How to Rotate Video in DaVinci Resolve: Fix Sideways Clips

Quick answer: if a phone or camera clip is simply sideways, fix the source in Clip Attributes > Video > Image Orientation and pick 90° Left, 90° Right, or 180°. If you want to tilt one timeline instance, use Inspector > Video > Transform > Rotation Angle. The first method corrects orientation at the source-clip level. The second is a creative timeline transform that takes any angle and keyframes. Before delivery, confirm the project timing in the frame rate guide.

Keep those two apart and most rotation problems never happen. A sideways recording usually needs one clean orientation fix. A Dutch angle, a spinning title card or a deliberately tilted shot belongs in Transform. And a vertical deliverable needs a vertical timeline. Turning footage that's already upright by 90 degrees just lays it on its side.

Image Orientation or Rotation Angle?

I treat source correction and creative rotation as separate decisions, even when both make the Viewer look upright. The difference shows up later, when you reuse the clip. Clip Attributes changes that Media Pool item wherever it's used. Inspector settings belong to the selected timeline instance, so they're easy to vary from shot to shot.

Fix a Sideways Clip with Image Orientation

1. Find the source clip. In the Media Pool, select the clip that appears sideways or upside down.
2. Open Clip Attributes. Right-click the clip and choose Clip Attributes.
3. Open the Video tab. Find Image Orientation.
4. Choose the correction. Use 90° Left, 90° Right or 180°, depending on which way the image needs to turn. 0° puts it back.
5. Apply the change. Go back to the timeline and check every place where that source is used.

Pick the direction by the result. The way the camera was held doesn't matter here. If the subject's head points toward the right edge, the 90-degree option that brings the head to the top is correct. If your first choice turns the clip upside down, use the other 90-degree direction.

This is the clean fix for a file whose orientation is wrong before you start editing. Blackmagic's manual describes Image Orientation as a rotation fix for media that has an orientation setting, with four choices: 0°, 90° Right, 180° and 90° Left. If a file doesn't offer it, rotate the timeline clip in the Inspector. Fixing the source keeps the timeline Transform section free for later framing and animation. Thumbnails and source viewing make more sense too, because the correction lives with the source and no stray timeline copy owns it.

Check other timelines before you change a heavily reused source. A source-level correction can change every instance that refers to the same Media Pool item. If one sequence uses the original sideways orientation on purpose, duplicate or isolate the media item to suit your project structure, or rotate only that copy in the Inspector.

Rotate One Timeline Clip in the Inspector

Reach for the Inspector when the turn is part of the composition.

1. Put the clip on a timeline and select that timeline item.
2. Open Inspector at the upper right.
3. Choose the Video tab and expand Transform.
4. Type a value in Rotation Angle, or drag the value while you watch the Viewer.
5. Use Zoom and Position X/Y to reframe the rotated image.
6. Play the whole clip and check all four edges.

For a right-angle turn, 90 and -90 point in opposite directions, and 180 turns the frame upside down. For a small Dutch angle, start with a restrained value and go further only if the composition needs it. What the Viewer shows matters more than the sign of the number.

Rotation Angle turns the image around the clip's anchor point. For ordinary footage the default center is usually the right pivot. Moving the anchor changes the pivot and can make Position feel unpredictable, so reset the anchor first when a clip swings around an unexpected point.

Blackmagic Design's official Edit page covers the Inspector and the onscreen controls for position, size and rotation. For a broader map of that panel and how its resets work, see the DaVinci Resolve Inspector guide.

Fill the Frame After a 90-Degree Turn

Rotate a landscape clip 90 degrees and it becomes tall inside a landscape timeline. Resolve did what you asked: the image changed orientation, and the timeline canvas stayed the same. Those empty sides are a composition issue. The rotation itself worked.

Pick the next step from the delivery:

• For a vertical deliverable: change or duplicate the timeline to a vertical resolution, then reframe the clip inside that canvas.
• For a landscape deliverable: keep the landscape timeline and decide whether to accept side space, enlarge and crop the tall image, or build a background treatment.
• For a deliberately tilted shot: increase Zoom only enough to hide exposed corners, then adjust Position to protect the subject.
• For a split layout: leave the extra canvas available and place another image, color, or graphic below the rotated clip.

Zoom always trades field of view for coverage. A 90-degree source placed in the wrong canvas may need a big enlargement, which throws away much of the image and can expose softness. Set the timeline shape first. Then use the smallest Zoom that serves the composition.

Use Crop to hide a specific edge or build a layout. Don't reach for it as the first repair for a wrong timeline shape. Settle the rotation and the canvas, then use the Cropping controls, including Softness and Retain Image Position, for the edge work.

Vertical Video Usually Does Not Need Rotation

An upright portrait clip can look narrow on a 16:9 timeline and still be correctly oriented. Rotate it 90 degrees and the subject ends up sideways. The real task is to create a 9:16 timeline, or whatever portrait canvas the platform requires, and choose how source clips scale inside it.

1. Duplicate the timeline if you need to preserve the landscape version.
2. Open timeline settings and set the required vertical resolution.
3. Review image-scaling behavior for clips whose shape differs from the timeline.
4. Reframe each shot with Zoom and Position. A blanket rotation won't help here.
5. Check graphics, subtitles, logos, and safe margins in the vertical canvas.

The exact pixel dimensions depend on the destination. The relationship stays the same: timeline resolution defines the canvas, and clip transforms decide how each source sits inside it. The resolution and aspect-ratio guide covers that workflow in detail.

Animate Rotation with Keyframes

Rotation Angle has a keyframe diamond in the Inspector. Two angle values on two different frames give you a turn between them.

1. Select the clip and move the playhead to the first frame of the motion.
2. Set the starting Rotation Angle.
3. Click the diamond beside Rotation Angle to store the first keyframe.
4. Move the playhead to the end of the motion.
5. Enter the ending angle. Resolve stores the second value.
6. Play the motion and adjust timing before adding more points.

A complete revolution runs from 0 to 360, and -360 reaches the same visible endpoint going the other way. For a short turn into place, start off-angle and finish at 0, so the resting state is easy to read and reset.

Watch the corners during the move. A clip that fills the canvas at 0 degrees can show empty triangles halfway through the rotation. Increase Zoom enough to cover the worst point, animate Zoom along with the rotation, or design the empty area into the composition. One fixed Zoom is simpler. Animated Zoom keeps more of the image before and after the turn.

If the turn starts too abruptly or stops like a machine, use the timeline keyframe or curve controls. The keyframes and Curve Editor guide covers point timing and easing. Keep your first attempt to two keyframes. Every extra point makes the motion harder to diagnose.

Rotate Several Clips Without Creating a Mess

If several files from the same camera were recorded with the same wrong orientation, correct each source through Clip Attributes before you build the edit. Later timeline work stays consistent that way. Select several clips at once only after you've confirmed they all need the same correction.

For timeline-level rotations, set one instance correctly, copy it, select the destination clips and use Paste Attributes. Transfer Transform only when the destinations should get the same Rotation Angle, Zoom, Position, Anchor Point and related transform values.

Paste Attributes is efficient but literal. A portrait phone clip and a landscape camera clip can get identical numbers and end up framed completely differently. Inspect every destination after the paste. If the clips only share a wrong orientation, Clip Attributes is often cleaner than copying an entire Transform block.

An adjustment clip can rotate everything below it for as long as it runs, which is handy for a deliberate sequence effect. It's the wrong repair for one sideways source, because it also turns titles, overlays and correctly oriented footage on the tracks beneath it. Fix the lowest level that's actually wrong.

Fix Common Rotation Problems

Rotation Angle is missing

Select a video item on the timeline, open the Inspector, choose Video and expand Transform. An audio-only clip, transition, title, generator, timeline or effect can expose different controls. Check that the selected item is the picture you mean to rotate. An item on the track above or below is easy to grab by mistake.

The clip turns around a strange point

Check Anchor Point in Transform and reset it to the center before you adjust Position. A moved anchor is great for a door-like swing or a graphic pivot. In an ordinary orientation correction it only gets in the way.

Black corners appear during a tilt or spin

The rotated rectangle no longer covers the entire canvas. Increase Zoom, animate Zoom through the turn, place a background beneath the clip, or accept the corners as part of the design. Cropping won't create coverage. It only removes more of the image.

The image looks soft after rotation

Rotation itself can require interpolation, and a large Zoom magnifies the source. Before you judge the final output, check the original resolution, timeline resolution, proxy or optimized-media state and Viewer quality. If the softness comes from severe enlargement, sharpening a heavily scaled clip won't save it. The durable fix is a better composition or a higher-resolution source.

One copy is upright and another is sideways

Look at where the correction was applied. Clip Attributes belongs to the Media Pool source and can influence every use. Inspector Rotation Angle belongs to one timeline instance. Reset the Transform rotation you didn't intend, or move the correction to the level that matches what you meant.

The Viewer is upright but the exported file is sideways

Render a short section first and open the actual file in more than one normal player. Then check the timeline item for Rotation Angle, the source for Image Orientation, and the Deliver page for the expected resolution and scaling. Files from phones and cameras can carry orientation metadata, and different ingest or playback paths may interpret it differently. A baked timeline transform is usually more predictable than hoping a player honors metadata.

If only one player shows the file sideways while the others show it correctly, the export may contain orientation information that player handles its own way. If every player shows the same wrong result, go back to the project and correct the source or the timeline transform. Don't stack a second 90-degree fix until you know which layer supplied the first one.

The clip is upright but the timeline is the wrong shape

Leave rotation alone. Change the timeline resolution and mismatch scaling, then reframe the clip. You'll see this a lot when an upright phone recording lands in a landscape edit, or a landscape sequence gets repurposed for a vertical platform.

Reset the Smallest Wrong Setting

Transform has its own reset control, and individual parameters can go back to their defaults. Use the smallest reset that solves the problem. Resetting the entire Inspector can wipe Position, Zoom, Anchor Point, keyframes, Composite settings, cropping, stabilization and other deliberate work.

When a clip carries several transforms you can't explain, diagnose it in this order:

1. Check source Image Orientation in Clip Attributes.
2. Check Rotation Angle and Anchor Point in Transform.
3. Check Zoom and Position.
4. Check Crop and Dynamic Zoom.
5. Check effects or adjustment clips above the shot.
6. Check timeline resolution, mismatch scaling, and Deliver resolution.

That order follows the image from source interpretation through clip-level work to the timeline and output. It's faster than piling on compensating changes until the Viewer happens to look right.

Rotation Check Before Export

• Confirm whether the job was source correction, creative rotation, or a new timeline shape.
• Check every reuse of a source changed through Clip Attributes.
• Play the whole clip and inspect all four edges.
• Check the midpoint of every animated turn for exposed corners.
• Review Zoom at the final delivery resolution.
• Verify logos, titles, subtitles, and adjustment clips above the footage.
• Render a short proof and open the file outside Resolve.
• Inspect both landscape and vertical timelines separately when you maintain multiple versions.

The reliable workflow comes down to three jobs: fix orientation at the source when the file is wrong, use Rotation Angle when the composition needs a turn, and set the timeline shape for the delivery. Keep those jobs separate, and black bars, strange pivots and sideways exports become much easier to trace.

Jason Miller I run DaVinci Resolve Club as an independent publication: hands-on edits, color grading breakdowns, Fairlight sessions, Fusion tests, and honest notes on where Resolve gets in the way.