Cube3D

Treat Cube3D as a 3D geometry generator, not as a 2D image effect. Its Output remains scene3d until Renderer3D rasterizes the scene into RGBA pixels.

The optional SceneInput can carry an existing 3D scene or object. Cube3D adds its own generated box to that incoming scene, so the node can act as both a primitive source and a continuation point in a 3D branch.

Cube3D also exposes six face material inputs: Front, Right, Left, Back, Top and Bottom. Blackmagic documents each of these inputs as accepting either a 2D image or a 3D material.

A source connected to one face input shades that face of Cube3D itself. It does not automatically assign the same material to geometry arriving through SceneInput.

When external face inputs are not connected, the built-in Material tab controls each face. Face chooses the side being edited, then Diffuse, Specular, Transmittance, Receives Lighting/Shadows, Two Sided and Material ID apply to that selected face.

Lock Width/Height/Depth decides whether the primitive uses one Size value or independent Width, Height and Depth values. These are primitive dimensions before Transform and are not the same concept as Transform Scale.

With the dimension lock enabled, Inspector shows Size. With the lock disabled, independent dimensions are exposed. Historical Blackmagic documentation notes that Size and Width refer to the same underlying control when switching states, so existing animation should be checked when toggling the lock.

Subdivisions controls mesh density. A plain rigid box needs little geometry; extra segments are useful only when downstream deformation, vertex-based lighting or another mesh process actually needs more vertices.

Cube Mapping wraps the first texture around the six faces using cube-style mapping. The classic workflow expects a cross-layout cube texture; this is a different idea from feeding six independent face material inputs.

Wireframe renders/displays the mesh as a wireframe. Renderer support and exact output can depend on the chosen render path, so historical OpenGL-only limitations should not be treated as current Resolve 21 behavior without a live test.

Visible is the main object visibility switch. When disabled, the object is not normally displayed/rendered and historically does not participate as a normal shadow caster.

Unseen by Cameras is different from Visible: the object can remain in the scene while being hidden from camera rendering. Shadow behavior can differ by renderer implementation and should be verified on the target build.

Cull Faces Front and Cull Faces Back discard polygons based on orientation to the camera. Culling is not opacity and is not the same as camera visibility.

Enabling both front- and back-face culling can effectively remove all visible polygon faces. Diagnose culling one side at a time.

Suppress Aux Channels for Transparent Pixels controls whether auxiliary data is written where the final surface is transparent. This matters for Z, normals, UVs, Object/Material IDs and post-depth-of-field workflows.

Affected by Lights, Shadow Caster and Shadow Receiver are three separate object-level decisions. An object can respond to light, cast shadows and receive shadows independently.

Is Matte assigns a 3D matte/holdout role. It should not be described as a normal 2D blue-mask output because the operation happens inside the 3D render pipeline.

Blend Mode [Non-Deep] exposes separate Hardware and Software modes plus Gain. The bundled capture confirms these controls, but the two render paths should not be assumed to implement every blend mode identically.

Normals/Tangents Scale, Show Normals and Show Tangents are diagnostic controls. They help inspect surface vectors; they do not themselves repair normals, tangents or bump mapping.

ObjectID is a technical identifier for the Cube3D object in auxiliary render passes. It is separate from Material ID, which belongs to the selected face material.

Face is the key selector on the Material tab. Before changing Diffuse or Material ID, verify which face is active or you may correctly edit the wrong side.

Diffuse Color/Alpha and Opacity define the base built-in surface response. A connected external image/material source can change that surface workflow and should be tested separately from the built-in controls.

Specular Color, Intensity and Exponent control the built-in highlight response. Intensity changes strength; Exponent changes falloff/tightness, so they should not be treated as interchangeable.

Transmittance Attenuation, Alpha Detail, Color Detail and Saturation control how the built-in material handles transmitted/attenuated light and detail. Judge them under controlled lighting rather than by a flat swatch.

Receives Lighting and Receives Shadows on the Material tab are face/material-level controls and complement object-level Affected by Lights and Shadow Receiver. When a face behaves unexpectedly, determine which level disabled participation.

Two Sided makes the selected material visible/active on both polygon sides. It can matter under culling, transparency or unusual camera positions, but it is not a universal fix for incorrect normals.

Material ID belongs to the currently selected face material. Different sides of one Cube3D can therefore carry different Material IDs while the overall object keeps one ObjectID.

Transform Translation, Rotation, Pivot and Scale operate on the already-generated primitive in 3D space. Controls dimensions and Transform Scale can look similar visually but belong to different stages of the pipeline.

Rotation Order controls Euler evaluation order. Choose an order before complex animation because switching order later can radically change motion.

Pivot changes the center used by Rotation and Scale without rebuilding topology, which makes edge-hinged panel or door animations straightforward.

Use Target changes orientation into a target-aiming workflow. It is rarely needed for a normal cube and should be distinguished from manual Rotation.

Import Transform brings in compatible transform information. Exact serialization and supported sources should be verified on the target Resolve build before automation.

A typical topology is Cube3D → Merge3D with Camera3D and lights → Renderer3D → MediaOut. Feeding Cube3D directly into a 2D image socket mixes scene3d and image domains.

Cube3D is especially useful as a proxy in tracked scenes because a simple box immediately reveals scale, perspective, occlusion and shadow contact before final geometry is available.

For production automation, the bundled Controls/Material/Transform captures anchor the visible current labels while Blackmagic documentation anchors topology and semantics. Serialized internal IDs should still be confirmed with a target-build .setting/.comp export.