11:00MrAlexTech · Talking Head
So you want to learn DaVinci Resolve
An 11-minute resource guide covering every free and paid path to learning DaVinci Resolve in 2026.
May 25thThe argument in one line.
A new line of real-time, fully local DaVinci Resolve plugins can detect and blur faces or objects live, auto-zoom screen recordings by tracking the cursor, and cut a subject out of a still photo in about a second, with viewer feedback shaping what gets built next.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- You edit in DaVinci Resolve and currently blur faces, license plates, or logos by hand-keyframing a tracker for every shot.
- You record tutorials or screen-share content and manually keyframe zooms to keep the cursor and clicks readable.
- You build your own thumbnails and want to cut a subject out of a photo without opening Photoshop.
- You're trying to move a full editing workflow off Adobe and onto DaVinci Resolve, including stills work.
SKIP IF…
- You're looking for a tutorial on using existing, already-released DaVinci Resolve features — everything shown here is unreleased.
- You want a generative-AI content tool — the developer explicitly rules that out for this toolkit.
The full version, fast.
A DaVinci Resolve plugin line is adding real-time, fully local AI tracking: point an effect at a shot and it detects every face or every object (cars, in the demo), lets the editor pick which ones to isolate, and tracks them frame-to-frame with no rendering and no manual keyframes — coming to both the paid Studio and free versions of Resolve. A second tool, a cursor-following auto-zoom, turns a flat OBS screen recording into a dynamic, zoomed tutorial edit automatically. A third cuts a person out of a still photo in about a second, aimed at editors who still open Photoshop just to build thumbnails. All of it runs on-device, none of it is generative AI, and the video doubles as a direct request for what editors want built next.
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00:00 – 00:47
01 · Real-time face blur
A new plugin detects every face in a shot the instant it's applied and tracks them live; selecting one face narrows the blur to just that person.
00:47 – 01:54
02 · Object tracking and censoring
The same detection engine is repointed at objects instead of faces — automatically finding and blurring every car in a shot, or isolating just one.
01:54 – 02:53
03 · The Magic Toolkit pitch, and a feedback ask
The tools are framed as the next generation of the developer's 'Magic Toolkit' line alongside the already-shipping Magic Grade color tool; he explains he uses AI to help code but originates every idea himself, then asks what DaVinci Resolve still can't do (generative AI requests excluded).
02:53 – 04:24
04 · Magic Cursor: auto-zoom screen recordings
A plain OBS screen recording is run through a new effect that automatically zooms and pans to follow the cursor and clicks, building a polished zoomed-in edit with no manual keyframing.
04:24 – 04:57
05 · Setting up the cutout pitch: leaving Photoshop behind
DaVinci's new photo page already replaces Lightroom for this workflow, but cutting a subject out of a still photo for thumbnails has still meant opening Photoshop — until now.
04:57 – 06:35
06 · One-click subject cutout for stills
One button click isolates a person from a still image in one to two seconds; the tool is demoed live on three separate photos to prove it isn't pre-rendered.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- A real-time face-tracking blur effect in DaVinci Resolve requires no rendering and no manual keyframes — hit play and it tracks every face already on screen.
- The same tracking engine can target objects instead of faces, for example finding and blurring every car in a shot with one click.
- Editors can narrow a multi-face or multi-object detection down to a single tracked target by selecting it once, rather than tracking manually.
- The plugin line is built to run entirely on-device with no cloud processing, and is planned for both the paid Studio and free versions of DaVinci Resolve.
- The developer uses AI to help write the underlying code but says every idea and design decision originates from years of using DaVinci Resolve himself.
- Feature requests are welcome for anything DaVinci Resolve can't currently do, with one explicit exception: generative AI features are off the table.
- A cursor-tracking auto-zoom tool can take a flat, unedited OBS screen recording and automatically build zoom-ins and pans keyed to cursor movement and clicks.
- DaVinci Resolve's photo page already lets editors replace Lightroom, but stills work like cutting a subject out of a photo has still required leaving Resolve for Photoshop.
- A one-click cutout tool can isolate a person from a still image in one to two seconds, fast enough to build a thumbnail without ever opening Photoshop.
- The cutout tool was demoed on multiple different images live, back to back, specifically to prove the result wasn't pre-rendered.
Real-time, local AI is coming for manual rotoscoping and keyframe work.
WHAT TO LEARN
The manual busywork of tracking faces, blurring objects, keyframing zooms, and cutting out subjects is being automated in real time, on-device, without cloud processing or generative AI.
01Real-time face blur
- Real-time face detection means a blur effect can track every face in a shot the instant you drop it on, with no separate tracking or render pass.
- Letting an editor narrow a multi-subject detection down to one selected target turns a tedious rotoscoping job into a single click.
02Object tracking and censoring
- The same detection engine generalizing from faces to arbitrary objects (cars shown here) signals the underlying model is class-agnostic, not face-specific.
- Being able to isolate one instance out of many detected objects is the difference between a usable tool and a gimmick demo.
03The Magic Toolkit pitch, and a feedback ask
- Running detection and tracking fully on-device avoids upload latency and keeps footage private, which matters for unreleased or client work.
- Committing a new feature to both a paid and a free product tier is a distribution decision worth noting when weighing what to gate behind a paywall.
04Magic Cursor: auto-zoom screen recordings
- An auto-zoom that follows cursor position and click events removes the single most tedious part of tutorial editing: manually keyframing pans and zooms to keep the pointer legible.
- Building on top of a plain OBS recording, rather than requiring a special capture format, means the tool works on footage editors already have sitting around.
05Setting up the cutout pitch: leaving Photoshop behind
- A tool only needs to close one specific remaining gap to fully displace a legacy app from a workflow — DaVinci's photo page already replaced Lightroom here, so cutout was the last Photoshop dependency.
06One-click subject cutout for stills
- A one-to-two-second subject cutout is fast enough to demo live, in front of an audience, as proof it isn't pre-rendered — a useful bar to hold your own demos to.
- Testing the same operation on multiple different images back-to-back is a simple, credible way to prove a live demo isn't a fluke.
Terms worth knowing.
- Real-time tracking
- Effect processing that runs and updates live as the video plays, instead of requiring a separate render or analysis pass before it works.
- Magic Toolkit
- The developer's line of DaVinci Resolve plugins, of which the tools shown here are described as the next generation.
- Magic Grade
- An already-released color-grading plugin from the same developer that applies film-stock-style color emulation inside DaVinci Resolve.
- OBS
- Open Broadcaster Software — free screen-recording and streaming software commonly used to capture unedited screen footage before it's brought into an editor.
- Resolve Studio vs. free version
- DaVinci Resolve ships in a paid 'Studio' edition with extra features and a free edition with a reduced feature set; some plugins are built to work on both.
Things they pointed at.
02:22productMagic Toolkit
Lines you could clip.
00:00
“Real time face tracking within DaVinci Resolve. Real time.”
03:08
“This here is nothing but an OBS screen recording.”
03:30
“I am using a lot of AI to help with some of the programming in the background, but all of the ideas, of the real creation is coming from me.”
04:08
“Don't say I want it to do generative AI because I can't add that.”
05:25
“Now you can make yourself thumbnails and cut yourself out of some still images and do whatever you want to do.”
Word for word.
Read-along
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metaphor
Real time face tracking within DaVinci Resolve. Real time. That's not been rendered.
That's not been tracked. I've just dropped my effect on there. Hit play.
It's picked up the faces, and it's tracking them in real time. So I can scrub this back and forth.
I can hit play and it just works. Now it's also customizable, I can go to only selected. It's gonna show the faces that it's picked up and I go, okay.
I only wanna blur this dude over here. So if I give him a click and now we're just blurring this one over here. It's pretty neat.
We've got this shot here. Loads of faces going on here. So I'm gonna grab my magic effect.
We'll just drop that on here. Again, remember, real time. Hit play, and we're tracking and censoring these faces.
Take this for example. We've got mister drift car here. So let's smash this on here.
We're gonna change this to be objects, and it could be all of the objects or we just want cars. Now it's gonna pick up a bunch of different cars.
As you can see, we've got cars going in the background and whatever else. So once again, let's just go only selected. I only want this one here.
I don't need to track anything. I just hit play.
And boom. Just like that. We can come and mess around with any of the settings, do some cool stuff within here, and job done.
And all of that is happening locally on your machine. No cloud stuff, none of that rubbish.
It all happens locally, and this will work eventually on both the studio and the free versions of DaVinci Resolve. And that's just one of the new plugins I'm making for DaVinci Resolve.
These are my next level, next generation of plugins for DaVinci Resolve within my magic range, my magic toolkit.
And I've just demoed that one to kind of get your attention because I want your input. I've learned how to do a bunch of stuff within DaVinci Resolve. Kind of thanks to my magic grade, which is available now by the way.
So check that out if you wanna. You can try it completely for free for seven days. There's links down below and stuff.
But while doing that, I learned a whole bunch of things and I've set up a bunch of systems. I am using a lot of AI to help with some of the programming in the background, but all of the ideas, of the real creation is coming from me, all of the things I've learned using DaVinci Resolve over these years, and all of the things that I want DaVinci Resolve to be able to do.
But I know there's gonna be some things which I'm missing. So I want your help. I want you to comment down below and let me know what you would like to see within DaVinci Resolve.
What would you like DaVinci Resolve to do that it can't currently do? Don't say I want it to do generative AI because I can't add that.
So I have some other examples for you. I want to show you some of the examples in this video of things I've been working on, but I want your feedback.
I want your thoughts. I want your comments because I'm making some cool stuff. This here is nothing but an OBS screen recording.
Just an OBS screen recording. Now I'm gonna open up my secret library, is gonna be blurred so you can't see everything I'm working on. And we're gonna grab this super secret magic thing and drop it on here.
And then we're just gonna hit play.
And would you look at that? We're zooming in to the cursor. And as I move my cursor, which I do in a second, we're just gonna follow it around just like so.
And as I click, ping, ping, ping, we have this. I'm calling it magic cursor.
The name may change, but it just moves around like so.
At any point, what I can actually do is make a new little zoom point here. We'll zoom in a bit more there, and then we go back. Zoom.
We zoom on in there. At this point, let's zoom on out, and we can build this up all in real time, and we don't need to do much of anything else.
Really pleased with that one. That's gonna save me a bunch of time and hopefully you guys as well. So I know that lots of you are moving away from Adobe.
Obviously, DaVinci Resolve now has the photo page, which means you can kind of get rid of your Lightroom, but your Photoshop may still be something you need.
I know lots of people are doing thumbnails within Photoshop and all that sort of stuff. So I've made a bit of a package to try and make kind of doing thumbnails and doing still stuff in DaVinci Resolve a little bit easier. And there's one particular thing which took me a very long time to crack, but it is now working.
So I wanted to give you a real quick demo of this one. This one's exciting. Let's drop this on this still image here on the edit page.
Then we're simply gonna click on this button over here, and it's just gonna think for a second or two. And then just like magic, we've cut this guy out.
So we can then rotate him, move him around, do what we want to do, and just to show you that this is real, let's put him on top of this one here. Tada.
There he is. Now you can make yourself thumbnails and cut yourself out of some still images and do whatever you want to do. So what about this next one here?
There's another image. This guy in the woods. Let's just do the exact same thing once again.
We'll cut him out. Boom. Done.
We'll put him over here, and then let's once again just do the same thing. Put these over here so you can see this is all legitimately happening.
It is. I promise. And I can just move him over there.
I'll put him down here a bit. Just taking a photo of that handsome man, and let's just do it once more to prove to you all.
Real time, no cuts. Just give it a second, and there he is.
So, yeah, . for me so we can have a read, take some inspiration, and see if I can create some even more cooler stuff. Thanks.
See you next time.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
A DaVinci Resolve plugin developer opens with a demo that looks impossible: point a blur effect at a shot and it tracks every face, or every car, in real time — no rendering, no manual keyframes. What follows is a five-minute preview of four unreleased tools, framed as a direct ask for feature requests from the editors who'll actually use them.
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
02:01product
“You can try it completely for free for seven days. There's links down below and stuff.”
Casual mid-roll plug for his existing Magic Grade product, low-pressure, folded into the intro before the main pitch.
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.
