Hi Zen Creator! In this video, I will show you how to select video layouts for your Zencastr post-productions.

Up to 6 videos can be combined in Produce.

In this video, my account is on a paid plan and my recording was done in the Record Audio, Record Video mode.

To open the Produce page - On your Dashboard, from the Rooms tab, hover over the room you wish to postproduce and click the Produce button.

On the Produce page, the tabs in the right sidebar are where you can change your postproduction settings.

The Output Aspect Ratio and Video Settings tabs have the settings that determine how the final video mix looks.

First, click the Output Aspect Ratio tab. The aspect ratio determines the video’s orientation. Choose an aspect ratio based on the platform that you will be publishing your video to. For this video, I am selecting the widely-used Horizontal or 16:9 aspect ratio. Choose your aspect ratio before selecting your video layout because how the participants’ videos look in the layout depends on the aspect ratio.

Next, click the Video Settings tab. Under Layout, the options you see are determined by the number of people selected on the Participants tab. You may need to scroll down to see all the available layouts.

The Zen layout is the default and can be applied for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 participants. It auto-detects who is speaking in a given scene and puts that person’s video full-screen while putting the other non-speaking people in smaller overlays. Please note, the switch between speaking participants is an effect that is applied after the postproduction is run. As such, at this time, the swich is not viewable on the Produce page preview, but it will be seen in the final video mix.

The Active Speaker layout can be applied for 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 participants. It also auto-detects who is speaking in a given scene and puts that person’s video full-screen. But it does not have overlays of the other people. Please note, the switch between speaking participants is an effect that is applied after the postproduction is run. As such, at this time, the swich is not viewable on the Produce page preview, but it will be seen in the final video mix.

The Horizontal layout can be applied for 2 participants. It equally sizes each person’s video and arranges them in a horizontal, landscape orientation.

The Vertical layout can be applied for 2 participants. It equally sizes each person’s video and arranges them in a vertical, portrait orientation.

The Cover Art layout can be applied for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 participants. If you do not want to use the participants’ recorded videos, this layout makes your podcast’s artwork the video image instead. Please note, to see this layout, you need to have your podcast connected to your Zencastr account and that podcast selected on the Produce Page.

The Custom layout can be applied for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 participants. If you do not want to use the participants’ recorded videos, you can upload an image, such as episode artwork, to use as the video image instead.

The Side Grid layout can be applied for 3, 4, 5, or 6 participants. It arranges the videos asymmetrically so one person’s video is larger and the rest are smaller and equally sized.

The Side Grid 2 Focused layout can be applied for 5 or 6 participants. It arranges the videos asymmetrically so two people’s videos are larger and the rest are smaller and equally sized.