Choose the photos
Start with the photos you already have. Many listings carry 10 to 25 of them, and a video does not need all of them. Pick the strongest exterior, the main living space, the kitchen, the main bedroom, a bathroom and one or two details a buyer will remember.
Skip near-duplicates. Two angles of the same sofa read as a stall, not as a second room. Skip any photo that is crooked, dark or shot through a window with the blinds half open.
Check the count before you go further. Scenella tours use 5, 10 or 15 photos. If you only have 3 or 4 good ones, you can still make a tour, but the scenes run longer, so more photos always help. If you edit by hand, 8 to 12 is a comfortable range.
Put them in walking order
Order the photos the way a buyer would walk the home. A video that jumps between floors, or from the kitchen back to the front door, feels like a slideshow. A video that moves in one direction feels like a visit.
- Arrive The front exterior or the street view. Show the home the way a buyer first sees it.
- Enter The entry, then the main living space.
- Live The kitchen and dining area, then the bedrooms and bathrooms.
- Leave The garden, terrace or a view, then the exterior again to close.
Keep each room together. If the kitchen has three photos, they go one after another. Within a room, start wide and finish on the detail.
Decide how long it runs
Short wins on social feeds. Aim for 20 to 45 seconds for Reels, TikTok and Shorts, and up to about a minute on the listing page, where the viewer chose to watch.
Do the arithmetic before you start: about 3 seconds per photo. Ten photos make a tour of about 30 seconds. Fifteen photos land near 45 seconds. Five photos make a quick teaser. If the video runs long, cut photos, not speed.
Make the video
This is the step where a still becomes motion. The rule is the same with any tool: one slow, steady camera move per photo, no jumps, no effects that change the room.
By hand, in any video editor. Put the photos on the timeline in walking order and give each one about 3 seconds. Add a slow push toward the room on each photo and keep the same speed for all of them. Cut on the beat if you add music. Export when it plays smoothly from start to end.
With Scenella. Create an account and add the photos. Each photo becomes a short camera move, the rooms are put in walking order and the scenes are paced into one tour. You see every photo before anything renders, and walls, windows and square footage never change. The video comes back in 16:9 and 9:16 from one render. Start with the 7-day free trial. Read more about making a video from photos.
Scenella is billed per listing, not per format. These are the plans:
Export both formats
Make two files from the same photos.
- 16:9, landscape. For the listing page, an email to the seller, YouTube and anywhere a video plays in a wide window.
- 9:16, vertical. For Instagram Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts, where the video fills a phone screen.
In the vertical version, keep captions and logos away from the bottom edge, where the apps put their own buttons. Add captions in both: most people watch without sound.
Scenella exports both from one render. If you edit by hand, set up two sequences and reframe the second one, because cropping the landscape file loses the sides of every room.
Label it honestly
Tell viewers what they are watching. A video made by moving a virtual camera through photos is not footage of the home, and buyers should know.
- Label every edited or animated photo and video. Scenella uses "AI-enhanced", or "Virtually staged" on a staged room, never both.
- A video with virtually staged rooms carries "Virtually staged" instead. Use one label, not both.
- Keep the original photos. They are your record of the home as it is.
- Do not change structure. Walls, windows, floors and square footage stay as photographed, and defects stay visible.
Scenella adds its label to every video it makes and keeps the originals archived. If you edit by hand, add a clear label yourself.
Post it where buyers look
Put the video where the listing already lives, then where buyers scroll.
- The listing page and your own site, in 16:9.
- The MLS or portal entry. Many portals take a YouTube or Vimeo link instead of a file. Check each portal's video rules before you upload, since limits on length, size and format differ.
- Instagram Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts, in 9:16, with a caption that names the neighborhood and the price.
- The seller. Send the video the same day, so they see the listing working for them.
Post it again as a short clip when the price changes or an open house is coming. One video can carry a listing from launch to close if you cut it into pieces.