DaVinci Resolve Beginner Tutorial | Free Video Editing

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I'll start this DaVinci Resolve tutorial for beginners with a brief overview. We'll go through what we'll cover and the DaVinci Resolve editing skills you can expect to pick up.

"If you've never touched video editing software before, this is the course for you. Stick with me, and I'll show you from start to finish all the processes that you need to know."

Before you start, here are the source files I'll be using in this DaVinci Resolve user guide:

1.2 Opening DaVinci Resolve for the First Time

Watch video lesson (5 mins) ↗

Now let's open up the software and create a project. I'll explain what databases are in DaVinci Resolve and show you how to create your first project.

How to use DaVinci Resolve: the opening screen.

While I made this course using DaVinci Resolve 17, all the skills cross over into the latest versions. Also, I'm using the paid Studio version, but you can follow along in the free version using the same features.

1.3 Complete Overview of the DaVinci Resolve Workspace

When you first open up DaVinci Resolve for editing, it can look a bit confusing:

How to use DaVinci Resolve: the workspace.

Don't worry! I'll give you a complete overview of the workspace and break everything down. I'll take you through each of the seven tabs along the bottom of the screen. These correspond to different DaVinci Resolve edit functions:

Media: for importing and working with different media
Cut: for quick, basic editing
Edit: for more in-depth editing of your videos
Fusion: VFX software, similar to Adobe After Effects
Color: powerful tools for color grading
Fairlight: for professional audio editing
Deliver: where you finalize and export your project

2. How to Set Up a Project and Import Footage

2.1 How to Set Up Your Project and Import Your Files

Getting started is pretty easy. Head to the Media tab and find your footage in the Explorer window in the top left. Then, and drag and drop it into the Media Pool at the bottom of the screen.

Now that we've got some footage to work with, let's set up our DaVinci Resolve project. Click on the cog wheel in the bottom-right corner to bring up the Project Settings.

DaVinci Resolve user guide: Project Settings.

We have a lot of options here, but most of them are fine to leave at their default settings. For now, we'll set the Timeline resolution to 1920 x 1080 HD and the Timeline frame rate to 25 frames per second. You can work with different settings if you want, but that's what I'm using for this project.

2.2 How to Create a Timeline From Your Imported Files

Watch video lesson (7 mins) ↗

So now we can organize our footage in the timeline. I'll drag in some stock footage and audio files. Hit Command-A to select everything, and right-click > Create New Timeline Using Selected Clips.

This brings up a dialog box where you can name your project and choose the settings.

Start video editing with DaVinci Resolve by creating a timeline.

It's important to organize your files properly and to use logical naming conventions. So I name my timelines using the iteration and version number, in this case Ride A Bike_V01_01. Then I save each new version with the appropriate numbering.

Now that we have a timeline, we can double-click on it to enter the Edit tab. Now we're ready to start editing our footage, which we'll do in the next chapter.

3. How to Edit Footage in DaVinci Resolve

3.1 A Complete Overview of the Edit Tab

When you open the Edit tab, you'll see that all of the footage has been added to the timeline.

That can be useful, but I prefer to start with a clean slate. So highlight everything and delete it, and we'll start adding our footage and media later.

First, I'll give you an overview of the Edit tab. We'll start by looking at the tabs in the top left:

Media Pool: this is like the Media tab, but more accessible. You can easily drag your media into the timeline.
Effects: from here, easily add things like transitions, titles, and other effects.
Edit Index: tools to help you organize your project and navigate quickly.
Sound Library: a library of sound effects to use in your projects.

We'll also look at the Mixer, the Metadata panel, the Inspector, and more!

3.2 The Editing Process in DaVinci Resolve

Watch video lesson (6 mins) ↗

So you have some interview footage, along with B-roll footage and audio. How do you begin to put it all together?

In this section, I'll take you through the essential steps in the editing process. These steps will work in DaVinci Resolve or any other video-editing software.

How to Edit Video

Cut Your Interview

Find the best takes that you want to use in your video, and cut out the unwanted parts.

Craft a Story

Arrange the footage to create a story. Remember, you don't have to present the footage in the order it was recorded.

Add Your B-Roll, Music, and Graphics

Use these to highlight and illustrate points, hide jump cuts, and make it all look more polished.

Watch the video lesson

3.3 Making Selects in DaVinci Resolve

So we'll start with the first step outlined above. We'll do a quick edit of our interview footage by cutting out the questions and any unwanted bits. Select only the best takes.

Drag the interview footage into the timeline and delete any unwanted audio tracks. You'll see several. The main audio track with the interviewee speaking is the one with the biggest waveforms.

Learn DaVinci Resolve: editing the audio tracks.

Unlink the audio tracks and delete the unwanted ones. Then, relink the main audio track to the video footage (right-click > Link Clips) to begin editing.

Next, go through and start cutting the parts you don't need.

tip

Use the audio waveforms to help you. A large, sustained waveform shows that the interviewee is giving an answer. The gaps are where the question is being asked or there are other pauses. Focus on those gaps when cutting!

To make cuts, you just need three keys on your keyboard: A, B, and Delete! Click on one end of the section you want to cut, and hit B to insert a cut point. Then hit B on the other end to insert another cut point.

Click on the section in the middle and press A to select it, and Delete to get rid of it.

DaVinci Resolve for editing: select the part you want to cut. — Select the part you want to cut...

DaVinci Resolve for editing: cut the audio. — ... then hit Delete!

I'll also show you some ways to adjust your cut points and refine your selections. Then, we'll see a time-lapse version of the initial editing process for this footage.

3.4 How to Craft a Narrative From Your Selects

Now it's time to start crafting a narrative. The way you do this will depend on the story you want to tell. Keep in mind that it doesn't have to be linear: rearrange the footage to tell a more compelling story.

To rearrange the narrative, drag the cut bits to different points on the timeline. I'll give some brief examples here. Then, we'll continue to refine our narrative by adding B-roll, music, graphics, and more.

4. How to Enhance Your Video With Motion Graphics and More

4.1 How to Create a Compelling Intro

Watch video lesson (8 mins) ↗

I want to begin with our subject introducing himself, but with a motion portrait and a voiceover. I'll take my motion portrait, which is a video of him walking up to the camera and smiling. I'll drag it on top of the existing footage.

DaVinci Resolve user guide: motion portrait.

Then I'll add a premade intro. I created this using a DaVinci Resolve intro template from Envato Elements.

DaVinci Resolve user guide: add the intro.

So we've already gone from simple interview footage to a professional-looking intro. In the rest of this chapter, we'll continue to add music, graphics, and effects to create a compelling video.

4.2 How to Add Music to the Edit

Now let's add some music by dragging the track onto the timeline.

You can change the volume of your clip. To do this, use the Mixer panel or click and drag the waveform to shrink or expand it.

As we go through and add more footage, I'll show you how to make cuts so that the music fits your editing decisions. We'll also look at fading the music out at the right times and making it fit seamlessly with the other audio tracks.

4.3 How to Refine Your Edits and Add B-Roll Footage

Watch video lesson (14 mins) ↗

Now we're going to keep refining our edits and selecting only the best footage. But as we keep cutting and rearranging, we're going to hit a problem: jump cuts.

A jump cut is where the footage seems to "jump" abruptly because the intervening footage has been cut out. While it can look OK on informal platforms like YouTube, it's best to hide them in pro editing.

So here are some tips for hiding jump cuts in your footage:

Video editing with DaVinci Resolve: rule of thirds.

Tips for Handling Jump Cuts

Create a Punch-in Edit

Zooming in on your speaker is a natural way to transition over a jump cut.

Use the Rule of Thirds

When you're lining up your edit points, use the rule of thirds. It helps you ensure the subject is positioned in roughly the same part of the frame.

Use B-Roll

Adding B-roll footage is a great way to hide a jump cut. Use relevant footage to illustrate what the speaker is saying.

Watch the video lesson

4.4 How to Use Stock Footage to Enhance the Narrative

In addition to the B-roll footage that we've shot, we can enhance our project by adding stock footage. There's a whole range of great options out there that you can use. It also saves a lot of the time and expense involved in shooting everything yourself.

Since this project is about a bike workshop, here's some related footage from our Envato Elements collection. Click on each image to see the full footage.

4.5 How to Create a Music Bed

Earlier, we added music to our intro, so now we'll add music to the rest of the video.

tip

A dramatic, fast-paced track can work well for the intro. But keeping it through your whole edit can be too intrusive. Something more down-tempo tends to work better as background music.

I'll show you the best way to add the music, and I'll show you how to add keyframes to adjust certain parts of your audio. For example, here I'm increasing the volume at the end, after our subject has finished speaking.

DaVinci Resolve for editing: audio keyframes.

4.6 How to Create Animated Lower Thirds

Now we need some text to say who our interviewee is. I'll show you how to create animated lower thirds quickly and easily.

All you need to do is go to the Effects panel on the left and pick the text effect you want. I like Digital Glitch Lower Third, so I'll just drag that into the timeline.

Then you can go to the panel on the right of the screen to type in your own text. You can use the same panel to change the font, size, and position of your text.

Use DaVinci to edit the lower third text.

Animated effects may not always look great in preview mode. They require a lot of memory and may run too slow, depending on your computer. Don't worry—they'll look much better after the render!

4.7 How to Add a Title for the Outro

Watch video lesson (5 mins) ↗

We can create a title for the outro in the same way as we created the lower third just now:

Pick an effect you like.
Drag it into the timeline.
Type in your own text and customize the font, size, etc.

I'm using the Jitter effect. I'll also show you how to add a Non-Additive Dissolve effect to fade the title out at the end.

5. Color Grading in DaVinci Resolve

5.1 How to Color Grade Your Footage

Now let's do a basic color grade on our footage. Go to the Color tab. There, you can edit the color for each piece of footage individually.

DaVinci Resolve tutorials for beginners: color tab.

I'll show you how to apply LUTs to your footage and then tweak the results to get just the look you want.

Color grading in DaVinci Resolve is a huge topic. I have a whole course dedicated to it! Click below to learn about color grading in detail.

FREE

1.1 Hours

DaVinci Resolve Color Grading for Beginners

Use scene cut detection
Read scopes in DaVinci Resolve
Use noise reduction to get clean skin tones
Use film grain to get cinematic looks

5.2 How to Duplicate a Color Grade Across Multiple Pieces of Footage

So now we have some footage with proper color grading applied to it:

But that's just one clip. How do we apply it to the rest of our project?

Right-click on your color-graded footage and choose Grab Still. This will give you a thumbnail in the top left. Then you can go to another clip and right-click > Apply Grade.

So now you have all your clips with the same color grade. You can go in and make individual tweaks for each clip where necessary. With this little trick, you'll be able to color grade your whole project in no time!

6. How to Finalize and Export Your Project

6.1 How to Mix and Master Your Dialogue Track—the Easy Way!

Our video is looking great now, but it's still sounding a bit tinny. DaVinci Resolve has some great audio tools in its Fairlight panel. Watch this video for an in-depth guide to processing voice recordings with Fairlight:

But if you don't want to go into that much depth, there's also an easier way. Drag a premade audio-processing effect from the Effects panel, like the Dialogue Processor. Drop it straight onto your audio track in the timeline.

DaVinci Resolve tutorials for beginners: audio processing.

That helps a lot. You can also apply presets or tweak individual settings via this dialogue box. For this video, using the Male VO preset is just what we need.

DaVinci Resolve tutorials for beginners: audio settings.

Now we are done! We can just review our video one more time before exporting it.

6.2 How to Export From DaVinci Resolve

Exporting from DaVinci Resolve is quite easy. Just go to the Deliver tab, and you'll get a bunch of settings to choose from. For the most part, you can choose a preset designed for a particular platform, such as YouTube, Vimeo, etc.

Then hit Add to Render Queue. You can queue up multiple videos to render at once if you want. Then when you're ready, just hit Render All, and it will render the video and save it to your computer.

And that's it!

7. Conclusion

7.1 Congratulations, You’re Now a Video Editor!