To keep a Fusion clone repair attached throughout a short moving shot, steady the surface with a planar track, paint the repair, then restore the original motion. Use an editable Stroke so the fix persists across the shot.

This walkthrough is for a Mac editor repairing one small unwanted mark on a flat surface in DaVinci Resolve’s Fusion page. The illustrative example is a four-second synthetic animation of a textured rectangular card with an unwanted dot. The card moves and rotates slightly, while nearby clean texture remains available for cloning.

The workflow follows Blackmagic Design’s September 2026 Fusion 21.1 manual, particularly Chapter 21, “Paint,” pages 513–539. Resolve’s integrated Fusion page supplies the clip through MediaIn; standalone Fusion Studio uses a Loader instead. Follow the node names and controls for your installed version rather than assuming every older interface matches. Fusion 21.1 Reference Manual

Choose the stroke and motion method before painting

A repair has three separate requirements: it must remain visible for the necessary frames, follow the surface, and sample suitable replacement pixels. Solving only the first requirement leaves a persistent patch that can slide away from its target.

Fusion’s editable Stroke and Polyline stroke types initially last for the entire composition. Multistroke and Clone Multistroke default to one frame, with duration configured before painting. They also lack the same later editing flexibility. For this short moving repair, select Stroke, then choose the Clone apply mode. Fusion 21.1 Reference Manual, “Select the Correct Paint Stroke Type”

Use this decision aid to select a starting method. The recommendations apply the manual’s documented stroke and tracking behavior to common shot conditions.

What the shot requires Suitable starting method Condition to check
Repairing one isolated frame Clone Multistroke Set the brush and duration before painting.
Following a small feature that mainly changes position Editable Stroke with a tracker attached to its center A position track alone does not describe perspective changes.
Following a flat surface that rotates or changes perspective Planar tracking, Steady, painting, then inverse steady transform The selected region needs usable texture on the same surface.
Replacing texture that visibly changes from frame to frame A frozen clean patch, masked and match moved The frozen texture must still suit the changing shot.

Blackmagic documents both direct stroke tracking and the planar steady workflow. A tracker can be attached to an editable stroke’s center; Multistroke types require a group when tracking them this way. The planar workflow below makes the surface stationary before you paint, which is useful when the motion includes more than position changes. Fusion 21.1 Reference Manual, Chapters 21 and 54

Prepare the clip and track the surface

First, settle the short section you need to repair and inspect its beginning, middle, and end. In the synthetic card example, confirm that the clean sampling area stays visible and that the card remains approximately flat. These are practical checks for whether one repair can serve the whole shot.

In Resolve, park the playhead over the required timeline clip and open the Fusion page. Resolve makes that clip available as a MediaIn node. Work on the individual shot for this tutorial; compound clips and nested timelines can expose a different combined input. DaVinci Resolve 21.1 Reference Manual, “How Do I Use the Fusion Page?”

Establish a reference frame and tracking region

  1. Add a PlanarTracker after MediaIn1, connecting the clip to the tracker’s background image input.
  2. Select and display PlanarTracker1 in a viewer.
  3. On a clear reference frame, draw a closed polygon around a textured portion of the card. Click the first point again to close it.
  4. Keep Operation Mode set to Track and click Set to establish the reference frame.
  5. Choose the appropriate Motion Type, then track the required range. For a simple first-frame reference, track forward through the shot.

Those controls and their sequence are documented in the manual’s “Using the Planar Tracker with the Paint Tool” example. Its motion options include translation, translation with rotation, translation with rotation and scale, and perspective. Choose a model that fits the surface’s actual movement; a synthetic card that changes apparent shape may need perspective tracking. Fusion 21.1 Reference Manual, pages 528–530

Keep the tracking polygon on the card. Including unrelated background movement gives the analysis competing motion. Favor visible texture rather than a broad uniform area. Blackmagic specifically notes that tracking which fails to start, or starts and stops, can indicate insufficient trackable detail inside the selected region. Fusion 21.1 Reference Manual, “Setting Up the Planar Tracker for Stabilization”

Check the steady result before adding paint

Change Operation Mode to Steady and scrub through the tracked range. The card’s selected region should remain pinned in place while the surrounding image moves or warps. That surrounding movement is expected: the tracker is transforming the image to hold the chosen surface still. Fusion 21.1 Reference Manual, page 530

Use the dot and a nearby texture detail as visual checkpoints. If either drifts within the steadied surface, improve the tracking region or motion model before painting. A larger brush can cover drift temporarily, but it does not correct the underlying alignment.

Build a transparent clone layer and paint the repair

The manual allows painting directly after the tracker, but also documents a transparent paint branch merged over the steadied image. The latter gives you a separate repair layer to inspect and adjust. Fusion 21.1 Reference Manual, “Connecting the Paint Node”

Build these connections. The names below describe the tutorial’s nodes; your automatically generated numbers may differ.

  • Connect PlanarTracker1 to the background image input of Merge1.
  • Add Background1 and set its alpha to 0, making it fully transparent.
  • Connect Background1 to the image input of Paint1.
  • Connect Paint1 to the green foreground input of Merge1.
  • Match the transparent background’s image dimensions to the working clip.
  • Display Merge1 in the viewer, then select Paint1 to access its painting controls.

The transparent background provides the paint canvas. Its dimensions matter because Fusion’s Paint node takes its working resolution from its background input. You also need an explicit clone source: otherwise this branch would attempt to sample its transparent canvas. Fusion 21.1 Reference Manual, “Setting the Paint Node’s Resolution” and “Setting a Clone Source”

Set the source and make a small editable stroke

  1. With Paint1 selected, choose Stroke in the viewer’s paint toolbar.
  2. In the Inspector’s apply controls, select Clone.
  3. Drag PlanarTracker1 from the node editor into Paint1’s Source Tool field. This supplies the steadied image for sampling.
  4. Set a brush size suitable for the dot. On Mac, holding Command while dragging in the viewer adjusts brush size.
  5. Hold Option and click a clean area of the card to establish the clone source.
  6. Release Option, then paint over the dot.
  7. Scrub several frames to inspect the repair while the surface remains steadied.

These are the manual’s documented clone controls, including the Mac sampling modifier and the explicit source assignment for the transparent branch. If a stroke is unsuitable, use Command-Z and try again. Fusion 21.1 Reference Manual, pages 531–534

For the illustrative card, sample nearby texture with similar brightness and spacing. Avoid copying a distinctive line into a second obvious location. Start with the smallest area that covers the dot and its edge; inspect the join before adding more strokes. These are visual selection criteria, not fixed brush settings.

To revise an existing editable stroke, switch to the paint selection tool and select it in the viewer, or locate it in the Inspector’s Modifiers tab. Change that stroke’s settings rather than assuming adjustments for the next brush stroke will revise earlier work. Stroke timing can be changed in the Keyframes editor if the repair should cover only part of the composition. Fusion 21.1 Reference Manual, “Editing Paint Strokes”

Restore the original movement

Copy the tracked PlanarTracker1 and paste the copy after Merge1. Keep the copy in Steady mode and enable Invert Steady Transform. Connect its output to MediaOut1. The copied tracker retains the original analysis; the inverse operation restores the movement after the repair has been composited. Fusion 21.1 Reference Manual, “Inverting the Steady Effect to Put the Motion Back In”

The finished image path is MediaIn1 → PlanarTracker1 → Merge1 → PlanarTracker2 → MediaOut1. The repair branch is Background1 → Paint1 → Merge1, and Paint1 samples PlanarTracker1 through its Source Tool field.

Review the output at the first frame, a middle frame, and the last frame, then play the entire shot. The card should move as it originally did while the dot remains covered. If you revise the original tracking analysis later, replace or update the downstream copy so both operations use matching data.

Diagnose disappearing, sliding, or flickering repairs

Use this sequence to locate the fault before rebuilding the node tree. It separates timing, alignment, and sampling problems.

Symptom First check Practical next action
The repair appears on one frame only Stroke type and timing Repaint with editable Stroke, or configure the intended duration before using a multistroke tool.
The repair slides on the steadied card Track quality Inspect PlanarTracker1 in Steady mode and improve the track before changing paint.
The repaired card stays stationary in the final output Downstream tracker Check its copied data, Steady mode, and Invert Steady Transform.
A solid rectangle covers the picture Transparent canvas Set Background1 alpha to 0.
Cloning produces no useful image Sampling source Assign the steadied tracker to Source Tool and choose a clean sampling location.
The patch sticks but its texture shimmers Changing source pixels Inspect the sampled region across time; consider a frozen clean patch.

The timing and source checks follow the manual’s paint setup. Its clean-plate section also identifies a specific limitation: repeated clone painting can produce a bubbling appearance because the sampled result can differ between frames. Tracking alignment alone does not resolve that texture change. Fusion 21.1 Reference Manual, “Painting a Clean Plate”

When that happens, the documented alternative is to freeze a suitable frame with Time Stretcher, paint one clean image, isolate the repaired area with a mask, and match move the patch using planar tracking data. This changes the source from changing footage to one fixed repaired frame. It still requires inspection when lighting, perspective, or foreground overlap changes. For a short shot, repairing separate intervals may be more manageable than forcing one patch across incompatible conditions. Fusion 21.1 Reference Manual, pages 535–539

Finish the shot in the Mac editing workflow

Return to Resolve’s Edit page to review the repair in context. The integrated Fusion page works on the timeline clip without an intermediate export or a separate application launch. Check the shot at normal playback speed as well as frame by frame, especially at its edit boundaries. DaVinci Resolve 21.1 Reference Manual, “The Fusion Page within DaVinci Resolve”

If the shot originates in Final Cut Pro, use a rendered movie handoff with deliberate format settings. Apple documents Export File options for Video and Audio and Video Only; available codec choices depend on the source or project format, and output color space depends on project settings and codec. Match the intended shot dimensions, frame rate, and color treatment before beginning the repair. Export File and Apple Devices destinations in Final Cut Pro for Mac

For the return file, choose a format that both your Resolve installation can export and your destination editor can import. Apple’s Final Cut Pro 12.4 guide lists Apple ProRes among supported video formats and MOV among supported containers. That import list does not establish which export options are available in a particular Resolve edition. Media formats supported in Final Cut Pro for Mac

Finish by watching the complete repaired shot with attention to three things: the patch stays attached, its texture remains consistent, and its edges remain unobtrusive. If a frame fails, return to the corresponding timing, tracking, or sampling check. That gives you a specific correction to make while preserving the parts of the repair that already work.

Sources