WispFX adds an AI alpha matte effect to DaVinci Resolve Studio. The WispFX Matte effect pulls a matte for a clip on the Edit, Color or Fusion page, and the clip then has a real alpha channel. Matting runs on your own NVIDIA GPU, on Windows. A Scripts menu entry also writes a despilled ProRes 4444 matte on the track above.
Tested on DaVinci Resolve Studio 21.0. The stated minimum is Resolve 18.5. The free edition of Resolve has not been tested yet.
Steps
- Install the effect Close Resolve and run Install for DaVinci Resolve.bat. Windows asks for permission once, because OFX effects live in Program Files.
- Restart and keep the server running Restart Resolve and keep WispFX Server running while you work. The engine and models are the same as for the After Effects panel, so download the models first.
- Add the effect Find Effects, OpenFX, WispFX, WispFX Matte. Drop it on a clip on the Edit page, use it as a node on the Color page, or as a tool on the Fusion page.
- Choose quality and subject Set Quality and Subject for the next pull. Subject takes text, for example woman in red.
- Pull the matte Click Pull Matte. Resolve shows its progress bar, with Cancel. When it finishes, the clip has a real alpha channel.
- Choose the output and refine Choose Cutout, Matte or Original. Shrink or Grow, Feather and Invert update live, with no re-render.
Output modes
| Mode | What it shows | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Cutout | The clip made transparent, so tracks below show through. The output is premultiplied, Resolve's convention. | Compositing over other clips |
| Matte | The matte in black and white. | Checking the matte, or keys on the Color page |
| Original | The clip passed through untouched. | Comparing with the result |
The script route
Choose Workspace, Scripts, WispFX. Put the playhead over a clip and choose Quick matte or Pick in WispFX. The despilled matte comes back as ProRes 4444 with straight alpha, frame-aligned on the track above, in a WispFX bin. Use this when you want a separate matte clip to grade or share.
Limits
- Up to 1500 frames per pull. On the Fusion page Resolve reports the whole source file, so for long files the effect mattes a window starting 1 second before the playhead.
- The model sees at most 1920 pixels on the long side. The matte is scaled to the timeline resolution.
- The effect does not despill yet. The Cutout keeps the plate’s own edge colour. Use the script route for a despilled ProRes 4444.
- Windows build only. There is no Mac build at launch.
Where the matte is kept
The matte is cached as 16-bit PNG frames in the WispFX folder under your AppData, and it is still there after a Resolve restart. Pulling again replaces it. Diagnostics are written to the ofx.log file in the same AppData folder.