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The Mac app
AnimSpark for Mac is the same app with more room to work. Projects can live in folders on your Mac, exports render locally with more formats, and coding agents connect to it.
The Mac app runs the same interface as the web app, with the engine running on your Mac. Sign in with the same account and your plan and credits come with you.
Install and sign in
Download and open it
Download the app, drag AnimSpark to Applications and open it. It runs on Macs with Apple Silicon and macOS 13 or later.
Sign in
Choose Continue with Google, Continue with GitHub or enter your email, and the sign-in page opens in your usual browser. When you're done there, you land back in the app.
Make a film
The app opens straight into a project. Everything in the Quickstart works the same way here.
What's different from the web app
| Web app | Mac app | |
|---|---|---|
| Where projects live | In the cloud | On your Mac by default, or in the cloud |
| Export | Renders in your browser | Renders on your Mac, with more formats |
| Codex and Claude Code in the composer | No | Yes, in projects stored on your Mac |
| Connecting coding agents | No | Yes: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, WorkBuddy, Devin |
Projects on your Mac
A project stored on your Mac keeps its footage and files in a folder, and nothing is uploaded. Media plays straight from disk, so scrubbing and previewing stay fast even with large footage.
- New projects go in
~/Movies/AnimSpark/Projects/, one folder per project. - Choose where new projects go in Settings → General → New project location: On this computer, In the cloud or Ask every time. The default is on this computer.
- To open any folder as a project, use Open folder… in Projects, or press ⌘O. Your files stay where they are.
- Local projects carry a Local badge in Projects.
Coding agents you connect can read any file or folder on your Mac, so a local project is the natural place to work with them. See Drive AnimSpark from your coding agent.
Publish to cloud
A project on your Mac can be copied to the cloud: open the … menu at the top right of the project and choose Publish to cloud. Your folder stays the original; the cloud gets a copy. Large footage can take a few minutes.
If the cloud copy has changes that didn't come from this Mac, AnimSpark warns you that the cloud copy has diverged before it overwrites anything.
Share on a project that lives on your Mac offers to publish it to the cloud first, since there's nothing online for a link to show yet. When it's done it says Published. Your cloud copy is up to date. See Share links.
Exports on the Mac
Exports render on your Mac and nothing is uploaded. You pick a folder (by default ~/Movies/AnimSpark/Exports), and a small tray at the bottom right shows progress, and the folder button (Show in Finder) finds the file when it's done. The Mac app adds formats the browser doesn't offer, such as ProRes 422 HQ, HEVC with alpha, MP3 and 480p, and puts ProRes 4444, WebM and PNG sequences right in Video file. See Export.
Coding agents
The Mac app is also where coding agents plug in:
- In the composer. Switch the composer's agent to Codex or Claude Code and they work on your films using your own ChatGPT or Claude plan. See Switch the agent.
- From the agent. Connect Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, WorkBuddy or Devin from the agent button at the top right, then make films from that agent while the app shows every change. See Drive AnimSpark from your coding agent.
Updates
The Mac app updates itself. Settings → General shows your version, with Check for updates, then Download update and Restart to update when a new one is out. Download updates automatically; ask me before installing is a checkbox there; when an update is ready, a notice at the bottom right offers Restart to update or Later.