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The Grid Effect

The blocky grid-reveal that is everywhere right now — a letterboxed band of square cells where your subject pops in as grid-aligned mosaic windows over a scenic backdrop, word-by-word type lands on the gridlines, a black interlude stamps your audience word in fat serif italics, and a B/W portrait build-up lands on a giant one-word finale. Drop in five clips and three words; every cut is beat-tight.

  • Aspect ratio9:16
  • Screen time10s
  • Editable slots9
  • Best forInstagram Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts
  • Layers40
  • PriceFree
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Opens The Grid Effect in ExpoCut on iOS or Android, ready to fill. Don’t have the app yet? You’ll be sent to the store.

What you replace

Each slot below is a hole in the finished edit. Fill it and the animation, grade and timing around it stay exactly as they are.

  • Text Hook word (serif) “sound”
  • Text Audience word “artists”
  • Text Finale word “music”
  • Video Backdrop (beat 1)
  • Video Hero subject
  • Video B-roll (beat 3)
  • Video Portrait (B/W tiles)
  • Video Closeup (finale)
  • Music Music

See how it’s built

The Grid Effect is 40 layers of video, text and sound stacked on a timeline. The structure view draws that timeline out — when each piece appears, how long it holds, what sits in front of what, and exactly which layers are yours to replace. No wording or footage, just the shape of the edit.

Reads the published template live each time you open it, so it always matches what the app loads.

View timeline & layer structure →

How big the exported file will be

ExpoCut renders on your device and picks a bitrate from the frame size and the quality you choose, so the file scales with both. At 10s and 9:16, expect roughly:

The Grid Effect — estimated export size for 10s of video
Export settingFrame sizeMedium qualityHigh quality
720p 720×1280 4.6 MB 6.8 MB
1080p 1080×1920 10 MB 15 MB
4K 2160×3840 40 MB 60 MB

These are estimates from the encoder’s own bitrate rule, not fixed numbers. Busy footage — fast motion, grain, confetti, hard cuts — compresses worse and lands above the estimate; a mostly-static talking head lands below it. 1080p is the right choice for Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts, which all re-encode what you upload anyway; 4K is worth the extra size when you want to crop or reframe later. Uploading is where a big file costs you, not the render.

How to use the The Grid Effect template

1. Use the template

Tap Use Template, or find The Grid Effect under Reels › Ads in the app’s library.

2. Fill the 9 slots

You supply 5 video clips · 3 text lines · 1 music track. Everything else — the cuts, grade, transitions and text motion — is already timed.

3. Export at 9:16

Render on-device up to 4K in the shape this template was designed for, then post to Instagram Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts.

The Grid Effect is a blank-slot template you fill, running 10s at 9:16 Vertical. It uses the same engine as the rest of the app, so anything you see in the ExpoCut showcase — filters, transitions, text animations — can be added on top once the template is open.

More templates like this

All reel templates →

Make your own The Grid Effect.

Free on iOS and Android — fill the slots, export up to 4K, post it the same day.

Download for iOS Get it on Android →