Rotoscoping in DaVinci Resolve Fusion comes down to one job: animating one or more mask shapes so they isolate a subject over time. My approach is to split the subject by independent motion into overlapping Polygon, B-Spline or MultiPoly shapes, set a clean reference pose, build the end and middle poses, and only then add keys where interpolation drifts off the edge. Start with sparse control points and a few key poses. Add shapes for independent motion and more keys only where the silhouette stops following the plate.
Choose the right rotoscoping method
| Method | Best use | Main limitation |
|---|---|---|
| Polygon | Hard or mixed edges that need direct Bézier control | Too many points and handles become slow to animate |
| B-Spline | Smooth organic curves with fewer control points | The curve is influenced by points rather than passing directly through each one |
| MultiPoly | Several named shapes for body parts or a complex holdout inside one node | Shape animation must be enabled before keyframing |
| Tracked or stabilized roto | Removing broad camera or rigid-object motion before manual shape work | Tracking does not understand anatomy or changing occlusion |
| Magic Mask | A fast AI-assisted first matte for a recognizable person or object | Studio-only and still needs edge, occlusion, and temporal QA |
I'd reach for a keyer first when the problem is hair, transparency or fine edge detail and the plate has usable color separation; the Delta Keyer guide walks through pulling and refining that key. Roto shapes earn their place on solid cores, unwanted regions, foreground occluders and edges you can define reliably by eye.
Every name and control in this workflow matches Resolve 21.1. Blackmagic's Fusion overview still describes the Bézier and B-Spline roto workflow, and the DaVinci Resolve 21.1 Reference Manual documents the mask inputs, alpha behavior, animation, MultiPoly, Roto Assist and softness controls used below.
Plan the matte before drawing
Watch the whole shot before you draw a single point, and note what changes: frame entry and exit, pose reversals, hands crossing the torso, motion blur, hair movement and foreground occlusions. Decide what the matte is for, too. A rough local color correction can live with a looser edge than a subject cutout dropped over a bright, contrasting background.
Pick a reference frame where the pose reads clearly and the important edges are sharp. Then divide the subject by independent motion:
- head and neck;
- torso or coat body;
- upper arm and forearm;
- the hand, when its silhouette matters;
- upper leg and lower leg;
- props, loose clothing or hair, each treated as its own problem area.
Let neighboring shapes overlap slightly around the joints. A small, controlled overlap is far easier to live with than a one-pixel gap that opens between an upper arm and the torso halfway through the shot. Name every shape before the shot gets crowded; you'll thank yourself at frame 200.
Manual rotoscoping step by step
1. Add the mask where it can do the intended job
Before drawing, figure out which input you're feeding. It matters. A blue Effect Mask on most Fusion tools limits that tool's result to the masked area. A mask connected directly to a MediaIn or Loader input can instead add an alpha channel; Blackmagic suggests drawing the closed shape while the mask is still disconnected, then connecting it.
For an explicit roto-to-alpha branch, connect the source image to the MatteControl Background input and the Polygon to its gray Garbage Matte input. A garbage matte removes its white region, so if you drew around the subject you want to keep, enable Garbage Matte > Invert in MatteControl and confirm the subject is white in the output alpha. The white Solid Matte input does something else entirely: it fills alpha holes rather than cutting away the outside.
Feed that image into a Merge node's green Foreground input, put the replacement plate on the yellow Background input, and run Merge into MediaOut. Masking the Merge's blue Effect Mask only limits that merge; it won't create a reusable alpha on the upstream source. Post-Multiply Image is on by default in MatteControl, which suits a premultiplied Merge, so leave it on and avoid stacking a second alpha multiply on a branch that's already premultiplied.
That input distinction is why an animated outline can seem to do nothing, blank the whole image, limit only one effect, or produce a strangely small alpha. Before rebuilding the shape, load the affected node in a viewer, check which input the mask is wired to, and view the matte as white foreground over black.
2. Draw with the fewest points that hold the silhouette
Put points where the silhouette changes direction: jaw corner, shoulder, elbow, wrist, knee, heel. Let curve handles or B-Spline influence carry the smooth stretches in between. Spacing points at even intervals just because you can adds controls the curve never asked for, and every unnecessary point is one more thing that can chatter between frames.
Keep each point riding the same feature from pose to pose, and never let the spline cross itself. Adding a point fits it into every existing shape keyframe; deleting one removes it from all of them, so review the whole animation after any change to point count. On soft organic areas, a B-Spline describes a smooth arc with fewer points. On a hard prop or a sharp clothing corner, Polygon gives you more direct control.
Resolve 21 also includes Roto Assist, which snaps newly drawn points to the nearest high-contrast edge and marks them with a cyan outline. Multiple Points adds several points along an edge in one click, Distance sets the pixel range for the edge search, and Reset clears the snap attribute, after which those points are no longer available for tracking.
It's drawing help, not an automatic finished matte. You still own the point count, the edge it picked, and every interpolated pose.
Roto is constant viewer navigation and frame stepping. Set up the commands you really use, such as full-frame view, next/previous key and tool search, before a long shot; the Resolve keyboard shortcuts guide explains how to check and customize them without wiping an existing layout.
3. Build key poses with divide and conquer
Close the shape by clicking its first point on the reference frame. Keep Solid enabled so you get a filled mask, not an outline. Polygon and B-Spline control points auto-animate by default: move to another frame, adjust the points, and Fusion creates a new shape keyframe. Center and rotation are the exception. They don't auto-animate, so enable their Inspector keyframes separately if you use those controls. Move to the end of the range you need and fit the silhouette, then jump to the midpoint and correct it there.
Play both halves. Add another key only in the half that fails, then repeat the split. The 21.1 manual's section on animating polyline masks confirms that Polygon and B-Spline control points auto-animate and that the shape interpolates between keyframes once you have two or more.
4. Add keys at changes, not every frame
Good keyframes tend to land on a change of direction, a pose extreme, a silhouette change, an occlusion boundary, or the start and end of heavy blur. If interpolation already follows the edge, leave that stretch alone. I wouldn't key every frame: it usually produces tiny inconsistent corrections, and playback shows them as edge vibration.
5. Review the matte, then the composite
Check the result as white foreground over black first; holes, gaps and temporal chatter jump out that way. Then put it over the real destination background, because a matte that looks clean in isolation can still show a dark halo over white or a bright fringe over black.
Use MultiPoly for complex subjects
MultiPoly stores several independent, named shapes inside one node. That makes it a good fit for a person, a creature, a vehicle or any holdout that would otherwise turn into a tangle of separate mask nodes. Create one shape per independently moving part and choose its combine behavior on purpose.
Important: MultiPoly doesn't switch on shape animation automatically the way Polygon and B-Spline masks do. Click the animation diamond next to Right-click here for shape animation at the bottom of the Inspector, or right-click that label and choose Animate, before you change any shape over time.
If the animation diamond, combine controls or per-shape settings seem to be missing, select MultiPoly and reopen the Inspector. Don't redraw the mask. The DaVinci Resolve Inspector guide covers panel state and finding controls across pages.
On the rough pass, fit the main masses with as few points as possible. Select each shape and confirm that an edit on a second frame creates its own keyframe before you go further into the shot. Modify Only lets you move existing points without accidentally adding new ones. It still allows deletion, though, so check earlier keys if you remove a point.
Track broad motion before detailed roto
When the subject or camera translates, rotates or scales and local deformation stays modest, track the broad motion first. Track a rigid feature or plane, remove its motion, animate the roto on that steadied image, then put the original motion back on the matte. In the Planar Tracker, Steady mode is the one Blackmagic describes for this: it locks off the tracked surface for paint or roto work, and a second Planar Tracker set to Invert Steady Transform adds the motion back. Stabilize only smooths camera movement, so it isn't a substitute.
This won't rescue every shot. It works when the tracking data describes the same rigid motion as the body part or object you're isolating; a tracker sitting on the torso can't animate a swinging forearm. Let tracking carry the base movement and use manual keys for deformation.
Keep the inverse transform and the re-applied transform paired. If the mask or image picks up both the tracked motion and a second Planar Transform, it can drift or move twice. The steady-then-unsteady pair also resamples the image twice, which can soften it slightly. The Fusion tracking guide covers reference frames, Planar Transform, occlusion masks and drift checks in more depth.
Handle occlusion as layers
When a hand crosses the torso, don't make one torso outline describe both depths. Keep the torso matte stable and animate the hand as its own foreground shape. If you're combining separate takes of the same performer, the clone-effect workflow covers shooting and compositing those takes; the roto here only supplies the matte.
When a subject passes behind a pole, build a separate holdout matte for the pole and use it to remove that foreground region from the subject result. The pole has to stay visually in front, and renaming a mask or changing its color won't change the composite order.
If the tracked feature disappears, stop at its last reliable frame. Don't accept drift. Track the visible sections separately, or switch to another feature that shares the same rigid motion, then keyframe the transition and inspect the join. An occlusion mask can keep an obstruction out of a planar track, but it can't recover a surface that's completely hidden.
With Studio, Magic Mask can give you a fast first pass on a recognizable subject. I'd still keep manual shapes for corrections and hard holdouts. One good first frame doesn't make an AI matte finished.
Refine edges only after motion is stable
Soft Edge
Match the plate's focus and edge contrast. A sharp prop may need almost no softness, while defocused clothing needs more, and heavy global feather is how halos and lost detail creep in. For local softness, click Double Polyline in the toolbar or right-click in the viewer and choose Make Outer Polyline. Press Tab until the dashed outer contour is selected, then pull out only the segments that need a wider falloff. Work on the outer contour, not the inner subject outline; outer points are parented to their inner partners, so edits to the inner shape carry over, but outer edits leave the inner shape alone.
Motion blur
A moving hand can carry a blurred edge while the torso stays sharp. Fit the matte to the photographed boundary and use the outer polyline where a local falloff is enough. A mask animated in Fusion also has Motion Blur, Quality and Shutter Angle controls on its Settings tab. Motion Blur samples the mask's own animated movement, so it can't recover detail the footage never had. Raise Quality only when the blur needs smoother sampling, and judge Shutter Angle against the plate; don't assume one value fits every shot.
If a separate element is match-moved, take its motion blur from the transform that drives that element, then compare direction and length with the plate.
Combine modes
For chained masks, Merge is the default Paint Mode, and Maximum keeps the higher mask value where shapes overlap. Add sums the values and can make overlapping soft edges more opaque, so it's not a drop-in replacement for the default. Use Subtract for holes or excluded regions, and inspect the combined matte afterward. MultiPoly also gives each shape its own combine controls, and names like Torso, Arm_FG and Coat_Hole make it obvious which shape needs fixing.
Hair and transparency
Roto the solid core of the head and shoulders. Keep flyaway hair with a keyer, Magic Mask or a separate edge matte whenever you can. Drawing individual strands is slow and almost never holds up over time.
Resolve Free vs Studio for rotoscoping
Resolve Free includes the manual masks, keyframing, conventional point tracker and Planar Tracker this workflow uses, so you can draw, animate and combine these mattes without Studio. That doesn't make every Fusion tracking tool free: the 3D Camera Tracker is a separate Studio feature, and nothing here depends on it.
Magic Mask requires DaVinci Resolve Studio, and Blackmagic's Studio 21 feature list lists it alongside the Fusion camera tracker as Studio-only. It can cut first-pass labor on people and recognizable objects, but you still have to check every cut, edge, occlusion and motion-blurred frame. The Fusion hub shows where this manual roto workflow sits inside a complete node-based composite.
Rotoscoping troubleshooting
The edge chatters
Strip out unnecessary points and keyframes. Go back to the first frame where the edge really deviates, fix that pose, and let interpolation carry more of the shot. Judge it at normal speed, and don't chase harmless single-frame texture.
A limb disappears or a gap opens
Give the limb its own shape and overlap it slightly with the torso or the neighboring segment. Then check that shape's combine mode, animation state and active frame range.
The MultiPoly shape does not animate
Turn on the shape-animation diamond at the bottom of the Inspector. Then build distinct poses on different frames and make sure key indicators appear.
The mask is tiny or offset
Compare the source and mask image dimensions, pixel aspect ratio, Domain of Definition, and any Transform, resize or tracking step between them. Show the same reference frame on both branches. A matte built on a steadied image has to get the matching motion back exactly once before it's applied to the original moving plate.
The matte works in Fusion but fails after an edit
Check the clip's Global In/Out, source timing, retime and the Fusion composition range. A slip, a trim, or a mask copied onto a clip with a different resolution can pull existing shape keys away from the frames they were meant for.
Final roto QA checklist
- Scrub the matte in black and white for holes and shape pops.
- Watch the full shot at normal speed for chatter.
- Check every occlusion, frame entry, frame exit and direction change.
- Inspect hard, soft, blurred and transparent edges against the final background.
- Confirm the matte is wired to the intended node or alpha operation.
- Render a short test and look at it outside the interactive Fusion viewer.
Roto clicks faster once node and tracking basics are in place; the DaVinci Resolve tutorial roadmap lays those Fusion skills out in a sensible order.
Rotoscoping in Fusion FAQ
What is rotoscoping in DaVinci Resolve?
Rotoscoping is animating masks or mattes over time to isolate a subject for compositing, correction, removal, replacement or foreground holdout work.
Should I use Polygon, B-Spline, or MultiPoly?
Use Polygon for direct Bézier control, B-Spline for smooth organic curves with fewer points, and MultiPoly when one complex subject needs several named, independent shapes inside a single node.
How many mask points should I use?
Use the fewest points that describe real changes in curvature. Put them at joints and silhouette corners, and let the curves handle the sections in between.
Do I need to keyframe every frame?
No. Build start, end and middle poses, then add keys only where interpolation fails. Every-frame corrections make sense only for genuinely unpredictable motion or a short, difficult section.
Can I rotoscope in DaVinci Resolve Free?
Yes. Resolve Free includes the core manual masks, MultiPoly, keyframing and the tracking tools rotoscoping needs. Magic Mask and the 3D Camera Tracker require Studio.
Why does a Polygon mask not make the background transparent?
A blue Effect Mask on most Fusion tools only limits that tool's effect. A mask connected directly to MediaIn or Loader can add alpha, while MatteControl gives you an explicit branch for combining or inverting mattes. Check the node and input type before you rebuild the shape.
