DaVinci Resolve · Framing, motion and effects
How to zoom in on a video in DaVinci Resolve
The short answer
Select the clip, open the Inspector and raise Zoom under Transform for a punch-in. For a moving zoom, click the keyframe diamond next to Zoom, move the playhead and set a bigger value, or turn on Dynamic Zoom in the Inspector.
5 steps
In DaVinci Resolve
01
Punch in
Select the clip on the Edit page, open the Inspector and raise Zoom under Transform. Use Position to reframe.
02
Add a start keyframe
Put the playhead where the zoom starts and click the diamond to the right of Zoom. It turns red.
03
Add an end keyframe
Move the playhead to where the zoom ends and change Zoom. Resolve adds the second keyframe for you.
04
Ease the move
In recent versions, click the Keyframes tab at the upper left of the Edit page, expand Transform to see the Zoom track, then click the Curve icon in the panel to shape how the value changes between keyframes.
05
Or use Dynamic Zoom
Turn on Dynamic Zoom in the Inspector. Choose Dynamic Zoom from the viewer's transform menu: the green box is the start frame and the red box the end. Swap reverses the direction.
Good to know
Before you start
- Note 1
- Zooming past 1.0 on footage that matches the timeline resolution softens it. Shoot or edit in a higher resolution if you plan heavy punch-ins.
Eddie AI
Do it in Eddie
Eddie adds gentle push-ins automatically, and punch-ins on request.
Eddie's cinematic motion, an automatic push, drift and zoom, is on by default. In Resolve it arrives as real keyframes on the clip's Zoom and Pan: the diamond icon next to those parameters in the Inspector. Ask "Turn off the automatic motion" to remove it for the whole project. For emphasis, ask for a shake zoom on a line; the punch-in carries to Resolve, the shake does not.
Back to Resolve
Open the edit, click Export and choose Resolve. The default is a Resolve project (.drp) that opens with the timeline built; behind the arrow is a Resolve FCPXML you bring into the project you have open with File > Import > Timeline. In the desktop app, Send to DaVinci Resolve builds the timeline in the Resolve you have running, through Eddie's script (Workspace > Scripts > Eddie AI AE).
If you imported the footage through the desktop app, the timeline points at your original camera files. If you uploaded on the web or pulled from cloud storage, it points at Eddie's proxy media: relink to those in the Media Pool with Relink Selected Clips, not to the camera originals.
FAQ
Questions
- Why are there keyframes on clips I never animated?
- If the timeline came from another app, it may carry motion keyframes. Click the red diamond next to Zoom in the Inspector to delete a keyframe, or reset Transform.
- How do I make a zoom smoother?
- Ease the keyframes, or lengthen the time between them. Dynamic Zoom has an Ease setting in the Inspector.
