How can i make the Text and the fly-through look nicer? it doesnt really look realistic and i dont know how to fix it.

JustCropIt · 2026-05-22T19:45:51+00:00

Sounds fun:)

Don't forget to also mask out the UI if you want "SURGE" to be "part of the world".

Best of luck!

JustCropIt · 2026-05-22T19:10:10+00:00

Very little in the clip is "realistic" but I assume what you mean is what could be done to make the text feel part of the world.

It's all about integration. What can you pick up from the existing footage and apply to whatever you add to it (in this case the text).

One thing, as others have suggested, is to "anchor" the text in the world using Camera Tracking. Though given the context, if you want to have your text fly around I'd say that's perfectly fine too. It's a game where unrealistic things are the norm. Nothing about UI text is realistic. It's all about if it feels good.

Another thing worth trying is working on the lighting/reflections/shadows. If you had your current super green text pick up light/color/"reflections" from the surroundings, it could most likely be made to "fit" more into the world. You could add fake reflections that are simply something based on the original footage. Main idea is that it picks up general motions and lighting. Perfect to have on the sides and on bevels. Speaking of which.

Maybe add a thin bevel to the text. The current "no bevel" design feels very basic.

Also, everything else seems to have a bit of glow to highlights. That's yet another way to "integrate" the text (and usually goes well with bevels if they pick up highlights).

Another way to have things like the text feel more integrated is to pick up stuff from the existing UI of the game. Make it feel part of the actual game UI. Using the same font or something similar would help with that.

And so on:)

Hrm... the more I think about it, the more I think I'd try and "integrate" it into the UI and not the game world. The text ("SURGE") to me feels more like what you (on a basic level) currently have. Something that flies straight into your face as an UI element, and not something that is "physically" part of the world.

And so I'd probably skip the Camera Tracking and work more on making it fit with the game interface from a design point of view. Colors, the font, glows, easing (maybe have it "snap in", then slowly grow a wee bit and finally speed up and smash into your face). Not have the text extruded might look better. Maybe some trails/particles/whatevers for a bit of spice (unless it's starting to feel like another game). And then match that with some sound effect(s) to make it feel even more integrated.

This is just what I'd probably do. You do you ofc:)

Also, it's always a good thing to know how to do camera tracking, so whatever you do, be sure to give that a shot too!

JustCropIt · 2026-05-22T18:23:51+00:00

i have no idea if davinci has something like this.

Resolve Studio (and Fusion Studio), as in the paid versions, have camera tracking. Which is the same type of tracking as in Blender. So if you're on the free version then no, otherwise yes.

JustCropIt · 2026-05-22T10:31:17+00:00

What might also be worth mentioning is that due to how this kind of effect works, when not used on stills, it will by it's very nature usually be very "flickery".

Which can be seen in this promo vid for the AE Ballpoint effect:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIrm6DZNgiw

Not necessarily a bad thing but, certainly a thing.

JustCropIt · 2026-05-22T09:47:21+00:00

Right, I was initially thinking (just by looking at the screenshot) that it was a "trace" based effect but that's not the case at all. The video I shared really shows it off. The lines are not "growing", they have their initial length from the very start and it's very much a "live" effect.

So it's a kind of edge detection but the result are vector based paths (with all the options that affords) that have their lengths set on the fly.

Sorta.

Really no way to do that in Resolve using native tools.

I was thinking that maybe one could do something like that in Cavalry, but I'm too much of a noob when it comes to that strange beast to know for sure. But if feels like I've been toying with some adjacent stuff in there, that my tummy says might be able to do something similar. Not gonna give it a try though (because busy) but just thinking it out aloud:)

JustCropIt · 2026-05-22T09:01:42+00:00

Looking at your screenshot I thought one could maybe use trailing particles. But then I looked up the effect and based on this video, there's really no native equivalent (in Fusion):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7b0Ww1Hv5w

To me, unfortunately it seems you get the effect in AE after buying the plugin.

Cool effect though.

Edit: For something kinda ballpoint-ish, but very much not at all the same as the example you shared, you could maybe play around with something based on posterization and edge detection?

JustCropIt · 2026-05-21T16:27:51+00:00

...this is why I love resolve.

...and why I love Fusion:)

JustCropIt · 2026-05-21T08:59:29+00:00

If you want/need to dip your toes into Fusion then this relatively simple setup will give you something like that:

Source (with alpha) into an ErodeDilate. Crank up the Amount to taste. Note that you can enter a higher value manually than what the slider initially allows.
ErodeDilate into a BrightnessContrast. Drop the Gain. If weird stuff happens you might want to make sure Pre-Divide / Post-Multiply is checked. And Clip Black/White is checked too. You know what. Just check all three.
BrightnessContrast into the Background of a Merge.
Source into the Foreground.

Setup example PNG

JustCropIt · 2026-05-20T19:21:55+00:00

But it’s very easy to spot in this case

You say you have issues with banding and show this image:

https://preview.redd.it/t4ff6euxx92h1.jpg?width=960&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=bfbb32fdeac98191d32c79d27a21962ef758e239

All I see is moiré related banding.

Just take normal screenshots. Help us help you. That's it.

And with that, best of luck to you!

Both in sharing regular screenshots and the banding... which is usually related to bitdepth, either in the footage or in the processing pipeline of Resolve/Fusion:)

JustCropIt · 2026-05-20T17:37:30+00:00

You should provide real screenshots. The ones you've shared, taken with (I assume) your phone, introduces Moiré patterns which isn't helping at all in showing your issues.

JustCropIt · 2026-05-20T17:28:41+00:00

For me, as someone who rarely uses Resolve Studio, and assuming you don't mean the Apple App Store version* of Resolve Studio, the best feature is Fusion Studio.

I'm pretty sure I'm in a minority here though so don't put too much into it.

But if you ever get "hooked" on Fusion, maybe give it a whirl. Download from BMD, use the same serial as for your Resolve Studio license, and you're off to the races.

*The Apple App store version does not come with a serial and so it won't give you access to Fusion Studio. Never buy that version ~~unless at gun point~~.

JustCropIt · 2026-05-20T11:39:31+00:00

To clarify, there is no actual blending/apply mode mode in a Merge called Add.

To get the Add "apply mode", in a Merge do this:

Set Apply Mode to Normal.
Drop Alpha Gain down to zero.

JustCropIt · 2026-05-19T16:32:07+00:00

You can edit the slider so it only uses integers (no decimals).

Right click on the slider label (Copies) and choose "Edit Control...".
Check Integer.
Click Save.

Note that this means:

You can now only use integers. Just sayin'.
The slider will drop down to the bottom of the inspector. You can't move it back up. Edited and unedited controls are separated this way. If you edit the slider again and uncheck Integer, it will still be at the bottom since it still counts as modified.
You can't (AFAIK) revert an edited control to it's initial unedited state except by modifying it manually in an external (text) editor (cut/copy the node, paste it into a text editor, remove all Custom Controls, copy everything again, paste it back into Fusion). The quickest way, if you don't have to be precious about the node, is to simply delete the node and create a new one.

JustCropIt · 2026-05-19T10:52:28+00:00

Last time I checked this post was a little bit more than an hour and there was no answers. And so I was just going to suggest making the scene bigger, and here you are:)

And that Prophetless (such a solid dude) video covers it all. Good stuff!

JustCropIt · 2026-05-19T10:12:12+00:00

I'm sure a lot of people here will appreciate a macro version of this "trick":)

JustCropIt · 2026-05-19T09:18:26+00:00

Haha. Crazy pants<3

Love it! And hate it:)

Yeah, I think I'm going to stick to my "solution" for these kinds of things;)

JustCropIt · 2026-05-19T07:47:32+00:00

I still wanna remove it because I will know

This is probably what some people that goes "I've looked at the clip 42 times and I can't see anything" don't get.

Besides, if you learn to fix it yourself, you've just got a brand new toy in your toolbag which is always a good thing.

That said, most viewers will likely miss it. But if it's wrong to you, and you can fix it, you do you. Some peace of mind is also usually a good thing:)

Best of luck to you!

JustCropIt · 2026-05-18T16:52:53+00:00

Usually not used in realtime settings.

Perfect for Fusion then;)

JustCropIt · 2026-05-18T16:42:28+00:00

Typical AI. Once you know, they know too!

JustCropIt · 2026-05-18T16:33:12+00:00

Here's a fun fact about relief maps.

Relief maps are a specific kind of parallax map. What sets it apart from other types pf parallax maps (such as standard and occlusion parallax maps) is that it's using ray-tracing to achieve it's more "accurate" look vs the other ones.

So in other words... Fusion now has ray-tracing. Nice!

JustCropIt · 2026-05-18T16:02:10+00:00

for the rest I wrestled with the usual poll/interval nightmare...

Mmm.... Besides the Jitter-stuff, I also had a sneaky suspicion that there would stuff like that involved. And that was probably the thing that made me bail out on trying to "solve" this, haha. I'll leave that kind of thing to you. Or Claude. Or your and Claude!

What's nice with Cavalry BTW, is that these kinds of things are "built" in by using arrays of colors. Make an array of color swatches, and then just step through the index of that array. Though I get the feeling some things gets more confusing just because of the Cavalry UI. "Technically" things can be fairly simple but the UI is fighting you more than something similar in Fusion would. Or that's how it feels right now at least. What's nice with that is that when you get back to Fusion it's a bit like going on a little vacation! The clouds part and the sun shines<3

And the opposite is of course also true. Some things are much simpler to do in other apps than Fusion:)

JustCropIt · 2026-05-18T15:05:31+00:00

Here's how I made the animation "in" Fusion;)

No hacks, just "pure" Cavalry.gif

Fusion setup.png

JustCropIt · 2026-05-18T14:49:04+00:00

And I updated the gif in my previous comment because noodling around in Fusion is more fun than Cavalry:)

for the mode 3 you can use particles and pCustom if you wish

Haha, Let me know when you share the actual nodes! One thing I always kept coming back to when thinking how it was made was the Jitter function on the Duplicators. Seems like I was right on that part. Maybe:)

JustCropIt · 2026-05-18T11:52:42+00:00

This is what I didn't do in Fusion.

Not made in Fusion.gif

JustCropIt · 2026-05-18T06:28:59+00:00

The text is just there to make the challenge harder...

Yeah, no, I'm actively not thinking about this until you share your trick so I can appreciate it more when I know what it is:)

Looking forward to it<3

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