Concepts

In the Cut page, the first track will never leave a gap after a Resize operation or deleting a clip. The gap will be automatically filled by moving the rest of clips.

Trimming

Trim tools are automatically selected depending where you click and drag your mouse on the timeline’s edit points. 

• Roll: click the mouse in the middle of the edit points between to clips. 

• Ripple: click and drag to the right of the edit to trim the in point of the destination clip. Click and drag your mouse to the left of the edit to trim the out point of the source clip. 

• Slip: click the mouse in the upper half of the video track of a clip and drag to left or right. 

• Slide: click the mouse in the bottom half of the video track of a clip and drag to left or right.

• Resize: Shortens or lengthens the end of an outgoing clip or the beginning of an incoming clip, while either overwriting a neighboring clip or leaving a gap behind as necessary. While this isn’t usually included in a discussion of “trim” operations, it’s actually the simplest kind of trimming you can do.

• Roll: Moves an edit point to the left or right by either shortening the outgoing clip while lengthening the incoming clip, or vice versa. Roll edits do not change the duration of the overall Timeline.

• Ripple: Shortens or lengthens the end of an outgoing clip or the beginning of an incoming clip, while simultaneously moving all clips either to the right in the Timeline (if you’re rippling to lengthen a clip) or left in the Timeline (if you’re rippling to shorten a clip) to fill the gap or prevent overwriting that would otherwise occur if you were doing a resize operation. Ripple edits do change the duration of the overall Timeline and can alter the sync relation between different tracks if you’re not careful.

• Slip: Keeps a clip in the same place in the Timeline, while changing the range of media that appears in that spot. Slip edits do not change the duration of the overall Timeline.

• Slide : Keeps a clip’s range of media the same, but moves that clip to the left or right by either shortening the outgoing clip to its left while lengthening the incoming clip to its right, or vice versa.

Three and Four Points Editing

• Insert: Shortens or lengthens the end of an outgoing clip or the beginning of an incoming clip, while either overwriting a neighboring clip or leaving a gap behind as necessary. While this isn’t usually included in a discussion of “trim” operations, it’s actually the simplest kind of trimming you can do.

• Overwrite: Shortens or lengthens the end of an outgoing clip or the beginning of an incoming clip, while simultaneously moving all clips either to the right in the Timeline (if you’re rippling to lengthen a clip) or left in the Timeline (if you’re rippling to shorten a clip) to fill the gap or prevent overwriting that would otherwise occur if you were doing a resize operation. Ripple edits do change the duration of the overall Timeline and can alter the sync relation between different tracks if you’re not careful.

• Replace:

• Place on Top: Keeps a clip in the same place in the Timeline, while changing the range of media that appears in that spot. Slip edits do not change the duration of the overall Timeline.

• Ripple Overwrite : Keeps a clip’s range of media the same, but moves that clip to the left or right by either shortening the outgoing clip to its left while lengthening the incoming clip to its right, or vice versa.

• Fit to Fill: it’s the only edit type that retimes clips at the same time as they’re being edited. It's the only edit type using the four point editing.

• Append: Moves an edit point to the left or right by either shortening the outgoing clip while lengthening the incoming clip, or vice versa. Roll edits do not change the duration of the overall Timeline.

Insert

An insert edit splits whatever media is already in the Timeline at the position of the playhead, and pushes that media to the right to make room for the incoming clip.

Insert edits have the effect of rippling almost all clips in the Timeline that are to the right of the insert edit point you’re making, pushing them farther to the right by the duration of the incoming source clip. However, clips in any tracks of the Timeline that overlap to the left of the insert edit point aren’t rippled, and remain in place.

For example, if you’re insert editing a clip into the middle of a sequence of clips in track V1 and A1 of the Timeline, and there’s also a clip of music edited into track A2 that overlaps well to the left of the insert edit point, the music clip remains where it is, but the other clips on track V1 and A1 that are to the right of your edit point on are pushed to the right.

To insert edit one or more clips into the Timeline:

1. Move the playhead to the frame of the Timeline where you want to insert a clip.

2. Click the appropriate audio and video destination controls of the tracks you want to edit the incoming source clip onto. If necessary, create new tracks.

3. If necessary, set In and Out points in the clip or clips you want to insert edit into the Timeline using the controls of the Media Pool or the Source Viewer.

4. Do one of the following:

• Select one or more clips in the Media Pool, right-click one of the selected clips, and choose “Insert Selected Clips to Timeline.”

• Choose Edit > Insert, click the Insert Edit button in the toolbar, press the F9 key, or drag any clip onto the Insert overlay in the Timeline Viewer.

The selected clips are insert edited to the selected track at the position of the playhead, pushing all other media in the destination track back by the total duration of the selected clips, except for clips on other tracks that overlap to the left of the edit point (as seen by the overlapping music clip in the example below).

Overwrite

The most common type of edit you’ll make, an overwrite edit eliminates whatever media was in the Timeline previously with the incoming source clip taking the place of whatever was there. Overwrite edits are commonly used when initially assembling clips, or doing three-point editing.

Overwrite edits do not ripple the Timeline.

To overwrite one or more clips in the Timeline:

1. Move the playhead to the frame of the Timeline where you want to insert a clip.

2. Click the appropriate audio and video destination controls of the tracks you want to edit the incoming source clip onto. If necessary, create new tracks.

3. Select a single clip in the Media Pool to open it into the Source Viewer, then set In and Out points to define the range of media you want to insert.

4. To make the edit, choose Edit > Overwrite, click the Overwrite Clip button in the toolbar, press the F10 key, or drag a clip onto the Overwrite overlay in the Timeline Viewer.

The selected clips in the Media Pool are overwrite edited to the selected track starting at the position of the playhead, eliminating whatever was there originally while adding incoming clip. No other clips are rippled during this operation.

Replace

Replace edits are a unique three-point edit type that aligns the frame at the Source Viewer playhead with the frame at the Timeline playhead when the edit is executed. This is the fastest edit type to use when you need to align an action at a specific frame of video, or a sound at a specific frame of audio, to a particular frame’s action or sound in the video or audio of the Timeline.

The fastest way of using the replace edit is to not bother setting either In or Out points in the Source Viewer, and to either use the duration of an existing clip intersecting the Timeline to define the edit, or a pair of timeline In/Out points specifying either a section of a clip you want to overwrite, or an empty section of the Timeline to which you want to edit.

Replace edits do not ripple the Timeline.

Replace Edits to Replace Existing Clips in the Timeline

A replace edit automatically replaces an existing clip in the Timeline with a clip in the Source Viewer, so long as that clip overlaps the playhead and is on a track with its destination control enabled. When you make a replace edit in this way, DaVinci Resolve automatically uses the duration of the Timeline clip to define the duration of the incoming media, and the positions of the Viewer and Timeline playheads to line up how the incoming media should be placed. This is an extremely fast edit to make, since you needn’t use any In or Out points at all.

To replace a clip in the Timeline:

1. Move the playhead in the Timeline to the clip that you want to replace, and align it with a frame that you want to line up with a frame in the clip you’ll be replace editing into the Timeline.

2. Click the appropriate audio and video destination controls of the track containing the clip you want to replace.

3. Open a clip into the Source Viewer.

4. Move the playhead in the Source Viewer to the frame that you want to line up with the frame at the position of the playhead in the Timeline.

In the example shown above, the original clip that was shot on location of a car driving past a slab of real concrete (shown in the Timeline Viewer at right) is going to be replaced by a VFX shot of a concrete wall with a small hole for the car to drive through (shown in the Source Viewer at left). The playhead in the Source Viewer is aligned on the very same frame as the playhead in the Timeline Viewer, which can be seen by the identical position of the white stripe on the road in the lower right-hand corner of the picture.

5. Now that the playheads are aligned on the frames that must match one another in both the Source and Timeline Viewers, choose Edit > Replace, click the Replace Clip button in the toolbar, press F11, or drag any clip onto the Replace overlay in the Timeline Viewer.

The camera original clip in the Timeline is now replaced with the VFX source clip from the Media Pool, with the source frame at the Source Viewer playhead aligned with the frame at the Timeline playhead.

Replace Edits to Edit Clips Into Empty Tracks

You can also use a replace edit to edit a clip into an empty track of the Timeline so that the frame at the position of the Source playhead is aligned with the Timeline playhead, and the In and Out points of the incoming clip fall where they may. This is useful when you want to “spot” a particular action of an alternate take or a cue in a sound effect to a specific frame of the Timeline.

To use replace edit to spot a sound effect or action video clip into the Timeline:

1. Move the playhead in the Timeline to the clip that contains the moment you want to align the new incoming audio or video clip with, and position it on the exact frame that you want to line up with a frame of the clip you’re going to edit into the Timeline.

2. Click the appropriate audio and video destination controls of the empty track you want to edit the incoming clip into.

3. Open a clip into the Source Viewer.

4. Move the playhead in the Source Viewer to the frame that you want to line up with the frame at the position of the playhead in the Timeline. This may be the sample of a sound effect that corresponds to the action in a particular frame of your program’s video, or a frame of video that corresponds to a particular sound in your program’s audio.

In the example shown below, the beginning of an audio cue of a billiard ball being hit is being lined up with the frame in which the cue ball is first hit in the video.

5. If necessary, set In and Out points in the Timeline to restrict how much of the incoming clip will be edited. Otherwise, the entire source clip will be edited into the Timeline.

6. Now that the playheads are aligned on the frames that must match one another in both the Source and Timeline Viewers, choose Edit > Replace, click the Replace Clip button in the toolbar, press F11, or drag any clip onto the Replace overlay in the Timeline Viewer.

The SFX source clip has now been edited into the specified audio track, with the source frame at the Source Viewer playhead perfectly aligned with the frame at the Timeline playhead so that the cue ball hit is in sync with the visuals.

Replace Edit Using Clips Already in the Timeline

To facilitate workflows where multiple clips are stacked in the Timeline to manually track different takes or versions of stock footage, VFX clips, or other versionable media, there’s a method of drag and drop replace editing that copies the grade of the clip being replaced to the clip you’re replacing it with at the same time, so that newer versions of effects can inherit the same grade as the previous version of the effect being replaced. This only works for clips that have already been edited into the Timeline and that are superimposed (over or under) other clips in the Timeline, such as in the following screenshot. Be aware that this technique can also be used for multiple selected clips on the Timeline to do several replace edits all at once.

To replace edit one clip that’s stacked on the Timeline into another:

1. Select one or more clips that are already on the Timeline. Typically these will be clips that are superimposed over other clips.

2. Hold the command key down while dragging one superimposed clip on top of another to overwrite a clip and copy its grade to the clip you’re overwriting it with.

Place on Top

Place on top edits automatically superimpose clips onto the first empty track above (for video clips) or below (for audio clips) any other clips in the Timeline that either intersect the playhead or fall in between the currently set Timeline In and Out points, regardless of the current track specified by the destination controls. It’s designed to make it easy to superimpose titles and other clips you want to composite over another clip, or to add additional versions of clips such as VFX on top of previous versions that you want to preserve.

Place on top edits create new timeline tracks if necessary, and do not ripple the Timeline.

To use place on top to edit a clip into the Timeline:

1. To choose where in the Timeline the clip will be “placed on top,” do one of the following: Move the playhead to intersect the clip you want to edit the incoming source clip on top of. Set In and Out points in the Timeline to define the duration within which you want to place the incoming source on top.

2. Set In and Out points in a source clip that you want to edit.

3. Choose Edit > Place on Top, drag any clip onto the Place on Top overlay in the Timeline Viewer, or press F12.

Incoming video clips will be edited to the topmost video track so they are above any previously existing video in the Timeline. Incoming audio clips are edited to the bottom-most audio track so they are below any previously existing audio. If necessary, new video and/or audio tracks will be created automatically to hold the new incoming clip.

Ripple Overwrite

Ripple Overwrite is a four-point edit that’s useful when you can identify a segment of the Timeline you want to overwrite, but the incoming clip is of a different duration and you want DaVinci Resolve to automatically ripple the Timeline to accommodate the difference.

You can use the Ripple Overwrite command one of two different ways:

• You can overwrite an entire clip in the Timeline with another clip of different length.

• You can overwrite a section of the Timeline marked with In and Out points with a another clip of different length.

In both cases, all clips to the right of the clip or timeline section being overwritten are rippled to the right or left to make room or fill the gap. Because of this, the ripple overwrite edit will most likely change the overall duration of your edited sequence of clips.

Using Ripple Overwrite on an Entire Clip in the Timeline

Using ripple overwrite as an automatic four-point edit, you can overwrite whichever clip in the Timeline intersects the playhead on the tracks defined by the destination controls, in its entirety, with the incoming clip. For this to work, there must be no In or Out points set in the Timeline.

After performing a ripple overwrite in this way, the original timeline clip is eliminated and the incoming clip takes its place, and all clips to the right of the clip being replaced are either (a) rippled to the right if the incoming clip is longer than the original timeline clip, or (b) rippled to the left if the incoming clip is shorter than the original timeline clip. All of this is done in a single step.

This is useful in situations where you want to quickly switch one clip in the Timeline with another of unequal duration and have the Timeline automatically make room to allow this all in one step.

To use ripple overwrite to replace an entire clip in the Timeline with another source clip:

1. Move the playhead in the Timeline to intersect the clip that you want to replace; the playhead’s exact position is not important.

2. Click the appropriate audio and video destination controls of the track containing the clip you want to replace, and press Option-X to eliminate any In and Out points there might be in the Timeline

3. Open a clip into the Source Viewer, and set In and/or Out points as necessary to define how much of the clip you want to edit into the Timeline.

4. To execute the edit, choose Edit > Ripple Overwrite, drag the clip to the Ripple Overwrite overlay of the Timeline Viewer, or press Shift-F10.

Using Ripple Overwrite on a Section of the Timeline Defined by In/Out Points

You can also use ripple overwrite as an explicit four-point edit, to overwrite a section of the Timeline that’s marked with In and Out points with an incoming clip that’s also marked with In and Out points that is of unequal duration.

After performing a ripple overwrite in this way, the section of the Timeline marked with In and Out points is eliminated and the incoming clip takes its place, and all clips to the right of the clip being replaced are either (a) rippled to the right if the incoming clip is longer than the original timeline clip, or (b) rippled to the left if the incoming clip is shorter than the original timeline clip. All of this is done in a single step.

A good example of when this can be useful is when you’re cutting a close-up of an actor performing a particular action into a medium shot of the actor performing the same action that’s already in the Timeline, and the action you’re matching is of different durations in each of the shots.

To use ripple overwrite to replace a section of the Timeline with another source clip:

1. Set In and Out points in the Timeline to mark what part of the clip or clips you want to overwrite. You must set both In and Out points for this to work as expected. In this example, the part of the clip where the woman leans forward is marked.

2. Open a clip into the Source Viewer, and set In and/or Out points as necessary to define how much of the clip you want to edit into the Timeline. In this example, a section of the woman’s close up where she leans forward in a way that matches the same movement in the wider shot is marked.

3. To execute the edit, choose Edit > Ripple Overwrite, drag the clip to the Ripple Overwrite overlay of the Timeline Viewer, or press Shift-F10. As a result, the section of the timeline that was marked in step 1 is overwritten by the section of the source clip marked in step 2, and all clips to the right of this edit in the Timeline are rippled to the right to make room for the much longer source clip. The final result is an edit where the movements match nicely.

Fit to Fill

Fit to fill edits are the only edit type that actually use all four edit points, and it’s the only edit type that retimes clips at the same time as they’re being edited. By setting In and Out points in the incoming source clip, and another pair of In and Out points in the Timeline, you can stretch or compress the timing of the specified range of source media to cover the entire specified range of the Timeline. In the process, the speed ratio of the clip changes so the clip plays in either fast or slow motion.

Fit to fill edits are especially valuable when you have a source clip in which the action is slightly slow, and you just want to speed it up by squeezing it into a shorter duration of the Timeline. They’re also incredibly handy in situations when you have a gap in an edited sequence of clips to fill with a source clip that’s just not long enough, but in which slightly slower motion won’t be noticeable.

Fit to fill edits do not ripple the Timeline.

To use fit to fill to edit a clip into the Timeline:

1. Do one of the following to define where in the Timeline to edit the incoming clip:

1. • You can set both In and Out points in the Timeline, to define the duration you want to fill with the incoming source clip as a three-point edit.

   • You can clear the Timeline In and Out points (pressing Option-X), so that you can instead use the duration of whichever clip or gap intersects the playhead on the track with the destination controls assigned to them. In the following screenshot, the clip can easily be edited to take the place of the gap by positioning the playhead anywhere within it

2. Next, you’ll need to set both In and Out points in the Source Viewer to define a longer or shorter source clip that you want to fill into the available space. In this example, we have a very short section of the source clip defined that, because of the matching action in the Timeline, must be fit into the larger gap seen above.

3. Click the audio and video destination controls of the tracks you want to edit the incoming source clip onto. If necessary, create new tracks.

4. Choose Edit > Fit to Fill, drag any clip onto the Fit to Fill overlay in the Timeline Viewer, or press Shift-F11.

The incoming source clip is retimed, as necessary, to fit into the specified duration of the Timeline. This can be seen by the retiming badge that appears within the clip that’s just been edited into the Timeline. 

Append

Append to end always puts the edited clip at the very end of the current Timeline. It’s a very useful edit type when you’re quickly stringing together a series of clips.

To use append to end to edit a clip into the Timeline:

1. Set In and Out points in a source clip that you want to add to the end of the current Timeline. If necessary, change the sort order of the Media Pool to put these clips into the order in which you want them to be added to the Timeline.

2. Click the audio and video destination controls of the tracks you want to edit the incoming source clip onto. If necessary, create new tracks.

3. Choose Edit > Append to End of Timeline, drag the clip to the Append at end overlay of the Timeline Viewer, or press Shift-F12.

Incoming video clips are added after the very end of the last clip in the Timeline.