Sign in Get Celas Studio
Docs Layers

Layer types

Celas Studio has fourteen kinds of layer, from bezier shapes and painted cells to bones, meshes, symbols and sound: this is what each one is for and how you make it.

Every layer in a project has a type, fixed when it is created. The type decides what the layer can hold, which sections show up in the Properties panel, and whether it can be masked, deformed or painted on. The Layers panel prints the type on the second line of each row.

One naming trap runs through the whole app. The layer called Shape is the bezier drawing layer you get from the Pen, Rectangle and Ellipse tools. The layer called Vector Cells is something else: a frame-by-frame container for pencil and brush drawings, the type the Cells panel treats as drawing content.
The two cell-based types are named Raster Cells and Vector Cells. The Cells suffix is what separates them from Pixel, which is a single continuous bitmap with no cells at all: the pair that used to be hardest to tell apart by name.

The types

TypeWhat it is forHow you create it
ShapeOne bezier path plus any extra contours, with a fill and a stroke. The thing the Pen, Pencil and shape tools draw.By drawing on the canvas
Vector CellsA frame-by-frame drawing layer. Each drawing is a cell, and frames reference cells rather than owning them.The Vector Cells button in the Layers panel, or Layer ▸ Vector Cells
GroupA container with no geometry of its own. It is also the non-destructive boolean container.Add Layer ▸ Group, or Ctrl+G on a selection
NullAn invisible control point to parent other layers to. It has no properties of its own.Not creatable in Early Access
BoneAn armature. Holds the bones and every vertex binding, and deforms other layers.Add Layer ▸ Bone, or draw with the Bone tool
CameraThe scene camera: pan, roll, zoom and multiplane depth. There is exactly one, and it is created with the project.Already there
ImageA still bitmap: PNG, JPEG, BMP, QOI or WebP. The file bytes are embedded in the project.File ▸ Import
SwitchThe older mutually-exclusive child container, replaced by making any parent a variant container.Not creatable in Early Access
MeshA triangulated cage over a baked texture, deformed by bones or by hand.Add Layer ▸ Mesh, or Convert to Mesh / Add Mesh Parent
SymbolA reusable clip with its own internal timeline, stored once in the Library and instanced in the scene.Add Layer ▸ Symbol, Convert to Symbol, or + Symbol in the Library
VideoA video clip on the canvas, decoded to a preview cache in the background and splittable into clips.File ▸ Import
AudioA sound track with a timeline waveform and lip-sync notes. It is never drawn on the canvas.File ▸ Import
Raster CellsTraditional bitmap cell animation. Holds a library of painted cells and an exposure per frame.The Raster Cells button in the Layers panel, or Layer ▸ Raster Cells
PixelOne continuous bitmap that grows to fit what you paint. No cells.The Pixel button in the Layers panel, or paint with nothing paintable selected
The Layers panel showing one row of each common type, with the type name under each layer name.

The Add Layer menu

The Layers panel carries one icon button per creatable type in a row under its search field (Bone, Mesh, Pixel, Raster Cells, Symbol and Vector Cells) with Group in the footer beside Duplicate. The Timeline's add menu and the Layer menu offer the same set, Group included. Each add is a single undo step.

Adding a Raster Cells layer from the Layers panel can open a size dialog first, if the preference asking for raster dimensions is on. Adding one from the Layer menu always skips that prompt and uses the canvas size.

Types you cannot add from the menu

  • Shape layers only appear when you draw. Each one is named Shape and a number.
  • Image, Video and Audio layers come from File ▸ Import. Dragging a file onto the canvas does the same thing.
  • The Camera exists from the moment the project does, and there is never more than one.
  • Null and Switch layers have no creation path in Early Access. They are still understood when a project contains them, but nothing in the interface makes a new one.

Converting between types

Three conversions live in the Layers panel right-click menu, and the Move tool repeats them on the canvas.

CommandWorks onResult
Convert to RasterImage layersA Raster layer whose first cell is the baked image, ready to paint on
Add Mesh ParentImage layersThe image stays as it is, wrapped in a Mesh layer that deforms it
Convert to MeshShape layersThe shape wrapped in a Mesh layer
Convert to SymbolAny selection, from the canvas right-click menuA Symbol layer holding the selection, with a matching entry in the Library

Which types can do what

Some settings only appear for the types that can use them, so an option you expect may simply not be there.

  • Mask is offered on Shape, Raster and Pixel layers only.
  • Anti-alias is offered on Shape and Vector layers only.
  • Clipping Alpha is offered on everything except Bone and Camera layers.
  • The 3D Layer switch is not offered on Camera, Bone or Audio layers.
  • The Cells panel only has something to show for Raster and Vector layers.
  • A layer can be a variant only if it is a Shape, Pixel, Image, Group or Mesh layer.
Audio layers replace the Transform section in the Properties panel with volume and mute controls: there is nothing to transform, because they are never drawn.