The first 15 to 30 seconds of a video is critical to grab and hold a viewer’s attention. They have clicked and are interested in what your video has to offer. You have only a few seconds to show that your video will meet or exceed their expectations with a captivating intro. DaVinci Resolve 17 is a great tool to edit videos and create those stunning intros.
Summary
Part 1: Creative but Simple Intros with DaVinci Resolve 17
The purpose of an intro for a social account e.g. a YouTube channel is to introduce who you are and what you’re about in a matter of seconds. There are no rules for what it should look like or how to do it. Just make it short, to the point, and professional-looking. Often simple is best, especially when you are starting out. So let’s look at some of DaVinci Resolve’s built-in features that can help you quickly make a creative intro for your channel.
Simple Intro with Built-in Transitions
For this intro, we are using some stock footage and music from Motion Array’s vast library to make an intro for a fictional social account called All About Drones. We will use DaVinci’s built-in transitions and titles for this. Just follow these steps.
- Start with a short music clip on the timeline. Under 10 seconds is best and closer to 5 seconds is ideal.
- Choose 5 or so clips that represent what you are about (drones in this case) and drop them roughly on the timeline.
- Mark the beat of the music by pressing M on the keyboard as you play through the timeline. Now use these markers to align the cuts between the clips with the beat of the music.
- Add some of DaVinci’s built-in Wipe transitions to the cuts and play it back to see the effect.
- Add some of Resolve’s Animated titles in between the cuts to get your message across. Less is often more so we only added one with the channel name at the end. You can change all the settings for DaVinci Resolve’s built-in titles in the Inspector. We used a little cheat to shorten the title without affecting the animation duration by changing the finished title to a Compound clip before cutting and fading it out.
- Render it in high quality to re-use in future videos.
For some interesting typewriter text effects that could be great for an intro have a look at this tutorial.
Using Fusion in DaVinci Resolve to Track Titles for Intros
Sometimes simple can be fancy and text tracked along with movement can make a simple but great-looking intro. Taking the lead from Casey Farris we look at how to track a title to a moving drone shot for what might just be the intro for your next short film.
- Place a clip with simple movement on the timeline. 3 to 5 seconds long, no more. Drone shots like the ones from Motion Array we used are great.
- Select the clip and go to the Fusion Page.
- Add a Planar Tracker to the media-in node (or 3D tracker if you have the studio version for DaVinci Resolve). Select something in the middle of your clip, close to where you want your text to appear then track the movement. Use only Translation, Rotation, and Scale, it should be all you need.
- Once the tracking is done create a Planar Transform node.
- Add a Text node and adjust the text as needed using the Inspector. Scale and position it where you want it to start.
- Now connect the Planar Transform node in between your Text node and the Merge node. Your text will now track and scale along with your scene to give a 3D effect.
- To add some more interest we will add some fog with a Fast Noise node. Adjust the detail and other settings in the inspector and increase the seethe rate to animate it.
- Add a Polygon Mask to the Fast Noise to limit the area it appears then soften the edges to blend it.
- Use an expression in the X-position of the Fast Noise, e.g. =time/500, to animate the fog to look like it is rolling along from left to right. It can also be done manually with keyframes.
- That’s it, you are done creating a stylish intro for your next short film.
Part 2: Top 5 DaVinci Resolve YouTube Intro Templates
If you don’t have the time or the skill to make your own intros in DaVinci Resolve then Motion Array may have just the solution for you with a wide range of intro templates tailor-made for DaVinci Resolve.
1. Podcast Intro
As the name says this template will make a great intro for a podcast series with multiple media placeholders and fully adjustable colors and other settings.
2. Typography Opener
This is a multifunctional template with smooth text animations and transitions. Featuring a lot of customization with 18 editable text layers and 14 media placeholders to make it your own.
Download Typography Opener Now
3. Dynamic Stylish Intro
As the name says this intro template delivers stylish and modern text animations and transitions that will add energy to your video. Something of this quality is very hard to create from scratch in DaVinci Resolve so why not use a template.
Download Dynamic Stylish Intro Now
4. Urban Opener
The 11 media placeholders and 8 text placeholders of this modern opener will let you customize it to match your brand and message. Great for social media posts and advertising as well.
5. Short Slides Opener
A nice short and dynamic opener ideal for a sports or outdoor social media account. Make it your own with loads of customization available.
Download Short Slides Opener Now
Intros are essential to grab and hold your viewer’s attention and DaVinci Resolve 17 provides all the tools you need to create your own creative intros. If you aren’t that skilled or you’re short of time Motion Array offers a range of templates specifically made for DaVinci Resolve that will give you access to great intros created by skilled video editors.
