September 1, 2025

My webinar next week is called: "Learning DaVinci Resolve Fusion for the Graphically Terrified."

One of the key strengths of Fusion is manipulating text. But, golly, it's hard to figure out. I've spent the last week studying it and finally found a way to explain it so we can get our work done. In this session I'll show how to create, modify, animate and extend text titles using Fusion.

This will be fun! As always, registration is free. REMEMBER: this is NEXT week.

Thinking of Resolve brings me to my next tutorial: How to create chroma-key (also called "green-screen" or "color" keys) in Resolve 20. In this tutorial, I show how to create both a one-color and two-color key. While the Magic Mask can remove backgrounds, green-screens are still the major workhorse for background removal.

Here are two Final Cut tutorials on visual effects.

This first shows how changing the stacking order of effects in the Video Inspector will change the results you get.

That last tutorial showed that applied effects, like blurs, process before built-in effects, like Transform.

But... what if you need to change the order? You can't change it by dragging - built-in effects can't be dragged. So what do we do? I illustrate the solution.

One more Resolve tutorial. This one shows how to create customized Favorites that can be shared between projects.

And, like many tools in Resolve, this is hidden by default.

I've spent the last week studying Fusion in DaVinci Resolve. "Inscrutable" is a great word to describe it. In the past, when Fusion was a stand-alone app, it was amazing. Now that it is tightly integrated into Resolve, many of its key features - chroma-key, blurs, object removal, color grading - have moved elsewhere in the app. All except one: titles.

While much of Fusion was originally state-of-the-art, its node-based interface gets in the way for new learners. This is one of the reasons, I suspect, why the developers of Resolve have moved dozens of effects out of Fusion into the Cut, Edit and Color pages of the app. Those effects are much easier to apply and modify that way.

Still, that doesn't mean Fusion should be ignored. It excels at formatting and animating text, it integrates 3D space with text and other objects and, unlike any other effects app, it is tightly integrated into Resolve.

Though, you can be forgiven if you take one look and quickly run back to the safety of the Edit page. Fusion is intimidating. I had the same reaction to it that I had when I first saw Final Cut Pro X: "I am not smart enough to figure this out." But we are smart enough, if we take the time to learn it. 

As with many things, the more I study so that I can explain it to you, the better I learn it for myself. Join us next week and decide for yourself if learning Fusion is worth your time.

TUTORIALS & REVIEWS

» Use Auditions in Final Cut Pro for Music and SFX (Tutorial)

  » Auditions are little-known, but highly useful for video & audio.

» Final Cut Pro: The Order You Stack Effects Changes the Results (Tutorial)

  » Stacked effects can be moved and, in moving them, the results change.

» Change the Way Effects are Processed in Final Cut Pro (Tutorial)

  » Built-in effects can't be moved. But... what if you need to?

» Create Text Favorites in DaVinci Resolve 20 (Tutorial)

  » Naturally, this feature is hidden. Here's how it works.

» Create a One- or Two-Color Chroma-Key in DaVinci Resolve 20 (Tutorial)

  » Here's the step-by-step process you need to know.

TOP 4 TITLES LAST WEEK