> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://thecontentforge.gitbook.io/thecontentforge-docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://thecontentforge.gitbook.io/thecontentforge-docs/feature-guides/video-studio/video-forge-create.md). # Video Forge - Create **Create** is the short-form video editor built into every Video Forge session. Once a source video has finished processing, the **Create** tab turns any moment from it into a finished vertical, square, or landscape short - animated captions, B-roll, music, branded overlays, and a one-click MP4 export - without leaving the workspace. The live preview and the final render always match, so **what you see in the editor is what you get in the export**. > Create is available in every TheContentForge content workspace. It is part of the content product - it is **not** an Investor Intel feature. ### Where it lives Open any Video Forge session (start a new upload, or pick one from **History**). Once the video is processed and playable, a **Create** tab - badged **NEW** - appears alongside Insights, Visual, Content, and Generate. Create works from the live video source, so it is available while the source asset is still retained (see [Deletion and retention](/thecontentforge-docs/feature-guides/video-studio.md#deletion-and-retention)). ### Pick what to turn into a short The Create tab opens on clip selection: * **AI clip finder** - let the AI surface the strongest moments automatically, or describe what you want ("the part about fundraising"). Each suggestion is scored for hook strength, viral potential, and brand fit, and comes with a title and caption idea. Choose a target length (auto, 15s, 30s, 60s, 90s, or custom) and aspect ratio (**9:16**, **1:1**, or **16:9**). * **From the transcript** - select a range of words in the [Transcript](#transcript-and-smart-cuts) tool and choose **Make short from range**. * **New short** - start an empty short and build it from scratch. Every short you build is saved under **Your shorts** in the session, so you can keep several in progress from the same source video. ### The editor Opening a short launches the full editor: a tool rail on the left, a live preview in the center, and a multi-lane timeline beneath it. **Timeline** - separate lanes for the video, the source audio, music, SFX, voiceover, and text/overlays. Drag to move and trim, with magnetic snapping to the playhead, clip edges, and - when you zoom in - individual word boundaries. Waveforms and filmstrip thumbnails make it easy to find a beat or a cut. **Tools** (left rail): | Tool | What it does | | --------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Clips** | Trim the segment, split at the playhead, add or remove segments, and set transitions (fade, slide, wipe) between them | | **Captions** | Choose a caption style and fine-tune it - see [Captions](#captions) | | **Transcript** | Edit the words and run smart cuts - see [Transcript and smart cuts](#transcript-and-smart-cuts) | | **Text** | Add titles, subtitles, free text overlays, and CTA cards, with position, animation, color, and shadow | | **Media** | Upload B-roll, logos, banners, and images; crop (with a rule-of-thirds guide), fit / fill / stretch, pan & zoom, and per-clip volume | | **Assets** | Browse an editable catalog of ready-made overlays - lower-thirds, charts, crypto and market cards, shapes, social elements, badges, and backgrounds - and drop them straight onto the short | | **Audio** | Add music, SFX, and voiceover with fades and auto-ducking so the music drops under speech | | **Beat sync** | Detect the music's beats and snap your cuts to them, so edits land on the rhythm for a punchier short | | **Forge Moves** | Apply branded per-layer motion presets - pushes, pops, drifts, and reveals - in one click, then convert any of them to keyframes for full manual control | | **Style packs** | Apply a complete look in one click - caption style, motion, transition, background, and colour grade bundled together - so a short is on-brand instantly | | **Layers** | Reorder stacked overlays; a warning flags captions hidden behind video | | **Style** | Pick a layout, safe-area guide, background, branded template, and effects - see [Layout and style](#layout-and-style) | ### Captions Captions are word-timed and drawn from a shared registry of **16 caption styles** across 10 categories - **Clean, Viral, Crypto, News, Podcast, Data, Founder, Minimal, High-energy, and Brand-safe**. The style browser shows each one as a live mini-preview, so you pick by look. Styles include Bold Classic, Forge Pop, Clean Creator, Crypto Punch, News Flash, Podcast Quote, Data Card, Founder Clip, Minimal Pro, Breaking, Karaoke, and Narratives. Beyond the preset you can adjust position (and a custom vertical offset), font size, words per line, max lines, casing, and colors. Caption edits are **non-destructive**: your changes live on the short, the original transcript is never modified, and the preview and the export use the exact same caption timing. ### Transcript and smart cuts The **Transcript** tool shows the clip's words as flowing text. Click any word to jump the preview to it; the current word highlights as it plays. From here you can: * **Edit the display text** of a word (double-click) without touching the source transcript * **Hide or show** words so they drop in or out of the captions * **Search** the transcript and shift-click to select a range * **Remove pauses** - set a gap threshold and ripple-close the silences, with a preview of how many cuts and how many seconds you'll save * **Remove filler words** - review detected "um / uh / like" fillers and hide or cut them per item or all at once * **Remove a range** - caption-only, or as a timeline cut that ripples the rest of the short closed * **Split at a word**, **Find similar** moments elsewhere in the source, pull a **Hook from a quote**, or **Make a new short** from the selected range ### Layout and style * **Layouts** - Fill, Fit, Split, Three, Four, ScreenShare, and Gameplay arrange the source (and any B-roll panels) within the frame * **Auto-reframe** - face-aware cropping keeps the speaker in frame when you take a landscape source vertical * **Safe-area guides** - overlay TikTok, Reels, or Shorts safe zones so nothing important sits under platform UI * **Background** - blur, solid, or brand color behind fitted video * **Templates and effects** - branded templates plus optional effects: lower third, shine sweep, film grain, gradient and mesh backdrops, vignette, cinematic bars, progress bar, light leak, and bokeh ### Render and export Click **Render** and the short is queued for a high-quality export. The render composites your real source video, captions, overlays, audio mix, and effects into a **1080×1920 H.264 MP4** (or your chosen aspect ratio) and prepares it for playback and download. The **render queue** shows each export's status (queued → running → ready). When it's ready you can **play** it in the app and **download the MP4**. **Variants** - spin a finished short into another aspect ratio in one step, so a single edit becomes a vertical, square, and landscape cut ready for every platform without rebuilding it from scratch. > Create produces a finished video file - it is an editor, not a publisher. To post a short, download the MP4 and attach it when you publish (see [Publishing](/thecontentforge-docs/feature-guides/publishing.md)) or upload it to the platform of your choice. Transcript-grounded post copy still comes from the [Generate](/thecontentforge-docs/feature-guides/video-studio.md#what-the-generate-tab-writes) tab in the same session. ### Limits * Building shorts does **not** use extra upload quota. The source upload already counted against your [monthly video cap](/thecontentforge-docs/reference/pricing.md#how-video-and-document-limits-work) - render as many shorts from it as you like, with no separate render limit. * A short can stack up to **four overlapping video layers** (B-roll) on top of the main source. * Create needs the live source video, so it is available while the source asset is retained (48 hours on Starter, 120 on Pro, 288 on Enterprise by default). After the source is pruned, the transcript and written insights remain, but the editor can no longer open for that session. --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. 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