Da Vinci Resolve: Troubles zooming out an overlay video

Question

I am working on my very first project in Da Vinci Resolve.

I have created a new project and dragged two videos, one .mp4 and one .mkv, into the Media section of the Edit window. I have then dragged both videos into the timeline. Now, I want to zoom out the size of the .mp4, such that I can have this video be located at the bottom right of the .mkv, which fills the whole screen. To achieve this, I have clicked on the .mp4 video and then navigated to the Inspector. I am changing the zoom inside the inspector, but nothing happens.

I have no clue what might be causing this issue. I have tried this out previously with 2 .mkv files and it worked. Then, yesterday, it seemed to be working for the .mkv, but not for the .mp4. Now, neither the .mkv nor the .mp4 can be zoomed out from inside the Inspector.

I am probably forgetting about something really obvious, but I would appreciate help.

Answer 1

First, the version of Resolve matters. Older versions don't automatically make the edges of a stacked video transparent. If I remember correctly, version 16 would, as long as you made some position or scale adjustment to the topmost clip. I'd recommend updating to at least R17 for best result.

Beyond that, make sure that the image you want on top is sitting on a "higher" track; a track with a larger V# in the timeline. So, if the .mkv fills the whole screen, place it on V1, then place the .mp4 on V2, scale down the .mp4 by using the zoom and position controls in the inspector.

One thing to be aware of is that if the "Selection follows Playhead" option is enabled in the Timeline menu, it's easy to mistakenly select or de-select a clip by simply playing the video. An orange outline around a clip indicates which clip is selected, so watch out for unexpected movement of the selection outline because you might not be affecting the clip you intend to affect.