Erase the Drone: Firefly vs. DaVinci Neural Engine 2026 Shootout

If you fly FPV or shoot 360-degree content like I do, you know the "invisible drone" promise is often a lie. Sure, the stitching software hides the selfie stick, but what about the drone’s shadow racing across the ground? What about the landing gear that accidentally dipped into the frame during that power loop? In the world of action sports post-production, getting the shot is only half the battle. The other half is cleaning it up.

It is 2026, and the AI revolution has firmly planted its flag in our editing timelines. We aren't just cloning pixels anymore; we are asking neural networks to dream up what should be behind that ugly prop guard. Today, I am putting the two heavyweights of AI video tools 2026 into the ring: the cloud-based generative wizardry of Adobe Firefly video inpainting against the local processing powerhouse of the DaVinci Resolve object removal (Neural Engine).

I took both systems out of the lab and into the edit bay with terabytes of messy FPV and 360 footage. Here is who survives the shootout.

The Contenders: Cloud vs. Silicon

Before we look at the results, we need to understand the fundamental difference in how these tools approach invisible drone editing.

Adobe Firefly (Video Model 3) operates primarily in the cloud. When you select an area to remove in Premiere Pro or After Effects, it sends that data to Adobe’s servers. The AI generates entirely new pixels based on the surrounding context. It is "generative," meaning it invents texture that never existed.

DaVinci Resolve Studio 20 (Neural Engine) relies on your local hardware. It uses temporal data—looking at pixels from frames before and after the current moment—to fill in the gap. It is less about "dreaming" and more about "stealing" pixels from different points in time to cover the mistake.

This distinction matters immensely when you are dealing with heavy codecs. If you are shooting high-bitrate footage, check out my breakdown on Is ProRes Worth It? H.265 vs ProRes Drone Codec Lab Test 2026 to see how file sizes impact these AI processing times.

Round 1: Drone Shadow Removal

This is the classic FPV nightmare. You are chasing a drift car, the lighting is perfect, but there is a crisp, black shadow of your quadcopter ripping across the asphalt right next to the subject. Drone shadow removal is the ultimate stress test because the background (the ground) is moving at 60mph relative to the camera.

The DaVinci Approach

DaVinci Resolve’s Object Removal tool is surprisingly robust here. Because the ground texture (asphalt) is consistent and the motion is linear, Resolve’s tracker locks onto the shadow easily. It pulls "clean" asphalt from 5 frames ago and patches it over the shadow. The result is mathematically perfect. There is no shimmering, no weird artifacts. It looks like reality.

The Firefly Approach

Firefly struggled here. While it successfully removed the shadow, the generated asphalt texture "boiled" or shimmered from frame to frame. Because Firefly generates each frame (or small groups of frames) with a degree of randomness, it lacks the temporal solidity needed for fast motion. In 2026, Adobe has improved this with "Temporal Smoothing," but for high-speed action, it still looks like a glitch in the matrix.

Pro Tip: For fast-moving shadows on simple textures (grass, road, water), stick to DaVinci Resolve. The temporal consistency beats generative AI every time.

Round 2: The "Invisible Drone" in 360 Footage

When shooting with rigs like the Insta360 Sphere or custom cinewhoops carrying 360 cams, you often get stitching artifacts or bits of the drone frame peeking into the shot. If you are interested in the hardware side of this, I previously covered the gear in my FPV 360 Cinematography: Insta360 GO 3 Review (2026).

In this scenario, the object (the drone part) is static relative to the lens, but the background is spinning wildly.

The Firefly Approach

This is where Adobe Firefly video inpainting shines. I had a shot where the drone’s battery strap was flapping into the bottom of the 360 sphere. The background was a complex forest canopy. DaVinci’s patch replacer couldn’t find "clean" data because the trees were so chaotic.

Firefly didn’t care about finding clean data—it just invented new leaves and branches. It looked incredible. Because the background was chaotic nature, the minor temporal shimmering was unnoticeable. It erased the strap and replaced it with convincing foliage instantly.

The DaVinci Approach

Resolve required me to build a complex node tree, track the strap, and manually paint in a clone source. It took me 45 minutes to do what Firefly did in 3 minutes. For complex, static obstructions, generative fill is a workflow savior.

Round 3: Action Sports & Complex Textures

Action sports post-production often involves water, snow, or dust. I tested both systems on footage of a surfer where the drone shadow crossed the whitewater of a wave.

Water is the enemy of video editing. It moves randomly, reflects light, and has no geometric structure for trackers to grab.

• DaVinci Resolve: Failed. The tracker slipped constantly. The patch replacer created a "smear" effect because the water from previous frames didn't match the current wave shape.
• Adobe Firefly: Passed with flying colors. It understood the context "ocean waves" and generated frothy water that matched the surrounding turbulence. It wasn't pixel-perfect to reality, but it was visually plausible to the viewer.

For more on capturing these difficult environments, read up on Cinematic 360 FPV: ND Filter Shootout & Stitching Guide (2026) to ensure your source footage is as clean as possible before you start editing.

The Cost of Magic: Hardware vs. Subscription

We cannot talk about AI video tools 2026 without talking about resources. These tools are heavy.

To run DaVinci Resolve’s Magic Mask and Object Removal smoothly at 4K, you need serious VRAM. I am running a dual-GPU setup, and it still chugs on 10-bit footage. However, it is a one-time purchase (mostly). You own the power.

Adobe requires a Creative Cloud subscription and, crucially, "Generative Credits." In 2026, high-resolution video inpainting burns through credits rapidly. If you are a professional delivering daily content, you need to factor this recurring cost into your business model. For industry news on how these software shifts affect the commercial market, sUAS News often covers the intersection of tech and enterprise workflows.

Ethical Considerations in Journalism

As we get better at invisible drone editing, the line between "cleaning up" and "faking" gets blurry. Removing a shadow is standard practice. Generating a new crowd of people? That is different.

Organizations like the Pilot Institute emphasize safety and regulations, but we also need to talk about digital integrity. If you are submitting news footage, Firefly’s generative nature (inventing pixels) might violate editorial standards, whereas DaVinci’s cloning (using existing pixels) is generally accepted.

Verdict: Which Tool Belongs in Your Workflow?

After weeks of testing, my conclusion is that you cannot rely on just one. The strengths are too specialized.

Winner: DaVinci Resolve Neural Engine

Best for: Drone shadow removal on solid surfaces, removing sensor dust, and fixing dead pixels. Its temporal stability is unmatched for professional cinema work where "shimmering" is unacceptable.

Winner: Adobe Firefly

Best for: 360 drone footage editing where you need to remove static rig elements against complex, chaotic backgrounds (forests, water). It is also the king of "save the shot" when you have absolutely no clean data to clone from.

For the hobbyist, Firefly is more accessible and easier to use. For the professional colorist or FPV cinematographer, DaVinci Resolve offers the precision control required for the big screen. Just remember: the best way to remove a drone shadow is still to fly so you don't cast one in the first place.

If you are looking to upgrade your rig to capture better source material, check out the latest deals at B&H Photo Video for the newest sensors that handle dynamic range better, making shadow recovery (and removal) easier.