How to Use Fusion in DaVinci Resolve: Visual Effects for Beginners

Compositing is the craft of combining multiple images, shots, and graphic elements into a single final frame. A weather forecast with a presenter standing in front of an animated map is being composited. A sci-fi scene where an actor filmed on a green screen stands on an alien planet is compositing. Any lower third, animated logo, or on-screen UI graphic in a YouTube video is a composite. The Fusion page is where you do all of that inside Resolve.

Fusion is available in both the free and paid versions of DaVinci Resolve. The Studio version unlocks some advanced features like optical flow retiming, the neural engine effects, and certain noise and tracking tools, but the vast majority of the beginner and intermediate Fusion workflow is fully available in the free edition.

Viewers

The top of the Fusion page is split into two viewer windows, Viewer 1 on the left and Viewer 2 on the right. You can send any node’s output to either viewer by clicking the node and pressing 1 for the left viewer or 2 for the right. A common setup is to view your final MediaOut on the right and whichever node you are currently editing on the left, so you can see both at once.

Node Graph (Flow)

The large area in the middle of the screen is the node graph, sometimes called the flow. This is your canvas. Every composition starts with a MediaIn1 node on the left and a MediaOut1 node on the right, connected by a single line. Any effect you add sits between those two nodes. You can drag nodes around, bend connection lines, and group related sections together to keep the graph tidy.

Inspector

On the right side of the screen is the Inspector. When you click a node, its parameters appear here. For a Text+ node you will see font, size, color, and tracking. For a Blur node you will see blur size and method. The Inspector is where you dial in the look of each node.

Timeline, Spline, and Keyframes Editors

Along the bottom of the Fusion page are three editors stacked in tabs. The timeline shows every node on a horizontal track so you can trim when each one is active. The Spline editor shows animation curves for any parameter you have keyframed and lets you fine-tune easing and timing. The keyframes editor shows keyframes on a simpler track view. You will not use all three every time, but knowing they are there matters when animations feel robotic and you want to soften them.

Toolbar

Just above the node graph sits a horizontal toolbar of common nodes: Blur, Merge, Background, Text+, Paint, and so on. Clicking any icon drops that node into your graph. You can also press Shift plus Spacebar to open the Select Tool search, which lets you type the name of any node instead of hunting through menus.

1. Image and Generator Nodes

These nodes create pixels from nothing or bring existing pixels into the graph. MediaIn brings in footage from your timeline. Background generates a solid color or gradient. Text+ generates type. FastNoise generates procedural patterns. Generator nodes usually have no input and one output: they are sources.

2. Effect Nodes

Effect nodes take an image in, change it, and pass it out. Blur softens. ColorCorrector tints. Glow adds a radiant halo. Transform moves, scales, or rotates. These are single-input, single-output nodes, and they chain together like beads on a string. A typical chain might be MediaIn, then ColorCorrector, then Glow, then out to a Merge.

3. Merge Nodes

Merge is the single most important node in Fusion. It takes two images, a background and a foreground, and composites them into one. Every time you layer a title over footage, overlay a logo, or drop one shot over another, a Merge node is doing the work. Merges have two image inputs labeled Background (yellow) and Foreground (green), plus an optional Effect Mask input (blue). Master the Merge and you have mastered the core of compositing.

4. Mask Nodes

Masks isolate parts of an image so that effects apply only where you want them. Rectangle, Ellipse, Polygon, and BSpline are the main shape masks. You connect a mask to the Effect Mask input of almost any node to restrict that node’s influence to the masked area. Want to blur only a face? Feed an Ellipse mask into the Blur node’s mask input. Want to color-correct only the sky? Use a Polygon mask.

Almost every finished Fusion composition is a mix of those four node types. The hundreds of other nodes exist for specialized jobs, but you can go a long way with just these.

Workflow 1: Apply Fusion to an Edit Page Clip

Select a clip on your Edit page timeline, then click the Fusion page button at the bottom of the screen or press Shift plus 5. Fusion opens with a MediaIn1 and MediaOut1 already wired together, and MediaIn1 contains the clip you had selected. Any nodes you add between them apply to that clip only, and only on the section of the timeline where the clip lives. When you return to the Edit page, the effect is baked into the clip.

Use this workflow when you want to add VFX to a specific shot: blur a license plate, add a sky replacement to a single establishing shot, or composite a logo onto a product in one take.

Workflow 2: Create a Standalone Fusion Composition

From the Edit page, you can also create a Fusion Composition as a standalone element. Right-click in the media pool and choose New Fusion Composition, give it a name and duration, and drag it to your timeline like any other clip. Open it by double-clicking or switching to the Fusion page while it is selected. A standalone Fusion Composition has no MediaIn automatically, because it is not tied to a source clip.

Use this workflow when you want to build something reusable: a branded lower third, an animated logo sting, a title card, or a template you can drop into future projects.

Step 1: Create a Standalone Fusion Composition

On the Edit page, right-click the media pool and choose New Fusion Composition. Set the duration to 5 seconds. Name it “Lower Third v1” and drag it onto a video track above your interview clip. Double-click it to open the Fusion page.

Step 2: Add and Style Your Name Text

In the toolbar, click the Text+ icon. A Text1 node appears in the graph. Connect its output to the foreground input of a new Merge1 node (you can add a Merge by pressing Shift plus Spacebar, typing Merge, and hitting Enter). With Text1 selected, look at the Inspector. Type the person’s name in the Styled Text field. Choose a bold sans-serif font. Set the size to around 0.08 and position the text in the bottom-left using the Layout tab’s Center X and Y fields.

Add a second Text+ node for the person’s job title. Make it smaller, around 0.04, and position it just below the name. Merge this second Text+ over the first by running their outputs through another Merge.

Step 3: Create the Background Bar with a Rectangle Mask

Your text needs a background strip to be readable. Add a Background node (white, or whatever brand color you like) and a Rectangle mask. In the Rectangle Inspector, set the width to 0.6 and the height to 0.03. Position it in the same spot as your text. Connect the Rectangle’s output to the Background node’s Effect Mask input. Now the Background only renders inside the rectangle shape, giving you a clean bar.

Merge the bar under your text by feeding the Background into the next Merge as the background input, and the combined text as the foreground.

Step 4: Animate the Reveal with Keyframes

This is where Fusion starts to feel magical. Select the Rectangle mask. In the Inspector, find the Size parameter. At frame 0, right-click Size and choose Animate. Set the width to 0 and the height to 0. Move the playhead to frame 20. Set the width back to 0.6. Move to frame 25. Set the height back to 0.03. You now have a two-stage reveal: the bar grows horizontally, then expands vertically.

For the text, select each Text+ node, animate the Layout’s Center X from off-screen left to its final position over 10 frames, starting at frame 25. Use the Spline editor to add ease-out curves so the motion feels organic rather than robotic.

Step 5: Drop It Back into Your Edit

Go back to the Edit page. Your Fusion Composition is already on the timeline above the interview clip, and any changes you made are live. Scrub the playhead across the composition and you will see your animated lower third play back. If you want to reuse it for another speaker, duplicate the composition in the media pool, open the copy, and change the text fields in the Text+ nodes.

If you want professionally designed lower thirds and cinematic openers without building them from scratch, browse the Dramatic Movie Title Templates for DaVinci Resolve collection. They are native Fusion compositions you can customize in the same Inspector you just learned. For deeper control of text styling specifically, the principles in our DaVinci Resolve titles and lower thirds guide translate directly into the Fusion page.