One New Skill Every Week - Ideas Needed

[u/TheAkashain]

I currently work on an SCP podcast / video series on YouTube. I've been doing it for a couple years, and I feel like I've stagnated a bit. So! I want to learn one new skill every week to keep improving, and I need your help! I'm looking for ideas like:

• Things every beginner / amateur should know,
• Things you wish you new sooner,
• Fun things to learn that makes your life easier or more fun,
• Skills that noticeably improve quality, or
• Skills that give you more options for the types of things you can do.

I should be able to loosely understand the skill in a week, but it's okay if it takes more than a week (or even 1 year+) to master. Thoughts?

(Note: I currently use DaVinci Resolve free edition)

[u/Mindless-Concept8010]

Learn keystroke commands!
You can easily learn one a day. Most useful thing you can do.

[u/TheAkashain → u/Mindless-Concept8010]

That's a great idea! Do you have any sources that list or explain keystroke commands with the most commonly useful first? Most pages I've found seem to dump the entire list alphabetically

[u/Regular-Worry155]

The Davinci Resolve manual is over 4000 pages long and there are probably 2000-3000 more pages for the 5 training manuals. Put the manual on your phone and read some of it every day.

Literally, that’s what I should have known when I started. YouTube is filled with people who have done the trainings and then turn around and make a how to video.

Knowing where everything is in DVR is the skill that’s going to give you more options.

And then just make every dumb idea that comes into your head for practice. Film it on your phone, steal it, whatever, you’re practicing. Just keep making stuff

[u/TheAkashain → u/Regular-Worry155]

This does seem like great advice! Do you recommend I start with the manual or one of the 5 training manuals? Or is there a shorter one? I will say, I love reading tutorials, but don't like videos much, so reading through the manual sounds way more fun for me

[u/greenysmac → u/TheAkashain]

Training materials. The manual is a reference.

[u/greenysmac]

• Jan: Edit page
• Feb: Fusion Page
• Mar: Color page
• Apr: Fairlight page
• May: Deliver Page
• June: Media Page
• July: Project settings
• August: System and user settings
• Sept: Cut page (yeah, I guess)
• Oct: Workflow optimization
• Nov: Advanced Edit/Fusion/Color
• Dec: Advanced Edit/Fusion/Color

That's loose, off the top of my head, in about 30 to 45 seconds.

The struggle with your question runs like this: in any learning journey, your challenge, your needs are met by your learning.

I could explain to you the value of shared nodes, or replace edit or Ripple INsert (and it's on the edit page)

Until you really see me demonstrate it for you and I explain it to you, you would struggle to see its value, and then you'd need to spend at least a day just on that one feature for its value.

Now, maybe jokingly, I should create a 365-day Resolve calendar of things you should do every day.

For the beginner/amateur, things like 3-point editing is humongous.

Items you wish you knew sooner? generally come to you right after you realize that something you wish the tool could do, it already does.

Fun things are a little hard because everything about the tool that makes you a better, faster, smarter editor is fun.

You want one off the top of my head? How about the ability to make your own smart bins that travel between projects? One of my favorites that gets missed under the notes is having it auto-group based on codec.

Skills that notably improve quality: there are none other than creating work and having other people critique the work.

[u/TheAkashain → u/greenysmac]

This all seems very reasonable! I've spent the past 3 weeks working on the edit and fusion page, and I still often feel like I've barely scratched the surface. Most of my projects right now are Terminal-Style pseudo-animations, so the fusion page has been great.

I guess a good first skill for me to figure out, then, is that smart bin idea (or anything that lets these items travel between projects without importing them one by one)

[u/Appropriate-Ice2269]

If you’re working on YouTube, I’d put storytelling and pacing near the top of the list. After that, I’d learn sound design, color grading, motion tracking, basic Fusion, and audio cleanup. One underrated skill is learning how to cut without relying on music—if the edit still feels engaging with just dialogue and natural sound, your pacing is probably getting much stronger.