Shapes & layout templates
A layout template is a fixed arrangement of the frame that you choose up front. Instead of a model deciding every cutaway, the shape is settled first and the pipeline assembles it.
That trade buys you three things: a video that looks the same every time, a much shorter flow, and a look you can hand to someone else and trust.
The seven shipped layouts
Section titled “The seven shipped layouts”All seven are 9:16.
| Layout | Camera | |
|---|---|---|
| Split Screen | You on top, b-roll underneath | Needs you on camera |
| Top Strip | A strip of footage above you | Needs you on camera |
| Full Frame | You fill the frame; footage takes it over for a beat | Needs you on camera |
| Auto | Each moment picks its own shape | Needs you on camera |
| Cut-In | You stay on camera; footage cuts in below | Needs you on camera |
| Rotoscoped | You, cut out, over a full-frame visual | Needs you on camera |
| Narrated | Footage and cards over a voice, nobody on camera | AI voiceover |
Split Screen and Top Strip are the same shape asking different amounts of the frame (60/40 against 75/25), and either can be turned upside down on the Visuals step with Put yourself on top.
Auto is Full Frame, Cut-In and Rotoscoped in one video. You hold the frame, and each time the footage comes in it picks its own shape from what it shows: a person takes over the whole screen, a place puts you, cut out, in front of it, and a document or a small photo slides up in a panel beside you. It never uses the same shape twice in a row. (It is not Mix & Match, which makes many videos from several hooks and takes; Auto is one video.)
Every card in the app shows a live preview painted in your own brand kit, so what you see is what that layout looks like for you, not a generic mock.
The flow
Section titled “The flow”Picking one takes you to a five-step flow:
Script → Record → Visuals → Review → Finish
Step 2 is labelled Record voice for a layout narrated by a recording, and Voice for one narrated by an AI voice.
The Visuals step
Section titled “The Visuals step”The only step that isn’t shared with the full wizard. It asks for:
- Clips or photos you already have: optional; each upload gets a What’s in this shot? description
- Photos from your article: the lead photo is picked for you; tap any others you want
- A brand kit and a caption style
Then a fixed note spells out what the layout is deciding on your behalf, built from the layout’s own spec rather than written by hand.
The Review step
Section titled “The Review step”A few shots you might want to swap. Editory flags moments where the script names someone or something specific and no footage clearly matched. For each one you can keep what’s there, take the suggested alternative, upload your own, or remove the shot.
Skipping is fine. There’s already something in place, and the video is finished either way.
What a layout decides for you
Section titled “What a layout decides for you”Everything in this list is a question the full wizard asks and a layout answers:
- Aspect ratio, frame rate, and how many clips to cut
- Where b-roll goes, and whether it runs continuously or only when earned
- Where graphics go, which kinds are allowed, and how many
- Where captions sit: a layout overrides your caption preset’s margin, because your preset doesn’t know what band it’s being drawn inside
- Where your head sits in its band, solved once per take from the footage
What it doesn’t decide: the words, and usually your brand.
Drawing your own
Section titled “Drawing your own”Videos → Or draw a layout from scratch, or press Make my own on any built-in card to fork it.
Every layout you can use lives under Tools → Layout Templates: the ones you drew, grouped by who they are shared with, the ones your team shared with you, and Editory’s own. Open any of them from there to edit, copy or delete it.
The blocks
Section titled “The blocks”Four roles, and only four, because the shape names exactly one band per role:
| Block | |
|---|---|
| You | Where the presenter sits for the whole video |
| B-roll | Footage and photos, always on, or only when the script names something |
| Graphics | Cards: stats, quotes, tables, and your own saved graphics |
| Captions | A line, not a box; it slides to where you want the words |
Remove the presenter and You becomes Voice, where you say where the audio comes from instead.
The canvas
Section titled “The canvas”Drag and resize the bands. Three rectangles are always visible: the frame edge, the safe zone, and the block you’re moving. A live card preview sits beside it, painted in the pinned brand kit.
The inspector
Section titled “The inspector”Per-block settings. The ones people reach for:
- Speaker: cut out the background (rotoscoping), let them overflow the box, eye line, maximum zoom
- B-roll: takes over the whole frame, always filled, shortest and longest shot, fit wide photos, and a free-text brief for what the b-roll should show
- Graphics: where cards sit, their height and inset
- Captions: which edge they sit against and how far from it
The four pins
Section titled “The four pins”The Video format modal is where a layout stops leaving things open and starts deciding them: Branding, Captions, Graphics and Format. Each carries either a This layout decides / Up to each video switch or a read-only chip.
Anything you leave open stays the newsroom’s to decide.
Content rules
Section titled “Content rules”Its own door beside Video format, and the only part of a layout that isn’t about how a video looks. It answers what videos made with this layout have to say.
Words to always get right. Transcription mishears names. Left alone, one mishearing is burned into the captions, printed on the cards and typed into the footage search. A clinic called AIM comes back as “AIMMMM” and every layer reports success. List the word once, with the spellings you keep seeing, and it is corrected everywhere before anything is built.
Each word can also catch close matches: stretched and split spellings of
the word itself, so AIM picks up AIMMMM, A I M and A.I.M. without you
predicting each one. On a short word that can reach ordinary English too, which
is why it is off by default and why there is a Try it box: paste a line the
way it came out wrong and you see exactly what the pipeline will do to it.
How this layout should be written. Optional notes handed to whatever writes the card copy and the footage searches: how to refer to things, what never to say.
Saving and sharing
Section titled “Saving and sharing”Save layout asks who can use it (Just me or an organisation) and shows a recap read off the spec so you can check the shape before committing.