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FilmScribe
Plugin in DaVinci Resolve Closed beta

How to use animated captions and templates in DaVinci

Updated

Short answer

In Captions, pick the style with the same styles and settings as the app and bring it to the timeline: the whole video's animated captions go on your timeline, on our own track above your edit, as video with a transparent background. On a clip, the captions and the template are steps of the clip itself, in Clips.

Available on Agency Closed beta

Before you start

Send the timeline from the plugin. Animated captions and templates need a timeline with video.

Step by step

  1. Step 1: Open Captions

    In the left column, click Captions. The preview shows DaVinci's current frame with the caption on top and follows the playhead.

    The Captions page, with the preview over DaVinci's frame and the caption style.
    App screenshot The Captions page, with the preview over DaVinci's frame and the caption style.

  2. Step 2: Pick the style

    Click Change style to see the gallery with the app's styles, with search and categories. Adjust Highlight, Size and Position, or the font and effects sections, and the preview follows.

    The caption style gallery, open on one category.
    App screenshot The caption style gallery, open on one category.

  3. Step 3: Choose where the animated captions go

    Under Animated captions, keep Whole video for the entire timeline, in parts of about a minute and a half. Only on some clips puts the captions inside the timelines of clips that already have their own timeline and no captions picked in the clip.

    Animated captions set to Whole video, right below the caption style.
    App screenshot Animated captions set to Whole video, right below the caption style.

  4. Step 4: Bring it to the timeline

    Click Add to timeline. We make the animated captions and they go on your timeline, on the FilmScribe · Animated captions track, above your edit; nothing of yours changes. The bar at the top shows how many parts are ready.

    The bar at the top preparing the animated captions for the whole video.
    App screenshot The bar at the top preparing the animated captions for the whole video.

Optional steps

You don't need these steps to finish the task. Use them if you want.

  • OptionalFix a line

    Click a line, change the text and press Enter: the fix is saved in FilmScribe. Once the captions are on the timeline, the pill at the top counts the change and Apply 1 change brings the animated captions again with the fix.

    A line fixed in Captions, ready to apply.
    App screenshot A line fixed in Captions, ready to apply.

  • OptionalUse a template on a clip

    In Clips, open a clip and go to the Template step. Pick a template under My templates or Ready-made and create or update the clip's timeline. On the clip's timeline, the visuals go on the FilmScribe · Template track, the video moves into the template's spot and the template's captions become the clip's. Nothing changes on your timeline.

    A clip's Template step, with ready-made templates over DaVinci's frame.
    App screenshot A clip's Template step, with ready-made templates over DaVinci's frame.

Frequently asked questions

Do the captions go on my timeline?

The whole video's animated captions do, on a new video track above your edit, never on one of your tracks. A clip's captions go only on that clip's timeline.

Does the animated caption have a transparent background?

Yes. It is a video with transparency (ProRes 4444), placed on a track above the picture, so you trim and move it like any other clip.

Does uploading the audio make the animated captions?

No. Animated captions take a while to be ready, so they are only made when you ask: in Captions, for the whole video, or in a clip's Captions step.

Does the plugin still create a timeline with a caption track?

No. For the original audio, the plugin brings the animated captions. For a caption track in the original language, use DaVinci Resolve Studio's automatic captions. Translated captions still come as one timeline per language, in Translations.

Does a style I save in the plugin show in the app?

Yes. Saving the caption style stores it in your account, and it shows in My styles in the app's caption editor.

Why is there no manual line break or per-word style in the plugin?

Those settings belong to each clip and live in the app's clip editor. Caption translation lives in the Translations module.

Related articles

Plugin in DaVinci Resolve How to bring translated captions into DaVinci How to translate captions in the FilmScribe Plugin and bring one timeline per language into DaVinci Resolve, plus the translated summary and chapters. Plugin in DaVinci Resolve How to bring clips and markers into DaVinci How to bring FilmScribe clips into DaVinci Resolve as one Selection, build a clip's timeline step by step and add markers to your timeline. Captions How to choose and save a caption style How to choose one of FilmScribe's animated caption styles by category or search, save your own style and set a style as the default.

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