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[ Step 01 ]
Resolve's viewer mid camera pass, with the tracked points drawn on the picture.
/media/step-01-track-camera.png
Track Camera
One button. The pass follows the whole scene and carries the trail with it. Nothing to place by hand.
OpenFX plug-in / Windows/ Resolve Studio
Trace every shot inside Resolve
Press Track Camera, then Trace Ball. The pass follows the scene, finds the ball, and draws its flight as a tapered trail that sticks to the shot. No boxes to place. No keyframes to set.
01
Two buttons, then you are done
02
[ Step 02 ]
The viewer after a trace, showing the fitted arc and its handles.
/media/step-02-trace-ball.png
Trace Ball
It finds the real ball, frame by frame, and fits the flight. Mark the ball at impact and it cannot wander off onto a bush.
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[ Step 03 ]
The Look group in the Inspector next to the finished trail.
/media/step-03-look.png
Shape it
Three handles: near, apex, far. Drag any of them. Then colour, thickness, shadow, and a punch in on the landing.
02
The same frame, twice
Drag the divider. Arrow keys work too.
[ After ]
The exact same frame, with the trail drawn. Same timecode, same grade.
/media/after.jpg
[ Before ]
One frame of the shot with no trail on it.
/media/before.jpg
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What you get
- Automatic camera trackFollows the shot on its own. No tracker boxes to place.
- Finds the real ballNot a drawn curve — it detects the ball and fits its actual flight.
- Editable pathThe trace hands you draggable handles. Fix a near-miss instead of starting over.
- Customise the lookColour, thickness, taper, ground shadow and a head dot — all yours.
- Auto zoomPushes the picture in on the ball as it lands, carrying the trail with it.
- Composite it yourselfOutput the trail over transparency, or mask it behind anything in front.
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Before you buy
- Operating system
- Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. There is no Mac build.
- Host
- DaVinci Resolve Studio. The free edition of Resolve does not load OpenFX plug-ins at all. Built and tested against Resolve Studio 21.
- Graphics
- Tested on NVIDIA, Turing (GTX 16 / RTX 20 series) or newer. AMD and Intel GPUs use the OpenCL path and have not been tested. Use the trial to check your own machine before paying.
- Installing
- Resolve must be closed, and Windows will ask for administrator rights.Full steps
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One payment
Ball Tracer for DaVinci Resolve
announced at launch
- Perpetual licence — it does not expire
- Commercial use, including client work
- Activations on your own machines: announced at launch
- 7-day refund, no reason needed
Try the whole thing first.
The trial download and the paid download are the same file. Nothing is cut out and nothing is time-limited. Until you activate it, the plug-in writes TRIAL diagonally across the picture — that is the only difference.
- Activation needs the internet once.
- Works offline for 30 days at a stretch.
- Deactivate to move it to another computer.
- Your key is never written into a project file.
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Questions
Does it work in the free version of DaVinci Resolve?
No, and nothing can. The free edition of Resolve does not load OpenFX plug-ins at all — that is a limit of Resolve itself, not a choice made here. You need Resolve Studio.
Is there a Mac version?
No. Ball Tracer is Windows only and there is no Mac build planned right now. If you are on a Mac, do not buy it.
Will it run on my AMD or Intel graphics card?
It is built to. But it has only ever been tested on NVIDIA, so that path is untested — run the trial before you buy.
What does the trial actually restrict?
Nothing, except that it writes the word TRIAL diagonally across every frame. Every feature works, so you can test it on your own footage and see exactly what you would get.
Does it always find the ball?
No. On a clean shot with the ball marked at impact it is reliable, but a ball that is too small or a background that is too busy will defeat it. That is why the trial is the same build as the paid one.
Is my licence key stored in my project file?
No. That was checked directly: a saved project, an exported .drp, the Resolve databases, the Fusion preferences and the logs were all searched for the key and it is in none of them. Sending someone a project cannot leak your key.