Controls / Pre-Weld Position Vertices
Welds vertices that share the same position before normals are recalculated.
This helps imported meshes shade smoothly when adjacent polygons touch visually but use separate vertices.
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Fusion 3DAdvanced
ReplaceNormals3D
3D normal replacement
Replaces or recalculates surface normals to repair or deliberately alter lighting and shading response.
ReplaceNormals3D
DaVinci Resolve · Fusion
Replaces or recalculates surface normals to repair or deliberately alter lighting and shading response.
Overview
What ReplaceNormals3D does
Replaces or recalculates surface normals to repair or deliberately alter lighting and shading response.
Mental model
The geometry stays still, but the invisible arrows that tell lights which way the surface faces are replaced.
Common uses
Repair imported normals
Change shading without moving vertices
Create stylized lighting
Prepare geometry for bump and normal workflows
Flow anatomy
Inputs & outputs
The port structure shows how this node fits into a Fusion graph.
SceneInput
Incoming 3D geometry or scene branch processed by the node.
ReplaceNormals3D
Fusion node
SceneOutput
Processed 3D geometry or scene data for Merge3D, Renderer3D or another 3D node.
Inspector
Important parameters
Start with these controls before reaching for more complicated workarounds.
Normals / Recompute
Chooses how replacement surface normals are recalculated.
Normals / Smoothing Angle
Sets the angle across which recalculated normals are smoothed.
Normals / Ignore Smooth Groups
Excludes Smooth Groups from the operation.
Normals / Flip Normals
Reverses the direction of the surface normals.
Tangents / Recompute
Chooses how surface tangents are recalculated.
Tangents / Flip Tangents U
Reverses the U tangent direction.
Tangents / Flip Tangents V
Reverses the V tangent direction.
Practical setup
A reliable workflow
- 1
Create or import the geometry that ReplaceNormals3D will work with.
- 2
Insert ReplaceNormals3D at the point where the 3D behavior should change.
- 3
Inspect the ReplaceNormals3D result in a 3D Viewer with a simple camera and light before building the final rig.
- 4
Keep transforms, materials and ReplaceNormals3D-specific overrides in clearly separated parts of the scene.
- 5
Merge the finished ReplaceNormals3D branch into the scene and render it through Renderer3D.
Typical node chain
Source→
ReplaceNormals3D→
Renderer3D
Examples
Where this node fits in real work
Core 3D setup
ReplaceNormals3D processes a geometry branch before it enters the main scene.
GeometryReplaceNormals3DMerge3DRenderer3D
Technical 3D workflow
ReplaceNormals3D is isolated in its own branch for easier debugging and reuse.
SourceReplaceNormals3DRenderer3D
Troubleshooting
Common mistakes
Changing several ReplaceNormals3D parameters at once and losing track of which control caused the result.
Approving ReplaceNormals3D from a single still frame without checking motion or representative lighting.
Adding extra controls around ReplaceNormals3D before the basic source, transform and render path is known to work.
Production notes
Practical tips
Name ReplaceNormals3D by purpose when a composition contains several instances.
Use a lightweight preview while tuning ReplaceNormals3D; restore the intended quality settings before the final render.
Related nodes