How to Make a Before-and-After Video with Clear Labels

A before-and-after video needs two real recordings of the same subject, one before a change and one after it. In Studio, play them one after the other with a cut or a short Crossfade, or show both at once in a split screen, then label each side. The free Room makeover preset of the Before / After overlay labels a side-by-side split; free native titles label the others. Neither creates the change.

What does the tested example look like?

All three are frames from MP4 files we exported from Studio. The "before" is four seconds of a CC0 garden clip, filmed with the camera tilted (Commons file page). The "after" is our own edit of the same four seconds: rotated 10 degrees so the trees stand straight, cropped in, with more contrast, colour and warmth. It stands in for a real makeover, edit or repair.

• Left: sequential. The before plays full screen with a free BEFORE title, then the after.
• Middle: side by side. Before on the left, after on the right, labelled by the unchanged Room makeover preset.
• Right: stacked. Before on top, after below, labelled by two free titles.

You need a desktop or phone browser, a free Google sign-in for Studio and your two files. Nothing is uploaded. Modisign publishes this guide and sells Pro; this example used a free account.

Which arrangement should you use?

Arrangement	What viewers see	Label that stays free	Suits
Sequential (cut or Crossfade)	Before full screen, then after	Two native titles	Any footage; a reveal moment
Side by side (Left and Right)	Both at once in two tall halves	Before / After, unchanged Room makeover preset	Portrait or close-up shots
Stacked (Top and Bottom)	Both at once, one above the other	Two native titles	Landscape footage

A 9:16 frame split left and right gives each half 540 pixels of width, so our landscape clips showed only a narrow strip of the scene. Stacked halves are 1080x960 and kept far more of the shot. The overlay's Stacked Layout matches that arrangement but is a Pro configuration, which is why titles are the free label there.

How do you build it, step by step?

1. Import both files together. Open Studio and pick the before file, then the after file. On an empty timeline they land on V1 in that order. Studio matched our landscape files with a 16:9 project, so we clicked 9:16 under Program.
2. For a sequence, choose the cut. Click the transition control between the two clips and pick None, Crossfade or Dip to black, with 0.2 to 1.0 seconds of duration. Our 0.4-second Crossfade shortened the sequence from 8.0 to 7.6 seconds.
3. For a split, use Split screen. Click the before clip, Shift-click the after clip and click Split screen in Edit. Studio puts the active clip at the Bottom on V1 and the other at the Top on V2, muted and aligned. Use Swap boxes to put the before on top, or select each clip and choose Left and Right under Layout. Track, audio and caption rules are in the split-screen guide.
4. Label a side-by-side split with the overlay. Move the playhead to where the labels should appear (we used 0.3 seconds), open Overlays, search "before" and click the plus on Room makeover, the one card marked Free. Edit then reads "Before / After, Room makeover, Free". Leave it unchanged to keep the export free.
5. Label the other arrangements with titles. Open Text, click Add title at playhead, type BEFORE, choose Size L, turn Backing on and set Position Top. Add AFTER the same way: over the second clip in a sequence, or at Position Bottom for a stacked split. The native title guide covers fonts, colours and timing.
6. Check the label timing. The overlay lasts 3.5 seconds: the badges slide in within half a second, pulse at about 1.35 seconds and leave after about 3 seconds. Our export showed no badges at 0.2 seconds, both badges and a divider line on the split at 1.5 seconds, and nothing at 3.9 seconds.
7. Export. Click Export, choose 1080p or 720p and click Export MP4. All three of our files were 1080x1920 H.264 at 30 fps: 4.0 seconds for the splits and 7.6 for the sequence. Our clips had no sound; each export still carried an AAC audio track.

You can find the same free preset in the Before / After catalog and download it on its own as a green-screen MP4 for another editor. We did not test that route for this guide.

What can go wrong, and how do you fix it?

Problem	Check	Fix
BEFORE and AFTER print over each other	Both titles are Bound to clip and a Crossfade overlaps the clips (ours: 3.6 to 4.0 seconds)	Set the first title to Explicit time ending at 3.6 seconds, or use a cut
Export asks for Pro	The overlay's Edit heading says Pro	Reset to preset, or use native titles
Badges sit over the wrong picture	The free preset puts one badge at the top of each left and right half	Use a Left/Right split, or titles for top and bottom
Each picture is a thin strip	Landscape footage in a side-by-side split	Stack the clips or play them in sequence
The change is hard to see	Framing or light differs between takes	Film both from the same spot with the same light

We switched the overlay's Layout to Stacked and its badge changed from Free to Pro. Typing "DAY 1" as the Before label did the same. In both cases Export opened the notice "Pro overlays and captions" with a See Pro link instead of the download. Reset to preset brought back Free.

How do you keep the comparison honest?

These are suggestions, not tested results:

• Repeat the framing. Mark where the camera stood and use the same lens and time of day, so the only difference is the change itself.
• Say what you edited. If the after includes colour grading or retouching, as ours did, say so in the caption.
• Give each side time. Our sequence held each clip for about four seconds; a busy scene may need longer before the cut.

Is it free?

Sequencing, transitions, Split screen, Swap boxes, native titles, both export qualities and the MP4 download are free after a free Google sign-in. The unchanged Room makeover preset is free too. Another preset, the Stacked or Labels only Layout, a new look or new label text makes that overlay Pro; Pro is $9 a month plus tax, described on pricing. Unchanged free overlays are licensed for your own channels under the licence terms.

This test used silent, short desktop clips. It did not export the Stacked overlay, use photos, run on a physical phone or include an upload to a platform.