Picture Lock / 05 · Formats
4 shapes.
6 places to put them.
One upload comes back cut for each platform you want — the tall and square shapes are true crops at full resolution, with the captions moved clear of whatever that app draws on top. The wide shape is the tall cut set on a soft backdrop, because a tall video has no extra picture at the sides to show.
Every app covers part of your video with its own furniture — a caption, a like rail, a progress bar. The safe area below is how much of the bottom of the frame each one takes, measured rather than guessed, and the captions are placed above it.
What each platform gets
| size | shape | sweet spot | bottom kept clear | why | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TikTok | 1080×1920 | 9:16 | 34s | 20% | the app draws its caption, handle and button rail over the bottom fifth and the right edge |
| Instagram Reels | 1080×1920 | 9:16 | 30s | 18% | Reels overlays its own caption and action rail; 90s is a hard ceiling |
| YouTube Shorts | 1080×1920 | 9:16 | 45s | 14% | lighter furniture than TikTok, but still over the bottom 14% — and our lower third reaches 0.90 |
| YouTube | 1920×1080 | 16:9 | — | 10% | landscape, watched with sound, and long enough that a bed is expected rather than intrusive |
| 1080×1080 | 1:1 | 60s | 8% | square fills the most feed area, and it plays muted — the captions ARE the video here | |
| 1080×1350 | 4:5 | 60s | 10% | 4:5 is the largest shape the feed will show without cropping, and it also plays muted |
The 10 formats it can build
These are structures, not filters — each one needs particular material, and it says what, so you know before you upload.
Split screen
You on top, something else underneath, captions across the seam.
Before and after
The same shot twice with the change between them — a wipe, a cut, or side by side.
Listicle countdown
A numbered run counting down, the number big on screen, the best one last.
Beat-synced montage
Every cut lands on the beat. The track times it only; you add the sound when you post.
POV voice-over
A first-person line on screen, a voice over b-roll, a turn in the middle.
Day in the life
Clips through a day, time stamps on screen, one voice holding it together.
Screen tutorial
Zooms to what matters, an oversized cursor, a line of text per step.
Podcast clip
The strongest 30 seconds, both speakers framed, captions that follow who is talking.
Green-screen commentary
You cut out over an article, a post or a chart.
UGC testimonial
A customer talking to their phone, lightly cut. Their words, never written for them.
Read straight out of the engine
by build_formats_page.py — last read 9 October 2026.