What's the difference between Blackmagic Fusion and Resolve?

Question

I'm a total noob to video production in general, but looking to get more into it. I've become a bit confused looking at some software solutions, though. I've seen great reviews for both of Blackmagic's products, DaVinci Resolve, and Fusion, which people say work great together, but I don't know enough to definitively tell the differences between them.

My question is this: What are the specific domains covered by each product? In other words, what video editing tasks are done in Fusion, vs. Resolve? How do they complement each other? Also, are these two pieces of software alone enough to create a full film? (I'm wondering about audio and CGI in particular here...)

Answer 1

Firstly - Davinci Resolve (since v15) now includes Fusion as a sub-tool. Additionally some component features of Fusion are embedded within the Resolve interface and conversely some features of Resolve are accessible from within the Fusion tool.

So ... I will try and answer below - as if Resolve did not include any Fusion components:

Resolve has its well established roots in Color Grading, but both applications are ultimately editing and compositing tools which can generate, combine and manipulate source material to create desired visual & audio output. Resolve is targeted at Ease of Use, Media handling, Video Editing, Compositing, Color Grading, Audio Engineering, Audio/Video Effects and Content Delivery. Whilst Fusion is targeted at advanced 2D & 3D Compositing, Visual effects and Motion Graphics.

Fusion is a more complicated tool and typically is slower to work with, but provides advanced functionality, precision, programming and control in the areas of VFX and MG. There are many end-to-end Audio/Video production scenarios where Fusion would not be required.

Typical Use Cases:

Resolve (minus Fusion):

• Producing simple videos from source material
• Editing complex video sequences
• Color Grading / Color Correction (Simple -> Advanced)
• Audio Engineering
• Transcoding & Final Delivery
• Applying Audio/Video effects to existing footage

Fusion (standalone):

• Creating/Applying simple Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI)
• Generating/Applying advanced 2D and 3D Video Effects (VFX)
• Creating/Applying Motion Graphics (Animated Titles and Wurly Spinny things)

Fortunately - Resolve now includes Fusion - so you get the best of both worlds integrated in one hugely powerful application package.

And yes - you can complete an entire Film 'Movie/Short Film/Video' using just Davinci Resolve and Fusion tools.

** Fusion is also available as a standalone product, but the features & functionality of the standalone product are almost entirely available within Davinci Resolve.

Answer 2

I have been using BlackMagic Design Davinci Resolve for sometime and here's a small bit of information which I can share with you.

Davinci Resolve is a video editing software. You can do editing, transitions, world's best colorgrading, audio adjustments and exporting the video from this one software. Davinci Resolve is a complete video editing suite with every every feature that you would require to edit and complete a video. Basically, Davinci Resolve is equivalent to all of Video Editing software in Adobe Video Editing Suite.

Fusion is also offered by BlackMagic Design but in two ways. Fusion comes as a standalone software but also comes integrated in Davinci Resolve. Fusion is like AfterEffects in Adobe ecosystem. You can make effects, transitions, 2D and 3D animations and a lot more. The stand alone Fusion have a bit more features at the moment but the fusion which comes integrated in Davinci Resolve is getting better with every update.