For those who don’t know the tool: Fusion Studio is a node-based compositor for VFX and motion graphics, living next to DaVinci Resolve and sharing its licensing universe, minus the timeline politics.

Motion graphics gets a bigger toolbox

Fusion Studio 21 adds support for Krokodove motion graphics effects, plus over 70 new motion graphics effects and tools. A new Macro Editor arrives with an inspector view and publishing to macros, aimed at making reusable tool setups less of a scavenger hunt.

Text tools also pick up practical upgrades. Text+ and MultiText add spell checking. Font handling expands with emoji and color fonts, plus a font browser for previewing and selecting fonts. MultiText adds improvements for position, pivot, alignment, and CSV import, and it gains double and triple click selection with drag selection, which should make dense text comps less like surgery with oven mitts.

Roughly a third into testing, expect your existing templates and macros to need a quick sanity pass, because new editors tend to surface old assumptions. That is normal. Test new tools before you trust them in production.

SPEEEEEEEEEED

Fusion 21 also leans harder into retiming with the SpeedWarp node SPDw. SpeedWarp is an AI powered retiming tool that analyzes motion between existing frames to construct new intermediate frames for smooth slow motion without stuttering. It uses DaVinci’s neural network and supposed to be good at reconstructing complex motion where traditional interpolation or frame blending would typically blur or distort.

HTML and JSON graphics walk right in

Fusion Studio 21 adds native support for OGraf HTML graphics and native support for Lottie animations. That combination targets a common pain point in broadcast and social deliverables: motion packages that need to travel cleanly between teams and machines without turning into a pile of fragile renders. And since there is always one more Typo, you want it to work quickly.

We need to talk about OGraf

The OGraf Standard is a web based broadcast graphics specification from the European Broadcasting Union. It targets graphics like lower thirds and over the shoulder elements, and it aims to make them deliverable and renderable across diverse platforms instead of being trapped inside closed vendor systems. The idea is modular graphics workflows where components can be mixed and matched, so teams can create a graphic once and render it on traditional broadcast outputs, digital platforms, web streams, and even inside video editing tools.

At the spec level, OGraf defines what a compliant graphic looks like and how a renderer should interpret it, so a graphic can be created once and used in multiple compatible renderers. A graphic must include a JSON manifest ending in dot ograf dot json plus a JavaScript file that exports the graphic as a Web Component, along with any resources like images, videos, and fonts. The spec also describes a typical workflow split into editor, controller, server, and renderer, and it explicitly allows those parts to come from different vendors rather than a single all in one stack.

That is excellent news for Fusion Studio users because it adds native support for OGraf HTML graphics, which turns this from a broadcast only niche into something you can pull directly into comp land without reinventing the pipeline.

If your shop already gets OGraf packages from a broadcast graphics team, or you need to hand off the same graphic logic across multiple renderers, native OGraf support means fewer bespoke conversion steps and less glue code that breaks at the worst possible time. It also gives Fusion users a more standardized on ramp for HTML graphics workflows, which is the kind of boring interoperability that saves hours.

USD and the 3D side of comps

Fusion Studio 21 updates its USD stack with support for USD SDK 25.11, including the Hydra 2.0 API for the Storm renderer. USD support expands to 3D matte objects and textures, plus a USD Texture Projector and Catcher. The USD Loader also gains global in and out controls. On the compositing side of 3D, the 3D Renderer adds support for Cryptomatte. Fusion Studio 21 also adds native support for creating Relief Maps.

There are also workflow improvements that focus on day-to-day graph hygiene. Fusion Studio 21 lets you change common inspector properties for multi-tool selections, and it can change common inspector values across all selected multi-tool layers. That should reduce the classic Fsuion ritual of clicking twelve nodes to change the same one value.

Deep, stereo, vectors, metadata, and lens work

Fusion Studio 21 adds multilayer support for stereoscopic 3D clips and deep images. Deep images gain color correction. Vector channel support is added for multilayer workflows.

Metadata handling gets more flexible: user defined metadata variables can be used in paths, expressions and scripts. Lens Distort adds checkerboard calibration and GPU acceleration.

Fusion Studio 21 also allows keyframes and spline views to open as a floating window, which is a small quality-of-life feature that tends to matter a lot once you animate all day.

Installer scope and the extra apps

Fusion Studio 21’s installer puts the core application on your system and also adds utilities for setting up hardware control panels. It also installs Blackmagic RAW Player and Blackmagic Proxy Generator into the applications folder. On macOS, installation runs via the Fusion Studio Installer icon, and removal uses the Uninstall Resolve icon. On Windows, uninstall goes through Programs and Features, selecting Fusion Studio and running Uninstall. On Linux, uninstall comes from choosing the uninstall option after running the installer.

Minimum system requirements to actually run it

The macOS minimum requires macOS 15 Sequoia or later, an Apple Silicon based computer, and 16 GB of system memory or 32 GB for improved performance. For monitoring, it lists Desktop Video 12.9 or later.

The Windows minimum requires Windows 10 Creators Update, 16 GB of system memory or 32 GB for improved performance, and a GPU with at least 4 GB of VRAM. It lists a GPU that supports OpenCL 1.2 or CUDA 12.8, AMD and Intel official drivers from the GPU manufacturer, and an NVIDIA Studio Driver 570.65 or newer. For monitoring, it lists Desktop Video 12.9 or later.

For Windows on Arm, the minimum calls for Windows 11 for ARM on a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite series processor, with 16 GB of system memory or 32 GB for 4K.

On Linux, the minimum calls for Rocky Linux 8.6 and 32 GB of system memory, plus a discrete GPU with at least 4 GB of VRAM. It lists OpenCL 1.2 or CUDA 12.8 support, AMD official drivers from the GPU manufacturer, and an NVIDIA Studio driver 570.26 or newer. For monitoring, it lists Desktop Video 12.9 or later.

Pricing and licensing reality check

Fusion Studio is listed at $295. As always, new tools and innovations should be tested before use in production, preferably on a clone of the job, not the only copy of the job.

Link Citation Block

// Quoted info
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/fusion
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/fusion/compare
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support
https://www.komkomdoorn.com/krokodove/
https://ograf.ebu.io/
https://lottie.github.io/
https://openusd.org/
https://github.com/Psyop/Cryptomatte
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicraw
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicproxygenerator
https://www.apple.com/macos/
https://www.microsoft.com/windows
https://www.kernel.org/
https://www.khronos.org/opencl/
https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-zone
https://www.nvidia.com/download/index.aspx
https://www.qualcomm.com/products/mobile/snapdragon/pcs-and-tablets/snapdragon-x-elite
https://rockylinux.org/
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve

The post Fusion Studio 21 beta is here first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: DaVinci Resolve is an all-in-one post app with pages for Edit, Color, Fusion, and Fairlight. Version 21 adds a dedicated Photo page, so stills get the same node-based treatment as motion.

A platform update, not a party trick

DaVinci Resolve 21 lands as a broad update that touches media management, editing, colour, Fusion, Fairlight, and immersive delivery. The headline is not a single new transition or a one-button grade, but an expansion of what the application wants to be: a hub that can ingest, organise, finish all media – and now also treat still photography as a first-class citizen.

Resolve already built its reputation on page-based workflows that keep tools focused while staying inside one project. Version 21 leans further into that idea. The new pieces mostly aim to save time in real sessions: faster material finding, less metadata drudgery, tighter editorial control surfaces, clearer node management, and less timeline chaos as audio tracks multiply.

The Photo page puts stills on the same rails as grades

The most visible addition is the Photo page, integrated directly into the interface. It is not a tiny import dialogue or a bolt-on viewer. It is a dedicated workspace for photo management and image editing, tied into the same grading approach used for motion.

Photographs can be imported and managed as albums, with adjustments intended to preserve original source resolution and aspect ratio while reframing and cropping. A LightBox view shows an overview of an album with grades applied, and grades can update across the collection in real time as you work. Albums can also appear as timelines on other pages, keeping access consistent when you jump between tasks.

The Photo page also supports direct image capture through tethering for select cameras, with live capture saving directly into an album. Camera settings such as ISO, exposure, and white balance can be adjusted from within the application during capture. Collaboration extends into this photo workflow via Blackmagic Cloud, with album contents, metadata, tags, grades, and effects available for multiuser work.

AI search and analysis aim at real-world editorial pain.

Resolve 21 adds new AI-driven (Because of course, nothing these days without…) media tools built around analysis and retrieval. AI IntelliSearch is designed to search for people and content after media analysis, including individual faces, specific objects, and dialogue keywords. Results can appear as clips in the media pool, targeting faster clip organisation and faster assembly decisions when you already know what you need but cannot remember where it lives.

AI Speech Generator expands the AI toolset into synthetic voice creation. Written text can be transformed into spoken audio using prebuilt voice models or a custom voice created from a sample. A unique voice can be created from as little as a 10-second clip, and speed, pitch, and inflexion can be adjusted to shape multiple performances for voiceover or narration.

AI CineFocus targets focus and depth of field adjustments. A focal point can be defined by clicking, then aperture and focal range can be adjusted to change the depth of field. Controls include aperture shape and optical effects such as bokeh, and parameters can be keyframed for rack focus style moves.

Even more ML Tools

Additional AI tools in the release include Face Age Transformer, Face Reshaper, Blemish Removal, UltraSharpen, Motion Deblur, and Slate ID, which extracts slate clapperboard details into metadata fields. The slate tool is described as working even when clips are dark or out of focus, which is exactly where human assistants are usually dragged into data-entry duty.

All of this sounds like a lot, because it is. The practical question is whether it reduces the time spent hunting, tagging, and rebuilding context. That is the part worth testing on your own footage, in your own bin structure, with your own mix of accents, lighting, and, of course, the slate handwriting. New tools and innovations should always be tested before use in production.

Cut and Edit focus on friction, not reinvention.

The Cut and Edit pages get workflow refinements centred on keyframes, curves, and graphics handling. Keyframing updates include new ease animations with loop, pingpong, and relative modes, plus simultaneous adjustments to multiple clips. The curves editor adds a normalised zoom mode that scales curves to fill available vertical space, and four-point Bezier easing supports complex retiming.

Fusion effects can now be adjusted directly in the keyframes and curves editors on the Cut and Edit pages. That aims to keep motion graphics tweaks closer to editorial timing, instead of forcing constant page hopping for small parameter changes.

For titles and text, multi-language spell check is available, a font browser window allows previewing fonts, and text tools add support for colour fonts and emoji. Character-level styling allows different attributes within a single text box.

Graphics format support also expands with native handling for OGraf HTML graphics and Lottie animations. JSON and Lottie files can be dragged into the media pool and treated like rendered animation clips, with alpha channel recognition for compositing over video.

Some of these changes are quiet, almost boring. That is the point. They target the daily grind where small delays stack up into lost hours and extra coffee.

Colour tools add deliverables, logic, and node clarity

Resolve 21 adds tools meant for finishing multiple versions from one timeline. MultiMaster trim passes allow generating multiple trim deliverables from a single timeline. When enabled, additional layers appear in the node editor for trim operations, aiming at managing different output standards in one go.

The node editor also gains a layer list view that lists nodes in rows by count. The intent is a less-crowded interface and easier node-management actions, such as switching, locking, bypassing, and removing nodes. If you have ever stared at a dense node graph at 2 a m and wondered which branch you are about to break, that alone could be a quality of life win.

Group workflows also expand with group versions, allowing alternate looks to be compared within group-based grading. The scopes can be customised to display a chosen nit range for monitoring.

Magic Mask adds a render-in-place option to cache a tracked mask as a travelling matte node that links to the active node, enabling continued work with lighter processing.

Fusion gets Krokodove and a sharper macro workflow.w

Fusion in Resolve 21 adds the Krokodove toolset as an integrated collection of motion graphics and compositing tools, described as over 70 new graphics. The tools are intended to be editable starting points, so they can be customised and used as the basis for building your own looks.

If your team has been building internal macros for years, this is the kind of content library that can speed up onboarding and prototype work, as long as you still keep a consistent house style.

Macro building also gets an updated macro editor with interface improvements, a new inspector view, and support for publishing macros for immediate use.

Fusion connects more tightly to Fairlight through an Animator modifier that can drive animation based on audio analysis. Audio levels from timeline clips or media pool sources can drive parameters for animation.

Fusion also updates its USD toolset to support OpenUSD SDK 25.11 with the Hydra 2.0 API for the renderer, along with features such as 3D matte objects and textures, texture projector and catcher tools, and global in and out controls for the USD loader.

The result is a more connected motion graphics and VFX environment inside the same project that holds your edit and grade, without forcing a round trip through exports just to try a different lower third.

Fairlight organises the chaos with folder tracks.

Fairlight adds folder tracks for audio organisation. Tracks can be assigned to a folder and collapsed into a composite view, with mini rectangles representing folder contents, including number and duration of clips. Folders can be expanded back to individual tracks when detailed work is needed.

A mixer should not have to scroll for days just to find the one track somebody muted in the wrong place. This kind of structure also plays nicely with the reality of modern sessions where deliverables, versions, and language tracks multiply faster than anyone wants to admit. Anybody wants in on the bet when Connected Conform gets re-invented?

Immersive delivery keeps getting attention.

Resolve 21 continues immersive workflow development with VR180 and VR36, delivering presets for Meta Quest and YouTube. Immersive orientation can be handled using spherical Panomap rotation with pitch, tilt, pan, yaw, and roll adjustments. ILPD retargeting data can be applied in Fusion for stereoscopic handling and compositing.

Apple Immersive workflows add support for foveated rendering for improved playback and viewer experience on Apple Vision Pro. If your shop lives entirely in flat frames, you can ignore this. If you deliver immersive content, having presets and orientation tools inside the same project beats stitching together a toolchain of specialised “utilities”.

A few more practical add-ons

Resolve 21 adds a Picture-in-Picture effect that lets you quickly resize and position a clip over another clip as a floating frame, with adjustable parameters such as size, placement, frame rounding, and drop shadow. This fits nicely with “Fast turnaround” YouTube / podcast productions, or if you want to record a tutorial – maybe about this tool in Resolve, for maximum recursion?

IntelliScript expands screenplay import support for Final Draft and plain text formats, creating a cut by comparing script text to transcribed audio, then allowing refinements with standard editing tools.

Metadata handling improves with star ratings and tagging (useful for photos), plus new media pool columns to expose those fields for filtering takes.

Availability and pricing

DaVinci Resolve 21 is available as a public beta now. The software is offered as a free download, and DaVinci Resolve Studio is listed at $295.

Resolve 21 is big enough that you should treat it like any major platform. Shift: install it alongside your stable version, throw real projects at it, and see where it helps and where it still trips over the weird corners of your projects. It is easy to get distracted by confusing AI features and shiny new pages, but the real win is whether the day-to-day work gets smoother.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve

The post Blackmagic Design turns DaVinci Resolve 21 into a photo app first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Before we start: We typed this during the live stream, so watch out for deeper and more precise News and Articles about Resolve 21 and Fusion 21. (And the removing of some typos the day after)

The 100G shift: fewer cables, still redundant

Blackmagic Design is using NAB 2026 as a coordinated move to a new SMPTE 2110 ecosystem built around 100G networking. The goal is to reduce cabling complexity while keeping redundancy, monitoring, and routing features in a footprint that fits broadcast racks and mobile units.

The centre of gravity is a new class of native 2110 switchers, designed around 100G links rather than baseband trunks. The ATEM 4 M/E Constellation IP moves the Constellation line into a 100G design with 32 inputs and 28 outputs. It includes standards conversion on every input, four multiview outputs, 16 ATEM Advanced Keyers, four DVEs, and two SuperSource processors. A larger three-rack-unit model targets bigger sports and broadcast work with 64 inputs and 52 outputs.

Infrastructure gets a matching 100G backbone

A pile of new rack hardware is positioned as glue between the new switchers and the wider world. Blackmagic SDI Expander 8x12G converts a 100G connection into eight 12G-SDI inputs and eight 12G-SDI outputs, aimed at bridging IP cores to SDI edges. Blackmagic Studio Bridge 10G PWR aggregates eight separate 10G Ethernet connections into a 100G link and adds 90 watts of PoE per port, intended to power multiple Studio Camera Pro 6K systems from a single bridge. The Ethernet layer here leans on IEEE 802.3 Ethernet concepts, and the power spec ties into Power over Ethernet as a technology class.

For recording and replay, HyperDeck ISO Recorder 100G is recording eight channels over a 100G workflow to network storage. A key workflow promise is that Resolve can access files while they are still recording, which pitches a tighter handoff between acquisition and post.

Routing and timing details are also called out in the wider 2110 fabric. Blackmagic Ethernet Switch 820 expands the 2110 infrastructure with eight 100G ports, PTP clock distribution, NMOS control, and redundant power. The timing note points to PTP as a production-critical building block, while the control layer references NMOS for device discovery and orchestration in IP facilities.

Storage and removable media aim at replay and shared post

The replay path is paired with new storage and media hardware intended to sit in the middle of shared workflows.

Blackmagic Cloud Store Ultra is a faster dual-100G storage design intended to sit at the center of Resolve replay and shared post workflows. Blackmagic Media Dock Ultra uses Blackmagic Media Modules in a rackmount form for removable high speed storage, pitching a more controlled way to move media in and out of a facility or truck without improvising around generic drives.

There is also a new rack utility converter designed to keep a 2110 system calm when the outside world does not behave. Blackmagic Up/Down Cross 100G is an eight channel standards converter intended to shield a 2110 system from mismatched incoming formats. In practical terms, it is presented as a buffer between the promise of clean IP routing and the messy reality of mixed feeds. Monitoring and local control also get attention in rack-first environments. ATEM Monitoring Rack Panel 20 and 40 combine monitoring outputs and control panel functionality so a rack can retain local ATEM operation even in newer ventilated rack designs.

Cinema cameras keep getting pulled into live

A camera software update adds an ST2110 Live mode to URSA Cine 12K, pitching it as a live production camera while leaning on digital film image quality language, plus built in color correction and dedicated LUT handling for 2110 output. The clear throughline is that the cinema camera becomes another node in the same IP plant, not a separate island that demands special cabling and conversions.

New accessories are also listed for broadcast lens and operator needs. URSA Cine Studio Viewfinder is introduced, along with a Sony B4 mount and a lens control cable intended for broadcast lenses and production demands.

High frame rate 2110 as a future workflow teaser

One future track focuses on high frame rate production over 2110. The pitch is that 100G Ethernet is not just about more channels, but also higher frame rates, with workflows aimed at 240 fps or even 480 fps capture.

To support that direction, a URSA Cine 12K LF 100G and a Blackmagic Studio Bridge 100G are previewed. The same infrastructure is intended to feed Resolve replay with high frame rate media, while using Up/Down Cross 100G to derive standard frame rate feeds for the rest of the system. This is the point where the platform story becomes very literal: acquisition, conversion, replay, and shared storage all orbit the same 100G core.

Immersive production plans: live 3D and more switching

A second future track targets immersive production with a live chain built around URSA Cine Immersive 100G. The outlined chain includes a URSA Cine Live Encoder module, plus HyperDeck and DeckLink updates for immersive handling. A future ATEM Solaris switcher family is also in the works for full 3D and immersive switching.

The scope here matters because it frames immersive as a live pipeline problem, not just a post problem. It also implies that switching, capture, encode, and I/O need to be designed together if the goal is real-time immersive production.

Fairlight Live: software mixing with broadcast expectations

Audio is treated as a major pillar of the NAB 2026 story, centered on Fairlight Live. It is a software based live audio mixer designed for broadcast, ATEM integration, SMPTE 2110 workflows, and surround, spatial, and immersive audio.

Channel scale is positioned as elastic, with support for hundreds or thousands of channels depending on the host computer. It is said to work with standard computer audio and USB devices, and includes broadcast functions such as cue playback, talkback, snapshots, routing tools, and third party plug-in support.

To pair with the software, Fairlight Live Audio Panel hardware is launching in 10, 20, and 40 fader versions. The intent reads as a familiar split: compute and software can scale quickly, while tactile control stays purpose-built and consistent.

DaVinci Resolve 21: Photo page, AI tools, broader umbrella

DaVinci Resolve 21 is the main software release, a large update that spans a new Photo page, multiple AI tools, improvements across Edit, Cut, Color, Fusion, and Fairlight, immersive and VR work, and more than one hundred new features overall. (More on that tomorrow, and a test is soon to follow!)

The Photo page brings the application’s film color grading toolset into photography. On the AI side, IntelliSearch is a object, face, and content based media search. Both in bins, certain types of media, trqanscripts, and media-libary-wide. We all have that one folder ….

AI Clip Analysis and AI Slate ID are included, with AI Slate ID reading slate metadata, and writing those into the file metadata – so, the first ingest pass is quickly filled with all availble stuff from set, but do keep an assitant with a non-medical handwriting, or use a digital slate. An AI Speech Generator is also on board, generating spoken audio from written text, whoich is claimed to learn a new voice with just a few seconds or minutes of training. We’ll try that soon, with our best southern bavarian accent.

Edit and Cut updates include improved keyframing, better curves, and a new font browser. Color gains multi-master trim pass grading, node editor improvements, larger node stack options, group grade versions, and updated immersive workflows.

One notable packaging detail is the integration of the Krokodove effects package into Fusion and Resolve, adding more than 70 built-in Fusion effects. That is a pragmatic kind of news, because built-in effects tend to survive long projects better than scattered third-party installs.

Since they are Fusion-based, you can use them as is, or confiugure and personalise them to your hearts desire. Or use them as a jumping off point to create your own.

Fusion 21: deep tech work, not just polish

Fusion 21 is one of the biggest technical updates in the package, and the list is dense in the best and worst way. It adds a Fairlight Animator modifier, plus a new macro editor. Multi Inspector controls allow editing shared properties across multiple nodes. Lens distortion analysis gets improvements.

The native 3D renderer gains Cryptomatte output, tying into the broader Cryptomatte standard for ID mattes. There are relief map tools, full layer support in the Deep toolset, and a Deep Colour Corrector.

On the scene description side, Fusion 21 includes OpenUSD SDK 25.11 with Hydra 2.0 for Storm. There are also new projector and capture nodes for USD, plus stereoscopic and immersive workflow updates. Speed Warp is now listed as available inside Fusion, and there are UI changes, variable mapping, and support for OGraph HTML graphics and Lottie animations. The overall theme is that Fusion is being treated as a serious systems piece inside Resolve, not a bolt-on compositor with a few convenience features.

Pricing and the usual reality check

The larger point across this whole slate is coherence. The product updates line up as a platform push that tries to make live IP infrastructure, replay, storage, cameras, audio, and post feel like one continuous system. That does not remove risk. New tools and new workflows should be tested in your own pipeline before they touch a live show, a tight delivery, or anything with real money attached.

The post Resolve 21, Fusion, Fairlight Live, and many, many boxes! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

ASCII, but with more controls than the name first suggests

ASCII Resolve is one of those tools whose name sounds like a novelty filter until you look at what it actually exposes. Installed as a DRFX package, it drops into DaVinci Resolve as a ready-to-use effect and ships with seven presets built around different symbol sets and workflows.

The useful part is not the retro terminal joke. It is the amount of control. In the setup, users can adjust pixel frequency to define how large the generated symbols appear, then shape the source image first with contrast and gain controls before the symbol remapping happens. There is also an invert option, which is exactly the sort of small checkbox that turns an effect from “cute for ten seconds” into “actually usable for design work.” The result is a less fixed look, more luminance-driven abstraction.

Gradients, palettes, and letters instead of just symbols

The colour section appears to be more than a token palette dropdown. The effect includes multiple colour presets, but it also allows custom gradients, with individual points corresponding to separate symbols. That matters because it means the mapping is not only based on brightness, but can also be art-directed at the symbol-band level. If a preset gets close but not quite there, individual hues can be nudged without rebuilding the look from scratch.

There is also a letter-based variant that pushes the effect from ASCII cliché into proper retro motion-design territory. In that version, users can choose preset character groups such as alphabet, capital letters, numbers, patterns, round, orthogonal, diagonal, and more detailed sets. A custom mode accepts a user-defined nine-character string, and the font itself can be changed as well. Based on the walkthrough, monospaced or code-like fonts appear to be the most convincing choice, which will surprise nobody who has ever willingly opened a terminal window.

More than one workflow inside Resolve

The package is so split into several variants depending on where and how users want to work. Beyond the standard effect presets, there are custom Edit page and Fusion page versions for users who want to replace characters with their own shapes or icons. In the Edit page workflow, users can load external image files through loaders and map them across brightness levels. The recommendation in the demo is to arrange those assets from brightest to darkest, so the luminance translation stays predictable.

The Fusion-oriented version goes a step further. There, the source image is connected to the main input, while additional square graphics or text elements can be fed into the other inputs as replacement shapes. The creator recommends square assets, ideally around 100 by 100 pixels, to keep the setup responsive and avoid unnecessary lag.

The broader product line also includes an ASCII PRO Pack on Gumroad, listed from €9.90, while the free ASCII Resolve effect remains available as a separate download.

Free ASCII Effect for DaVinci Resolve: https://skapecreates.gumroad.com/l/qouon
ASCII PRO Pack for DaVinci Resolve: https://skapecreates.gumroad.com/l/xwtwmx

The post ASCII Resolve: Free Resolve effect turns footage into configurable text art first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: FreeCAD (Free as in Free speech and “Free Beer”) sits in the CAD corner of the pipeline and packs workbenches like PartDesign, Sketcher, Assembly, CAM, and FEM so you can model, wrangle, and sanity check without app hopping.

FreeCAD 1.1 arrived on with a big bag of quality of life upgrades across workbenches. You get transparent previews in PartDesign. You grab interactive draggers in tools like Fillet and Chamfer. You flip on three-point lighting. You reach for a Clarify Selection tool when the viewport plays tricks. You also get Assembly and FEM improvements, including animations, plus a totally new CAM tool library system in CAM.

Previews and draggers that cut the click tax

Transparent previews in PartDesign let you see more of the result before you commit the feature. That single change can save a lot of undo gymnastics. Interactive draggers show up in tools like Fillet and Chamfer.

You adjust values directly in the 3D view and keep your attention on the shape instead of the dialog hunt. That kind of workflow tweak sounds small and then steals back your afternoon.

Three point lighting joins the highlight list too. Better lighting makes inspection less squinty and more deliberate, especially when you chase tiny edges and subtle surface changes.

Selection finally gets a referee

The Clarify Selection tool exists now. When geometry overlaps and selection turns vague, you can use a dedicated tool to clear up what you actually picked. That matters most for busy scenes and imported geometry, where you often click a face and accidentally choose its annoying neighbour.

CAM, Assembly, and FEM get louder updates

The new CAM tool library system lands in CAM. The highlight list calls it totally new, which usually means you should poke it on a test job first, then decide how hard you want to lean on it. The new-features list also calls out improvements to Assembly and FEM, including animations. If you already use those workbenches, you get new reasons to revisit your templates and habits.

This is the one spot where the FreeCAD Project itself deserves a nod in plain text, because shipping broad QoL work takes stamina.

The sleeper feature: format wrangling and quick analysis

FreeCAD does not just model. It also handles a long list of formats, which makes it handy as a converter and inspection tool when your inbox dumps mystery geometry on your desk.

It supports its native FCStd format (D’uh) and it can import and export a wide set of common interchange types. You can work with STEP and IGES. You can move meshes through OBJ and STL. You can wrangle 2D CAD through DWG and DXF. You can push vector work through SVG. You can touch GIS data via SHP. You can exchange scenes via DAE. You can trade BIM data through IFC. You can open mesh data in OFF. You can pull in solver flavored meshes like NASTRAN. You can also handle VRML, and you can import OpenSCAD CSG.

If you live in 3D print land and you just need to cobble together greeblies or CAD style parts, that broad format support can turn the tool into a quick staging area for cleanup, scale checks, and conversions. You might also hear 3D print aficionados call it easier to use than Autodesk Fusion, even though it is far less powerful for many end-to-end workflows.

https://blog.freecad.org/2026/03/25/freecad-version-1-1-released/

Also: Check out this excellent overview from Deltahedra!

The post FreeCAD 1.1 stacks workflow upgrades first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

ONYX builds ONYX Ai Matte as a GPU-accelerated matte extraction tool for segmentation, tracking, and mask refinement inside OFX-compatible hosts. It targets hair and fur edge work and shots with more than one subject, and it frames the speed and quality claims as marketing claims. Under the hood, it uses Meta SAM3 and VitMatte models, packaged via ONNX in FP16 and accelerated with NVIDIA CUDA 12.6 and TensorRT 10.x.

Prompts, trimaps, and tracking

The UI exposes five pipeline modes: box or point prompts with auto track, box or point prompts with manual track, text prompts with auto track, mask prompts with auto track, and a trimap workflow using VitMatte with manual track. Point and box workflows let you set foreground and background points and a bounding box. The interface supports up to 32 points.

Text prompt mode detects objects that match your text. If it finds multiple matches, one foreground point picks the instance. Mask prompt mode takes a rough input mask and uses it as the prompt for a refined segmentation. The trimap path expects white foreground, black background, and a grey uncertainty band for edge refinement. Tracking integrates directly into the prompt workflows. In Nuke, the box center can be driven by expressions so a tracker can push it through the shot while size stays consistent. You still need to test any new tool before it goes into production, especially when the alhpa becomes the single point of failure.

Hosts and compatibility

The published host list includes DaVinci Resolve 18 and later, Fusion Studio 18 and later, and Nuke 13 and later. It also positions the plug-in as working in any OFX compatible app, like Autodesk Flame specifically.

System requirements and what is not supported

Minimum requirements list Windows 10 64 bit, an NVIDIA RTX GPU, 6GB of VRAM, 16GB of RAM, and 8GB free space. Windows 11 64 bit is also supported. Text prompts require 8GB of VRAM or more. The baseline GPU callout is an NVIDIA RTX 2060 or better with SM 7.0 or higher. Not supported: GTX 1000 series, AMD Radeon, and Intel Arc.

Trial, licensing, and pricing

A full featured 7-day trial is offered with no credit card required. Licenses are sold as lifetime, one time payments with no subscription, plus free minor updates. Pricing is published in euros as lifetime tiers on the official pricing page. Indie costs €80 for one machine node locked. Studio 3 costs €180 for three machines node locked. Studio 10 costs €450 for ten machines node locked. Studio 10 also includes priority support.

https://onyxofx.com/

The post ONYX Ai Matte for OFX hosts first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Even if you really want to, you have your workflow and rarely have the time to really get to know the new software. In the end, I was tired of getting slowed down by a constantly crashing software and not being able to render without artefacts. I thought the time spent on these issues with Premiere would have been better spent switching, especially since I was already colour grading in Davinci Resolve. To make the transition easier, here are some tips for switching from Premiere Pro to Davinci Resolve so you can get started as quickly and efficiently as possible:

Project Manager: Wait, where did I save my project?

One big difference between Davinci Resolve and Premiere Pro is how projects are managed. For this, the first thing you will see when opening the software is the Project Manager. This is the place to create and manage your projects. I’m honest: when switching, that was something that needed some time to adapt to, but it’s worth it.

While Premiere Pro projects are saved as files where you decide where, Davinci Resolve works with managed Libraries. These are structured containers that serve as a central repository for all project data. Libraries are managed via the Project Manager and can be hosted on your computer, on a networked server or in the Blackmagic Cloud. To switch between the three options, simply click on the one you choose in the top left corner of the Project Manager.

If you tend to make copies of your project on your computer to keep backups, this will change your workflow. But we’ll take a look at that later. For now, it’s important to know that projects saved in your active project library can easily be exported to your hard drive as a .drp file for a manual backup or transfer to another system. To export your project, right-click it and choose export.

Libraries come with some advantages. My favourite one: multiuser collaboration. I can’t describe how useful this is! Editors, colourists, VFX artists and sound engineers – everybody can work with the same project file on different workstations. Even at the same time, in the same timeline. Brilliant and timesaving.

Also speeding me up: powerbins. These are useful when working with media I use in multiple projects. They make media easily accessible across different projects, as long as it is in the same Project Library.  

Pages: Where do I start?

When switching from Premiere Pro, you’ll probably be used to using Dynamic Linking to get your edit into Audition, After Effects and Media Encoder to complete your postproduction process. In Resolve, this is what the Pages are for.

These follow the typical postproduction process from ingest to delivery, which provides a great advantage: you can have your whole postproduction in just one software. No exporting timelines for audio postproduction, visual effects or colour and no translation issues between software. There’s no need to manage multiple project files or export assets to get them from one project into another. Changes made in one page are instantly accessible in others, and you can quickly go back and forth as needed to change things.

I think to start, it’s important to say: Most things can be achieved in the Edit Page. Don’t get scared away by the masses of pages and functions! There are different ways to achieve your goal when editing, and you will get around very well, mostly by starting in Edit Page. Lots of functions from other pages are also available there. If you like, you can even turn off pages you don’t want to use in the preferences. To still give you a bit of orientation, here’s a quick overview of what the different pages are for:

The Media Page is for ingesting and organising. Right next to it we find the Cut page, which is an editing interface designed for speed. In the Edit Page, we have the traditional editing interface, which should be very familiar to you, coming from Premiere Pro. Quite different from After Effects is Fusion, the node-based workspace for compositing and VFX. The Colorpage – quite self-explanatory – is made for colour grading. Fairlight is the page where you can mix and master your audio after editing to then, finally, render your video out in the Deliver Page.

Interface basics: Where to find what you need

It will probably need some time for you to adapt to what’s different. One of the things that took me a while to get used to was the fixed panel places. While we’re used to being able to move everything around freely in Premiere Pro, Davinci Resolve allows only view windows to pop out and be moved freely throughout all pages. But once I adapted, it made total sense where everything is.

In the Edit Page, one big part of the window is the timeline in the lower part of the screen. Above that, we’ve got the source viewer and timeline viewer. Note: When your screen is too small or your screen resolution is too low, you might only see one viewer. Don’t worry, you can easily switch between those pressing Q.

In the Edit Page there are nine panels you can open and close by clicking their buttons located in the upper part of the screen. The ones on the upper left side will then open on the left and vice versa. The Media Pool on the upper left will give you fast access to your footage. It’s the same Media Pool as in the Media Page which we’ll look at later. The Effects panel, the index, and the mixer should be intuitive when switching from Premiere, though the feature I love most in the panels is the Inspector on the upper left side.

It could be compared to the effects controls in Premiere but has basic effects like crop already integrated, as well as more advanced effects like stabilisation, speed change, retime, and scaling.

Even though most panels are fixed, you can give yourself some more space by closing the panels you don’t need. Depending on whether you have opened multiple panels from both sides or not, they can be full-screen height or half-screen height. Accidentally messed up your UI? Don’t worry. You can quickly reset your UI layout in the menu Workspace > Reset UI Layout.

You’ll find dual-screen mode, full-screen Timeline, and, using Resolve Studio, permanent full-screen video out in the same menu.

Live Save and Project Backups

When working in Premiere Pro I often feared software crashes. I tried to save after every single thing I did because autosaving just didn’t cut it. Davinci Resolves Auto Save, which is called Live Save, is on a completely different level. I never fear that something is gone! I’ve got way fewer issues with the software crashing, but if it does, I know that what I did last will be there.

To restore the backups, right-click the project in the Project Manager. This won’t overwrite the current project version you’re working in. If you’re used to copying your Premiere Pro Sequence to revert to an earlier version of your edit, you may like to check out the Timeline backup function. It works just like Project Backups and can be activated and customised in the same spot. To restore a Timeline Backup, right-click on the timeline in either the media panel or Media Page. Just note: Timeline Backups will be stored locally, even when working on Network or Cloud Libraries, so they will only be accessible on the system where they were created.

Media Page: Import and Media Organisation

The one time I’d highly recommend switching pages is when importing media into your project. Even though it is possible to import media on all pages except Deliver, the Media Page offers many options for importing and managing your media.

The Media Page is split into Media Storage and Media Pool. The upper-left is Media Storage, which might be familiar to you if you used the Media Browser in Premiere Pro. It’s effectively a file browser for finding or exploring files on drives mounted on your computer. What I find very useful about this: you can quickly review or check footage in the viewer in the top-right corner of your screen, even without importing. A little extra: hovering over the footage lets you scrub through and preview without loading a clip into the viewer.

The lower part of the screen is your Media Pool – the project-specific repository for all the assets you’re importing or creating in Resolve, like footage, audio files, timelines, etc. On the left side, you’ll find the current projects bin list with the master bin. It’s the top level of your projects’ folder structure where all the other bins containing your project’s footage are listed. The right side shows the inside of the currently opened bin.

To get your footage into Resolve, simply drag and drop it from Media Storage, Finder, or Explorer into the Media Pool. If doing so on the Media Storage Bin list, the folder structure will be translated into the bin structure of your project. When adding to the right side, all the footage will be unpacked into the current bin

But there are other import options that let you stay in Resolve, leading to the same results: when you navigate to your folder in the Media Storage and right-click it, you’ll see the option to import your footage folder and all its subfolders into the current bin. This I find useful when working e.g., with Sony in camera folder structures, where you don’t want all the extra bins. Alternatively, you can choose “add folder and Sub folders into Media Pool (creating bins)” to get your complete folder structure as sub bins in the current bin. This is helpful if you already have your folders sorted out on your hard drive and want to copy the structure into Resolve.

Ways to create and work with proxies

Depending on the footage you’re working on, you might want to render some proxies. This is one particularly strong thing in Resolve and speeds me up quite a bit. You’ve got two options: if you’ve already set up your project and imported your footage, it’s super easy to create proxies by right-clicking on some highlighted footage and choosing proxie media > generate proxy media from the project settings.

In this case, it will automatically create proxies for the highlighted clips and save them in the location that is set in the project settings > master setting when scrolling down to working folders.

The Quality of the proxies can be defined in the same menu at optimised media and render cash. The proxy resolution is defined in relation to the original resolution. Possibilities are, for example: original, half of the original, a quarter of the original, etc. By default, it’s set to “choose automatically”, which will generate at the current set timeline resolution. When working with proxies, you can switch fast between disabling All proxies, preferring proxies and preferring camera originals, in the Timeline viewer.

You can also see whether proxies are attached by the white (for high-resolution) or purple (for proxies) icon on your clip, which will be visible in the thumbnail of your clip in the media pool.

If you really want to speed up your preparation process in advance, you should look into the Blackmagic Proxy Generator, an external tool which will automatically be installed with Davinci Resolve. It gives you the opportunity to render proxies in advance, without even having to get your project set up before. The proxies will then automatically be attached when importing the footage into a project.

This process will ensure you can go straight into editing when setting up your project. The strongest part of this tool is the watch folder function, which continues to scan your chosen folders for additional footage even after generating proxies. Very useful when you keep adding footage to folders you’re already working with.

Organising footage with scene metadata and smart bins

After you’ve added everything to your bins, it’s time to organise your footage. With Premiere Pro, I used to either restructure footage directly in bins, which made everything messy quite quickly, or sort my footage into sequences. In Resolve, I recommend using the scene metadata and smart bins. I know that Premiere Pro also lets you create smart bins using metadata, but it wasn’t intuitive enough for me to use back then. Resolve on the other side makes it super easy:

On the Media Page, click one clip or highlight multiple, then navigate to the top-right to close the audio panel. This will give your open Metadata panel more space. Choose “shot and scene” from the three-dotted menu. There, you’ve got lots of options to set metadata. One thing I like to use in this context is Clip colour, since it gives me an easy way to differentiate between different footage, for example, interviews with different people. Other than that, you can set metadata and let Davinci Resolve create smart bins based on it. For a start, I’d recommend you use Keywords. To do so, enter a Keyword you want to sort your footage by into the Keyword cell.

Then navigate to the bottom-left of your screen to find the Smart Bin List. By default, there should be a bin for Keywords. Davinci Resolve automatically generates one smart bin for every keyword you set before. By clicking on ‘Keywords’, a menu with all the smart bins will open.

Personally, I love this feature because it lets me keep my original folder structure while allowing me to sort my footage more intuitively. It also allows me to have the same clip in different bins, e.g., for location and person, which speeds up my process. With all this said, you should have everything you need to make your first steps in the software. Next up: how to get your Project Settings and Timeline right to start your first edit in Davini Resolve.

The post Getting your bearings: Switching from Premiere Pro to DaVinci Resolve first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Jana Johnston.

Kraken is a Norwegian sci-fi thriller that moves between majestic fjord landscapes, industrial fish farms, studio interiors, LED-volume stages and CG-heavy underwater sequences. From a grading perspective, the main challenge was maintaining visual continuity while allowing each environment to retain its own identity.

The main priority for senior colourist Dylan Hopkin was establishing a strong, consistent foundational look across the film. “A good grade always serves the story and characters first,” he says. “What I do should be almost invisible. My colouring shouldn’t draw attention to itself.” Before the main grade began, Hopkin worked on teasers and the main trailer, a process that helped the team prepare for the actual movie, he explains. “But teasers and trailers are commercials for the film. The looks don’t always translate directly once you see scenes in their full context.”

Hopkin walks through a selection of scenes from the film, explaining how he approached colour, contrast and continuity, and how DaVinci Resolve was used to solve specific creative and technical challenges.

A bit about Kraken

Kraken (2026) is a Norwegian monster action feature directed by Pål Øie and produced by Nordisk Film Production AS, with Handmade Films in Norwegian Woods also credited on IMDb. It was shot on location around the Sognefjord and included studio work in Finland.

The story follows marine biologist Johanne, sent to investigate a salmon farm near Vangsnes after two teenagers die and strange phenomena suggest something huge is moving in the fjord depths.

Establishing a foundational look for Kraken

The main weight of the grade was creating a robust foundational look, which effectively became a bespoke show LUT implemented as a fixed node tree. From there, I focused on what each image already had to offer. I looked at dominant hues, how practical light flowed through the frame, what the most important part of the image was, and what the director and DP wanted the audience to feel. From that analysis, I usually get a gut feeling for how to adapt the image.

I try to be as respectful as possible towards the cinematography. What’s captured in front of the lens creates the DNA of the look. Creating appropriate tonal contrast so images sit right is a big part of grading. I do that using custom curves, DCTLs or different DRTs in Resolve, depending on the material. Shaping light is also critical. I rely heavily on windows, tracking and Magic Mask [more on which later] to guide the audience’s eye, in much the same way as dodge-and-burn techniques in still photography.

Maintaining continuity across scenes

This is one of the most challenging aspects of grading. I prefer to choose as few reference images as possible per scene and match everything else against them.

It’s also important to commit to a consistent set of tools. I often use colour-space-aware tools for exposure and white balance, such as Resolve’s HDR Grade tool, because the maths is very clean and respects the source material. Another approach I use is working in linear gamma with gain for exposure and white balance. The key is consistency.

Once shot-by-shot balancing is done, I use the Group Post-Clip node tree for scene-wide corrections. On Kraken, colour management was handled manually in a DaVinci YRGB project using nodes and input DCTLs. For animated features, I usually prefer ACEScct, but for live action, I still like a more hands-on approach.

Fjord landscapes

For the fjord exteriors, the goal was to keep foliage and skies natural but present. I relied heavily on the Tetra2 DCTL by Juanjo L. Salazar to tweak foliage hues, with very clean results. I also used the ColorSlice tool to add subtle density to greens without flattening highlights. Cloud texture in the skies was preserved through contrast control rather than saturation.

Kraken is the first Scandinavian feature film to be graded in Dolby Vision for theatrical release! For this additional version, Hopkin graded two days on Resolve with an advanced panel in Dolby’s reference theatre in London’s Soho. “It was an amazing experience: next level cinema,” says Hopkin.

Fish farm control room

The fish farm control room needed to feel grimy and industrial, in contrast to the high-tech control screens. It was shot in a studio with exterior views created using an LED volume, allowing precise control of time-of-day lighting while maintaining accurate reflections.

After establishing the base look, I added a subtle amount of green using primary offsets, similar to printer lights. That small adjustment added grit and helped sell the environment.

Fish farm exteriors: day and night

The fish farm exteriors had a weathered, oily quality with plenty of patina. Daylight scenes were graded with softer contrast and a colder Nordic feel.

At night, sodium vapour lighting dominated. I pushed the blacks deeper to add more bite and reinforce the industrial mood.

Kraken Underwater sequences and transitions

Underwater shots varied significantly, combining live action, CG, day-for-night and fully stylised sequences. Most daylight underwater scenes leaned green-cyan, while nighttime scenes moved more towards blue.

There were exceptions. During the nighttime kraken attack, surface lighting mixed strong sodium vapour with cooler sources. When submerged and looking up, I pushed highlights towards orange to connect the underwater shots to the surface action.

For shots moving between above and below the surface, I used keyframed grades in dynamic nodes to animate colour transitions. The HDR Grade tool, offset controls and hue-vs-hue curves were central here.

Submerged luxury restaurant

The submerged luxury restaurant was shot in a studio using an LED volume. I compressed the colour palette slightly using hue-vs-hue, managed saturated skin tones with hue-vs-sat, and controlled saturation depth with ColorSlice. The aim was restraint, keeping the environment immersive without overpowering performance.

In the restaurant, some wide shots suffered from LED moiré. I analysed which colour channels were affected and used a splitter-combiner node structure with Color Compressor, Debanding OFX and subtle directional blur, applied via qualifiers and masks.

Fish farm attack and fog

During the early evening fish farm attack, the Scandinavian light was at its best. I added subtle warmth along horizon lines and introduced fog behind Johanne using Cinematic Haze OFX.

I used Resolve’s masking tools and planar tracker to lock haze masks in place, excluding mountain silhouettes with HSL qualifiers. In total, I added fog and haze to around 40 shots.

In one canoe sequence, several shots lacked fog entirely. I tested Cinematic Haze, showed the results to the director, DP and producers, and ended up completing the remaining shots.

I like the control Cinematic Haze offers: finding the right depth-map sweet spot first, then adjusting airlight, density and resolution loss.

Laboratory bioluminescence

In the lab scenes, a green bioluminescent liquid needed to feel more prominent. I qualified the bioluminescence, added Add Flicker OFX for a smooth pulse, and used ColorSlice to push subtractive saturation into the green hue.

Red alert and the nighttime finale of Kraken

The red-alert sequence marked a deliberate escalation. This was the first nighttime attack on the fish farm, and the images needed to feel crisper and more aggressive than earlier scenes. Saturation increased due to intense red warning lights, but it was important to keep those colours under control. I relied on the Sat-vs-Sat curve to keep the reds vivid without tipping into a digital look, with gamut-mapping used where appropriate.

In the nighttime finale, Johanne leaves the fish farm by boat before the sequence cuts to day-for-night material. From that point on, the scene had to be transformed into a believable nighttime environment with a softer Scandinavian summer-night feel. I used Resolve’s HDR Grade tool for most of the heavy lifting and introduced a warm sodium-vapour tone to maintain a visual link to the fish farm. Tracked masks and Magic Mask helped preserve detail in Johanne’s performance while keeping the environment dark and moody.

Magic Mask and selective grading

Magic Mask has changed the way I work. Tasks like face relighting used to rely on tracked windows or rotoscoping, which could easily introduce halos. Magic Mask can select faces, clothing, vehicles and more with minimal setup. It’s not perfect every time, but with some tweaking, it solves complex selections efficiently. On Kraken, I used it extensively for relighting faces, isolating creatures and excluding actors from background colour manipulations, often in combination with keyers and windows.

Camera shake and lightweight VFX

In several action scenes, the DP Sjur Aarthun, wanted additional camera shake to increase impact. Solving this during the grade is far quicker than sending shots back to VFX. I used Camera Shake OFX for constant vibrations, and custom Fusion setups with damped-spring expressions for impact shakes, always with motion blur enabled. Working in Resolve allowed real-time review and better control over the scene’s flow.

Dylan Hopkin (IMDB | LinkedIn | Website) is a senior colourist based at one of Europe’s leading post-production facilities, Nordisk Film ShortCut Oslo, with more than a decade of experience specialising in high-end creative colour grading for feature films, TV dramas and commercials. He originally trained as a motion graphics designer before transitioning into finishing and online work.

Hopkin’s credits span award-winning cinema and television projects showcased internationally at festivals such as Sundance, Cannes Series, Tribeca and the Oscars circuit. He is also a certified DaVinci Resolve trainer, has created masterclasses on grading strategies and teaches at film schools across Europe.

The post Grading Kraken: insights from the colour grade first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Blackmagic Design makes DaVinci Resolve, an integrated system combining editing, colour grading, Fusion compositing and Fairlight audio in a single application. The company also runs official live Zoom training alongside its certification books and manuals.

Blackmagic Design has announced a new series of free live online DaVinci Resolve training sessions running from late February through April. The programme covers editing, Fusion, colour grading and Fairlight audio. All sessions are delivered live via Zoom and require advance registration. There is no fee attached. There is, however, a clock. Each webinar runs for two hours. Whether two hours is enough to master node graphs, HDR grading and multicam depends on your expectations.

26 February: Getting Started with DaVinci Resolve – 14:00 to 16:00 GMT

This session introduces the interface, project setup, media import, timeline basics and essential editing tools. It is positioned as a foundation class for new users who have opened Resolve and would like to understand what they are looking at. Resolve’s layout is famously modular. This session appears designed to stop new users clicking randomly until something works.

Zoom registration https://blackmagicdesign-emea.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_tBZLK33YSEGGxGdh-cBy1w

27 February: Upgrading to DaVinci Resolve Studio – 14:00 to 16:00 GMT

This webinar focuses on features exclusive to the Studio version, including advanced noise reduction, AI based selection tools, object tracking and HDR workflows. Blackmagic describes these as Studio only capabilities. For facilities balancing free versus paid licences, this class effectively answers the question: what exactly are we paying for. That decision tends to become clearer once AI tools enter the conversation. And alternatives are abandoning development for shiny baubles.

Zoom registration https://blackmagicdesign-emea.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KX99MCn0Qn2noiTzCasZ_g

12 March: An Introduction to Fusion in DaVinci Resolve –
14:00 to 16:00 GMT

The Fusion webinar introduces Resolve’s node based compositing environment. Topics include keying, basic visual effects construction and motion graphics inside the Fusion page. Editors who have avoided nodes may find this session gently removes that fear. Or replaces it with a more structured one.

Zoom registration https://blackmagicdesign-emea.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_y7yC0gjlT2iluoNy6wZmBg

13 March: Editing with DaVinci Resolve for New Users –
14:00 to 16:00 GMT

This class moves into trimming tools, transitions, keyboard shortcuts and timeline efficiency. It is described as suitable for users building foundational editing skills. Resolve offers both Cut and Edit pages. The published outline does not specify which page receives priority. The schedule diplomatically avoids taking sides in what remains one of postproduction’s quieter theological debates.

Zoom registration https://blackmagicdesign-emea.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_EaQHjTopT1i6iAnp4cJ6Og

26 March: Editing with DaVinci Resolve Intermediate – 14:00 to 16:00 GMT

The intermediate session covers multicam editing, proxy workflows and media management. These topics are directly relevant to larger prodcution environments and shared storage setups. Proxy generation and multicam handling are practical, not glamorous. They are also what prevent late night conform panics. This session appears aimed squarely at that reality.

Zoom registration https://blackmagicdesign-emea.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_TWAsojWZRTKTTHQKaYIKxQ

27 March: Getting Started with Audio in DaVinci Resolve – 14:00 to 16:00 GMT

This webinar introduces the Fairlight page, including dialogue editing, mixing and loudness tools. Fairlight is integrated within the same project structure as edit and colour. No exports, no round trips, no misplaced stems. An we are soooo inexperienced inFairlight, that we can’t even think of a joke here – maybe we’ll see you in this webinar!

Zoom registration https://blackmagicdesign-emea.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_OxGlvYteRxC88ist88Wg0Q

9 April: An Introduction to Color in DaVinci Resolve – 14:00 to 16:00 GMT

This session covers scopes, primary corrections and node-based grading workflows. It is positioned as a fundamentals class for those moving from editing to grading. Resolve’s colour page remains one of its defining components. Understanding scopes alone can prevent a surprising number of creative arguments.

Zoom registration https://blackmagicdesign-emea.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_OE3c-JFCSL2TKU8eXOA7Ag

10 April: Creative Color Techniques in DaVinci Resolve –
14:00 to 16:00 GMT

The final listed webinar addresses secondary corrections, tracking and look development strategies, which is industry language for “making it look intentional”. Tracking driven secondaries and stylistic grades are standard practice in commercial and episodic finishing, especially when a client decides mid-session that the blue should be more blue but only on Tuesdays.

Zoom registration https://blackmagicdesign-emea.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Rr5XXrZbSwCIvWv55LswvQ

Other Courses

Alongside the live webinars, Blackmagic promotes its broader training ecosystem under the banner “Become a Certified DaVinci Resolve Professional”. Blackmagic states that its certified training curriculum is designed for both new users and established professionals. The company cites a network of more than 250 certified trainers and over 100 training centres worldwide, supported by books, online resources and structured lesson files. A substantial portion of this material is available as free training videos with downloadable project files. These are organised by discipline.

Under DaVinci Resolve Edit, Blackmagic lists Introduction to Editing in two parts, covering core editing tools, trim edits, match frame, audio mixing, effects, transitions and titles. Additional Edit page topics include Multicam Editing and Visual Effects in the Edit Page, addressing syncing angles in the timeline, green screen keying, travelling mattes and sign replacements.

The DaVinci Resolve Color section includes Introduction to Color and Advanced Color. These cover primary and secondary grading tools, scopes, colour management, RAW workflows, node structuring and Magic Mask tracking. Supplementary lessons include working with the DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel, Delivering Content via the Deliver page and a dedicated video on Color Management systems and settings.

For audio, the DaVinci Resolve Fairlight track features Introduction to Audio, Introduction to Sound Design and Introduction to Mixing. Topics include dialogue repair with plugins, track balancing, equalisation, dynamics, bus routing and automation. Further lessons address recording voiceover and ADR, working with audio track layers, channel mapping and linked groups, and Dolby Atmos integration using Fairlight Immersive tools.

The DaVinci Resolve Fusion section includes Introduction to Fusion, Basic Compositing, Motion Graphics in Fusion and 3D Compositing in Fusion. These lessons cover node based compositing, luma keying, sky replacement, 3D camera tracking, object removal and building 3D scenes inside Fusion’s workspace.

All listed training videos are accompanied by downloadable project files. Blackmagic positions these as hands on learning resources rather than passive demonstrations.

In addition to the videos, Blackmagic publishes official training books, including The Beginner’s Guide to DaVinci Resolve, The Editor’s Guide to DaVinci Resolve, The Fairlight Audio Guide to DaVinci Resolve, The Colorist Guide to DaVinci Resolve, The Visual Effects Guide to DaVinci Resolve and Advanced Visual Effects in DaVinci Resolve. These are available as downloadable PDFs and in print via retail channels, and include lesson files and online exams.

The overall message is clear. If a user cannot find structured instruction for a specific page inside Resolve, they have not looked very hard. The materials span editing, grading, compositing, audio post and delivery, with attached project media for practice rather than theory alone.

As always, new tools and innovations should be tested in production before use to confirm stability and pipeline compatibility. Just because you completed the course, don’t start changing the entire pipeline yet. Tell your colleagues first, wait until everyone is looking away, THEN change the pipeline! (Just kidding,of course)

The post Blackmagic Schedules Free Resolve School first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

DaVinci Resolve (DR for short) had the Magic Mask function on board for quite a while, and some voiced their disappointment when it didn’t conjure up what greenscreen keying does. Well, Blackmagic Design (BM for short) never claimed it does, by concept it was rather aiming at secondary colour grading. While its capabilities are quite impressive, Magic Mask has some problems with backgrounds that are too close in colour and contrast to the foreground, or subjects with motion blur. And then, it needs very capable hardware and there are still quite a few reports of limited reliability of Magic Mask 2 in DR, caching in particular. While version 20.3.2 should have some improvements in that area, we wouldn’t bet the house (or the company) on it yet.

FxFactory to the rescue

So, good old greenscreen has not yet been obsoleted by AI, at least if you don’t shoot the whole scene in a virtual studio anyway. The authors, Rob Mackintosh and Gabriele de Simone, have obviously thought about facilitating boring tasks by blending in some AI with ‘classic’ greenscreening. They are the masterminds behind the Hawaiki Keyer (HK for short, even if not from China), which is supported and distributed by FxFactory. Version 5 of that keyer adds tracking by a neural engine, including face or object recognition. They also ported it to DR, while older versions were only available for Adobe’s video software and Final Cut Pro. Reason enough to have a closer look?

Test scenes

We have tested it with critical footage, like a too well-lit background lacking saturation, and another one with good saturation, but lighting issues. The latter one was even in ‘small’ HD out of a DVCPro camera (from Hollywood Camera Works). Of course, a perfectly lit greenscreen in 12K from a modern digital camera would hardly stress any of the keyers included by BM, like the 3D Keyer in DR Studio, or Cryptomatte and Delta Keyer in Fusion. HK rather aims at those fighting with not so perfect shots.

Tracking instead of boring

After watching the older tutorial you may be wondering about the shape of the window coming up for the secondary keyer, which is now rectangular. You can round it off if needed with its “Roundness” slider. This is now in its own menu under “Shape”, where you also define the tracking area. The secondary key is controlled by this adjustable shape, and this is where tracking comes into play. You can have it follow the initial content like any good tracker.

Or you can activate “AI Track” and let it follow faces or objects, even multiple targets up to six. In our tests it was tracking very reliably, only some of the wildly shaken strains of blonde hair with high motion blur in one example were overshooting and needed minor adjustment. Such tracking capabilities are not only taking a lot of manual work out of garbage matting for scenes with a moving camera, but allow you to apply the secondary key to critical areas, like hair. A detailed tutorial is here.

Two for the price of one

Actually, even four, counting the extras. At first view, most of HK’s functions are set to “Auto” or quite decent presets, but all can be fine-tuned manually, if not to say infinitely. There is even a separate version for bluescreen, in case anybody, not even knowing where the heck that name originated, is confronted with optochemical footage. Now, either version is actually two keyers in one. If you have some experience with chroma keying, you will already know that one single key is often not enough to handle both delicate semi-transparencies and an uneven background at once. HK offers a primary and a secondary key, which both can be enabled and fine-tuned individually, as explained here. Most of the YouTube tutorials for HK were made by Simon Ubsdell, a very experienced compositing artist who also produced hundreds of other tutorials.

Clean the edges

“Denoise” is not exactly what you may assume. General denoising, if needed, should rather be done before using your incoming footage with HK. We would suggest NeatVideo for such tasks, which is still king in the lower price range. That function in HK is rather aiming at critical edges from weaker sources, like 4:2:2 subsampling, which can lead to stairstepping or even crawly contours. While it can’t perfectly cure our poor sample from DVCPro, it did a pretty good job improving it, considerably better than simply blurring the edges. There is a whole set of settings to improve the edges under “Edge Tool”, you can find that part of a tutorial by Simon here.

Clean your screen

And then there is “Screen Clean”, explained here. It does a better job than the standard sliders of other keyers at identifying and cleaning areas of uneven lighting of the background and preserving semi-transparent foreground areas at the same time. Screen Clean has a pretty decent “Auto” default, but can be fine-tuned and excluded from an active shape if needed. Of course, there’s “Despill”, which will not only base its effect on the keying color, but can accomodate the background image if you wish.

Grading included

HK even integrates a whole range of color grading functions. This may have you wondering why, if you are working inside one of the best grading applications on the planet. But anybody with some decent compositing experience will know how helpful it can be to do some corrections right in the keyer. Of course, you can also choose appropriate color space and gamma here. Most of these parameters were added in version 5, BTW. Like all the rest, those values can be animated.

If you have never used this keyer before, have a look at the tutorials for HK 4 and 4.5, they contain valuable explanations of the earlier improvements. Not all material is yet adapted to DR, but this tutorial is going over the use of the keyer in DR in general. In particular the use of the background for functions like the “Edge Tools”, e. g. light wrap. These can be a bit tricky in Resolve and will be easier with the help of a simple Fusion composition, clearly explained in that video.

Help is just a mouse-click away for all of the Hawaiki tools, both in the Inspector or the Open FX Overlay. The manual will show up in a separate window, which you can place on a second screen or next to DR on a superwide one, if DR is not set to full-frame.

DR with Fusion not enough?

Now, if seasoned Fusion specialists may claim that they could do most of what HK does with the tools already on board, that may be true to some degree. But that’s not easy for the average users of DR, who will probably see HK’s all-in-one concept as a godsend. They can discover a highly-specialised set of tools coming clearly from practical experience and not found anywhere else. And then, HK works in the free version of DR too, while many of the more advanced tools in DR don’t.

Being fully optimized for Apple silicon, the keyer is very fast, even on a humble Mac mini M4. The intelligent pipeline contributes to this: if you first crop the picture in for garbage matting, the outside areas are not processed any further by the tracker and all the rest to avoid the load. And then, whatever can be done by the neural engine will not put any load on the GPU cores. Finally, on limited hardware in particular it’s considerably more stable than Magic Mask 2.

Commentary

There might be only one minor flaw to disappoint a few of our readers: all FxFactory filters are MacOS only, with no plans to change that any time soon. But for all those using DaVinci Resolve, even the free version, on a modern Apple computer and needing greenscreening regularly, Hawaiki Keyer’s all-in-one approach should be quite appealing. Many of the other offers by FxFactory are worth a look as well.

The post Hawaiki Keyer – for those who don’t trust all the magic of AI first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Uli Plank.

For those who don’t know the tool: DaVinci Resolve and Fusion Studio from Blackmagic Design cover edit, grade, comp and audio in one ecosystem. They run on macOS, Windows, Windows for Arm and Linux, with Desktop Video hardware for monitoring and dedicated control panels for tactile users.

Blackmagic Design has released DaVinci Resolve 20.3.2 and Fusion Studio 20.3.2. This is a maintenance update. No fireworks. Plenty of fixes. Sensible improvements in places that tend to bite.

The Resolve installer adds the main application, remote monitoring components and hardware control panel utilities. It also installs Blackmagic RAW Player and Blackmagic Proxy Generator. The free version of DaVinci Resolve 20 retains the same image processing pipeline as DaVinci Resolve Studio, supports unlimited resolution media, but limits mastering and output to Ultra HD or lower and supports only a single GPU on Windows and Linux.

Resolve Studio continues to offer multi GPU support, 4K output, motion blur effects, temporal and spatial noise reduction, multiple AI based tools, HDR tools, camera tracker, voice isolation, surround and immersive audio, additional Resolve FX, stereoscopic 3D tools and remote rendering.

Compatibility without time travel

Blackmagic states that project libraries remain compatible with DaVinci Resolve 19.1.4 at the database level. However, once a project is created or opened in 20.3.2, it cannot be reopened in 19.1.4. Facilities are advised to create full project library backups and individual project backups before upgrading. In shared environments, that advice is less a suggestion and more a survival strategy.

Edit page tweaks and trim discipline

A new preferences option enables dynamic trim in the Trim Editor on the Edit page. Dynamic trim adjusts edit points during playback, useful in dialogue heavy sequences and fast turnaroudn work. Subtitles receive more consistent kerning, a small but relevant change for broadcasters and OTT deliveries with strict QC.

Progressive renders are now supported for interlaced timelines with the same frame rate. Lens correction issues affecting vertical clips have been addressed. Media pool column header localisation issues are fixed, and slow media management startup in larger projects has been improved.

Magic Mask cache is now retained when pasting node attributes. Previously, pasting could invalidate cached analysis and trigger recalculation. The update reduces unnecessary GPU recompute in grading sessions that reuse node structures.

Faster AI scaling on Apple Silicon

SuperScale Enhanced is now up to 2.5 times faster when using the Apple Neural Engine. Blackmagic does not detail test conditions or hardware models. The claim applies specifically to SuperScale Enhanced and Apple Silicon systems with Neural Engine support. Not independently verified at press time.

Render speeds for side by side stereoscopic 3D renders have also been improved, although no numbers are provided. Timecode issues for proxies generated from stereoscopic 3D EXR files are addressed, along with incorrect render size estimates for some MXF clips.

Colour science and format fixes

Resolve 20.3.2 adds support for Fujifilm F Gamut C coloursapce and F Log2 C gamma. A ProRes RAW decode issue when using ACES has been fixed. Sony ARW decoding issues and incorrect pass through behaviour for some Sony XAVC renders are addressed.

Retention of MaxCLL metadata from XML when exporting IMF is corrected, relevant for HDR compliance. Several audio related issues are fixed, including problems with Dolby Atmos external renderers and an ADC reverb delay compensation issue in some projects. Support for Dolby headphone personalisation of binaural monitoring is added.

Fusion Studio joins the update

Blackmagic has also updated Fusion Studio to version 20.3.2. The installer adds Fusion Studio along with hardware control panel utilities, Blackmagic RAW Player and Blackmagic Proxy Generator. Fusion Studio 20.3.2 adds support for Fujifilm F Log2 C. It fixes issues with start and end render scripts on tools, resolves some character style problems in MultiText, and addresses an issue with the Import Footage menu. General performance and stability improvements are included.

Minimum system requirements across Resolve and Fusion Studio remain aligned with the current platform baselines, including macOS 14 Sonoma or later, Windows 10 Creators Update, Windows 11 for ARM on supported Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite systems, and Rocky Linux 8.6 on Linux. Monitoring requires Desktop Video 12.9 or later.

Resolve 7 Resolve Studio 20.3.2 and Fusion Studio 20.3.2 do not introduce major new toolsets. They fix edge cases, improve consistency and add targeted performance gains. In other words, the sort of update most facilities actually need. As always, new tools and innovations should be tested before use in production.

// Quoted info
// https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support

The post Resolve 20.3.2 tidies up the edges first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Foundry has confirmed what many suspected was coming: perpetual maintenance is officially on its way out. From 1 January 2027, all active maintenance customers for Nuke Family, Mari and Katana will be converted to subscription plans at their next renewal. Renewals during 2026 will run as normal. After that, Foundry’s entire licensing structure will be subscription only, with no further perpetual updates. According to the company, this change “aligns Foundry with industry-standard licensing practices.”

Same price (for now), probably not for long

The company promises that 2027 renewals will start at the same price as current maintenance, with annual increases not exceeding five per cent. In other words, yes, prices technically stay the same, but you might want to assume that five percent rise is baked in. The subscription is available only on an annual or quarterly basis. For a full commercial licence, Foundry lists €3,139 per year, including taxes, or €1,719 per quarter, including taxes. Indie, student and non-commercial versions exist, but these are not viable for most studio use. Customers who decline to renew will retain their perpetual licences for the last supported version but lose access to updates, support and bug fixes.

A year to plan your escape route

Announcing the change a year early, Foundry’s Alex Foulds said the goal was to give customers “the time and information necessary for a smooth and predictable transition.” Smooth or not, 2026 now becomes the year to review budgets, check pipeline dependencies and decide whether subscription fits your studio strategy, or if you will freeze your perpetual licences at the last maintenance release.

Predictable transition, unpredictable reception

Foundry says a unified subscription model will “accelerate development and deliver more features and performance enhancements”. That statement has not been independently verified at press time. The real test will come when existing users renew in 2027 and see what value those new builds actually deliver.

Studios still running older versions of Nuke, Mari or Katana should check support timelines and network licence compatibility well before the end of 2026. Once maintenance lapses, Foundry’s technical support and update access will be gone.

Proceed with caution

Licensing transitions have a habit of exposing pipeline surprises. Test the subscription editions in controlled conditions before rollout and confirm version parity across render nodes, farm licences and DCC integrations. Because as of 2027, everyone, from the smallest comp shop to the biggest feature house, will be renting their Foundry tools. For good.

The post Foundry locks in full subscription future for 2027 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Blackmagic Design develops cameras, broadcast gear, and postproduction software including DaVinci Resolve, Fusion, and Fairlight. The Blackmagic Camera Setup utility keeps their cameras’ firmware up to date, adds new features, and includes the Blackmagic RAW toolset used in Resolve and other DCC workflows.

PYXIS learns to cool itself

Version 10.0 of Blackmagic Camera Setup, released just now, introduces a dynamic fan control system for the Blackmagic PYXIS 12K. The camera now adjusts its cooling behaviour automatically while recording.

Pre-record and expanded audio arrive

Both the PYXIS 6K, PYXIS 12K, and the URSA Broadcast G2 gain a pre-record mode, allowing the capture of a few seconds before the record button is pressed, a practical addition for live and documentary work. All three models also now support four-channel audio recording, mono headphone monitoring, and a 0% opacity option for frame guides, giving operators the ability to clear overlays entirely when composing shots.

API, proxies and lens support updates

The update adds new Camera Control REST API commands, aimed at remote operation and integration with external systems. Blackmagic also adds an option to inhibit proxy recording, which could be useful for locked-down or multi-camera workflows. For the URSA Broadcast G2, 10.0 also improves Blackmagic Cloud integration and B4 lens compatibility. Blackmagic has not detailed the nature of these improvements, and they are not independently verified at press time.

RAW utilities and system requirements

The installer continues to bundle Blackmagic RAW Player, RAW Speed Test, RAW SDK, and RAW plugins for host applications. The update supports macOS 14 (Sonoma) and macOS 15 (Sequoia) on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs, as well as Windows 10 and Windows 11 64-bit systems. Blackmagic lists 8 GB RAM as the minimum for macOS.

Updfated PYXIS Manual

At the same time, BMD updated and released a new manual for the PYXISI Camera – geht the full PDF here for free or have a look if you think about getting one of them. https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/UserManuals/BlackmagicPYXISManual.pdf?

Practical reminder

As always, users should verify firmware stability and feature compatibility before deploying updates in active production environments. Never update during production, which we heartily recommend, because yesterday a Windows-Update made this news you are reading a hectic morning duty instead of a relaxed last evening thing. Also: Check yourt backups, while you are at it.

The post Blackmagic Camera 10.0 brings fan brains and pre-record tricks first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

A tasting of the dynamics and geometrys side (of) effects

This release is not about the number of features, but about finishing what was started, achieving true production readiness, robustness, performance, and ease of use. It’s a version focused on quality of life. Feature sets like MPM simulations and Karma have matured like a good wine. The machine learning tools respect the artist’s skill set and have left their state of play are actual usefull in production.

Even though SideFX remains modest in its official statements, Houdini 21 is a massive release. For the feature-hungry among us, the highlights include a fully matured APEX; a refined and clever animation and rigging framework; a simulating Copernicus (think Substance on Dope), and in the VFX realm, the production-ready MPM Solver. On top of that, we’re seeing machine learning tools popping up in all the right places (AI for people who don’t expect a Pixar film from a single click), faster and expanded rendering with Karma, and a healthy dose of quality-of-life improvements.

Since our editorial cat can only count to 300, we can’t tell you the exact number of new or improved features, but we’re impressed nonetheless. And soon, you will be too. To avoid overwhelming both writer and reader, we’re breaking this article into a mini-series. We’ll start with VFX & Geometry, followed by Solaris & Karma, Copernicus & Terrain, and the massive Animation & Rigging tools.

MPM

One of the most exciting additions in H20.5 was without question the MPM Solver. The MaterialPointMethod truly allows you to simulate a wide range of different materials. From water, snow, and sand to honey, metal, and concrete, all within a single Solver setup. The geometry is simply substituted by points or particles, which are then simulated. The different materials interact physically accurate and constraint-free, purely based on their assigned parameters.

The initial release was already impressive, but it left users standing somewhat in the simulated rain when asking: “How do I get a proper mesh with UVs?” That exact issue has now been beautifully solved in H21. Any MPM simulation, whether rigid body or fluid, can now be meshed (as polygons or SDF volumes), including UVs, color, and other attributes, using no more than two nodes.

A nice and usefull addition to this workflow is the MPM Debris node, which generates new points along fracture lines as sources for smoke, dirt, or secondary debris effects. So let’s take a look at meshing hard and fluid or granular surfaces across a few setups and scenarios and wrap things up with a creamed cookies drink while watching the official and very excellent MPM demo.

Surfacing MPM Simulations

Testing time! For this test setup, we’ll have a clay ball smash into a vase model, paying close attention to UV transfer and the generation of smaller fragments through the Debris Source. The easiest way to start an MPM simulation is by typing “MPM Configure” into the node search. This gives you a complete set of starter nodes right away. (Under MPM Configure, you’ll also find plenty of additional example setups for study or creative repurposing.) By the way, the MPM container on the far right controls the overall resolution of the entire simulation.

We replace the default sphere with our own model and can now assign materials directly inside the mpmSource node and tweak them to our liking. It’s genuinely fun. Feels a bit like a mini-game. Since a concrete material would be more realistic but also quite boring as a vase material, we went with Chunky Snow instead. The environment comes in via an Object Merge directly into the mpmCollider Sop, ready to go. Our clay ball, the antagonist of this little simulation, isn’t a collider per definition but another mpmSource ready to be smashed, merged with the vase and given its own material behavior, Chunk Soil.

To make sure the particles can actually see and “love” each other, we need to enable Particle-Level Collision in the solver. The new Auto Sleep feature helps keep the vase passive until the collision happens, preventing it from collapsing at frame one and saving quite a bit of compute time.

Since the clay ball will be meshed as a fluid and granular surface and the vase as a rigid object, we first separate the MPM particles using a Blast node, filtering them by their respective source names.

For surfacing the vase, we use the mpmPostFracture node, which takes the rest-geometry and the MPM particles as input. This node essentially breaks the geometry apart “end to start,” so it needs to be fed the final frame of the simulation. After that, we choose either Voronoi or Boolean Cut as the fracture method. The latter can generate interior details, subtle irregularities on the inner faces of the fracture, that weren’t visible before, and it’s also faster to compute. We can further control the number of pieces as well as define the minimum fragment size at which new pieces should be generated.

The final node in the chain is mpmDeformPieces, which transfers the newly generated fracture geometry onto the MPM particles and just like that, the vase shards, physically convinced they’re made of snow, go flying through the scene, complete with perfectly intact UVs. For more of a muddy mess, we could have generated a liquid or granular surface instead, but we’ll save that for the clay ball. The result from the Debris Source, which lets you precisely define when and where particles based on fracture are emitted, is then passed into a POP network, including collisions from the vase and background).

Time to get serious:

Continuos Emissions & Surface Tension

With this new option, you can quickly fill containers, simulate expanding materials, or layer different materials on top of each other. The option is located in the mpmource node and spreads new particles apart using positive pressure.

Let’s take our vase and let a thick, viscous something ooze out of it. A good chance to show how simple MPM can be: if we want things to float inside the fluid, they just need a lower density. A few cubes are generated and assigned a jelly material. Two geometries, two MPM Sources, merged and fed into the solver. That’s all it takes. Just as easily, you can mix different fluids within the same setup. And for a bit more drama, we can dive into the solver and add a POP Wind node with some turbulence.

Surface tension allows for realistic effects such as droplets, tendrils, and flowing water. H21 introduces two new ways to control surface tension for both liquid and viscous materials inside the MPM Solver. The Point Based method offers higher accuracy and stability, making it ideal for small and detailed simulations. The Grid Based method, on the other hand, is optimized for performance and handles millions of particles more efficiently, which makes it better suited for large-scale scenes. External forces and friction can be increased if objects keep moving when they shouldn’t. Otherwise, you might end up with a scene straight out of Terminator 2.

To achieve high levels of detail without an unnecessarily large number of simulation points, the new, more precise collision detection allows you to use the fracture edges of a simulation as the source for a targeted secondary simulation. The attribute Jp (Plastic Compression/Stretching) is key here. It can be used to isolate the fractured areas and feed them into a Surfacing node set to VDB mode. This resulting volume can then serve as the source for the second simulation. And don’t forget to use the main simulation result as a collider.

And finally to top it off, the official demo. A detailed breakdown of that beautiful cookie shot.

Machine Learning in Dynamics

You won’t find any generative AI native in Houdini, but rather a growing collection of smart, locally running models, often trained by yourself, designed to simplify or speed up time-consuming tasks.

Surfacing Flip, Vellum & Particle Simulations

Alongside Neural Point Surfacing for MPM, the new Neural Point Surface and proven Particle Fluid Surface nodes now bring neural meshing to FLIP, Vellum, and POP simulations as well. Until now a bunch of points are trying to reconstruct the surface of a material. With neural meshing, you can now achieve much sharper, more detailed surfaces across a both high and low frequencies. The result: surfaces that are no longer uniformly fuzzy, but crisp, structured, and temporally stable. As before, you can train your own models, but even the included presets already produce finer details. And thankfully, the whole thing is GPU-accelerated.

Volume Upres

The core problem behind volume up-resing: for efficiency, artists often create and approve low-resolution simulations. But once the voxeldensity is increased, the overall shape of the sim tends to change. With the new tools, a low-res simulation can now be upscaled while preserving its exact shape. This not only keeps previously approved versions intact, but also allows for far more iterations. A model that’s been trained on a specific motion or behavior can now upscale multiple variations of it.

The Billowy Smoke recipe (or shelf tool) comes with a pretrained up-res model already integrated. Let’s start by looking at a comparison between the low-res input simulation and the 3× up-res result.

Details are nicely added, while the overall shape is preserved impressively well. Caching took a bit of time, but it’s still far faster than running a full high-res simulation. The real idea, however, is that we can now reuse this up-res model for all our future Billowy Smoke setups and honestly, we probably should. So, let’s quickly modify the setup and see if we can break the upscaler.

This time, the solver runs at a voxel size of 0.05, using the 2× upscaler. The 3× model didn’t really add more detail, just extra waiting time. For a bit more fun, a Gas Wind with random direction and a collision shape were added. That collision shape, as it turns out, gives the upscaler a bit of trouble as seen below.

But when comparing the up-res result to a true high-res sim, it’s clear that the system is really good at preserving the base form. Doubling the voxel size in the high-res sim, on the other hand, changes the overall shape and eats up a ton of time but stays artifact-free. Or, if you really want perfection, you could just train a model specifically for this type of collision.

If you want to train your own model, this Equinox Hive talk walks you through every detail:

Zibra AI VDB compression

With this plugin you can save up to 99 percent of storage space when caching VDB simulations, which makes it perfectly suited for use in real-time engines such as Unreal Engine 5. The Zibra toolset, distributed via SideFX Labs, provides three dedicated nodes.

The first, zibravdb_compress, writes and exports .zibravdb files for use in Unreal and similar environments. The second, zibravdb_decompress, brings those files back into Houdini. And finally, zibravdb_filecache acts as a modified File Cache node that automatically handles compression, loading, and decompression for further use inside Houdini. Before diving in, you’ll need to download the model and obtain a license, potentially a free personal one if your revenue is below 100 K USD. The license management can be accessed directly from any of the three nodes.

For a quick benchmark, I used the Fireball Recipe and cached one regular VDB sequence alongside two Zibra versions with different quality settings. The original VDB sequence weighed 294 MB. The Zibra compression at a quality setting of 0.2 came in at only 5 MB, roughly 98 percent smaller. At a quality setting of 0.9, the result visually matched the original VDB almost perfectly while staying at just 36 MB, around 88 percent less.
That insane low file size at 0.2 naturally comes at the cost of lost detail, as visible in the comparison graph below. Still, the results are impressive and they open up the possibility for bringing volumetric simulations into real-time pipelines far more efficiently than before.

Pyro Shelve Tool Presets

Another way to get artists up to speed faster are production-ready presets, not just educational examples, but tools meant to be customized for your very real projects. Each of them comes with a ready-to-use Solaris network, fully set up for rendering straight out of the box. Even better, the Help section now includes a short guide and exploanation of important Nodes for every preset.

SideFX strikes a noticeably new tone here, aiming to flatten the learning curve rather than overwhelming newcomers with endless options (which, to be fair, they still do from time to time). These guides can be found under Documentation → What’s New → Pyro. In this section, we’ll take a closer look at three fundamentally different presets, each showcasing its own approach and creative use case.

Stylized Flame

With the refined Copernicus toolset, entirely new worlds open up: stylized fire based on a classic Pyro simulation, right inside Houdini. And if needed, even live-rendered in Solaris.

To put the claim of “easy adaptability” to the test, we took the Pyro Fireball preset and gave it a Toon-style makeover. Adding the VDB field “Flame” inside the solver’s output was all it took to make it work. The output from the Cop node, by the way, can be merged directly into the scene for further Houdini style editing.

Ground Explosion B

This shelf tool sets up a sparse pyro simulation featuring a large-scale explosion, smoke trails, and a shockwave. For more control and efficiency, it’s actually made up of two separate simulations, layered on top of each other and interacting through their velocity fields.

Candle Flame

A candle flame might not be the most exciting thing visually, but it’s one of those Pyro results you end up needing again and again. What makes this preset interesting, though, is the procedurally modeled candle that comes with it. Exploring that setup is almost more fun than the Pyro sim itself.

Thruster FX

In true H21 fashion and in the spirit of overall efficiency boosts, the new Thruster FX tool makes its debut: a setup designed to create engine and propulsion emissions with ease. It’s not just a new node, but rather a complete Recipe, a preconfigured network of nodes that some might, in hushed tones, simply call “presets.”

With a cheerful click on Thruster Exhaust in the Pyro Shelf Tools (or via Configure Thruster in the Tab menu), you’ll get a fully adaptable node tree, including a ready-to-render Solaris network. The effect itself isn’t a simulation but a cleverly layered, art-directable procedural system built around VOP Nodes. Multiple pyrothrusterexhaust nodes are stacked in layers, each responsible for different components like sparks, fire, and plasma. All working together to form a surprisingly easy to use thruster system.

So, what does it actually look like? And can it really be used straight out of the box, as promised? The short answer: pretty much, yes. The rendering comes surprisingly close to the viewport preview. To get it running, only a few connections inside the included Solaris network needed to be adjusted. For our small test scene, we did a bit of kitbashing inside Solaris, then added some glow and polish in Fusion.

Let’s take a closer look at the node, both from the outside and under the hood. The node expects a primitive as input, and a simple circle usually does the trick. It outputs both particles and a volume containing density and temperature fields. In the General tab, you can control speed, length, and the overall shape via a spline ramp. The Exhaust section handles the color ramp and lets you tweak the underlying noise pattern, which has a strong impact on the overall form. Under the hood, the node generates a VDB from Polygon, then modifies the result with a Volume VOP and a Volume Adjust Fog node.

As part of the ongoing effort to simplify things and lower the learning curve, SideFX has also released a good and detailed tutorial mini series: sidefx.com/tutorials/how-to-create-thruster-fx

Car Destruction FX

So that we can also crash the rigs built with the Car Rig SOP introduced in H20.5, Houdini 21 brings us the new Car Destruction Tools, led by the mighty RBD Car Fracture SOP, supported by the RBD Car Transform SOP. The first one takes care of fracturing and constraint creation, automatically handling the typical materials you’d expect in a vehicle: glass, metal, wood, and rubber. The RBD Car Transform SOP, similar to Transform Pieces, ensures that all pre-fractured parts are efficiently transformed based on the simulation points. You’re not limited to cars, by the way. Anything that follows the same basic logic can be blown apart. From motorcycles to helicopters, it all breaks just fine.

Destruction-hungry artists will find a detailed yet easy-to-follow example scene in the SideFX Content Library, the same visuals you might recognize from the keynote: sidefx.com/carbd-dual-car-collision/. A fitting go-through video can be found here:

Geometry, Viewport and other tasty QoL

Coming from its deep VFX roots, Houdini has taken quite a journey to establish its own distinct style of procedural modeling. With H21, that journey continues, extending existing nodes and adding a few genuinely useful new ones along the way. This time, even the viewport got some well-deserved love, now powered by Vulkan and capable of loading Gaussian Splats directly.

Sculpting in Time

The Sculpt SOP, introduced in H20.5 and (surprisingly) quite useful, now gets a genuinely groundbreaking new feature called Shot Sculpting allowing time-based, keyframe-free sculpting. Originally intended as a correction tool for character animation, the node turns out to be just as handy for VFX and motion design work.

Temporal control is handled through the Shot Sculpt panel, which at first glance looks a lot like an NLE timeline and, in principle, works much the same way. Sculpting can be organized into layers that can be offset in time, faded in and out (complete with easing), muted, or adjusted in opacity. Alternatively, you can use mask_track to paint time-based attributes, which can then be passed downstream and used in other nodes, for an obvious example, as masks.

Otherwise, the same rules apply as for the regular Sculpt SOP, whose updates we’ll take a look at next. In line with the new Shot Sculpting feature, the mask system has been reworked. Masks can still be painted manually, but can now also be loaded from an upstream float attribute, saved permanently, and blurred or sharpened as needed.

There are also new brushes. My personal highlight, the Elastic Grab brush:

Of course, the complexity and depth of ZBrush remain unmatched, but for many tasks, artists can now comfortably stay right inside Houdini.

Geometry Masks

There are also updates when it comes to masking. Several well-known nodes now include a Mask parameter, allowing the effect to be restricted to a painted or procedurally generated mask. Among them: Peak SOP, Soft Peak SOP, Inflate SOP, Flatten SOP, and Point Jitter SOP.

UV Flatten from Points

The latest addition to Houdini’s already powerful UV toolset could just as well be called “UV from Voronoi” since that’s exactly what it’s based on. The node distributes random or precisely placed points across the surface and uses them to calculate clean, non-overlapping UVs. It’s primarily designed for complex, high-resolution meshes, where traditional unwrapping tends to get messy fast.

Vulkan Viewport

Now enabled by default, the new Vulkan 3D viewport offers noticeably improved lighting, Ambient Occlusion, shading and ray tracing with built-in denoising, and a more accurate texture display though performance can take a hit if you push it too far. New worklights including a fully adjustable Dome Light, Physical Sky, and Three-Point Light setup now serve as the default viewport lighting.

Looking toward the future, the viewport can now display Gaussian Splats directly. Since splats are essentially just point clouds, and Houdini is fundamentally point-based, this opens up a rather promising combination. The .ply file can simply be loaded via a File SOP and passed into a Bake Splat SOP for further processing. From there, you can treat and manipulate the splats just like any other geometry using the usual SOP tools. More on rendering those Splats in the upcoming section on Solaris & Karma.

Curve Tools

The new Extract Contours SOP can generate object outlines from a camera’s perspective either directly as edges or as an edge group. Quite handy for toon-style effects.

The well-known Curve SOP now allows you to interactively split points into branches (with unique vertex numbers) or fuse them back together.

Unsubdivide

If things ever get a bit too much, this node can reconstruct a low-res input geometry based on Catmull-Clark.

Conclusion after some bottles of VFX

Even though the stated (and achieved) goal of H21 was mainly polishing existing systems and adding plenty of quality-of-life improvements, it still manages to sneak in a massive load of new features along the way. And we’ve only scratched the surface here. Deep dives on Copernicus, Solaris, Karma, Rigging, and Animation are already in the works.

What’s also refreshing is the ongoing effort to flatten the learning curve through better documentation, tons of in-house tutorials, and solid example files in the Content Library. Many things have become easier or let’s say, more accessible, without losing depth, at least for those who want to go there. As always, most nodes can still be cracked open and modified at their core. Nice one, SideFX.

The post Houdini 21: Like good wine (Part1, VFX & Geo) first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Manuel Kotulla.

Blackmagic has released a new version, now 20.2, of its increasingly popular software for video editing, colour correction, visual effects, animation and audio editing. Originally developed as pure colour correction software, more and more functions were added over time and the software has since found a large following—particularly because of its outstanding price-performance ratio—and because beginners are enticed to take their first steps with a free version. So far, the software can be purchased without subscription obligations. The software seems more like a supplementary “side business” for Blackmagic, alongside its many high-end hardware products for film and television production.

Anima-what?

Countless tests and tutorials by enthusiasts of the programme are circulating on the internet. We have also published articles on DaVinci and indicated that we wanted to take a closer look at the software’s animation capabilities. Blackmagic proudly announces on its website that DaVinci Resolve is Hollywood’s number one choice for post-production. The list of features is correspondingly long and may well overwhelm beginners. The latest version is said to contain over 100 new features for all areas of video editing and post-production, including new AI functions for audio editing.

As already explained in other articles, DaVinci Resolve uses 7 workspaces, which are arranged to structure work in DaVinci (an explanation of this system was already provided by Alexander Richter in his article Goodbye Adobe Premiere): “Media for ingest, Cut for the first rough cut, Edit for the actual editing, Fusion for compositing and motion graphics, Color for, you can guess, colour correction, Fairlight for audio and Deliver for final rendering of files.” Even if this all sounds rather complex, most 2D animation and video editing programmes work in a similar way, with “individual differences,” as our colleague already mentioned.

Since DaVinci Resolve is essentially a huge collection of different tools, we have, as promised, focused “only” on the one aspect of animation for now. Of course, you should understand the principle of the 7 Pages in DaVinci, even if you “only” want to animate.

Everything Moves

In principle, all motion effects, in fact, all animation of parameters of imported objects in DaVinci, are based on the program’s sophisticated keyframe technique. Edit is not only responsible for the correct cut; it also allows you to quickly drag transitions, titles, and filters directly into the timeline and manipulate numerous parameters via the Inspector. By setting keyframes at different points on the timeline (click the small diamond-shaped symbols on the far right), animations can be created quickly and relatively easily.

Recently, the Edit Page also offers access to a convenient view of the keyframe editor (also as a floating window), where keyframes can be copied and moved, and animation curves can be edited using Bezier handles (for example, Ease-In, Ease-Out, Ease-In/Out, and Linear) easily accessible easing functions… a feature welcomed by many users. This method of animating in DaVinci is also suitable for programme newcomers and promises quickly acceptable results.

Pathfinder

Another animation method promoted by Blackmagic is path animation, something competitor programmes also offer. Animations along a path are highly requested by many users. DaVinci offers complex possibilities here.

One of the simplest methods, for example, aligning and animating text along a path, requires only a few clicks, if you know where to look. A “stripped-down” example: in the Fusion Page, you create a text node with one click. DaVinci automatically connects this to the obligatory MediaOut node. Afterwards, the Inspector offers various options to enter and edit text. Almost all settings can be animated using the already mentioned keyframes.

Pathplayer

To bring a path into play, in the Layout tab (next to the text symbol) the type should be changed from Point to Path. Then a curve can be drawn directly in the view window. The text immediately adapts to this curve. The curve can be edited, and the points and Bezier handles can also be animated. At the bottom of the menu there is an item “Right-click here for shape animation.” Oddly enough in testing, this worked flawlessly, but not on every computer (curves seemed to be generated, but were “invisible”). Maybe we should ask the people at Blackmagic about this. Paths can also first be created (or imported) as Polygon or B-Spline nodes and then assigned.

The Fusion Page overall offers, thanks to its node-based approach and additional complex effects for texts, blurs, masks, 3D animations and particles, even more possibilities for visual design than are found in the Edit Page. In the Fusion Page, unlike the Edit Page, only a single clip is ever worked on.

To use Fusion effectively, you should embrace the node-based approach (there are quite a lot of nodes, not all of them reveal their purpose by name, but if you already know the desired name, you can help yourself with the Shift and Space keys while searching). The display of nodes can be enlarged via right-click and “Show/Show Tile Picture,” so that helpful thumbnails assist with orientation in the Node Editor. Still, you should expect a learning curve that is not too shallow.

3D Effects

In Fusion, DaVinci Resolve can create or import simple 3D objects, e.g. in Alembic, FBX, or USDZ format. 2D graphics can be converted into 3D objects and assembled into a scene with the 3D renderer and lighting nodes. The options of the 3D tools are extensive and complex. Building a 3D scene appears more laborious than in “usual” 3D tools, though perhaps it is only a matter of practice?

Conclusion

Simple animations can quickly lead to acceptable results even for beginners. The ability to control almost every scene parameter with keyframes in the timeline makes such animations easy. The Fusion Page, however, already introduces a corresponding learning curve. Node systems take some getting used to for some, although for professionals they are effective once accepted and understood. The range of functions with filters and effects is huge. The names of the nodes are not always self-explanatory. Many of the possibilities for effects and animations can already be created by experienced users with some of DaVinci’s basic tools (even with the free version).

The 3D tools appear relatively cumbersome, as is also evident from some of the many video tutorials circulating on the internet and they are obviously to be regarded more as a supplement to the “all-round programme.” Overall, DaVinci Resolve is not only suitable as a highly effective film editing and effects software, but also for many areas of motion graphics animation.

The post Resolve Animation: Everything moves! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Ralf Gliffe.

Blackmagic Design has released DaVinci Resolve Studio 20.2, available at no charge to existing users via the Blackmagic support site. While project libraries remain backward-compatible with Resolve 19.1.3, any project created or opened in 20.2 cannot be reopened in 19.1.3. Blackmagic therefore recommends full project library backups as well as individual project backups before migration.

URSA Cine Immersive Workflows

Resolve 20.2 extends the immersive video toolset for productions shot with URSA Cine and intended for Apple Vision Pro playback. Content can now be streamed directly from the Fusion page to Vision Pro, and the PanoMap node has gained immersive options. World pose rotations and flips are supported, stereoscopic 3D renders can be output in full side-by-side or top-bottom formats, and node stacks can now be used in stereoscopic workflows. The release also introduces immersive EXR workflows with full metadata retention, which is particularly relevant for VFX turnovers and stereoscopic finishing.

Cut Page: Replay Handling

For the Cut page, Blackmagic has addressed live-production workflows. Replay stinger transitions now behave more reliably in interlaced timelines, while replay editor and ATEM switcher feedback during replays has been improved.

Edit Page: Sync, Ripple, Metadata

Editing gains a series of workflow refinements. Sync lock controls now ripple edits independently of the auto-select function, while ripple trimming has been redesigned to maintain sync across edit actions. The trim editor automatically opens during dynamic trimming, though users who prefer a single-viewer mode can switch in preferences. Track headers offer improved source and destination patching, and an audio menu action makes it possible to detach synced audio from video while retaining timeline sync. Custom metadata fields can now be created and populated in the timeline, multicam clips with speed changes can be flattened correctly, the source timeline viewer supports audio track soloing, and destination patching can be reset to default through a dedicated sub-menu.

Cut & Edit Pages: Keyframes, Guides, Audio

The Cut and Edit pages now include direct menu actions to move keyframes up, down, left, or right. The timeline curve and keyframe editor has gained a toolbar for common actions, while shift-click toggles multiple parameter states and alt-click enables exclusive toggling. Guides now support individual colours and lock states, and their position can be set in either pixel or percentage units. Fusion, transform, and effect overlays now take precedence over guides under the mouse, ensuring smoother manipulation of elements. Voice-over countdowns have been enhanced with audible beeps, and audio bus automation written in Fairlight now survives ripple edits on the Cut and Edit pages. A ripple delete silence command has been introduced for tightening dialogue or narration, and transcription and voice convert analysis are now up to twice as fast on macOS.

Fusion Page: Multilayer Rendering and Speed

On the Fusion side, guides can now be edited directly in viewers. MultiText has improved alignment and transformation controls, while USD tools support animated image inputs. The 3D renderer now includes multilayer support, and the USD renderer can output multilayer AoV (arbitrary output variable) channels. Performance has also been increased, with the surface tracker running up to twice as fast.

Colour Page: AI Fog and Better HDR

Resolve 20.2 introduces an AI-based Resolve FX called Cinematic Haze, which simulates atmospheric scattering with depth-based fog. Light rays can be extended from existing sources, and air disturbance can break up the fog into smokier turbulence. Light effects now support glow driven by alpha sources, while a new command makes it possible to navigate clips by number. Node colours can be reset for multiple selected clips, advanced colour panels now retain side panel states after restart, and HLG output has been improved when using viewer display profiles. Both RCM and CST conversions now conform to ITU BT.2408 for HLG and PQ. Performance has again improved, with the Resolve FX surface tracker running at double the previous speed.

Codecs & I/O: Big Additions

Resolve 20.2 expands codec and I/O support considerably. The update introduces native Apple ProRes RAW decoding on macOS, Windows, and Linux, as well as encoding support for Samsung APV. Sony ARW still image files can now be decoded, ARRICORE clips are supported, and single-frame WEBP and GIF files can be imported as stills.

General Improvements

General usability gains include a new skim function: pressing and holding the C key moves the playhead under the mouse in viewers. Exported DRT timelines now include linked Fusion comp media. Data burn-ins and render file names can now include current date and time tags, and the scripting API has been extended to support subtitles in render jobs and to allow setting clip names in the timeline and media pool. Performance and stability improvements round out the release.

Minimum System Requirements

For macOS, DaVinci Resolve 20.2 requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later, at least 8 GB of RAM (16 GB if using Fusion), and an Apple Silicon system or a GPU with Metal support. Windows users require Windows 10 or later, 16 GB of RAM (32 GB for Fusion), a GPU with 4 GB of VRAM supporting OpenCL 1.2 or CUDA 12.8, and recent AMD, Intel, or NVIDIA Studio drivers (570.65 or newer). Windows on ARM is now supported with Windows 11 ARM, a Snapdragon X Elite processor, and 16 GB of RAM, with 32 GB recommended for 4K or Fusion. Linux support requires Rocky Linux 8.6, 32 GB of RAM, and a discrete GPU with at least 4 GB of VRAM plus drivers supporting OpenCL 1.2 or CUDA 12.8, with NVIDIA Studio driver 570.26 or newer.

Stability Reminder

Blackmagic Design advises users to back up both project libraries and individual projects before upgrading. Postproduction teams should validate Resolve 20.2 in test environments before integrating into live workflows, especially where new sync, ripple, and immersive EXR features could alter established pipelines.

The post DaVinci Resolve 20.2: Ripple Discipline, ProRes RAW, and AI Fog on Demand first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

DaVinci Resolve 20.1 is out, bringing a slate of updates for editing, VFX, color, and sound. But, as ever, there’s a catch: Don’t touch that project library until you’ve made a backup. While Blackmagic Design promises compatibility with project libraries from Resolve 19.1.4, any project opened in 20.1 becomes inaccessible to the previous version. The recommended path: backup both project libraries and individual projects before you update, unless you enjoy living dangerously.

Apple Vision Pro and Immersive Video: Support Arrives on MacOS

If you’re curious about the spatial and immersive video bandwagon, Resolve 20.1 now gets direct support for Apple Vision Pro workflows on macOS. That includes spatial and immersive video editing, direct monitoring to the headset, and support for the Apple Spatial Audio Format. The actual “wow” factor depends on whether your facility needs to serve the handful of Vision Pro users, but it’s an industry first for Resolve.

And, supporting that, the “DaVinci Resolve Immersive Workflow Guide” has been released – which provides an introduction to working with immersive footage in Resolve, including specs and settings, as well as tips and “considerations” for producing immersive video content.

Get the Guide directly HERE

Edit Page: Keyframe and Curve Handling Actually Makes Sense

The Cut and Edit pages see a long list of overdue usability tweaks. Keyframes can now be viewed beyond clip edit points, and curve editors allow adjustments from the timeline. For anyone fighting with inconsistent curve easing: this version introduces more consistent easing, new custom zoom options, and improved handling of active curves and locked parameters. MultiText fans now get per-character and per-paragraph styling, CSV import, and a few more controls. Meanwhile, the playhead can be sent directly to the mouse pointer with a C-key shortcut, if your fingers ever get tired of scrubbing.

Fusion Page: Magic Mask v2, Deep Compositing Caching, and Immersive Tools

On the Fusion front, the headline item is Magic Mask v2 support, which, according to Blackmagic Design, enhances masking precision inside Fusion composites. There’s also a new immersive patcher tool and options for 360 Views in the viewer. Deep composite artists can cache composites to disk, downscale clip comps to the timeline resolution, and leverage improvements to DoD (Domain of Definition) and RoI (Region of Interest) in deep image compositing tools. USD renderer overscan and regular expression support in Cryptomatte make an appearance, as does the ability to edit individual tool controls from the inspector context menu—a workflow improvement as small as it is overdue.

Color Page: Fast Switches, ACES 2.0, and Smarter Masking

Resolve 20.1 lets colorists switch timeline resolution on the fly from the color viewer, potentially speeding up look development for multi-resolution deliveries. Cache retention and Magic Mask retention have been improved for copied timelines. ACES 2.0 Core support for DCTL is now official. These updates may not be glamorous, but they address real workflow pain points for color facilities managing multiple timelines, stills, and LUTs.

Resolve FX: More Light, Less Noise

New tools include the ColorTone Diffuser, emulating light-based lens filters. The Film Look Creator adds “natural” and “strong” split tone modes, while light rays and glow now offer separate RGB sliders and atmosphere controls. Glow gets a secondary option, face refinement can regrain skin smoothing areas, and other tweaks address long-standing requests from working colorists and online finishers.

Fairlight: 32-Bit Recording, Faster Analysis, and Accurate Waveforms

The Fairlight audio page gains support for half-speed timeline playback and 32-bit floating-point recording, good news for dynamic range obsessives. Waveforms are now accurate during recording, and new context actions allow for quick waveform profile regeneration. The Audio Assistant gets faster analysis and improved UI visibility for effects. Dialogue matcher sees improvements, and busses can now be deleted directly from track headers or index. Fine scrubbing is possible via shift/command modifiers.

Codec and IO: WebP, DNx, H.264, and More

Resolve 20.1 supports the Blackmagic RAW 5.0 SDK, brings faster decodes for URSA Cine 12K LF and 17K 65 clips, and now reads and writes WebP images. DNx gets 12-bit support and custom quality controls. The system can encode H.264 and H.265 in MXF Op1A, decode Samsung APV, and improves native Windows bit rate controls for H.264/H.265. There’s a new delivery preset for Tencent video uploads, presumably for anyone aiming at the Chinese streaming market.

General Improvements: Layouts, Scripting, and Performance

There are better layouts for small, dual-screen, and vertical video scenarios. System bin layouts are retained per machine for multi-user projects. The Shift+Space shortcut now brings up the effects search on every page. Effects searching is possible in both English and the application’s language, which should keep the international crowd happy. The scripting API picks up support for voice isolation, and the Electron update (to 36.3.2) lays groundwork for future workflow integrations. Javascript promises are now supported in the API for asynchronous workflow operations, a win for pipeline TDs and workflow integrators.

System Requirements: The Hardware Diet Continues

Minimum system requirements are predictably strict. macOS 14 Sonoma is needed on Apple Silicon or Metal-capable GPUs, with 8GB RAM (16GB for Fusion). Windows users need 16GB RAM (32GB for Fusion), a GPU with at least 4GB VRAM, and support for OpenCL 1.2 or CUDA 12.8. Linux means Rocky Linux 8.6, 32GB RAM, and similar GPU requirements. Windows for ARM is now officially supported on Snapdragon X Elite chips.

Free vs. Studio: You Get What You Pay For

The free version of DaVinci Resolve 20 uses the same processing engine as Studio and supports unlimited resolution media files, but project mastering and output are limited to Ultra HD, and only a single GPU is supported on Windows and Linux. Studio unlocks multiple GPUs, 4K+ output, advanced noise reduction, motion blur effects, AI features, 3D tools, surround sound, immersive audio, and remote rendering.

And the studio version gets what?

For facilities requiring advanced workflows, DaVinci Resolve 20 Studio unlocks the full power of the software’s hardware acceleration and high-end feature set. Studio supports multiple GPUs for both Windows and Linux, enabling faster processing of complex timelines and higher resolutions beyond Ultra HD. In addition, only Studio users can access advanced HDR grading tools, AI-powered features such as voice isolation and scene cut detection, comprehensive temporal and spatial noise reduction, motion blur effects, remote rendering, and stereoscopic 3D toolsets. Surround sound, immersive audio formats, and the full range of Resolve FX are also Studio-only perks, along with support for camera tracking, in-depth Fairlight audio workflows, and multi-user collaboration tools.

These Studio-exclusive capabilities are not mere bells and whistles. Multiple GPU support is critical for facilities working with high frame rate, high resolution, or HDR content, and features like Magic Mask’s advanced AI tracking and 3D stereoscopic editing are essential for VFX , finishing, and theatrical mastering. Facilities with dedicated mastering, colour, or online departments will find the Studio version indispensable for its expanded output options, workflow automation, and remote rendering features, which are simply not available in the free edition.

Installation: Standard Procedures (With a Hint of Nostalgia)

Installers remain straightforward across macOS, Windows, and Linux. Uninstallation is just as simple. If you’re the cautious type, the included Blackmagic Proxy Generator and RAW Player may be ignored unless your workflow needs them.

Always Test Before Production

Despite new features, production environments should always test new software versions before deploying on client projects. Even Blackmagic Design recommends a full backup of project libraries and individual projects before upgrading.

A quick addendum: You will also need to download and install the latest Blackmagic Design Desktop Video software for monitoring with your Blackmagic Design video hardware. Desktop Video is available from www.blackmagicdesign.com/support.

The post Resolve 20.1: Apple Vision Pro, Magic Mask V2, and a Few More Reasons to Backup first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Kromatica’s DigiDiff v3.0 brings an upgraded digital diffusion toolkit to DaVinci Resolve, aiming at colorists, finishing artists, and digital imaging technicians who want real-time, pixel-accurate optical diffusion in post. The plugin expands creative and technical control with new tint features, highlight handling, and a pack of presets based on industry-standard filters. Like before, it’s strictly pay-once and cross-platform, with a perpetual two-seat license.

v3.0: Now With Color and Clarity Tweaks

Version 3.0 introduces the Diffusion Tint control in its core DiffDesigner panel, letting users tint the diffusion effect either via Hue mode for custom color casts or CCT mode for Kelvin-style temperature shifts. This update caters to both creative and technical looks, such as “warming up” highlights or adding targeted color atmospheres.

DiffBoost, another new v3.0 feature, boosts diffusion only in image highlights. Two sliders, Boost and Clamp, ensure that bright details bloom as intended, while midtones and shadows stay crisp—a feature designed for users who want “mist” effects without sacrificing sharpness everywhere else.

Seven new presets have been modeled on analog diffusion filters frequently requested by DITs and colorists: Warm Black Pro Mist, Soft Net Black, Hollywood Black Magic, Bronze Glimmer Glass, HD Classic Soft, Black Frost, and LoCon. Presets can be tweaked and saved as custom profiles.

Under the Hood: Real-Time Diffusion

The heart of DigiDiff remains its mathematical diffusion engine, designed to replicate the scatter, glow, and blooming effects of real glass filters. Profiles can be dialed in to match specific film stocks or lighting scenarios. GPU acceleration is required for real-time playback up to 4K, with system recommendations set at 16 GB RAM, 6–8 GB VRAM, and Apple M-series or NVIDIA hardware. Support for higher resolutions is possible but should be verified per workstation.

Compatibility and Integration

DigiDiff is compatible with both the free and Studio versions of DaVinci Resolve. It runs on macOS 11 and above—including Apple Silicon—and Windows 10/11 with modern NVIDIA GPUs. ACES and Resolve Color Management pipelines are supported, and the plugin reads native camera log formats, integrating with color workflows used on set and in post.

Pricing

DigiDiff v3.0 is priced at $149 for a perpetual license, with no recurring fees or cloud requirement. Buyers receive two seats per purchase, usable across platforms. Licenses are perpetual and valid for two seats. One license covers two installations, whether that’s a Mac and a PC or two machines of the same OS. No subscriptions, and free updates for the foreseeable future.

Background and Use Cases

DigiDiff started as a workaround for missing or inadequate diffusion plugins in Resolve and quickly developed a following among colorists. Developers position it as a “digital extension” to optical filters, not a replacement, with case uses including commercial spots and branded content. Real-world feedback notes that DigiDiff can fill the gap when in-camera filtration wasn’t possible or for fast look development.

Production Reminder

As always, even the best plugin is only as reliable as its performance on real shots and workstations. Test DigiDiff v3.0 thoroughly in your own environment for playback stability, color accuracy, and client-facing output before relying on it in production work.

The post DigiDiff v3.0: Kromatica’s Pixel-Level Diffusion for Resolve first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

LumaTouch released LumaFusion 2.3 for Android and Chrome OS on June 24, 2025, bringing long‑requested HDR capability along with general stability improvements. This version introduces support for 10‑bit color workflows, including Rec.709, HLG, HDR10, and DisplayP3—on supported Android devices (LumaTouch).

More Dynamic Color in Mobile Editing

With HDR support, mobile editors can now work with richer color spaces directly on Android and Chrome OS. The new features focus on ensuring footage looks more vibrant and color‑accurate on HDR‑capable displays, matching what’s already available on iPad and iPhone versions.

LumaTouch teases more features headed to the Android version soon – beyond HDR support. Professionals should test this new release before adopting it into production pipelines.

Caution: The Android HDR “Standard”

And now, a note of healthy skepticism for the color-conscious. While LumaFusion 2.3 introduces HDR and 10-bit color workflows on Android, results may differ depending on device, display, and which particular flavor of “standard” Android decided to support this month. The Android ecosystem’s approach to color management has always been, generously, a patchwork. Consistent results across manufacturers, chipsets, and OS versions remain a fond hope – one best summed up by this XKCD classic (opens in new tab). Maybe one day, someone will finally solve it with “just one more” universal standard.

As always, thoroughly test new features in real‑world projects before deploying them in critical workflows. Your mileage may vary, but your headaches will be unique.

The post LumaFusion 2.3 Android HDR support at Last first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

We had the pleasure of talking to Simon Hall from Blackmagic Design about Fusion, AI and the community. Simon Hall knows post-production from both sides of the suite. Before stepping into his current role in business development at Blackmagic Design—where he focuses on post-production and supports the Resolve ecosystem across EMEA—he spent over a decade getting his hands dirty in the edit bay.

Starting as an offline editor and later working as a Smoke operator in a northern UK studio, Simon eventually moved to London to take up a training role—merging his technical know-how with a knack for sharing knowledge. His past as a freelance editor kept him close to the tools, even as his focus shifted to product strategy. Over the past ten years, he’s been a key figure in shaping DaVinci Resolve’s growth from a specialist grading tool to a full-fledged post-production platform with a massive user base.

DP: Fusion 20 marks a huge step forward, and the community has been very enthusiastic. What was the motivation behind this release, and what can users look forward to in future updates?

Simon Hall: We are a company that really does value user feedback. What the devs always want to do is to take user ideas and integrate into the software. As you can imagine, those lists tend to be very long. SO we have to pick and choose what we do. Our motivation as a company is to give people the features and workflows they want. We will continue to try to get the best out of our software. Because we like making people happy at the end of the day.

DP: The Integration in Resolve was a great idea – as it was to keep the Standalone Edition alive which is favoured by many professionals for performance reasons. Can we expect full feature parity (i.e. all Resolve OFX plugins available in the standalone Fusion)?

Simon Hall: Some of the open effects are obviously designed for colour. So that’s why you may not find them in fusion studio. But the devs try and get parity as much as they can. Over time, what will happen is hopefully we’ll start to get parity between the two applications. The open effects that are available in resolve are then also available in fusion.

DP: When you’re developing both editions, is there an ideal use case in your mind for when users should use each version?

Simon Hall: If you’re doing things like shot clean-ups, you’re doing some matte painting, you’re doing some tracking, my recommended workflow is to use fusion in resolve.
I always tend to steer people towards fusion studio when you’re doing sort of heavy VFX work – You’ve got a couple of hundred nodes, you’ve got 3d models, you’ve got particle generators. As soon as you start to do something that becomes quite complex, you’re going to get performance enhancements in fusion studio. The one thing that fusion studio can do that resolve can’t, is to use network rendering.

DP: Both Resolve and Fusion include very useful ML tools like the Magic Mask. What’s next on your roadmap for neural-network features? Any change to see an integration with tools like ComfyUI? What is Blackmagic Design’s long-term vision for applying machine learning across the industry?

I could talk about what we’re thinking, but the truth is-we don’t really know. There’s no set roadmap. That’s just kind of how things work at Blackmagic. We don’t always know what’s coming. Our approach to AI is focused on speeding up workflows-not replacing the person in the chair. That’s the goal behind all the AI we’ve built so far. Also at the moment all of our AI processing happens locally-on your system.

We don’t send your files anywhere to train the AI.

There is one exception, and that’s the scene extension feature. It’s not in the public beta yet, partly because it uses Blackmagic Cloud. Since the system needs to understand the image, it does have to send it up to the cloud for processing. We’re still figuring out how that will work, especially in terms of using it with a cloud account, which may involve some cost. Our AI is meant to help-not take over. So when it comes to the kind of AI that generates full scenes or content, like the comfy UI stuff, I could be wrong, but I don’t see us going in that direction.

DP: The community loves that Blackmagic hasn’t adopted a subscription model—but new features still cost money to develop. Are there any plans to introduce an upgrade-pricing scheme in future releases?

Simon Hall: Potentially in the future, we might charge for upgrades. A lot of this software development takes time, money, and people-we’ve got a growing team of developers. But I don’t think this is going to turn into a subscription. Grant himself really doesn’t like the idea of locking people out of their own work; he thinks it’s unfair. Long-term, yeah, we want to make things sustainable, but nothing’s been decided yet.

It kind of became a hot topic at NAB because Grant mentioned it in his video. What surprised us was how many people actually supported it-people who really want Resolve and Fusion to keep developing and improving. And if that means maybe paying, say, a $50 update once a year, or per version, a lot of folks were like, “Yeah, you know what? I’d be fine with that.” Especially considering we’ve never really charged for updates before.

DP: You surely know the Fusion Forum WSL/Steak underwater. Do you incorporate feedback from the user community into your ongoing development?
Simon Hall: Yes, absolutely. And yeah, great name-“We Suck Less.” The Fusion community there is full of really smart people writing macros, scripts, all sorts of things. A lot of our product specialists are on that forum. I don’t know if you know Steve Roberts-he was one of the original guys behind Eyeon. When we acquired Fusion from Eyeon, Steve came over with it, since it was basically his baby. He’s still a member of the forum and still checks in. We all do, really. I’ve even picked up scripts from there.

There’s one I use all the time-it animates to the beat of music by analysing the audio. I use it constantly, though I’ve forgotten what it’s called. So yeah, we’re definitely across that forum. And when people post feedback or feature requests there, the developers do take a look-just like we do across other forums-to see what the community is talking about and what they’re asking for.

DP: Is there one feature you’d most like to add or change for yourself?
Simon Hall: Yeah, one thing I’d really like to see in Fusion 20 is a bit more “smart assistance” when building node trees-especially in 3D scenes. Sometimes I’ll go to connect something, like a camera, and it just doesn’t work. Then I realize I’ve missed a node-maybe I forgot to add a 3D plane or something in between.

What I’d love is if Fusion could recognize that kind of situation. Like, if I try to connect two nodes, and it doesn’t work, the system could say, “You’re probably trying to do this,” and automatically drop in the missing node-like a 3D merge or a plane-so the connection makes sense.

Basically, a bit of smart logic that fills in the gaps when I miss something. That would really help, especially when working quickly. So yeah, that would be my feature request-something like a smart assistant that helps you build the flow correctly when it sees what you’re trying to do.

DP: Do you have a favourite movie (or specific shot) that was created using Fusion?

Simon Hall: Oh, there are quite a few-especially if we’re talking old-school Fusion. One of my favourite shots was in the film Swordfish. It’s about hacking, with a young Hugh Jackman and John Travolta. The opening shot, where someone’s left a claymore mine and the camera moves through the explosion in what looks like a frozen moment-that whole sequence was done in Fusion. That was back in the Eyeon Fusion days, and I always thought it was a fascinating use of the tool.

In more recent films, there are a few standouts. The Martian used Fusion heavily, and Top Gun: Maverick-which has been one of my favourite films in the last few years-used it for a lot of shot cleanups. The grading on that was done in Resolve. There’s also a TV show called Bosch on Amazon Prime. It’s been one of my favourite series for a while. Fusion was used extensively on that as well-for scene extensions, keying, and shot clean-up. So yeah, those are some of the highlights for me.

DP: Thanks for your time, Simon :)

The post The (further) development of Fusion. first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Manuel Kotulla.