How To Export Individual Clips in DaVinci Resolve

It’s another How To in DaVinci Resolve! Like other articles, this is all about saving you time and money. Exporting individual clips is necessary for your workflow and the client’s peace of mind. Making this an essential skill. In this step-by-step tutorial, I will show you how to export individual clips in DaVinci Resolve.

Why Export Individual Clips?

Aside from exporting or rendering your entire project, sometimes you just want to export individual clips. There are many reasons why someone might want to do this.

Future Use

If you want to have specific clips on hand for future projects, this feature is for you. Later down the line, you might want to use some of these in your showreel for your website, social media, etc. 

Proofs

Sometimes when you are working with a client, they only want to see certain pieces of the project. Especially in the final stages of a film, you might not need to get everything approved again. Instead of waiting for a whole timeline export and taking up space on your hard drive (these are hot commodities. Ask any editor.), you will just want to export a scene or two. 

VFX

When working with VFX artists, they also don’t need to see the entire project. Unless your whole project is incredibly VFX-heavy, most of the time, they will only require the scenes that need adjusting.

Musical Composition

In some cases, you will send off parts of your film to your composer. If you know you only need a music queue for a clip or two, knowing how to export individual clips will be incredibly helpful.

How To Export Individual Clips in DaVinci Resolve: My Pro Tip

Pro tip before we get started! Sometimes if you’re new to editing or working on different platforms, you aren’t quite sure which export settings will best suit your needs. That is fine! On the Deliver page, DaVinci has quick export settings for different post-production software, social media platforms, and basic export settings. Thank goodness for that.

While I won’t discuss multiple ways of doing one thing, It is important to note that these are two different tutorials. The first one is how to export your entire timeline as individual clips. This will give you your whole short or feature film as individual clips. This method can be good for sending a whole project to your audio mixer or composer.

The second tutorial is how to export one individual clip. This is what we would use to take pieces of a project for social media, a film reel, or send to a VFX artist. Either way, both methods are helpful, and you will know how to do both of them. Hopefully, you find both of them helpful.

Export Your Entire Timeline As Individual Clips

1. Head over to the Deliver page

Keyboard Shortcut: Shift + 8

2. On the left-hand side in your Render Settings, select “Individual Clips”
3. Choose where you want to store your files

4. Under the Audio tab, select “Export Audio” if you want it added and deselect if not

5. Under the File tab, select “Source name” as your Filename uses. This will ensure that each video file has its own name
6. If all other settings look correct, click “Add To Render Queue.” (Make sure your format, resolution, and frame rate match your original project settings)

7. You will now see your clips as one render job in your Render Queue
8. You know you have done this correctly because it will say the number of clips in your timeline
9. Click “Render All,” and your clips will individually show up in your chosen location

Now the waiting begins, so grab a coffee, water your plants, or whatever you do to fill the time.

Pro Tip #2

Once your render is complete, don’t waste time trying to navigate through your folders to locate your files. Right-click on your render job and select “Reveal In Finder.” Your folder with your clips will automatically open for you.

Export Only One Clip As An Individual Clip

1. Head over to the Deliver page

Keyboard Shortcut: Shift + 8

2. On the left-hand side in your Render Settings, select “Single Clip” or “Individual Clips” (this doesn’t matter as much since we will be telling DaVinci to render only one clip) 
3. Choose where you want to store your file

4. Under the Audio tab, select “Export Audio” if you want it added and deselect if not

5. Under the File tab, select “Source name” as your Filename uses

6. If all other settings look correct, click on the clip you want to export

If you don’t see your clips, click on the clip icon on the upper left of your menu bar

7. Right-click on that clip and select “Render This Clip.” You will now see your In and Out points set themselves automatically

8. Once you have your clip selected, click “Add To Render Queue.” (Make sure your format, resolution, and frame rate match your original project settings)
9. You will now see your clip in your Render Queue on the right. You will know you did this correctly if it says “1 clip”, assuming you have “Individual clips” selected. If you used the “Single clip” selected, there wouldn’t be a number at all.

9. Click “Render All,” and your clip will individually show up in your chosen location

Pro Tip #3

Let’s say you render out an individual clip, and you realize you would like to render out the entire timeline as individual clips instead. Well, you already selected your in/out points to export that one clip. You could take the time to drag those in and out points to the beginning and end of your video, but that is time-consuming. Instead, at the top of your timeline, it will say Render: In/Out Range. Click the drop-down arrow next to that and select “Entire Timeline.”

FAQs About Exporting Individual Clips

And That’s How You Export Individual Clips in DaVinci Resolve

Exporting individual clips doesn’t have to be complicated! Whether you want a single clip or individual ones, DaVinci Resolve makes it super easy to do so. I hope you found this article helpful and happy filmmaking!

More DaVinci Resolve Resources

Here are some additional DaVinci Resolve resources you may be interested in.

• How To Speed Up A Clip In DaVinci Resolve (4 Ways)
• How To Reverse A Clip In DaVinci Resolve (3 Ways)
• How To Cut in DaVinci Resolve (3 Ways)