Docs Getting started

Installation

What Celas Studio needs to run, where to get it, what happens the first time you launch it, and how updates reach you.

Celas Studio runs on Windows and macOS. There is no licence key to type in: owning it on Steam is what entitles you to run it, and the app never asks for a serial number.

What you need

Requirement
Windows64-bit Windows. The build is x64 only.
macOSmacOS 11 Big Sur or later.
GraphicsA GPU and driver that provide an OpenGL 3.3 core context. The app will not start without one.
EffectsLayer effects run on OpenGL by default, with CPU and Vulkan as alternatives in Preferences.
Pen tabletOptional. Pressure and tilt are read from Wintab or Windows Ink on Windows, and from the system tablet events on macOS.
Video import and MP4 export use the operating system's own media stack: Media Foundation on Windows, AVFoundation on macOS. Everything else, including MOV, WebM, animated WebP, GIF and still images, is encoded by the app itself.

Where to get it

In Early Access, Celas Studio is sold on Steam and nowhere else. That one channel covers both Windows and macOS, and it is also how every update reaches you. Microsoft Store and Mac App Store releases are planned for a later version.

Installing

  1. Buy Celas Studio on Steam, or add it to your library if you already own it.
  2. Open your Steam library, select Celas Studio and press Install. Steam picks the Windows or the macOS build for you.
  3. Press Play. Steam downloads any pending update first, so you always start the current build.
Celas Studio has to be started through Steam. Launching the executable directly makes it relaunch itself through Steam, and if Steam is not running at all it asks you to start Steam first.

Only one copy of Celas Studio runs at a time per Windows user account. Launching it again brings the running window forward instead of opening a second one, and if you launched it by double-clicking a project, that project opens in a new tab in the copy that is already running. A bare re-launch with no file just raises the window.

Per user account, not per machine: on a shared PC, someone else signed in through Fast User Switching can run their own copy at the same time as yours.

First launch

A splash screen appears while the app loads, then the Home window opens on top of the empty workspace. On a fresh install it opens on the New Project tab, because there are no recent projects yet; after that it opens on Recent.

Pick a template from the grid on the left, or set the canvas size yourself in the settings column on the right, then press Create. The full launcher is described in The Home window.

If you open a project by double-clicking a .cls file, the Home window is skipped and the project opens straight away.

Choosing your language

The interface starts in English. To change it, open Edit ▸ Preferences ▸ General and pick from the Language list under Application. Twelve languages are listed: English, Türkçe, Deutsch, Français, Italiano, Español, Português, Japanese, Русский, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Korean.

The change takes effect as soon as you press OK or Apply: no restart. Interface Scale, on the Appearance tab, is the one setting that does need a restart.

Preferences ▸ General, with the Language list open under the Application section.

How updates arrive

Celas Studio has no built-in update check and no Check for Updates menu item. New builds arrive through Steam, which patches the depot the way it patches any other title: the update is already in place the next time you press Play.

Where your settings are kept

Preferences, panel layout, workspaces, keyboard bindings, brush presets and swatches are stored outside your projects, so they survive across documents.

PlatformLocation
WindowsNext to celasstudio.exe, in the folder the app is installed in
macOS~/Library/Application Support/Fruzai/CelasStudio/

Your account session is kept in a separate folder so that reinstalling does not sign you out. See File locations in the Reference section for the full list of files and what each one holds.

Deleting the settings folder resets every preference, the panel layout, all saved workspaces and every custom shortcut. Your projects are untouched: they only live where you saved them.