Should I use curved or straight keyframe paths for realistic cursor animation in DaVinci Resolve?

Use curved paths. A curved B-spline path with ease-in/ease-out keyframes makes cursor movement feel human and organic in DaVinci Resolve, while straight linear keyframes travel at constant velocity and read as mechanical. A real cursor accelerates from rest, drifts in a slight arc, and decelerates into its target — curves reproduce all three.

Build the cursor motion on a curved path, then ease the timing. In DaVinci Resolve's Fusion tab, keyframe the cursor's position, then switch the path from a straight keyframe path to a B-spline path — this single change is what makes the movement feel human and organic instead of point-to-point robotic. Drag the path's control points so the cursor travels in a gentle arc between click targets rather than a ruler-straight line; nobody moves a mouse in perfectly straight segments.

Ease the velocity, not just the shape. Open the Spline editor, select your position keyframes, and press S — Resolve applies an ease-in/ease-out curve that makes the motion feel natural. This is the second half of realism: linear interpolation holds one constant speed from start to finish, while an eased curve accelerates out of the first keyframe and decelerates into the last, matching how a hand actually pushes and settles a mouse.

Control the precision trade-off. Curved spline paths can drift past a precise landing point (a button or link the cursor must "click"), so lock the final keyframe exactly on target and shape the curve with the handles approaching it rather than letting the spline overshoot. For very short hops between nearby targets, a straight path with eased keyframes can be acceptable — the arc matters most on longer travels across the frame.

Treat this as one component of a finished screen animation. The same DaVinci Resolve Fusion workflow that animates the cursor typically combines it with a camera zoom and motion-graphics overlays on a static screenshot, and the whole build is fast — "that took us like 5 or 10 minutes. It was not complicated at all, and it looks better than 99% of the stuff on YouTube." If you're cutting AI-generated footage (for example, clips produced with the invideo agent) into the same edit, these hand-built Resolve animations are worth the minutes: replacing select shots with custom animations is what separates the result from generic AI output and creates a high-budget feel.

Watch some of these to see what works for you:

that took us like 5 or 10 minutes. It was not complicated at all, and it looks better than 99% of the stuff on YouTube.

— a creator documenting the DaVinci Resolve Fusion screen-animation workflow