Add & arrange layers

Everything on the canvas is a layer. You add layers from the canvas toolbar at the bottom of the editor, and adjust whatever is selected in the properties panel on the right.

Draw shapes and text

The toolbar has tools for the building blocks:

Rectangle (R) and Ellipse (O) — draw a shape directly on the canvas.
Text (T) — click to place a text layer and start typing.
Pen (P) — draw custom vector paths. Press Enter to finish the path.

Pick a tool, then draw on the canvas. Press V or click the cursor to get back to the Select tool.

Add media and components

Open the Media & Components menu from the toolbar to bring in richer content:

Local file — upload an image, video, or audio file from your computer.
From assets — insert something you’ve already uploaded to this project.
Components — drop in a saved component, from this project or your workspace library.
Shaders — add a generative background (mesh gradient, aurora, plasma, waves, and more).
View assets — open the full asset browser for this project.

Select things

Click a layer to select it. Clicking it again deselects it.
⌘A selects every layer in the scene.
Shift-click or ⌘-click to add more layers to the selection.
Drag on empty canvas to marquee-select everything you sweep across.
Double-click a group to step inside it and work on its children. If you then click a layer outside the group, you exit and select that layer in one go.
Esc backs out of whatever mode you’re in.

Double-clicking a shape does something different — it opens its points for editing. See Morph shapes.

Move, resize and nudge

Drag to move, and drag the handles to resize. For precision, use the arrow keys: 1px per press, 10px with ⇧. Nudging is zoom-independent — a press is always one composition pixel no matter how far in you’re zoomed — and a burst of presses collapses into a single undo step.

Everything else lives in the properties panel: exact position and size, rotation, opacity, fill and stroke, corner radius.

Stack, group and organise

Layers draw in order, and the canvas right-click menu is where you rearrange that:

Bring to front / Send to back (⌘] and ⌘[) — move a layer to the top or bottom of the stack.
Group (⌘G) — combine a multiple selection into one unit you can move, animate, mask and apply effects to as a whole. A filter on a group runs over the composited children, so one treatment covers everything inside. ⇧⌘G ungroups.
Repeat… — turn the layer into a template for a run of copies. See Data-driven video.
Make 3D — give the layer a three-dimensional form. See 3D scenes and models.
Delete — or press Delete.

⌘D duplicates the selection in place — animation and all, since a layer’s motion travels with it.

Expand the timeline to see every layer in the composition listed by scene — that’s your layer list, and it’s also where you retime things.

Adjust the selection

Select any layer and the properties panel opens on the right. Depending on the layer type you’ll see controls for position and size, fill and stroke, text, media, auto-layout, effects and filters — plus animation, covered next in Animate a layer.

The eye toggle at the top of the panel hides a layer without deleting it, and the same toggle appears on individual animations and effects, so you can mute one thing to see what it’s contributing.

Auto layout — let rows and columns arrange themselves.
Animate a layer — presets, a prompt, or keyframes.
Make it look good — the difference between designed and generated.
Keyboard shortcuts — the full list.