Create Realistic Shadow Effect in DaVinci Resolve - FREE template and Fusion Tutorial

hi there welcome back today I'm going to show you how to create realistic shadow effects in DaVinci Resolve using this Shadow effect we can create some really cool title effects as you are seeing here they blend very well with the background image and look like part of the real scenes on the timeline I have a title and a background video to add a shadow to the text title we usually take the drop shadow effect from the openfx filters we can adjust the settings to have something like this a light from the top casts a shadow on the background this is not bad but the shadow doesn't move with the fabric as we see in the real world delete the effect select both clips and create a fusion clip open it in the fusion page media in one is the background and media in two is the text title with the media in two selected press shift space to open the tool selection window find and insert a shadow node in the inspector we can change the shadow offset to reposition the Shadow or use the Crosshair in the viewer adjust the softness to control how blurry the Shadow's edges appear the default Shadow color is set to black but most real Shadows are usually not totally black in this case the color would be something like a dark blue this Color Picker can help us get the proper color from the background image bring the media in one node into the left viewer drag the eyedropper over to the dark shadow area pick a color that looks good for the shadow also we can lower the alpha value to make the shadow semi-transparent which is a more realistic look OK we now have a nice shadow with the right color but it's still static and doesn't blend with the fabric also the shadow is just a simple copy of the source text with a different color it has the same size which is really rare in the real world to create a more realistic Shadow we can adjust the light position and light distance settings the light position only works when the distance is not set to Infinity which is the default setting one changing the position doesn't affect the result in the case in order for this to work we need to set the distance to a value smaller than one now when we move the light position the shadow also moves since we are now using the lighting control to cast The Shadow we can reset the offset for better understanding how the light and Shadow work when reducing the distance between light source and the shadow casting object the shadow gets bigger just like we see in the real world this gives us a realistic looking Shadow with the further parts of the Shadow being longer than those that are closer to have the shadow moving along with the background we will use a depth map on the shadow node this green input is used to connect a depth map in this example we want to use the background clip as the depth map input which is media in one connect it to the green input of the Shadow node select the shadow node and back to the inspector change the zmap channel to Luma to better see the result effect move down the shadow to set it apart from the main text right away we got a really convincing Shadow casted by the light from the top this setting controls which color channel is used to create the depth map the Luma Channel works for most of the time the minimum depth map light distance only works when an image is connected as the depth map it controls the amount that the depth map contributes to the light distance dark areas of a depth map make the Shadow deeper what areas bring it closer to the camera changing the shadow offset allows us to move the shadow without affecting the size of the Shadow while the depth map effect still applies properly the last output parameter determines if the output image contains the image with Shadow applied or the shadow only which can be useful in the case when we only need the shadow okay this is how we create a realistic Shadow effect in the fusion page to make it easier applying the effect directly in the edit page I also created a shadow effect template called essential shadow you can download the template with the link in the description below simply drag and apply the essential Shadow effect to the clip on the timeline go to the effects tab in the inspector and most of these parameters are the ones we discussed earlier as the default the light distance is set to 0.95 so that we can change the light position to adjust the shadow right away we can also enable Fusion overlay in the viewer and use the on-screen controls to change the light position to enable the depth map click the enable disable depth map button this will enable a new set of parameters in this template there are two types of depth map we can use the default One is using a noise map you can adjust the noise settings to change the noise depth map and get some interesting shadow effects for example change the shadow color to white lower the alpha and we can get a nice water reflection effect the other depth map type is using a clip without going to the fusion page we can drag the clip from the media pool and drop it to the map clip field in this example I use the same one for the background clip there is another transform tab in the inspector it's used to transform the shadow in three dimensions for example I have a 3D title on the timeline animated with the character drop and the loop rotation effects apply the shadow effect move the shadow to the bottom go to the transform tab rotate on the x-axis around minus 90 degrees move down the shadow to the bottom adjust the Z move a little bit let's give it a bit more rotation now it's good back to the controls tab increase the softness now we have a nice drop shadow like in a 3D World which is casted by the light from the top all right that's how we create realistic shadows in DaVinci Resolve I hope you enjoyed it thanks for watching and I'll see you next time

Channel: Essential Video Editing

Views: 7,376

Keywords: DaVinci Resolve, Fusion, Video Editing

Id: TNYMbCSk9No

Length: 8min 46sec (526 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 11 2023