A small 540x960 draft of a Short for quick feedback: output size

Set output.width to 540 and output.height to 960 on a Timeline 1.0 render to get a half-size 9:16 draft. Both must be even integers from 256 to 2160, and the default output is 1080x1920. The docs state the price as $0.10 per ceil(output minute) and give no size surcharge, so a draft costs the same as the final.

Why a draft at all

A smaller file is quicker to download and share with a collaborator. The final render should still go out at the default size, since a draft is a review copy.

The body

Only the output object changes. Everything else is the same body as the final.

{
  "audio": { "url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_demo/ep4.wav",
             "duration_seconds": 45 },
  "video": [
    { "source_url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_demo/ep4.mp4",
      "start": 0, "duration": 45 }
  ],
  "output": { "width": 540, "height": 960 }
}

The rules from the Timeline 1.0 docs that apply here:

Draft feedback is in Studio

YouTube says Studio feedback on pacing, structure and storytelling is part of the Made on YouTube 2026 tools (YouTube Blog). To use it you work with a video in Studio, so the draft has to be uploaded there; this post does not claim that Studio reads files from Sume. Check Studio's own page for the draft path.

When to skip it

Because the price is the same, render the draft only when the file size helps you. For a final, leave the size at the default 1080x1920 so the upload keeps the detail.