How to add a background and a frame to a screen recording
Put a screen recording on a gradient background with padding, rounded corners, a shadow and a window frame, the look of modern product videos, on Windows.
Updated · 2 minute read · By the Sceed team
To put a screen recording on a background, shrink the recording inside the video frame, round its corners, give it a shadow and paint a gradient or a colour behind it. In Sceed this is the default: every take opens in a frame on a background. Change the background, the padding, the corners, the shadow and the frame style in the Background, Canvas and Frame tabs.
Why recordings on a background look better
A bare screen recording fills the frame edge to edge. There is nowhere for the eye to rest and nothing that says where the app ends. Padding, rounded corners and a soft shadow turn the same picture into an object sitting on a surface. It reads as designed, and it survives being dropped into a landing page or a slide of any colour.
The four parts
Background. A soft gradient, a solid colour, a picture, or the recording itself zoomed and blurred.
Padding. The space between the recording and the edge of the video. More padding feels calmer; less shows more detail.
Corners and shadow. Rounded corners and a soft drop shadow lift the recording off the background.
Frame. A title bar (Mac, browser, Windows, terminal, code editor), a device (laptop, tablet, phone, display), or an edge (outline, glass, glow, stacked cards).
Choosing a background
Match the background to the brand colour of the product you are showing, or to the page the video will sit on.
Use quiet gradients behind busy interfaces and stronger ones behind plain interfaces.
Dark app, light background, and the other way round, so the edge is easy to see.
For a series of videos, save one look and reuse it. Consistency reads as quality.
Doing it in Sceed
Gradients in Sceed are dithered, so they do not show bands after compression. You can build your own from a shape, three colours, an angle and a spread. The recording only ever moves and scales as a whole, so the interface inside it is never stretched or reflowed.
Gradient and solid backgrounds, every frame style, and the recording-as-wallpaper are in the free plan. Your own picture or looping clip as the background is part of Sceed Pro.
Doing it another way
In a general video editor you would scale the clip down, add a rounded mask, add a drop shadow effect and put an image on the track underneath. It works, and it has to be redone or copied for every video. Tools made for screenshots, such as mockup generators, do the same for still images only.
With Sceed, step by step
- 1
Open the take
Record with Sceed, or open a recording from the library. It is already in a frame on a background.
- 2
Pick a background
Open Background and choose a gradient, a solid colour, or the recording itself blurred behind its own card.
- 3
Set the padding
In Canvas, drag Padding to decide how much background shows round the recording.
- 4
Choose a frame
In Frame, pick a window title bar, a device, or an edge style, and set the corners and the shadow.
- 5
Save it as a look
Save the whole style as a look and make it the default, so every new recording starts this way.
New to Sceed? Install to export in five steps.
Questions
How do I add rounded corners and a shadow to a screen recording?
In Sceed they are on by default. Open Frame to change the corner radius and the shadow. In a general editor, use a rounded mask and a drop shadow effect on the clip.
Can I put my recording inside a browser or laptop frame?
Yes. Sceed has window frames (Mac, browser, browser with tabs, Windows, terminal, code editor) and device frames (laptop, tablet, phone, display, TV), with an editable title.
Can I use my own image as the background?
Yes, with Sceed Pro. Gradients, solid colours and the blurred recording are free.
Can I reuse the same style on every video?
Yes. Save it as a look and mark it as the default for new recordings. Looks are small files you can also share with a team.
Keep reading
More guides on editing
- How to zoom in on a screen recordingAdd smooth zooms to a screen recording so viewers can read the small things: when to zoom, how far, and how to do it on Windows without keyframes.
- How to smooth the cursor in a screen recordingFix a shaky, jittery mouse pointer in a screen recording. How cursor smoothing works, and how to change the cursor’s size, look and colour after recording.
- How to blur sensitive information in a screen recordingHide emails, names, API keys and account numbers in a screen recording. How to blur a region after recording on Windows, and how not to show it at all.