The "To Keep Up" Wiki

• Davinci Resolve page
• Selected videos on Resolve
• sight and sound resources
• Exporting (thanks for this, Makeuseof)
• All-inclusive manual under Latest Support Notes. There are many manuals there, including: new feature guide, instruction manual for Resolve and Fusion, Fuse plugin guide, and more.

Resolve is used for video editing. (MacBook shortcuts)

These are keyed to Apple machines.  For Windows, replace ⌘ with Control and ⌥ with Alt.

More shortcuts

In Media Storage, under Master, create a bin for each camera.
Then find clips on top and copy them below, into the appropriate bin

in Workspace:

• Dual Screen > On (see that it is checked)
• Primary Display (will hold: Timeline Viewer (video at cursor), Timeline, and Inspector) - this is where you do most of the editing
• Secondary Display (will hold: Items in the bin, Effects.)
• Single Viewer Mode (else will see two screens above timeline)

Primary display, turn on:

• Inspector

Secondary display, turn on:

• Index (and in it, Markers)
• Effects

You want the narrow image to fill the frame.

1. Import clips as usual. discover people very thin
2. Either Select all clips, or select a clip in the media pool
3. Right click on it, and from the dropdown choose Clip Attributes…
4. Video tab
5. For Pixel Aspect Ratio, select “1.3x Anamorphic” from the dropdown
6. OK

Note that selecting a bin and doing Sort By, sorts the bins and not the clips in the bin.  To sort the clips in a bin:

1. Select the bin
2. Use the icon on top to display by list
3. Click on Clip Name heading and see them sort
4. Use the icon on top to display by icons

Useful to help when setting up your B-rolls.
Enable “list display” in the media pool, right click the bar and select the “Display Clip Names” option. In that field, you can change the name of the clip.
Technically, the Clip File name is not really changed, but the displayed clip name is changed. I think this is a safe idea – it's very risky to change actual file names.

Suppose channel 1 has loud hum (happened 20190710).  How to split L&R to two channels and mute the noisy channel 1.

1. Right click each source file in Media Pool
2. From dropdown select Clip Attributes…
3. Audio tab
4. Format: Mono, Tracks: 2, Add
5. See: Stereo with Channel 1 & 2, Mono with Channel 1, Mono with Channel 2.  This is good.
6. Pull each source file to the timeline.  See:three audio channels.
7. Mute (press M till highlighted and S till it's not) the Stereo and noisy channel 1.
8. Done

You want to extract a section of a timeline to someplace.  Maybe you want to duplicate it in the timeline or maybe you want to pull extracts from a large production to another timeline in the project. 

I did this 20190912 for 2 Bits and a Byte, they wanted a short extract of a long video. Timeline 1 holds the >60 minute video, I pulled sections of it, a minute here and 2 minutes there, to another timeline I created.

1. In the source timeline, find start of section to copy, type i (mark the in-point)
2. In the source timeline, find the end of the section to copy, type o (mark the out-point)
3. Put cursor inside the selected area and ⌘C
4. Go to new place you want it (the other timeline or elsewhere in current timeline) and ⌘V

• To duplicate the timeline: Edit > Duplicate Timeline
• To rename timeline: click on its name in Media Pool, and rename it
• To change to another timeline: Above the viewing window, open dropdown by current timeline, will show you the others to select

You have one or more timelines and you want to rename one or more of them.
Select Media view.  See: list of media including timelines.  Click on name of timeline and you can edit/change it.

You want to adjust the volume of an entire track or a portion of it (to lower volume of a loud speaker or noise or raise volume of a speaker too far from the microphone)

Here's how to fix this; make sure the audio waveforms are visible.

1. Using the Blade Edit Tool (B - looks like razor blade), cut the track just before and just after the section needing sound adjustment
2. Return to the Selection Mode (A) tool
3. Move the horizontal volume white bar up or down over the target passage as needed to increase or decrease the volume

Other volume adjustment notes.

• Change volume for whole track.
  • Move the horizontal volume white bar up or down as needed to increase or decrease the volume of the entire track
• Change volume for part of a track.
  • Using selection tool (A) put cursor to left of area needing volume adjustment
    • Use the zoom function, Alt(Option)-mouse scroll, to zoom in or out on the timeline
  • Put two dots to the left of the area needing adjustment by: put cursor over horizontal white line and press Alt(Option)
  • Repeat with two dots to the right of the area needing adjustment
  • Then using Selection tool, drag the horizontal white bar up or down to adjust volume

(You can see that I prefer the previous 3-step method!)

You want to add a visual effect, either to zoom in or out or pan an existing clip.

1. Select the clip.  (You might cut its start and end (use Blade tool) so you have the range of video you want to zoom on isolated into a single clip.)
2. In Inspector, turn on Dynamic Zoom, and Linear
3. In preview window in lower left, select from the dropdown Dynamic Zoom
4. Green box is beginning, Red box is end, of the zoom.

TBD

Working with clips from a Zoom meeting.  I want to start the meeting with just the video of the speaker, and then at one point dynamically shrink the image of the speaker and move it into a corner of the screen.

Here's how to do this.

1. Place the speaker track above the slide track.
2. Adjust the size of the slide track if necessary (to do this: mute the speaker video track, zoom and/or move the slide track, unmute.)
3. Click on the track to select it.
4. Find the spot where you want to start and end the transition.  Maybe you start at 3:03 and end at 3:08.  Cut the speaker track at these times. This we'll call the 5-second clip.
5. Select the 5 second clip.
6. Open the Inspector panel.
7. In the Inspector panel, locate the Transform section.
8. In the Transform section, click the small diamond-shaped icons next to the attributes you want to change (e.g., zoom, X/Y position).  The diamond will turn red.
9. Move the playhead to the start of the 5-second clip. Pause; see the small diamond-shaped icon changes to show you that Resolve has remembered the start values.
10. Move the playhead to the end or just before the end of the 5-second clip.
11. Adjust the parameters you want to change (e.g., zoom, X/Y) until it's at the ending spot.
12. Try it out.

You can further refine the animation by adjusting the keyframe interpolation curves.  Click on the keyframe diamonds on the timeline, and the Keyframe Editor will appear on the bottom.  You can use this panel to adjust the animation curve for smoother or more abrupt transitions.

This information was originally obtained from ChatGPT.

You're re-editing a project and some or all of the media reports “Media Offline”. Here's how I fixed it once.

1. Go to timeline
2. See or select Media Pool in upper left
3. In media pool, right click on a clip (e.g., 00000.mts) that shows Media Offline
4. Towards the bottom of the context menu, select “Relink selected clips”
5. In the dialog that appears, navigate to the clip you want

If the clip (e.g., 00000.MTS) is inside a directory and you don't see it and can't select it, just select the containing directory.
It has worked when you see the contents of a video or the waveform of the audio in the Media Pool.

from https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?t=57380

(After I edit a project I move the project files to another storage medium.  If I need to re-edit the video, I move them back, where this comes into play.)

Tutorial
In brief

1. set up a track (cut left and right on timeline) that has what you want to blur
2. select the track and go to Color tab (to left of musical notes)
3. once there, alt-S to create a boxie
4. select the boxie
5. draw the window around the object using square or whatever
6. adjust the square
7. track right and track left
8. Open FX, drag Box Blur to the boxie

from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnainUbQ4qY

1. Select clip in timeline
2. Go to the Color tab
3. In video preview, move the time marker to the frame you'd like to save
4. Right-click on the video preview, and select Grab Still
5. On the left in the Gallery, right-click on the still and select Export
6. Find the place on your computer to save it and name it
7. Change file type to JPEG or whatever, and hit Export to save the frame as an image

First, you need a caption file that Resolve can read; if you use Zoom you may have a transcript VTT file. (You can also manually enter the captions but I'm not discussing that here.)

for Resolve version 19+, it's easier than before.

• Optionally remove the names from the captions (so the caption is “hello world” instead of “John Smith: hello world”). To do this:
  1. Copy the …transcript.vtt file (to save its original form) to a new file, say XX.vtt.
  2. Edit the XX.vtt file and remove the names from the captions
     • remove names from captions using vim: :g/[A-Za-z].*:/s/^.*: ⁄⁄

There may be programs that do this conversion but that's not what I'm using.

• In Resolve, Timeline Edit
• File > Import file > Import Subtitle, select the …transcript.vtt or XX.vtt file.
• In timeline, above Video 1, right-click and add subtitle track.
• It becomes a third track area, above the audio and video track areas.
• Move the timeline cursor to the place where the first caption should go (if captions start at 00:00:03,090, then move cursor to approximately there)
• Copy the …transcript.vtt or XX.vtt file to this track to align with this cursor (at approximately 00:00:03,090).
• (might not need to do this:) On the caption track, choose the eyeball to make captions visible.
• Then select the caption track, and go to inspector.  I have found these to be useful, but play around till you're happy:
  • Open Sans size 35 line spacing -10 Left alignment
  • Transform position x=808 y=32, anchor bottom and centered
  • Drop Shadow: x offset 4, y offset -4

• Use Custom
• Video tab
• Open Subtitle Settings
  • Select export Subtitle
  • Format “As a separate file” – it'll have a .srt extension
• Open YouTube settings
  • Select Upload directly to YouTube
  • Enter title, description, privacy, and category
• After the upload to YouTube completes, edit it, select language, and upload the .srt captions file that Resolve created, use its timing information.

The subtitle format “Burn into video” permanently overlays the captions into the video and they are always visible during playback.
The subtitle format “As a separate file” produces a .srt file that can be separately uploaded to YouTube and allows the viewer to turn captioning on and off.
The subtitle format “As embedded captions” embeds the captions into the video file's metadata and they are not visible unles the playback device or software explicitly supports and enables them.

Suppose you want to render just a part of your timeline (to a MP4 or to YouTube for example), rather than the whole timeline.  I'll do this when I have a meeting with several totally different topics and I want to save each topic as its own YouTube video.

1. Create your video with the multiple separate parts.
2. Deliver tab
3. Just above timeline, see Entire Timeline, drop it down and select In/Out Range
4. Move cursor to start of desired output, right click and select Mark In
5. Move cursor to end of desired output, right click and select Mark Out
6. Set up rest of parameters for your export, eg, YouTube, file name, etc, as usual.
7. Add to Render Queue

That's all to it.
To undo the In/Out, select a spot on the timeline and select Entire Timeline

As of 3/15/2024, during my first attempt, it appears that you can in/out one part of your timeline, set it to be rendered; then in/out another part and set it to be rendered; and then render both.  Thus one timeline can produce two or more rendered files.  Nice.

Improving your interaction with Resolve.

from a 2/24/2020 blog

• Performance mode. Preferences, User settings, playback settings. 
  • Set Performance Mode=Automatic
  • set Hide UI Overlays
  • set Minimize interface updates during playback.
• Speed up playback during editing.
  Look in upper corner when playing, see frames/second (e.g., 29.97) and green or red dot.  Red dot means your computer can't keep up with the playback.  The following will likely help.
  • Playback > Proxy Playback.  Set to half or quarter.
  • This speeds up playback.
  • Image may appear a bit blurry, but the playback won't jump.
  • Does not affect final output of your project.

You have (finally!) finished working on a project and you want to put it away some place so it won't take up space on your prime drive and also so that you can pull it back intro Resolve to work on it some more, if that's ever needed.

From https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/understand-project-files-davinci-resolve/ (with some mods by smi)

When you initially open Resolve, you’ll see a project window called the Project Manager. Here, you can load an existing project, or you can create a new project from scratch. However, you may notice that you don’t get to choose where the project file will be stored. Even when saving your project through the “Save Copy As” function, you still don’t get to choose the location — only the name. This is because Resolve operates within an industry-standard database system. Any item that isn’t a media file will be stored in the database. Admittedly, if you haven’t worked with a system like this, it can seem daunting at first. A quick Google search for “DaVinci Resolve save location” will bring up hundreds of frantic search queries from worried users.

In hindsight, I can say it makes a lot of sense. All projects are stored in the same place on your system drive, but if you need to back up, transfer, or import a project, you do so within Resolve and not in explorer or finder as you would with Premiere. In fact, renaming or moving projects outside of Resolve can result in a project becoming corrupted. It’s a big no-no.

Let’s have a look at how you execute these tasks.

1. In your Project Manager, right-click on the project and select Export Project Archive…
2. Select the place where you want to store the archive and verify the Save As archive name

The .dra directory is created and it is the archive of your project.  At this point you can Delete the project from Resolve and Send the original media files to Trash.

This will copy all of the media in your project to the destination folder. Rest assured: the original media will remain untouched in its original location. It’s important to note that if you’re using hundreds of gigabytes of media, not only is the process going to take a while, you’re also going to have to make sure the new drive has enough available space.

Note also that this does not copy the mp3 file and the output file (mp4 or mov) and you'll have to do this yourself.

With your project fully archived, you need to restore it to use in Resolve.

1. Back in the project window, right-click anywhere, and hit “restore.”
2. Navigate to the archived project folder, and select open.

Resolve will then import the project, bins, and media exactly as you left them prior to archiving.

A 2-minute video on this topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJNYKgvDE2w

Import and Export are very different from Archive and Restore – Import/Export only deals with the project files (timelines, bins, settings), everything but the media.

I have been using one project for many programs.  So what I am doing now is:

1. Projects > right click on the project > Export Project. 
   1. This exports the .drp file that holds project information, no media. 
   2. Export project twice: once with and and once without Stills and LUTs.
   3. Add date to the file, eg: WWII Interviews 20201017 Stills LUTs
   4. I am storing these in directory Resolve Project Backups - DRPs on my D24 disk
2. Copy the source directory (e.g., 20200823 WWII John Doe that holds the raw video and photos) for each recording (program or timeline) to directory on backup disk (me: Resolve Video Backups on D24 disk)

Added 20201101: You want text not just to appear, but to stoke itself on.  Writing your text onto the video.

1. Timeline, Media Pool, Create new fusion composition.  Name it, drag it to timeline where you want it.
2. Select it, go to Fusion tab
3. Hide Keyframes
4. Add a text thing (see: T+)
5. Give it text, pick font. 
6. Connect it to MediaOut
7. Select the text, Command-Shift-Space, MaskPaint
8. On MaskPaint Inspector, Tools (next to Controls), Invert (so you can see the text)
9. MaskPaint, Controls
10. Brush controls: Adjust the size of the circle so it will cover the strokes in the text, softness to zero
11. Stroke Controls: set Stroke Animation to Write On
12. Go to frame zero
13. Then click and drag the mouse to cover the text left to right
14. Back to Mask Control and uncheck Invert
15. Bring back Keyframes
16. Select all of the white marks, they turn yellow
17. Right-click and choose Time Stretching
18. Shrink them till they use the time you want,eg 1 or 2 seconds
19. Right-click and disable Time Stretching

There may be more details I didn't include and maybe a few more steps but it should be easier with the above.

From and with great thanks to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge4b_Ktw5bk

In Any Video Converter Ultimate…

1. Select Convert Videos
2. In Finder, go to the directory private
3. See: AVCHD, right click on it and Show Package Contents
4. See: BDMV, right click on it and Show Package Contents
5. See: a bunch of MTS files like 00000.MTS, 00001.MTS
6. Select all of these (shift click)
7. Copy these to Any Video Converter
8. Make sure they are in the right order, 00000, 00001, 00002, etc
9. Choose the output format, I use: HD MP4 Video (X264, Auto size up to 1920x1080, AAC, Stereo, 44100 Hz
10. Put checkmark in the box Merge All Files
11. Specify file name
12. Select output folder (e.g., Any Video Converter)
13. Convert Now

April 2020: I found 114GB of space used in the CacheClip directory.  If Resolve is not running, then you can delete this directory and regain the space.  Movies>CacheClip

This decision is supported by

• CreativeCow: Resolve should clean them up but you can delete them
• BlackMagicDesign Forum: You can delete the folder and Resolve will re-create it when needed

You want to speed up or slow down a clip or parts of a clip on the timeline.  This from https://filme.imyfone.com/video-editing-tips/speed-up-video-davinci-resolve/

1. Select the clip
2. Right-click and Retime Controls
3. Put cursor where you want to start speed faster/slower or if you want to change it for the whole clip
4. Click on the 100% dropdown
   • To effect change for whole clip, use Change Speed and select.
   • To effect change from this point forward, Add Speed Point, and change Speed for the new subclip created
   • There's more that you can do:
     • add freeze at the cursor
     • duplicate the subclip played in reverse at specified speed

There are other ways to do this (using right-click and Change Clip Duration, Change Clip Speed, Retime Curve)

You want to take a still from the video in the timeline and use it.  You might want to use the still

• To replace an accidental change of face during a zoom recording like when someone makes a noise and grabs focus.
• Elsewhere in the video
• As a promo for your video
• As the image used on YouTube

The process in short is:

1. Find the image you want to grab
   1. Move cursor to the spot with the image you want to grab
2. Grab it
   1. Go to Colors tab
   2. Adjust the choice using the slider
   3. Right-click on image, Grab Still.  See it appear in the area on the left.
3. Save it to disk
   1. Right-click on image that's on the left
   2. Export. (Not sure whether with or without LUT)
   3. Change name and File Type (I use PNG)
   4. Navigate to the directory holding your project files
   5. Export
4. Insert it in timeline
   1. Go to Bin
   2. Refresh files in the directory (click away and back) to see the PNG you just saved
   3. Copy this PNG into the Bin you're using
   4. Go to Timeline
   5. Select your Bin, Media Pool, drag the PNG into the timeline

How to record your voice live over your video.  You do this in Fairlight.  These are approximate steps, I'm still working on doing this.

• Add Audio. Click on “No Input” and link your microphone to the audio.
• Then move cursor to the spot.
• Click on the dot to record.  Click on the R for your microphone, and talk.

Resources https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HftdZkdQgHY

https://motionarray.com/learn/davinci-resolve/fairlight-record-voice-over/

1. In the Fairlight page, create a new audio track in mono track.
2. Patch the microphone to the new audio track in the Mixer panel.
3. If you can’t see the track, hover your mouse on the left side of the panel to expose all the channels. Click the Input box > Input > 1. Microphone > Patch, and close the Patch Input window.
4. Arm the track by enabling the “R” icon.
5. Click Record on the transport.

• Comic Sans
• Hannotate SC
• Noteworthy
• Skia
• Tamil MN

• LiSong Pro

While the program works, it's stuck in one place on one of your screens, it cannot be resized or moved.  Frustrating if you want to make the window bigger or smaller.  For me it was stuck on one monitor the lower left.

Solution: In the Resolve Workspace menu, toggle off Full Screen Window.

Command ⌘
Shift ⇧
Option ⌥
Control ⌃

11 today; 9 yesterday; 17837 total.