How to make a split screen or picture-in-picture video
Last updated 2026-10-20
To make a split screen video, put two clips on one canvas, each in its own area: side by side on a horizontal canvas, top and bottom on a vertical one. For picture-in-picture, shrink one clip and place it over the other. Decide which audio plays, mute or lower the other, and add a border so the panels read as separate.
Pick the layout
Choose by what the viewer should do. To compare, or to follow a conversation, go side by side. To watch something while seeing a reaction, use picture-in-picture. On a vertical canvas, stack the panels. The last column shows how much of a 16:9 clip each panel keeps, which is why vertical layouts need care.
| Layout | Canvas | Use it for | A 16:9 clip keeps |
|---|---|---|---|
| Side by side | Horizontal 1920 by 1080 | Comparisons, two-person calls | 50% of its width |
| Top and bottom | Vertical 1080 by 1920 | Two speakers or before and after in 9:16 | 63% of its width |
| Corner facecam | Any | Screen recording or gameplay with a reaction | All of it, small |
| Circle facecam | Any | The same, with a softer shape | The middle, cut to a circle |
Make the panels match
The common mistake is two panels that do not match. Heads at different heights, one panel brighter than the other and a seam in the wrong place make a split feel accidental. Set each crop so the eyes sit at the same height.
Give the panels a visible edge. A border of a few points in white or black separates them. Woven draws borders inside the clip, so the layout does not shift when you add one, and the border follows rounded corners and masks. A side of a panel that runs past the canvas edge shows no border.
For a clean seam, use a Line mask instead of two rectangles. Shape it on the canvas. Invert flips which side shows, Rotation tilts the line for a diagonal, and Feather softens the join. A clip has one mask, and masks apply to video and image clips, not to text.
Picture-in-picture and facecams
In picture-in-picture, one video fills the canvas and a smaller one plays over it. Keep the small one near a quarter of the width, away from the faces and text of the main video. A circle facecam is the same idea with a Circle mask. Raise Border for a ring and pick its Border color.
iMovie has its own version. Apple's steps: drag a clip above another in the timeline, click Video Overlay Settings and choose Picture in Picture. Drag the inset to move it and a corner to resize it. Apple lists Dissolve, Zoom and Swap as transition styles, plus a border, a Shadow checkbox and a border color. Keyframes can animate its position. For two panels, Apple's Split Screen setting puts the connected clip on the left, right, top or bottom, with a Slide slider for a slide-in.
Audio from two sources
Two clips bring two soundtracks, and both play unless you stop one. Decide who is heard. In a conversation, keep both and check the levels. In a tutorial with a facecam, choose the narration or the face, not both talking at once. Mute the clip you do not want, or lower it.
In Woven, the toolbar's Volume button sets 0 to 100 percent and has Mute, and M mutes the selected clip. Captions come from the reel's speech, and a source at 10 percent volume or less is left out when louder speech exists.
Build a split screen in Woven
Woven stacks video in picture lanes. Lane 1 is the main video, and lanes 2 and up sit above it, so a picture-in-picture is a smaller video on lane 2. Each clip has its own size, position, Crop tab, Mask tab and border. Captions stay on top of every panel.
Ask in chat
- Put these two interviews side by side with a thin white border.
- Stack the two clips top and bottom for vertical, one speaker each.
- Make my webcam clip a circle in the bottom-right corner over the screen recording.
- Mute the second clip and keep the first one's audio.
Or do it by hand
- 1Pick a canvas for the layout. Open Format and choose Horizontal 1920x1080 for side by side, or Vertical 1080x1920 for stacked panels.
- 2Give the second clip a higher lane. Bring both clips in, then ask in chat to put the second on lane 2 so the two play together.
- 3Size each panel. Select a clip, then drag its handles on the canvas or use Dimensions in the Crop tab. Under Framing, Fill keeps the panel covered.
- 4Mask and border. Open the Mask tab and choose Line for a split edge or Circle for a facecam, then shape it on the canvas. In the Style tab, set Border and Border color.
- 5Choose the audio. Select the clip to silence, click Volume and choose Mute, or press M.
Common questions
Put two clips on one canvas, each sized and cropped to its own area. In Woven, size each clip, add a Line mask or crop, then add a border.
Use a horizontal canvas and give each clip half the width. On 1920 by 1080 that is 960 by 1080 each, so each 16:9 clip keeps half its width. Line up the faces and add a border.
Per Apple, drag a clip above another in the timeline, click Video Overlay Settings, choose Picture in Picture, position the inset and click Apply.
Top and bottom. Each panel is 1080 by 960 on a 1080 by 1920 canvas. Side by side gives panels 540 pixels wide, which keeps about 16% of a 16:9 clip's width.
Both play unless you mute one. Keep one voice at a time, or lower the second. In Woven, use Volume and Mute, or press M.
Yes. In Woven, give the facecam clip a Circle mask in the Mask tab, then raise Border in the Style tab for a ring.
Sources
- Create a picture-in-picture effect in iMovie on Mac - Apple Support, checked October 19, 2026
- Create a split-screen effect in iMovie on Mac - Apple Support, checked October 19, 2026
Try Woven free for 3 days
Then $25/mo billed yearly ($299/yr) or $39/month. Native Mac app for short-form video.
Paste into Claude Code to install and connect Woven.