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). A Camera layer adds 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.
- 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.
- Switch and Z-Order, which get their own dedicated rows rather than sitting under Transform.
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 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 |
| 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 layers |
| Blend | The liquid and boolean blend radius of a group | Group layers |
| Mesh | Per-vertex mesh deformation | Mesh layers |
| Switch | Which child variant is visible | Switch layers and variant parents |
| Z-Order | A relative hop in draw order among siblings | Layers with ordering enabled |
| Depth of Field | Camera depth-of-field strength | Camera |
| Point of Interest | The point the camera tracks | Camera |
| 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 inactive. Its origin is rebuilt from the parent chain every frame, so a position key there would be computed and thrown away. The row is dimmed, its tooltip says so, and Add Keyframe and Paste Keyframe are disabled on it. Keys already sitting on the row, from an earlier pass or from a spell as a Static bone, still draw and can still be deleted, and the group header skips the dead channel rather than filling it.
Switch 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. Switch and Variant, Z-Order and Depth of Field are filtered on the same rule.
Structural rows are deliberately exempt and always show: the layer's own row, the cell strip under a Raster Cells or Vector Cells layer, Symbol Playback and the group-marker rows. 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.