor

Certain vertically oriented panels, such as the Media Pool, Effects Library, Metadata Editor, and
Inspector, can be set to either half-display-height or full-display-height sizes to quickly create more or
less room for contents or controls whenever necessary. This is done by clicking a small button in the
UI toolbar that toggles between expanding or contracting the UI element it controls.

(Left) The button for expanding a panel
to full height, (Right) The button for
contracting a panel to half height

Chapter 2 Using the DaVinci Resolve User Interface 53

The result is that the panel in question expands or contracts. The following screenshots show the
Inspector of the Edit page in half height mode, where the Timeline is given room to expand, and in full
height mode, where the Timeline becomes shorter, but there’s more room in the Inspector to see all of
the controls.

(Left) A half-height Inspector with more room for the Timeline, (Right) A full-height Inspector with more room for controls

Using Single vs. Dual Monitor Layouts

The Media, Edit, Color, and Fairlight pages can be switched between single screen and dual screen
layouts by choosing Workspace > Dual Screen > On. Each dual-screen layout makes it possible to see
many more controls at once, often in a larger workspace that lets you manage more clips, more Gallery
stills, etc.

Chapter 2 Using the DaVinci Resolve User Interface 54

The Edit page in Dual-screen mode

In Single-screen mode, you can choose which display shows the DaVinci Resolve UI by choosing
Workspace > Primary Display > (Monitor Name). In Dual-screen mode, this reverses the contents of
both monitors.

Using the Full Screen Timeline Option in the Edit Page

If you’re working in the Edit page in Dual-screen mode and you need the biggest timeline you can get
for working through your program, you can choose Workspace > Dual Screen > Full Screen Timeline to
expose a layout with one large full screen timeline, and all the other Edit page panels on the
other screen.

Chapter 2 Using the DaVinci Resolve User Interface 55

The Edit page in Dual-screen Timeline mode

Video Clean Feed

A full screen Viewer for a secondary monitor connected directly to your computer is now available.
To activate this monitor select Workspace > Video Clean Feed, and select your display in
the submenu.

Selecting a secondar y monitor for full screen display

Chapter 2 Using the DaVinci Resolve User Interface 56

Saving Custom Screen Layouts

If you’ve created a particular set of resized panels that you’ll want to use often, you can save it,
alongside other frequently useful screen layouts you may have saved.

Methods of working with custom screen layouts:

– To save a custom screen preset: Customize the various pages of DaVinci Resolve for the purpose

at hand, then choose Workspace > Layout Presets > Save Layout As Preset. Enter a name into the
Save Layout as Preset dialog, and click OK.

– To choose a previously saved screen preset: Choose Workspace > Layout Presets >

LAYOUT NAME > Load.

– To update a previously saved screen preset: Choose the layout you want from the Workspace

> Layout submenu, make your changes, and then choose Workspace > Layout Presets >
LAYOUT NAME > Update Preset.

– To delete a screen preset: Choose Workspace > Layout Presets > LAYOUT NAME > Delete Preset.

– To export a screen preset for use on another DaVinci Resolve installation: Choose Workspace >

Layout Presets > LAYOUT NAME > Export Preset.

– To import a screen preset: Choose Workspace > Layout Presets > Import Layout as Preset.

Resetting to the Default Layout

If you don’t like the current layout and you want to go back to the default, choose Workspace >
Reset UI Layout.

Undocking Specific Panels of the Interface

There are certain interface elements that can either be docked in their respective pages, or opened in
separate windows.

Media Pool bins can be opened into floating windows simply by right-clicking on the bin and choosing
Open As a New Window in the contextual menu. Even though you’re opening up the contents of the
selected bin, you’re really creating another Media Pool, complete with Bin list, Browsing area, and all of
the organizational controls found in the docked Media Pool. You can have as many floating Media
Pools as you like. They can be dragged to other monitors, and they can be closed via a button at the
upper left-hand corner of the title bar.

A floating Media Pool window

Chapter 2 Using the DaVinci Resolve User Interface 57

The video scopes let you precisely analyze the color and contrast of clips in the Color page. They can
be exposed in their docked position to the right of the Color page palettes by clicking the Video
Scope button in the Color page toolbar.

The video scope, docked next to the other
palettes at the bottom of the Color page

Optionally, you can click the expand button at the top right of the video scope to open the video
scopes into a floating window, within which you can display all four video scopes together, or
individually, on any monitor connected to your workstation.

Video scopes in a floating window

Additionally, the Audio Mixer and video scopes are available in many of the dual-screen layouts
available in DaVinci Resolve. The video scopes aren’t just available in the Color page. They’re also
available in the Media and Deliver pages for whenever you need to evaluate the video signal more
objectively, such as when you’re setting up to capture from tape or scan from film, or when you’re
setting up for output.

In the DaVinci Resolve single screen layout, the Audio Mixer and video scopes can be moved to a
second computer display if one’s available, and both disappear temporarily if you change pages or
switch to another application.

Chapter 2 Using the DaVinci Resolve User Interface 58

DaVinci Resolve User Interface Conventions

While each chapter covers the unique onscreen controls found in each page of DaVinci Resolve, this
section summarizes how to use some of the more common controls you’ll see.

Contextual Menus

Nearly every panel on every page exposes additional functionality via contextual menus, which
appear when you right-click on the appropriate item. Sometimes, different commands become
available depending on whether you right-click the background of a particular panel, or directly on an
item such as a still or node.

Contextual menus expose additional
controls in the Color page Viewer

Drop-down Menus

Most of the buttons and drop-down menus that appear in various toolbars are activated with a single
click. For example, many panels, palettes, and windows expose an Option menu, that appears as three
horizontal dots (people like to refer to these as the “three dot menus,” but they’re option menus), which
expose additional options and/or commands that are related to that particular panel’s function.

Option menus

Chapter 2 Using the DaVinci Resolve User Interface 59

Additionally, many (but not all) panels and palettes appear with a “Mode” drop-down at the upper right­hand corner that lets you choose a different type of function within that palette.

Mode drop-down

Some buttons, such as transport controls and toolbar icons, display a little downward facing arrow
when you hover the pointer over them, to indicate that you can right-click on these controls to access
checkmark options that govern the functionality of those controls.

(Left) Hovering over a button to reveal it has a hidden menu,
(Right) Right-clicking a button to reveal options in a drop -down menu

Adjusting Parameters

Numeric parameters can usually be edited in a few different ways.

Sliders and Dials

Sliders can be dragged to change the value of a parameter within a specific range. If you see a dial,
that means a value can be endlessly edited with no restrictions to the value. Sliders are typically best
for making large coarse adjustments to parameters. The “virtual sliders” described next let you make
finer adjustments.

A slider and a dial with their accompanying number fields

Virtual Sliders and Fields

When number fields appear, they can be used as a “virtual slider” by hovering the pointer over them
until you see the “virtual slider cursor” and then clicking and dragging to the right to raise the value, or
to the left to lower the value (white arrows indicate the direction of change). Typically, using a field’s
virtual slider lets you make more precise adjustments than the actual slider to the left.

Using virtual sliders

Chapter 2 Using the DaVinci Resolve User Interface 60

Double-clicking fields containing most number values highlights the number so that you can type a
new value using the keyboard, pressing Return to confirm the change.

Editing of Number Field Values Using Arrow Keys

You can manually edit numerical parameter values by using the arrow keys to navigate and make
adjustments to the decimal level in number fields.

To use the arrow keys to adjust numerical parameters:

1 Double-click to select a numeric value in a field, and a highlight appears around that value.

2 Use the left /right arrows to navigate the cursor to the right of the decimal value you want to adjust.

3 Use the Up/Down arrows to change the value of that decimal place.

4 If you select the entire number, the Up/Down arrows will adjust the minimum value.

This cursor is in place to adjust the tenths
position using the Up and Down arrows.

Icons and Buttons

Some controls are exposed as icons and buttons, which you simply click to invoke whatever
functionality they encompass.

A pair of buttons with icons to
illustrate their functionality

Resetting Parameters

To reset any editable parameter to its default setting, double-click its text label, or click the reset
button, if one appears. Master reset buttons, typically found in the headers of groups of controls, reset
all controls in that group. Individual reset controls that appear to the right of parameters typically only
reset that one parameter. If you don’t see a reset control, then double-clicking the name of the
parameter should work.

Reset buttons

Using a Mouse or Other Input Device

Resolve uses all three buttons of a multi-button mouse, or the three buttons available on other type of
input devices, when available. This section provides a brief summary of all the different ways these
three mouse buttons can be used.

Chapter 2 Using the DaVinci Resolve User Interface 61

Left Button

The left button is always referred to as a click, as in, “click the auto select button.” You click to turn
buttons or other controls on or off, to make selections, and to give areas of the Resolve UI focus so
that keyboard shortcuts will do whatever is specific to that panel or area of the user interface.

Double-clicking the left button usually opens items that are openable, such as opening a clip from the
Media Pool into the Source Viewer. You can also use double-clicking to do things like selecting nodes
in the Node Editor of the Color page.

Right Button

The right button is referred to as a right-click, as in, “right-click a clip in the Media Pool.” Right-clicking
an item or area of the Resolve interface usually opens a contextual menu, exposing additional
commands that are specific to the item or area you’ve right-clicked.

However, some areas of the UI use right-clicking in special ways. For example, when you’re using a
color adjustment curve in the Curve palette of the Color page, right-clicking a control point deletes
that point.

Middle Button

The middle button (usually the scroll wheel button, but you may have to turn this on in the Mouse panel
of the System Preferences) is referred to as a middle-click, which does different things in
different places.

– In all pages, rolling the scroll wheel while the pointer is within a viewer lets you zoom into and out

of the image being displayed when you need to do more detailed work.

– In the Color page, you can move the pointer over the Thumbnail timeline and roll up to scroll to the

right or roll down to scroll to the left. You can also roll the scroll wheel while the pointer is within
the Mini-timeline to zoom into or out of the currently displayed area. Rolling up zooms out, while
rolling down zooms in.

– Middle-clicking and dragging within a viewer lets you drag the image to pan it around, which is

useful after you’ve used the scroll wheel (or scroll behavior) of your mouse to zoom in.

– You can middle-click and drag within the Edit page Timeline to quickly pan around your edit.

– You can also use middle-click to copy a grade in the Thumbnail timeline of the Color page, by first

selecting the clip that you want to copy TO (with a simple click) and then middle-clicking the clip or
gallery still you want to copy a grade FROM.

– Lastly, if you’re drawing a Bezier window in the Color page Viewer using the Window palette, then

middle-clicking a control point will delete that point.

TIP: If you’re using a pointing device that lacks a third button option, check to see if there are

any third party utilities or drivers that can enable this for you.

Mouse, Trackpad, and Tablet Behaviors

Different input devices use different gestures to trigger specific behaviors in DaVinci Resolve. Here is
a current breakdown of these gestures and the behaviors that they control.

Chapter 2 Using the DaVinci Resolve User Interface 62

Timeline Scroll Behavior

Standard Mouse Mac Magic Mouse Trackpad Tablet and Pen

Scroll
timeline vertically

Scroll
timeline horizontally

Zoom timeline
width horizontally

With abilit y to zoom
where cursor points
Can be enable d in User
Workspace Prefs

Zoom timeline track
height vertically

Zooms V ideo an d Audio
section separately

Drag Timeline
withHand Tool

Scroll

Scroll

Scroll

Scroll

Middle Mouse

Button

Magic
Mouse 1
Finger Pan

Vertical and
Horizontal
panning

Magic
Mouse 1
Finger Pan

Vertical and
Horizontal
panning

Left

Button

2 Finger Pan

Vertical and
Horizontal
panning

2 Finger Pan

Vertical and
Horizontal
panning

Viewer Behavior

Zoom

Can be enable d in User
Workspace Prefs

Free Pan

Pan with
Hand Cursor

Pan Up and Down

Pan Left and Right

Scroll Middle Mouse

Middle Mouse

Button

Scroll

Scroll

Button

Middle
Mouse
Button and
Click Drag

Like current
Fusion
Viewer

Magic Mouse
1 Finger Pan

Left

Button

Pinch
and
2 Finger Pan

2 Finger Pan

Press and

hold the
pen button

Move the
pen nib o n
the pad

Press and
hold the
penbut ton

Lift the pen
nib a few
millimeters
above t he pad

Context Menu

Right B utto n

Gestures used in DaVinci Resolve for common input devices

Chapter 2 Using the DaVinci Resolve User Interface 63

Keyboard Shortcuts

Since the majority of DaVinci Resolve users are on macOS, this manual presents all keyboard
shortcuts using the macOS conventions of the Command key and the Option key. For users of other
systems, all keyboard shortcuts that use the Option key in macOS use the ALT key in Windows and
Linux, and all keyboard shortcuts that use the Command key in macOS use the Control key in
Windows and Linux.

TIP: To keep controls identical between macOS, Windows, and Linux, the Control key in

macOS is not used by default for any keyboard shortcuts. However, you can assign your own
keyboard shortcuts to the Control key if you like, opening up a whole new set of keyboard
shortcuts for your own use on macOS.

Undo and Redo in DaVinci Resolve

No matter where you are in DaVinci Resolve, Undo and Redo commands let you back out of steps
you’ve taken or commands you’ve executed, and reapply them if you change your mind.
DaVinci Resolve is capable of undoing the entire history of things you’ve done since creating or
opening a particular project. When you close a project, its entire undo history is purged. The next time
you begin work on a project, its undo history starts anew.

Because DaVinci Resolve integrates so much functionality in one application, there are three separate
sets of undo “stacks” to help you manage your work.

– The Media, Edit and Fairlight pages share the same multiple-undo stack, which lets you backtrack

out of changes made in the Media Pool, the Timeline, the Metadata Editor, and the Viewers.

– Each clip in the Fusion page has its own undo stack, so that you can undo changes you make to

the composition of each clip, independently.

– Each clip in the Color page has its own undo stack, so that you can undo changes you make to

grades in each clip, independently.

In all cases, there is no practical limit to the number of steps that are undoable (although there may be
a limit to what you can remember). To take advantage of this, there are three ways you can undo work
to go to a previous state of your project, no matter what page you’re in.

To simply undo or redo changes you’ve made one at a time:

– Choose Edit > Undo (Command-Z) to undo the previous change.

– Choose Edit > Redo (Shift-Command-Z) to redo to the next change.

– On the DaVinci control panel, press the UNDO and REDO buttons on the T-bar panel.

TIP: If you have the DaVinci control panel, there is one other control that lets you control the

undo stack more directly when using the trackballs, rings, and pots. Pressing RESTORE
POINT manually adds a memory of the current state of the grade to the undo stack. Since
discrete undo states are difficult to predict when you’re making ongoing adjustments with the
trackball and ring controls, pressing RESTORE POINT lets you set predictable states of the
grade that you can fall back on.

Chapter 2 Using the DaVinci Resolve User Interface 64

You can also undo several steps at a time using the History submenu and window. At the time of this
writing, this only works for multiple undo steps in the Media, Cut, Edit, and Fairlight pages.

To undo and redo using the History submenu:

1 Open the Edit > History submenu, which shows (up to) the last twenty things you’ve done.

2 Choose an item on the list to undo back to that point. The most recent thing you’ve done appears

at the top of this list, and the change you’ve just made appears with a check next to it. Steps
that have been undone but that can still be redone remain in this menu, so you can see what’s
possible. However, if you’ve undone several changes at once and then you make a new change,
you cannot undo any more and those steps disappear from the menu.

The History submenu, which lets you undo several steps at once

Once you’ve selected a step to undo to, the menu closes and the project updates to show you its
current state.

To undo and redo using the Undo window:

1 Choose Edit > History > Open History Window.

2 When the History dialog appears, click an item on the list to undo back to that point. Unlike

the menu, in this window the most recent thing you’ve done appears at the bottom of this list.
Selecting a change here grays out changes that can still be redone, as the project updates to
show you its current state.

The Undo Histor y window that lets you browse the
entire available undo stack of the current page

3 When you’re done, close the History window.

Chapter 2 Using the DaVinci Resolve User Interface 65

PART 2

Setup and

Workflows

Chapter 3

Managing Projects
and Databases

This chapter covers how to use the Project Manager to organize the projects you’re
working on in DaVinci Resolve, as well as how to deal with managing the databases
that serve as the organizational foundation of the Project Manager. You’ll also see
how to export and import projects, and how to archive a project and its media for
long-term storage.

Contents

Using the Project Manager  68

Project Management  69

Importing DaVinci Resolve Projects (.DRP Files)  69

Project Manager View Options  70

Searching for Projects  71

Organizing Projects in Folders  72

Managing Databases with the Databases Sidebar  72

Opening the Databases Sidebar  73

Moving Projects From One Database to Another on the Same Workstation  73

Managing Databases in the Databases Sidebar  74

Legacy User Organization in the Databases Sidebar  78

Saving Projects  79

Live Save  79

Project Backups  80

Project Notes  82

Dynamic Project Switching  82

Archiving and Restoring Projects  83

Chapter 3 Managing Projects and Databases 67

Using the Project Manager

Ordinarily, the Project Manager is the first window you’ll see when DaVinci Resolve starts up. It’s a
convenient, centralized browser for creating, organizing, and managing all of your projects. Unlike
other applications that rely on your file manager for organizing projects, DaVinci Resolve requires you
to do most project organization in the Project Manager.

Project Manager

If you’ve already opened a project, you can reopen the Project Manager at any time by clicking the
Home button at the bottom right-hand corner of the DaVinci Resolve window, in the Page Navigation
bar. If you’ve hidden the Page Navigation bar at the bottom of the DaVinci Resolve window, you can
open the Project Manager by choosing File > Project Manager.

The Project Manager button
at the bot tom right corner of
the DaVinci Resolve interface

Launching DaVinci Resolve for the First Time?

If you’ve just installed DaVinci Resolve and have opened it for the first time, it’s time to set the
preferences in order to specify your language, scratch disk volume, and hardware
configuration for video and audio I/O and control panels (if you have one). For more
information about setting the preferences in DaVinci Resolve, see Chapter 4, “System and
User Preferences.”

Chapter 3 Managing Projects and Databases 68

Project Management

The Project Manager provides an in-application interface for creating, renaming, and deleting projects.
Many of these commands exist within the contextual menu that appears when you right-click the
background of the Project Manager.

Methods of project management:

– To create a new project: Double-click the Default Project icon, or click the New Project button

at the bottom of the window. A new project is created, and DaVinci Resolve opens up the Media
page. Once a project is open, you can alter its project settings by clicking the gear icon.

– To open a previously saved project: Double-click any Project icon, or Item if you’re in List view.

You can also select a project and click the Open button.

– To open a project in Read-Only Mode: Right-click a Project icon or Item, and choose Open in

Read Only Mode. This lets you open a project without danger of altering it. If you make changes,
you can use the Save As command to save a new copy of the project with a new name.

– To rename a project: Right-click a Project icon or Item, choose Rename, and type a new name in

the dialog that appears, clicking OK when you’re finished.

– To load project settings from another project to the currently open project: Right-click a

Project icon or Item (other than the currently open project), and choose “Load Project Settings to
Current Project.” This lets you change a project’s settings prior to opening it in cases where the
project settings are causing some kind of problem that prevents you from opening the project.

– To update the thumbnails of a project in the Project Manager: Right-click any project, and

choose “Update Thumbnails.”

– To delete a project: Select one or more projects, then either press the Backspace key, or right-

click one of the selected projects and choose Delete. Click OK when a dialog asks you to confirm
the operation.

NOTE: You cannot move or delete the currently open or loaded project.

Importing DaVinci Resolve Projects (.DRP Files)

DaVinci Resolve projects are saved with the file extension .drp and enable you to exchange files with
other DaVinci Resolve users. If you double-click a DaVinci Resolve .drp file in the Windows or macOS
file system, this will automatically open DaVinci Resolve, import that project into the Project Manager
regardless of what kind of database you’re using, and open that project so that you’re ready to work.

Importing and Exporting Projects in Disk Databases

If you’re using Disk Databases to manage your projects, you can copy and import projects using the
project folders in the file manager of either macOS or Windows. This method does not work for
DaVinci Resolve on Linux.

Moving projects from one disk database into another using macOS or Windows:

1 Locate the disk database directory in which the project you want to copy is stored. If you don’t

know where the designated disk database directory is, you can open DaVinci Resolve and check
the directory path for the current disk database in the Databases sidebar.

2 Copy the project folder from the source workstation to the designated disk database directory

on the destination workstation. If you don’t know where the designated disk database directory
is, you can open DaVinci Resolve on the workstation you’re copying the project to and check the
directory path for the current disk database in the Databases sidebar.

Chapter 3 Managing Projects and Databases 69

3 Once you’ve copied the project folder into the correct location, you’ll need to quit and reopen

DaVinci Resolve. Afterwards, the imported project should appear in the ProjectManager.

Importing and Exporting Projects in PostgreSQL Databases

If you’re using a PostgreSQL database, another set of commands let you import and export projects
using the .drp file format. You can also export .drp files from Disk Databases if you want to export a
more self-contained item to transport.

To import a .drp project file, do one of the following:

– Drag the .drp file you want to import from your file system and drop it anywhere

into the Project Manager window.

– Right-click any empty area of the Project Manager and choose Import, then find

and select a .drp project file using the Import Project File dialog, and click Open.

To import a .drp project file and reconfigure the gallery path at the same time:

– Hold the Option key down while right-clicking any empty area of the Project Manager, and

choose Import+, then find and select a .drp project file, and click Open. Upon opening, the
gallery path will automatically be updated to that of your workstation.

To export the currently open project as a .drp file:

– Choose File > Export Project, and when the Save dialog appears, choose a location, enter

a name, and click Save. The result is a self-contained file with a .drp file suffix saved at the
location you chose.

To export a .drp project file from the Project Manager:

1 Right-click a Project icon or Item in the Project Manager, then choose one of the

following commands:

– Export: Exports project data, with no LUTs and no stills. Best when you need to export the

smallest possible file.

– Export With Stills and LUTs: Exports the project including both still frames in the Gallery and

LUTs used in grades. Best when you want to export the most self-contained file and you can’t
guarantee the recipient will have the same LUTs you do.

2 When the Save dialog appears, choose a location, enter a name, and click Save. The result is a

self-contained file with a .drp file suffix saved at the location you chose.

Project Manager View Options

Four buttons at the top right let you control how projects are viewed in the Project Manager.

Select Thumbnail or List View

– Zoom slider: (Only appears in Thumbnail view) Lets you adjust the size of the thumbnails in

Thumbnail view.

– Project Sort Order drop-down: (Only appears in Thumbnail view) Lets you choose the sort order

of projects in Thumbnail view.

– Information: (Only appears in Thumbnail view) Lets you show or hide additional project

information displayed underneath each project’s thumbnail, including the frame size, number of
timelines within, and when that project was last modified.

Chapter 3 Managing Projects and Databases 70

– Thumbnail view: Each project is represented by a large image that can be hover-scrubbed to

reveal five representative images from that project.

Hover-scrub over Project
icon; information is enabled

– List view: Every project appears as an item in a list that has seven columns: Name, Last Modified,

Timelines, Format, Frame Rate, Date Created, and Note. You can click any column header to sort
the contents of the Project Manager by that criteria; clicking the header a second time toggles that
column between ascending and descending sorting.

Project List view

Searching for Projects

Clicking the magnifying glass button at the upper right-hand corner of the Project Manager exposes
the Search Options, which can be used to locate one or more projects based on the metadata that’s
selected in the Filter By drop-down menu to the right of it.

Search field open with Filter by search criteria selected

Chapter 3 Managing Projects and Databases 71

Using the drop-down menu, you can choose to search by name, or by project format. Once you’ve
chosen a criteria, begin typing into the search field, and the Project Manager will immediately and
dynamically begin to be filtered by your search text.

Organizing Projects in Folders

If you’re organizing a lot of projects, you can create folders to put them into.

A folder in the Project Manager

Methods of working with project folders:

– To create a folder: Click the New Folder button, then enter a name into the Create New Folder

dialog and click Create.

– To delete a folder: Right-click a folder, choose Delete, and click Yes when prompted.

All projects inside a deleted folder will be deleted as well.

– To rename a folder: Right-click a folder, choose Rename, then enter a new name and click OK.

– To open a folder: Double-click a folder to open it and view its contents. At the upper left-hand

corner of the Project Manager, a folder path view shows you which folder is open, as well as where
you are within a nested series of folders if that’s what you’ve set up.

– To exit a folder: Use the path control at the bottom left of the Project Manager.

– To move a project into a folder: Drag the project onto a folder icon, and drop it to place it

inside the folder.

– To move a project out of a folder: Open a folder, select one or more projects you want to move,

then right-click the selection and choose Cut from the contextual menu. Then, navigate to the next
place in the Project manager where you want to place the cut projects, right-click the background
of the Project Manager, and choose Paste. The projects should appear in the new location.

Managing Databases with
the Databases Sidebar

Unlike other applications which save self-contained project files to user-specified locations wherever
you like in your file system, DaVinci Resolve takes a more centrally organized approach to project
management, using databases. By default, DaVinci Resolve uses a disk database to keep track of
every project you create. The Database sidebar lets you manage the projects found within this
database, which are saved to a specific directory on your system (particular to that database). The
default location of this disk database depends on the operating system you use.

However, you can create additional databases with which to store other projects, if you like. For
example, you might create one database each for each year in which you work. If you work on series
television, you could create multiple databases for each program you work on. Or, you could create
separate databases for each client you do work for. There’s no hard and fast rule; ultimately how you
use databases is entirely up to you and your individual organizational preferences.

Chapter 3 Managing Projects and Databases 72

TIP: However you elect to organize your databases, keep in mind that projects saved within

smaller databases with less project data will load and save faster.

Opening the Databases Sidebar

If you already have multiple databases, then clicking the button at the upper-left hand corner of the
Projects Browser reveals a sidebar at the left of the Project Manager that lists every database on your
workstation, with various options for managing these databases and for browsing the projects found
within them.

Databases Sidebar button

You can use this sidebar to open different databases and browse the projects found inside.

Project Manager with Databases sidebar displayed

Moving Projects From One Database
to Another on the Same Workstation

If you’ve used multiple databases to organize your projects, you can browse the contents of each
database to search for what you’re looking for, and then copy one or more projects from one database
to another if you need to rearrange how they’re organized.

To view the contents of a database:

1 Click the button at the upper-left hand corner of the Projects window to open the

Databases sidebar.

2 Click to select a database in the sidebar, and an orange highlight will appear

Chapter 3 Managing Projects and Databases 73

If you had a project already open, you’ll be asked if you want to save it before closing, because all
open projects must be closed prior to viewing the contents of another database. Then, the
projects corresponding to that user within the selected database appear in the Project
Manager window.

To import a project from another database using the Databases sidebar:

1 Click the button at the upper-left hand corner of the Projects window to open the

Databases sidebar.

2 Click to select a database in the sidebar, and if necessary use the drop-down menu at the right of

the database listing to choose a specific user. The projects corresponding to that user within the
selected database appear in the Project Manager window.

3 Select a project you want to import, and press Command-C to copy it.

4 Click to select the current database again (the database you want to work within).

5 Press Command-V to paste the project you copied. A copy appears in the currentdatabase.

NOTE: For more detail on shared database setup and operation, see Chapter 192, “Managing

Databases and Project Servers.”

To import Project Settings from another project using the Databases sidebar:

1 Click the button at the upper-left hand corner of the Projects window to open the

Databases sidebar.

2 Select a project you want to import Project Settings to so that it’s highlighted.

3 If necessary, click to select another database in the sidebar, and optionally use the drop-down

menu at the right of the database listing to choose a specific user. The projects corresponding to
that user within the selected database appear in the Project Manager window.

4 Right-click any project and choose “Load Project Settings to Current Project.” That project’s

settings will be copied to the project you selected in step 2.

Managing Databases in the Databases Sidebar

Controls within the Databases sidebar make it easy to create new databases (via the button at the
bottom), upgrade databases that have been flagged (via circular badges), import and export databases
(via buttons at the top), and reveal additional information about each database (via buttons at the top
of this sidebar).

Databases sidebar controls

The five controls at the top of the Databases sidebar have the following functions:

– Backup Database: You can back up databases just like any other file. This provides added

protection should your system drive fail, but a database backup can also be used to move multiple
projects between systems (particularly if you’re using PostgreSQL). Clicking this button exports the
currently selected database, with all enclosed projects, to a self contained .resolve.backup file.

Chapter 3 Managing Projects and Databases 74

– Import Database: Imports .resolve.backup files to restore a backed up database.

– Connect Database: Allows connection to an existing database, either on a local disk or on a

PostgreSQL server.

– Sort Order drop-down menu: This menu lets you choose how to sort the various Disk and

PostgreSQL databases displayed in the sidebar. You can sort by Database Name, Schema (by
date), Status, or Location in Ascending or Descending order.

– Display Database Info toggle: Turning this control on shows additional information underneath

each database in the sidebar. What information depends on the type of database. Disk databases
display their status (compatible/incompatible) and location (directory path). PostgreSQL databases
display their schema (a date), their status (compatible/incompatible), their IP location, and any
remarks that were appended when that database was updated.

– Show Search Field: Displays a search field and search criteria drop-down that lets you search for

databases in the side bar by Name, Schema, Status, or Location.

Disk Vs. PostgreSQL Databases

When you first install DaVinci Resolve on a workstation it’s never been installed on before, you
are set up to use a Disk database by default, which saves user-accessible project files to a
disk location of your choosing.

In many respects, Disk databases are simple to use. They’re easier to back up, as they’re
located in an easily found directory, and in fact you can create Disk databases in custom
locations, if you like. Disk databases avoid the need to know or care which version of
PostgreSQL is installed on your machine, as PostgreSQL isn’t used. Furthermore, projects in
Disk databases don’t need to go through an explicit “upgrade” process when you upgrade
significant versions of DaVinci Resolve, as the project is automatically upgraded when you
open it (the upgraded project can be saved independently from the original project using the
Save As command if you want to leave the un-upgraded version intact).

However, many users prefer to use PostgreSQL database project management, particularly for
situations where you want to use a shared database server so multiple rooms can access the
same project files, and for collaborative workflow, where multiple editors, colorists, and audio
professionals can work within the same project file.

Fortunately, it’s easy to create and use either type of project database for maximum flexibility
in organizing your projects. Then, using the Databases sidebar, it’s easy to go back and forth
between the two types of database management simply by creating the type of database you
need and then switching over to it using the sidebar.

Creating New Disk and PostgreSQL Databases

You can use Disk databases and PostgreSQL databases side by side for switching to the use of one or
the other, depending on your needs.

To create a new Disk database:

1 Click the button at the upper-left hand corner of the Projects window to open the

Databases sidebar.

2 Click the New Database button at the bottom of the sidebar.

3 Leave Type set to Disk. The New Database window should look like the following screenshot:

Chapter 3 Managing Projects and Databases 75

Creating a Disk database

4 In the remaining fields, do the following:

a Type a name for the new database into the Name field

b Click within the Location field and use the Filesystem navigation dialog to choosewhere to put

the directory that will contain all of the DaVinci Resolve projectdirectories

5 Click Create, and the new disk database will appear in the Disk database section of the

Databases sidebar.

To create a new PostgreSQL database:

1 Click the button at the upper-left hand corner of the Projects window to open the

Databases sidebar.

2 Click the New Database button at the bottom of the sidebar.

3 Change Type to PostgreSQL, and different options will appear at the bottom of the New Database

dialog. The New Database window should look like the following screenshot:

Creating a PostgreSQL database

4 Type a name for the new database into the Name field. Because all projects in a PostgreSQL

database are saved internally within the PostgreSQL database, no other changes are necessary.,

5 Click Create, and the new disk database will appear in the PostgreSQL database section of the

Databases sidebar.

Chapter 3 Managing Projects and Databases 76

Backing Up and Restoring Databases

You can also back up databases by exporting them, and then reimport them later.

To backup/export a database:

1 Click the button at the upper-left hand corner of the Projects window to open the

Databases sidebar.

2 Select the database you want to back up.

3 Click the Backup button at the top of the Databases sidebar.

The Backup Database button

4 Choose a location to which to save the backup in the Backup Database dialog, and click Save.

To import a database:

1 Click the button at the upper-left hand corner of the Projects window to open the

Databases sidebar.

2 Click the Import Database button at the top of the Databases sidebar.

The Import Database button

3 Find the database you need to import using the file import dialog, and click Open.

Upgrading Databases

Databases display an upgrade badge (circular arrows) only when you’ve installed a new version of
DaVinci Resolve and you have databases that were created in older versions of DaVinci Resolve that
need upgrading.

UpgradeDatabase

A badge at the right of a database indicates that database needs to be upgraded

It’s generally a good idea to back up a database prior to upgrading it, in case something goes wrong.
In general, upgrading from a whole version release to the next whole version release of
DaVinci Resolve usually requires an upgrade, while upgrading to a dot release of the same version
may or may not. If the currently used database requires an update, you’ll be told on application startup.

To upgrade a database from an old version of DaVinci Resolve:

– Right-click a database that needs updating, and choose Upgrade from the contextual menu. A

dialog appears to confirm if you really want to upgrade that database. ClickUpgrade to proceed.

Chapter 3 Managing Projects and Databases 77

Disconnecting and Deleting Databases

You cannot actually delete databases in DaVinci Resolve; you can only disconnect them so they don’t
appear in the Database list. However, disconnected databases can still be reconnected if you
remember their name. The only way to completely delete a database entry in PostgreSQL is to do so
from the command line, or to use the PGAdmin III application that accompanies the PostgreSQL
installation that’s part of the DaVinci Resolve installation process.

To disconnect a database you no longer need:

– Right-click a database that is not currently selected, and choose Disconnect from the

contextual menu. A dialog appears to confirm if you really want to disconnect that database.
Click Disconnect to proceed.

Locating Disk Database Directories in Your File System

Because Disk databases have a link to a specific directory in your file system, there’s a way
oflocating that directory.

To locate a database on your system:

– Right-click any Disk database, and choose “Reveal in Finder.” A file system window opens up

showing you the location of that Disk database, inside which are all of its projects.

Optimizing Databases

Only available for PostgreSQL databases. Sometimes, databases in DaVinci Resolve can become so
large that the size affects performance. In these cases you may need to optimize them to improve
access speed by “vacuuming” the database of unnecessary spaces and reindexing it. Using the
Optimize command can also be a valuable troubleshooting step in certain cases where you’re having
problems opening, importing, or otherwise using projects saved within PostgreSQL databases.

To optimize a database:

– Right-click a database, and choose Optimize from the contextual menu. A dialog appears to

confirm if you really want to optimize that database. Click Optimize to proceed.

Legacy User Organization in the Databases Sidebar

DaVinci Resolve was originally designed as a multi-user application for use in commercial suites. While
DaVinci Resolve is still very much used in that capacity in high-end facilities around the world, starting
in DaVinci Resolve 14 the interface that was previously used to create and manage multiple users on a
single workstation has been eliminated in favor of a simpler method of managing multiple databases
right in the Project Manager, via the Databases sidebar. However, if you’ve upgraded databases that
were previously organized using multiple users, the Database > User > Project structure of older
databases is maintained via a drop-down menu to the right of that database’s name in the
Databases sidebar.

Legacy users in a database

Chapter 3 Managing Projects and Databases 78

Saving Projects

Once you’ve created and opened a project, you want to make sure that you regularly save your work.

Methods of saving projects:

– Choose File > Save Project (Command-S).

– Push the SAVE button on the DaVinci control panel.

– To save the current state of your project as a copy with a new name, choose File > Save Project As

(Command-Shift-S), then enter a name into the Save Current Project window and click Save.

To revert to the last saved state of a project:

– If you don’t want to save, but you want to revert to last saved state of the project, choose File >

Revert to Last Save.

As you work on your project, the word “Edited” appears to the right of the project name at the top of
the DaVinci Resolve UI to let you know that you have unsaved changes. If you don’t save in over 15
minutes, the word “Edited” turns yellow, and if you still don’t save in over 30 minutes, it turns red to let
you know that you probably should save. If you move the pointer over the word “Edited,” a tooltip
appears letting you know when the last save was performed.

The word “Edited” to the right of the project
name lets you know you have unsaved changes

DaVinci Resolve also has two auto save mechanisms that you can enable in the Save Settings group of
controls, called Live Save and Project Backups.

Auto Save controls in the User Preferences

Live Save

Enabling Live Save sets DaVinci Resolve to incrementally save changes as you make changes to your
project, with no user intervention required. Disabling Live Save puts DaVinci Resolve back into a state
where you have to manually save by pressing Command-S (this can be useful when doing demos
when you don’t want to save your changes to a project). Using Live Save is highly recommended to
prevent the loss of work in the event you have a problem. It even works for previously unsaved
projects that you’ve forgotten to save if anything goes wrong.

Chapter 3 Managing Projects and Databases 79

NOTE: When you use Collaborative Workflow to enable multiple artists to work together in

the same project, Live Save is automatically turned on and cannot be disabled.

Project Backups

Turning on the Project Backups checkbox in the Project Save and Load panel of the User Preferences
enables DaVinci Resolve to save multiple backup project files at periodic intervals, using a method
that’s analogous to a GFS (grandfather father son) backup scheme. This can be done regardless of
whether or not Live Save is turned on. Each project backup that’s saved is a complete project file,
excluding stills and LUTs, which are omitted in order to save storage space.

Once you’ve enabled Project Backups for a long enough time, whatever saved project backups have
been created are retrievable in the Project Manager via the contextual menu that appears when you
right-click a project, by choosing Project Backups to open the backups list dialog. The backups list
dialog shows you all backups that are available for a particular project, and has controls for sorting the
list via different columns, deleting some or all of the backups in the list, and loading backups that you
want to retrieve. Opening a project backup does not overwrite the original project; project backups
are always opened as independent projects.

To enable Project Backups:

1 Choose DaVinci Resolve > Preferences, and open the Project Save and Load panel.

2 Turn on the Project Backups checkbox.

3 Choose the settings that determine how many Project Backups will be maintained. Project

Backups are saved on a first in, first out basis. Three fields let you specify how often to save new
backups and how many backups to maintain, while the fourth lets you choose where the backups
will be saved.

– Perform backups every X minutes: The first field specifies how often to save a new backup

within the last hour you’ve worked. By default, a new backup is saved every 10 minutes,
resulting in six backups within the last hour. Once an hour of working has passed, an hourly
backup is saved and the per-minute backups begin to be discarded on a “first in, first out”
basis.” By default, this means that you’ll only ever have six backups at a time that represent the
last hour’s worth of work.

– Hourly backups for the past X hours: The second field specifies how many hourly backups

you want to save. By default, 8 hourly backups will be saved for the current day you’re working,
which assumes you’re working an eight hour day (wouldn’t that be nice). Past that number,
hourly backups will begin to be discarded on a “first in, first out” basis.

– Daily backups for the past X days: The third field specifies for how many days you want to

save backups. The very last project backup saved on any given day is preserved as the daily
backup for that day, and by default daily backups are only saved for five days (these are not
necessarily consecutive if you take some days off from editing for part of the week). Past that
number, daily backups will begin to be discarded on a “first in, first out” basis. If you’re working
on a project over a longer stretch of time, you can always raise this number.

– Project backup location: Click the Browse button to choose a location for these project

backups to be saved. By default they’re saved to a “ProjectBackup” directory on your
scratch disk, although you could change this to a volume that better fits into your data
backup methodology.

4 Click Save to confirm your change, and then close the Preferences window.

NOTE: When using this feature, the very first backup that’s saved for a given day may be a bit

slow, but all subsequent backups should be unnoticeable.

Chapter 3 Managing Projects and Databases 80

Once one or more Project Backups have been saved, you can access them in the Project Browser.

To open a Project Backup that’s been saved:

1 Open the Project Manager.

2 Right-click a project, and choose Project Backups from the contextual menu.

Restoring a project backup in the Project Browser

3 Select a backup that you want to restore from the Auto Backups list. If you don’t see the particular

backup you want, you can click the Refresh button to update the list, or you can try sorting by one
of the columns (Auto Backup, Date Modified, Width, Height) to better navigate the list.

Selecting a backup that you want to restore

4 Once you’ve selected the backup you want to restore, you can click Load to open that backup as

a new project. If the project it was saved from is already open, it won’t be overwritten.

Chapter 3 Managing Projects and Databases 81

Project Notes

Each DaVinci Resolve project now provides access to Project Notes, which is a simple “scratch pad”
for keeping track of text notes associated with each project. These notes can be accessed using the
File > Project Notes command, and there’s also a Project Notes command in the contextual menu for
project icons in the Project Manager, which makes these notes accessible to everyone who’s
connected to that database.

Dynamic Project Switching

Dynamic Project Switching is an option in the Project Manager contextual menu that lets you open
multiple projects into RAM simultaneously, so you can quickly switch between projects when you want
to copy and paste clips, timelines, and node settings back and forth. If you plan on opening many
projects, or even just a few very large projects, you should be sure your workstation has an
appropriate amount of RAM installed or you could experience a slowdown inperformance.

Methods of using Dynamic Project Switching:

– To enable Dynamic Project Switching: Open the Project Manager, right-click anywhere within

the Project Manager and choose Dynamic Project Switching so that it’s checked. Dynamic Project
Switching will remain enabled until you turn it off.

– To open multiple projects in RAM: Open any project, then reopen the Project Manager and open

any other project. All projects you open are kept available in RAM.

– To switch among open projects: Choose File > Switch Project and select the project you want to

switch to from the submenu. You can also choose other projects that have been opened into RAM
from the drop-down menu that appears to the right of the project name at the top center of the
DaVinci Resolve user interface.

– To close a specific project: Choose File > Close Project and select the project you want to close

from the submenu. You may be prompted to save, after which the project closes.

– To close all other open projects: Open the Project Manager. All open projects appear with a check

mark in the upper right-hand corner; the currently open project has an orange corner mark, while
other projects open in memory have a gray corner mark. Right-click anywhere within the Project
Manager, and choose Close Projects in Memory to close all projects other than the current one.

Switching among open projects using the Project Title
drop- down at the top of the DaVinci Resolve UI

Using dynamic project switching, you can do the following:

– Copy and paste clips from the Media Pool of one project into another.

– Copy and paste timelines from the Media Pool of one project into another. When you paste a

timeline from another project, all of the clips used in that timeline will be pasted to the same
location as well.

– Copy and paste clips from a timeline in one project to a timeline in another.

– Copy a node’s settings from one project and paste them to a node in another project.

You can also copy and paste clips, timelines, and node settings from one project to another without
using dynamic project switching, but using switching makes this process faster.

Chapter 3 Managing Projects and Databases 82

Archiving and Restoring Projects

DaVinci Resolve has a convenient feature for quickly archiving every single media file used by
aproject, including subtitle files, along with the project itself, to a single location. This can be done to
hand a project off to another DaVinci Resolve user, or to bundle a project and its media up for either
short- or long-term archiving using the backup methodology of your choice. Theprocess is simple.

To Archive a project:

1 Open the Project Manager.

2 Locate and right-click the project you want to archive, and choose Archive.

The contextual menu command for archiving projects

3 When the Archive Project window appears, choose a location to save the archive. Make sure you

choose a volume that’s large enough to accommodate the size of all the media from the project
you’re archiving, and click Save.

4 When the Archive dialog appears, verify the location the archive will be saved to, and choose

which optional media you want to save within the archive. You can optionally save Optimized
media and/or Render Cache media associated with a project.

A dialog letting you choose whether to save Optimized and/or Render Cache media

5 Click Ok, and a dialog with a progress bar will show you how long the archive operation will take

to finish. If any errors come up, resulting from missing or offline media, they’ll be presented at the
end of the process.

Chapter 3 Managing Projects and Databases 83

The resulting archive that is written is a directory with the .dra file extension. Inside this folder are a
series of subdirectories containing all of the media that’s used by the archived project. Each directory
of media files used is saved within a directory path that mirrors the exact path it came from, so you
have a reference for where each clip came from originally.

To restore an Archived project:

1 Copy the .dra archive directory you want to restore to the volume where you want those media

files to be. Restoring doesn’t move this directory, it only adds the project file within to the Project
Manager, so you should make sure the .dra archive directory is located on a storage volume with
suitable performance for you to work.

2 Open the Project Manager, right-click anywhere, and choose Restore from the contextual menu.

3 Choose the .dra archive directory you just copied, and click Open.

4 At the prompt, enter a unique project name for the restored project, and click OK. The project is

restored to the Project Manager, and remains linked to the media located inside the .dra archive.

If, after restoring an archive, you want to move its media to another location, you can use Media
Management to do a move operation for all clips in that project. For more information on Media
Management, See Chapter 46, “Media Management.”

Chapter 3 Managing Projects and Databases 84

Chapter 4

System and
User Preferences

This chapter covers the settings used for customizing the DaVinci Resolve
environment. System Preferences govern setup options that control the hardware and
software environment, while User Preferences control various user controls
within the software.

Contents

DaVinci Resolve Preferences  86

Adjusting Preferences  87

Individual Preferences and Settings Based on Login  87

Resetting Preferences  87

System  88

Memory and GPU  88

Media Storage  89

Decode Options  90

Video & Audio I/O  91

Video Plugins  93

Audio Plug-ins  93

Control Panels  94

General  94

Internet Accounts  95

Advanced  96

Chapter 4 System and User Preferences 85

User  96

Saving User Preference Presets  96

UI Settings  97

Project Save and Load  98

Editing  100

Color  102

Fairlight  104

Playback Settings  104

Control Panels  105

Metadata  106

Keyboard Customization  106

Choosing Keyboard Shortcut Emulation Presets  107

Viewing Commands Assigned to Specific Key Combinations  107

Searching for Keyboard Shortcuts  108

Managing Keyboard Mappings  109

Remapping a Command to One or More Keys  109

DaVinci Resolve Preferences

The DaVinci Resolve Preferences window contains workstation-specific settings for customizing how
DaVinci Resolve works, divided into System and User panes, selectable via buttons at the top of
this window.

To open the Project Settings window, do one of the following:

– Choose DaVinci Resolve > Preferences.

– Press Command-Comma.

TIP: You can open the preferences while the Project Manager is open when you first run

DaVinci Resolve by pressing Command-Comma.

Chapter 4 System and User Preferences 86

System Settings of the Preferences window

Adjusting Preferences

The System and User panes are each divided into a series of panels which can be selected from a
sidebar at the left. Each panel contains a collection of related settings that affects some category of
DaVinci Resolve functionality.

To alter any preference setting:

1 Click on the name of any group of settings in the sidebar at the left to open that panel.

2 Change whatever settings you need to change.

3 Click Save to apply the changes you’ve made and close the Preferences window.

If you’ve updated certain System Preferences, you’ll be prompted to restart DaVinci Resolve, but if
you’ve updated the User Preferences, this will probably be unnecessary.

Individual Preferences and Settings Based on Login

As of DaVinci Resolve 16, there are individual preferences and settings for each login account on a
given computer. This means that multiple artists can each have their own operating system login, and
DaVinci Resolve will maintain separate workspace layouts and preference states for each artist,
depending on who’s logged in.

Resetting Preferences

Resetting all preferences to their defaults is simple. Click the Option menu at the upper right corner of
the Preferences window and choose Reset System Preferences.

Chapter 4 System and User Preferences 87

System

The System pane of the Preferences window consists of a series of panels that configure the computer
and other hardware that comprises your DaVinci Resolve workstation.

Memory and GPU

The top section of this panel provides Memory Configuration options, while the bottom section of this
panel provides controls over how GPU processing is handled.

Memory Configuration

This section has the following preference settings handling memory usage.

– System Memory: The total available RAM on your workstation is listed here.

– Limit Resolve Memory Usage to: This preference limits the total amount of system memory that

Resolve uses, keeping memory available for other applications. The maximum and default setting
for this preference is 75 percent of your system’s RAM.

– Limit Fusion Memory Cache to: Lets you limit how much RAM the playback cache on the

Fusion page is allowed to use. Depending on the length of clips you’re working on in the Fusion
page, the playback cache can occupy a considerable amount of available memory. The amount
you allocate here is taken from the total amount of memory allocated by the “Limit Resolve
Memory Usage to” setting.

GPU Configuration

This section lets you choose how GPU processing should be handled.

Options for configuring the GPUs on your workstation

– GPU processing mode: Lets you set DaVinci Resolve to use the OpenCL, CUDA, or Metal GPU

computing APIs for doing effects processing. Which is best depends on the GPUs that are
installed in your computer. Most users can leave this set to Auto to let DaVinci Resolve choose
what’s appropriate. Otherwise, here are specific recommendations. If you have a macOS system,
you should use Metal. Linux and Windows users with AMD GPUs should use OpenCL. Linux and
Windows users with Nvidia GPUs should use CUDA, but make sure you have the correct drivers for
your system, and that you have the latest update to CUDA installed. Additionally, when you manually
choose an option from this drop-down menu, the GPU selection mode drop-down also appears.

– GPU selection mode: Lets you choose between Auto, which lets DaVinci Resolve choose which

of the available GPUs on your computer to use for processing, and Manual, which lets you choose
which GPUs to enable or disable for processing from a list that appears below. This can be useful
in instances where you have multiple GPUs installed on a machine and you want to choose only
the most powerful GPUs for processing. This can also be useful in instances where an external
eGPU is connected to a laptop or all-in-one with a weaker GPU, so you can choose the more
powerful eGPU for processing.

Chapter 4 System and User Preferences 88

– Use Display GPU For Compute: By default, a single GPU system uses the same GPU for

the DaVinci user interface and also for image processing. As greater processing speeds are
achievable with two or more GPUs, if two GPUs are installed for image processing, this checkbox
enables the shared use of the display GPU instead of dedicating it to just the DaVinci user
interface. Users of the non-studio version of DaVinci Resolve are restricted to the use of a single
GPU, unless DaVinci Resolve is installed on a 2013 or later Mac Pro, in which case both installed
GPUs will be used.

– GPU selection list: This list only appears when GPU processing mode is set to either OpenCL,

CUDA, or Metal, and when GPU selection mode is set to Manual. A list of every GPU installed in
your computer appears, and you can use checkboxes to the left of each GPU to enable or disable
specific GPUs from being used for processing.

– Optimized Viewer Updates: This only appears on multi-GPU macOS and Windows systems or on

single- and multi-GPU Linux systems; enables faster viewer update performance.

Media Storage

This panel lets you define the scratch disk and other media storage locations used by DaVinci Resolve,
as well as the default cache directories locations to be used when creating new projects.

– Media Storage Locations: This list lets you define the scratch disk of the system. The first volume

in this list is where Gallery stills and cache files are stored, so you want to make sure that you
choose the fastest storage volume to which you have access.

– Mapped Mount: This column allows you to specify translatable media path mapping between

Mac, Linux, and Windows file system conventions.

– Direct I/O: This Linux-only option allows DaVinci Resolve to write directly to the drive using

the kernel buffers, bypassing the normal storage cache in RAM. This allows access to the full
performance of the drive.

– Automatically display attached local and network storage locations: This checkbox lets

DaVinci Resolve access media on all temporarily and permanently mounted volumes, including
SATA and eSATA, SAS, USB, FireWire, Thunderbolt, Gigabit Ethernet (GbE or GigE), Fibre Channel,
and otherwise connected hard drives, without having to add them to this list. This is on by default.

If you’re using the Apple App store version of DaVinci Resolve, turning on “Automatically display
attached local and network storage locations” automatically prompts you via a dialog to add
“Macintosh HD” as a storage location. Clicking Add Location prompts you to select the Macintosh
HD volume with another dialog, and clicking Open then adds that volume to the Media Storage
Volumes list. After you click Save to close the Preference windows, Resolve should now auto­mount any volumes attached to your computer in the Media Storage browser of the Media page.
Don’t do this until after you’ve added a fast storage volume to the Media Storage Locations list,
because you don’t want Macintosh HD as the first volume in this list – the very first volume in this
list should always be reserved for your fast scratch volume.

Adding Storage Locations Manually

Some versions of DaVinci Resolve do not allow automatic display of attached volumes. In this case,
you can right-click anywhere in the background of the Media Storage panel’s volumes list on the
Media page and choose “Add New Location” to open a dialog you can use to choose a volume you
want to add.

Chapter 4 System and User Preferences 89

Manually adding a volume to the Media Storage panel’s volumes list

Using Path Mapping to Access Volumes From Other Operating Systems

Shared media path mapping support for Mac, Linux and Windows makes it easier for multi-system
shops to share Resolve projects among different platforms that use different file path conventions.

To add a mapped mount string:

1 Open the Media Storage panel of the Resolve Preferences window.

2 Add the volume you want to map to the Scratch Disks list.

3 Double-click the Mapped Mount column of the drive you added to edit it.

4 Enter the alternate file path you want that volume to have. For example, if you’re on a Windows

workstation and you want to access a Linux volume, type the Linux file path into the Mapped
Mount column.

NOTE: If the volume you’ve selected to use for the cache becomes unavailable,

DaVinci Resolve will warn you with a dialog.

Decode Options

This panel contains all options available for using the GPU to accelerate the decoding and debayering
of various formats.

– Use GPU for Blackmagic RAW decode: Lets you use your GPU to accelerate the decoding of

Blackmagic RAW (BRAW) media.

– Decode H.264/HEVC using hardware acceleration: Allows the use of hardware acceleration for

H.264 or HEVC playback, if available on the computer you’re using.

– Use easyDCP decoder: Since DaVinci Resolve has its own DCP encoder and decoder built in,

this checkbox lets you switch over to using easyDCP to do DCP decoding, if you have a license
installed on your workstation.

– Automatically refresh growing files in the media pool: If you’re using a third-party application

that records live to a growing video file, you can now begin to edit that file while it’s still recording.
Simply import the growing file into the Media Pool, and when this box is checked, DaVinci Resolve
will continuously refresh to determine if the file has changed, and automatically update its
attributes in the Media Pool.

– Use GPU for RED Debayer: Lets you use your GPU to accelerate debayering of R3D media.

The latest RED API enables accelerated 8K debayering using either Metal or Cuda. There are
three options:

– None

– Debayer

– Decompression and Debayer

Chapter 4 System and User Preferences 90

– Use Red Rocket if available: (Only appears if a RED ROCKET-X or RED ROCKET is installed.)

This checkbox lets you disable Red Rocket support if you need to force DaVinci Resolve to
use standard RED software CPU debayering to accommodate your specific workflow or when
troubleshooting. If you are required to debayer R3D media using your CPU, turn this checkbox off.
Additional options appear letting you choose decompression and debayer settings.

Video & Audio I/O

The preferences in this panel let you choose video and audio interfaces on your workstation.

Video & Audio I/O

This section lets you choose which Blackmagic Design video interfaces you want to use for
monitoring, capture, playback, and Resolve Live, assuming you have any connected to your
workstation. If you have more than one Blackmagic Design video device connected to your computer,
you can independently configure them for playback and capture. If no interfaces are connected, no
options will be available.

– For playback use: If you have a compatible video output card, you should choose from the card

options that appear here. Leaving this set to “None” disables external video output. Disabling
video output can improve real time performance when external monitoring and output is not a
priority. You can also choose “None” when you’re using DaVInci Resolve with another application
open at the same time that’s using your workstation’s video output interface. When you’ve quit
the other application, you can reselect the video output interface for use by DaVinci Resolve. Any
changes to this setting require a restart of the program.

– For capture use: If you have a compatible video capture card for video input, you should choose

from the card options that appear here. This setting also sets the selected input device for use
in Resolve Live, allowing you to monitor and color correct a live video signal. Any changes to this
setting require a restart of the program.

– Release video I/O hardware when not in focus: When turned on, DaVinci Resolve releases

control of the video output device whenever you switch to another application.

– Enable Fairlight Audio Accelerator: Turning this checkbox on enables an installed Fairlight Audio

Accelerator PCI card to be used by DaVinci Resolve for accelerated audio processing and for all
audio I/O monitoring and recording.

– Audio Interface: Turning Enable Fairlight Audio Accelerator on exposes an additional menu that

lets you choose which audio interface to use for audio I/O; the choices are MADI (if you’re going to
use a third-party MADI interface) or Fairlight Audio Interface and MADI (if you also want to use the
Fairlight Audio Interface).

Speaker Setup

This section lets you define different sets of speakers with which to monitor audio playback. To access
more than the default stereo system output that most workstations default to, you must use whatever
software is available for your operating system to choose the desired audio hardware you want to use,
and define how many audio outputs are required for the type of monitoring you want to do (stereo,
surround, and so on). For example, on macOS you’ll use the Audio Midi Setup utility to choose output
hardware and select a speaker configuration to be made available on your system. For more
information, see the DaVinci Resolve Configuration Guide, available on the web from the
Blackmagic Design support page at https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/family/davinci-

resolve-and-fusion.

– Speaker configuration: Lets you choose between two settings. “Use System Setting,” which sets

DaVinci Resolve to output audio via your workstation’s built-in audio output, even if a compatible
video I/O interface is enabled for capture and playback or for Resolve Live. “Manual” exposes
additional controls with which you can define your own speaker setup.

Chapter 4 System and User Preferences 91

– Monitor Set: For each Monitor Circuit, you can define multiple sets of monitoring speakers. The

default two are MAIN (your primary monitoring speakers) and NEAR (usually a secondary set of
inferior speakers for checking the mix on cheaper consumer gear). However, options for Set 2–15
lets you define up to 15 different combinations of monitoring speakers that you can switch among
for checking or creating different mixes. Click the Rename button to rename any of the more
generically labeled monitor sets to something more memorable.

– Device: This setting lets you choose which, of the audio I/O interfaces connected to your

workstation, you want to use for that particular monitor set. Different monitor sets can use different
I/O hardware, making it possible to listen to different speakers via different audio I/O boxes. Every
compatible audio I/O device connected to your workstation should appear in the Device drop­down menu.

Assigning dif ferent audio I/O devices to different speaker configurations

– Monitor Set Format: This menu lets you define the format of the currently selected Monitor Set.

Options include Mono, Stereo, LCR (left/center/right), LCRS (left/center/right/sub), LCRSS, 5.1/Film,

6.1, and 7.1/Film.

– Monitor output list: Depending on the Monitor Set Format you choose, each stem of the mix will

have an entry in this list with controls that let you map which output goes to that particular speaker,
as well as what gain adjustment (if any) you want to make. The number of outputs available in this
list reflects the number of speakers made available by your operating system, so if you don’t see
the required number of outputs that you want to map to different stems, you should configure your
system audio using the procedures available in the DaVinci Resolve Configuration Guide.

About Audio Monitoring and Audio Input

The audio processing throughout DaVinci Resolve, including on the Fairlight page and audio
processing using Fairlight FX plug-ins, is equally compatible with all platforms that
DaVinci Resolve runs on, including macOS, Windows, and Linux. In particular, DaVinci Resolve
supports audio monitoring and audio input using (i) the audio of a supported
Blackmagic Design I/O device such as an UltraStudio or Decklink, (ii) your macOS, Windows,
or Linux workstation’s on-board audio, (iii) any Core Audio compatible, Windows compatible,
or Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA)-supported third party audio interface.

Alternately, you can monitor audio with the optional Fairlight Audio Accelerator, which is a PCI
card that’s designed to handle even more channels of audio I/O monitoring and recording, and
that’s also capable of accelerating audio processing operations to provide better performance
for audio operations.

Chapter 4 System and User Preferences 92

Dolby Atmos Configuration Controls

The Video and Audio I/O panel of the DaVinci Resolve System Preferences lets you enable and
configure the use of a Dolby RMU for doing Dolby Atmos mixing. You can enter the IP address of the
RMU, and choose the base audio output.

Video Plugins

You can selectively enable and disable specific Open FX plug-ins on startup. You can use this function
to streamline and organize the Open FX list to just the plug-ins you commonly use, or to exclude a
problematic plug-in that causes instability in the system. Additionally, DaVinci Resolve automatically
checks the last plug-in loading result on startup, and skips any plug-ins that previously caused a
crash or hang.

Individual Open FX plug-ins can be manually enabled and disabled in the Video Plugins panel by
checking or unchecking the boxes corresponding to the plug-ins.

The Video Plugins panel allows you to enable or disable specific Open FX plug-ins at startup.

Audio Plug-ins

Three sections of parameters let you manage VST Effects, enabled plug-ins, and external
audio processes.

– VST Effects: A list at top lets you manually add and remove VST plug-in effects directories, if

necessary. VST effects aren’t installed in a standard location, so it may sometimes be necessary to
add a newly installed directory of VST plug-ins that you’ve just installed on your system.

– Available Plug-ins: Once you’ve added one or more VST directories to the list, a second list

underneath shows all audio plug-ins that are available within these directories. Each plug-in on the
list has a checkbox that shows whether or not it’s currently enabled. Any VST plug-ins that cause
DaVinci Resolve to crash while loading them during startup will be automatically disabled. You
can use this list to see which plug-ins have been disabled, for troubleshooting purposes, and to
reenable such “blacklisted” plug-ins by turning their checkboxes back on.

– Setup External Audio Processes: While working in the Fairlight page, you have the ability to

process an audio file using a third-party application, if necessary, in the event you need to use
another application’s capabilities to create an effect or solve an issue that can’t be accomplished
in the Fairlight page itself. To do this, you must first add one or more applications to the External
Audio Process list in the Audio Plug-ins panel of the System Preferences.

Chapter 4 System and User Preferences 93

To add an External Audio Process:

1 Click the Add button.

2 Double-click the text in the Name column and change the name to that of the application or

process you’re going to link to.

3 Click once in the Path column, and then use the file dialog to locate and select the application or

script you want to use as the external audio process.

4 Open the drop-down menu in the Type column, and choose how you want the selected audio

process to work: Reveal (open the application), Command Line (use from Terminal), or Clipboard
(copy the audio clip file path to the clipboard to paste into the open command of an application
or utility).

5 When you’re done, click Save, and restart DaVinci Resolve if you’re prompted to.

Control Panels

Two sections let you specify which Color Grading Panel and Audio Console is connected to your
workstation.

– Color Grading Panel: A menu lets you choose which color grading panel you have connected to

your workstation. Some panels expose additional controls.

If you have a DaVinci Resolve Mini or Micro Panel, leave this setting set to None and these panels
will be auto-detected by Resolve when you plug them in.

If you have a control panel that connects via USB, choose your panel from the list.

If you have a DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel connected over Ethernet, choose “DaVinci Resolve Mini
Panel (Ethernet)” and then choose your panel from the drop-down that appears.

If you’re using a JLCooper Eclipse, choose “JLCooper Eclipse CX” and then enter the IP and Port
number into the fields that appear.

– Use MIDI Audio Console: A checkbox lets you enable the use of a third-party audio console that’s

connected to your workstation. Turning this on exposes three additional menus.

– MIDI Protocol: Lets you choose either the HUI or MCU protocol, whichever is compatible with

the audio console you want to use.

– MIDI Input: Lets you choose the MIDI input used to connect your console.

– MIDI Output: Lets you choose the MIDI output used to connect your console.

General

This panel provides various options for scripting, audio processing, monitoring, and sending
problem reports.

– External Scripting Using: (Resolve Studio only) Options include None, Local, and Network. When

set to None, only scripting in the Console window is allowed. When set to Local, external scripts
and applications on the same computer can control DaVinci Resolve. When set to Network,
external scripts and applications from other computers on the network (or via the internet) can
control DaVinci Resolve.

– Audio Processing Block Size: Lets you increase the sample block size to add processing

headroom to the system, at the expense of adding latency to audio playback. The default value is
Auto, which automatically chooses a suitable setting for the audio I/O device you’re using.

For those who have specific needs and are interested in setting this manually, here are some
examples of use. In a first example, when a system is under a heavy load (there are many plug-ins
being used on many tracks), then increasing the block size to add processing headroom will result

Chapter 4 System and User Preferences 94

in a longer delay every time your audio hardware requests samples to feed the speakers. If you’re
only mixing, the resultant latency may not be a problem, so this gives you the option to add
headroom so your system can run a few more plug-ins or tracks.

On the other hand, this increased delay in the processed audio running through the mixer is a
much bigger problem if you’re recording an artist in an ADR session, where they need to hear
themselves in the headphones, or when you’re recording foley or voice over and there’s an
increased delay between what you see and what you’re recording, so in this case sticking with the
default value (or smaller) will sacrifice processing headroom for diminished latency.

TIP: A common strategy when you need to force more cooperation from a particular

combination of workstation and audio interface is to reduce Audio Processing Block Size
when you’re about to do a recording session, when track and plug-in use is lower. Later,
when you start mixing in earnest and adding plug-ins, you can increase Audio Processing
Block Size to give you better performance once you’re finished recording.

– Use 10-bit precision in viewers if available: This checkbox only appears on Mac OS X 10.11 (El

Capitan) and higher installations of DaVinci Resolve. Turning this checkbox on lets DaVinci Resolve
display 10-bit images in the Viewer.

– Use Mac Display Color Profile for viewers: If you’re using DaVinci Resolve on macOS, this

checkbox enables all viewers in DaVinci Resolve to use whatever display profile is selected in the
Displays panel of the System Preferences. This lets DaVinci Resolve use ColorSync on macOS so
your Viewer image should better match your output display.

– Automatically Tag Rec.709 Scene Clips as Rec.709-A: Turn this checkbox on to automatically tag

any Rec. 709 QuickTime files for Rec. 709-A playback. This setting is useful if your final QuickTime
video does not match what you see in the Resolve viewers (gamma shift), and you wish to export
for the web rather than broadcast.

– Automatically Scan other databases for remote rendering jobs: Turn this checkbox on to scan all

connected databases, rather than just the current database for possible remote rendering jobs.

– Automatically Check for Updates: Turn this checkbox on to make it easier to ensure you’re using

the latest version of DaVinci Resolve. You can also choose DaVinci Resolve > Check For Updates
to notify you of new versions and download them when available.

– Automatically opt-in for new beta program notifications: Lets you know when public beta

versions of DaVinci Resolve become available, in case you’re interested in living on the edge.

– Send report when application quits unexpectedly: When this checkbox is turned on, this setting

enables DaVinci Resolve to automatically prepare a problem report whenever DaVinci Resolve
unexpectedly quits. You get to fill out some information (please be as specific as you can about
what you were doing when DaVinci Resolve had its issue) and click a button to send the report.

– Automatically send problem reports: When this checkbox is turned on, problem reports are

automatically sent, with no user intervention. You have the option of adding your name and email
address to be automatically included, but this information is optional.

Internet Accounts

DaVinci Resolve 16 introduced integration with YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter, and Frame.io that allows you
to render and upload directly to each service. This panel provides buttons that let you sign into your
YouTube, Vimeo, and Frame.io accounts, as well as specify a local cache location for media being
synced with Frame.io.

For each service you sign into, a floating window presents the interface in which you’ll need to enter
your login name and password to enable integration, followed by whatever two-factor identification

Chapter 4 System and User Preferences 95

and other required steps are necessary. Once entered, DaVinci Resolve will sign in to each of these
services automatically when DaVinci Resolve opens.

The Internet Accounts panel of the System tab of the DaVinci Resolve Preferences window

NOTE: For Frame.io, the local cache location is used to store clips you import into a

DaVinci Resolve project from the Frame.io volume in the Media Storage panel of the
Media page.

Advanced

This tab is used for special Resolve configurations and SAN parameters that are applicable to older
file systems.

User

This panel lets you choose user preferences, specific to your workstation, that govern such things as
UI behaviors and appearance, auto save settings, editing and color defaults, control panel action, and
keyboard shortcut mappings.

TIP: Many of the settings in the User panel used to be found in the Project Settings window

prior to version 14, but they were moved here to accommodate collaborative workflows with
each user having their own independent general, editing, and color settings, as well as their
own keyboard shortcuts.

Saving User Preference Presets

It’s possible to save multiple presets for instant recall of different User Preference settings, using the
Option menu in the UI Settings window.

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The commands for managing User Preference presets
in the Option menu of the UI Settings window

Methods of managing User Preference presets:

– To save a preset: Choose whatever settings you want to use, then click the UI Settings window

Option menu, and choose Save User Preferences as Preset. Enter a name into the dialog, and click
OK. That preset will now appear at the top of the Option menu.

– To load a preset: Click the UI Settings window Option menu, and choose Load Preset from the

submenu of the preset you want to load.

– To update a preset: Load a preset you want to edit, then change whatever settings you need to,

and choose Update Preset from the submenu of that preset in the Option menu.

– To export a preset: Choose Export Preset from the submenu of any preset in the Option menu.

A file with the .userprefs extension is saved at the location you chose.

– To import a preset: Choose Import User Preferences as Preset in the Option menu, use the dialog

to find the exported .userprefs preset file you want to import, and click Open.

– To delete a preset: Choose Delete Preset from the submenu of any preset in the Option menu.

– To reset all presets: Choose Reset User Preferences from the Option menu to restore all User

Preferences to their default settings.

UI Settings

A collection of operational preferences.

– Language: A Language drop-down at the top lets you specify which language the DaVinci Resolve

user interface displays. DaVinci Resolve currently supports English, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish,
Portuguese, French, Russian, Thai, and Vietnamese.

– Reload last working project when logging in: Automatically reopens the last project a user had

open whenever that user logs back into DaVinci Resolve. This checkbox can only be enabled
when editing a preset configuration in the Presets panel, so that it’s always on no matter which
project you open as long as you’re using that particular preset. Ideally, enable it for your User
config (if you’re using a multi-user configuration of DaVinci Resolve) or your Guest Default config (if
you’re using a single-user configuration).

– Show focus indicators in the User Interface: Lets you enable or disable a red line at the top of

each panel that indicates which panel currently has focus.

– Use gray background for user interface: By default, DaVinci Resolve uses a blue-gray UI

background, intended to provide a more attractive experience for users focused on the less
color-critical aspects of DaVinci Resolve, namely editing. Turning this checkbox on switches
DaVinci Resolve to a totally neutral, desaturated gray UI, which can be valuable as a point of
reference for colorists concerned about the blue-gray UI’s potential to bias the eye in the dark
environment of the grading suite.

– Use gray background in viewers: When turned on, sets the background of all viewers to gray,

making it easier to evaluate image blanking or minor sizing adjustments than with the default dark
background.

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– Resize image in viewer to square pixels: This control will select between using a square or non-

square pixel aspect ratio within the Viewer. This is important when working with SD images which
do not have a square pixel aspect ratio.

– Delay viewer display by X frames: When turned on, you can enter a number of frames to delay

DaVinci Resolve Viewers as they appear on your computer displays so that the image on your
computer display better syncs up with the same image shown on external displays that are
delayed due to various signal processing processes.

– Output single field when paused: This setting will reduce flicker when grading using a computer

monitor or when working with interlaced material. Ordinarily, when viewing interlaced material
in Stop or Pause mode, field one is displayed followed by field two. Depending on the image,
this can result in a flicker on the display. When this option is enabled, only field one will be
shown on the monitor when playback is paused; however both fields will be shown when the
clips are played.

– Stop playback when a dropped frame is detected: When enabled, sets DaVinci Resolve to stop

playback whenever a frame is dropped on output, to warn you that there are performance issues
on your workstation. This is particularly useful when you’re outputting to tape.

– Stop renders when a frame or clip cannot be processed: When enabled, this will halt a render if

DaVinci Resolve detects an error in the encoding, rather than continue to try to process it.

– Timeline sort order: A user setting that allows you to determine the default sort order of the

Timelines that appear in the Viewer drop-down menus throughout DaVinci Resolve.

– Alphabetic: Sorts Timelines alphabetically A-Z.

– Creation Date: Sorts Timelines by oldest creation date first.

– Recently Used (default): Sorts Timelines by the last actively used Timeline first.

Project Save and Load

The Project Save and Load panel lets you control how projects are opened, and how they’re saved.

Load Settings

The Load Settings preference lets you control a key aspect of project opening performance, namely
whether or not all timelines within a given project are loaded into memory at the time of opening.

– Load all timelines when opening projects: To improve the performance of longer projects with

multiple timelines, the “Load all timelines when opening projects” checkbox in the Project Save
and Load panel of the User Preferences defaults to off.

– When this checkbox is off, opening a project only results in the last timeline you worked on

being opened into memory; all other timelines are not loaded into RAM. This speeds up the
opening of large projects. However, you may experience brief pauses when you open other
timelines within that project, as each new timeline must be loaded into RAM as you open it.
If you open a particularly gigantic timeline, a progress bar will appear letting you know how
long it will take to load. Another advantage of this is the reduction of each project’s memory
footprint, which is particularly valuable when working among multiple projects using Dynamic
Project Switching.

– If you turn this on, all timelines will be loaded into RAM, and you’ll experience no pauses when

opening timelines you haven’t opened already. However, projects with many timelines may take
longer to open and save.

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Save Settings

DaVinci Resolve’s Auto Save feature can save you from the heartache of lost work resulting from an
unexpected problem. DaVinci Resolve 12.5 and later has significantly improved save times, so using
Auto Save is highly recommended to prevent the loss of work in the event you have a problem.

– Live Save: A progressive, fast, always-on autosave mechanism that “saves as you go.” When Live

Save is enabled, all changes in the Cut, Edit, and Fairlight pages are saved as you make them. All
changes in the Fusion and Color pages are automatically saved when you switch to another clip,
and also periodically and invisibly in the background while you work to ensure that your work is
saved even if you haven’t switched clips in a while.

– Project Backups: Turning on the Project Backups checkbox in the Project Save and Load panel

of the User Preferences enables DaVinci Resolve to save multiple backup project files at periodic
intervals, using a method that’s analogous to a GFS (grandfather father son) backup scheme.
This can be done regardless of whether or not Live Save is turned on. Each project backup is a
complete project file, excluding stills and LUTs.

Once you’ve enabled Project Backups for a long enough time, whatever saved project backups
have been created are retrievable in the Project Manager via the contextual menu that appears
when you right-click a project, by choosing Project Backups. Opening a project backup does not
overwrite the original project; project backups are always opened as independent projects.

Restoring a project backup in the Project Browser

Project backups are only saved when changes have been made to a project. If DaVinci Resolve
sits idle for any period of time, such as when your smart watch tells you to go outside and walk
around the block, no additional project backups are saved, preventing DaVinci Resolve from
overwriting useful backups with unnecessary ones.

Three fields let you specify how often to save a new project backup, while the fourth lets you
choose where the backups will be saved.

– Perform backups every X minutes: The first field specifies how often to save a new backup

within the last hour you’ve worked. By default, a new backup is saved every 10 minutes,
resulting in six backups within the last hour. Once an hour of working has passed, an hourly
backup is saved and the per-minute backups begin to be discarded on a first in, first out basis.
By default, this means that you’ll only ever have six backups at a time that represent the last
hour’s worth of work.

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– Hourly backups for the past X hours: The second field specifies how many hourly project

backups you want to save. By default, 8 hourly backups will be saved for the current day you’re
working, which assumes you’re working an eight hour day (wouldn’t that be nice). Past that
number, hourly backups will begin to be discarded on a first in, first out basis.

– Daily backups for the past X days: The third field specifies for how many days you want to

save backups. The very last project backup saved on any given day is preserved as the daily
backup for that day, and by default daily backups are only saved for five days (these are not
necessarily consecutive if you take some days off of editing for part of the week). Past that
number, daily backups will begin to be discarded on a first in, first out basis. If you’re working
on a project over a longer stretch of time, you can always raise this number.

– Project backup location: Click the Browse button to choose a location for these project

backups to be saved. By default they’re saved to a “ProjectBackup” directory on your
scratch disk, although you could change this to a volume that better fits into your data
backup methodology.

NOTE: When using this feature, the very first project backup that’s saved for a given day may

be a bit slow, but all subsequent backups should be unnoticeable.

Editing

The settings in this panel affect new timeline settings, editorial default values, trim behaviors, timeline
UI appearance, and frame interpolation settings.

New Timeline Settings

These settings define the presets that populate the New Timeline Options window whenever you
create a new timeline.

– Start Timecode: You can change the Start Timecode if a specific start time is required.

– No. of Video Tracks: Enter how many video tracks you want to have. You can also drag within this

field to adjust the number of video tracks with a virtual slider.

– No. of Audio Tracks: Enter how many audio tracks you want to have. You can also drag within this

field to adjust the number of audio tracks with a virtual slider.

– Audio Track Type: Choose the channel mapping you want the new audio tracks to use.

Automatic Smart Bins

These settings let DaVinci Resolve automatically create Smart Bins whenever clips with relevant
metadata appear in the Media Pool, or whenever such metadata is added to clips that are already in
the Media Pool. You can choose which Smart Bins are automatically created via a series of
checkboxes.

General Settings

These settings define the timing of resolve-generated effects and editing operations.

– Standard generator duration: Defines the default duration of generators you edit into the

Timeline, in Seconds or Frames. The default value is 5 seconds.

– Standard transition duration: Defines the duration of transitions, in Seconds or Frames, that you

add to an edit point in DaVinci Resolve. The default value is 1 second.

– Standard still duration: Defines the duration of stills that you import such as TIFF, PNG and other

supported graphic file formats, in Seconds or Frames. The default value is 5 seconds.

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