Exporting for YouTube, Shorts and TikTok: specs, subtitles and chapters

When an episode is finished, the last job is to get it onto the platforms without losing quality, subtitles or structure. This guide covers what a render from Animey, an AI anime studio by Softforge Digital, contains, and how to use each file on YouTube, Shorts and TikTok. Platform rules are given as of September 2026, when we checked them, and they change, so check each platform’s help pages before a big launch.

What a render contains

The MP4 files start playing before they finish downloading, because their index sits at the front of the file. The episode files carry one chapter marker per scene (scene clips have none), and every MP4 carries the comment “AI-generated with Animey” in its metadata. A render never changes: after an edit, you render again and get a new version, and the earlier ones stay in the history.

Export in seven steps

1. Step 1

   Render the 16:9 version without burned-in subtitles

   On the render page, tick the subtitle languages you want as files, leave the subtitles in the picture off and keep music, title card and end credits on. YouTube shows its own captions, which viewers can turn on, restyle or translate.

2. Step 2

   Upload the 16:9 MP4 to YouTube

   Upload the file as it is: it matches YouTube’s recommended container and codecs, MP4 with a fast-start index, H.264 video in 4:2:0, AAC audio at 48 kHz and the frame rate it was made in. YouTube turns loud videos down during playback, and −14 LUFS is close to the level it is commonly measured to target, so the episode keeps its dynamics.

3. Step 3

   Add the subtitle files

   In YouTube Studio, open Subtitles and upload the SRT or VTT file of each language. The cues are timed from the voiced dialogue, so they stay in sync with the lines.

4. Step 4

   Add chapters to the description

   Open the episode’s review link: it lists every scene with its start time. Copy them into the video description as timestamps, starting with 0:00 for the first scene. YouTube needs at least three timestamps in ascending order and chapters of at least 10 seconds, so an episode with only two scenes, which a one-minute episode can have, gets no chapters.

5. Step 5

   Render again for vertical platforms

   Rendering is free, so make a second render with the 9:16 cut, scene clips and subtitles burned into the picture in one language. Before you do, check each shot’s crop handle in the 9:16 preview of the scene board.

6. Step 6

   Post to Shorts and TikTok

   YouTube treats a vertical or square video of up to three minutes as a Short. Post the whole 9:16 cut when the episode is short enough, or the 9:16 clips of its best scenes when it is longer; the same files work on TikTok.

7. Step 7

   Label the AI content

   Animey’s acceptable use and AI disclosure policy asks you to keep the file’s metadata and to use each platform’s AI label wherever one is offered. The platforms’ own rules, as of September 2026, are narrower: YouTube requires disclosure for realistic content, not for clearly unrealistic animation, but may add a label itself, and TikTok requires one for realistic AI content, accepting its own label or a clear caption, sticker or watermark. Our note on disclosure explains the background.

Vertical framing and safe zones

The vertical cut is not a squeeze. It crops a window about a third as wide as the landscape frame and scales it to 1080×1920, so each shot needs its subject inside that window. On the scene board, the 9:16 preview gives every shot a crop handle: drag it, or use the arrow keys, to follow the character who speaks. Burned-in subtitles sit above the bottom band where the apps draw their captions and buttons, and the trial watermark moves to the top right corner, just under the apps’ header row, where their interface does not cover it.

Subtitle files or burned-in subtitles

Subtitle files keep the picture clean and let viewers pick a language; burned-in subtitles are always visible, which suits feeds where a viewer may be watching without sound. Animey builds cues of at most two lines of about 42 characters, keeps each on screen for one to seven seconds, holds fast speech long enough to be read, and handles right-to-left Arabic and the line breaks of Chinese and Japanese. Burn-in comes in three styles: clean, with a soft shadow; box, on a dark band; and outline, with a dark edge.

Starting from scratch? The one-afternoon guide covers every step before the render, and shots, cameras and pacing shows how to frame for both formats.