9 Tips that will instantly improve your workflow in davinci resolve

In this Article i'm going to share 9 tips that will instantly improve your workflow in davinci resolve  

and help to raise the overall production value of  your films 

Tip 1 display qualifier focus  

in the color tab go to your scopes and select 

the three dots at the top right and check the  

box that says display qualifier focus select the qualifier 

and hover your mouse over your image  and the circle will show exactly where it falls on the scopes this is a massive time saver and  

allows you to quickly check if your skin tones are accurate on the vectorscope instead of having to  isolate it first when the line is in the middle of the circle for the relevant skin area that's  your confirmation it also helps to check white balance so if you hover over an object that's true  

white and perfectly balanced you will see just one circle but when the white balance is off you will  

see the circle split apart for example here you have more blue and less red 

Tip 2  instant swap

swap lets you change the order of clips 

and shuffle them around in your timeline without  the need to manually move them up and down on the timeline unnecessary steps taking unnecessary time  

to do this go to your keyboard settings and select 

a custom button of your choice mine is the left  bracket to swap left and the right bracket to swap right when working on a busy timeline with audio  

and other elements like titles and adjustment layers on top just make sure you deselect the auto  

track selector which will ignore these tracks when making changes between clips

 Tip 3 easy bin folders

gone are the days of creating new bins for all your folders and individually dragging  

files into their own bins if your folder is well 

organized on your drive you can easily import  it with accompanying bins labeled exactly the way it is on your drive go to the cut page and select  

import media folder select your main folder and voila everything in that folder will be imported  exactly the way it is on your drive as long as resolve recognizes the file types .

Tip 4  extend edit 

when you start stacking clips on top of each other you'll often find yourself.

needing to change the length with extend edit you can do it instantly by just tapping E on  

your keyboard but make sure you're in trim mode which you can select over here or by pressing  t on the keyboard. now instead of manually trying 

to match up each clip you can do it instantly on  the keyboard ,make sure you select all the clips and move your player to the desired location this  

feature also works backwards as long as you're in trim mode where the blade is that's where it  will cut to.

 Tip 5 reference lines using

reference lines in the waveform is a great way to  set a benchmark for contrast when creating a group of clips in other words if, you don't want your  shadows just above the clipping line. but you still want them consistent set a reference line for your  

first lip and then adjust the rest accordingly.

 

Tip 6 clip comparison

                                      

without a doubt  one of the features I use the most compare two 

clips next to each other for consistency in color  and contrast in the color tab .select split screen and then on your right this drop down menu, and  

click selected clips now you can actually click on a clip in a monitor and make adjustments to that  clip but the best part about this is the ability to see both waveforms next to each other and this  makes it even easier to guarantee consistency you can select as many clips as you want and this  gives you a great overview of the flow of color again making it easier to spot inconsistencies.

 Tip 7  select clips forward 

with this feature you  

can instantly select all clips to the right of 

your play without touching anything before the  playhead perfect for ,when you have a busy timeline and you want to add in a new clip without the need  to try and select everything the default button for this is option y on mac or alt y on windows ,

but you can make it any key you want just go to keyboard customization click on all commands and  in the search bar type select clips forward and 

choose your own key.

 Tip 8  restoring synced audio   

 you can easily bring back deleted audio 

from a clip synchronized to its original position  select the clip in your timeline click on match frame and drag the audio picture back under  your clip just make sure snapping is enabled to ensure it snaps perfectly in sync.

Tip 9 media management

 one of the most underrated tools 

in resolve so many uses but my favorites are  saving hard drive space and collecting scattered media in one place you can tell resolve to copy  an entire timeline or entire project to a new destination but only bring along with it the  files used in the timeline or project you can take it a step further and only copy the cuts in  other words resolve will trim the original files ,

and only keep the in and out points made in the  timeline but for safety you can add a few frames on both sides but this will drastically reduce  

the size an old project takes up when working with scattered media from multiple drives you can copy.

specific clips either selected in the media pool or selected in the timeline and to relink it to a  new destination if you have any more questions feel free to drop it in the comments below and  

i'll do my best to answer thanks so much for reading