How to Make a Product Hunt Launch Video on a Mac

A good Product Hunt launch video is short (aim for roughly 60 to 90 seconds), shows the product working in the first few seconds, and still makes sense with the sound off. Record the demo as a few tight segments and add a large text label for each step. Then export three versions from the same project: a 16:9 MP4 for the launch page, a short looping GIF for the gallery, and a square or vertical cut for X and LinkedIn.

What a Product Hunt launch video needs to do

On launch day, people scan your Product Hunt page quickly. The video has one job: show a visitor what the product does and make them want to try it before they scroll on.

That breaks down into a few concrete requirements:

• Show the product in the first seconds. Skip logo intros and long hellos.
• One problem, one solution. A launch video for a startup is not a feature tour. Pick the two or three moments that make someone say "I need that."
• Readable at small sizes. People watch in a gallery frame, a feed or a small embed. UI text that looks fine at full screen is unreadable there, so zoom in on what matters.
• Understandable on mute. Feed videos often autoplay muted, and GIFs have no sound at all. Every step needs a text label.
• Clean. No notifications, no personal tabs, no real customer data.

Screen Bolt exports local files and has no upload or share links. If the launch form asks for a video link, upload the MP4 to a host such as YouTube yourself. Product Hunt's form can change, so check which video hosts and which gallery image formats and sizes it accepts before you export.

Structure: hook, problem, demo, CTA

Write the script before you open any recorder. This four-part structure works for most launches:

Three rules keep it tight:

• Lead with the outcome. Showing a finished dashboard next to the line "Turn a CSV into a dashboard in 10 seconds" beats any feature list.
• One idea per text label, five to eight words each.
• Cut setup steps. Nobody needs to watch you log in or wait for a page to load.

If you're narrating, read from a script so you don't ramble. Screen Bolt's teleprompter (Script in the recording bar, or ⇧⌘T, Shift-Command-T) floats over your screen and isn't captured in the recording. It highlights cue markers such as [PAUSE] and [EMPHASIS] in your script, starts scrolling when the recording starts and pauses when you pause. For a ready-made structure, use our product demo video script template. For delivery tips, see how to read a script while recording a video.

Pick your tools

You can make a launch video with only what ships on your Mac. Press ⇧⌘5 (Shift-Command-5) to open the Screenshot toolbar and record the screen. Then cut and assemble the clips in a general video editor such as iMovie, which is free from Apple. As of November 2026, the current US Mac App Store listing for iMovie needs macOS 26.6 or later. This route works if your video is mostly talking-head footage with a couple of full-screen shots.

A dedicated recorder helps when the demo is the video. Screen Bolt (the app we make) does the following in one editor:

• Turns your clicks into zoom regions automatically.
• Redraws a smoothed, larger cursor.
• Puts the recording on a background.
• Adds text, click sounds and a webcam.
• Exports the GIF and the vertical version from the same project.

Recordings are processed locally and never uploaded.

• Use the built-in tools if you already know a video editor and your demo is simple enough to show without zooms.
• Use Screen Bolt if your demo has small UI or lots of clicks, or you want the video, GIF and social cuts without rebuilding each one.

Record the demo segments

Prepare your Mac first:

• Turn on Do Not Disturb from Control Center so no notifications appear.
• Close unrelated apps and tabs.
• Use a demo account filled with realistic sample data.

Our checklist for preparing your Mac covers the rest.

Then record in Screen Bolt:

1. In the recording bar, choose a source. Window records just your app or browser window. Area lets you drag a rectangle around the part of the screen you'll use.
2. Confirm with Record Window or Record Area (or press Return). This selects the source. It doesn't start recording yet.
3. If you're narrating, open the Mic menu and pick your microphone. If you want your face in the video, open the Camera menu and pick a camera.
4. Click the red record button.
5. Perform the first segment. Click deliberately, because your clicks become zoom regions. Clicks close together in time and position are merged into one zoom.
6. Click Pause in the recording bar, reset the app to the starting state for the next segment, then click Resume.
7. Repeat for each segment, then click Stop. With the default settings, the editor opens with zooms already created. There's a reason to pause instead of making separate recordings. Screen Bolt removes the pause gaps and keeps the screen, cameras and cursor data in sync, so auto zoom and cursor effects work across every segment in one project. Discard and restart in the bar deletes the whole take, including segments you already recorded, and returns you to setup. Use it early rather than at the end of a long take.

Window mode records that window on its own, even if something covers it. That's handy when you need other windows open while you demo.

Settings that matter for a launch:

• Recording size. The export sheet disables quality presets larger than your recording. Screen Bolt captures at twice the size in points. On a Retina display, an area of about 960×540 points gives a 1920×1080 recording. A very small area can rule out 1080p.

• Frame rate. Recording uses Settings (⌘,, Command-comma) ▸ Quick export ▸ Frame rate: 30 or 60 FPS, default 60. Keep 60 for smooth cursor movement.

• Webcam intro. You can open with your face filling the frame:

  1. In the editor, mark the hook with an In point (I) and an Out point (O).
  2. In the Webcam panel (⌘3), use Fullscreen Moments ▸ Add from Marked Range.

  The camera takes over the whole canvas for that range and returns to its corner afterward.

Tighten the edit

Most launch videos get better by getting shorter.

1. Set an In point (I) and an Out point (O) around dead time such as loading or hesitations, then press Delete or click Cut I-O.
2. Open the Zoom panel (⌘5, Command-5) and check each region on the zoom track. Delete stray ones by selecting them and pressing Delete.
3. Some moments need a zoom without a click, such as a chart that updates. Move the playhead there and press ⌘K (Command-K) for Add Zoom at Playhead. The zoom centers on the cursor position at that moment, so hover over the target while you record.
4. If UI text is still small, raise Default Level (1.2× to 6.0×, default 2.0×) and click Apply to All Regions. To change one region, right-click it and choose Change Zoom Level.
5. If zooms feel too slow or too abrupt, right-click a region and set Transition Speed. The options run from "Snap (none)" to "Cinematic (1.0s)". Leave Auto Zoom on Click switched on. Turning it off disables every zoom region in preview and export, including the ones you added by hand.

In the Screen panel (⌘1), set Canvas ▸ Aspect Ratio to 16:9 for the main version. Keep some Padding (default 5%) so your background shows around the recording. At 0%, no background is rendered in the export. For more on zooms, see how to zoom in on a screen recording.

Add text and sound for silent autoplay

Text labels

Each demo step needs a short label that explains it without narration.

1. Move the playhead to the start of a step and press T. This adds a 3-second "Title" overlay.
2. In Edit Text, type your label. Raise Font Size if needed (default 48 pt, up to 120).
3. Turn on Background and adjust BG Opacity so the text stays readable over busy UI. Shadow is on by default.
4. Choose a Position that doesn't cover the action. Top Center often works when the click happens lower on screen. You can also drag the overlay on the preview.
5. Set Duration long enough to read the line twice.

Choose Fade In for Animate In. The other animations play in the editor, but exports render every text animation as a fade. Picking fade means the preview matches the file you ship.

For the CTA, add a final overlay with the product name and "Live on Product Hunt today." See how to add text to a screen recording and how to make text readable in screen recordings.

Sound for viewers who unmute

The Sounds panel adds effects that are mixed into the export. All are off by default:

• Click Sounds play on every cursor click, with presets such as Soft Tap or Mechanical.
• Zoom Sounds add a whoosh at each zoom in and out.
• Keyboard Sounds use the Cherry Brown, Holy Panda or Typewriter kit. They need Input Monitoring permission granted before you record. Without it, no keystrokes are captured for that take.

Keep effect volumes low under narration. For voiceover, open the Audio panel (⌘4) and turn on Auto Audio Enhance. It switches on noise reduction, voice clarity and volume normalization to about −16 LUFS.

For music, Add Audio Track imports an MP3, WAV or AIFF file. Select the clip to set Fade In and Fade Out (up to 3 s each). More in adding click and typing sounds.

Export the launch video and the GIF

The main MP4

1. Click Export in the editor toolbar.
2. Choose MP4 (H.264, plays everywhere).
3. Choose 1080p, or 4K if your recording is large enough.
4. Check Save to (default Desktop) and click Export.

The bitrate comes from Settings ▸ Quick export ▸ Compression (default Social Media). For the file you upload to a video host, Studio uses twice the Social Media bitrate, which gives the host a cleaner source to re-encode.

If the host needs a thumbnail, you have two free options:

• Grab a frame with our video thumbnail extractor.
• Build one with the YouTube thumbnail maker.

The free version of Screen Bolt has export limits: 720p at most, up to 3 minutes, a "Made with Screen Bolt" watermark, and no GIF export. That's fine for a rehearsal cut but not for a launch page. Pro is $79 one-time as of November 2026, with a 14-day money-back guarantee (see pricing).

The gallery GIF

A GIF autoplays and shows one key moment on loop. Keep it to a single action, under 15 seconds.

1. Click Export and choose GIF.
2. Pick GIF Size: Standard (640 px wide) or HD (960 px wide; files can be 3–4× larger).
3. Click Export.

GIFs export at about 10 fps, silent and looping, with zooms and text baked in. Clips over 15 s trigger a "Long GIF" prompt, and clips over 60 s are refused. Slow, deliberate cursor movement looks better at that frame rate.

One gotcha: the export sheet checks the GIF limits against the full recording, not the trimmed result. Cutting a 2-minute recording down to 10 seconds still gets refused. Two ways around it:

• Record the GIF moment as its own short recording.
• Export the trimmed section as an MP4, open it with File ▸ Create project from video..., and export the GIF from there. If the preview adds a second background around your already-styled video, set Padding to 0%. Edits to a video opened this way aren't saved, so finish the export in one sitting.

You can also convert an MP4 with our free video to GIF converter. Full details are in how to record your Mac screen as a GIF.

Reuse it on X and LinkedIn

Your social launch posts need a version that fills more of a phone screen.

1. Export the 16:9 version first.
2. In the Screen panel, change Canvas ▸ Aspect Ratio to 1:1 or 4:5 for feeds, or 9:16 for vertical.
3. Play the whole video once. Text overlays and the webcam corner that worked in 16:9 may now overlap the action.
4. Export again as MP4. Zooms matter even more in narrow frames, where unzoomed UI is tiny. If a step is hard to read at 9:16, raise that region's zoom level.

To reuse the look on later videos, choose Presets ▸ Save Current as Preset.... A preset stores the background, padding, aspect ratio, cursor, zoom settings and camera 1 styling, among other things.

Platform specifics are in these guides:

• How to make a product video for LinkedIn
• Vertical screen recordings for Reels
• Screen recording settings for YouTube, X and LinkedIn

Common mistakes and how to avoid them

• Relying on a device frame. Device frames and reflection show in the editor preview but are not exported. The screen shadow and inset are also preview-only. Use a wallpaper or your own image as the background instead.
• Choosing a solid color or custom gradient background. A solid color exports as a dark gradient. Custom gradient colors export as the selected wallpaper preset's gradient. Background blur isn't exported either. Built-in wallpapers, Mac wallpapers and custom images export as shown.
• Pressing J or L to preview faster. These change the project's speed, which applies to the whole export. Check that the speed menu reads "1x" before exporting.
• Using speed ramps on slow sections. Ramps play in the preview but export at normal speed. Cut dead time with In/Out points instead.
• Hiding the cursor with Show Cursor off. The export still draws it.
• Clicking around while you think. Stray clicks become zooms. Rehearse, then click only where you want attention.
• Forgetting private data. Use sample data. If something slips through, add a blur region with B. You can also run Auto-Detect Sensitive Text in the Effects panel to blur email addresses (plus phone numbers and your own keywords if you set them). Review every region on the Blur track before exporting, especially if you cut or reorder clips after the scan.

For other launch formats, see how to make a feature announcement video and product demo video examples.