Your first Short in Studio

§1The desk: one line in

Open Studio and the first thing you see is a question: “What are we making today?” Underneath it sits the whole promise of the room in one sentence: “One sentence or one link in. A finished vertical video out.” There is no project to set up, no media bin and no timeline. You write a subject, you press a button, and ViewMade researches it, writes the script, narrates it, sources real footage and cuts a finished vertical documentary Short with captions and an upload package.

The composer has two arms. “Shorts” is for a subject you type: we research it, write it, narrate it and cut it from real footage. “Clip it” is for a link to a video that already exists: we find its strongest moments and cut them vertical. You rarely have to choose between them by hand, because pasting a link flips the composer to Clip it on its own.

The topic box asks for “One subject, in a line”, and its rotating examples show the shape it likes: “the bridge that tore itself apart in the wind”, “the man who survived two atomic bombs”, “the volcano that made a brand-new island in one week”. Each of those is one thing a camera could film, plus the odd fact that makes it worth watching. Below the box, the rail called “Subjects the engine has already filmed” shows real renders, and “Use this” drops any of them into the box if you want to see the whole process once before you write your own.

§2What really happens when you press “Make it”

The send key reads “Make it” and shows the price before you press it. Pressing it does not start production straight away. It starts a free search: the panel says “Finding real footage”, and behind it the planner proposes about three angles of your subject and checks how much real footage exists behind each one. The first time a subject is searched this can take up to about a minute; a subject that has been searched before usually comes back almost instantly.

The angle with the most real footage wins. An angle with no footage is never produced while another one has some, and among strong angles the one that keeps more of your own words is preferred. If your subject was already specific, the panel tells you “Your subject goes in as written”. If it was broad, it tells you so plainly: “Your subject was broad, so we picked the angle inside it with the most real footage.”

Then you get a few seconds of grace before anything begins. “Start now” skips the wait. “Different angle” shows the other angles that have real footage, each with “Make this one” to swap to it, or “Make it too” to produce it as an extra Short alongside the first. “Stop” ends it there. Credits are charged only when production actually starts, so looking at the angles and stopping costs nothing.

Sometimes no angle has enough footage. Then you see “Not enough real footage for this subject”, nothing is made and nothing is charged. The tip on that screen is the best writing advice in the product: “Make it more concrete: name an event, a place, a person or a year. Subjects that were filmed work best.” Press “Edit the subject”, add the year or the place, and try again. Abstract ideas with nothing on camera tend to end here, and so does footage that is locked by Content ID, which ViewMade cannot use.

Once it starts, the progress steps read Real footage, Script, Voice and scenes, Edit and Final check, and the panel shows its own estimate of the time left. You do not have to watch: “It lands in your library when it is done.” If you like, “Notify me” asks your browser to alert you when it is ready.

§3The options worth touching

The composer works with every option left alone, but a few are worth knowing.

• Language. English, Turkish, Spanish, French and Portuguese. ViewMade guesses the language from what you type and your manual pick always wins. The research, script, voice and captions are made natively in that language, not translated from English.
• Pro mode. “Better script, better voice, better footage.” It costs more credits than Default, and it is the option we suggest first for any language other than English.
• Voice. “Auto” picks the house voice for your language. You can also choose a named voice and play its samples first, which is worth doing once so your channel keeps one recognisable narrator.
• Music and Sound FX. Background music under the voice and the small whoosh or drop on cuts are both on by default, and each has its own switch.
• Captions. Every word is burned in as it is narrated. You choose the caption look, from calm ones such as Minimal to louder ones such as Karaoke or Neon.

It is just as useful to know what the composer does not do. There is no timeline editor for Shorts: you cannot drag a clip, trim a scene or rewrite one line of narration after the render. If a Short is not right, the fix is a sharper subject and a new render, not an edit. There is also no avatar or presenter option; these are documentaries told by a narrator over real footage. Pro mode does not rescue a weak subject either. It writes, voices and sources better, but if the subject has little footage or no odd fact, it is still a weak subject.

§4Clip it: Shorts from long videos

If you already have long videos, “Clip it” turns them into Shorts. Paste a link to a single video from YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitch, Vimeo and other platforms, or use “Upload a video” for a file of your own. Press “Scan” and ViewMade reads it.

Then comes “Choose the moments”. You mark up to five stretches on the bar, and for each one you choose “Cut as is”, which cuts exactly what you marked, or “AI picks”, which lets ViewMade find the strongest moment inside it. The price follows the minutes of source that are read, not the number of clips you ask for, so marking only the parts you care about also keeps the cost down.

The options are practical: a target clip length of 20, 30, 45 or 60 seconds, one to four clips, a frame, and a layout. Auto follows whoever is speaking, Fit keeps the whole picture, and Split stacks two speakers. You can add a headline, clean up pauses (on by default) and optionally remove filler words and bad takes, then pick a caption look and position. After the render, “Edit captions” lets you cut or retype words, change the look or the headline, and re-cut the clip for a small credit cost.

§5After the render

Finished work lands in “Your library”, with filters for All, Shorts, Clips and Automatic, and a search box. Open a Short and the result sheet gives you everything you need to publish it:

• Watch it first, all the way through, as a viewer would.
• “Download” the MP4, and download the thumbnail separately if you want it.
• “Copy title”, then copy the Description and the Tags, which come out as #tags.
• Footage credits: “Paste these into your description to credit the original creators.”
• “Everything (.zip)” bundles the MP4, the thumbnail, the subtitles where there are any, and a credits.txt.
• “Share” makes a private link you can send to someone for review and turn off later.

If a Short works, “Make another like this” reopens the composer with the same subject and settings, so you can try a neighbouring angle in the same voice and look.

Two rules about money are worth knowing. You can “Cancel” while a Short is queued or early in production and get your credits back in full, up until the voice starts; after that it cannot be cancelled. And if a production fails after it started, for example because there was not enough usable footage or the Short did not pass ViewMade's quality review, the credits are returned automatically, once, and “Try again” is there for you.

Last, and most important: ViewMade never uploads to YouTube. You download, you look, and you upload to your own channel yourself. That final look is your quality gate, and it is where your judgement as the channel owner matters most.

§6Your first Short in five minutes of your attention

The render itself runs in the background. What follows is the part that needs you, and it fits in a few focused minutes.

1. Write one filmable line

   Pick a real event, place, machine or person and add the odd fact about it, such as the year a city moved a whole church across town. If in doubt, take one from “Subjects the engine has already filmed” and press “Use this”.

2. Set the three choices once

   Check the language, turn on Pro mode if the video is not in English, and play a few voice samples before choosing one. Pick a caption look you would be happy to see on every Short.

3. Press “Make it” and read the panel

   Watch whether your subject goes in as written or gets narrowed. If you prefer another angle, use “Different angle”; if the angle looks right, press “Start now”.

4. Walk away

   Let it run. Turn on “Notify me” or simply come back to the Library later; nothing is lost if you close the tab.

5. Review, package and upload

   Watch it through, download it, copy the title, description and tags, paste the footage credits into the description, and upload it to your channel yourself.

Do that a few times and the rhythm becomes obvious: the time you spend is in choosing subjects and reviewing results, which is exactly where a channel owner's time is best spent. When you see the Automatic chip on your composer and you are a full member, it can take over the nightly making while you keep the reviewing.