The first time I opened the Fusion page, I had a green screen clip sitting in my timeline and no idea what a Merge node was. I clicked around for 4 minutes, found nothing that looked like a keyer button, and went back to the Edit page to fake it with a garbage matte and a lot of patience. That composite looked terrible. This tutorial is the guide I wish I had that day. You will build three real comps, node by node, with the exact clicks and the exact reasons things break.
You already edit in Resolve, so this skips the abstract explanation of what compositing is. It gives you the specific sequence of nodes that gets a tracked title, a green screen key, and a lower third out the door.
DaVinci Resolve Fusion Basics: Nodes Instead of Layers
A new timeline-based Fusion comp opens with two default nodes: MediaIn, which pulls your clip in from the Edit page timeline, and MediaOut, which sends the result back out. You can delete either one, but as a beginner you shouldn't. MediaOut in particular is required. Without it connected, the Edit page has nothing to receive and your comp never shows up on the timeline. MediaIn only matters if you're pulling in existing footage. If you're building something from scratch, like a title generated entirely inside Fusion, you can work with just MediaOut.
Everything you build sits between those two. Image data flows left to right along the connection lines, and each node in between does one job: a color correction, a blur, a mask, a title.
The switch that trips people up coming from After Effects or Premiere: there is no stack. Nothing sits "on top" of anything else. You combine images with a Merge node, and it has three inputs that matter. Blackmagic's own documentation and independent references agree on the color coding: the background input is orange, the foreground input is green, and the effect mask input is blue. Connect a shape to the blue input and it limits where the green foreground shows through. That's most of the theory. The rest is which nodes you plug into which inputs.
Node position on the canvas doesn't matter. You can drag nodes anywhere and the comp behaves the same. Connection order does matter. Swap what's plugged into a Merge node's background and foreground inputs, and your foreground becomes your background.
DaVinci Resolve Fusion Nodes: Quick Map
You'll use these eight nodes in almost every beginner comp. Skim this once before you start building, then come back to it when you forget what something does.
- MediaIn: brings the timeline clip or imported media into the comp.
- MediaOut: sends the finished comp back to the Edit page timeline. Required in every comp.
- Merge: combines a foreground and background image. This is the node to understand first.
- Text+: creates editable text and title graphics.
- Planar Tracker: tracks a flat surface and can drive a corner pin or match move composite.
- Delta Keyer: removes a green or blue screen background.
- Background: generates a solid color or gradient. Fills the entire frame unless you mask it.
- Rectangle mask: draws a rectangular shape you can connect to another node's mask input to limit its area.
DaVinci Resolve Fusion Comp 1: A Tracked Title That Sticks to a Surface
This is the exercise that sells people on Fusion, because the Edit page can't do it. You want text that clings to a wall, a laptop screen, or a moving surface as the camera pans.
- Right-click your clip on the Edit page timeline and choose New Fusion Clip, or select the clip and open the Fusion page directly. You land in the node graph with MediaIn and MediaOut already connected.
- Press Shift+Spacebar to open the tool search, type "Planar Tracker," and press Enter. Connect it after MediaIn.
- Select the Planar Tracker node, open the Inspector, and draw a tracking region over the flat surface you want text to stick to. Click Track Forward.
- Once the track finishes, go to the Operation Mode dropdown in the Inspector. Use Match Move when you want your text to follow the tracked surface as a floating graphic. Use Corner Pin when you're replacing a flat rectangular area, like a screen or a sign. These are two different modes for two different jobs, not steps in a sequence, so pick the one that matches your shot.
- Add a Text+ node (Shift+Spacebar again), type your copy, and connect it into the tracker's foreground input.
- Connect the tracker's output into MediaOut, replacing the direct MediaIn-to-MediaOut connection.
Scrub the timeline. Your text should hold its position on the tracked surface through the whole move. If it drifts, the track failed before the compositing did. Go back to the Planar Tracker, adjust the tracking region so it avoids motion blur or the edge of frame, and retrack.
DaVinci Resolve Fusion Comp 2: A Basic Green Screen Key
Green screen is the second comp because it introduces the actual Merge node instead of a tool that behaves like one.
- Add a Delta Keyer node (Shift+Spacebar, search "Delta Keyer") and connect it after MediaIn.
- Open the Inspector, use the eyedropper on the Delta Keyer's color picker, and click a clean patch of green in the Viewer.
- Import your background image or clip through the Media Pool and drag it into the node graph. On the Fusion page inside Resolve, this usually appears as another MediaIn node. If you're working in standalone Fusion Studio instead, the equivalent file-based node is a Loader.
- Add a Merge node. Connect your background into the orange input and the output of the Delta Keyer into the green input.
- Connect the Merge node's output into MediaOut.
If the edges of your subject look crunchy or carry a green fringe, add a Matte Control node between the Delta Keyer and the Merge, and soften the garbage matte edges there instead of pushing the Delta Keyer's aggression higher. Cranking the keyer to kill fringing usually eats detail in hair and motion blur instead of fixing the actual edge problem.
One thing that catches people on their first key: a green screen shot with visible spill on skin or clothing needs a spill suppression pass, which lives in a second tab inside the Delta Keyer's own Inspector settings, not a separate node. Check that tab before you reach for a color corrector to fix a green tint.
Go deeper: DaVinci Resolve Delta Keyer: Complete Settings Guide walks every tab, the clean plate workflow and spill suppression for when this basic key is not enough.
DaVinci Resolve Fusion Comp 3: An Animated Lower Third From Scratch
This is the comp with the most moving pieces, and it's the one that teaches keyframing inside Fusion's spline editor, which behaves differently from the Edit page's keyframe row.
- Add a Background node (Shift+Spacebar, search "Background") and set its color in the Inspector.
- Add a Rectangle mask node and connect it to the Background node's blue mask input. Without this step the Background node fills the entire frame instead of forming a strip. Adjust the Rectangle mask's Width, Height, and Center in the Inspector until the bar sits where you want it, usually along the lower third of frame.
- Add a Text+ node for the name, and a second Text+ node for the title or subtitle line if you want two lines with separate timing.
- Merge the first Text+ over the masked Background using a Merge node: foreground into green, background into orange.
- Merge that result over MediaIn using a second Merge node, so the lower third sits over your footage instead of replacing it.
- Select the outer Merge node, find its Center parameter in the Inspector, right-click it, and choose Animate. This drops a keyframe.
- Move the playhead, drag the Center value so the lower third slides into frame from off-screen, and Fusion adds a second keyframe automatically.
- Open the Spline Editor (the icon next to the node graph toggle) to smooth the motion curve. A linear slide looks robotic. An eased curve looks intentional.
Once this works, save it two different ways depending on how you'll reuse it. For your own project, saving the comp is enough. If you want a reusable Edit page effect, select the nodes, right-click, and create a Macro. Expose only the text, color, and position controls you'll want to change later, then save it as a Fusion template so it shows up in the Effects Library. Drop it onto any future clip and adjust just those exposed fields. I reuse a version of this exact setup on interview edits instead of rebuilding it from nothing every time.
Why Nothing Shows Up in Fusion
These five problems account for most of the "my comp does nothing" moments beginners run into.
- MediaOut is disconnected. Connect the last node in your chain directly to MediaOut. Nothing renders back to the Edit page without it.
- Merge inputs are swapped. Background goes into the orange input, foreground into green. Swap them and your foreground vanishes behind the background.
- A Background node is covering the whole frame. If you wanted a lower-third strip and got a full-screen color instead, you skipped the Rectangle mask step.
- Text is connected but invisible. Check that your Text+ node is merged over your footage, not accidentally replacing the MediaIn-to-MediaOut connection entirely.
- The tracker drifts partway through the clip. Retrack using a sharper, higher-contrast area of the frame, and avoid regions with motion blur.
DaVinci Resolve Fusion vs the Edit Page: When to Actually Use It
Skip Fusion for a title that just needs to sit centered on screen for 4 seconds. The Edit page's Text+ tool handles that with fewer clicks and no node graph. Fusion earns its place when text needs to track a surface, when you're keying footage, or when an animation needs more control than the Inspector's basic keyframe row gives you. If you're unsure which text tool fits your shot, the site's guide to Text, Text+ and titles breaks down exactly where the Edit page stops being enough.
What Changed for Fusion in DaVinci Resolve 21
Resolve 21 made Fusion more useful specifically for editors who build reusable graphics rather than one-off effects. Compositions built on the Fusion page can now be saved as templates and used directly from the Edit or Cut page. Animation curve modifiers let you stretch, squish, or loop keyframes automatically when a clip's duration changes, so a template doesn't break the moment you trim it. Audio playback with a waveform display in the Fusion page makes it easier to time a graphic's entrance to a beat or a line of dialogue. Node view bookmarks help you navigate a comp once it grows past a dozen or so nodes. None of this changes the fundamentals in this tutorial. MediaIn, MediaOut, Merge, Text+, Delta Keyer, Planar Tracker, and the Spline Editor are still what you're building with.
DaVinci Resolve Fusion Performance: Why Comps Crawl on Some Machines
Fusion renders per frame, and a 4K source with a Delta Keyer, a couple of blurs, and a tracker in the chain adds up fast, especially on a laptop GPU. Working at half or quarter viewer resolution while you build the comp, then switching back to full resolution for the final look, keeps playback usable. Once a comp is locked, right-click it and render a local cache so scrubbing back on the Edit page doesn't re-render the whole node tree every time. If Fusion comps are the specific reason your timeline crawls, the slow playback troubleshooting guide covers comp caching separately from general timeline lag, since the fixes aren't the same.
DaVinci Resolve Fusion FAQ
Is Fusion included in the free version of DaVinci Resolve?
Yes. The Fusion page ships in the free version with the full node toolset, including trackers, keyers, masks, and Text+. A handful of AI-assisted tools and some newer effects are Studio-only. Check the free vs Studio breakdown for the specific list for your version.
Do I need to learn Nuke or After Effects first?
No. Fusion's node logic is closer to Nuke's than to After Effects' layer stack, but nothing here assumes prior compositing software. The Merge node's color-coded inputs, orange background, green foreground, blue mask, are the one thing worth memorizing before anything else clicks.
What does the Merge node do in DaVinci Resolve Fusion?
The Merge node combines a foreground image with a background image. The orange input is background, the green input is foreground, and the blue input is an optional effect mask.
Why does my tracker fail on a shot with motion blur?
Planar and point trackers key off sharp, high-contrast detail. Heavy motion blur or a low-contrast surface starves the tracker of that detail. Narrow the tracking region to the sharpest patch of the frame available, and retrack in smaller passes rather than the whole clip at once.
Can I reuse a Fusion comp on other clips?
Yes. Select the nodes, right-click, and save as a Macro, or save the whole comp as a Fusion Template through the Effects Library. Both let you drop the effect onto a new clip and adjust only the exposed parameters in the Inspector.
Why isn't my Fusion comp showing on the Edit page?
Almost always the final node isn't connected to MediaOut, or the wrong node is. MediaOut is what sends your Fusion result back to the Edit page timeline, and every comp needs one.
Is Fusion better than the Edit page for titles?
It depends on what the title needs to do. Fusion is worth the extra setup when a title needs tracking, complex animation, masking, or reuse as a template. For a static title that just fades in and out, the Edit page is faster and simpler.
Related guides
- Fusion in DaVinci Resolve: the hub: the map of the Fusion cluster and what to build first.
- DaVinci Resolve Nodes Explained: how Fusion nodes differ from Color page nodes.
- How to Add Text in DaVinci Resolve: when a plain Text+ on the Edit page is all you need.
