How to make gaming clips vertical

Why gameplay doesn't just fit

A stream is 16:9, wide. A phone screen is 9:16, tall. Fitting the whole frame into vertical leaves a thin strip with big empty bars above and below, and the game becomes too small to read. Cropping the centre keeps the game big but cuts off the sides, which is where the facecam and much of the HUD usually sit.

The split layout solves both: crop the facecam into its own panel, crop the game into another, and stack them.

The facecam-on-top split

Put the facecam in the top part of the frame and the game in the bigger bottom part. The face on top catches attention as the clip starts; the game below shows what they're reacting to.

Crop the facecam tight on the face, not the whole camera box with its border, room and overlay. A face that fills its panel reads better than a small face in a big room.

Give the game most of the height. It holds the detail; the face only needs to be big enough to read expressions.

Leave a clean seam between the two. Captions often sit well near it, between face and game, where they don't cover either.

Renafy's Webcam + gameplay layout does this: AutoClip finds the facecam, or you mark it once, and every vertical clip shows you on top and the game below.

Crop the gameplay to the action

The game panel shows only part of the screen, so choose the part that holds the moment.

Shooters: the crosshair is in the centre, so a centre crop usually works. Platformers and racing games: the character is often centred too. Strategy, MOBA and card games: the action can be anywhere and spread wide, so a split may cut what matters. Consider square or full gameplay there.

If the action moves across the screen during the clip, reframe in sections rather than leaving one crop that misses half of it.

Keep the HUD readable

The HUD lives at the edges: kill feed in a corner, minimap in another, health and ammo along the bottom. A vertical crop often cuts them off.

Ask what the viewer needs to understand the moment. If it's a 1v4 clutch, the kill feed or the team counter matters. If it's a jump scare, nothing on the HUD does.

When one HUD element is essential, frame the crop to include it, or use a wider shape for that clip. Don't put captions over it.

Test it on a phone. Small text that's readable on a monitor is often unreadable at phone size. If you can't read it, neither can the viewer.

When to go full gameplay or full facecam

Full gameplay: when there's no facecam, when the play itself is the moment (a clutch, a trick shot, a speedrun skip), or when the reaction adds nothing. Crop to the action, keep it big, and let captions or the game's own sound carry it.

Full facecam: when the reaction is the moment, such as rage, laughter, a story told mid-game, or reading chat. The game is just background; a tight crop on the face is stronger.

Split: when you need both, the play and the face reacting to it. This is most gaming clips, which is why it's the default.

Wide or square: when the moment needs the whole screen to make sense. Renafy exports vertical 9:16, square 1:1 and wide 16:9, and you can change a clip's shape in the editor.

Mistakes that make gaming clips hard to watch

Letterboxing the whole stream. A 16:9 frame shrunk into the middle of a phone screen, with blurred bars above and below, makes the game too small and looks like a repost. Crop instead.

Leaving overlays in. Sub goals, alerts, chat boxes and donation pop-ups clutter a small frame. Crop them out of both panels where you can.

A facecam that's bigger than the game. The face draws the eye, but the game shows what happened. Keep the face panel smaller unless the clip is all reaction.

Captions over the action. Big captions in the middle of the game panel hide the play the clip is about. Keep them near the seam or in a calm part of the frame.

Forgetting the audio. Game sound and music can bury the streamer's voice, and the voice is often the reaction. Balance them before you export.

Questions