How to make vertical videos in DaVinci Resolve for Shorts, Reels and TikTok

Blackmagic released DaVinci Resolve 21.1 on September 8, 2026, and the steps here follow its reference manual. The free version does everything a vertical clip needs; Studio, the paid version, adds the automatic parts:

The free version edits up to UHD at 60 fps, far more than a 1080 × 1920 clip needs. If you edit in Premiere instead, the same job is in how to make vertical videos in Premiere Pro.

Resolve sets the frame size for the project, and lets any timeline have its own. For a project that's all vertical clips, set it once:

1. Open Project Settings with the gear button at the bottom right of the page bar, and go to Master Settings.
2. Timeline resolution: choose 1920 x 1080 HD, then check Use vertical resolution, which swaps the two sides to 1080 × 1920.
3. Timeline frame rate: the rate you recorded at. Set it before you import anything: once there are clips in the Media Pool, it can't be changed.
4. Image Scaling, Mismatched resolution files: choose Scale full frame with crop. The default, Scale entire image to fit, shrinks a 16:9 clip to the width of the frame with bars above and below. With crop, it fills the height and loses the sides.

Already edited a wide version? Keep it and make a vertical copy: duplicate the timeline, right-click the copy in the Media Pool, choose Timelines > Timeline Settings, click Use Custom Settings and set the same resolution and scaling there. For a new timeline, File > New Timeline (Command-N) has the same Use Custom Settings button.

With Scale full frame with crop, a 16:9 clip already fills the vertical frame, centered. Now put the frame on the person. Select the clip and open the Inspector's Video tab:

• Position X moves the picture left and right; slide it until the speaker's face is in the middle, eyes about a third of the way down. Zoom pushes in further, at a cost in sharpness: from 1080p, the frame is already a 608 × 1080 slice enlarged 1.8×.
• Keyframes follow someone who moves. Put the playhead where the move starts and click the keyframe button to the right of Position. Move the playhead and change Position: Resolve adds the next keyframe on its own. Right-click a keyframe button to ease in or out, so the frame doesn't lurch.
• Two people talking: keyframes slide the frame, which suits a lean but not a switch between two people across a table. Split the clip at each change of speaker instead (Timeline > Split Clips, Command-\ on a Mac, or press B for the blade and click), then set each piece's Position on whoever's talking.

For one fixed crop, the free vertical video converter does it in your browser with no project at all. When to crop, fit or stack a wide video is in how to convert horizontal video to vertical.

Smart Reframe is Resolve Studio's automatic reframing. It uses the Neural Engine to find a subject and pan (and tilt) the frame to keep it in, which Blackmagic describes for exactly this: a 16:9 video made 9:16 for phones and social media.

1. Make the vertical copy of the timeline, with Scale full frame with crop, as above.
2. Select the clips and open the Inspector's Video tab to Smart Reframe.
3. Object of Interest: Auto lets Resolve pick the clip's most representative object. With several clips selected, Auto is the only choice.
4. Or Reference Point: click the target icon next to the menu and drag the box around the person you want framed.
5. Mode: Auto pans and tilts; Pan Only and Tilt Only limit it to one direction. For people sitting down, Pan Only keeps the frame from bobbing.
6. Click Reframe and wait: long clips take a while.

“Most representative object” isn't “whoever's talking”. For a two-person conversation, split the clip at each change of speaker first, then reframe each piece with a Reference Point on the person talking in it. Clyper's auto reframe does that switch for you in every clip it makes, following whoever's talking and cutting to the other person when they speak.

For a stream, put the webcam on top and the game below, from two copies of the same clip:

1. Copy the clip to V2. On a Mac, Option-drag it up onto the track above, keeping Option down until you let go.
2. Crop the V2 copy to the webcam: in the Inspector's Cropping section, set Crop Left, Right, Top and Bottom (in pixels) until only the webcam is left. Keep Retain Image Position unchecked, so the crop moves with the picture.
3. Zoom and position it at the top, the full 1080 pixels wide and about 608 tall.
4. Move the V1 copy with Position so the middle of the game sits in the 1312 pixels below.
5. Put the subtitles on the seam between the two, with the track's Position Y.

The free split screen video maker does the same in your browser: drag a box onto the webcam and one onto the game, and download a 1080 × 1920 MP4 to bring into Resolve.

In Studio, choose Timeline > AI Tools > Create Subtitles from Audio on the Edit page. Set the Language (Auto detects it), a Caption Preset, Lines to single, and Max Characters per Line low enough that only a few words show at once, then click Create. Resolve writes them to the top subtitle track, adding one if there isn't one. It handles 14 languages out of the box and more with the Extended AI Transcription Support Package. Where people talk over each other on separate tracks, mute the tracks you don't want transcribed.

In the free version, make the captions elsewhere and import them. The free auto caption generator transcribes a clip in your browser into timed captions you can fix and download as SRT. In Resolve, right-click in the Media Pool, choose Import Subtitle, and drag the file onto the gray area above the video tracks: Resolve makes a subtitle track and lays each caption on it. Line the first one up with the clip's start. More on SRT files in how to add subtitles to a video.

Styling is per track. Click the subtitle track's header and open the Track panel in the Inspector: Font, Color, Size, Position X and Y, and at the bottom, Drop Shadow, Stroke and Background. Save the look with Save Track as Preset in the three-dot menu. In Studio, the Animated templates in the Titles tab (one, Word Highlight, lights up each word as it's spoken) go on the track header and restyle the whole track.

Mind the safe area. Resolve's Action and Title guides date from TV sets, not phone apps. Download an overlay from the safe zone checker (a 1080 × 1920 PNG of TikTok's, Reels' or Shorts' buttons, or all three), put it on the top video track, keep the subtitles inside its 820 × 1260 clear area, and turn that track off before you render.

On the Deliver page, the quickest start is the TikTok preset. It renders an MP4 with H.264 at the timeline's frame rate, but it sets the resolution to 1920 x 1080 HD with Use Vertical Resolution unchecked. Check it, or your vertical timeline renders at 1920 × 1080. Signed in to TikTok (Preferences, System, Internet Accounts), you can also tick Upload directly to TikTok and set the title, who can see it, and whether to allow comments, Duet and Stitch.

The same file suits Reels and Shorts. To set it yourself, choose Custom Export:

Click Add to Render Queue, then Start Render. Every app's sizes and limits are in video sizes for TikTok, Reels and Shorts.

• Setting the frame rate too late. Once clips are in the Media Pool, the project's timeline frame rate is locked.
• Bars on every clip, from leaving Mismatched resolution files on Scale entire image to fit. Switch to Scale full frame with crop.
• A horizontal render of a vertical timeline, from the TikTok preset's unchecked Use Vertical Resolution. Check the render resolution reads 1080 × 1920.
• Looking for Smart Reframe or Create Subtitles from Audio in the free version. They're Studio-only.
• Trusting Smart Reframe's Auto with two people. It frames the most representative object, which may be the listener. Use a Reference Point per speaker.
• Subtitles that don't show, from rendering them as a separate file. Burn them into the video.
• The safe zone overlay left on, rendered over the clip. Turn its track off first.

One clip from a long video, for someone who knows Resolve. These are our estimates, not measurements:

Studio saves time on framing and subtitles, but not on the longest step: finding the moment. That still means skimming the whole video. The free video highlight finder points at the liveliest moments by their sound, in your browser, so you know where to look.

Clyper takes on the first four steps for a whole video. Paste a YouTube link (public or unlisted, 1 minute to 4 hours) or upload the file, and it picks the best moments, cuts each on whole sentences, frames it 9:16 on whoever's talking (or stacks a stream's webcam over the game) and adds animated captions timed to every word, clear of the apps' buttons: up to 30 clips per video, as 1080 × 1920 MP4s with no watermark.

640:54

680:59

720:45

Resolve then does what it's best at: color on the Color page, sound on the Fairlight page, music, B-roll and your own titles. Put the clips on a 1080 × 1920 timeline and they fit as they are. Their captions are burned in, so correct any word in Clyper's editor before you download. The whole editing workflow is in how to edit short-form videos, and the same steps on a phone or laptop are in how to make clips in CapCut.