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Use layouts to quickly style scenes in your video with professionally designed visual arrangements. Each layout defines how a scene looks and sounds — including speaker framing, fonts, colors, media elements, and audio. A layout pack is a cohesive collection of layouts that share the same style, so your video feels polished and consistent from start to finish.
Before getting startedLayouts are applied at the scene level and are only available in video compositions. If you’re new to scenes, start with our guide on Scenes here: Scenes overview.

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What’s in a layout pack?

Each layout pack contains a collection of themed individual layouts, grouped by type—like Camera, Media, Chapter, Intro, and more. These layouts are designed to work together as a visual system. Hover over a group tile to see a “more” button and browse all layouts in that category.

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Where to apply layouts

Cick a scene thumbnail in the script, select Layout to open the layout picker, and choose a layout. You can also apply layouts from the Timeline, Storyboard view, Scene editor toolbar, or properties panel—whichever fits your workflow. Learn how to apply a layout to your scene

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Using layouts

Once you’ve chosen a layout pack, you can apply and customize layouts throughout your composition:
  • Use one of the gallery layout packs: These prebuilt layout packs include professional fonts, colors, and visual elements. Pick a layout and apply it to your scene.
  • Remix a base layout pack: Start with a base layout pack from our gallery and remix it—customize fonts and the color palette to align with your brand or style. Remixing is a quick way to personalize a layout pack without starting from scratch.
  • Create your own from scratch: Prefer to take a DIY approach? Build your own layouts manually, then save them to a custom layout pack on your Drive for future use.
Custom layout packs are available on paid Descript plans.If you’re on a Free plan, upgrade your subscription to unlock this feature. See pricing and plan details

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Visual roles and locked layers

Layouts use visual roles to decide where your content goes. Each media file is assigned a role — Talking Head, Screen Recording, Graphics, or Others — and layouts match placeholders to those roles automatically. If a layout isn’t placing your content where you expect, the file’s visual role may need to be updated. Learn how to change a file’s visual role.To keep a layer exactly where it is when applying or switching layouts, lock the layer. Locked layers bypass visual role matching and stay fixed in place.

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What next?

Now that you understand how layout packs work and how to use them in your projects, you’re ready to go deeper. Apply your first layout, remix an existing pack to match your brand, or build something entirely your own—these next guides will walk you through the process step by step.