solid color... useless?

This solid color asset they give us seems useless, or is it me? You can't add a gradient to it, you can't add a vignette to it... I tried to add a border to it, and you can't shrink the border, it always stays full frame. Seems very convoluted to me. Or am I missing something. AND Why can't I put a border around a mask?

Maybe it'd be quicker if you explain the end result you're wanting, and we can suggest ways to achieve it?

want to put a solid below an image with an alpha channel... but I want the solid to have a vignette effect or perhaps a gradient effect.

Yeah, that's a good one.

I'd probably just create the thing in Photoshop. Be faster for me.

Jim's way is fast and familiar if you use Photoshop. (I'm an Affinity Photo guy myself.) But if you want to do it in Resolve, I think you'll need to delve into Fusion. Drag a Fusion Comp effect into the timeline and go into Fusion (with the playhead over it) and do something like (scroll down to see the Fusion nodes at the bottom):

If you make a compound clip from the Colour Solid it behaves like a regular clip and you can use a Power window to create the vignette. You can also apply Effects from the Edit Page. Gradients are done using a 4 colour gradient Generator, but its controls are very limited. There is also the Background Generator node in Fusion but also is limited in options.

thank you, Peter. Never thought about making it a compound clip. I will try that. But don't you think this is all convoluted and they should just give us a background clip that simply works. That's pretty basic stuff.
And yes I use Photoshop and After Effects a lot so sure I can go do that but come on guys...having a background clip is sooo basic.

yes...thank again. I turned it into a compound clip and everything worked great.. vignettes or gradients. I have the sapphire plugins and their gradients are terrific. I'm a happy camper again.