Groups in Resolume — One Effect, One Fader, Many Layers

A Group bundles layers so you can treat them as one thing: drop a single effect on the group and it hits every clip inside, ride the whole section's opacity or speed on one fader, and leave everything outside the group untouched. If you've ever wanted your visuals to react as a unit while your logo floats clean on top — this is the tool.

Prefer to watch? Here's the full Groups tutorial — creation to Safeguard groups in ten minutes. Keep scrolling for the written walkthrough.

Create Your First Group

Right-click a layer → Group → New. The group bracket appears and wraps that layer. Drag more layers in — a foreground, a mid, a background — and the bracket extends to encapsulate each one. That bracket is the visual truth of what's in the group: if a layer sits inside it, the group controls it.

One setup step: head to the View menu and make sure the Group panel is set to show, so the group's controls appear up top. (We flagged this panel back in Lesson 2 — this is the lesson where it pays off.)

One Effect, Whole Section — the Logo Example

Drag an effect — say Edge Detection — onto the group. Check the composition monitor: every clip on every layer inside the group now has it. Meanwhile a logo layer sitting outside the group is completely unaffected. Drag the logo into the group and the effect grabs it too; drag it back out and it's clean again.

That's the signature move: your logo stays untouched by effects and audio reactivity while one group runs the entire look behind it. Full control over multiple layers with single effects — without ever worrying about trashing your branding.

Group Master Controls

• One opacity fader for the whole section of content
• One speed fader that drives every clip inside
• The usual transform set — position X/Y, width/height, scale, rotation, anchor — the same controls you already know from the clip, layer, and composition levels, now applied to the group as a unit
• Group buttons: an X that ejects every clip in the group at once, bypass, solo, and A/B crossfader toggles for mixing the group against other groups or clips — all of it MIDI-mappable

Also worth your experimentation time: blend modes on groups. Move a layer outside the group so there's something to blend against, then run through the group's blend modes (50 Difference is a fun first stop). Blending a whole masked-and-effected section against outside layers opens combinations single layers can't reach. (Blend modes fuzzy? Lesson 7 covers them all.)

Ignore Column Trigger — Hold What Shouldn't Change

Column triggers fire a whole column of clips with one click — great for laying out content song by song. The catch: by default the column fires everything, including the logo you wanted to leave alone.

The fix: put the layers that should hold into a group, then right-click the group → Ignore Column Trigger. Now columns fire everything except that group — the logo stays put while the rest of the composition flips to the next look. Rex's workflow: lay out multiple columns of content matched to the next song, fire each with one click, and let the ignore-group hold the constants.

Safeguard Groups — Lock What Must Stay Up

Say the artist wants their logo up nearly the whole set, plus a stylized frame that never moves while the visuals change behind it. You could lock each layer's content individually — or make one Group → Safeguard group, drop the frame and logo layers in, and lock the content once for the whole group.

The part that makes it bulletproof: anything you drag into a Safeguard group locks automatically. That matters the moment you run autopilot, drive IMAG screens, or fat-finger the master eject — the safeguarded content stays up no matter what.

Housekeeping: Rename, Remove, and the Nesting Question

• Rename: right-click the group → Rename, or double-click the label on the group panel — it updates in both places.
• Remove Group, Keep Layers: deletes the wrapper, keeps all your layers and content intact. The safe un-group.
• Remove Group and Layers: deletes the group and everything inside it. Know which one you're clicking.
• Nesting: the question everyone asks — can a group live inside another group? As of Resolume 7.26, no. One level of grouping.

The Mental Model

The full hierarchy is Composition → Groups → Layers → Clips. When do you reach for a group? Three triggers: you have different mapping needs for different sections of content, you want one effect or fader to control a section at once, or you have content that must be safeguarded. If any of those sound like your show — you probably need a group.

Cheat Sheet

• Create: right-click layer → Group → New; drag layers in to extend
• See it: View menu → show the Group panel
• One effect, all clips: drop the effect on the group; outside layers untouched
• Master faders: one opacity + one speed for the whole group
• Buttons: X ejects all, bypass, solo, A/B toggles — all MIDI-mappable
• Hold the logo: right-click group → Ignore Column Trigger
• Never lose it: Group → Safeguard — drag-ins auto-lock
• No nesting (as of 7.26) · hierarchy: Comp → Groups → Layers → Clips

What's Next

Groups are the setup for the most fun lesson in the course: Masking uses a group to package a mask with foreground and mid layers so the whole combo blends against the background — the exact trick this lesson makes possible. Later in the course, the show-file tutorial digs into how Rex structures groups for real live sets.

• Layers — the level below groups, and the hierarchy moves that feed them
• Masking — group masking is the advanced payoff
• Blend Modes — what to try on the group's blend dropdown
• Custom Transitions — clip changes that look designed, not default

New to Resolume entirely? Start from the top with the beginner course or the big-picture How to Become a VJ guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Questions about a specific group setup? Drop a comment on the YouTube video above, ask inside the Academy, or email vjacademy@outlook.com.