Open Paraplex

Screen recordings

Record a product demo, a walkthrough or a quick how-to, and Paraplex brings it in ready to edit: the recording on a card with rounded corners and a shadow, zoomed in where things happen. Every zoom is a keyframe, so you can move it, change it or delete it.

Record your screen

  1. Open Menu › Record screen….
  2. Choose how close the zooms go: None, Gentle, Medium or Close.
  3. Tick Record the sound of a tab or screen if you want its sound.
  4. Click Choose what to record, then pick a screen, a window or a tab in your browser's window.
  5. Do what you want to show. A Recording pill at the top of the editor counts the time.
  6. Click Stop in the pill, or Stop sharing in your browser. Recording also stops at five minutes, the longest a piece can be.

The recording comes in as a group named after it, with the video inside. In an empty scene the camera faces it straight on, over a soft moving gradient. In a scene with other layers it starts at the playhead, and the timeline grows to fit it.

Paraplex zooms in where the picture changes: a menu opening, a dialog appearing, text being typed. A change that fills most of the screen, such as a new page loading, ends a zoom rather than starting one.

Tip

Your system pointer is part of the recording. To have Paraplex draw a smooth cursor instead, use the Paraplex Recorder below.

Record a web app with the Paraplex Recorder

The Paraplex Recorder is a Chrome extension that records a tab together with your clicks and where you type. In Paraplex you get:

  • a drawn cursor that glides along your path and dips when you click
  • a zoom on each click and on each field you type in, instead of on whatever changed

It records where you typed, never what you typed. Of the page it keeps only the tab's title, to name the recording, and everything stays on your computer until you open it in Paraplex.

  1. Add the Paraplex Recorder to Chrome from the Chrome Web Store, then open the web app you want to show.
  2. Click the Paraplex Recorder button in Chrome's toolbar, then Record this tab. Chrome may ask to let it read the site, so it can follow you from page to page.
  3. Do what you want to show.
  4. Stop from the button, with Alt+Shift+R, or by closing the tab.
  5. On the page that opens, click Open in Paraplex. Or click Save file to keep the recording and drop it on the canvas later.

Edit the zooms and the cursor

Select the recording's group. Its zooms are keyframes on the group's Scale and Position:

  • Drag a keyframe on the timeline to zoom in earlier or later.
  • Change a zoomed Scale to zoom closer or wider.
  • Delete a pair of keyframes to remove that zoom.

The drawn cursor is a layer of its own, Cursor, inside the group. Change its style or size like any cursor. See UI overlays and cursors.

Things to know

  • A recording is stored in your project like any video, so a long, sharp recording makes a large project.
  • Zooms in a screen recording follow what changes on screen. A clock or an animation in the corner can draw a zoom you don't want; delete its keyframes.
  • A recording plays along the timeline like any video; see Images and video.