Shreedhar's VFX-001 course work. Lv 2

Shreedhar's VFX Level 2 Report

27 / 4 / 2025

I am happy to continue my learning. Colour and fusion page which gives life to the video as it is the element that grabs the people attention.

Introduction

In modern video post-production, two essential pillars define the final output: Color Correction and Visual Compositing.

While color correction ensures visual consistency, emotional tone, and professionalism, Fusion enables powerful visual effects (VFX), motion graphics, and advanced compositing through a flexible node-based workflow.

Part 1: Color Correction and Grading in the Color Page

Key Tools in the Color Page

Beyond Primary Wheels, there are several other tools to fine-tune visuals:

• LUTs (Look-Up Tables):

When the video is extracted ,the colour in the video is not distributed evenly so luts are used to give an uniform colour through out video ,These are like filters which we use in our mobile phones.

• Primary Wheels

The Primary Wheels are the foundation of any color correction work. Each wheel adjusts different parts of the tonal range:

• Lift:

Controls the shadows and dark tones. Useful for setting true black levels.

• Gamma:

Adjusts midtones, affecting natural skin colors and the overall "body" of the image.

• Gain:

Enhances or reduces highlights and bright areas.

• Offset:

Applies a uniform adjustment across shadows, midtones, and highlights together. Useful for global tweaks.

Purpose: Primary Wheels help balance exposure, remove unwanted color casts, and establish the right emotional tone for each shot.

• Lightbox:

Displays all clips in a grid view, allowing easy navigation across multiple shots during color grading.

• Curves:

Provide fine-grained control over contrast and color. We can adjust specific tonal ranges precisely using customizable curve points.

• Color Slice:

Isolates and adjusts particular hues in the image (e.g., making the sky bluer without affecting other areas).

• Color Warper:

A powerful tool that allows multidimensional adjustment of colors in a 3D mesh, perfect for creating subtle and natural shifts.

• Qualifier 3D:

Enables precise selection of areas based on color, saturation, and luminance. Often used for skin tone corrections or sky replacements.

• Mask and Tracker:

Masks isolate parts of a frame for selective color work, while trackers allow these masks to follow movement automatically throughout the clip.

Steps for Colour Grading

1. Using LUTs to give specific colour look.
2. Balancing blacks using Lift adjustments.
3. Correcting midtones naturally through Gamma.
4. Enhancing highlights cleanly with Gain.
5. Applying global tone changes via Offset.
6. Fine-tuning using Curves and Color Warper.
7. Isolating corrections with Masks and Qualifiers

My Work

I downloaded the raw footage from YouTube and performed color grading using the Color Wheels, Color Warper, and Color Curves in DaVinci Resolve. This final output reflects the refined visual tone and mood achieved through the grading process.

The Final Video

Part 2: Fusion Page

The Fusion page works differently compared to the Edit or Color pages.

Instead of layer stacks, Fusion uses a node-based system where each node performs a specific task. Nodes connect like a flowchart, giving extreme flexibility and control.

Essential Fusion Nodes:

• MediaIn Node:

Brings a clip or asset from the Edit page into Fusion for processing.

• Background Node:

Creates solid color or gradient backgrounds, often serving as a starting layer for titles or VFX.

• Transform Node:

Handles scaling, rotation, and movement of elements inside Fusion.

• Merge Node:

Combines two or more media streams together (foreground over background).

• MediaOut Node:

Outputs the final visual composition back to the Edit page timeline.

• Fusion Composition:

A blank composition that allows building from scratch without a source clip — perfect for making custom titles, overlays, or motion graphics.

Basic Node Flow

If editing an imported clip:

MediaIn → (Effects / Background / Graphics) → MediaOut

If creating from scratch:

Background → (Text / Effects / Transformations) → MediaOut

Steps

1. Added the video clip to the timeline .
2. Right cliking on the timeline and selecting open in fusion page
3. Added the motion tracker and transform for adjustment of position .
4. Combine everything through a Merge Node.
5. Connect to MediaOut to finalize for rendering.

My Work

I started by importing two raw footage clips from social media onto the Media page. After extraction, I dragged them onto the Timeline. Next, I moved to the Fusion page, where I added a Motion Tracker to track the movement , and then used a Transform node to adjust the globe's position as needed. For additional effects, I added keyframes and applied color changes, allowing the video to gradually shift through different colors as it played.

These are the raw footages and Here is the final output

Conclusion

Using Primary Wheels, LUTs, Curves, Color Slices, and the Color Warper inside the Color Page brings life and mood to the footage, while Fusion’s node-based architecture allows creating cinematic visual effects with complete control.

As we explore DaVinci Resolve’s Color and Fusion pages more deeply, the process moves beyond fixing technical flaws and becomes a powerful tool for enhancing storytelling and adding artistic impact.