Layers and rows

1A row is a layer

Every strip in the row list is one layer of your scene, and the whole scene is just those layers stacked and playing together. A row can be a hand-drawn frame, a placed picture, a camera, a puff of particles, or a sound. If you have ever worked in layers before, this is that same idea with a timeline attached. The most important habit is simple: pick the right row before you do anything, because your tools act on the selected row only.

2The add-row bar, at a glance

New rows come from the add-row bar, a line of buttons: Art, Image, Tween, Vector, Character, Effect, Particles, Camera, and Audio. Each button drops a different kind of building block into the row list. You will not use all nine in one scene; a simple shot might be one Image background and one Vector character. The next sections take each type in turn so you know exactly when to reach for it.

3Art rows: draw it by hand

An Art row is for drawing frame by frame, the classic hand-animation approach. You draw on the row, advance the playhead, and draw the next frame, building motion one drawing at a time. This is the row you want for a boiling line, a hand-drawn effect, or a short cycle you would rather draw than rig. It works well with onion skin, which shows the previous drawing faintly while you draw the next.

4Image rows: place a picture

An Image row holds a picture you bring in. Open the Image source panel and press Import image to load one, then fit it with the Fit, Fill, or Stretch toggles. This is the row for a painted background, a photo, or a single body part of a cutout puppet. A new one is named Image {n} until you rename it. If you want that picture to bend and pose, press Rig this image to add a posable bone-mesh copy.

5Vector rows: editable line art

A Vector row is editable line-and-fill artwork you draw right in the studio. Open it with Draw and rig and you get Draw, Rig, and Test modes. Vector art stays crisp at any zoom and its points can be bent by bones, so limbs flex smoothly instead of pivoting at a seam. This is the row for a character you want to draw and rig cleanly, or any shape you may need to reshape later. It is the workhorse of smooth puppet animation.

6Tween rows: motion and parallax

A Tween row carries motion settings, and the per-layer Depth field sits in its Tween panel. Depth is the parallax control: a value of 1 means the layer moves exactly with the camera, above 1 puts it far away so it drifts slower, and below 1 pulls it near so it slides faster. Set different depths on your background layers and a camera move suddenly has real space in it. This is how flat layers gain a sense of distance.

7Character rows: a reusable rig

The Character button inserts a reusable rigged character from the Codex as a live instance, its full title is "Insert a reusable rigged character from the Codex as a live instance". It opens the Insert a rigged character dialog, where you can pick a rig you saved on a Codex character, or use Import from file to bring in an animation rig file (.fla) or a .zip that contains one. Because it is a live instance, updating the master rig can flow through to every place you dropped it.

8Effect rows: keyed effects

An Effect row carries an effect whose strength you drive over time on the timeline. It is the general-purpose slot for a look that ramps up and down rather than a piece of art you draw. You animate its strength like any other value, so an effect can bloom in, hold, and fade. Reach for it when a shot needs a treatment that changes across the shot rather than sitting still.

9Particles rows: many little things

A Particles row spawns lots of small moving pieces: rain, sparks, snow, dust, bubbles. Its Particles panel gives you Rate, Life, Direction, Spread, Speed, Gravity, Size, Fade, and Colour, plus up to eight Sprites and a Facing mode (Upright, Face direction of travel, or Random per particle). One emitter can carry a whole weather system.

10Camera and Audio rows

Two more rows finish the set. The Camera button adds a camera row (labelled + Camera) so the Camera tools, Track, Zoom, Roll, and Depth of field, have something to key against. The Audio row holds sound: music, dialogue, or effects that play along with the animation. A camera row plus a couple of depth-staged layers is the recipe for a moving shot, and an audio row is what turns a silent loop into a scene.

11Stacking is depth order

The order of rows in the list is the front-to-back order in the shot. The row at the top of the list draws nearest the front, and the row at the bottom draws furthest back. So a foreground character belongs above the background, and a sky belongs at the very bottom. If a character vanishes behind the scenery, its row is probably sitting too low in the list. Reading the list top-to-bottom is reading the scene front-to-back.

12Reorder, select, and rename

Keeping the list under control is half the craft. Drag a row up or down to change its depth. Click a row to select it, which is what makes the Layer tools act on it. And rename every row to something honest, because a stack of Image {n} rows is a puzzle you have to solve every time you open the scene. Good names read like a cast list: head, torso, left upper arm, sky, camera.

13Show and hide while you work

Each row can be shown or hidden, and this is a working convenience, not a delete. Hide the foreground to get at the background behind it, then switch it back on. Hiding is also how you compare two versions of a piece without losing either. If you find yourself flipping the same set of rows on and off a lot, that is a hint you might want a saved visibility preset instead of doing it by hand every time.

14Backdrops: the layer behind everything

The scene sits on a background, the flat colour or image behind all your rows. A plain backdrop keeps the reader's eye on the action and stops the frame from feeling like it is floating in nothing. For a painted setting, a low Image row at the bottom of the stack acts as your backdrop, and per-page background colour is remembered on this device. Whatever you choose, the backdrop is the furthest-back thing, so it belongs at the very bottom of the list.

15How rows compose a scene

Put it together and a scene is just well-ordered rows. A typical shot might be: an Audio row for music, a Camera row up top to move the lens, a Vector or Character row for the hero, one or two Image rows for midground and background at different Depth values, and maybe a Particles row for weather. Named clearly and stacked front-to-back, that list is a scene you can read at a glance and animate with confidence.

Questions about rows