Back to the BIM & IFC blog
Tools & comparisons · 2026-10-02 · 9 min
Turn an IFC Model Into a Video for LinkedIn, Instagram or a Client
A thirty-second clip of a model does more for a project than a slide of screenshots — if it arrives in the right format. Why the platforms reject WebM, why a vertical crop cuts the building in half, and how to produce an edited MP4 from an IFC without leaving the browser.
Turn an IFC Model Into a Video for LinkedIn, Instagram or a Client — IFC Viewer Online article cover
Architects and engineers produce some of the most visual work in any industry and then share it as a PDF of screenshots. A model turning slowly in the light, a cut opening to reveal the structure, a walk from the street to the atrium — thirty seconds of that does more on LinkedIn than a page of renders.
The obstacle is rarely the recording. It is everything after: the file the platform refuses, the vertical crop that cuts off the building, the title that nobody can read on a phone.
Formats: the part that silently fails
| Platform | Shape that works | Notes |
|---|
| LinkedIn feed | 1:1 or 4:5 | Square and portrait take more of the feed than landscape |
| Instagram Reels / TikTok | 9:16 | Keep text away from the top and bottom, where the interface sits |
| YouTube, client presentation | 16:9 | The recording's native shape |
| Email to a client | 16:9, short | Under a minute; many mail systems cap attachment size |
Fit, don't crop
A centre crop keeps about a third of a landscape frame. Fitting keeps the whole building, and the bands hold the title.
Buildings are wide. A centre crop of a landscape recording to 9:16 keeps a strip roughly a third of the width, and the building leaves the frame on both sides. Fitting the whole frame into the vertical format keeps the building intact and leaves bands above and below — which, filled with a blurred copy of the same frame, look intentional and give you exactly the space you need for a title.
The bands are not wasted space. They are where the title goes.
From model to MP4, step by step
- Set up the shot Background, light, and a section or isolated discipline if that is the story. A sun study at golden hour does a lot of the work.
- Record Orbit slowly, walk a route, or let the replay buffer keep the last moments so you never miss the good take.
- Trim Cut the start and end. The first two seconds decide whether anybody watches the rest.
- Add titles and a transition One line of text, large, on screen long enough to read twice. A fade at the end.
- Add music if the platform plays it Optional; many feeds autoplay muted, so the video must work without sound.
- Export for the platform Pick the preset — square, portrait, vertical, landscape — and export MP4. A GIF is available for places that do not play video.
What makes a model video worth watching
- One idea per clip: the structure, the façade, the route through the building. Not all three.
- Slow camera. What looks slow on a monitor looks right on a phone.
- Real context: the model on its site, in its city, with the sun where it really is.
- A readable title in the first second, and nothing important near the edges of a vertical frame.
The context shots — the model on a 3D map with terrain and neighbouring buildings — are covered in viewing an IFC on a 3D map, and the sun in sun and shadow studies from an IFC. For still images, see presentation images from an IFC.
Turn an IFC Model Into a Video for LinkedIn, Instagram or a Client