DAELink

Getting Started

• Open DAELink in Resolve first to initialise the project
• Click 📁 and navigate to the current project's MEDIA folder
• Each project creates its own daelink folder with subfolders:
  • Renders: All renders from After Effects
  • Support: JSON file (daelink.json) containing link data
• Both panels remember the folder per project, so later launches reconnect automatically

Opening After Effects from DaVinci:

• Click the AE button in the bottom-right of the DaVinci panel
• If a project is linked, it opens the exact .aep file directly in After Effects
• If no project is linked yet, it launches After Effects on its own so you can connect from the DAELink panel there

Linking Compositions ↑ | ↓

From DaVinci to After Effects:

1. In DaVinci, click ⤓ Insert Placeholder where you want the composition to start
2. Link video, audio, and/or image media clips from timeline to the placeholder clip
   • (Select Clips > R-click > Link Clips)
   • Please note:
   • Best used for layer timing; carry out all design and animation in AE
   • Layer transforms may not always transfer predictably
   • Keyframes will not be transferred
   • Only clips with a file on disk can transfer. Generators, titles, compound clips and Fusion compositions exist only inside DaVinci, so DAELink names them and stops before changing anything
3. Click ↑ Make AE Comp From Placeholder to convert the placeholder into a nested timeline
4. After Effects opens your linked project and creates the comp automatically
   • If the comp doesn't arrive (for example, no AE project saved and linked yet, or a different project open), click ↓ Import Linked Comps in After Effects

From After Effects to DaVinci:

1. In After Effects, open your composition to make it active
2. Click ↑ Link Active Comp to establish the link
3. Switch to DaVinci Resolve
4. Click ↓ Import Linked Comps to finalise the link

Render Management ✚ | ▶ | ↻

In After Effects:

1. Select your desired render template from the dropdown (create custom templates in the Render Queue window)
2. Click ✚ Queue to add the active composition to the render queue
3. Or Click ▶ Render to queue and immediately render
   • (NB: this will also render any other queued comps)
4. Renders automatically save to the Renders folder in your daelink project folder

In DaVinci Resolve:

1. After rendering in After Effects, return to DaVinci
2. Click ↻ Refresh Render to update the timeline nest with the latest render
• Works inside the timeline nest,
• Or with the playhead over nested timeline clip