Film & Video · Beginner

Video Editing in DaVinci Resolve

A professional-grade editor that costs nothing, taught by people who use it for a living.

Lessons
23 lessons
Total runtime
36 hours of video
Modules
7 modules
Optional lessons
12 optional
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About this course

DaVinci Resolve is the strangest bargain in software. The free version is the same program used to finish studio features — editing, colour, audio and delivery in one application — and Blackmagic gives it away because they sell cameras and control surfaces. There is no subscription and no watermark, and that makes it the obvious first editor to learn.

The catch is that Resolve is four programs wearing a trenchcoat. It opens onto pages that each look like different software, and a beginner following a colour tutorial can easily end up somewhere that has nothing to do with cutting a video. This course is arranged to stop that happening: get oriented, do one complete pass through a real project, and only then start optimising.

Most of it is Casey Faris, who teaches Resolve for a living and is unusually good at telling you what to ignore. The long lesson in module two is a full beginner course in one sitting, built on the current version rather than a release from four years ago — worth checking, because Resolve tutorials go stale faster than almost any other topic and half of what you will find on YouTube describes menus that have since moved.

Around four hours of required video, and about thirty more in the optional lessons — a second full course, the Fusion page for motion graphics, and the Fairlight page for audio, neither of which the required path touches. The two optional lessons at the end are Darren Mostyn's reference libraries, about eighteen hours between them, which are better used as something to search when you hit a specific problem than as something to watch through.

What you'll be able to do

  • Move between Resolve's pages without losing track of which one you are in
  • Take a project from imported footage to an exported file on your own
  • Organise a timeline so that a long edit stays workable instead of becoming a mess
  • Do a basic grade without falling down the colour-management rabbit hole
  • Understand nodes well enough to read someone else's grade

Curriculum

23 lessons · 36 hours

Getting Oriented

2 lessons · 21m

  1. 01CompletedDon't Make These Beginner MistakesCasey FarisVideoStart here rather than with a tutorial. Most of what makes Resolve feel impossible early on is a handful of avoidable habits, and knowing them first saves the week you would otherwise lose to them.15m
  2. 02CompletedOverwhelmed Learning Video Editing? Do ThisCasey FarisVideoSix minutes on how to approach a program with this much surface area. The short version is to ignore most of it, deliberately, for now.6m

The Full Course

5 lessons · 9h 40m

  1. 03CompletedMaking Videos in Resolve — Full Course for BeginnersCasey FarisVideoThe spine of this course: import to export in one continuous sitting, on a current version of Resolve. Follow along with your own footage rather than watching — everything after this assumes you have made one thing.1h 24m
  2. 04CompletedIntroduction to DaVinci Resolve — Full CourseOptionalCasey FarisVideoFive hours, and the same teacher as the required course above at three times the length. Take this one instead if you want the thorough version rather than the fast one.5h 11m
  3. 05CompletedIn Depth DaVinci Resolve Video Editing TutorialOptionalContent CreatorsVideoA second teacher covering the whole editing workflow. Useful mainly because a different person's shortcuts and habits are worth stealing.1h 51m
  4. 06CompletedDaVinci Resolve Tutorial for BeginnersOptionalKevin StratvertVideoThe shortest complete orientation here, from a teacher who specialises in making software approachable. Good if forty minutes is all you have.39m
  5. 07CompletedDaVinci Resolve for Complete BeginnersOptionalDaniel BatalVideoAnother half-hour first pass, heavier on the page-by-page tour of the interface.35m

Editing Faster

4 lessons · 51m

  1. 08CompletedTimeline Organisation BasicsCasey FarisVideoHow to handle hours of footage without drowning. The difference between a project you can come back to and one you abandon is almost entirely this.7m
  2. 09CompletedThis Editing Workflow Saves HoursCasey FarisVideoAn order of operations for cutting. Editing in the wrong order is why a simple video takes a whole weekend.7m
  3. 10CompletedHow I Stopped Wasting Time EditingCasey FarisVideoWhere the hours actually go, and which of them are avoidable. Best watched after you have felt the problem yourself on a real edit.16m
  4. 11CompletedThe Most Important Button in DaVinci ResolveCasey FarisVideoA deep look at one piece of the interface that quietly determines how the rest of it behaves. Worth the twenty minutes.21m

Colour Without the Fear

4 lessons · 1h 24m

  1. 12CompletedStop Stressing About Colour GradingCasey FarisVideoPermission to keep it simple. Colour is where beginners stall hardest, usually by trying to do the advanced version before the basic one works.5m
  2. 13CompletedWhat Is a Colour Grading Look?Casey FarisVideoThe distinction between correcting an image and giving it a look. Conflating the two is why grades end up muddy.4m
  3. 14CompletedIt's OK to Ignore Colour ManagementCasey FarisVideoColour management is real, important, and absolutely not your problem yet. This lesson exists so you do not lose a month to it prematurely.8m
  4. 15CompletedNode LandCasey FarisPlaylistNodes are the concept that separates Resolve from every other editor, and the one most people avoid. Eight videos, and after them you can read a grade someone else built.1h 7m

Deeper Reference

2 lessons · 17h 56m

  1. 16CompletedBack to BasicsOptionalDarren MostynPlaylistA second teacher covering the fundamentals again from a different angle. Optional, and most useful for whichever parts did not land the first time.2h 36m
  2. 17CompletedDaVinci Resolve BeginnersOptionalDarren MostynPlaylistSeventy-odd videos on specific problems. Optional, and not meant to be watched through — treat it as the thing you search when something specific breaks. Some entries cover older releases.15h 20m

Motion Graphics — The Fusion Page

3 lessons · 3h 7m

  1. 18CompletedFusion Explained in Plain LanguageOptionalCasey FarisVideoFusion is a node-based compositor bolted into the same application, and it looks nothing like the edit page. Twenty minutes to stop it being frightening.22m
  2. 19CompletedMotion Graphics for Beginners in FusionOptionalCasey FarisVideoTitles and simple animated graphics — the ninety per cent of Fusion use that most editors actually need.32m
  3. 20CompletedMaster the Fusion PageOptionalDaniel BatalVideoTwo hours going properly into nodes, masks, tracking and compositing. The point at which Resolve replaces a separate effects application.2h 13m

Audio — The Fairlight Page

3 lessons · 2h 29m

  1. 21CompletedFull Fairlight Page Interface TourOptionalCasey FarisVideoBad audio loses an audience faster than bad picture, and Fairlight is a full digital audio workstation inside the editor. Start with the tour.25m
  2. 22CompletedThe Fairlight Page for Complete BeginnersOptionalDaniel BatalVideoLevels, EQ, noise reduction and compression applied to dialogue. The practical follow-up, and enough to make a talking-head video sound professional.36m
  3. 23CompletedFairlight Training — Introduction to AudioOptionalBlackmagic DesignVideoBlackmagic's own official training, which is thorough and unglamorous. The authoritative version once the shorter lessons have got you working.1h 28m

Credits

Every lesson in this course was made by one of these channels. Tubeversity sequenced them; it did not make them. If a course is useful to you, the people below are the ones who earned it.