How to Smooth Zoom Like a Pro In Davinci Resolve (Splines)

how can you make your Zoom go from looking like this to looking like this welcome to that da Vinci project where we help you Unleash Your Vision on screen transforming your mind's eye into masterful edit my name is Liz Martin and today I'm going to walk you through exactly how to create a smooth zoom in dentur resolve first we'll make the key frames for Zoom if you don't know how to make key frames or before you want to brush up on the basics then check out our beginner's guide for Da Vinci now let's set the key frame to where we want the zoom to start then we'll set the key frame to where we want the zoom to stop once you've created the key frames for zoom and play it back you may notice that the zoom starts abruptly and ends abruptly especially if it's a short Zoom but the good news is you can make changes to the way the zoom looks by using the curve editor also known as the spline editor the curve editor is located in the bottom right hand corner of your video clip it's a small curved icon that looks like this click the curve editor the curve editor is designed to give you more control over what your effect looks like specifically you can make adjustments to the key frames that you just created you can make the zoom slower faster bouncy or more smooth so how do we make these changes look in the middle of the curve editor and you'll see four small icons these icons are called bezier and each bezier does something different currently these key frames are set to the linear bezier this straight line means that the zoom will be sharp and sudden and this explains why the zoom currently starts abruptly and ends abruptly but let's say that you want the animation to be more smooth specifically more smooth at the end of the zoom in this case select the last key frame by clicking the last dot on the line and then select the ease in bezier this curved line with a DOT on the end means that the Zoom will be more smooth at the end of the animation and let's say that you also want the animation to be more smooth at the beginning of the zoom in this case select the first key frame by clicking the first dot on the line and then select the ease out bezier this curved line with a DOT on the beginning means that the zoom will be more smooth at the beginning of the animation let's play it back to see how it looks looks good it may seem like you're all done but not quite there are still a few things that you need to know for instance you may want to zoom into a specific area in this case I want to zoom in to this person's face so I'll add key frames for position I'll go to the initial key frame that we created for zoom and then we'll set the first key frame for position then I'll I'll travel to the last key frame for zoom and adjust the values for both zoom and position until I get the result that I want now I'll play it back to see how it looks there's a good chance that you'll have the same problem that I have here it zooms in to the specific area that I want but it moves the entire frame and reveals some of the empty black space in the background so why is this happening it's because we adjusted set the key frames with position instead of Anchor Point the problem with using position is that it moves the entire frame but Anchor Point gives the program a better understanding of the center or focal point that you're trying to zoom in on so when you're using ease in ease out or other beier with zoom or rotation use Anchor Point instead of position so we'll remove move position and add Anchor Point but before we do you may have noticed that after we made changes to position multiple lines appeared in the curve editor adding key frames for different values such as Zoom position or rotation angles creates these adjustable lines if you want to focus on specific values use this drop-down menu to select or unselect these lines for instance in this example if we only wanted to see the lines for Zoom we would unselect position X and position y also if at any point you don't see the dots on the line simply click the line and the key frames will reappear now let's get back to removing position and adding Anchor Point I'll remove all of the key frames for position by clicking reset then I'll go to the last key frame for zoom and adjust the values for Anchor Point until the video is positioned where I want unlike position with Anchor Point we don't have to set a key frame let's play it back to see how it looks as you can see now that we're using Anchor Point it zooms in correctly if you want a more visual experience when you zoom in or out you can click and drag the motion path line upwards or downwards this allows you to zoom in or out at the start of the zoom or the end of the [Music] zoom you can also click and drag the middle of the line to zoom in or out at both points along the entire line if you want to customize the look of your animation even further you can use the bzier curve handle click a DOT on the line and you'll see a handle that looks like this click and drag the handle upwards to zoom in drag the handle downwards to zoom out drag the handle to the left or right to change the speed of the animation this allows you to experiment with the shape of the curve and customize the zoom to your liking if you want to revert the curves back to linear simply highlight all of the key frames you want to change and then select the linear bzier option let's say that you want your Zoom to have a bouncy effect in this case you'll need to add a few more key frames for zoom in this case I'll add three more key frames alternating between zoom in and zoom out and instead of adding the ease in and ease out bezier to each dot individually I can save time by highlighting all of my key frames and selecting the ease in ease out bezier this curved line with a dot in the middle means that the zoom will be more smooth throughout all of the key frames that you just highlighted and this gives us that smooth bouncy effect let's play it back to see how it looks looks good you can also add bezier curves from the inspector tab click the arrow next to zoom so that the playhead moves to the key frame that you want to change next right click on the red diamond and you'll see a list of bezier options when you click on the middle key frames you'll see several bezier options however when you click on the first or last key frames you'll only see two options this is where you would choose the bezi a that you want if you want to remove a key frame from the curve editor simply click the arrow so that the playhead moves to the key frame you want to delete then click the diamond icon to remove the selected key frame what if you want to apply this smooth Zoom effect to multiple layers at the same time and what if you want it to be more Dynamic zooming in from one area of the frame to the next for instance in this example we have a video clip and two image layers in this case instead of applying zoom and adjusting each clip individually we'll use something called an adjustment layer go to the top of the workspace and click effects then click the search icon and type adjustment clip into the search bar next click and drag the adjustment clip onto the timeline so that it's positioned above the layers that you want to zoom in on make sure sure that the adjustment clip is the same length as the clips you're going to zoom in on now that we have our adjustment clip we can apply this smooth Zoom effect to multiple layers at the same time and zoom in from one area of the frame to the next however we can't do that here in the edit page we can only do this in the fusion page so right click on the adjustment clip and select open infusion the fusion page is where you can create complex visual effects and Motion Graphics and the first thing you'll notice is two squares on a graph these squares are called nodes there are several types of nodes and each node does something different for example these nodes are media nodes the media in node represents everything you're bringing into the fusion page from the edit page in this case media in represents the video clip and two image layers that we just created in the edit page so whenever we make changes to media in we're actually making changes to the video clip and two image layers in the edit page we can make changes to the media end node by adding new nodes in this case We'll add the transform node select the media end node and then hold down the shift key and click the space bar a list of nodes will pop up select transform XF which stands for transform extra features and then click add you could also simply select transform from the menu above the graph you'll notice that there are now three nodes on the graph media in transform and media out and they're all connected don't worry in this video transform is the only node will be working with the transform function in the fusion page operates similarly to the transform section in the inspector tab on the edit page except here we use size to zoom and Center to set our Anchor Point since we're going to be making key frames for this effect let's open the spline editor in the fusion page it's at the top of the workspace next to key frames click the spline editor when the spline editor opens a graph will appear at the bottom let's add the first key frame for our smooth Zoom effect in Fusion we can control the video playback by moving this red playhead handle located in this small timeline beneath the video move the red playhead to where you want the zoom to start now click the Diamond beside size and then click the diamond beside Center if you look at the spline editor you'll notice that there are now two lines on the graph one line represents the key frame for size and the other represents the key frame for Center if at any point you don't see these lines simply click transform and the lines will reappear now before we add the last key frame for our first Zoom effect we need to make sure that the animation moves at a steady and consistent pace so that there aren't any long pauses or sudden jumps this means that each key frame needs to be the same distance apart for my animation I'll put 10 frames between each key frame we can do this manually by moving the play head 10 frames over with the arrow key or we can add 10 frames to the frame counter and press enter so that the play head automatically jumps 10 frames over after you've moved the red play head to where you want the zoom to stop use size to zoom in or out use Center to move the clip up or down or left or right you can make the graph appear longer or shorter order hover over the frame values and when this tiny icon appears drag the cursor to the left to make the lines appear shorter drag the cursor to the right to make the lines appear longer if you want to see the entire curve click the zoom to fit option finally create the smooth effect by highlighting the four key frames that you just created and then press the letter s you could also experiment with the shape of the curve by selecting the options in the menu below let's play it back to see how it looks looks good now let's make it Zoom again from this area of the frame to another area of the frame go to the last key frame that you created by clicking the last white key frame marker on the timeline and then we'll do the exact same thing that we did for the first Zoom move the play head to where you want the next Zoom to start next click the diamond beside size and then click the diamond beside center now move the play head to where you want the zoom to stop and then use size to zoom in or out use Center to move the clip up or down or left or right we'll click the zoom to fit option to see the entire curve finally create the smooth effect by highlighting only the four key frames that you just created and then press the letter s again you should only highlight the four key frames that you just created not the entire line let's play it back to see how it looks up to this point looks good we're just going to add add one more smooth Zoom this time we're going to zoom back out again go to the last key frame that you created by clicking the last white key frame marker on the timeline and then move the playhead to where you want the final Zoom to start next click the diamond beside size and then click the diamond beside center now move the playhead to where you want the zoom to stop and then use size to zoom in or out use Center to move the clip up or down or left or right in this example I prefer to manually type in the exact settings that I want which are the default settings for size and Center I'll click the zoom to fit option to see the entire curve finally create the smooth effect by highlighting the four key frames that you just created and then press the letter letter s let's play the entire animation to see how it looks looks good if you want to give your Zoom a more professional and natural look you can add motion blur to the animation go to the inspector section and select settings next check the box beside motion blur finally you can increase the quality to the level you like the higher the quality the more dramatic and noticeable the blur but keep in mind the higher the quality the more likely it is to slow down your computer if you like this video like it if you want to be someone else's hero share it and if you want to see more videos like this subscribe let us know what you want to see next in the comments

Channel: That Davinci Project

Views: 5,367

Keywords: davinci resolve tutorial, davinci resolve, davinci resolve smooth zoom, spline editor, davinci resolve splines, smooth zoom, Cinematic zoom, video editing

Id: YJrW7kOGWTs

Length: 17min 59sec (1079 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 17 2024