Split Screen — effect skill for cuts & pacing

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Show two or more shots at once in separate panels: comparison, reaction or simultaneous action.

What it does

Built on Comparison Split by HeyGen (HyperFrames), Apache-2.0. The write-up and recipes below are varg's.

The frame divides into halves, thirds or a grid, each panel playing its own clip.

When: Before/after, reaction videos, duets, comparisons, phone calls.

Watch out: Panels with the important subject cropped off at the divider; reframe each clip for its panel.

Timing: Panels can slide in over 8–12 frames, then hold

Also called: split-screen, side by side, multi-screen, picture grid, triptych

In FFmpeg

Left/right halves at 1920×1080 (each clip cropped to its centre half):

ffmpeg -i a.mp4 -i b.mp4 -filter_complex \
"[0:v]crop=iw/2:ih,scale=960:1080[l];[1:v]crop=iw/2:ih,scale=960:1080[r];\
 [l][r]hstack=inputs=2[v]" -map "[v]" -map 0:a -shortest out.mp4

For grids use xstack=inputs=4:layout=0_0|w0_0|0_h0|w0_h0.

In HyperFrames

Two clips on separate tracks clipped with CSS (clip-path or half-width wrappers); animated dividers: comparison-split, before-after-wipe.

In Remotion

<AbsoluteFill style={{flexDirection: 'row'}}>
  <div style={{flex: 1, overflow: 'hidden'}}><Video src={a} style={{height: '100%', objectFit: 'cover'}} /></div>
  <div style={{flex: 1, overflow: 'hidden'}}><Video src={b} muted style={{height: '100%', objectFit: 'cover'}} /></div>
</AbsoluteFill>

In CapCut

Stack clips on overlay tracks and set Position/Scale per panel, or use a split-screen layout/template.

Ready-made components

Where this comes from

Use when

Not for

Install

Example output

https://s3.varg.ai/how-to/previews/4a4d7640e342/take-split-screen.mp4 — split between two shots, with the timeline strip of the edit. Footage: Tears of Steel (2012), (CC) Blender Foundation | mango.blender.org, CC BY 3.0; Charge (2022), Blender Studio | studio.blender.org, CC BY 4.0. (credit: Rendered by varg · Tears of Steel (2012) + Charge (2022))

More cuts & pacing skills

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