What you'll need
- A podcast or talking-head clip, around 60 seconds, with clear speech
- After Effects with Captyne 1.5.9 or later
- A caption preset with an Emphasis style that looks clearly different: bigger, bolder or another colour. A bold sans-serif with a bright emphasis colour is a safe start.
- For AI Stacking: Individual Pro, Studio or Enterprise. Without it you can follow every other step using the automatic stacking rules.
Step 1Set up the comp
- Create a new comp at 1080×1920, 30 fps, the length of your clip.
- Drop in your footage and scale it to fill the frame. For a two-camera podcast, cut between the speakers now, before captioning.
- Leave the top and bottom 250 px or so free in your head. Platforms put their buttons and captions there.
Step 2Transcribe and tidy
- Open Captyne (Window → Extensions → Captyne) and pick your preset on the Setup tab.
- Choose your transcription provider and click Transcribe.
- When Review Transcript opens, listen through once at 1.25×. Fix names and numbers, and delete "um" and false starts you don't want on screen. Then click Looks good — go to Preview →.
Stacked blocks break at sentence ends, commas and pauses. Keep the punctuation in the transcript even if you plan to hide it on screen later.
Step 3Turn on stacked blocks
On the Preview tab, open the Stacked Blocks card next to the Interactive Preview and switch on Stacked blocks. Then use these starting values for a vertical podcast clip:
| Setting | Start with | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Words / Block min–max | 3 – 5 | Short enough to read in a glance on a phone |
| Line padding | Small | Lines should read as one block, not separate captions |
| Jitter | Alternating, a few px | Adds a hand-set feel without looking messy |
| Put two short words side by side | On | Stops "so I" or "to be" sitting alone on a line |
| Reveal Mode | Cumulative Words | Each block builds up as the words are spoken |
Scrub through the Interactive Preview. You should already see sensible blocks. If blocks feel long, lower the maximum rather than forcing breaks.
Step 4Let AI Stacking choose
Click ✨ AI Stacking. The AI reads the whole transcript once and decides where each block breaks, how it splits into lines and which word goes big, following your Words / Block range and your preset's Emphasis tags.
When it finishes, the status line tells you how many blocks it made. Scrub the preview. If the rhythm feels off, click AI Stacking again for a different version. Running it again with nothing changed simply reuses the last result, so no tokens are spent.
Step 5Check the hero words
Read each block and ask one question: does the big word carry the meaning? Good hero words are numbers, strong verbs and surprises. Weak ones are "the", "and", "really".
- Click a word chip to cycle its style (Normal → Emphasis → …).
- Drag a word to the next line or block if a break feels wrong.
- Keep it to one hero word per block. Two big words in a four-word block fight each other.
Step 6Generate and polish
- Click Generate Captions.
- Select the ACP_MASTER null and open its Stack controls in Effect Controls: Line Padding, Jitter, Jitter Mode, Jitter Seed, Position and Edge Margin.
- Set Position so blocks sit in the middle third of the frame, clear of the platform buttons.
- If the jitter pattern puts two long lines on the same side, change Jitter Seed until it looks balanced.
- Raise Edge Margin if any long word gets close to the frame edge.
Changing padding, jitter or position in the Captyne panel also updates the open comp, so use whichever you prefer.
Step 7Final checks
- Watch the clip once with the sound off. If you can follow the story from the captions alone, they're doing their job.
- Check the longest hero word in the clip. If it's too wide, reduce the Emphasis size with Edit Generated Captions; the words re-space automatically.
- Render as usual.
Make your next clip in minutes
Stacked blocks work on every plan. AI Stacking is included with Individual Pro, Studio and Enterprise.
See Plans & Pricing →FAQ
Do I need AI Stacking to make stacked captions?
No. Stacked blocks work on every plan using automatic rules (sentence ends, commas and pauses). AI Stacking adds smarter breaks and hero-word choices.
Can I use stacked blocks with any preset?
Yes. The preset decides how normal and big words look; stacked blocks decide how they're arranged.
Why don't Words / Phrase and Words / Line change anything?
They're not used while stacked blocks are on. Words / Block takes their place.
Where's the full reference?
See Stacked caption blocks and AI Stacking in the Help Centre, and the background on the style in our blog post.