Center
Position of the ellipse.
Animate it to follow or reveal a subject.
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MasksBeginner
Ellipse
Elliptical mask
Creates circular and elliptical masks for vignettes, spotlights, highlights and local effects.
Ellipse
DaVinci Resolve · Fusion
Ellipse is a parametric mask that is quick to animate and ideal for soft local isolation.
Overview
What Ellipse does
Ellipse is commonly used for spotlights, vignettes and soft local corrections because it can produce clean round geometry with adjustable feathering.
Like Rectangle, it is parametric: you animate position and dimensions rather than managing individual spline points.
A heavily softened Ellipse can also behave like a light falloff mask, which is useful for subtle focus and glow effects.
Mental model
Think of Ellipse as a movable circular stencil whose edge can be hard or feathered.
Common uses
Vignettes
Spotlight effects
Face isolation
Circular reveals
Soft local blur
Light glow regions
Flow anatomy
Inputs & outputs
The port structure shows how this node fits into a Fusion graph.
Generator node — no image input is required.
Ellipse
Fusion node
Mask Output
The generated mask or matte.
Inspector
Important parameters
Start with these controls before reaching for more complicated workarounds.
Width
Sets the horizontal size.
Height
Sets the vertical size.
Angle
Sets the angle of the element.
Soft Edge
Feathering around the boundary.
Large values are useful for natural light and vignette shapes.
Border Width
Turns the filled shape into a ring-like mask.
Useful for circular outlines and graphic rings.
Solid
Fills the interior of the shape instead of drawing only its border.
Invert
Uses the outside instead of the inside.
Common for vignettes and holdout masks.
Level
Sets the opacity/level of the Ellipse mask.
Paint Mode
Selects the Paint Mode used by Ellipse.
Practical setup
A reliable workflow
- 1
Create Ellipse.
- 2
Connect it to an Effect Mask input.
- 3
Size and position the shape.
- 4
Adjust Soft Edge for the desired transition.
- 5
Invert if the effect should apply outside the ellipse.
Typical node chain
Ellipse→
Color Corrector→
Merge→
MediaOut
Examples
Where this node fits in real work
Soft spotlight
A large feathered Ellipse limits a brightness or glow adjustment.
EllipseColor Corrector
Vignette
Invert a soft Ellipse to darken the frame edges.
Ellipse (Invert)Color Corrector
Troubleshooting
Common mistakes
Making the edge too hard for a natural light effect.
Using many ellipses when one Polygon would describe the target better.
Forgetting Invert when creating a vignette.
Production notes
Practical tips
Use large soft edges for invisible grading masks.
Track the mask rather than manually keyframing every frame when the subject moves.
Ellipse pairs well with Blur and Color Corrector for subtle focus control.
Related nodes