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Set a length budget

Reels are submitted to a length. A budget puts that length on the reel timeline as a line, so you edit toward it rather than checking at the end.

Steps

  1. Under Reel Settings, turn on Limit to.
  2. Set the length as timecode, or in frames with Show times as set to Frames.

A red line crosses the reel timeline at that length. Reel Details gains a Budget row with the length, and while the reel runs longer the problems list under it says by how much.

A clip edge dragged out to the budget line, which catches it, with the live length in the drag tooltip

Snap to the line

With snapping on, a clip's right edge dragged near the line lands on it exactly, so trimming a reel to 30 seconds is a drag rather than arithmetic. Hold Shift while dragging to go past it. See Snapping.

What happens

Going over is a warning, not an error. The reel still plays, saves and exports.

  • Export Video asks first. Over budget says how long the reel is, how far over it runs, and what exporting will do: "This reel is 00:34:12, 00:04:12 over its 30s budget. Exporting will cut the last 00:04:12 to fit. Export anyway?" Choose Yes and the exported file stops at the budget: clips past the line are left out, and the clip crossing it ends at the line. The reel itself keeps every clip. Choose Cancel to trim it yourself.
  • Export Timeline ignores the budget and writes the whole reel, so your editor gets every clip.
  • An AI assistant can set a budget when it builds a reel. Going over comes back to it as the same warning, and it still writes the whole timeline.
  • A draft reel starts with its budget set to the target length. See Start a reel.

Timeline length, above the budget in the panel, is a different thing: how much time the reel timeline shows. See Timeline length.

Tip

Set Show times as to Frames if you think in frames. It changes every readout on the tab, not only this one.