How to Create Syllable Lyric Animations in DaVinci Resolve Fusion

You get syllable-by-syllable lyric animation in Fusion by splitting the words into syllables in a single Text+ node and timing them with the Follower modifier. An instanced copy of that text then drives a pEmitter, so particles fire from each syllable as it lights up.

This saves you from building a separate text layer and a separate particle setup for every syllable. You time the lyrics once in the Follower, and everything else reads from it. These steps work in the Fusion page of DaVinci Resolve or in standalone Fusion.

How to animate lyrics by syllable with the Follower

1. Type the lyrics with spaces between syllables. Add a Text+ node and type the line with a space between every syllable. "Lyric animation" becomes "ly ric a ni ma tion".
2. Shrink the spaces to zero. Right-click the Styled Text field, add Character Level Styling, select each space and set its size to 0. The syllables join back into normal-looking words, but the Follower still sees each syllable as its own word.
3. Add a Follower modifier. Right-click the Styled Text field again and choose Follower. Open the Modifiers tab in the Inspector to find its controls, and set the order and delay so it steps through one syllable at a time.
4. Animate size in the Follower. In the Follower's Transform tab, keyframe the word size so each syllable grows slightly when it plays. Scrub against the audio waveform to place the keys on the beat.
5. Animate opacity in the Follower. In the Follower's Shading tab, animate the opacity of Shading 1 from 0 to 1 and back to 0. Each syllable now appears, holds and fades out. Animate the color here too if you want the syllable to change color as it hits.
6. Make an instanced copy of the text. Select the Text+ node, press Ctrl+C (Cmd+C on Mac), then Ctrl+Shift+V (Cmd+Shift+V) to paste an instance. The copy follows every change you make to the original.
7. Set up Shading 2 on the copy. On the copy, right-click Shading 1, deinstance it and turn it off. Deinstance Shading 2 and turn it on. Set Appearance to Border Fill and Level to Word.
8. Flatten the border. Drag the Y size of Shading 2 down until the border is a thin line that you can still just see. This line is where the particles will spawn.
9. Feed the copy into a pEmitter. Add a pEmitter node. In its Region tab, set the region to Bitmap and connect the copy's output to it. Because the copy shares the Follower opacity animation, the region only exists under the syllable that's playing.
10. Add sStars and tweak the particles. Set the pEmitter's Style to sStars, connect it through a pRender, and merge the result over your text. Then adjust the particle number, velocity, lifespan, size and color until it looks right.

Most of the look comes from step 10. Expect to spend a while in the pEmitter settings. Add a Soft Glow node after the text for the glowing effect.

If you'd rather skip the keyframing for spoken-word captions, Sycamore syncs animated captions to every word automatically. Type a line below to see how it looks.

Build the sparkles by hand with Shape and Merge nodes

If the particle setup gets too fiddly, you can animate the sparkles yourself.

1. Draw the sparkle with a Shape node (or a mask), then fill it with a Background node.
2. Combine them with a Merge node and composite the result behind your text.
3. Keyframe the position of the sparkle so it moves with each syllable, and add any other effects you like.
4. Keyframe the Size on the Text+ node to match the music.

This gives you full control over every sparkle, but it's a lot slower. Every syllable needs its own timing, and you have to place it all by ear.

For more ways to save time in Resolve, read how to speed up your editing workflow in DaVinci Resolve.

FAQ

Do I need a marker for every syllable? No. The Follower keyframes do the syncing, so you time each syllable inside Fusion against the audio instead of placing markers on the Edit page.

Is there an automatic way to sync the syllables to the music? Not inside Fusion. You still set the timing for each syllable by hand, but this setup means you only time one Follower and the particles follow on their own.