Scenes and takes

#Takes

A take is one demo: "Aurora onboarding", "Create an invoice", "Google OAuth review". It holds everything DemoTake needs to rebuild the video: the goal, the scenes, every recorded attempt, the trace of clicks, typing and waits, the pointer track, checkpoints, assertions, your edits and your exports.

That is why DemoTake can change a video long after you recorded it. The recording itself is never modified. Edits and exports are computed from the take.

#Scenes

A scene is a story beat bounded by stable states: it starts on a known screen and ends on another. "Sign in" ends on the dashboard. "Create a project" ends with the new project in the list.

Scenes matter for two reasons:

• They are the unit of retry. If scene 3 goes wrong, you retake scene 3. Scenes 1, 2 and 4 keep their footage and edits. Times inside a scene are measured from the start of that scene, so replacing it never shifts anything in the others.
• They carry intent. Each scene has a title and an intent, a sentence about what it should show ("Sign in with the demo account"). DemoTake uses intents to decide where the camera zooms and what captions say, and agents use them to know what to do.

#Plan a take in the New Take sheet

Choose File › New Take… (⌘N). For a review recording, File › New Reviewer Take… (⇧⌘N) opens the same sheet with the Reviewer purpose selected.

If you leave Scenes empty, DemoTake plans them from the goal when you click Create Take. With DemoTake AI or your own AI provider key set up, it plans them with AI. You can always rename, add, remove and reorder scenes later.

#Purposes

Reviewer and DemoTest takes always render without automatic zoom. See Reviewer Packs and Demo specs and CI.

#Platform review

A Reviewer take can be set up for a specific app review. The Platform review section of the sheet has:

• Review for: None, TikTok, Meta App Review, Google OAuth or Apple Review.
• App URL: the website you declared in the review form. The video has to show this domain.
• Scopes: the permissions your app asks for, separated by commas. Each one needs a scene that shows it.

With a platform chosen, DemoTake captions every scene with its description after recording, and Reviewer Mode checks the take against that platform before you upload. A TikTok review take also exports upload-friendly files under 45 MB by default, below TikTok's 50 MB limit. For a full walkthrough, see Platform review videos.

#Rehearse before you record

A rehearsal is a live dry run: you walk through the scenes with a live preview, and nothing is recorded. Press Rehearse (⌘R) on the take's recording screen, click through the flow, then press Finish Rehearsal (⌘R again). It is the cheapest way to find the cookie banner or slow screen you forgot about. Rehearsed scenes show an estimated length in the scene strip.

Agents rehearse with take_rehearse and note what they learned with take_rehearse_finish.

#When your agent hands a step to you

Some steps are yours, not your agent's: signing in, or pressing Allow on a consent screen. When an agent hands such a step to you, recording pauses (or, if the agent asked, keeps going with the whole frame blurred). The Record screen shows a banner, and a small panel floats on top of your other windows so you see it while you work in the app. It says:

• whose turn it is (Your turn) and that recording is paused, with how long it has waited, like "Waiting 0:26",
• what to do, in the agent's words. The text is selectable, and right-click offers Copy Instructions,
• what resumes it, for example: Resumes when you press Resume or "Dashboard" appears (up to 10:00).

Do the step, then press Resume (Return). If the agent named some text, recording also resumes by itself when that text appears in the window. While paused, the menu bar shows a pause symbol instead of the red dot. Paused time isn't recorded, so take your time.

Reviewer Packs list who acted in each step: your agent, an automation or a person.

#Projects

A project groups takes, usually one per product. Create one with New Project in the Projects view. A project also keeps Correction Memory: rules learned from your edits, like "Don't zoom when opening Settings", that apply to every new take in it. Link a Git repository in Project Settings and DemoTake adds the current commit to Verified Take Manifests.

#The .take package

Every take is a folder package with the .take extension:

Aurora Onboarding.take/
  take.json          goal, scenes, trace, assertions, edits
  media/             one video file per recorded scene attempt
  tracks/            pointer tracks
  snapshots/         checkpoint images
  exports/           rendered videos, GIFs and guides

Takes live in your library at ~/Movies/DemoTake. Settings › General › Library shows the location with Show in Finder, and a take's menu in the library has Show in Finder, Copy Take Path and Duplicate.

Packages are portable. Copy one to another Mac, share it with AirDrop or keep it in your repo. Agents can zip a take with take_export_package and bring one in with take_import_package, and DemoTake Web can Import .take into your cloud library.

#Next

• Retakes and checkpoints
• Choosing a window
• Record your first take