How to Add and Animate Text in DaVinci Resolve 21, No Plugins Needed
Editor Casey Faris breaks down five ways to add and animate text in DaVinci Resolve, from basic titles to camera-tracked text.
DaVinci Resolve's Fusion page can handle text animation work that many editors assume requires After Effects or a third-party plugin. Editor Casey Faris breaks down five techniques, from a basic static title to text that tracks a moving object on camera, all built with Resolve's native tools.
Starting Simple: Basic Text and Multi-Text
The most basic method uses Resolve's standard Text tool directly on the Edit page: type the text, adjust font and drop shadow in the Inspector, done. Faris's core design advice applies here more than anywhere else in the video: "Keep it simple just use this basic text... It's easy to make something look good when you're subtle. So just keep it subtle, that's the biggest hack to good design."
For more layered typography, Faris moves to Multi-Text, which allows styling and animating individual words or characters within a single text block rather than treating the whole line as one object. That opens up staggered reveals and mixed styling within a single title without leaving the Edit page.
Moving Into Fusion: Masked Reveals and Luma Keying
The more advanced techniques require the Fusion page, Resolve's node-based compositing environment. A right-click on a clip and "New Fusion Clip" is the entry point; from there, a Text+ node connects to a Background node and feeds into MediaOut to render on the timeline.
Faris demonstrates a mask-based reveal, animating a shape to wipe text into frame rather than relying on a simple fade or slide. He also shows luma keying, using the luminance values of underlying footage to place text behind a subject in the frame rather than simply overlaying it on top, a technique that reads as far more integrated into the shot than a basic title card.
The Advanced Move: Point Tracking Text to a Moving Object
The most involved technique is point tracking, locking a text element to a moving subject or object using Fusion's tracker, so a label or callout follows the action across a handheld or moving shot rather than sitting static on screen. This is the same underlying tracking tool used for stabilization and object removal elsewhere in Fusion, applied here to typography instead.
Competitive Context
These same capabilities, node-based compositing, luma keying, motion tracking, have long been associated with Adobe After Effects. Resolve's Fusion page has offered comparable tools natively for years, but many editors still default to exporting footage into After Effects out of habit rather than necessity. Faris's video is part of a growing body of tutorials making the case that Fusion can cover a meaningful share of that work without a round trip through another application.
The Signal in the Noise
The most useful takeaway isn't any single technique, it's Faris's design principle underneath all of them: restraint reads as more professional than complexity. A tracked, luma-keyed text integration is technically impressive, but Faris's own advice is that plain, subtle text is usually the better choice for most shots. Knowing how to build the advanced version matters less than knowing when the simple version is actually correct.
Which of these techniques would actually change your title design workflow, versus one you'd reach for only occasionally?
The Details
- Software: DaVinci Resolve 21 (Fusion page tools also available in the free version; some adjacent features like Magic Mask are Studio-only)
- Techniques covered: basic text with drop shadow, Multi-Text styling and animation, Fusion mask-based text reveals, luma keying text behind a subject, point tracking text to a moving object
- Presenter: Casey Faris, 630K YouTube subscribers
- Where the advanced techniques live: Fusion page, accessed via right-click → New Fusion Clip
