How to make animated word-by-word captions in DaVinci Resolve

Word-by-word captions — each word appearing as it is spoken, key words bigger and animated — are the standard look of talking-head content. Built by hand in DaVinci Resolve that means placing, sizing and animating hundreds of Text+ clips. This guide shows the whole process with DaVinci Resolve and ROKLIM, where the manual part becomes a few button presses.

What you need

• DaVinci Resolve on Windows — free, or Studio 19.1 or newer. Connect ROKLIM: free Resolve Workspace → Scripts → ROKLIM; Studio External scripting using = Local in Preferences → System → General.
• ROKLIM — free 7-day trial, no card.
• A Text+ title in the Media Pool (Effects → Titles → Text+, drag it into the Media Pool).

Step 1: Get the words

ROKLIM starts from subtitles, so first get the text:

• From the audio with ROKLIM: in Layout press DaVinci Resolve Free → Create subtitles. ROKLIM makes word-by-word subtitles on your computer, puts the SRT in the Media Pool and shows where the first word starts.
• From the audio in Resolve Studio: in the Timeline menu use Create Subtitles from Audio. It adds a subtitle track with timed text.
• From a file: import an SRT into the Media Pool and drop it on the timeline.

Read the text once and fix mistakes now — names, numbers, slang. Every later step reuses these words.

Step 2: Lay out every word as its own clip

Open ROKLIM → Layout.

1. Subtitle track: the number of your subtitle track (1 = the first). If ROKLIM made the subtitles, its SRT is already set — skip this.
2. Zone: Top/Bottom Tilt and Left/Right Pan — the part of the frame the words may use. Turn on the rulers in the Resolve viewer and pull guides to see it on the frame.
3. Text tracks: free video tracks above your footage, for example 3,4,5,6,7,8. Word 1 of each group goes on the first one, word 2 on the second, and so on.
4. Groups and rows: how many words are on screen at once (Words/group, Max chars) and how many per row. Shorter groups feel faster; 3–5 words suit most talking heads.
5. Text Settings: pick the font and colour, then press Auto-measure once for this font and timeline (playback resolution Full; ROKLIM puts a Text+ from the Media Pool on the timeline for it and removes it after). This lets Layout know the exact width of every word so nothing overlaps.
6. Colour clips by: Line colours row 1, row 2 and row 3 differently; Role marks the key row of each group as Big. These colours drive the animation in the next step.
7. Mark the part of the timeline with I / O in Resolve (no marks = the whole timeline), then press RUN.

Every word is now a Text+ clip, sized to fit its row and placed in your zone. Because each word is a separate clip, changing a word or its timing later does not break the rest of the layout. See Layout for every setting.

Step 3: Animate by colour

Open ROKLIM → Animations.

1. For each clip colour pick an animation — a Fusion .setting file. Web opens free ROKLIM animations with previews; Local shows your own. + Add color adds a row for another colour.
2. Set the same text tracks and time range.
3. Optional: Fit animation to clip length so long animations never outlast short words.
4. Press RUN.

Now the rows animate the way you assigned: for example row 1 slides up, the key row pops. See Animations.

Step 4: Sound and effects (optional)

• SFX puts a sound under the words — by colour or for particular words — timed to each clip. See SFX.
• VFX places effects at timeline markers: drop a coloured marker, get a zoom or a shake there. See VFX.

Step 5: Polish

• Move a single word with Pan/Tilt in the Inspector, or drag it in Premade Layout.
• Change the font of everything without losing positions: Text Settings → Change Font.
• Tighten or loosen spacing for the whole range: Update Existing → Line gap / Word gap / Resize.
• Like a group? Save it as a Premade layout and apply its look to other groups.

Why one clip per word

Caption templates that animate a whole subtitle track are fast to apply but hard to adjust: one word cannot get its own size, place or motion. With one Text+ clip per word, every word stays under Edit-page control — and ROKLIM's tools can re-flow a whole range when you change your mind.