DaVinci Resolve 21 Beta 2 lands with Photo Page improvements and more

Blackmagic's second beta for DaVinci Resolve 21 arrives less than a month after launch, tightening up photo tools, IntelliSearch, and Fusion's color font rendering.

Not even a month after being first announced, the first round of improvements and bug fixes for the DaVinci Resolve 21 public beta have been released. Most of the new features are oriented towards bug-squashing, as you would expect at this point in the development cycle. This includes more consistent crop, flip and rotate actions for still images, along with improved handling of crop resolution metadata. It also adds the ability to export stills using original file names, improved decoding support for RAF and 12-bit NEF images and improved default ease profiles for retime curves.

DaVinci Resolve Studio Beta 2 has some specifics for its own workflows, and adds speed and quality improvements for IntelliSearch analysis and foveated rendering controls for Apple Vision Pro workflows.

Meanwhile, the Fusion Studio 21 public beta now features better color font and emoji rendering, improved default node positioning, as well as Macro Editor and OGraf improvements. There are also improvements to 3D rendering and super sampling for Cryptomatte.

You know the drill by now: all downloads are available for free from Blackmagic Support. 

Everything in DaVinci Resolve 21

As a reminder, this is the full and lengthy list of what has been added or updated in DaVinci Resolve 21. Fusion Studio 21 is further down

Photo Page

• New photo image editing now fully integrated within DaVinci Resolve.
• Image library with tagging, favorites, ratings and album collections.
• Albums let you build, manage and tweak photos at source resolution.
• Native RAW support for major camera formats.
• Import media from Apple Photos on macOS.
• Import Lightroom Catalog files into the media pool.
• Use Resolve multi-user collaboration and Blackmagic Cloud syncing.
• Support for DaVinci color control toolset and grading panels.
• Looks, LUTs, ResolveFX and OpenFX for your images.
• GPU accelerated batch exports and conversions.

Cut and Edit Page

• Keyframing provides powerful retime controls with 4-point bezier.
• Keyframe and add curves for multiple selected clips.
• Keyframing ease options, loop, ping pong, reverse and stretch.
• Keyframe Fusion effects, generators and text along with edit effects.
• Subframe support for keyframing and markers.
• Native support for OGraf HTML graphics.
• Native support for Lottie animations.
• Resolve FX Picture in Picture effect.
• Font browser window for text and subtitle elements.
• Preview fonts during font selection as a preference.
• Spell checking for all text elements.
• Emoji and color fonts for Text+ and MultiText.
• Multicam angle previews in clean feed and video outputs.
• Multicams can include all audio tracks for each angle.
• Multicams can use full clip extents on creation and during sync.
• Replay control to limit view to the last 5 minutes of recorded media.
• Replay editor allows timeline selection from search dial.
• Replay now allows independent start and end stingers.
• Replay title palette allows up to 6 favorite titles.
• Mono audio now plays on left and right channels of stereo tracks.
• Improved waveforms, markers and fades for short edit tracks.
• Source timelines support auto track selectors.
• DRT timeline import supports link and conform options.
• Compare timelines with timeline backup snapshots.
• Subtitle inspector now supports search and replace.
• Edit page lets you show or hide tracks from the index.
• Support for editing EDL clip name in the edit index.
• Affinity .af file support with group and individual layer control.
• Edit page timecode options for frames, subframes or audio samples.
• Duration timecode option to show duration for clip selection.
• Improved timeline view options with presets and clip name option.
• View remote color versions in the source viewer.
• Local color grade versions use remote grades on new clip creation.
• Timeline menu action to select transitions in the cut and edit page.
• Paste and remove attributes for clip color, markers and flags.
• Paste and remove attributes to retain image position under crop.
• Switch audio channels for multi-clip selections via the context menu.
• Edit page source tape includes multicam clips.
• Match frame finds source media for nested clips and multicams.
• Resolve FX Video Collage with separate tile fill and border controls.
• Subtitle support for fade in and out.

Media Pool and Metadata

• Support for tabbed layouts.
• Thumbnail, list and metadata views can be set for each bin.
• Star rating support for clips.
• Cut page supports smart bin views.
• Export media bin thumbnails as a PDF.
• Automatic smart bin and clip filter for offline clips.
• Custom metadata for smart bins, filters, data burn and naming tags.
• Customize your project poster frames.
• Show input colorspace and gamma in metadata view.
• Transcription column support in list view.
• Custom keyboard shortcuts to set thumbnail, list or metadata views.
• Ability to reset audio clip attributes to the original configuration.

Color Page

• Clip groups now support grade versions.
• Node graphs can now be viewed as a layer list.
• Node stacks now support up to 8 layers.
• Customizable HDR and nit scopes ranges.
• ACES AMF improvements, with transform name and custom folders.
• Adobe RGB colorspace and gamma support.
• OpenFX 1.5 color management APIs for colorspace aware effects.
• Advanced panel controls for 2.39 and 2.4 safe area aspect ratios.
• Multi-user projects can bypass color management on the color page.
• Pasting tracking data between power windows retains original shape.

Fairlight Page

• Folder tracks allow a group of tracks to be folded down or expanded.
• Go to mouse pointer support using the C key.

Fusion Page

• Support for Krokodove motion graphics effects.
• Over 100 new motion graphics effects and tools.
• New Macro Editor with inspector view and publishing to edit effects.
• Fusion animation can be creatively driven by Fairlight audio.
• Native support for OGraf HTML graphics.
• Native support for Lottie animations.
• Text+ and MultiText support spell checking.
• Font improvements include emoji, color fonts and more.
• Improved MultiText for position, pivot, alignment and CSV import.
• Support for USD SDK 25.11 with Hydra 2.0 API for Storm renderer.
• USD support for 3D matte objects and textures.
• Support for USD Texture Projector and Catcher.
• Global in-out controls for USD Loader.
• Native support for creating Relief Maps.
• Change inspector properties for multi-tool selections.
• Change common inspector values in all selected multi-tool layers.
• User defined metadata variables in paths, expressions and scripts.
• Lens Distort offers checkerboard calibration and GPU acceleration.
• Guides and rulers persistence, presets and improved snapping.
• MediaIn nodes show clip name.
• Open keyframes and spline as a new window.

Codecs and I/O

• Enhanced MXF growing file support for broadcast workflows.
• MXF OP1A support for MPEG2 bitrate and other encode options.
• Canon CR3 RAW decode support.
• Fujifilm RAF RAW decode support.
• Apple ProRAW decode support.
• Support for compressed ARW from Sony A7V and newer cameras.
• Improved Nikon NEF RAW decode support.
• HDR decode support for HEIC, JPEG, PNG and TIFF images.
• HEIC encode support on macOS and Windows.
• HDR encode support for HEIC, JPEG, PNG and TIFF images.
• Improved EXIF metadata support for stills formats.
• Intel QuickSync AV1 4:4:4 decode and encode support.
• Windows ARM H.265 10-bit 4:2:2 decode support.
• Per render job option to override RCM or ACES outputs.

General Improvements

• Powerful, expanded and flexible data burn-in window.
• Preferences and project settings can now be searched.
• Multi-user projects support dynamic project switching.
• Up to 3x faster file sync performance to Blackmagic Cloud.
• General performance and stability improvements.

What's new in Fusion Studio 21

The following features have been added or updated.

• Improved default node positioning for imported and generated nodes.
• 3D Software Renderer can now output Cryptomatte.
• Addressed 3D renderer Cryptomatte output issue with no multisampling.
• Addressed 3D renderer Cryptomatte output issue with supersampling.
• Addressed issue clearing selected layer in Cryptomatte downstream of 3D renderer.
• Addressed multiple issues with shadows in 3D setups.
• Addressed point cloud issues with view fitting and semi-transparent materials.
• Addressed incorrect lighting after copy and paste of viewed USD scene.
• Addressed issue with Macro Editor control page order.
• Macro Editor now saves current nest expansion state.
• Addressed issue with Macro Editor ordering for multi-input controls.
• Addressed issues when resetting Loader, uLoader, OGrafLoader or Saver.
• Addressed issues viewing individual color channels with some subview setups.
• Addressed issue showing MultiText import CSV dialog.
• Addressed potential phantom layers when combining MultiText or MultiPoly layers.
• Addressed font browser issue with non-English application language.
• Addressed issue with saving gradient parameters.
• Addressed issue using metadata variables in generator tools.
• Addressed focus issue on emoji input in Text+ or MultiText on Mac.
• General performance and stability improvements.