Shotona / Guides

How to make a 3D product reel for Instagram

A good product reel is vertical, short, and moves fast at the start. If you have a 3D model of your product, you can make one without filming anything: render the model with real camera moves and lights, add a few lines of text and a track, and export a 9:16 MP4.

1. Set the format to 9:16

Open the Shotona editor, drop in your GLB or glTF, and choose 9:16 in the Output panel. Shotona renders at 1080×1920 and re-frames every shot for the tall frame, so the product fills the screen instead of sitting in a small band in the middle.

2. Hook the viewer in the first second

Viewers decide in the first second whether to keep watching. Pick an edit that opens with motion. The Reveal edit and the speed-ramped camera moves, such as Whip Reveal and Snap Turn, cover most of their travel in the first few hundred milliseconds and then settle into a hold on the product.

Dark Reveal suits premium and tech products. Bright Studio suits beauty, home, and lifestyle products. Moody Macro is for materials and craftsmanship close-ups.

3. Keep captions out of the Reels buttons

Instagram covers the bottom and right edge of a reel with the caption, audio label, and like, comment, and share buttons. In 9:16, Shotona keeps all text out of those zones automatically, and the same layout works for TikTok and YouTube Shorts.

• Use two or three captions, each one idea: a benefit, a spec, a proof point.
• Give each line at least 1.2 seconds on screen. The editor warns you when a line is too short to read.
• End on a card with the product name and the offer, such as "Pre-order now · From $189."

4. Add music

Add a track in the Music panel and pick the start point so a beat lands on the first cut. The track fades out over the last second and a half. If you plan to use a trending sound from Instagram's library instead, export without music and add the sound in the Instagram app.

5. Export and post

Click Export MP4. The file is H.264 at 1080×1920 with AAC audio, which Instagram accepts as is. Aim for 7 to 15 seconds, since short reels get rewatched. To post the same video to your feed and YouTube too, use Export all formats for 9:16, 1:1, and 16:9 versions in one go.

Ideas for a product reel series

• One reel per feature, each opening on a close-up of that detail.
• The same edit across every color or variant, so your catalog looks consistent.
• A seamless loop of the hero angle for Stories and your product page.