Overview
DaVinci Resolve is free, professional-grade, and used on Hollywood films. The free version has no meaningful limitations for most creators. The learning curve is steeper than iMovie or CapCut, but the payoff is a full editing, colour grading, audio, and VFX suite in one application.
What You Need
- DaVinci Resolve 19+ (free at blackmagicdesign.com)
- A Mac or Windows PC with at least 16GB RAM and a dedicated GPU
- Your video footage on a fast drive (SSD recommended)
Steps
Understand the page layout
DaVinci Resolve is divided into pages accessible from the bottom bar: Media (import and organise), Cut (fast editing), Edit (full timeline editing), Fusion (VFX), Color (grading), Fairlight (audio), Deliver (export). Beginners should focus on Media → Cut → Edit → Deliver, in that order.
Create a project and import footage
Open Resolve → Project Manager → New Project. Name your project. Go to the Media page. In the top-left panel, navigate to your footage folder. Drag files into the Media Pool (lower left). Resolve creates proxies or works with the original files depending on your Project Settings. Set your timeline resolution in File → Project Settings → Master Settings before starting.
Edit on the Cut page
The Cut page is designed for speed. Drag a clip from the Media Pool to the timeline. Use the Source Tape at the top to scrub through all your clips simultaneously. Mark In and Out points with I and O, then press F10 (Insert) or F9 (Append). The Cut page has a magnetic timeline that snaps clips together automatically — great for first assembly cuts.
Refine on the Edit page
Switch to the Edit page for precise trimming. Use the Selection mode (A) to select clips and the Trim mode (T) to adjust edit points. Razor blade tool (B) cuts clips. Hold Alt and drag the edge of a clip to roll an edit. The Edit page timeline shows video and audio tracks — you can unlink them by right-clicking on a clip.
Add titles and transitions
Open the Effects Library (top left toolbar) → Toolbox → Titles. Drag a title to a video track above your footage. Double-click the title in the timeline to edit the text in the Inspector panel (right side). For transitions: Effects → Video Transitions. Drag a transition between two clips. Keep transitions subtle — a simple cut is almost always better than a wipe or dissolve.
Export from the Deliver page
Go to the Deliver page. Select a preset: YouTube for online delivery, or Custom Export for specific settings. For YouTube: H.264, 1920×1080, 8000kbps, AAC audio. Set your filename and output path. Click Add to Render Queue, then Render All. Resolve renders in the background — you can continue working while it exports.
Pro Tips
- Use proxy media if your footage is 4K or RAW and your machine is struggling — generate proxies in the Media Pool by right-clicking clips.
- DaVinci Resolve autosaves every few minutes, but also press Ctrl+S frequently. It saves to the project database, not to a file — your projects are in Project Manager, not on your desktop.
- The Fairlight audio page has a full broadcast-spec audio environment — for basic podcast-style audio cleanup inside Resolve, it's more than sufficient.