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Blur Lab

Five cinematic blurs in one effect: dreamy glow, diffusion, edge focus, background soften and zoom. Shape your own focus and animate it in.

FreeEffectResolve 21 (tested on Mac) · Free and StudiomacOS + Windows39 controls

Download free 1.2 MB

Real frames from the plugin: Halation & Bloom · Diffusion · Edge Focus · Background Soften · Zoom

What it is

What it does

One drag-and-drop effect with five blur looks: Halation & Bloom for a dreamy film glow on highlights, Diffusion for soft skin, Edge Focus to pull the eye to the centre, Background Soften for real bokeh behind your subject, and Zoom / Directional for a speed punch. Shape the sharp area yourself with an Ellipse, Box or tilt-shift Band, move, size, rotate and feather it, and turn on Show Focus Area to see exactly what gets blurred (red = blurred). Build the blur in or out over any number of frames. Works in free Resolve, no Color page or masks needed.

5 looks: Halation & Bloom, Diffusion, Edge Focus, Background Soften, Zoom / Directional
Your own focus shape: Ellipse, Box or Band (tilt-shift), with size, position, rotation and feather
Show Focus Area overlay (red = blurred) so you see exactly what you are changing
Real bokeh for Background Soften, glow colour and threshold for the dreamy looks
Build In / Build Out / Blur Reveal animation, with your own duration and delay
Light and real-time on the Edit page in free Resolve

Use it for

Dreamy film glow on night and golden-hour shots
Soft, flattering skin on talking heads
Making a subject pop from a busy background
Tilt-shift miniature looks
Speed punches and transitions

Tips

Halation & Bloom looks best on shots with bright lights against darker areas: neon, string lights, a window, a sunset.
Keep the glow subtle on bright faces: lower Halation or raise the Threshold.
Turn on Show Focus Area while you place the shape, then turn it off.
Band (tilt-shift) on a high-angle street or crowd shot gives the miniature look.
Zoom with a small focus size on the face keeps the eyes sharp in a speed punch.

Install · about a minute

Four steps

01
Unzip the download, then double-click the .drfx file inside. Resolve installs it for you.
02
Restart DaVinci Resolve.
03
On the Edit page, open Effects › Effects › anukalp.wip.
04
Drag it onto your timeline, select it, and change everything in the Inspector.

Double-click doesn't work? Copy the .drfx into ~/Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/Fusion/Templates/ on Mac, or %APPDATA%\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\Fusion\Templates\ on Windows, then restart Resolve.

Full guide with every control (PDF) →

Troubleshooting

If something's off

It isn't in the Effects library. Restart Resolve after installing. Still missing? Use the manual install path above.
It looks different from the demo. Check you're on Resolve 21, then compare your Inspector settings with the defaults in the guide.
Known issues: none reported for this version yet.

Report a bug or ask for a feature →

Compatibility

Version 1.0.0

Works on	macOS, Windows
DaVinci Resolve	21 (tested on Mac) · Free and Studio
Released	6 Nov 2026
Download size	1.2 MB

What's new in 1.0.0

First release: Halation & Bloom, Diffusion, Edge Focus, Background Soften and Zoom / Directional, focus shape (Ellipse, Box, Band) with Show Focus Area, Build In / Out animation.

Free download · 1.2 MB

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