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    Pad a 9:16 master into 16:9 after the vertical take is locked

    edit_video cannot invent side picture. Horizontalizing a miss, or padding before picture lock, bills an export of bars around a take you will regen.

    Versely Team••3 min read

    Going vertical to horizontal is the harder direction. There is no extra picture on the left and right. edit_video can pad or blur the sides, or crop tighter on the vertical so the remaining slice fills 16:9. Both look like what they are. Do them to a talking-head miss and you have built a YouTube-shaped souvenir of a face you will replace.

    Convert a vertical video to horizontal is the job. Free 480p preview, then the export. Be explicit: padded bars versus a vertical crop. The two results do not substitute for each other.

    A close-up phone face is a bad 16:9 parent

    Heavily vertical framing — a face filling the phone — crops aggressively when forced wide, or sits as a pillar in a sea of blur. That may be acceptable for a signed reel you must also drop into a deck. It is not a first step. If the deliverable is a YouTube cut, generate or shoot a wide master. This wrap is a compromise for a vertical keeper that now has a second destination.

    People horizontalize first because the deck is the meeting and the reel is "later." Then they hate the take in the meeting, regen vertical, and pad again. Two exports. Zero keepers.

    The AI video generator can make 16:9. Use it when 16:9 is the job. Use this page when 9:16 already won and you need a child.

    Order

    1. Approve the vertical take as the parent.
    2. Preview pad versus crop on that file.
    3. Export the 16:9 child. Type and captions after, because the safe zone changed.

    Do not overlay a title card on the vertical, then pad. The card will sit in a column or get cropped. Print type on the destination frame.

    FAQ

    Will blur-fill look like a real wide shot?

    No. It looks like blur-fill. Honest on a keeper that must live in a 16:9 slot. Not a reason to skip generating wide when wide is the brief.

    Can I outpaint the sides with a model instead?

    That is a different generate, with its own miss rate, still later than locking the subject. Do not outpaint a rejected face.

    Should I upscale after padding?

    Upscale the file you will deliver, after lock. Padding then upscaling a miss is extra texture on bars you will delete.

    Is this reversible?

    Keep the 9:16 parent. The 16:9 child does not restore the lost (or never-existing) sides.