TikTok video maker

The canvas and the interface over it

Build at 1080 by 1920. TikTok's own published minimum for vertical is 540 by 960, so 1080 wide leaves headroom. What matters more is that the app draws its own controls over your video: search and the feed tabs across the top, the avatar, like, comment, share and spinning sound disc down the right, and your username, caption, music ticker and any call to action button along the bottom. TikTok ships downloadable safe zone templates rather than publishing pixel figures, because the excluded area grows with a longer caption.

Working numbers, and why they are ranges

Measured off those templates, the conservative case on a 1080 by 1920 frame is about 130 pixels off the top, 484 off the bottom and 140 off the right, leaving roughly 900 by 1300 to work in. Shorter captions and no interactive add-ons pull the bottom back toward 320. Treat the conservative figures as the design target and check the real thing in the app before a paid run, because the overlay shifts between app releases.

The first three seconds do the work

TikTok's own creative guidance puts the content proposition inside the first three seconds and the hook within six, and recommends text pacing of five to ten words a second. That maps onto a hook question or a statement opener here, both of which are big type on a full brand field rather than a slow logo build. A promo scene runs 2.5 to 4 seconds by default, so the opener is your three seconds and nothing else should be competing with it.

Sound is not optional on this platform

TikTok reports that 93 percent of its top performing videos use audio and that voiceover lifts conversion rate by 12 percent, and its reservation in-feed spec makes sound mandatory. Text overlays appear in 86 percent of ads there and are credited with a 64 percent conversion lift. So build with both: a spoken narration track and captions turned on, which they are by default.

How it works, in three steps

1. Step 1

   Set vertical before you generate

   Format is a setting on the brief, not an afterthought. Generating landscape then switching wastes the layout decisions the director made for a wide frame.

2. Step 2

   Put the hook in the first sentence of the brief

   Whatever you write first tends to become the opening scene copy and the first spoken line, which is the three seconds that decide the rest.

3. Step 3

   Preview at phone width before exporting

   Look at the bottom third specifically. Anything you would hate to lose under a caption block needs moving up in the builder.

The full walkthrough with screenshots is in the guide Export one video for YouTube, Reels and TikTok.

Limits worth knowing

• Burned in captions sit 120 pixels from the bottom of the vertical frame, which is inside the area TikTok's own caption and button block can cover.
• There is no direct posting. You export an MP4 and upload it in the TikTok app or web uploader yourself.
• The corner watermark also sits low in the vertical frame, 44 pixels in from the left and 120 up from the bottom.
• TikTok ads accept files up to 500 MB. A 4K export at 2160 by 3840 can be larger than you want for a phone upload, so 1080p is usually the right choice here.

Questions people ask

Related pages