Insider Tips: Protect Your DaVinci Resolve Projects With Data Burn-In

Every week, Frame.io Insider asks one of our expert contributors to share a tip, tool, or technique that they use all the time and couldn’t live without. This week, Laurence Grayson shares how to use DaVinci Resolve’s Data Burn-In tool to protect your projects with a watermark.

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Protecting your videos with Data Burn-In

We all know by now that it’s prudent to add watermarks to anything that leaves our timelines. But if you’ve been using DaVinci Resolve more for grading than for editing, there’s a chance you might be doing this the hard way.

So if you’re still creating your watermarks in a Resolve title layer across the top of your timeline before rendering your client previews, let me introduce you to the Data Burn-In tool.

Like the name suggests, Resolve’s Data Burn-In lets you automatically add a watermark or message overlay to your work without having to add unnecessary layers to your edit.

How to use DaVinci Resolve’s Data Burn-In tool

Applying a watermark using the Data Burn-In tool is easy.

1. With your timeline open in Resolve’s Edit page, go to Workspace and select Data Burn-In.
2. In the Data Burn-In panel, choose whether you want to apply this effect to your entire Project or just the currently selected Clip with the tabs at the top.
3. Check the Custom Text box to add a specific message, and use one of the Logo fields if you want to add a graphic. Note that there is no scale option, so your graphic will need to be the correct size before import.
4. Adjust the position, style, and transparency of the Data Burn-In, then close the panel.

Turning Data Burn-In Off and On

Once you’ve set your Data Burn-In options, Resolve will add these every time you render out a version of that timeline or clip. To toggle this function on and off, you could deselect all the settings in the Data Burn-In panel. But it’s easier to disable Data Burn-In in the Deliver page settings.

Just look for the Data Burn-In option under the Advanced settings of the Deliver page and choose “Same as project” or “None”

Frame.io Watermark ID

Of course, I can’t really talk about watermarks in DaVinci Resolve without pointing out that all Frame.io plans let you apply watermarks to all your uploaded media files. And if you’re really serious about media security, you should probably take a look at Frame.io Watermark ID—because nothing reduces unwanted distribution like seeing your own name, contact info, and IP address burnt into the file you’re watching.