After Effects vs DaVinci Resolve Fusion for motion graphics

What is the difference between After Effects and DaVinci Resolve Fusion?

After Effects is a standalone motion design and visual effects app. Fusion is the node-based compositing and motion graphics page built into DaVinci Resolve.

Adobe describes After Effects as an app for animating text, graphics and illustrations, and for compositing visual effects for film, TV, video and the web. You build a shot from layers inside a comp. Then you render it out through the Render Queue or Adobe Media Encoder and place the file in your editor.

Resolve is one app split into pages: media, photo, cut, edit, Fusion, color, Fairlight and deliver. Blackmagic puts visual effects and motion graphics on the Fusion page. It has hundreds of 2D and 3D tools, plus tracking, rotoscoping and keying. All of it sits in the same project as the cut, the grade and the audio, and Fairlight handles up to 2,000 tracks. There is also a standalone app, Fusion Studio 21, which is activated with a DaVinci Resolve licence.

So the choice is rarely one app against another in a vacuum. It is a dedicated motion tool you pair with an editor, against a motion page inside an editor you may already use. If you're weighing After Effects against Adobe's own editor instead, our After Effects vs Premiere Pro guide splits the jobs between the two.

How do After Effects and Resolve's Fusion compare side by side?

Here is the side-by-side, checked on 3 November 2026 on each maker's own pages. US prices are shown unless the cell says otherwise. "Not published" means the page we checked doesn't say.

Blackmagic's product page shows Fusion Studio 21 at $236 and its Compare page shows $295. The pages don't explain the gap, so check the price at checkout.

Which costs less, After Effects or DaVinci Resolve?

Resolve costs less. The Fusion page comes in the free download, and DaVinci Resolve Studio 21 was shown at $236 (was $295, save 20%) on 3 November 2026. After Effects is subscription-only.

After Effects

• Single app: US$22.99/mo, Annual, billed monthly. In India, Adobe's plans page shows ₹733.96/mo incl. GST, Annual, billed monthly.
• What the single-app plan includes: Adobe Express Premium, tutorials, fonts and templates, Frame.io for Creative Cloud with 100GB of cloud storage, and 25 monthly generative credits.
• After Effects for teams: US$37.99/mo per license, Annual, billed monthly.
• Creative Cloud Pro, which includes After Effects: US$34.99/mo for the first 3 months, then US$69.99/mo. New subscribers only.
• No perpetual licence. Adobe's trial FAQ says After Effects is only available as part of a Creative Cloud membership.

DaVinci Resolve and Fusion Studio

• DaVinci Resolve: free, with the Fusion page included.
• DaVinci Resolve Studio 21: $236. The product page does not say whether that is a one-time purchase or a subscription.
• Fusion Studio 21: $236 on the product page and $295 on the Compare page.

Promotions move all of these prices, so treat every figure here as dated.

Does After Effects or Resolve run on Windows, Mac and Linux?

Both run on Windows and macOS, and only Resolve lists Linux. Adobe's trial page says the After Effects trial works on macOS, iPadOS and Windows, on desktop and iPad but not on phones. Blackmagic offers DaVinci Resolve 21 for Mac, Windows and Linux.

• GPU. Resolve Studio is optimized for Metal and Apple Silicon unified memory GPUs on a Mac, and for OpenCL and CUDA on Windows and Linux. It also supports multiple GPUs. Fusion lists Metal, CUDA and OpenCL acceleration. Adobe keeps a separate page of GPU and GPU driver requirements for After Effects.
• Apple Silicon. Adobe has a dedicated After Effects for Apple Silicon page. Blackmagic says its Neural Engine is fully supported on Apple M series and Snapdragon X Elite.
• VR headsets. Oculus Rift and HTC Vive support is Windows only, in both Fusion in Resolve Studio 21 and Fusion Studio 21.
• Minimum specs. Adobe publishes system requirements pages, with separate ones for 24.x and 25.x. We didn't record the numbers, so read the current page before you buy hardware. The pages we checked don't publish the minimum OS, RAM or GPU for the Resolve software.
• Fusion Studio. Blackmagic doesn't publish which operating systems it runs on. Fusion Connect is offered for Mac OS X and Windows.

Layers or nodes: how is motion graphics work different?

After Effects stacks layers inside comps, while Fusion connects tools as nodes. Blackmagic's page says a node-based workflow makes sophisticated effects and animations faster and easier to build than a layer-based approach. That is the maker's claim, and how true it feels depends on the shot.

In daily work the difference shows up in three places.

1. How a shot is built. In After Effects, a shot is a stack of layers inside a comp, grouped with precomps and linked with parenting. In Fusion, tools are wired together as nodes, and Fusion 21 adds node view bookmarks.
2. Where the shot lives. Fusion shares the Resolve project with the edit, color and Fairlight pages, so a title or composite never leaves the app. Fusion 21 also adds effect templates for the edit and cut pages, and 27 GPU-accelerated Resolve FX on the Fusion page. After Effects renders a file through the Render Queue or Adobe Media Encoder, and that file goes back to your editor.
3. Automation. Fusion supports Lua and Python scripting. After Effects has its own expressions and scripts.

For animation, Fusion lists advanced animation curves, keyframe editors, 3D particles and 3D camera tracking. On Adobe's side, the help pages document Multi-Frame Rendering for preview and render, effects and animation presets, and an AI Assistant that Adobe labels beta.

How does a Resolve and After Effects round trip work (ProRes 4444 with alpha)?

The round trip is file-based, because the pages we checked document no live link between the two apps. You export the plate from Resolve, build the graphic in After Effects, render it back with an alpha channel, and lay it over the cut on Resolve's edit page.

1. On Resolve's deliver page, export only the clip or section that needs the graphic, at the timeline's frame size and frame rate.
2. In After Effects, build a comp at the plate's frame size, frame rate and duration, with the plate as the bottom layer.
3. Build the graphic. For an overlay such as a title, lower third or callout, turn the plate layer off before you render, so only the graphic and its transparency go out.
4. Render from the Render Queue, or send the comp to Adobe Media Encoder. We hand off as ProRes 4444 with alpha so the file keeps its transparency. Neither maker's pages we checked list codec or output-module settings, so confirm the format and the alpha option in your version. Our After Effects export settings guide covers the rest of the render.
5. Import the render on Resolve's media page. Place it on a video track above the plate on the edit page.
6. When the cut changes, re-export only the changed shot, not the whole sequence.

Some composites interact with the plate, such as a keyed sky or a tracked screen. Render those as full frames with the plate layer on, and swap them in for the original clip.

Two Blackmagic features help at the edges. Resolve works with Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro and Media Composer files, which is useful if the edit started in an Adobe project. Fusion Connect, for Mac OS X and Windows, lets Resolve and Avid Media Composer editors send clips to Fusion. Its target is Fusion, not After Effects.

Is the free Fusion page enough for motion graphics?

The free version is enough if you deliver 8-bit HD or UHD at 60fps or less. Blackmagic says it works with virtually all 8-bit video formats at up to 60fps, in resolutions as high as Ultra HD 3840 x 2160. It also includes multi-user collaboration and HDR grading.

Studio is worth it when your footage or effects go past those limits:

• 10-bit video up to 120fps, and resolutions beyond 4K, up to 32K.
• Multiple GPUs, and hardware H.264 and H.265 decoding and encoding.
• Over 45 extra GPU and CPU accelerated Resolve FX, plus film grain, optical blur, and temporal and AI spatial noise reduction.
• Neural Engine tools found only in Studio: magic mask, Super Scale, speed warp retiming, smart reframe, object removal, facial recognition and scene cut detection.

Beyond Studio sits Fusion Studio 21. Fusion in Resolve Studio is limited to 16K x 16K, while Fusion Studio handles images over 32K x 32K. Fusion Studio also adds unlimited free render nodes, a Studio Player, a bin server for multi-user collaboration and the Primatte 5 keyer. For the full split, see DaVinci Resolve free vs Studio.

Which is easier to learn, After Effects or Fusion?

Neither maker publishes a learning-time figure, so the easier one is whichever matches how you already work. If you think in a stack of layers, After Effects' comps will feel familiar. If you'd rather wire tools together, Fusion's node-based workflow suits that.

Trying both costs little:

• Resolve. Blackmagic says the free version exists so you can learn the same tools professional artists use.
• After Effects. Adobe's trial runs on Windows, macOS and iPad. You aren't charged until it ends, and you have 14 days after that to cancel for a full refund. To cancel, open your Adobe account page, find your plan and click Manage plans, then Cancel plan. Give a reason, click Continue and follow the onscreen steps. The page we checked doesn't state the trial length.

A fair test is to build the same short lower third in each app: a text reveal, a shape and one eased move. Note where you got stuck, then render it out. If you go the Adobe route, our After Effects motion graphics guide for beginners starts from the first comp.

Should you pick After Effects or DaVinci Resolve Fusion?

Pick by where the rest of your work lives. If motion is the deliverable, choose After Effects. If you already edit in Resolve or have no budget, choose Fusion.

Pick After Effects if

• motion design is the deliverable, and you want an app built for text, graphics, illustration and compositing;
• you already pay for Creative Cloud, where After Effects is part of Creative Cloud Pro;
• you want Frame.io for Creative Cloud and 100GB of cloud storage in the plan;
• you want to render through the Render Queue or hand renders to Adobe Media Encoder;
• your work depends on expressions, scripts or extensions made for After Effects.

Pick Resolve's Fusion page if

• you already cut, grade or mix in Resolve, so motion work stays in one project;
• your budget is zero, because the Fusion page is in the free version;
• your workstation runs Linux;
• you want keying, rotoscoping and 3D camera tracking next to the grade;
• you need network rendering, Primatte 5 or images over 32K, which come with Fusion Studio;
• you deliver vertical video. Resolve offers square and vertical timeline resolutions and direct upload to YouTube, TikTok, Vimeo and X. Smart reframe is Studio-only.

Use both if

Use both if you edit in Resolve but need an After Effects workflow for certain shots. Run the round trip above for those shots only.

If the editor itself is still undecided, read Premiere Pro vs DaVinci Resolve. If you've ruled out Adobe and want more options, our After Effects alternatives roundup lists them.

Where mouzeclick fits (we make it)

mouzeclick doesn't replace either app. It is a mouse app that puts shortcuts, gestures and wheels on any mouse, in both After Effects and Resolve. Its panels exist only for After Effects and Premiere Pro.

In both apps (Windows and Mac)

• Per-app buttons. Mouse 4 can do one thing in After Effects and another in Resolve, and it changes the moment you switch windows. Each button has eleven slots: tap, hold and move in four directions, a chord with another button, or hold and scroll.
• The Options wheel (F8) holds 48 favourites per app on three rings. Recent beta builds add ready-made wheels for Premiere Pro, After Effects, DaVinci Resolve, Photoshop and CapCut. A wheel you've already set up is never changed.
• The shortcut library has 309 built-in shortcuts on Windows, with After Effects and DaVinci Resolve libraries among them. On a Mac, record Resolve's keys as your own shortcuts or macros. Our DaVinci Resolve shortcuts list and After Effects shortcuts list help you pick what goes on a button.
• No driver. The app needs an internet connection while it runs. If the connection drops, the mouse acts normally until it returns.

Only in After Effects

• The After Effects Tool wheel: 114 tools in 13 groups, opened with F10 or a held right button, on Windows and Mac. It doesn't work in Resolve.
• 15 After Effects extensions, on Windows and Mac, listed on the extensions page. Our best After Effects extensions roundup puts them beside other makers' tools.
• The After Effects workspace, with 800+ tools, presets and templates on Windows. The workspaces are part of mouzeclick on Windows. The Mac app does not include them.

Setting it up

There is no DaVinci Resolve panel and no Final Cut panel. Resolve's edit page has fully customizable keyboard shortcuts, so set the key there first, then put that key on a mouse button.

On a Mac, if you edit After Effects' shortcuts file in TextEdit, Adobe says to turn off Smart Quotes. Otherwise After Effects shows an error at the next start.

The trial is 3 days with no card, and every After Effects tool works fully during it. Plans are in the pricing section, and Mac setup is on the Mac install page.

Questions people ask

Sources

Checked on 2026-11-03. Prices and features change: each link goes to the maker's own page.

1. Adobe: After Effects product page and pricing (checked 3 Nov 2026)
2. Adobe: Creative Cloud plans, India pricing (checked 3 Nov 2026)
3. Adobe: After Effects free trial and FAQ
4. Adobe Help: What's new in After Effects
5. Adobe Help: After Effects system requirements
6. Adobe Help: shortcuts file error when edited in TextEdit
7. Blackmagic Design: Fusion Studio
8. Blackmagic Design: Fusion Studio vs Fusion in DaVinci Resolve Studio
9. Blackmagic Design: DaVinci Resolve (checked 3 Nov 2026)
10. Blackmagic Design: DaVinci Resolve Studio
11. Blackmagic Design: What's new in DaVinci Resolve

Keep reading