Quickly Animate Text in DaVinci Resolve (+ Easy Presets)

To animate text in DaVinci Resolve is an effortless thing to do.

But yet, it makes your video look much more professional and engaging!

In this article, you’ll learn how to animate text and some awesome effects + how to add animation presets to your text (saving you a ton of time!)

Click on the links below to jump to a specific part:

• How to Animate Text
• Text Animation Preset
• Make Text Move In and Out
• Make Bouncing Text
• Animate Subtitles

Just to clear things up:

Can You Animate Text in DaVinci Resolve?

There are many ways to animate text in DaVinci Resolve. You can use both the “Edit-” and “Cut” page to keyframe the transform tools or use the “Fusion” page dedicated to motion graphics. Alternatively, you can also use the animation presets that come with Resolve.

How to Animate Text in DaVinci Resolve

Here’s the short version for those in a hurry:

To animate text in DaVinci Resolve, open the Edit page, place the timeline playhead on top of the text generator, and select it. Open the Inspector > Settings, and click on the diamond icon next to Zoom and Position. Then move the timeline playhead forward, then adjust the Zoom and Position again.

Don’t worry if that was confusing, as I’ve also written a bit more details (with images) below!

Detailed Guide

We first have to add a title generator to the timeline before we can start animating our text.

I’ll quickly show you how to do this before we proceed.

First, open the “Edit” page inside Resolve:

Then in the top left-hand corner, click on “Effects”> “Toolbox”> “Titles,” and then drag either a “Text” or “Text+” down to the timeline and drop it. Watch the image below for more information:

You can adjust the duration of the text by hovering over the edge of the text generator in the timeline and stretching it.

When following the steps in the article, it’s important that the text generator in the timeline is selected at all times.

This is done by simply clicking on it, and then it should be highlighted like this:

Next, place the timeline playhead at the beginning of the text generator in the timeline, open the “Inspector” tab and then the “Settings” sub-tab.

Then under “Transform,” adjust the “Position” and “Zoom” values to how you want the animation to start.

• Zoom:
  • Controls the text size. 
  • Ensure the chain icon between the X- and Y-axis is enabled.
    • Then both values will change simultaneously.
• Position: 
  • X-axis moves the text sideways.
  • Y-axis moves the text upwards and downwards.

Once you have positioned the starting position of the text, click on the diamond icon next to “Zoom” and “Position” to create keyframes.

Watch the image below for more details:

Then move the timeline playhead forward to where you want the animation to stop.

• So if the text is going to move from one place to another, this is the point in time it will be at the finish line.

Next, open the “Inspector”> “Settings” again, and adjust the “Position” and the “Zoom” to how you want the animation to end (make sure that the text generator is selected).

• Keyframes are automatically generated the second time you make an adjustment.

Check out this complete tutorial on how to customize the text and make it look awesome!

• I recommend reading the part about text color and adding fonts.

And that’s how you animate movement to text!

If you play through the video, the text should now move from the starting position to the end position.

A much easier way to do text animation is using the presets included in DaVinci Resolve’s effects library. 

I’ll show you that next:

Text Animation Preset in DaVinci Resolve

You can find many presets to use for text animation in DaVinci Resolve’s effects library. Simply, open the “Edit” page, and click on “Effects” > “Video Transitions.” Then, to apply the animation, drag and drop it on a text generator in the timeline.

To illustrate how effective these presets are, I will make the text slide in and slide out again:

How to Make Text Move In and Out: DaVinci Resolve

Quick Explanation:

You can make text move in and out from your video on the “Edit” page in DaVinci Resolve. First, open “Effects” (top left corner) > “Toolbox” > “Video Transitions.” Then, drag and drop the “Slide Right” transition at the beginning of the title generator and the “Slide Left” at the end of the title.

Detailed Explanation:

Head over to the “Edit” page of Resolve:

Then in the top left-hand corner, open the “Effects” tab, and click on the magnifying glass to open the search bar.

Then type “slide” in the search bar, and you should be able to see the “Slide Right” and the “Slide Left” under “Fusion Transition.”

• If you can’t see them, click on “Toolbox” and search again. 
  • This way, you are searching the whole effects library.

First, drag the “Slide Right” and drop it at the beginning of the text generator in the timeline (watch the image below):

Next, drag and drop the “Slide Left” transition at the end of the text generator in the timeline like this:

To adjust how fast the text moves, hover over the effect (on top of the text generator) and stretch it:

How to Make Bouncing Text in DaVinci Resolve

Another incredible effect to use in DaVinci Resolve is the fall and bounce.

Using this will make your title fall into the screen and bounce while landing before calming down.

It’s a famous effect, which you probably have seen somewhere before.

Head over to the “Edit” page:

Then you’ll find it in the “Effects” tab by simply clicking the magnifying glass and searching for “bounce.”

Drag and drop it at the beginning of your text generator in the timeline like this:

Then, to adjust how fast it falls and bounces; hover over the edge of the effect (on top of the text generator) and stretch it:

How to Animate Subtitles in DaVinci Resolve

It’s not possible to animate subtitles in DaVinci Resolve. Alternatively, you can create subtitles with standard title generators and then animate them.

This might sound like a lot of work; however, since this is videowithjens.com, I’ve found a pretty effective way of doing it.

I will show you how to effectively “convert” the subtitles to standard text generators.

Check out this guide if you don’t know how to create standard subtitles in DaVinci Resolve.

We are going to be doing this from the “Edit” page:

Then in the top left-hand corner, open “Effects”> Titles,” drag and drop a “Text+” title to the timeline; like in the image below: (Only add one!)

Then, before creating a bunch of text generators in the timeline, you must match the styling of the “Text+” generator to the subtitles (or else you have a lot of work afterward).

• For example, you want to use the same font, size, position, stroke, shadow, color, etc.

The font in the image above is the same as MrBeast, and other famous YouTubers use! Here’s a link to it if you want to download it, and here’s a tutorial showing you how to add new fonts to Resolve.

Once you have matched the text to the subtitles, we will duplicate it.

To do this, hold down “Alt” or “Option” (Mac) on your keyboard while dragging the text generator to the right of the timeline. 

• Obs! Ensure you release the mouse button before “Alt” or “Option.”

I recommend trimming the text generator a bit before duplicating it since it’s 5 seconds by default.

Next, we need to match the text generator lengths to the subtitles above!

To do this, activate the “Trim Edit Mode” by clicking on it in the toolbar above the timeline, or use the keyboard shortcut “T” (see the image below).

Also, make sure that “Snapping” is enabled, the magnet icon in the toolbar (shortcut “N”).

Now, hover your mouse cursor between the text generators in the timeline as you get the cursor icon I’m showing you in the image below (it has to be that specific icon). 

Then, click, hold, and drag to the right or left to increase or decrease the length. 

• Having “Snapping” enabled, it should snap to the correct position (between the subtitles). Please test it out yourself, as it’s pretty hard to explain.

Once you have done that, copy the text in the subtitles, and paste it into the text generators below them.

Then, when it’s time to animate them, follow the steps I’m showing you here.