The following text is from the reference manual, and there is more on bit depth and other settings so if you are having trouble its worth checking it out.
Adding Fusion Composition Generators
The Generator category of the Edit page Effects Library has a Fusion Composition generator. It’s useful for creating an empty placeholder in the Timeline that you later want to work on in the Fusion page to create a more fully-featured Fusion composition.
Creating a Fusion Composition Clip in a Bin
You can create an empty Fusion Composition clip in any bin in the Media Pool without creating a Timeline. This method can be useful for creating motion graphics or titles when there is no Timeline or when you plan on using the clip in multiple Timelines.
There are various ways one can create a Fusion composition template that can be dynamically adjusted to fit different timeline, length, resolution etc, but that requires preparing the composition as dynamic template and makes sense if you are working on the same title or motion graphic sequence all the time.
Managing Resolution In Fusion
There is no formal resolution to a comp in Fusion. Even though opening Fusion > Fusion Settings in the Fusion page or Preferences in Fusion Studio allows you to set the Width and Height in the Frame Format panel, those settings only affect the size of Fusion-generated images, like the Background tool, Fast Noise, and Text+ tool. The actual resolution of your composition is initially determined by the source resolution of the input image. However, it can be modified at any time using a variety of operations and nodes.
For example, if you read in a full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution image, your comp starts at full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution. This is regardless of the Timeline resolution when you are using the Fusion page in DaVinci Resolve. The initial resolution of the Fusion comp is the size of the source media. Depending on how you combine images and the nodes you use, the output comp resolution can be maintained or modified.
The output of the Fusion page is placed back into the Edit page Timeline based on DaVinci Resolve’s Image Sizing setting. By default, DaVinci Resolve uses an image sizing setting called Scale to Fit. This means that even if the Fusion page outputs a
4K composition, it conforms to 1920 x 1080 if that is what the project or a particular Timeline is set to. Changing the image sizing setting in DaVinci Resolve’s Project Settings affects how Fusion compositions are integrated into the Edit page Timeline.
Changing the Resolution of a Clip
If your comp uses a single image, you can change the pixel output resolution in several ways. Three common tools that change the pixel resolution of a clip are the Resize, Scale, and Crop nodes. A fourth node, Letterbox, is less commonly used but also changes the pixel resolution of a clip.
These four nodes are located in the Transform category of the Effects library. Resize is also located in the toolbar.
— Crop: Sets the output resolution of the node using a combination of X and Y size along with X and Y offset to cut the frame down to the size you want. Crop removes pixels from the image, so if you later use a Transform node and try to move the image, those pixels are not available.
— Letterbox: Sets the output resolution of the node by adding horizontal or vertical black edges where necessary to format the frame size and aspect ratio.
— Resize: Sets the output resolution of the node using absolute pixels.
— Scale: Sets the output resolution of the node using a relative percentage of the current input image size.
To change resolution and reposition a frame without changing the pixel resolution of a clip, use the Transform node.
Compositing with Different-Resolution Clips
When you composite images with different resolutions using the Merge node, the image that’s connected to the orange background input determines the output resolution of the Merge node.
Often, it’s easiest to control the comp resolution right at the start by connecting a node with the desired output resolution you want to the orange background input on the Merge node. A Background node is often used in this situation because it consumes meager system resources.
Sizing Between DaVinci Resolve Pages
The order of sizing operations between DaVinci Resolve pages is a bit more nuanced. It’s important to understand which sizing operations happen in the Fusion page, and which happen after, so you know which effects alter the image that’s input to the Fusion page, and which effects alter the page’s output. For example, lens correction, while not strictly sizing, is nonetheless an effect that changes how the image begins in your Fusion composition. However, the Edit or Cut page stabilization function is an effect that comes after the Fusion page, so it does not appear in the composition you’re creating.
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Sizing with Compound and Fusion Clips
Another way to modify the resolution before clips get handed off from the Edit page to the Fusion page is to create a compound clip or a Fusion clip. Both compound clips and Fusion clips change the working resolution of the individual clips to match the Timeline resolution. For instance, if two 4K clips are stacked one on top of the other in an HD timeline, creating a compound or Fusion clip resizes
the clips to HD. The full resolution of the individual 4K clips is not available in Fusion and is therefore handed off to the Color page at the rescaled size. To maintain the full resolution of source clips, bring only one clip into the Fusion page from the Edit or Cut page Timeline, and then bring other clips into the Fusion composition using the Media Pool. Of course, if your clips are full HD and your timeline is full HD, then creating a Fusion clip or compound clip does not affect the resolution.