Your phone caught the real work, but two shots never happened on camera; here is how to cut generated fill shots in so they share your footage's frame, color, and pace.
CapCut's online video editor (CapCut Web) can combine AI clips with real footage because clips in different formats go into one project and onto one multi-track timeline. Filters, audio layers, and export settings sit in that same browser project.
Say you run a pottery class and have a dozen vertical phone clips: a teacher centering clay, a shelf of glazed bowls, a student carrying a finished piece. Two shots are missing, rain on a window for the opener and bowls glowing inside a kiln for the close. Before you start, gather your real clips, the two AI files or their prompts, any voiceover or music, and a note of where each AI shot goes.
Lock the story with your real clips, then generate only the gaps
Put the real clips in story order first. Mark each gap where the edit needs a cutaway, a transition, or a scene you can't film, and generate only those shots. In the pottery edit, the rain sets the mood and the kiln shot shows where the bowls end up.
To generate a gap shot inside the editor, use the box at the top of Media, which reads "Describe your video. Add a start frame, end frame, or both." Credits are deducted when you confirm an action that requires them.
The box also takes a start frame, an end frame, or both, so you can give it a frame that matches the real clip next to the gap.
Film anything that has to prove something: your teacher, your studio, a student's bowl, and instructional close-ups such as centering clay on the wheel, since complex hand actions in generated video can show unnatural morphing. Text on a moving object can change or turn unreadable in a generated shot, so add your studio name in post with Text in the left panel.
Upload both kinds of clip and set one frame before you judge anything
In Media, upload your real clips and the AI files from your computer, a cloud drive, or your phone. Drag them onto the timeline in story order; clips in different formats can sit in the same project. To add a transition at a join, the two clips need to sit next to each other with no gap: hover between them and click the transition icon.
Next, click Ratio at the top left of the canvas and pick the ratio your phone clips use. Changing the ratio changes the output frame, so a clip shaped differently from that frame may need its own framing decision.
Scrub each AI clip and check its visible area. The subject should sit inside the frame, and a horizon or window edge shouldn't be cut off. When an AI clip loses its subject, select it and open Smart tools in the right panel for auto-reframe, then check again. If you opened the editor from Resize video under All tools rather than a blank project, auto reframe is applied automatically once your clips upload, so recheck the real clips as well.
Match the AI shot's color to the clips on either side
Open Filters in the left panel and put one themed filter on every clip, real and AI. Set the same strength on each with its slider. CapCut's AI color correction balances exposure and saturation automatically, which helps when a generated clip looks more saturated than footage shot on a gray day.
If one AI clip still looks warmer, cooler, or brighter than its neighbors, work on that clip alone. Adjust its brightness and contrast, or select it and open Color adjustment (subtitled Basic, HSL, Curves) in the Basic panel. When the backgrounds differ a lot, such as a bright generated kiln interior against your dim studio, adjust exposure or use effects to reduce the contrast.
If the rain is meant to be your studio's own window, the rain opener and the clip that follows it are the pair to check: when your teacher is lit from a window on the left and the rain shot is lit from the right, re-cut around the clip or swap in a simpler insert.
Match pace last. A slow, drifting AI shot between quick cuts of a spinning wheel can feel disjointed. Set its pace under Speed in the right panel, or trim it to the rhythm of the shots around it. If your handheld clips shake next to a steady AI shot, Stabilize sits in the Basic panel.
Layer the sound, then export at your footage's settings
Give the voiceover, music, and sound effects their own layers on the multi-track timeline and set each layer's volume separately. Lower or mute original audio that fights the voiceover, and use noise reduction on a studio fan's hum. Add captions from Captions in the left panel after the picture is locked, so spoken lines, on-screen text, and scene changes stay aligned.
Click Export, then Download. Export settings opens at 720p, Recommended quality, 30fps, and MP4 by default, with Name, Resolution, Quality, Frame rate, and Format on one screen. Match resolution and frame rate to your source footage and the place you'll post, then watch the exported file full screen on a phone.
Real clips go into the editor before any AI shot
Upload your real clips to the CapCut online video editor first, then generate only the shots your list says are missing.
FAQ
Why won't my AI clip import into the online editor?
Usually the file's actual format isn't one CapCut supports, even when its name ends in .mp4. Renaming the extension doesn't change the format inside, so convert the file with a trusted conversion tool and import the converted copy.
Do I need to label the AI shots in a mixed video?
Use visible or spoken disclosure when a rule covers your video. New York State, for instance, requires people who produce certain advertisements to identify AI-generated synthetic performers, digitally created media that appear as a real person. Review any generated student who looks like someone in your class before you post.
Either way, keep a record of where each AI clip sits in the final edit; in the pottery edit, that's two lines, the rain opener and the kiln close. Send promotional, political, or highly likeness-sensitive videos to legal or compliance review before you post.