Combiner

**Purpose and availability.** Combiner [Com] is a Fusion Stereo Node available in DaVinci Resolve Studio / Fusion Studio. It packages two camera views/eyes into one output image without alpha-compositing them or calculating depth.

**Two inputs represent two eyes.** Orange Image 1 receives the left view and green Image 2 the right view. They are not Merge.Background/Foreground and both carry full 2D stereo pictures.

**None is a through-image baseline.** Blackmagic describes the output as identical to the left-eye input. Use it to diagnose cable order and source frames; verify its interaction with Swap in the target build.

**Horiz doubles width.** Given two equally sized W×H views, Combiner produces 2W×H. The left eye is on the left and the right eye on the right with Swap off. It does not shrink two eyes into the original W×H canvas.

**Vert doubles height.** For matching inputs the result is W×2H. Crucially, the left eye is at the bottom and the right eye at the top. Never infer this order merely from left/right naming.

**Layers is not visual blending.** In Layers mode the two images are stored as separate named image layers. This mode exposes layer-name fields documented in the manual but not pictured in the archived PNG. Use the Viewer Layer selector to inspect each layer.

**Swap exchanges eye order.** The checkbox changes which input becomes the left/right eye in the result. Horiz trades halves; Vert changes which eye is above/below. Incorrect eye order can break downstream stereo handoffs.

**Add Metadata does not define an export format.** The checkbox adds image metadata. Inspect actual fields in Viewer → SubView → Metadata. Enabling it alone does not guarantee that a particular exporter will preserve every metadata field.

**Why matching sources matter.** The eyes must represent the same instant with compatible fps, aspect and pixel geometry. Align resolution and geometry first: Combiner is not a resize, tracking or stereo alignment tool.

**Packaging is not viewing.** A side-by-side stack is one wide image, not an anaglyph glasses output. Stereo viewing, splitting and disparity analysis require purpose-built downstream tools or modes.

**Not Merge or MultiMerge.** Merge computes alpha-based compositing in a shared image plane. Combiner stores two stereo pictures side-by-side, top/bottom or as layers. None of these modes replaces foreground-over-background compositing.

**When Layers is useful.** Choose it when downstream can consume named image layers. Naming a layer does not make a regular H.264/H.265 file multilayer. Qualify the actual Saver/exporter workflow and reimport any multilayer EXR.

**Viewer verification.** In Horiz/Vert inspect dimensions and labeled L/R content. In Layers mode switch the layer selector, otherwise one eye may look missing. Metadata SubView is a separate diagnostic and does not display second-layer pixels.

**Delivery contract.** Before rendering, record packing convention (Horiz/Vert/Layers), L/R order, source resolution, pixel aspect, timing and metadata semantics. The receiver needs to understand this particular layout.

**Capture and qualification limits.** The retained Controls PNG shows Combine choices, Swap, Add Metadata and a Settings tab whose contents were not captured. Orange/green stereo ports and mode semantics are documented. No live .comp test, native render or export was run for this package.

**The lessons are typed teaching graphs.** Four exercises cover Horiz, Vert/Swap, Layers and None/Metadata with validated MediaIn → Combiner → MediaOut connections. These are educational diagrams, not importable .comp files.