Compositing Tips for DaVinci Resolve

Here are a few handy quick tips for creating composites using external matte and multilayer matte nodes in DaVinci Resolve.

Creating a Composite in Resolve Using External Mattes

In this short tutorial Jesse Borkowski shows us how to use an external matte to key out a background using an alpha output. In this video Jesse also mentions a tutorial on creating an external matte in After Effects and you can find that here.

Understanding External Mattes & Multilayer Nodes

In this excellent short tutorial from Colorist and VFX Supervisor Gray Marshall (who has worked on 50+ films like Fight Club, Adaptation and American Gangster) you can learn how to use multilayer mattes, based on creating mattes within the red, green and blue channels. In the second half of the tutorial Gray shows why this is practically useful in isolating individual parts of your image.

In his tutorial Gray mentions some tutorials from colorist Juan Salvo on using the External Fill feature in Resolve, this will help you add things like light leaks and film grain to your footage. In the second two minute tutorial Juan demonstrates how to bring mattes into Resolve and associate them with either clips or tracks.