Summary
In DaVinci Resolve, LIQUID is a set of liquid effect video overlays you place on a track above your footage on the Edit page and composite with Inspector > Composite > Composite Mode set to Screen or Add. Those modes discard the overlay's black background so it composites without keying. You isolate your subject with a Color page window or qualifier routed to alpha, or with a merge node on the Fusion page. It's $30.00, reduced from $47.00.
What Is LIQUID?
LIQUID is a pack of drag-and-drop liquid effect overlays supplied as video clips. Not a plugin, not an OFX effect, not a LUT — there's nothing to drop into Resolve's LUT folder and nothing to appear in the OpenFX panel. The clips go into the Media Pool as media and you cut with them.
The pack's line is that it's hard to make liquid effects without After Effects, but these overlays make it easy. Resolve users have Fusion, which can absolutely build fluid-style motion — and anyone who has tried knows how long that takes to look right. Pre-shot overlay footage skips the build and leaves Fusion for what it's genuinely fast at: cutting your subject out of the composite.
The pack is $30.00, down from $47.00, and the clips are formatted for compatibility across editing software including DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro, After Effects and Final Cut Pro. The Edit page workflow below works in both the free and Studio versions.
How LIQUID Works in DaVinci Resolve
-
Import — drag the clips into the Media Pool, or use
File > Import > Media(Cmd/Ctrl+I). Put them in their own bin or smart bin. - Stack the overlay — on the Edit page, drop it on V2, directly above the shot on V1.
- Set the composite mode — select the overlay clip, open the Inspector, go to the Video tab and open the Composite section. Set Composite Mode to Screen. Add sits in the same list for a brighter result.
- Set opacity — the Opacity slider is directly under Composite Mode in the same section.
- Fit the frame — use Transform in the Inspector for Zoom, Position, Rotation and Flip. The Flip buttons are the quickest way to match the liquid's direction to your key light.
- Retime — right-click the clip and choose Change Clip Speed, or Retime Controls (Cmd/Ctrl+R) for a ramp that hits a specific frame.
- Isolate the subject on the Color page — select the overlay clip in the timeline strip, draw a Power Window around your subject, invert it, and drag from the node's blue alpha output to the Node Editor's Alpha output. That punches a hole in the overlay in the timeline composite. Track the window with the tracker palette so it follows the subject.
- Or use the qualifier — when your subject is a distinct colour or tone, a Qualifier key routed to the same alpha output can do the isolation without hand-drawing anything. Clean it up with the qualifier's Denoise and Blur controls.
- Or go to Fusion — open the Fusion page on the timeline clip and combine the layers with a Merge node, setting its Apply Mode to Screen. Feed a Polygon mask into the foreground input's garbage matte to cut the subject out, and animate the polygon or attach a Tracker to it.
Why Screen and Add Drop the Black Background
Screen inverts both images, multiplies them and inverts the result. Black is zero, and zero run through that chain returns the underlying image unchanged. Add just sums the two — and adding zero changes nothing either. So an overlay shot against black loses its background automatically, and only the bright liquid composites into the frame.
No keyer, no alpha channel, no matte to build before you can see the shot. It also means the overlay's brightness is its opacity: lifting the black point or pulling the lift wheel down on the overlay clip in the Color page is a more surgical intensity control than the Opacity slider, because it removes the faint background haze while keeping the bright cores intact.
Edit Page or Fusion Page?
| Situation | Where to work | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Straight overlay, no subject in the way | Edit page Inspector | Composite Mode plus Opacity is the whole job |
| Subject needs cutting out, simple movement | Color page window | Power Window plus tracker, routed to alpha output |
| Subject is a distinct colour or tone | Color page qualifier | Keys itself, no shape to animate |
| Multiple overlays, warps, complex mattes | Fusion page | Merge nodes give you explicit control over composite order |
Most shots never leave the Edit page. Go to Fusion when you need more than one matte interacting, or when you want to transform the liquid in ways the Inspector's Transform controls can't reach.
Getting It to Sit in the Grade
- Grade before you composite — know what your shot looks like finished before you judge how the overlay reads over it. A film LUT on the base clip first, then the overlay on top.
- Grade the overlay too — the overlay clip gets its own node tree on the Color page. Pull it down, tint it toward the scene, and it stops reading as an import.
- Feather your windows — Power Windows have a Softness control on all four sides. Use it. Hard-edged mattes are the giveaway.
- Compound clips for groups — right-click a selection and choose New Compound Clip to treat footage plus overlay as one unit for the final pass.
- Grain last — put it over the finished composite, not under it, so it sits on everything. There's a real difference between volumetric grain and a flat grain overlay at this stage.
Conclusion
In Resolve the workflow is short and it lives mostly on the Edit page: stack the overlay on V2, set Inspector > Composite > Composite Mode to Screen or Add, then cut your subject out with a tracked Power Window routed to alpha, or with a Fusion merge node if the shot demands it. No OFX plugin, no LUT install, no version dependency.
LIQUID is $30.00, reduced from $47.00, and includes video clips formatted for compatibility across editing software including DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro, After Effects and Final Cut Pro.
FAQ
Q: Where is the blend mode in DaVinci Resolve?
A: Resolve calls it Composite Mode. Select the clip, open the Inspector > Video tab, and open the Composite section. Screen and Add are both in that dropdown.
Q: Does this need Resolve Studio?
A: No. Composite modes, Power Windows, qualifiers, the tracker and Fusion polygon masks are all available in the free version.
Q: Do the clips go in the LUT folder?
A: No — this isn't a LUT. They're video clips and they go in the Media Pool like any other footage.
Q: How do I make the liquid pass behind my subject?
A: Draw a Power Window around the subject on the overlay clip's node, invert it, and connect the node's alpha output to the Node Editor's Alpha output. Track the window so it follows the subject.
Q: Screen or Add?
A: Screen for most shots. Add for a brighter, glowing result over darker footage — then bring Opacity down.
Q: Can I stack several overlays?
A: Yes, on V2, V3 and up, each with its own Composite Mode. Screen compounds fast, so drop the opacity on each one or the frame turns milky.