Blanking Fill

Scales the source clip within its native image domain. Its practical use is to hide unwanted edge pixels before they become part of the background fill. Zoom does not decide how the blank area is filled and does not replace Zoom Mode. Push it too far and the foreground itself starts losing useful composition, so treat this as source preparation rather than the main tool for building the background.

Unlinks the left and right sides. With the switch off, Resolve presents a combined Crop Left / Right control and both sides change symmetrically. Turn it on when only one side needs extra fill or the composition is intentionally asymmetrical.

Crops the side edges of the foreground and therefore increases the area Blanking Fill must create on the left and right. With Split Left Right off, the value is applied to both sides together. This is not merely a final frame crop; it deliberately creates more blanking area for the effect to fill.

Works like Split Left Right but for the upper and lower edges. With the switch off, Crop Top / Bottom remains a linked pair; enabling it lets the top and bottom be adjusted independently.

Creates more vertical blanking by cropping the top and bottom of the foreground. For ordinary portrait phone footage in a landscape timeline it often stays near zero, but it is useful for unusual framing, still images, or unwanted top/bottom edge content.

Re-centers the image area when an earlier sizing operation has offset it. It is disabled in the captured state because the current geometry does not require re-centering. Treat it as a corrective command rather than a creative amount control.

Chooses the geometric method used to build the background fill. Set this before Blur Background or Fade Amount: if the fill geometry is wrong, blur may hide the problem but it will not fix it. This selector determines whether the duplicate is stretched, scaled proportionally, adjusted manually, or built with an edge warp, so it establishes the geometric foundation of the entire effect.

Feathers the boundary where the original foreground meets the blanking fill. Increase it when the foreground looks like a hard rectangular insert. Too much can soften the foreground boundary excessively, so set the geometry first and add only enough blending to hide the seam.

Blurs only the image used as the background fill. This is the key control behind the classic blurred portrait-video look: blur makes cropping or stretching less obvious and prevents the duplicate from competing with the foreground. Do not use Blur as a substitute for the correct Zoom Mode—fix the geometry first.

Controls how strongly the selected Fade Color is mixed into the background fill. At 0.000 the color has no effect; increasing the value tints the fill more strongly; at 1.000 the blanking area becomes a solid Fade Color. Think of it as a color overlay on the fill, not another blur control.

Defines the color used by Fade Amount through the color swatch or eyedropper. It is grayed out in the screenshot because Fade Amount is 0. Raise Fade Amount for the color to affect the result. Black can darken the fill, a neutral tone can calm it down, and a brand color can turn the background into a deliberate graphic element.

Controls how solid and visible the drop shadow is. At 0.000 the shadow is effectively off, so the dependent controls below are disabled. Raise Strength only enough to separate the foreground from the fill; a strong shadow quickly turns a natural background treatment into an obvious graphic-card look.

Sets the direction of the shadow offset. It becomes meaningful once Shadow Strength is enabled. Angle does not change softness or density; it only establishes the direction used by Drop Distance. Judge it together with Distance: when the offset is zero, changing the angle has little visible effect, while larger distances make the chosen direction clearly define where the foreground appears to cast its shadow.

Offsets the shadow away from the foreground in the direction set by Drop Angle. A value of zero keeps it directly under the foreground; increasing Distance makes the separation more obvious. Large offsets read as deliberate graphic design rather than subtle depth. For a soft portrait-video fill, a small distance is usually enough; establish clean separation first and only then decide whether a stronger graphic-card treatment is intentional.

Softens the drop-shadow edge. Low Blur produces a hard graphic shadow; higher values create gentler foreground separation. Judge it together with Drop Distance: larger offsets usually need a softer shadow to avoid a sticker-like look. If the background fill is already heavily blurred, a crisp shadow can make the composite feel artificial very quickly, so match the shadow softness to the visual softness of the fill.

Sets the shadow color. Black is the neutral starting point, but the tint can be matched to a designed background. Use colored shadows carefully because saturation quickly shifts the effect from natural fill toward stylized graphics. For a realistic result, a dark neutral or subtly tinted tone that belongs to the shot's overall color environment usually works better than a bright pure color.

The final dry/wet mix for the entire Blanking Fill effect. At 1.000 you see the fully processed result; lower values restore more of the original node input. Global Blend does not replace Zoom Mode, Blur Background, Fade Amount or Shadow Strength—use it last, after the internal effect is already balanced.