Studio Mode opens on-stage camera controls over the live stage to take high-quality PNG photos and record MP4 videos (with H.264/AAC or HEVC/AAC encoding) up to 8K resolution. Studio exports rendered media files, independent of motion recording, which captures raw animation keyframe curves.
Open Studio from Stage → Window → Mode (using the Edit / Stream / Studio segmented control) or the Stage row's ellipsis menu in the Layers list. The Stage row's icon reflects the active mode, and clicking the Studio camera icon brings the window forward.
Entering Studio automatically exits Stream Mode. Switching back to Edit or Stream mode cancels any pending capture or finalizes the active recording, then closes the Studio interface. While Studio is open, scene, camera, lighting, and tracking settings remain fully editable in the control window.
Live Framing and Interaction
While Studio is idle and unobstructed by settings popovers, the preview area renders the live stage directly rather than a low-framerate screen grab:
- Layers support interactive dragging, mouse-wheel scaling, and rotation.
- 3D gizmos, anchor picking, and drag-and-drop file imports work identically to Edit mode.
- Clicking the stage to focus it allows pressing Space to trigger the shutter or toggle recording.
All alignment guides, bounding boxes, and transform gizmos display normally until capture begins. When triggered, the output is kept clean: window chrome, the Inspector overlay, and the FPS Counter are automatically excluded from the captured frame (the on-stage FPS counter is suppressed in Studio Mode, and its setting in the control window is disabled with a hint to return to Edit). During capture, the preview area locks interaction, while the control window, Undo, and Redo remain active for scene adjustments.
Photos and Video
The shutter button features a toggle between Photo and Video. Clicking the gear icon opens camera settings to configure aspect ratios, output resolutions, countdown timers, video framerates, codecs, and audio inputs. The mode selection, Camera Settings options, and canvas size persist in settings.studio, reopening Studio as it was left across app relaunches.
| Control | Options / Range | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Mode | Photo · Video | Switches between capturing still images and recording video |
| Aspect Ratio | 16:9 · 9:16 · 4:3 · 3:4 · 1:1 | Preset canvas aspect ratios, retaining the longest edge |
| Output Resolution | Canvas Size · 720p · 1080p · 2K · 4K · 8K | Sets the exported physical pixel dimensions, independent of display resolution |
| Countdown | Off · 3s · 5s · 10s | Delays capture after shutter press to allow preparation |
| Framerate | 30 FPS · 60 FPS (Default) · 120 FPS | Video only: the stage records frame by frame on its own clock at the chosen rate, producing a constant-framerate file regardless of display refresh rate (such as 144 Hz or 165 Hz). Available rates are capped by display refresh rate (rates above refresh unavailable, with 5% tolerance); saved 120 FPS records at fastest rate below refresh until moved to a faster display. Completed MP4 fragment tables calculate achieved framerate and warn if >10% under target |
| Video Format | H.264/AAC · HEVC/AAC | Video only: supports H.264 and HEVC hardware encoding; hardware H.264 is capped at 4K (4096×2304 / 3840×2160), so 8K records as HEVC. If neither is supported, video capture is disabled (photos remain available) |
| Stage Audio | Toggle | Video only: includes inventory audio, model sound effects, and video layers |
| Microphone | Toggle | Video only: mixes the system default microphone input into the recording |
Captured photos and videos are saved automatically to ~/.laplace/persona/captures/ with timestamped filenames. After saving, the camera remains active, and clicking the recent take thumbnail in the bottom-left corner opens a review drawer offering "Save a Copy…" and a quick action to reveal the file in the system file manager.
Taking a photo plays a camera shutter sound, and starting and stopping a recording each play a cue. Cues play through the system default output device, unaffected by the Audio Output Device setting; the start cue finishes before the microphone opens and the stop cue plays only after recording completes, so neither is captured in the video.
PNG exports automatically embed LAPLACE Persona <version> in their Software metadata. Saving a copy preserves this metadata.
While recording, the shutter button displays the elapsed recording duration. Clicking the shutter or pressing Space stops and finalizes the recording. Pressing Esc dismisses open settings drawers or review panels without exiting Studio Mode; click the close button or switch modes to exit.
Resolution and Canvas Size
Output resolution defaults to Canvas Size. In Studio Mode, the Stage section's window sizing controls switch to Canvas Size: selecting 1920 × 1080 exports exactly 1920 × 1080 pixels without altering the host window's physical dimensions.
Selecting 720p, 1080p, 2K, 4K, or 8K scales the longest edge to 1280, 1920, 2560, 3840, or 7680 physical pixels while maintaining the current canvas aspect ratio:
- A 1920 × 1080 composition with 4K selected exports at 3840 × 2160 pixels.
- Full 4K and 8K renderings can be exported on a standard 1080p display.
- Custom aspect ratios are automatically clamped to even pixel dimensions for video encoding compliance.
During capture, the rendering worker automatically samples at full resolution even if a lower Render Scale is selected in settings. Note that supersampling does not synthesize detail for lower-resolution source images, videos, model textures, or web-object surfaces.
Resizing Studio's native window edges resizes only the camera workspace; the entire canvas fits inside the preview area without changing the exported canvas resolution. Studio requires a minimum workspace of 320 × 420 pixels. If the stage is smaller upon entering Studio, the window temporarily expands to fit the controls, and restores original dimensions upon exit unless manually resized; user resizes persist.
Channels and Audio
- Watermark: Every photo and video carries a permanent watermark — the white mono logo and "LAPLACE Persona" wordmark in the bottom-left corner. Studio's preview shows it where it will land. It sizes in
vminunits so framing remains consistent across resolutions, stays above scene transitions, and allows clicks to pass through to the stage. Because video is opaque, it renders solid white over transparent areas. - Alpha Transparency: PNG exports preserve full alpha transparency. Video recordings are currently opaque, rendering transparent scene areas as solid black.
- Layer Compositing: Scene backgrounds, WebGPU 3D stage graphics, and DOM web layers composite together into the final capture.
- Stage Audio: Includes inventory audio, Live2D speech/motion sounds, and video object tracks. Web layers run in isolated sandbox processes and their audio is excluded; system audio is also omitted.
- Microphone Mixing: Enabling the Microphone option requests system recording permissions upon capture start and mixes voice audio into the video track. The preview remains muted to prevent feedback loops.
Last updated on October 21, 2026