DaVinci Resolve tutorial: A beginner editing guide

DaVinci Resolve has gained interest from professional editors and hobbyists in recent years. Backed by a super-capable free version and the constant addition of new features, the software is versatile and surprisingly sweeping. Not only will you find a complete set of user-friendly video editing tools, but you’ll also get audio-mixing and visual-effects compositing workspaces that rival pro production suites.

Whether you’re new to video editing or looking to switch from another piece of software, this DaVinci Resolve tutorial will show you how to use this excellent program to get you up and running fast. You can download the free edition if you still need to get your own version of DaVinci Resolve.

How to edit and export in DaVinci Resolve

With this simple DaVinci Resolve tutorial, you’ll go from opening the software for the first time to sharing your finished video project. You can use any footage you’d like for this tutorial, but if you need clips to experiment with, you can find stunning stock footage on Motion Array. 

In this DaVinci Resolve tutorial, you’ll focus on solo editing tips and tricks to get you started. If you work in a team or on larger projects, it’s worth knowing that the latest software editions use Blackmagic Cloud integration, allowing multiple users to work on the same project in real time.

Step 1: Create a new project and import your media

DaVinci Resolve’s project management uses a disk database. Rather than saving individual project files onto your hard drive and keeping tabs on their locations, your projects are stored centrally. Within a database, you’ll create projects where all of your footage is stored, and create timelines where you’ll be doing the actual editing.

For this DaVinci Resolve tutorial, we’ve kept project creation very simple. This is how you’ll set up a project to use just for yourself. In later editions of DaVinci Resolve, however, users can now directly create cloud-based projects, which could be helpful for collaborative editing.

The first time you open a project, you’ll land on the Project Manager page. Once you’re in a project, you’ll need to confirm a few settings before importing your media:

1. Open DaVinci Resolve.
2. From the Project Manager, select New Project.
3. Give your project a name.
4. Open Project Settings, the cog icon in the lower right of the interface.
5. You’ll need to set your Timeline Frame Rate. This defaults to 24 fps, but ideally you’ll change this to match the majority of your footage (such as 23.976 or 25 fps). 
6. If you adjust the timeline frame rate, change the Playback Frame Rate and Video Format tabs to match.
7. If you don’t know what these settings should be, don’t worry. You’ll have another chance to alter the frame rate when you import your footage.
8. Go to the menu bar on the Cut tab and select File > Import > Import Media. 
9. A Finder window will greet you. Here, you’ll navigate to where your footage is stored on your computer to bring it into your project.

Step 2: Add trimmed clips to the timeline 

Your imported media will appear in the Master Bin. To begin editing, you’ll need to mark your footage. This way, you’re only moving useful media onto the timeline for editing. You can mark your footage in 2 different ways:

1. Hover your mouse over each clip’s thumbnail and scrub the footage.
2. Press I on the keyboard to mark an in-point, the place in the footage you’d like to start with.
3. Press O on the keyboard to mark an out-point, the point in the footage you’d like to end with.
4. Click and drag the thumbnail onto the timeline to make an edit.
5. Alternatively, double-click a shot you’d like to load into the viewer to review. The same I and O keyboard shortcuts apply. Mark a clip, and click and drag the monitor image onto the timeline.

From DaVinci Resolve 18 forward, you can also use new intelligent media location and relinking tools, which are very helpful when moving projects between systems.

A few other tricks to note are:

• To review your edits, click on the timeline, drag the playhead to the beginning of the timeline, and press the Spacebar to play your rough cut.
• To build an ‘assemble edit’, watch and log all of the clips you’ve imported into your project.
• To lengthen or shorten a shot, hover your mouse at the beginning or end of a clip in your timeline to trim any of your shots.

What about using footage from multiple cameras? While multicam editing is a little complex for this beginner DaVinci Resolve tutorial, the software offers some fantastic new multicam tools. DaVinci Resolve 18 forward features improved syncing options and proxy handling, which make multicam edits smoother, especially for remote or collaborative projects. If you’re feeling confident, you can learn more about editing multicam footage.

Step 3: Add text and titles

DaVinci Resolve includes two different text tools: Text and Text+. The Text option is for quickly generating 2D titles. You can change fonts, introduce a drop shadow, and even add a colorful background shape to help separate the text from the video. Titles can be either 2D or 3D and feature dynamic lighting, 3D shapes, and particle effects.

Text+ is a more sophisticated tool based on Blackmagic’s compositing software DaVinci Resolve Fusion. Text+ titles offer more possibilities, but they can take a long time for your computer to render and aren’t the easiest tools to learn. To add text and titles, follow these steps:

1. Open the Titles panel at the top left of the interface.
2. Click and drag Text (the fifth option from the top of the list) into the timeline.
3. Be sure to place the title above your video on a new layer.
4. Select the title you want to edit. 
5. Open the Tool Belt found just underneath the video window.
6. Open the Titles submenu (farthest to the right) and open up the Inspector. 
7. You can adjust font attributes, drop shadow, and background shading in the Inspector.

Pro Tip: Double-check that you’ve selected the right title before editing! You have to manually click on the title in the timeline first. It’s very easy to start typing in the Inspector and realize after the fact that you’ve edited a title elsewhere in your project.

Step 4: Add transitions 

While most video production relies on more straightforward transitions, such as fade to black or cross dissolve, you’ll find several useful transitions pre-built and ready to use. The push and slide transitions can add nice momentum to production, and the smooth cut tool morphs together neighboring frames to hide jump cuts.

1. Click Edit on the ribbon toolbar.
2. Open the Effects Library panel at the top left of the interface.
3. Under Video Transitions, click and drag the Cross Dissolve transition onto the Timeline.
4. Place your mouse between 2 video pieces. This is a transition.
5. Click on the Transition icon in the Timeline.
6. Open the Inspector panel at the top right of the interface.
7. In the Inspector, adjust the length to 8 frames.

 You’ll find all the tools to edit and adjust your transitions to match the mood of your project in the Inspector. You can adjust how long or short a fade is and whether it’s gradual or linear. You can even change the transition type after the fact in this panel, so play around a bit.

Step 5: Add effects 

DaVinci Resolve comes bundled with many high-quality plugins that let you add effects to your videos. This is also where you’ll notice limitations in the free version of DaVinci Resolve compared to DaVinci Resolve Studio (the paid edition). 

Typically, the newest and latest fancy effects are locked to the paid version. For example, DaVinci Resolve 18 introduced new effects like the Surface Tracker for adding effects to moving surfaces, and updated the Resolve FX Depth Map to offer improved control for depth-based effects. In later versions, these will be available to free users, too.

As you’d expect, the free version of the software comes with far fewer options than the paid version. Don’t worry, though! There are still plenty of effects to learn and explore here. You may even decide the extra ones are worth upgrading for.

1. Within the Effects Library, navigate to OpenFX.
2. Scroll down to Vignette. Click and drag the effect from the list and apply it to a piece of video.
3. Open the Inspector, select the video clip with the effect applied, and click the OpenFX tab to modify the effect parameters.
4. Click the Bin icon in the same menu to remove the effect.

You can also add an adjustment clip to the whole Timeline. This way, you can apply an effect to an entire timeline at once rather than one clip at a time.

1. Under Effects Library > Effects > Adjustment Clip, drag that effect to a new layer in the Timeline. Re-add the Vignette effect, but this time, apply it to the Adjustment Cli

You can also supercharge the software by adding templates and macros. From DaVinci Resolve 18 forward, the proxy workflow option was significantly improved and expanded. Proxy workflows make creating, managing, and switching between proxy and full-resolution media easier. This can make effects-heavy clips respond better while you edit, but it’s a little advanced for this basic DaVinci Resolve tutorial.

Step 6: Add music and audio

For this section of our DaVinci Resolve tutorial, you’ll return to the Cut page. You can add your own music by importing it in the same way you added videos in Step 1. If you have nothing to use, head to Motion Array and grab some free sample royalty-free music to experiment with.

1. Just like you’d import video, import music by following Step 1. 
2. Drag and drop your desired music from the Bin into the Timeline.
3. To adjust the volume, click on the audio piece, open the Tool Belt, and move it into the Audio tab.

The DaVinci Resolve Fairlight tab offers more advanced audio features. Fairlight, the dedicated audio section, has seen recent updates like automation curve editing and FlexBus integration, which considerably enhance audio editing capabilities. However, all the basic audio and music tasks can be accomplished within the Cut and Edit pages.

Step 7: Use color correction

Jump over to the Color tab. While it may feel a little intimidating, the basic features are straightforward to use. Look for the primary color corrector in the bottom left of the interface. 

There are also some advanced HDR tools and updated color warper features you can explore as you gain confidence, which offer greater precision in advanced color grading. Let’s focus on at some basics first, however:

1. Note that every shot edited in your Timeline appears as a thumbnail on the middle Tool Belt. To color a shot, click on the first clip.
2. The crosshair with a black box is the Black Balance tool. To set the level, select an area in your shot that should be black. 
3. If your shot is too dark, click and drag the Lift slider (underneath the Trackball) to restore detail.
4. Now do similar for the highlights: Use the White Balance tool near the bottom left of the Color page on an aspect of your image that ought to be white (usually a piece of paper). 
5. If your shot is too washed out, click and drag the Gain slider to bring back detail.
6. The Sat value (defaulting to 50) controls the color saturation of your image. You can click and drag the 50 value with your mouse to add and remove color globally in the image.

If you want to dive further into the world of color grading in DaVinci Resolve, we’ve got just the tutorial for that. The Magic Mask tool now also supports object selection and tracking, making isolating and adjusting specific objects within a scene easier. This is used to remove objects in DaVinci Resolve, but that’s a little complex for now. Just know that it can be done.

Step 8: Share your project

Once you’re happy with your edit, titles, transitions, music, and color, you’ll want to share your work with the world. Head back over to the Cut page. You can publish your project right to Vimeo or YouTube, or save a standalone movie file onto your computer.

Remember, the latest versions of DaVinci Resolve also offer cloud collaboration and sharing tools you can explore. From DaVinci 18 forward, there’s also been an expanded stable of formats open for direct export, which is fantastic for social media creators. Below, you’ll learn how to export as a standalone video:

1. Move into the Cut page. 
2. Click Quick Export at the top right of the interface. 
3. Select H.264 > Export. 
4. Save the file to your preferred folder on your computer.

While it exports, DaVinci Resolve will show a status window. This lets you know the progress of your render. Once that’s done, your movie is ready to share! This tutorial teaches you more about the exporting options in DaVinci Resolve.

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We hope you found this DaVinci Resolve tutorial helpful. You now have a solid overview of how to use DaVinci Resolve and even created your first project. Now it’s time to take that knowledge and unleash your creativity. Have fun!