Framing and Fit to Content

Most of the time a recorded window fills its frame and there is nothing to do. Sometimes it doesn't: an app that resized mid-recording, a window that stopped drawing when it was covered, or content that only fills the top-left corner of a large black area. Those problems are easy to miss in a small preview and obvious in an export. DemoTake looks for them before you export.

#Framing checks

Framing is checked together with Footage review, which runs when you open a take in the editor (or when you click Find Pauses in the Polish tab). For each scene, DemoTake samples frames and flags three problems:

A scene with a problem gets a warning triangle in the scene list and on the timeline. The Framing group at the bottom of the Polish tab lists each one with the fix. When everything is fine, it says Every scene fills the frame.

#Fit to Content

Click Fit to Content on a flagged scene. DemoTake crops the scene to the area that actually has content, with a little padding, keeping the frame's aspect ratio so nothing stretches. The scene then shows Framed to content, and Reset puts the full frame back.

The crop is non-destructive: it only changes how the scene is framed in the preview and in exports. The recording is not touched. You also find Fit to Content and Reset Framing when you right-click a scene on the timeline.

A crop shows exactly that region of the scene, in every format and on every frame, including across scene cuts. When the region's shape differs from the format, it is letterboxed rather than stretched. Before 1.2, some crops were accepted but had no visible effect; that is fixed. To check one, press E (Exact Frame) under the preview: it shows the frame at the playhead exactly as the export draws it.

For black frames, click Cut Black to remove the spans where the picture is black. Spans where the window stopped drawing are cut automatically anyway, unless you turn off Cut blank frames in Effects › Pacing.

#The contact sheet

Before exporting, click Contact Sheet… in the Framing group (or right-click a scene on the timeline). It shows six frames from every scene in a grid, so you can check framing and content at a glance:

• As Exported shows frames with your crop, background and camera applied, labeled with their time in the exported video (for example "out 1:04.5").
• As Recorded shows the original frames, labeled with their time in the scene's recording ("rec 0:12.0").

Click a frame to see it large, with ← and → to step through the frames, Copy Image and Save…. Press Esc or Space to close it. Double-click a frame to jump there.

Flagged scenes carry a Framing pill with the problem, and Fit to Content or Cut Black Frames buttons right in the sheet.

#Background

Around the window, DemoTake draws a background. Set it in the inspector's Effects tab, in the Background group:

None draws no background. Reviewer and DemoTest takes start with no background, no padding, square corners and no shadow, so the window fills the frame. For iOS Simulator takes the group also has Device frame (Auto, On, Off): a plain phone frame around the device screen, on for 9:16 with Auto.

#For agents

• take_contact_sheet returns the grid as an image. edited: true (default) shows frames as exported with output times, edited: false as recorded with recording times; frames_per_scene is 2 to 12 (default 6). Scenes with framing problems are labeled.
• edit_suggest_cuts reports framing per scene: issues (mostly_black, small_content, black_frames), a summary and a suggested_crop.
• In edit_apply, crop_scene takes {scene, fit: true} to fit the content, {scene, region} for your own crop (normalized, top-left origin) or {scene, reset: true} to go back to the full frame. background takes kind (gradient, solid, none), colors (hex), padding (0 to 0.3), corner_radius and shadow.

{
  "take_id": "<take id>",
  "operations": [
    { "op": "crop_scene", "scene": "Create project", "fit": true },
    { "op": "background", "kind": "gradient", "colors": ["#0F172A", "#1E3A8A"], "padding": 0.06, "corner_radius": 14, "shadow": true }
  ]
}

#Where to go next

• Footage review: the review that runs the framing checks.
• Formats and sizes: how 16:9, 9:16 and 1:1 frame the same take.
• Export checks and troubleshooting: what DemoTake verifies after rendering.