Flip, align and arrange

Once a figure is posed, you place it in the shot: turn it, make it bigger, flip it to face the other way, line it up with others and put it in front or behind. This page shows the quickest way to do each, with the mouse and with exact numbers.

Rotate and resize with Alt

The orange dot (the origin) is the point a figure turns around. Hold Alt and drag any red dot: moving around the origin turns the figure, moving away from or towards it makes the figure bigger or smaller. An amber cross marks the origin while you drag.

1. Select the figure. To turn several at once, Shift-click the others too.
2. Hold Alt and drag a red dot that is far from the origin, like the head. The further away it is, the finer your control.
3. Add Ctrl to only rotate (the size stays), or Shift to only resize (the angle stays).
4. Let go to keep it. Esc before you let go cancels; Ctrl+Z afterwards undoes.

With several figures selected, they all turn and resize around the origin of the one you grabbed. Figures joined to them follow.

Exact numbers in Properties

Click the figure's body or orange dot and look at Properties → Transform: X and Y are the origin's position in pixels, Angle is in degrees and Scale is a percentage (100% is normal size, 200% twice as big).

1. Click a field, type a number and press Enter. For example type 45 in Angle: the figure leans 45° around its origin.
2. Or drag a field's label left and right to scrub the value. Hold Shift for small steps and Alt for tiny ones.

With several figures selected, the section is called Selection and shows X, Y, W and H for the box around all of them, plus two buttons: Rotate 15° and Center (moves the group to the middle of the canvas).

Flip a figure

Flipping mirrors a pose, so a figure that faces right faces left. It is the quickest way to make a character turn around.

1. Click the body or the orange dot, so Properties shows the figure's name (not a joint's).
2. Click Flip, the first quick action in Properties, or press Shift+H. The figure flips left to right around its orange dot.
3. For upside down, press Shift+V, or right-click the figure and choose Flip vertically.

What flips depends on what is selected. With a joint selected, Flip becomes Flip limb and mirrors only that limb. With a branch selected, only the branch flips. Several figures selected flip together, which also swaps their places; flip them one at a time if each should only face the other way.

Move in a straight line

1. Hold Ctrl and drag the orange dot. The figure slides only left and right, or only up and down, whichever way you started.
2. For tiny moves, select the figure and press Alt+→ (or any arrow): it moves 1 pixel. Add Shift for 10 pixels.

Ctrl on a red dot stretches instead (see Pose a figure). Plain arrow keys nudge the dot under the pointer, not the whole figure.

Line up several figures

Use Align to put a row of characters on the same floor line, or stack them in one column.

1. Select two or more figures: Shift-click them, or drag a box around them. Properties reads 2 figures (or more).
2. In Properties → Align, click a button: Align left, Align center, Align right, Align top, Align middle or Align bottom.
3. Check the result. Align bottom puts the lowest point of every figure on the same line, so their feet line up.

Align uses the box around each figure's drawing, not the orange dots. A raised arm or a prop held low can therefore change where a figure ends up; if that happens, type the Y you want instead. Figures that are joined together move as one block. Align lines figures up; it doesn't space them evenly.

Put a figure in front or behind

When figures overlap, the one later in the order covers the others.

1. Select the figure that should be in front.
2. Click Front in Properties' quick actions. It moves in front of everything on its layer. Back sends it behind everything.
3. For one step at a time, Shift-click Front or Back, or use the arrow buttons next to Order in Arrange (Bring forward, Send backward). You can also type the number in Order.

Order works inside one layer: a figure on a higher layer always covers figures on lower layers. Change the figure's Layer in Arrange if Front isn't enough. The … menu at the top of Properties also has Bring forward and Send backward.

Try it

Three figures stand on the stage. Each task is a step from above; the commands are where they are in the app: in Properties, in the right-click menu, and on the keyboard.

Keys and gestures

Common mistakes

Common questions

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