Platform Formatting

Name: Arena
Author: Whitegod Kingsley

Format video clips for any social media platform with optimal aspect ratios, resolutions, and file size limits.

Supported platforms

Platform	Resolution	Ratio	Max Duration	Max Size
`tiktok`	1080x1920	9:16	180s	287MB
`instagram-reels`	1080x1920	9:16	90s	100MB
`youtube-shorts`	1080x1920	9:16	60s	100MB
`youtube`	1920x1080	16:9	Unlimited	256GB
`instagram-feed`	1080x1080	1:1	60s	100MB
`twitter`	1280x720	16:9	140s	512MB
`linkedin`	1920x1080	16:9	600s	5GB

Usage

Terminal

arena format <input> -p <platform> [options]

Options

Option	Description	Default
`-p, --platform`	Target platform (required)	-
`-o, --output <dir>`	Output directory	`output/formatted`
`--crop <strategy>`	`center`, `smart`, `top`, `bottom`	`center`
`--pad <strategy>`	`blur`, `black`, `white`, `color`	`blur`
`--pad-color <hex>`	Custom padding color	`#000000`
`--no-quality`	Disable high quality encoding	`false`
`--captions <srt>`	Burn captions from an SRT file	Not set
`--caption-font-size <size>`	Caption font size	Engine default
`--caption-color <color>`	Caption color	Engine default
`--caption-position <position>`	Caption position	Engine default

Crop strategies

Used when the source video is wider than the target aspect ratio (e.g., 16:9 to 9:16):

center — Crop from center (default, safe choice)
smart — Slight bias toward center-right (better for faces)
top — Crop from top edge
bottom — Crop from bottom edge

Pad strategies

Used when the source video is taller than the target aspect ratio:

blur — Gaussian-blurred background (looks professional)
black — Classic black bars
white — White bars
color — Custom color (use --pad-color)

Examples

Single clip formatting

Terminal

# Format for TikTok
arena format clip.mp4 -p tiktok -o tiktok/

# Format for Instagram with smart cropping
arena format clip.mp4 -p instagram-reels --crop smart -o reels/

# Format for YouTube with blur background
arena format clip.mp4 -p youtube --pad blur -o youtube/

# Custom padding color
arena format clip.mp4 -p instagram-feed --pad color --pad-color "#FF5733"

Batch formatting

Terminal

# Format all clips in a directory
arena format clips/ -p tiktok -o formatted/tiktok/
arena format clips/ -p instagram-reels --crop smart -o formatted/reels/
arena format clips/ -p youtube-shorts -o formatted/shorts/

Multi-platform distribution

Terminal

# Generate clips once
arena process video.mp4 -n 5 --captions

# Format for every platform
arena format output/clips/ -p tiktok -o social/tiktok/
arena format output/clips/ -p instagram-reels -o social/reels/
arena format output/clips/ -p youtube-shorts -o social/shorts/
arena format output/clips/ -p youtube -o social/youtube/
arena format output/clips/ -p instagram-feed -o social/instagram/

# Result: 5 clips × 5 platforms = 25 optimized videos

Tips

Use --crop smart for videos with faces or people
Use --pad blur for professional letterboxing
Format after generating clips to save processing time
Check file size warnings if clips exceed platform limits
Test one clip first before batch formatting