screenstudio-export

Export Screen Studio .screenstudio projects to MP4 — free, no app, no subscription. Reproduces zooms, the animated cursor, webcam bubble, cuts, and backgrounds with Python + ffmpeg.

Screen Studio stores recordings as proprietary .screenstudio bundles that only export through a paid subscription. screenstudio-export reads that bundle and renders a finished MP4 with Python and ffmpeg — reproducing zooms, the animated cursor, webcam bubble, cuts, and backgrounds — with no app and no subscription.

Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Screen Studio. .screenstudio is a file format produced by the Screen Studio app; this project reads it for interoperability, on your own recordings, on your own machine. If you value the app's one-click polish and ongoing development, support the developer.

The free workflow

1. Download Screen Studio (free to download — recording, editing, and saving projects all work without a plan; only export is subscription-gated).
2. Record your video, add zooms/cuts as usual, and save the project (a .screenstudio bundle).
3. Point this tool at the bundle → finished MP4.

If all you need is the MP4 out of projects you already recorded, that's the whole subscription — US $108/year, or ~$20 for a single month — saved (pricing as of July 2026).

What is a .screenstudio file?

A .screenstudio file is a macOS package (a directory) containing everything Screen Studio captured, unencrypted, on your disk: the raw screen recording (HLS/fMP4 segments), microphone + noise-reduced voice tracks, the webcam recording, full mouse telemetry (positions, clicks, cursor shapes + sprite images), and a project.json describing every edit — zoom ranges, cuts, background, webcam bubble, shadows. See docs/format.md for the full layout. Because all of that is plain data, a renderer can reproduce the export outside the app.

How to export a Screen Studio project without a subscription

git clone https://github.com/vignesh-sabhahit/screenstudio-export
cd screenstudio-export
# requirements: python3 + pillow, ffmpeg 8+  (brew install ffmpeg; pip3 install pillow)

# 1. inspect the bundle (channels, effects, warnings)
python3 scripts/inspect_bundle.py ~/Recordings/MyDemo.screenstudio

# 2. prepare the render (assets, filtergraphs, runnable steps)
python3 scripts/prepare_render.py --bundle ~/Recordings/MyDemo.screenstudio --work ./work

# 3. build the animated cursor layer (optional but recommended)
python3 scripts/cursor_layer.py --bundle ~/Recordings/MyDemo.screenstudio --work ./work

# 4. render → final mp4
zsh work/render_preview.sh    # 9-second preview — check it first
zsh work/render_full.sh && zsh work/audio_build.sh && zsh work/mux.sh

Just want the raw recording with zero effects? One stream-copy, done in seconds:

ffmpeg -i MyDemo.screenstudio/recording/channel-2-display-0.m3u8 \
       -i MyDemo.screenstudio/recording/channel-3-microphone-0.m4a \
       -map 0:v:0 -map 1:a:0 -c copy raw.mp4

What it reproduces

Effect	Status
Cuts / trims (slices)	✅ exact
Click-following zooms (zoomRanges)	✅ targets from your real click data; smoothstep easing (≈ the app's spring)
Animated cursor	✅ rendered from mouse telemetry + the bundle's own cursor sprites, hotspot-accurate
Click ripples	✅ expanding-ring on every click
Webcam bubble	✅ size / corner / roundness from project config
Rounded corners + shadow	✅ from project config
Background	✅ project gradient/color — or bring your own frame image (--frame photo.jpg)
Audio	✅ mic or Screen Studio's noise-reduced track, optional cleanup EQ
Motion blur, spring-exact easing, captions	❌ approximated or skipped — honest gap list

Use cases

• Subscription lapsed, old projects stuck — export the recordings you already made without re-subscribing.
• Trial user — you recorded and edited for free; render the result to MP4.
• One-off video — don't pay $108/year for a single export.
• Legacy lifetime-license holder — the $229 one-time license was discontinued (Sept 2025); keep rendering your library regardless of plan status.
• Raw footage for a real NLE — extract untouched screen/webcam recordings for Premiere, Resolve, or Final Cut.
• Voice-only extraction — pull just the noise-reduced narration track.
• Export failed / app crash recovery — render the bundle even when the app's exporter won't.
• Batch / headless / CI rendering — script it; render a folder of projects unattended, no GUI, no app installed.
• Custom looks — backgrounds and aspect ratios the app doesn't offer (any image as your frame).
• Archival — get the source media out before deleting projects.

User variables

Option	Default	Meaning
--frame IMG	project gradient	your own background/frame image (cover-cropped)
--frame-blur	2.0	background blur σ (0 = crisp, 8 = heavy)
--screen-frac	0.78	recording size within the canvas (smaller = more background)
--out-width	1920	output width; height follows source aspect
--audio	auto	enhanced (noise-reduced) → mic fallback; mic+system
--audio-cleanup	loudnorm	none / loudnorm / voice (de-boom EQ for untreated rooms)
--zooms, --cursor, --webcam	on/auto	toggle each effect
--crf, --preset	18, slow	x264 quality

Use as a Claude Code skill

This repo doubles as a Claude Code skill that runs the whole pipeline conversationally (inspect → preview → render → verify):

git clone https://github.com/vignesh-sabhahit/screenstudio-export \
  ~/.claude/skills/screenstudio-export

Then in Claude Code: "export ~/Recordings/MyDemo.screenstudio to mp4, use sunset.jpg as the frame".

FAQ

Can I export a Screen Studio project without paying? Yes. This tool renders the .screenstudio bundle to MP4 without the app or a subscription. Recording and editing in the app are free; only its export step is paywalled.

Can I open a .screenstudio file without the app? Yes — it's a plain macOS package. ls it, read project.json, play the .m3u8 streams with ffmpeg/VLC, or render the whole project with this tool.

I let my subscription lapse — how do I get my old recordings out? This is the exact case this tool was built for. Your bundles still contain everything; render them here.

Does it reproduce the zoom and the smooth cursor? Yes — zoom targets come from your actual recorded clicks, and the cursor is re-rendered from the bundle's mouse telemetry and cursor sprites (hotspot-accurate, with click ripples).

Does it work without the Screen Studio app installed? Yes. Python 3 + Pillow + ffmpeg only. The app is only needed to record new material.

Is this cracking / piracy / watermark removal? No. Nothing is patched, no DRM is circumvented, no license check is bypassed. The bundle is unencrypted data on your own disk, produced from your own recordings; this renders it, like any tool reading a documented file format. There is no watermark involved — the app simply gates export.

Is this affiliated with Screen Studio? No. Independent open-source interoperability project.

Fidelity gaps

Honesty over hype — versus the app's export:

• Zoom easing is smoothstep, an approximation of the app's proprietary damped-spring curve (close; no overshoot).
• Cursor smoothing is lerp + EMA, not the app's spring; the click ripple is a generic expanding ring.
• No motion blur on zoom/pan. No captions (the transcript isn't stored in the bundle). Slice speed-ramps (timeScale ≠ 1) unsupported.
• macOS system-wallpaper backgrounds aren't shipped inside bundles — substitute any image via --frame.

Requirements

macOS (bundles are produced on macOS; rendering runs anywhere Python + ffmpeg do), Python 3.10+, Pillow, ffmpeg 8+.

License

MIT. .screenstudio format knowledge documented in docs/format.md was derived by inspecting the author's own recordings.