Video templates

Templates give you a head start: reel templates build a finished short from your own clips, and project templates lay out timed titles for you to fill. This page covers both, plus where the other template types live.

Where templates live

Click Templates in the action bar. A panel opens with six tabs:

Tab	What it holds	Covered on
Reels	Six complete reel recipes built from your media	This page
Titles	Ten single animated titles	Text and titles
Overlays	Six multi-part text overlays	Effects and overlays
Project	Four title layouts for a whole video	This page
Trans	Four fade transitions	Effects and overlays
Beats	Beat detection and auto-editing	Beat sync

Every template places its clips starting at the playhead, so move the playhead to 0 first if you want the template to open your video. Templates add to what is already on the timeline. They never delete your clips, and you can undo any of them with Cmd / Ctrl + Z.

Reel templates

A reel template is a full recipe: timed slots for your clips, text overlays, and effect clips that grade the whole piece. You choose the media, Bitgrain does the timing.

Using a reel template

Import your clips into the media panel first. The reel picker only shows media already in the project.
Move the playhead to where the reel should start, usually the very beginning.
Open Templates, stay on Reels, and click a template.
The picker asks you to "Pick N clips in order". Click tiles in the order you want them to play. Each tile shows its position number. Click again to deselect, or use Clear to start over.
Once you have picked the right number, click Build reel.

Bitgrain places each clip in its slot on the first video track, adds the text to the first text track and the effect clips to the first effect track, creating any of those tracks that are missing. An audio track is added too if you have none, ready for your music.

When a video clip is shorter than its slot, it keeps its own length and leaves a gap. When it is longer, it is trimmed to fit the slot from its start. You can slide the clip's content later by trimming its head.

The six reels

Reel	Tagline	Media	Length	What it builds
Quote Wash	Motivational	1 video	8 s	One clip with a slow zoom in, a vignette and grade, and a centered quote that fades in
Triple Beat	Punchy 3-cut	3 videos	6 s	Three hard cuts every 2 seconds, each with a popping word
Cinematic Open	Slow-burn intro	1 video	10 s	A slow pull-back zoom, vignette, posterize and grade, with a title that slides up and a subtitle that fades in
Glitch Drop	Heavy then clean	1 video	6 s	Heavy scanlines for the first two seconds, then clean footage and a huge popping title
How To, 3 Steps	Numbered tutorial	3 videos or images	9 s	Three 3 second steps with big step numbers, a caption for each step, and a sharpen over everything
Travel Memory	4-clip montage	4 videos or images	12 s	Four clips that alternate pan left and pan right, with fades, a warm wash and vignette, and roman numerals in the top left

The Quote Wash, Triple Beat, Cinematic Open and Glitch Drop reels take video clips only. How To and Travel Memory also accept still images, which are placed on an image overlay track.

Note: The pan and zoom moves in a reel are attached to the video clips themselves. Images placed on an image overlay track keep the slot timing and fades but do not pan. For moving stills, put your photos on a video track afterwards and add a Ken Burns move.

Making a reel your own

After you build a reel, everything in it is an ordinary clip:

Click any text clip to change the words, font and colors in the text inspector.
Click an effect clip to tune the grade, or swap the effect for another with the mode picker.
Drop your music on the audio track, then try beat sync to add pop zooms on the beat.
Build the reel in a 9:16 project for Reels, Shorts and TikTok. The templates work in any format, so check that long titles still fit the narrower frame and lower the text size if they do not.

Project templates

Project templates are title layouts for a whole video. They drop a set of timed text clips onto your first text track, starting at the playhead, and leave the gaps for you to fill with your own footage.

Template	Length	What you get
Reel Intro + Outro	12 s	A big title at 0 seconds and an end card at 9 seconds. Drop your clips in between
Photo Essay	12 s	A chapter title that slides up, then chapter numbers every 4 seconds for your photos
Story (9:16)	8 s	A top caption and a bouncing arrow at the bottom, laid out for vertical video
Title Card	3 s	A single bold title with a subtitle underneath

To use one:

Move the playhead to where the layout should start.
Open Templates, then Project, and click a template.
Put your clips on the video track in the gaps between the titles.
Click each title to change its text.

The length shown on each card is how long the layout was designed for. The titles are placed at those times, and your project is as long as whatever you put on the timeline.

Tips

Import first, template second. Reel templates can only use media already in the project.
Order matters. In the reel picker, the first tile you click fills the first slot.
Start at zero. Templates place everything relative to the playhead.
Stack templates. Build a reel, then add a Title from the Titles tab or an end card from Overlays on top.
Undo is your friend. If a template lands in the wrong place, undo it, move the playhead, and apply it again.