Dozens of transitions come standard with DaVinci Resolve. These transitions are very good too. You’ve seen then in feature films from Hollywood and the best videos on YouTube. Back in my younger days, I wondered how folks who posted on YouTube made their transitions – they were so intricate and well developed. What I didn’t realize was that the people who posted the videos didn’t create their transitions at all. They came with whatever video editing program they were using and the transitions were simply taken advantage of.
In this tutorial, I’d like to discuss how to access transitions in the Cut page in DaVinci Resolve and how to preview each one along the timeline. I’ll also talk about why you would want to preview a transition before actually utilizing it. There’s a very good reason for that.
How to Access Transitions in DaVinci Resolve
I’m currently working on a project in the Cut page. I have three clips in the timeline and I’d like to begin previewing some transitions to place between those clips. To do that, I first need to access the Transitions panel. If I head to the upper left area of the workspace, I’ll see a link that says Transitions. I’ll click that to reveal everything currently installed in Resolve.
In the toolbar directly below the Transitions link are a few more links. They are Video, Audio, and Favorites. In the Video panel, there are quite a few transitions. In the Audio panel, there are only two or three. In the Favorites panel, there are none. That’s because I haven’t used any yet and haven’t saved any as my favorites. As I use transitions and add them to Resolve, these panels will populate.
How to Add a Transition as a Favorite
Let’s say I have a few transitions that I use all the time, which is quite common. When first exploring transitions, you’ll find that you spend far too much time searching and previewing far too many of them. As you become more experienced, you’ll discover that you really only use a handful. Once you settle on your favorites, you can add them to the Favorites panel to save time by not wading through the dozens installed in the Video panel. To save a transition as a favorite, simply right click on the one in question and click the Add to Favorites selection. After that, when you visit the Favorites panel, you’ll see your saved transitions.
How to Preview a Transition
Previewing a transition in Resolve is a straightforward process. The question is though, why would you want to preview a transition when they’re so easy to add to the timeline to view? The answer is that previewing a transition takes only one step, once set up, and you can preview many of them, one after another, very easily. It only takes a second or two to preview each one. If you were to add a transition to the timeline first and then view it, you’d be taking multiple steps and the process is much longer. Essentially, you’d be wasting your time. The preview feature exists for a reason.
To start off, you’ll need to move your timeline so the playhead is near the break you’d like to preview. Take a look at these two timelines.
Notice how the playhead is between the two clips.
Next, bring your mouse pointer to the transition in the Transitions panel you’d like to preview. All you need to do is roll your pointer over the transition icon, from left to right. Don’t click and drag. Simple roll slowly from left to right. While doing this, you should see the video transition take place in the monitor to the right.
This is an example of the Star transition.
This is an example of the Spiral Wipe transition.
As you’ll quickly learn, some of the transitions are absolutely ridiculous and antiquated. There are transitions in Resolve that I’ve used in Powerpoint presentations during college back in 1999. If you can, avoid the cheesy transitions and use the more modern and interesting ones. Usually the Dissolve transitions are pretty good, as are the Fusion Transitions. Avoid anything that’s contained in the Iris, Motion, or Shape sections.
One more thing, if you decide to go with the ever popular Burn Away transition, please make sure your content can handle something so dramatic. As you can see, it wouldn’t be appropriate for my peaceful ocean scenes.
If you have any questions regarding how to preview transitions in DaVinci Resolve, please ask in the comment section below. Thanks!
If you’d like to learn more, click through for all of my free DaVinci Resolve Tutorials.
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