How to Turn a Kick Clip into a TikTok, Short or Reel

Turning a Kick clip into a TikTok, YouTube Short or Instagram Reel takes five jobs: get the streamer's okay, download the MP4, reframe the picture from landscape to vertical, trim it to the best moment, and add captions. The editing is the easy part. The part people skip, and the part that gets accounts in trouble, is permission. Do that first.

Kick clips are landscape by default, so a straight upload shows up as a small strip with black bars on a phone. A bit of reframing is what makes it look made for the platform.

Step 1: Get permission and plan your credit

A clip is someone else's work. The streamer owns their stream, and other people, music or games shown in it may carry their own rights. Downloading a clip does not give you the right to repost it. Our overview of the legal side covers this in plain language, and it is general information, not legal advice.

Practical steps:

• Message the streamer, or check their channel or social profiles for a clipping policy. Many streamers welcome clips; some do not.
• Save the reply. If they say yes, keep it in case a platform ever questions the upload.
• Credit them in the caption and, if the platform allows, tag them. Credit alone is not permission, but it is good practice on top of it.
• Skip clips with music playing, or other people's content you cannot clear.

Platforms enforce this. TikTok's Community Guidelines say content that violates intellectual property rights is not allowed, and repeat infringement can cost you the account. YouTube and Instagram have their own copyright policies too, so reposting someone else's footage without permission can lead to removal or strikes on any of them.

Step 2: Download the clip as MP4

Copy the clip link from Kick and paste it into the KickClips downloader. You get a preview and a Save MP4 button. Everything runs in your browser, and KickClips adds no watermark or overlay of its own. If anything goes wrong, see the troubleshooting guide. For where the file ends up on each device, there are guides for iPhone, Android and PC or Mac. Reframing is most comfortable on a computer.

The file you get is whatever Kick stores for that clip. The clips we tested were 1920x1080, which is plenty for vertical video if you crop rather than stretch. For what to expect from quality, see Kick clip quality and watermarks.

Step 3: Reframe from 16:9 to 9:16

A landscape frame is wider than a vertical one, so something has to give. There are three common approaches, and the right one depends on where the action is.

Most editors let you keyframe the crop so it follows the action, which helps if the streamer or the target moves across the screen. If the stream already has a face cam overlay in a corner, check that it survives your crop.

Free tools

You do not need a paid program. Free options include DaVinci Resolve (a desktop editor with a free version) and CapCut (desktop and mobile; some features need a paid plan). In any editor the idea is the same: create a project with a vertical frame, place your clip, then scale and position it, or duplicate it onto a second layer for the blurred-background or split looks. Menu names differ by program and version, so look for the project or timeline resolution setting and the clip's scale and position controls.

Optional: a quick center crop with ffmpeg

If you are comfortable with the command line, ffmpeg can do a plain center crop. Per the ffmpeg filter documentation, the crop filter takes w:h:x:y, and x and y default to the center of the frame. This command crops a 9:16 slice from the middle, scales it to 1080x1920 and copies the audio:

ffmpeg -i clip.mp4 -vf "crop=ih*9/16:ih,scale=1080:1920" -c:a copy vertical.mp4

This re-encodes the video, so it takes a little time, and ffmpeg rounds the crop size to a value the format allows. To shift the crop left or right instead of centering it, give an x value, which is the horizontal position of the crop's left edge:

ffmpeg -i clip.mp4 -vf "crop=ih*9/16:ih:200:0,scale=1080:1920" -c:a copy vertical.mp4

Change 200 until the subject is where you want it. This does not follow motion; for that you need a visual editor.

Step 4: Trim to the moment

Short, tight clips usually hold attention best, and short is also easier to fit into platform limits. Kick clips run between 10 and 180 seconds according to Kick's help center, so you will often want to cut. Start where the interesting thing begins, not several seconds earlier, and stop after the payoff.

Step 5: Add captions and check the edges

Many people watch with the sound off, so captions help. Most editors can generate captions automatically, but always read through them, because names, game terms and chat slang are often misheard. Keep text away from the very top, bottom and sides of the frame. Apps place buttons, usernames and their own captions over the video, and these can cover your text. Preview the result on a phone before you post.

Step 6: Export with the right specs

Rules change, so check the linked pages before relying on a number. This is what the official help pages we read say:

• YouTube Shorts: YouTube's help page on three-minute Shorts says videos uploaded on or after October 15, 2024 with a square or vertical aspect ratio, up to three minutes long, are categorized as Shorts. A 16:9 video is treated as long-form instead. YouTube's upload guide gives the same limits.
• Instagram Reels: Instagram's Reel size and aspect ratio page is the place to confirm current requirements. As we understand it, it describes accepted aspect ratios between 1.91:1 and 9:16 and a minimum resolution of 720 pixels; Reels length limits change, so check the page.
• TikTok: TikTok's help page on Creator tools and TikTok Studio lists upload requirements for TikTok Studio on the web, including MP4 or WebM and a minimum of 720x1280. Requirements can differ between the app and web, so check the upload screen you are using.

A safe all-round export is a 9:16 MP4 at 1080x1920, which is simply a 9:16 frame that is 1080 pixels wide. Because Kick clips are at most 180 seconds, the length itself should fit the YouTube Shorts limit. Do not upscale a low-resolution clip; it will not gain detail.

Before you post, write a caption that credits the streamer and names the channel, and double check that you still have their permission.