06:45Creative Video Tips · Tutorial
NEW Photo Page Tips in DaVinci Resolve 21
A walkthrough of Resolve 21's new dedicated Photo page — import, cull, grade, and batch-export raw stills without ever leaving the video editor.
April 13thThe argument in one line.
A DaVinci Resolve plugin called AI Video Studio moves AI video, image, backdrop, and 3D generation directly into the Resolve timeline, so editors can generate, composite, grade, and finish an AI-assisted shot without opening a browser or a separate app.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- You edit in DaVinci Resolve and keep tab-switching to separate AI tools to generate shots, backgrounds, or assets.
- You do green-screen or VFX compositing and want AI-generated backdrops that match your original camera angle and lighting.
- You want to turn a single product photo into a 3D model or turn a rough clay render into a photoreal shot.
- You want to compare paying per generation on the cloud versus running generation for free on your own GPU.
SKIP IF…
- You don't edit in DaVinci Resolve — this plugin only works inside that NLE.
- You're looking for a free tool — it's a one-time paid plugin, and the cloud engine still bills per generation.
The full version, fast.
AI Video Studio is a DaVinci Resolve plugin that adds text-to-video, image-to-video, image generation, a green-screen backdrop generator, and a 3D-model/clay-to-photoreal generator directly inside Resolve's Workspace menu. Editors can capture a frame straight off their timeline, feed it to the AI as a reference, generate the shot, and drop the result back onto the timeline to grade and finish — no exporting or reimporting. It runs on fal.ai's cloud (pay per generation, no subscription) or locally through ComfyUI for free on your own GPU, plus a built-in chat assistant powered by NVIDIA's serverless APIs. It's sold as a one-time Gumroad purchase, or bundled into the paid VFX Room community with courses included.
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00:00 – 00:59
01 · The pitch: AI inside Resolve
Why the plugin exists — no tab-switching, node-based shot building, cloud-or-local pricing, built-in AI assistant.
00:59 – 01:30
02 · Opening the plugin + interface tour
Workspace > Workflow Integrations > AI Video Studio; a script runs it on free Resolve too. Green dot shows it's connected.
01:30 – 01:46
03 · Edit Video tools: reframe, relight, upscale
Selected clip plays in a previewer with draw-to-video, reframe, relight, and upscale tools.
01:46 – 02:11
04 · Engine settings: cloud vs local
Toggle between fal.ai (cloud) and ComfyUI (local); set up API keys for fal and NVIDIA.
02:11 – 02:25
05 · API keys + free models
Create a fal.ai account and API key; overview of free and leading models available.
02:25 – 02:40
06 · Video generation: text-to-video & image-to-video
Generate from scratch, add reference images, or capture the current Resolve frame as a starting point.
02:40 – 03:13
07 · Camera, lens, lighting & movement presets
Preset camera bodies, lenses, focal length, aperture, lighting setups, and movement styles to steer the shot's look.
03:13 – 03:34
08 · The node-based workflow
A note/node system for wiring prompts, reference images, and separate image/video models visually.
03:34 – 03:41
09 · Image generation
Quick pass through the standalone AI image generation module.
03:41 – 04:04
10 · Backdrop Generator for green screen
Generate a background for a green-screen shot from a prompt, matching the original camera angle.
04:04 – 04:41
11 · Compositing the shot + background variations
The generated backdrop (Flux 2, ComfyUI) composited into the shot; regenerate for variation; animate the background.
04:41 – 05:03
12 · Generating 3D models from a single image
A single sneaker photo becomes a rotatable 3D model; up to four reference images supported.
05:03 – 05:22
13 · Clay to Photoreal
A clay-rendered animation gets converted to a photoreal final render using AI as the render pass.
05:22 – 05:42
14 · Where to get it
One-time Gumroad purchase, or join the VFX Room community for the plugin plus VFX courses.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- AI Video Studio runs inside DaVinci Resolve's own Workspace > Workflow Integrations menu, so generated shots land directly on the timeline instead of being exported from a browser tool and reimported.
- The plugin can capture a frame straight from the open Resolve timeline and feed it back into the AI as a reference image, closing the loop between editing and generating.
- Generation can run two ways: on fal.ai's cloud, billed per generation with no subscription, or locally through ComfyUI on your own GPU for free.
- A green connection dot in the plugin UI is the only indicator that it's actively linked to the open DaVinci Resolve project.
- The Backdrop Generator can hold the original camera angle and lighting of a green-screen shot while replacing only the background, using a text prompt plus optional reference images.
- The 3D Model Generator turns a single product photo — the demo uses a sneaker — into a rotatable 3D model, and accepts up to four reference images for more accuracy.
- Clay to Photoreal takes a rough clay-rendered animation and uses AI as the final render pass, letting an artist animate cheaply in clay and get a photoreal result without a traditional render engine.
- The plugin exposes camera, lens, focal length, aperture, lighting, and camera-movement presets so a generation can be steered toward a specific cinematic look without writing a longer prompt.
- A node-based mode lets editors wire together prompts, reference images, and separate image/video models visually instead of filling out one linear generation form.
- The free version of DaVinci Resolve (not just Studio) can run the plugin via a script, not just the paid Studio edition.
- New AI models get added to the plugin as they release, since the cloud engine is model-agnostic rather than locked to one generator.
- The built-in AI assistant that helps draft prompts runs on NVIDIA's serverless APIs rather than the same engine used for actual generation.
AI generation now runs inside the NLE instead of around it.
WHAT TO LEARN
Putting AI video, image, backdrop, and 3D generation directly inside an editor's timeline removes the export/reimport tax that made AI-assisted shots slow to actually finish.
01The pitch: AI inside Resolve
- A tool that lives inside your existing editor removes the export-generate-reimport loop, which is often the real time cost of using AI tools, not the generation itself.
- Offering both a paid cloud tier and a free local tier (your own GPU) lets a tool serve casual users and cost-sensitive power users without forcing a subscription on either.
02Opening the plugin + interface tour
- Supporting the free edition of a host app (not just the paid tier) via a script widens who can actually try a plugin.
03Edit Video tools: reframe, relight, upscale
- Bundling reframe, relight, and upscale as one-click operations on an already-selected clip turns fix-it work that used to need separate tools into a single menu.
04Engine settings: cloud vs local
- Making the compute engine (cloud vs local GPU) a simple toggle, not a separate product, lets a user change their cost tradeoff without leaving their workflow.
05API keys + free models
- Surfacing which models are free vs paid up front helps a user budget before they start generating, not after a bill arrives.
06Video generation: text-to-video & image-to-video
- Capturing a reference frame directly from your working timeline, instead of re-uploading a still, keeps the AI generation grounded in what you're actually cutting.
07Camera, lens, lighting & movement presets
- Exposing camera/lens/lighting/movement as presets, not just a text prompt, gives non-expert users a faster path to a specific look than prompt engineering does.
08The node-based workflow
- A visual node system is a power-user escape hatch — worth offering alongside a simple form, not instead of it, since most users won't need it.
10Backdrop Generator for green screen
- A backdrop generator that preserves the original camera angle and lighting produces composites that read as intentional rather than pasted-in.
11Compositing the shot + background variations
- Making regeneration cheap (especially when local generation is free) turns background choice into iteration instead of a one-shot decision.
12Generating 3D models from a single image
- Turning a single product photo into a rotatable 3D model collapses what used to be a modeling task into an image task.
13Clay to Photoreal
- Using AI as a render pass on top of a cheap clay animation separates the 'blocking' step (fast, low-fidelity) from the 'finishing' step (AI-generated, photoreal), which is a useful way to think about any expensive final step in a pipeline.
14Where to get it
- A one-time purchase bundled with an optional paid community (courses included) is a common way tool-makers monetize both the transaction and the ongoing relationship.
- New models keep shipping, so a plugin's value increasingly comes from being a stable interface that can swap the underlying model, not from any single model it ships with.
Terms worth knowing.
- AI Video Studio
- The DaVinci Resolve plugin demonstrated in this video, adding AI video, image, backdrop, and 3D-model generation tools directly inside Resolve's workspace.
- fal.ai
- A pay-per-generation cloud API the plugin can route AI jobs through, billed per job instead of a flat monthly subscription.
- ComfyUI
- A node-based, locally-run AI image and video generation engine the plugin can use instead of the cloud, so generation runs free on your own GPU.
- NVIDIA serverless APIs
- The backend infrastructure that powers the plugin's built-in chat assistant, which helps draft prompts and settings.
- Backdrop Generator
- A module in the plugin that replaces a green-screen background with an AI-generated one, holding the original camera angle and lighting.
- Clay to Photoreal
- A workflow that takes a rough, cheaply animated clay 3D render and uses AI to convert it into a photorealistic final shot, standing in for a traditional render engine.
- Node-based workflow
- An alternate way of building an AI generation by visually connecting nodes for prompts, reference images, and models, instead of filling out a single linear form.
- VFX Room
- A paid community, hosted on Skool, that bundles the AI Video Studio plugin together with VFX courses and peer support.
Things they pointed at.
01:46toolComfyUI
00:53toolNVIDIA serverless APIs
04:01toolFlux 2
Lines you could clip.
00:00
“Stop leaving DaVinci Resolve to generate AI.”
00:53
“This is the editing workflow that was missing in Resolve, so we finally built it.”
00:46
“or we can even run it locally and for free on your own GPU”
05:12
“use AI as a sort of render engine to make our final render”
Word for word.
Read-along
Don't just watch it. Burn it in.
See every word as it's spoken — crank it to 2× and still catch all of it. The same dual-channel trick behind Amazon's Kindle + Audible.
metaphor
00:00Stop leaving DaVinci Resolve to generate AI. Every AI model, video, images, and three d now lives right inside of Resolve. No browser, no 10 tabs opened, no switching apps.
00:12You generate the shot you need and it lands right on your timeline. No exporting, no reimporting, it's just there ready to cut.
00:19There's also a node based side to it so we can feed it with reference images, get a cinematic shot back without spending hours to figure out the right prompts. From there, can grade it, composite it, and finish the whole shot all in one place without ever leaving the edit. It's built by actual editors and VFX artists who use this every day so new models drop fast, we can pay per generation on the cloud, no subscription, no wasted credits, or we can even run it locally and for free on your own GPU.
00:51There's even a built in AI assistant that runs on NVIDIA's serverless APIs. This is the editing workflow that was missing in Resolve, so we finally built it.
01:00Let me show you how it works. Here we are in a new project in DaVinci Resolve, and to open up the plugin, you need to go to workspace, and then in the workflow integration, you will see AI Video Studio.
01:13If you have the free version of Resolve, you can also run a script so we can start using the plugin. So when you open it up, you will have an interface like this. We have video generation, edit video, image generation, backdrop generation, three d models, and clay to photo real.
01:30When you see this green dot, it means it's connected to DaVinci Resolve. So when we go to edit video, for example, you will see the selected clip playing inside of the previewer. And from here, we have a bunch of tools.
01:42We have draw the video, reframe, relighting, upscaling it, and, uh, these are the main tools to edit our videos.
01:51When you go to the settings and engine, you will see it's using Fall AI from the cloud or you can also choose to render it locally using Comfy UI. And here we can set up our API keys for Fall and we also have some additional keys for NVIDIA, for example, for our built in assistant.
02:11Here we can use free and leading models that we can use in AI Video Studio. If you wanna connect it with Fall AI, you can create an account and then create an API key so you can use it in Resolve. And in the app itself, we have video generation so we can start generating videos from scratch using the best and latest models from text to video and image to video.
02:36We can add reference images or even capture our current resolve frame so we can capture frames right from our timeline and start editing it. Just like any other AI system, we can, uh, select all the parameters, and we even have camera and lens so we can choose the style and look of our video.
02:57So we have all sorts of camera presets. We can change our lens, our focal length, and aperture.
03:04We also have lighting, so we can pre select our lighting setup without ever needing to prompt it. We can even change the movement, so we have different camera movements, presets we can choose from.
03:16And another handy feature is the notes, So we have note based system. We can add prompts, reference images, image models, and video models. So if you like working in a note based system, you have it right in here.
03:30Then edit video is changing the clip that we have selected. And we also have image generation so we can generate AI images. And then we have a bunch of other tools that I personally use as a VFX artist.
03:43For example, we have some footage here on the green screen, so we can go to the backdrop generator. We can simply generate backgrounds for green screen, for example, using these different parameters. Give it a set of instructions, even add reference images, and then with AI it will build our prompts automatically so we can create an image like this.
04:04This was generated using flux two with our comfy mode. Then with this image, we can start compositing it in our editing software, and we can create something like this.
04:16We can even generate another background just for variation.
04:21It's running locally so you don't have to worry about the costs. And there we go.
04:26Now we have another variation of this background. We can even go a bit further and even animate those images and then we have something like this and we can composite it so we have a live stage.
04:41But this is only one example. There's many different things we can do. We can even generate three d models based off one single image.
04:49For example, we have an image of a shoe and we can start generating that three d model. And that is a quick and easy way to generate three d models from your images. We can add up to four reference images.
05:02Then we have our clay and photo reel option. With this, we can even create our own animations with a clay render and then to make our final render.
05:15That's the way I personally use these tools as a VFX artist and editor, but there are many basic and simple jobs we can also do within the plugin. It's now available on Gumroad as a one time payment or join the VFX room to be part of a community in visual effects.
05:32You'll get the tool and also some VFX courses if you're interested. Thank you for checking out this video and good luck. Peace.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
Kevin Vandermarliere opens with a blunt promise: every AI model for video, images, and 3D now lives inside DaVinci Resolve itself, no browser tabs, exporting, or reimporting required. What follows is a straight feature-by-feature demo of the plugin he built to make that true.
Named ideas worth stealing.
00:53list
AI Video Studio's 6 modules
- Video generation
- Edit video
- Image generation
- Backdrop Generator
- 3D model
- Clay → Photoreal
The full app list shown when opening the plugin — every generation type it offers is one of these six modules.
Steal formapping any AI-in-NLE plugin's scope at a glance
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
05:19product
“It's now available on Gumroad as a one time payment or join the VFX room to be part of a community in visual effects. You'll get the tool and also some VFX courses if you're interested.”
Soft sell dropped only after the full feature walkthrough — two lines, no urgency language, and the community/courses are framed as a bonus rather than the primary ask.
MENTIONED ON CAMERA
FROM THE DESCRIPTION
PRIMARY CTAWhere the creator wants you to go next.
OTHER LINKSAlso linked in the description.
Visual structure at a glance.
