Push

The key correction from the older article is that Push is not a simple one-image pixel offset. The official DaVinci Resolve 21 New Features Guide defines Push as a slide effect and explicitly tells the user to connect a second image. The node only makes sense when its two-image topology is understood first.

Think of two full-frame sheets positioned around a frame-shaped window. Push changes the slide state so one source pushes the other through that window. This differs from Dissolve, where two states change contribution through blending, and from Transform, where one RGBA stream changes geometry.

The real Resolve 21 Controls Inspector stored with this article exposes only two Push-specific parameters: Push X and Push Y. This guide deliberately does not invent extra modes, filters, alpha controls or geometry sliders that are not present in the captured Inspector.

Push X controls the horizontal component of the slide transition. For diagnosis, keep Push Y at its neutral 0.0 value and change only X. This makes it easier to see that the node is changing the spatial relationship between two sources instead of merely moving a single layer over transparency.

Push Y controls the vertical component. Use the same isolation method: return Push X to 0.0 and test Y by itself. Once each axis is understood independently, the two controls can be combined for a diagonal slide.

The captured Inspector shows both controls at 0.0, which is a verified neutral baseline in the shipped UI. The exact sign convention, effective range and which side enters or leaves for positive and negative values should be confirmed in the target Resolve build with two contrasting sources rather than presented as undocumented fact.

Push belongs after the two transition sources have been prepared. If their resolution, aspect ratio or image domain differs, normalize them upstream with Resize, Crop or an appropriate format step. Otherwise a mismatch that only appears in the middle of motion can be mistaken for a Push problem.

For transparent graphics, inspect the Alpha Viewer separately. Blackmagic's short Push description does not promise any special alpha repair and the captured Controls Inspector exposes no dedicated Push alpha controls. Premultiplication, transparent edges and source compatibility remain upstream RGBA concerns.

Push is strongest as a compact transition building block between two title states, cards, full-frame shots or prepared motion-design scenes. It does not replace Merge when the task is persistent foreground-over-background compositing; its job is to create the transition between two image states.

Judge at least the beginning, midpoint and end of an animation. Endpoints may look correct while the midpoint reveals a raster mismatch, an exposed boundary, unexpected transparency or a misunderstood axis. A slide transition is defined by its intermediate frames as much as by its endpoints.

If the task needs scale, rotation, pivot control, complex object motion, motion blur or corner pinning, Push is not the right geometry tool. Use Transform, DVE, Positioner or another dedicated node and keep Push focused on the two-image slide it was designed to perform.

Push is also a useful teaching example of why control names alone do not define a node. Push X and Push Y resemble normal offset controls, but the official node contract is a two-image transition. Determine the data topology first, then interpret the sliders inside that topology.