Shapes and custom sizes

A shape is the frame a piece is made for: a 16:9 film, a 9:16 reel, a square post, a 4:5 portrait post, or any size in pixels for a banner, a header or an ad slot. Picking one frames the stage to it, shades the edges a platform's own buttons and captions would cover, and makes it the shape renders start with.

A piece is live code, so it fills whatever frame it is given. Layers are placed in shares of the frame and sized against its shorter side, so a layout made in one shape still works in the others. You can make a piece in one shape and render it in all of them.

Choosing a shape

1. Open the Motion panel

   Press M.

2. Pick a shape

   Open Shape in the panel's header and choose Stage, 16:9 · Landscape, 9:16 · Reels, 1:1 · Square, 4:5 · Portrait or Custom size. Under Custom sizes the menu also lists common sizes, ready to pick.

3. Work inside the safe area

   The stage is framed to the shape, with a label in its corner such as 9:16 · safe area. Keep words and logos out of the hatched bands.

Stage means no particular shape: the piece fills the stage as it is. The framing shows only while the Motion panel is open; close it and the stage fills the space again.

The shapes

The safe areas follow where each kind of platform puts its own buttons, captions and profile details. A 9:16 reel has the most to avoid: the caption and buttons along the bottom and the right edge.

Each shape is laid out as a phone or a feed would show it, then drawn sharp at full size, so text and details are the size people expect to see them.

A custom size

1. Pick Custom size

   Choose Custom size from Shape, or one of the sizes listed under Custom sizes. The first time, Custom starts from the stage's own size in pixels.

2. Set the width and height

   Type them into the W and H boxes beside the menu, from 16 to 3840 pixels a side. The arrows button beside them (Swap width and height) turns a landscape frame into a portrait one.

3. Check the frame

   The stage is framed to that shape and labelled with its size in pixels. A custom size has no safe area to keep clear.

The sizes on the menu:

A custom frame renders at its own size, rounded to even numbers of pixels and scaled down if it needs to be to fit within 4K (3840 on the long side, 2160 on the short side). It is laid out as a screen of that shape would show it: a small ad slot at its own size, a big frame at up to four times the sharpness, so a 3840 × 2160 render looks like a 960 × 540 layout drawn very finely.

The custom size is remembered when you pick another shape, so Custom size comes back as you left it.

What the shape changes

• The stage, while the Motion panel is open.
• Renders: the Render video dialog starts with the timeline's shape ticked.
• Loaded pieces: a piece you load onto this one gets a frame of the same shape. See Loading pieces onto a piece.

It doesn't change how the piece looks on its share page or in an embed, where it fills whatever space it has.

You can also ask Perlin: "make it a 9:16 reel and keep the words clear of the buttons", or "now a 1500 × 500 one for our X header".

PostcardsCanvas 2DA travel story for Reels: five photos, five cuts, captions and an end card. Swap in your own photos.Open in the studio

Related

• Rendering video
• Text, image and video layers
• Wallpapers and avatars
• The Motion panel