You finished the ceramics collection. The photos are good: the wheel, the glaze, the kiln door opening, the finished set on a linen cloth. They would work as a short vertical video, but making one means an editing app, a timeline, a music search and an evening you do not have.
Reel Studio is the shorter route. Pick a few photos (and video clips, if you have them) from your 5AM library, say in one sentence what they are about, choose how it should feel, and Reel Studio finds the story. It puts every photo and clip in order, from an opening through a build to a close, writes a caption for each scene, sets it to music and renders a vertical 1080x1920 MP4 you can download or share with a link.
Today we are also opening the Reel feed, a public, swipeable feed of reels their makers chose to publish, and a reward program that pays AI credits for sharing.
What Reel Studio is
You bring the material and the intent; the planner reads your photos and your brief and turns them into scenes, each with a role (Hook, Context, Build, Reveal, Close), a caption and a camera motion. Every photo and clip you pick becomes a scene: the planner's job is the order and the words, never the selection. If it thinks one does not fit, it says so in a note and leaves the choice to you. Nothing is locked: you can rewrite any caption, change how long each scene holds, switch the mood and render again as often as you like.
It is available on every plan, Free included.
How to make a reel
1. Bring the material. Open Reel Studio, choose Start with your photos (or New reel once you have some), then Add from library. Tap the photos and clips you want; each one becomes a scene, and you can select up to 20. Something not in your library yet? Upload it from the picker, several files at once. A video opens in a trim step first: drag the orange handles along its strip of frames, or play to a moment and tap Start here or End here. Reel Studio then optimizes the clip in your browser, so only the part you keep is uploaded.
Then answer What is this reel about? in a sentence, such as "A teaser about the craftsmanship."
2. Choose a mood. Under How should it feel? there are three:
- Dramatic: holds the opening question and builds toward a longer reveal.
- Exciting: a quick opening, shorter middle beats and an energetic finish.
- Calm: room to observe, an even progression with gentle motion.
The mood changes pacing, motion and type. You can also open Brand to set a name, an accent color and a font.
3. Find the story, then make it yours. Press Find the story. The planner turns every pick into a scene and puts them in the order that tells the story, each with a caption, a role, a camera motion (Hold, Push in, Pull out or Drift) and a length in seconds. If it suggests leaving a photo or clip out, the note says why; remove it only if you agree. Edit any of it, switch between the Rough cut preview in your browser and the rendered video, and press Save changes as you go. Not what you had in mind? Find another story.
When it looks right, press Render. The button shows the cost in AI credits before you press it. A render usually takes a minute or two, depending on how many scenes the reel has, and the page updates itself when it is done. After that the button reads Render again, and you can keep refining.
Characters, stickers and cards
Open Overlays on any scene to put something on top of it:
- Add image or card places a photo or card from your library.
- Create character or sticker opens the character & sticker studio: describe a design, pick a style, optionally add a reference image, and paint it. Painting uses your AI credits or Gemini key.
- Choose from Storybook shows the characters you have saved in Storybook, each with its picture. Tap one and it waves in.
Each overlay can stay in place, fade in and out, slide in from any side, fly through, peek or hop, and you choose when it appears and for how long.
Music
Music is optional, and there are two ways to add it:
- From your library. Choose Add music and pick any track you already have.
- Composed for this reel. Tick Compose a track for this mood before you find the story, or open Compose a track for this mood later. Google's Lyria model writes a track from the mood, the story and anything you type (for example "warm piano" or "pop with vocals"). Tracks are instrumental by default; ask for singing, rap or lyrics to add vocals. You can also let it use up to three of your reel's photos as inspiration. A composed track can take a few minutes and is saved to your library.
Once a track is on the reel, Sync to music times scene changes to its beats when you render.
Sharing and the public feed
A finished reel can reach people in two separate ways.
Share reel gives you an unlisted link (/r/...). Anyone who has that link can watch the reel, whether or not it is in the feed, so treat it like any shareable link and send it to the people you want to see it. The page shows the video, its title and one-line premise, a Remake button and a way to report the reel. It does not list your other reels or open your library. The link keeps working while you re-render; it plays the last finished version until the new one is ready.
Publish to feed puts the reel on the Reel feed. Publishing is opt-in and per reel: nothing appears there unless you press the button. Published reels show your first name and last initial and your profile picture. Choose Remove from feed at any time to take it back out; your share link keeps working.
The feed itself plays one reel per screen: swipe to the next, tap for sound, Copy link to pass one along, or Remake to start your own from the same mood and story idea, with your photos. You can watch it without signing in. If something does not belong there, Report this reel (you need to be signed in to report) and our moderators can review it. A reel that moderators remove from the feed also stops playing at its share link.
The share reward program
Sharing is rewarded in AI credits:
- Your first reel: 20 credits. Every account earns this once, when its first reel finishes rendering.
- Bring a friend: 20 credits each. When someone new opens your shared reel's link, follows Remake, and renders their first reel, you both get 20 credits. For them that comes on top of their own first-reel reward.
To count as new, the friend's 5AM account must be less than 7 days old and must not have rendered a reel yet. A reel of your own does not count, and each new account can be credited to only one sharer. Referral rewards for the sharer are capped at 25 friends per month.
Rewards go into your credit wallet, where they never expire. The Share reel panel shows how many friends have made reels from your links and how many credits you have earned.
Pricing and what is saved
A reel has two kinds of cost, and they are paid differently:
- Planning and composed music use your Gemini access: your plan's AI credits, or your own Gemini key if you have added one.
- The render runs on 5AM's servers, not on Gemini, so it is always charged in AI credits, including for accounts with their own Gemini key. It costs 4 credits plus 0.4 credits per second of finished reel: 10 credits for a 15-second reel, 28 for a one-minute reel. If a render fails, the credits are refunded.
See pricing for each plan's AI credit allowance.
The finished MP4 is saved to your library, and so is any composed track. Both count toward your storage. Your source photos and clips stay in your library, untouched, and deleting a reel project leaves those files in place.
Practical details
- Format: vertical 1080x1920 MP4.
- Length: a finished reel must be shorter than three minutes.
- Scenes: one per photo or clip, up to 20.
- Selection: up to 20 photos and clips per reel.
- Phones: Reel Studio works in a phone browser. The preview sits at the top, with the story, the look and the music below it.
- Downloads: every rendered reel can be downloaded as an MP4.
Get started
Pick three to seven photos you like, write the one sentence you would tell a friend about them, and see what story comes back. Open Reel Studio, or browse the Reel feed first to see what others have made.
