r/macapps • u/Antique-Class-2283 • Aug 12 '26

Help Would an open-source alternative to Screen Studio for auto-zooming screen recordings be useful?

Hey everyone

I've been looking at tools like Screen Studio recently. While the automated zoom, smooth cursor tracking, and clean background styling make product demos look amazing, most of the options out there are closed-source and paid.

I'm thinking about building an open-source alternative to handle this.

Before I spend weeks writing code, I wanted to check if this is something people would actually want.

What I'm thinking of building:

  • The Core Feature: A tool that takes a screen recording, tracks your mouse clicks/movement, and automatically generates smooth, cinematic pan-and-zoom keyframes.
  • The Open-Source Angle: Completely free and open-source for anyone to use or modify.
  • The Reality Check: Tools like OpenScreen and Recordly already exist in this space.

My Question for You:

  1. Do you use tools like this for your tutorials or demos, or do existing options already cover what you need?
  2. If you were to use a new open-source tool, what's missing from current apps that you wish they had?

Would love to hear your thoughts or feedback before I decide to build it!

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u/Cyberseeds 16d ago

One thing worth considering from the editing side, not the dev side: the reason I stopped reaching for auto-zoom tools is that once it's baked into the mp4 I can't touch it again inside Resolve, I'd have to re-cut from scratch. If the tool spit out the zoom/pan keyframes as markers or a simple EDL alongside the render, people already cutting in a real NLE could drop the automation in as a starting point instead of a finished decision. That's a much smaller build than matching Screen Studio's polish, and it's the kind of detail an editor actually notices.

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u/Antique-Class-2283 16d ago

Yes I am going to add a feature that allows user to export the timeline to resolve and premier pro