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Ranking video from your clips

Updated 2026-09-23 · Dylan Yu

The useful version of a ranking video starts in your camera roll, not in a prompt. You already filmed the unboxings, the misses, the takes, the tries. A ranking video from those clips is an ordering problem plus a titles problem plus an export problem. It is not a writing problem for a model that has never seen the footage.

ShortsRank is built for that path. You add files. You drag them into countdown order. You name each one. You export a vertical file. The rest of this page is how to not waste the afternoon on the wrong files.

Separate the two products in your head

Prompt-first tools ask “what is the video about?” and then find or generate pictures. They are listicle factories. They are fine when you have an opinion and no camera. They are a mismatch when the video’s only authority is that you were there.

Clip-first tools ask “which files, in what order?” ShortsRank is the second kind. If you open it with an empty camera roll and a topic sentence, the honest move is to go film, not to hunt for stock that vaguely matches the sentence. The sample countdown exists so you can learn the template. It is not a substitute for the video you meant to make.

Rights before order

Before you drag anything into the rail, answer one question per file: can I publish this picture and this audio?

Yes, usually, when you filmed it, the people in it are fine with it, and the audio is their voices or ambient sound or music you licensed.

No, usually, when the file is a capture of a broadcast, a ripped music video, a friend’s private story, or a game soundtrack you did not clear. Gameplay you recorded can still be complicated — the publisher’s policy is the document, not a feeling that “everyone does it.” The gaming recipe stays on footage you captured. The sports recipe tells you to leave the broadcast on the television.

If one file is unclear, bench it. A four-clip countdown you can post is better than a five-clip countdown you have to private later.

File types and size

Add MP4 first. H.264 video with AAC audio is the combination browsers and apps agree on. WebM is fine if that is what you have. MOV from a phone is often fine and sometimes not — if the card reports that the browser could not decode it, the file is probably HEVC. Export an H.264 MP4 from the camera app or from a converter you trust, then add that.

Size is a preview issue more than a format issue. The editor warns above 60 MB and refuses above 180 MB. It does not need the whole game recording. It needs the four seconds you will actually hold. Cut that window out first. You will scrub less and the tab will stay responsive.

There is no cloud transcode hiding behind the button. If the browser cannot draw the frame, the export cannot invent it.

Order, titles, seconds

Drop the files in. The first one you add sits at the top and will play first, which means it will be the highest number once the list is full. If that is not what you wanted, move it down. The winner belongs at the bottom of the rail.

Replace the filename titles. A ranking video from clips fails in the first three seconds if the plate says the camera’s default name. Use the patterns on the Top 5 page: a result, a constraint, a place.

Set seconds after you watch the hold. Two seconds is a glimpse. Four is a standard beat. Eight is a story and should be rare. Free export will later cap you at three clips and four seconds if you have not unlocked lifetime. The dialog is explicit. It does not trim in secret.

Export and post

Press play once and watch the whole countdown. If you are bored, the viewer is bored. Then export with the tab focused. Chrome and Edge produce an MP4. If you are elsewhere and the browser cannot encode H.264, you get a WebM and a sentence that says so. Post the MP4 when you have it. The export checklist is the last pass: resolution, watermark, audio, safe area, filename.

You still write the caption, choose the cover, and upload in the app. ShortsRank does not log in for you. That is a limit, and it is also why your clips never need to sit on our disk. The privacy page describes the same boundary in policy language.

If the countdown is only one piece of a more complicated edit, stop after the export and finish in a full editor. Bringing a finished ranking file into a timeline is easier than building the countdown with manual text boxes. That is the practical reason this tool exists next to editors, not instead of all of them.

Questions

Which files can I add?

MP4, WebM, and MOV. If a MOV is HEVC and the browser cannot decode it, the card says so. Re-export H.264 and add it again.

Are my clips uploaded?

No. The editor reads them locally and the download is assembled in the tab.

What if I only have photos?

This tool expects video. Still images are not a ranking short. Film the thing, even for a few seconds.

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