How to make a picture in picture video

Picture in picture takes one button in Video by Zaweba. Put the second clip on a video track above your main footage, select it and press the quick 'corner (picture in picture)' button; the clip shrinks into a corner while the main video plays underneath. From there you can move it, resize it and crop it by dragging on the preview.

It's the standard layout for a webcam over a screen recording, a reaction video, a sign language interpreter, a commentator over gameplay, or a small close-up beside a wide shot.

Setting up the two layers

Video tracks stack from V1 upward, with higher tracks in front. Put the main footage, such as the screen recording, on V1. Put the inset, such as your webcam, on V2 directly above it, and line up the two in time. If they were recorded separately, Synchronise can line them up by their sound, matched to the millisecond.

Now select the V2 clip and press 'corner (picture in picture)'. The inset jumps into place, small enough to leave the main picture readable.

Adjusting the inset

Drag the picture on the preview to move it to another corner. Drag a corner to resize it, keeping its shape; Shift+drag stretches it if you need a different shape, though usually you don't. For exact control, the Inspector has Scale, separate Width and Height, and position values.

Crop is the most useful tool here. A webcam picture usually has empty wall on both sides, and cropping the left and right edges tightens the inset round the face so it takes up less of the frame. You can crop each edge separately.

Making it look finished

A plain rectangle can look pasted on. A few touches make it look designed. Add a rounded rectangle mask to soften the corners. Use a shadow or outline effect so the inset stands off the background. Or put the inset inside a circle with an ellipse mask, which suits a talking head.

If the main video changes, move the inset out of the way. Keyframe its position so it slides to the other corner when something important appears where it sits; any slider with a stopwatch can be animated, including position and scale.

More than one inset

Add more tracks for more insets. Two webcams over a shared screen, or a split of four video calls, are just more clips on more tracks, each moved and scaled into place. The 'fill frame' button next to the corner button sends a clip back to filling the whole frame, which is useful when you want to cut from inset to full screen and back.

If the layout repeats through a long video, set it once and then use Paste attributes (Ctrl+Alt+V) to copy the position, scale and crop onto other clips.

Sound in a two-picture video

Decide which sound leads. For a reaction video, the reactor's voice usually sits on top with the main video's sound lower. The sound mixer gives each track its own fader, and auto-ducking can lower music under speech for you.

Then press Ctrl+E and choose your preset. The inset is rendered into the picture, so the layout looks the same everywhere it's played.