The viewport
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ViewportHeader: ← [Comp name] · W×H · Free/Fixed … │
│ motion path … Zoom · Fit · View opts │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Stage (dot-grid / checkerboard void) │
│ ┌──────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ Composition canvas │ ← framed, shadowed│
│ └──────────────────────────┘ │
│ [BL: info bar] [BR: zoom controls] │
│ [BC: AI prompt bar] │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘The composition canvas is framed inside a larger stage, so you can always see where the composition ends and the pasteboard begins. The pasteboard colour is set in Composition Settings → Environment.
Header controls
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Back | Leave the editor |
| Composition name | The comp you are looking at |
| Size preset picker | Change the composition size from the shared preset catalogue |
| Free / Fixed | Fixed locks the camera so the composition never drifts as you work. Persisted per workspace |
| Motion path toggle | Show or hide animated position paths on the canvas |
| Zoom % · Fit | Zoom level, and fit-to-window |
| View options | Grid, rulers, safe areas, guides |
| + Camera · + Light | Open real creation dialogs |
Direct manipulation
- Click to select, Shift-click to add to the selection, drag on empty space to marquee.
- Drag to move. Corner and edge handles scale. With more than one layer selected, the multi-select gizmo gives you group bounds with corner scale handles.
- Arrow keys nudge; Shift + arrow nudges further.
- Hold Space for a temporary Hand tool.
- Delete / Backspace deletes; Esc deselects.
- Double-click a text layer to edit it in place.
- Double-click a UI-kit component to drill into it.
- Snapping with guides, toggleable, plus snap guides computed against sibling layers.
Drag and drop
The viewport accepts drops from every library and from the operating system: shapes, text, media files, cursor items, UI-kit components, motion-graphics items, transitions, sound effects, Lottie items, saved components, effects and animation presets.
Dropping an effect or an animation preset onto a layer applies it to that layer, rather than creating something new. This is usually faster than going through the inspector.
Overlays
Drawn above the canvas, each doing one job:
| Overlay | Purpose |
|---|---|
| TextEditOverlay | On-canvas text editing |
| PuppetOverlay | Puppet pins, the mesh wireframe, drag handles |
| BoneOverlay | Skeleton bones, joints, IK targets |
| Gizmo3dOverlay | The 3D transform gizmo — Universal, Position, Scale, Rotation — plus the ground grid at Y = 0 and dimensional guides: a pink trajectory line, drop lines to the floor, and a live callout badge. Sized in screen space so it does not shrink with distance |
| AxisWidgetOverlay | The bottom-left world X/Y/Z orientation widget, projected through the current camera. Screen-fixed, and appears whenever the composition has any 3D layer |
| FocusBreadcrumb | A “Main › Scene 2 › Logo” trail when Focus Mode is engaged. Click a crumb to jump; Esc steps up one level |
Multi-view layouts
1 View / 2 Views / 4 Views.
In 2-up the interactive stage shrinks to the left half; in 4-up to the top-left quadrant. The other cells are view-only renders of the same composition seen through a different view — Active Camera, any orthographic view, or a custom view — each with its own canvas and render backend.
This is how you check a 3D layout: model in the perspective view, verify depth in an orthographic one.
3D view switching
| Key | View |
|---|---|
| 1 | Active Camera |
| 2 | The last custom view you used |
See 3D navigation.
The AI prompt bar
A floating bar at the bottom centre of the stage for quick one-line requests, without opening the full assistant panel. See The AI assistant.