3D Effects in DaVinci Resolve 18 | A Step-by-Step Guide

Creating 3D Effects In Davinci Resolve adds depth and realism to videos. It may seem that it is complicated to create a 3D effect, but the reality is with the proper guidance, you can create it with ease.

In this step-by-step guide, we will discuss how to use Da Vinci Resolve 18 to create a 3D effect for different elements like video and text.

So, let’s get started.

How To Create 3D Effect In Davinci Resolve?

There are multiple ways to create 3D effects for different elements in Davinci Resolve. For example, 

• you can use the effects panel on the edit page to create a 3D effect for the text.
• But to create 3d effects for videos and logos, you may need to use the fusion page in Davinci Resolve.

We will be covering everything you need to know about creating 3D effects.

We will be creating 3D effects for the following elements:

1. 3D Text effect in Davinci Resolve
   • Using Fusion Page
   • Using Edit page With a Plugin (Free)
2. 3D effect for video in Davinci Resolve
   • Using Fusion Page

How To Create a 3D Text Effect In Davinci Resolve? (Fusion)

It is very simple to create 3D text effects on the fusion page as well.

To create the 3D effect in the Fusion Page:

• Go to the effects panel and search for fusion composition.
• Drag and drop the fusion composition onto the timeline.
• Select the fusion composition and go to the fusion page.

When you are on the fusion page, you need to create the following nodes.

1. Text 3D node.
2. Directional light
3. Merger 3D
4. Renderer Node
5. Media out (it will automatically be created).

Add all the layers through the menu (see the image).

To add the directional light:

• Select the Merge 3D node, press shift + Space, search for Directional light, and add the node.
• It will automatically be connected to the merge 3D.

Connect the nodes in the following order:

Text 3D > Merge 3D > Renderer 3D > media out.

Now Connect Directional Light to Merger 3D.

See the image of the node tree below.

Turn on 3D

Now Select the text node, and you will see text controls in the inspector panel on the right side. Write whatever text you want in the text box.

Now go to the Extrusion panel and turn up the Extrusion depth value. Then select the renderer node and turn on light and shadows.

Now you will be able to see the 3D effect.

Light Setup

Select the light node and go to the settings menu on the right side.

You can change the color of the light and other settings.

Go to the transform tab and rotate the light to get more depth.

Shading

Select the Text 3D node and go to the shading tab in the settings menu.

Change the color of the text in the material section.

Also, change the specular color, which will give more depth to the text.

Rotate the Text

Select the Text 3D node and go to the transform tab in the settings menu on the right.

Go to the rotation section and rotate text on different axis for a more customized 3D look.

How To Create a 3D Text Effect In Davinci Resolve? (Edit Page)

To create the 3D text effect, you need to create or write the text first.

To create the text:

• Go to the effects panel and click on the toolbox.
• And then search for “Text”, you will see a Text with a + icon at the end.
• Drag and drop the title into the timeline.

Edit the Title in Davinci Resolve

To edit the title, select the title in the timeline and then go to the inspector panel.

There you will see the setting to change the text.

Write your text, and now we are ready to create a 3D effect.

Download 3D Effect

Go to the following link and download the Essential 3D effect by “essential video editing.”

Link to Download the effect.

Extract the zip file.

Use .drfx package:

• Open Davinci Resolve
• Double click the file to install the template.
• You will get a pop-up to install or cancel.
• Click on install, and the Essential 3D effect will be installed.

Apply 3D Effect

Now to make your text 3D:

• Go to the effects panel.
• Search for Essential 3D effect.
• Drag and drop it onto the Text layer.

After applying the effect, you will get a basic 3d effect on your text.

Now you need to use the inspector panel on the top right corner to adjust the settings of the 3D effect in Davinci Resolve.

Essential 3D Settings

Go to the effects tab in the inspector.

there are two groups of parameters we can use to adjust the 3d styles.

the first set of parameters here are basic settings for the 3d look.

• 3d effect controls the overall 3d style.
• Lower the chisel effect to apply some chiseled effect on the text.
• 3d scale is to control how strong the 3d transforms are.
• And 3d bias is to offset the transformation most of the time, and we don’t need to change that.
• The brightness is used to adjust the brightness of the object, for example, if the bottom of this title is too dark, increase the brightness to about 0.32, and now the bottom of the title will become Visible.
• If the 3d result is rough and not as smooth as we are expecting, then we can increase the 3d quality to fix it, but that will require more time to render.
• You can choose the material from the dropdown to give your text a more customized look.

These are the most important settings, and you can play with other settings to further customize the 3D effect.

Create 3D Effect For Video In Davinci Resolve

To create a 3d effect for a video, we need to use the fusion page.

Note: This effect works best on screen recordings, but it can be used on any kind of video.

To get started:

• Bring your footage to the timeline.
• Select the footage and go to the fusion page.
• Create a DVE node and a Transform node.
• To create the nodes, press shift + Space and search for both nodes one by one and add them.
• Press shift, drag and drop the nodes one by on on the yellow line to connect them.

Select the DVE node and go to the settings tab on the right.

• Rotate the video using rotation properties on the x and y axis to get a 3D look.

When you rotate the video using the DVE node, empty areas will appear on the sides. We will use the Transform node to zoom in on the video, and that will get rid of the empty spaces.

How To Get Animated 3D Screen Effect In Davinci Resolve?

The 3D effect will look more dynamic if we add a little bit of movement with the help of the keyframes.

To add the keyframes:

• Now move the play head where you want your animation to stop and change the Position X value.

And now, if you playback, the video will be animated.

This is how to create a 3D animated screen effect in Davinci Resolve 18.

Conclusion

We have covered how you can create a 3D effect in Davinci Resolve for text and video.

First, we discussed how we could create a 3D text effect on the fusion page by just using 5 simple nodes, including 3d text, light, renderer, etc.

Then we discussed how you can use a free plugin that will make things a lot easier and allow you to create the 3D text effect on the edit pages by just using a few sliders.

We have then discussed how you can use the DVE node to convert your videos to 3d, and DVE is really useful when you have screen recordings that you want to look dynamic and more interesting.\

And at the end we animated the video with just two keyframes to make it more dynamic.

Thanks for reading & feel free to check out more of our articles!