Feature request: be able to record the movement of the camera bubble around.

[jill88]

When recording, often I move the camera bubble around to get out of the way when I am doing something. Loom, records this movement in the final video. I would like Cap to be able record these in the final video. In the final video for Cap, the bubble just stays in the pre-chosen location for it like in the corner.

[linear]

CAP-659

[tembo]

This would be a nice feature. Looking at the codebase, I can share some relevant context for whoever works on this:

Current Architecture

The camera position is currently defined using discrete enum positions rather than free-form coordinates. In crates/project/src/configuration.rs, the CameraPosition struct (lines 284-289) uses CameraXPosition (Left/Center/Right) and CameraYPosition (Top/Bottom) enums. This means the position is set once and remains static throughout the video.

Potential Implementation Approach

The codebase already has a keyframe system for masks that could serve as a pattern. The MaskKeyframes struct (lines 648-657 in configuration.rs) supports time-based MaskVectorKeyframe entries with time, x, and y fields. A similar approach could work for camera position:

1. Add a CameraKeyframes or CameraPositionSegments structure to track position changes over time
2. Capture bubble position changes during recording (timestamp + normalized x/y coordinates)
3. Interpolate positions in the rendering layer similar to how zoom and mask animations are handled

Key Files

• crates/project/src/configuration.rs - The Camera struct and position types would need updating
• crates/rendering/src/layers/camera.rs - Renders the camera layer; would need to accept time-varying position data
• The desktop app's recording flow would need to emit camera position change events with timestamps

The existing spring animation system in crates/rendering/src/spring_mass_damper.rs could potentially be used to smooth position transitions during playback.

[richiemcilroy]

Hey @jill88, if you use Instant Mode, it'll do the exact same. With Instant Mode, the camera is captured directly in the recording you capture :)

Studio Mode is for editing later, and longer, more refined recordings

[jill88]

Nice, thank you.