Sub-tracks
The property tree under a layer row: one row per animatable channel, grouped, collapsible, and filtered to what you have actually keyed.
A layer's main Timeline row is a summary. Underneath it sits the real structure: one row per animatable channel, called a sub-track. Position and Opacity are separate rows, keep separate keyframes, and can be re-timed independently.
Click the sub-track caret at the right end of a layer's label to expand the tree. Only the layer types that own a channel show it, so a Group layer has a Blend row and a Mesh layer has a Mesh row, and neither shows the other.
How the tree is arranged
Rows are grouped so the list stays short. A group header has a twirl on its right edge; clicking it collapses the group, and that collapsed state is saved into the project, so a rig opens tidy for the next person.
- Vertices: a single row at the top level.
- Transform: Position, Rotation, Scale, Anchor, Opacity, Rotation X (tilt) and Rotation Y (pan), plus Skew X and Skew Y once the layer is skewed. A Camera layer adds Zoom, Camera Depth, Depth of Field and Point of Interest.
- Style: one row per animated fill, stroke and width parameter.
- Follow Path: shown once a path target is set or the channels are keyed.
- Distort: one row per corner, and sixteen Warp Point rows once the layer is warped, shown once the Transform tool has given the layer a Perspective, Distort or Warp.
- Blend, on Group layers; Mesh, on Mesh layers.
- Layer Effects: a group per enabled effect, each holding its own parameters.
- One group per bone, holding that bone's Angle, Stretch and Position rows, then its Inverse Kinematics, Angle Dynamics, Position Dynamics and Scale Dynamics groups, and a Branch Switch group on a bone that is a switch.
- Variant and Z-Order, which get their own dedicated rows rather than sitting under Transform, and Time Remap on a symbol.
- Audio, on video and audio layers: a Level row. The Waveform row sits outside it, directly under the layer.
What each channel animates
| Sub-track | What it animates | Layers that show it |
|---|---|---|
| Vertices | The whole bezier path: points, handles, extra contours and the closed flag | Shape and Vector Cells layers |
| Position | X and Y, plus Z, with spatial handles for the motion path | Every layer except bones |
| Rotation | The Z roll, in degrees | Every layer except bones |
| Scale | X and Y scale | Every layer except bones |
| Skew X / Skew Y | The lean along the layer's own axes, in degrees | Every layer except bones and the camera |
| Distort | The four corner pins and, once warped, the sixteen warp points | Layers reshaped by the Transform tool's Perspective, Distort or Warp mode |
| Anchor | The pivot the transform turns around | Every layer except bones |
| Opacity | Layer opacity | Every layer except bones |
| Rotation X (tilt) / Rotation Y (pan) | The 3D tilt angles, independent of the Z roll | Every layer except bones |
| Style | Fill, stroke, expose (the write-on percentages) and dash, one channel each; stroke width rides with Stroke | Shape and Vector Cells layers |
| Blend | The liquid and boolean blend radius of a group | Group layers |
| Mesh | Per-vertex mesh deformation | Mesh layers |
| Variant | Which child variant is visible | Switch layers, variant parents and symbols |
| Z-Order | A relative hop in draw order among siblings | Layers with ordering enabled |
| Zoom | How far the camera is zoomed in | Camera |
| Camera Depth | The strength of the camera's perspective on 3D layers | Camera |
| Depth of Field | Camera depth-of-field strength | Camera |
| Point of Interest | The point the camera tracks | Camera |
| Time Remap | The symbol's own internal frame | Symbols |
| Level | Audio volume in decibels | Video and audio layers |
| Angle | A bone's rotation about its parent joint | Bone layers, inside the bone's own group |
| Stretch | The bone's stretch multiplier along its own length | Bone layers, inside the bone's own group |
| Position | The bone's origin | Bone layers, inside the bone's own group |
A bone's three channels
A bone no longer collapses into a single Transform row. Its group opens onto Angle, Stretch and Position, one row each, with their own keyframes, their own easing and their own tween arrows, so you can re-time a swing without dragging the translation along with it.
Where you key decides how much gets keyed. Add Keyframe or Update Keyframe on one of the three rows writes that channel and nothing else. The same command on the bone group header keys the whole pose instead: angle, stretch and position together, which is what you want after a drag that changed more than one of them. A Static bone's pose is its position, so the group keys that alone.
On a stretched child bone the Position row is live as well. Its keys move where the bone starts, measured from its parent, and Add Keyframe and Paste Keyframe work on it like on any other row.
Variant and Z-Order step rather than interpolate: the value holds until the next keyframe and then jumps. They take no easing, and their rows carry no easing menu.
Showing only what is keyed
The Show Sub-tracks toggle in the Timeline header filters the tree down to the channels that already own keyframes. It is on by default, which keeps an expanded rig readable: a bone with two keyed angles shows one row, not a page of empty parameters.
The filter covers every animatable row, including the ones that used to slip past it. A bone's Angle, Stretch and Position rows drop out individually when they carry no keys, and a bone with nothing keyed at all contributes no rows and no group header. Variant, Z-Order, Camera Depth, Depth of Field, Time Remap and Level are filtered on the same rule, and on a video or audio layer the whole Audio group drops out when Level has no keys.
Structural rows are deliberately exempt and always show: the layer's own row, the cell strip under a Raster Cells or Vector Cells layer, the Waveform row, Symbol Playback, and a group-marker row that carries its own play or stop schedule. They describe the layer rather than animate a value, so hiding them would hide the layer.
Turn the filter off when you want to key a channel you have not touched yet and would rather right-click its row than reach for the Auto Key channel list.
Reading a sub-track row
A keyframe on a leaf row is a small cream diamond; it turns blue while it is part of a layer-wide selection, and yellow while it is the keyframe the Easing panel is pointed at. Between two consecutive keyframes on the same channel a thin white arrow shows the direction of the tween, provided there is room for it. The main layer row deliberately has no arrows. It is a summary of several channels, and an arrow there would be a guess.
Style and Layer Effects rows, Follow Path and bone parameters all behave identically to the built-in channels: they select, drag, marquee, take easing and answer the same right-click menu.
Group commands
Right-clicking a group header offers Delete All Keyframes, which clears every channel inside that group in one step. Right-clicking a leaf offers Add Keyframe, Update Keyframe, Delete Keyframe, Delete All Keyframes, Copy Keyframe, Paste Keyframe, an Easing submenu and a Loop Group submenu.
Paste Keyframe only lights up when the clipboard holds a keyframe from the same kind of channel, and a lone parameter keyframe will not drop onto a frame that already has one. Copy Keyframe on the main row takes every selected layer at once, and Paste puts each layer's keys back on its own layer, carrying the style, effect and bone-parameter keys that sat on them.