Tool
Split screen video maker
Upload a clip and StoryTok stacks it over looping gameplay in a vertical split frame, captions included. It is the standard treatment for turning talking-head or horizontal footage into something that holds attention in a vertical feed.
The split works for the same reason narrated stories over gameplay work — it gives restless attention somewhere to go that is not the exit. The difference is that here your footage carries the content and the gameplay is purely the retention layer, so the top pane should get the majority of the frame. A 50/50 split gives half your pixels to footage that is deliberately meaningless.
It also solves an aspect-ratio problem cleanly. A horizontal clip in a vertical feed either gets cropped, losing whatever was at the edges, or letterboxed into two dead black bars. Splitting fills that space with something that actively helps retention instead of a black void.
Captions matter more in split screen than almost anywhere, because you have halved the space your speaker occupies. If the top pane is a talking head at half height, faces are small and lip-reading is not an option — the caption is doing the work.
How it works
Step 1
Upload your clip
Talking head, gameplay commentary, a podcast segment, or any horizontal footage that needs to work vertically.
Step 2
Pick the bottom footage
A stock gameplay loop or one of your own custom backgrounds. It is the retention layer, so it should be continuous and uneventful.
Step 3
Let captions run
Automatic word-timed captions. In a split frame your speaker is at half size, so the caption is carrying more of the load than usual.
Step 4
Render
The composite renders server-side into a 1080×1920 vertical MP4. Longer sources take longer — roughly four to five minutes of render per source minute.
Specifics
- Input
- Your uploaded video, any aspect ratio
- Output
- 1080×1920 vertical split composite
- Layout tip
- Give the top pane the majority of the frame, not a 50/50 split
- Render time
- Roughly 4–5 minutes per minute of source video
- Billing
- Per minute of source video, settled before rendering
- Cost
- 3 free minutes at signup, then ~17¢ per rendered minute on the $10 pack
Worth knowing
- Splitting fills the dead space a horizontal clip would otherwise letterbox into a vertical frame.
- Your footage carries the content; the gameplay layer should stay uneventful so it does not compete.
- Captions do more work here because the speaker occupies half the usual height.
- Splitscreen renders take longer than stories — budget four to five minutes per source minute.
Questions
What should the split ratio be?
Weighted toward your footage — roughly two thirds top, one third bottom. The gameplay layer exists to hold idle attention, not to be watched, so giving it half the frame wastes pixels your actual content needs.
Why not just crop my horizontal video to vertical?
Cropping throws away the sides of the frame, which is where a lot of talking-head footage keeps its subject. Splitting keeps the full width of your clip and fills the remaining space with something that helps retention rather than black bars.
How long does a splitscreen render take?
About four to five minutes of processing per minute of source video — noticeably longer than a story render, because it composites two video streams rather than one video and one audio track.
Make a split screen video free
3 free trial minutes at signup. No card, no plan, nothing renews.
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Product details and pricing current as of August 2026 · Reddit, TikTok, YouTube and Instagram are trademarks of their respective owners; StoryTok is not affiliated with them.