Add an effect
Move the playhead to where the effect should start, then open Add Effects in the bar above the timeline. Choose one of three:
| Effect | Place it | Default length |
|---|---|---|
| Mask | Drag a rectangle on the preview | 10 seconds |
| Smart Annotation | Drag on the preview to draw the oval | 3 seconds |
| Tap Tap | A hand follows your pointer; click to drop it | 0.9 seconds |
The effect starts at the playhead and appears on the Effects row, selected, with its settings in the inspector. Press Esc before you draw to change your mind.
Mask
A mask blurs a rectangle of the recording: a customer name, an email address, an API key. It is anchored to the screen content, so it follows that content when the view zooms in.
With the mask selected and the playhead inside its span, drag inside the rectangle to move it, or drag any of its eight handles to resize it. The blur is applied as the video renders on your Mac, so the exported file holds only the blurred version. Masks stay in Export for AI too.
Smart Annotation
A Smart Annotation draws a hand-drawn oval around something. It fades in, holds, and fades out over its last half second.
You can also make one while you record. Circle the pointer around the thing you mean twice, without clicking, within about three seconds. When the recording opens in the editor, the oval is already there, and a zoom lands on it the same way a zoom lands on a click.
Select an annotation and drag the oval in the preview to move or resize it. When Kirocast knows what the oval circles, the inspector names it under Circles. In Talk mode, the same circle becomes an annotation in the files your agent reads.
Tap Tap
Tap Tap shows a cartoon hand that taps a spot twice, then disappears. Use it to say “press here” on a small control, or anywhere a click ring is too quiet.
It has a gesture too. While recording, sweep the pointer quickly left and right over the spot twice, there and back, there and back, without clicking. The hand is waiting there in the editor, with a zoom onto it.
Drag the hand in the preview to move it, and use Size in the inspector to scale it. Stretching it on the timeline slows the two taps down.
Timing and removal
- Retime: drag either edge of the block on the Effects row. It snaps to the ends of the video and to the edges of zooms and other effects; hold ⌥ to place it freely.
- Move: drag the block itself. Its length stays the same.
- Nudge: right-click the block for Shorten 0.25s and Extend 0.25s.
- Remove: press ⌫ with the block selected, choose Delete from its right-click menu, or use Remove Mask, Remove Annotation or Remove Tap Tap in the inspector.
Effects that overlap stack on separate lines of the row, so each one stays visible. ⌘Z undoes each change.
Click animations
Every click gets a thin ring that expands from the pointer and fades in about half a second. Turn them on or off with Click animations in the inspector’s Effects tab, and pick a Click colour there. See Cursor.