Layout Regions — Split Screen and Custom Arrangements

What are Layout Regions?

Layout Regions let you arrange your screen recording and camera feed into different positions on the canvas — split screen, side by side, camera focus, or fully custom arrangements. They're perfect for creating content optimized for TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, or any format where you need both video and camera visible in a specific arrangement.

Unlike the default camera overlay (which sits as a small circle on top of your video), layout regions treat both video and camera as equal, independent rectangles placed anywhere on the canvas.

Adding a Layout Region

There are two ways to add a layout region:

  • From the timeline: Right-click any clip → Add Effect → Layout
  • From the sidebar: Click the Layout tab (split-rectangle icon) → Add Layout

A new layout region is placed at the playhead position with a default duration of 5 seconds. You can drag its edges on the timeline to adjust timing.

Layout Presets

Choose from built-in presets to quickly set up common arrangements:

  • Split Top/Bottom — Video on top, camera on bottom (classic TikTok tutorial style)
  • Split Bottom/Top — Camera on top, video on bottom
  • Split Left/Right — Video on left, camera on right (reaction/commentary style)
  • Split Right/Left — Camera on left, video on right
  • Camera Focus — Camera takes most of the screen, video in a small corner
  • Video Focus — Video large, camera small (similar to PiP but as rectangles)
  • Camera Only — Full-screen camera, no video visible
  • Video Only — Full-screen video, no camera visible
  • Custom — Define your own positions for both video and camera

Customizing Positions

After selecting a preset, you can fine-tune both the video and camera positions using sliders:

  • X / Y — Position on the canvas (0% = left/top, 100% = right/bottom)
  • Width / Height — Size as a percentage of the available area
  • Corner Radius — Round the corners of each rectangle (0% = sharp edges)

Padding

By default, layout regions respect your project's padding setting (from the Shape tab). You can override this per layout region:

  1. Open the layout region settings
  2. Under Padding, toggle Custom Padding on
  3. Adjust the padding slider (0 = edge-to-edge, no gap around content)

Saving Custom Layouts

If you create a layout you want to reuse across projects:

  1. Set up your video and camera positions
  2. Scroll down to Custom Layout → click Save
  3. Give it a name

Saved layouts appear in the Preset section under Saved Layouts and can be applied to any layout region with one click.

Transition Animation

The Transition Duration slider controls how smoothly the layout animates in and out. Set to 0 for an instant cut, or up to 1 second for a smooth transition between the default view and the layout arrangement.

How It Works with Other Effects

  • Zoom regions still work within layout regions — zooms are applied inside the video rectangle
  • Cursor overlay follows the video content within its layout position
  • Annotations render on top of both video and camera
  • Subtitles continue to display over the entire canvas

Timeline Behavior

Layout regions appear as green bars on the timeline effect track. You can:

  • Drag the edges to resize the time range
  • Right-click to duplicate or delete
  • Click to select and edit in the sidebar
  • Have multiple layout regions at different points in your video

Export

Layout regions are fully rendered in the exported video using GPU-accelerated Metal compositing. The export matches exactly what you see in the preview — including padding, corner radius, and camera mirror/flip.

Template Presets

When you save a template preset (from the toolbar), your layout regions are included. This means you can set up a complete editing style — background, camera, zooms, and layouts — and apply it to future recordings with one click.