How to Zoom in Davinci Resolve (2 Best Ways)

Learning how to zoom in Davinci Resolve is a great way to bring additional interest to your shots and draw the viewer’s attention to the details you wish to highlight.

I’ve been using Davinci Resolve to create impressive video content, and the zoom feature is an incredibly useful tool for introducing a range of editing options into your wide shots.

In this tutorial, I’ll explain how you can accomplish this simple yet effective technique using two methods that give you full control over how the zoom is implemented in your video clip.

How to Zoom in Davinci Resolve – Transform and Dynamic Zoom Tools

There are two main methods you can use to add zooms to your videos in Davinci Resolve’s video editor, depending on how much control you wish to have over the effect.

Zooming can be accomplished using the Transform tool or the Dynamic Zoom tool, each of which can be used to achieve different results.

I’ll begin by running through how you can use the Transform tool to add a basic zoom effect to your video.

Davinci Resolve Zoom Using the Transform Tool

The Transform tool in Davinci Resolve allows you to set keyframes for your zooms.

Using the Transform option is an effective method to create a simple zoom in and out on your video projects to enhance the action or pull back to a wider shot.

You can also use this tool to alter the position of the zoom to pan across as the footage zooms in and out.

To do this:

1. Head over to the Edit page and highlight the video clip in the Davinci Resolve timeline you wish to zoom on.
2. Click the Inspector menu in the top right-hand corner of the screen and click Transform.
3. Hit play on the clip in the video playback screen and pause it at the exact moment you wish the zoom to begin.
4. If you want to make precise adjustments to this point, you can use the left and right cursor keys to set the exact frame.
5. Click on the diamond-shaped icon to the right of the x-axis and y-axis zoom options in the Transform tool to set a new keyframe.
6. To view the keyframe on your timeline in Davinci Resolve, click the keyframe toggle icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the video clip.
7. Next, play the clip and pause at the point you wish the zoom to end.
8. Click and drag on the zoom value to adjust the zoom in the video playback screen. This will automatically add a second keyframe for your zoom.
9. If you want to adjust the position of the zoom, you can do this by adjusting the x-axis and y-axis values located underneath the zoom values.
10. Once you’ve set these keyframes, play the video back, and it will automatically zoom in or out based on the parameters you’ve established.

You can view the keyframe markers in the timeline clip by clicking the keyframe toggle icon.

This is a quick method to create a keyframe zoom via the Edit tab in a short space of time.

If you want to zoom back in or out following your first zoom, you can simply add a new keyframe and repeat the process outlined above to control how the zoom appears.

Next, I’ll break down how to zoom in Davinci Resolve using the Dynamic Zoom tool to ease in and out of your video footage.

Using the Dynamic Zoom Ease Tool

There are four main settings available in the Dynamic Zoom Ease drop-down menu.

Davinci Resolve zooming can also be accomplished using the software’s Dynamic Zoom tool. There are two key ways this tool can be implemented for zooming and including pans.

First, here’s how you can quickly add easing to a variety of zooms using the Dynamic Zoom Ease options.

This tool allows you to add zooms set in one of the following four styles:

1. Linear
2. Ease In
3. Ease Out
4. Ease In and Out

To use the basic tools available through Dynamic Zoom Ease:

1. On the Edit page, highlight the clip in the Davinci Resolve timeline you wish to add the zoom effect to.
2. Head to the Inspector menu and click Dynamic Zoom.
3. Select your zoom preference from the Dynamic Zoom Ease dropdown menu.
4. The zoom will then be automatically applied to the clip selected in your timeline.

Adding Pans With the Dynamic Zoom Tool

Selecting Dynamic Zoom from the preview player drop-down menu allows you to include pans by adjusting the green and red boxes.

Using the Dynamic Zoom tool also allows you to bring in additional control over your zooms by introducing pans to create more dynamic camera movements.

To achieve this result:

1. On the Edit page, select the video clip on the timeline you wish to pan and zoom on.
2. Select the Dynamic Zoom option from the drop-down menu in the bottom left corner of the playback monitor.
3. Alter the green box to establish the camera position at the beginning of the video clip. You can use the white dots to change the size of the box and click and drag from the center to reposition the box.
4. Do the same with the red box to set the final position of the zoom and pan at the end of the video clip.

You can use this tool to create pans by simply moving the red and green boxes to the start and end positions of the pan without changing their size.

This will remove any zoom effect while moving the camera from one point in the footage to the next in a smooth panning motion.