Short Cuts #3 . How to do Picture in picture in Lightworks

How to do Picture-in-picture in Lightworks

In this week's episode of Short Cuts, we’re going to talk about picture-in-picture.

It’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like. You take a video, shrink it, and put it on top of another. You’ll have seen this everywhere — on YouTube, TV, and more. It’s a popular technique, and it’s easy once you know how.

In Lightworks, add some footage to your timeline, and then right-click, and select ‘add track’ to create a second video layer. Add the footage you want to play over the top of the first video to the new track. This will cover it completely. 

Go to VFX, click ‘+’, and then click on DVE if it’s not already selected. In here, we have some lovely presets for you under ‘picture-in-picture presets’. If there’s one that matches what you want to do, then go for it! They do the job really well.

Sometimes you might want to do things manually though. In this case, click on 2D DVE, and add it to your top footage. 2D DVE controls size and position. Drag the master scale slider down until the footage is the size you want, and you can see your main footage underneath. Then you drag the X and Y sliders to adjust the position, until the footage is placed where you want.

Hit play, and you can see that both clips will play simultaneously, with the second one placed on top of the first. Congratulations, you’ve now created a picture in picture! Give it a try yourself, and please do let us know how you get on.