The best facecam layouts for streamer clips
A streamer clip has two jobs: show the play and show the reaction. Vertical video gives you one tall frame to do both, and the layout you pick decides whether the clip feels clean or cramped. Here's how each common layout works and when to use it.
First: mark your areas
Most stream recordings are one flat picture with your facecam baked into a corner. No editor can pull out a hidden layer, so you tell KILLCUT where things are. In the Layout panel, drag the teal Gameplay box over the game only, and the pink Facecam box tight around your camera. With Pro, save it as a preset and you only do this once per setup.
Keep the gameplay box tight. If it includes your camera, alerts or empty bars, those get stretched into the clip and the game looks smaller than it needs to.
The layouts
| Layout | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Cam · Game · Captions | Most streamer clips. Reaction on top, full game in the middle, captions get their own space. | The game band is smaller than full screen, so very far away kills read smaller. |
| Cam top | Clips where the reaction matters a lot and you want the game larger. | Captions sit on top of gameplay, so keep them short. |
| Picture in picture | Action heavy clips where the game should own the screen. | The cam box can cover part of the HUD. Move it to a different corner if it blocks the minimap or killfeed. |
| Side by side | Landscape exports for YouTube. | On vertical exports this stacks the two halves evenly. |
| Gameplay only | No facecam, or a clip where the play speaks for itself. | Filling a tall frame needs zoom. Leave zoom at 0 percent to keep the whole game. |
| Streamer focus | Pure reaction moments, like rage, laughing or celebrating. | No gameplay at all, so use it for short bits. |
Don't over zoom the game
The most common mistake in vertical CoD clips is cropping a wide game to fill a tall slot. You end up seeing the middle third of the screen and miss the enemy coming from the side. KILLCUT's gameplay zoom starts at 0 percent, which fits the whole game frame and fills any extra space with a soft blur. Only push zoom up if the action is centered.
Mind the app's buttons
TikTok, Reels and Shorts put buttons, your username and the caption over the right side and bottom of the video. Keep important things away from those edges:
- Keep captions centered, not hugging the right side.
- Don't put key text in the very bottom strip of the frame.
- If your gamertag sits in a bottom corner, check that the app's UI doesn't cover it. Move it to the top if it does.
Facecam tips
- Crop the cam a little tighter than you'd think. Faces read better big.
- In Cam · Game · Captions, set the facecam height around 25 to 35 percent. More than that squeezes the game.
- Punch ins only zoom the game, never your face, so the reaction stays steady.
Try it on your own footage. Open KILLCUT, drop in a match, and you'll have your first clip in a few minutes. It's free and nothing gets uploaded.