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Users can select, filter, isolate, and choose elements in a USD asset to focus on logical components and make targeted adjustments.
Preparing Compositions in Fusion Studio
The next few sections in this chapter cover preparing a project and adding clips into a composition when using Fusion Studio. The term composition, or comp, is used to refer to the Fusion project file. By default, opening the Fusion Studio application creates a new empty composition when it’s launched. A composition can contain single frames, image sequences, or movie files at various
resolutions and bit depths. Knowing which files you can load in, how to set up a composition to handle them, and finally, reading those files in are the first steps in beginning to composite.
Opening, Closing, and Saving Compositions
As soon as you open Fusion Studio, a new empty composition is created. If necessary, you can also create or open multiple compositions at once. Each additional composition is opened as a tab to the main Fusion Studio window.
Three compositions opened as tabs in Fusion Studio.
— Choose File > New.
— Choose File > Open.
— Choose File > Open Recent, and choose from the list of recently opened comps.
— Drag a composition file from an OS file browser into the tabbed composition area at the top of the Fusion Studio window.
— Double-click on a composition file in the OS file browser.
— Choose File > Close from the menu at the top of the Fusion window.
— Click the Close X icon on the right of the composition’s tab.
TIP: Compositions that have unsaved changes will display an asterisk (*) next to the composition’s name in the Fusion Studio title bar and in the composition’s tab.
TIP: Compositions that have unsaved changes will display an asterisk (*) next to the composition’s name in the Fusion Studio title bar and in the composition’s tab.
TIP: Compositions that have unsaved changes will display an asterisk (*) next to the composition’s name in the Fusion Studio title bar and in the composition’s tab.
If the composition has unsaved changes, a dialog box appears allowing you to save before closing.
— Choose File > Save and enter a name if the comp has yet to be named.
— Choose File > Save As to save under a new name.
— Choose File > Save Version to save the current composition with an added three-digit version number at the end of the name. Each time you save a version, the number automatically increments and the comp file is saved in the same location as the first version.
Auto Save
Auto save automatically saves the composition to a temporary file at preset intervals. Auto saves help to protect you from loss of work due to power loss, software issues, or accidental closure.
To enable auto save for new compositions, choose Fusion Studio > Preferences, and then locate Global
> General > Auto Save in the Preferences dialog.
An auto-save file does not overwrite the current composition in the file system. A file with the same name is created in the same folder as the composition but with the extension .autosave instead of
.comp. Unsaved compositions will place the autosave file in the default folder specified by the Comp: path in the Paths panel of the Global Preferences.
If an auto-save file is present when Fusion Studio loads a composition, a dialog will appear asking to load the auto-saved or original version of the composition.
The Composition File Format
Composition files are saved as readable plain text files. Using plain text files to describe a composition makes it easier to integrate Fusion into structured, visual effects pipeline and asset management solutions.
Composition files can be opened and edited using any standard text editing program. However, it is never a good idea to open the file using a word processor, such as Microsoft Word or Apple Pages, as these will generally save additional formatting information which will make the composition unreadable to Fusion.
Importing and Exporting a Composition from DaVinci Resolve
Although the compositions created in DaVinci Resolve’s Fusion page are saved in the DaVinci Resolve project library as .drp project files, you can import and export Fusion composition files when in the Fusion page. This makes it very easy to share Fusion compositions between the different applications.
1 From within DaVinci Resolve, switch to the Fusion page with the composition you want to export.
2 Choose File > Export Fusion Composition.
3 A Save dialog appears in which you can enter a name and location from the exported Fusion composition.
A .comp extension is added to the end of the filename. Only the node tree created in the Fusion page is exported. Clips not added to the Node Editor will not appear in the Fusion Studio bins. ResolveFX added to the comp will also not translate from the Fusion page to Fusion Studio.
MediaIn nodes from DaVinci Resolve are automatically converted to Loader nodes, and if the file path remains identical, the media is automatically relinked.
MediaOut nodes are converted to Saver nodes.
The return trip can also be performed, saving a composition file from Fusion Studio and importing it into the Fusion page within DaVinci Resolve.
1 From within Fusion Studio, open the composition you want to move into the Fusion page.
2 From within DaVinci Resolve, switch to the Fusion page with an empty composition.
The composition you import will completely replace the existing composition in the Fusion page Node Editor.
3 Choose File > Import Fusion Composition.
4 In the Open dialog, navigate to the Fusion comp and click Open.
TIP: To keep an existing comp in the Fusion page and merge a new comp from Fusion Studio, open Fusion Studio, select all the nodes in the Node Editor, and press Command-C to copy the selected nodes. Then, open DaVinci Resolve and switch the Fusion page with the composition you want, click in an empty location in the Node Editor, and press Command-V to paste the Fusion Studio nodes. Proceed to connect the pasted node tree into the existing one using a Merge or Merge 3D node.
TIP: To keep an existing comp in the Fusion page and merge a new comp from Fusion Studio, open Fusion Studio, select all the nodes in the Node Editor, and press Command-C to copy the selected nodes. Then, open DaVinci Resolve and switch the Fusion page with the composition you want, click in an empty location in the Node Editor, and press Command-V to paste the Fusion Studio nodes. Proceed to connect the pasted node tree into the existing one using a Merge or Merge 3D node.
TIP: To keep an existing comp in the Fusion page and merge a new comp from Fusion Studio, open Fusion Studio, select all the nodes in the Node Editor, and press Command-C to copy the selected nodes. Then, open DaVinci Resolve and switch the Fusion page with the composition you want, click in an empty location in the Node Editor, and press Command-V to paste the Fusion Studio nodes. Proceed to connect the pasted node tree into the existing one using a Merge or Merge 3D node.
5 The new comp is loaded into the Node Editor, replacing the previously existing composition.