Hollywood darling of video editing software gets AI assistants and expanded photography features in big update

Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve 21.1, a free and industry-standard video editing software, has received a significant update with numerous new features. Among these, the AI assistant integration is the headline feature, enabling users to access assistants from leading models like Claude and ChatGPT Codex. These assistants can assist editors by analyzing projects, organizing media, adjusting settings, and batch rendering.

What sets these assistants apart is their ability to understand normal conversational prompts, which should simplify even the most complex tasks. The AI technology is designed to handle laborious tasks such as creating highlight reels from long-form content, rendering deliverables, and removing unwanted clips.

Another major addition to DaVinci Resolve is its photo editing capabilities. The program now supports a wider range of camera formats, including the Sony A7R VI, Leica SL, and Fujifilm GFX and X series cameras. Furthermore, image settings on the Photo page can be adjusted using color panels, including the DaVinci Resolve Micro Color Panel. This provides users with hands-on control for quicker, more precise adjustments.

To aid editors working on multi-camera workflows, the Edit page now includes a multi-cam mode button on the timeline viewer. This allows the current clip to be displayed in the source viewer, facilitating seamless angle switching. Once editors have reviewed media pool clips, the source viewer automatically returns to multi-cam mode when going back to the timeline. Additionally, users can now split at timecode gaps, making the process of syncing multi-camera footage faster.

Blackmagic also released an update for Blackmagic Cloud, featuring new Presentations features and faster bulk downloads when using Cloud Storage. The DaVinci Resolve 21.1 update is now available and can be downloaded for free.