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.