Docs
Layers
Layer types
Celas Studio has fifteen kinds of layer, from bezier shapes and painted cells to lights, 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
| Type | What it is for | How you create it |
|---|---|---|
| Shape | One 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 |
| Light | Soft-edged light and shadow paths painted over flat-coloured artwork. See Light layers. | The Light button in the Layers panel, or Convert to Light Layer on a Shape layer |
| Vector Cells | A 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 |
| Group | A container with no geometry of its own. It is also the non-destructive boolean container. | The Group button in the Layers panel footer, or Ctrl+G (Layer ▸ Group) on a selection |
| Null | An invisible control point to parent other layers to. It has no properties of its own. | Not creatable in Early Access |
| Bone | An armature. Holds the bones and every vertex binding, and deforms other layers, including every layer placed inside it. | Layer ▸ Bone, or draw with the Bone tool |
| Camera | The scene camera: pan, roll, zoom and multiplane depth. There is exactly one, and it is created with the project. | Already there |
| Image | A still bitmap: PNG, JPEG, BMP, QOI or WebP. The file bytes are embedded in the project. | File ▸ Import |
| Switch | The older mutually-exclusive child container, replaced by making any parent a variant container. | Not creatable in Early Access |
| Mesh | A triangulated cage over a baked texture, deformed by bones or by hand. | Layer ▸ Mesh, or Convert to Mesh / Add Mesh Parent |
| Symbol | A reusable clip with its own internal timeline, stored once in the Library and instanced in the scene. | Layer ▸ Symbol, Convert to Symbol, or + Symbol in the Library |
| Video | A video clip on the canvas, decoded frame by frame as it plays and splittable into clips. | File ▸ Import |
| Audio | A sound track with a waveform row, a keyframeable Level and lip-sync notes. It is never drawn on the canvas and cannot be a parent. | File ▸ Import |
| Raster Cells | Traditional 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 |
| Pixel | One continuous bitmap that grows to fit what you paint. No cells. | The Pixel button in the Layers panel, Layer ▸ Pixel, Pixel ▸ Rasterize on another layer, or paint with nothing paintable selected |
[ Screenshot: The Layers panel showing one row of each common type, with the type name under each layer name. ]
Adding layers
The Layers panel carries one icon button per creatable type in a row under its search field (Bone, Light, Mesh, Pixel, Raster Cells, Symbol and Vector Cells) with Group in the footer beside Duplicate. The top of the Layer menu offers Bone, Mesh, Pixel, Raster Cells, Symbol and Vector Cells in that order; the Timeline's add menu offers them plus an empty Group. Each add is a single undo step.
Adding a Raster Cells layer can open a size dialog first, if the preference asking for raster dimensions is on. The Layers panel and the Layer menu both honour that preference.
Types you cannot add from the menu
- Shape layers only appear when you draw. Each one is named after what drew it, such as Shape 1, Rectangle 1, Donut 1 or Line 1.
- 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
The conversions live in the Layers panel right-click menu, and the Move tool repeats them on the canvas. The Pixel menu holds the bitmap ones as well, including two the right-click menu does not have: Convert to Raster for a Pixel layer, and Convert to Pixel Layer.
| Command | Works on | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Rasterize | Any layer except a Pixel layer, the camera and a Bone layer | A Pixel layer, with or without its effects baked in. A Vector Cells or Raster Cells layer, or a group holding one, becomes a Raster Cells layer with every cel painted. Transform, opacity and order keyframes are kept |
| Convert to Light Layer | Shape layers | A Light layer with the same paths, drawn as soft light |
| Convert to Curves | Shape layers | An ordinary path with the same outline, from a parametric shape or live corner radii |
| Expand Stroke | Shape layers with a stroke | A filled shape the size of the stroke, in the stroke's colour |
| Convert to Raster | Image layers, and Pixel layers from the Pixel menu | A Raster Cells layer whose first cell is the baked picture, ready to paint on |
| Convert to Pixel Layer | Raster Cells layers with a single drawing, from the Pixel menu | A Pixel layer holding that drawing |
| Add Mesh Parent | Image layers | The image stays as it is, wrapped in a Mesh layer that deforms it |
| Convert to Mesh | Shape layers | The shape wrapped in a Mesh layer |
| Convert to Symbol | Any selection, from the Layer menu, the canvas right-click menu or F8 | A 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.
- Clipping Mask is offered on Shape, Raster Cells, Pixel, Image and Video layers.
- Anti-alias only affects Raster Cells, Pixel and Vector Cells layers; on a Shape layer it is greyed out, because a shape's edge is its path.
- Clipping Alpha is offered on everything except Bone, Camera and Audio layers.
- The 3D Layer switch is not offered on Camera, Bone or Audio layers.
- The Cells panel only has something to show for Raster Cells and Vector Cells 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 Level and Mute: there is nothing to transform, because they are never drawn. For the same reason they have no Position, Rotation, Scale, Anchor or Opacity rows on the Timeline, and a layer dropped onto one lands beside it rather than inside.