Timelapse Length Calculator
How long will your speedpaint be? Enter how long you drew and pick a speed. Or choose the video length you want, and the calculator tells you how fast to play it. It works for any recording method.
Formula: video length = drawing time ÷ speed. Idle time counts too, unless your recorder skips it.
How timelapse length works.
A timelapse plays your drawing faster than real time. The speed tells you how much faster. So the math is simple:
Video length = drawing time ÷ speed. Example: 2 hours (120 minutes) at 60× = 2 minutes of video.
To go the other way, divide the drawing time by the length you want. Example: you drew for 5 hours (300 minutes) and want a 1-minute video. 300 ÷ 1 = 300×.
Quick reference table.
Video length for common drawing times and speeds:
| Drawing time | 30× | 60× | 100× | 300× |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 minutes | 1 min | 30 s | 18 s | 6 s |
| 1 hour | 2 min | 1 min | 36 s | 12 s |
| 3 hours | 6 min | 3 min | 1 min 48 s | 36 s |
| 5 hours | 10 min | 5 min | 3 min | 1 min |
| 10 hours | 20 min | 10 min | 6 min | 2 min |
How long should a speedpaint be?
There is no single right answer, but these ranges work well for most art videos:
- ✓15–60 seconds for short vertical clips. People scroll fast, so show the most interesting part.
- ✓1–3 minutes for a full process that still feels quick.
- ✓5–15 minutes for YouTube videos where viewers want to follow each step, often with voice-over or music.
Each platform sets its own maximum length, and those limits change often. Check the current limit in the app before you export. For more tips, read how to share a Photoshop speedpaint on social media.
Tip: remove idle time first.
If you took a break and left the recording running, that break is in your video too. A 3-hour session with 30 minutes of breaks is really 2.5 hours of drawing. At 60× that is 30 seconds less video, and 30 seconds of a frozen screen your viewers do not need to see.
PixelRec Pro skips idle and duplicate frames while it records Photoshop, and you choose the speed when you export (2× to 100×). For very long sessions, export at 100× and speed the clip up again in a video app if you need an even shorter video. See also the best Photoshop timelapse settings.
Timelapse length questions.
We make Photoshop plugins for comic and illustration artists: Flatte for flatting and PixelRec Pro for timelapse recording. We write these guides from our own work in Photoshop.
Get a Clean Timelapse
Every Session.
PixelRec Pro records your Photoshop process automatically, skips idle frames, and exports a finished MP4 timelapse at the speed you choose.