Welcome to the AP Creative Community Newsletter!
Every other week, I share actionable tips, honest answers, and valuable insights to help you on your creative journey—no fluff, just real talk. This newsletter is here to support your journey, spark ideas, and build a community of creatives. 🗺 When I’m not sharing tips, I feature creatives from the community through the Creator Spotlight.
New issues hit your inbox every Sunday. Glad you’re here. 🤝
Most people lose attention because nothing in the frame has a purpose. They stand too far back, their text floats, and their face is buried in the caption bar. 😶🌫️ These are the three things I do before I hit record to make vertical feel intentional and keep people watching. 🫡
1. Eye line on the top third 👁
Your eye line should land on the top third line. Not the middle. Not wherever it ends up. The top third is where attention naturally locks in, especially on a phone.📲 It keeps your face present, your message anchored, and gives the rest of the frame room to support you.🙌 If you walk into frame or start from profile, always land back on that same spot. This becomes your visual home base. Once you dial this in, your videos instantly feel more composed and intentional, without changing anything about your setup.
2. Hook up top, subs above UI ⚓️
Think of vertical like a design layout, not just a camera angle. Your hook lives in the upper third so it’s the first thing people see. Make it big, bold, and readable. Subtitles go in the lower third, but never so low that the platform UI covers them. Captions, usernames, buttons… they all compete for space. Keeping your text above that area makes your message clear even on mute.😶 When your hook and subs are placed with intention, the viewer never has to work to understand you. The layout does the heavy lifting. 💪
3. Keep the edges clean 📐
The edges of your frame are not neutral space.🙅♂️ The right side is where likes, comments, and share buttons stack. If you place text or graphics there, they get blocked, ignored, or feel cluttered.😵💫 Give that space breathing room. It makes your composition feel organized and easier to watch. The same applies on the left if you’re adding callouts or graphics. Protecting the edges is less about aesthetics and more about respect for the viewer’s experience. If nothing fights for space, your frame feels intentional before they even realize why.
If you're interested in more in-depth tips, I go even deeper with what I teach in 👇
Practical skills. Real creative growth. Step by step.
If you’re ready to level up how you create you can join now below.
How I Frame My Vertical Videos 🖼 A video breakdown of where I place things to maximize screen real estate & grab attention. Watch HERE
Clean Framing = Better Storytelling ✍️ A step-by-step guide for you to swipe through, save, and reference anytime HERE
Have a question about cameras/editing/technical skills? Ask me anonymously HERE!
Question of the Week:
Hello Adrian! I wanted to ask you how can I make a long term content framework? What is most important: storytelling or aesthetics of the video? And how can I make the script good enough to make my viewers stick to it even if I’m a 3d artist? I hope you are okay and your holiday is great! Thank you my dear!
Submitted by: Eyad
From Adrian 💬
Hello! This is a multi tiered question so I'll do my best to answer each accordingly.
1. A long-term content framework comes from clarity, not volume.
Pick one core niche you can show up in consistently: Teach something. Document something or Entertain
Then build around it like:
Hook → Value → Proof → Payoff → CTA.
Do this each time, and you'll be able to attack any niche
2. Between storytelling and aesthetics? Story wins.
Aesthetics & cinematics make people stop, people can appreciate it. But Story makes people stay. Its what keeps people coming back. You can have average visuals with a clear message and still grow. You can’t save a bad story with beautiful cinematography
3. As a 3D artist, your video doesn’t necessarily need to be cinematic.
It just needs to be clear. Tell us what we’re looking at, why it matters, and where it’s going, why you made what you're showing us. People don’t need 3D knowledge to care. They just need a reason to watch the next 5 seconds and that's done with the context and storytelling.
Ask me an anonymous question HERE! Your question may be featured and answered in depth on the following week’s newsletter.
I can’t believe this is the last newsletter I’m writing in 2025! And I don’t know about you but this year flew by. I can’t thank you enough for being part of our creative community, whether you’ve been here from the jump or just recently joined, it’s been such a privilege to learn from you as much as y’all have learned from my silly little tutorials I’ve put up on the internet. 🙏
In the last 365 days, we’ve grown our community to hundreds of places around the globe, thousands of creators perfecting their craft, and even more art being made than ever before.🤯 I’m so proud of what we are building here and can’t wait to create more together next year!
Happy holidays and a happy new year from all of us here at APCC to you and your loved ones. 🎉 I’ll catch you in the new year! ✌️
