Keyboard shortcuts
The full shortcut list.
All shortcuts are disabled while a text field has focus, except Ctrl+K — and all are disabled while the fullscreen preview is open (it owns the keyboard so playback isn't disrupted mid-recording).
General
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Ctrl+K | Command palette — search any action. Works even while typing in a field |
Ctrl+Z | Undo |
Ctrl+Shift+Z or Ctrl+Y | Redo |
Ctrl+S | Save project |
Ctrl+C | Copy — the selected clip(s) if any animation events are selected, otherwise the selected object(s) |
Ctrl+X | Cut the selected object(s) |
Ctrl+V | Paste. Pastes a copied animation-event group at the playhead if one was copied (kept on their original objects); otherwise pastes a single copied clip onto the selected object's track (or its original track, for camera events); otherwise pastes copied objects |
Ctrl+D | Duplicate the current selection |
Ctrl+A | Select all — scoped to the current workspace (scene editor or Canvas studio), whichever is active |
? | Open the keyboard-shortcuts cheat sheet |
Switchers & views
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Alt+` | Object switcher — Alt-Tab, but for scene objects: tap to open the overlay, keep tapping while holding Alt to cycle, release Alt to select the highlighted object. Shift cycles backwards |
Alt+S | Inspector tab switcher — the same hold-and-release gesture, cycling the Inspector's tabs (Scene / Style / Shape / Move / Anim / Phys / ƒx / Info). Shift cycles backwards. Main workspace only — the Canvas studio has no Inspector |
Alt+P | Jump straight into the fullscreen preview |
Tools
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
V | Select tool |
H | Pan tool (or hold the middle mouse button) |
C | Toggle the Camera tool on/off |
O | Toggle Orbit — switches the viewport to 3D if it isn't already, since orbit only means something in 3D. Ignores key auto-repeat |
P | Outside Canvas studio: enter Canvas studio with the pen tool armed. Inside it: toggle between the pen and edit-points tool |
B | Pencil tool — freehand sketch, smoothed into an editable path on release |
R | Toggle the Measure (ruler) tool on/off |
Esc | Clears an armed keyframe start point first (if one is pending), otherwise clears the selection and returns to the Select tool |
Canvas & editing
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
← → | Nudge the selected clip's start time by 0.1s, or nudge the selected object(s) by 0.1 scene units on the x axis, or step the playhead by 0.1s if nothing is selected |
↑ ↓ | Nudge the selected object(s) by 0.1 scene units on the y axis |
Shift + arrows | Same, at a 0.5 step instead of 0.1 |
Ctrl+G | Group the current selection |
Ctrl+Shift+G | Ungroup the current selection |
Delete / Backspace | Delete the selected clip(s) if any are selected, otherwise delete the selected object(s) |
S | Razor — split the selected clip(s) at the playhead |
Shift+S | Save the playhead's frame as an image — opens the export dialog (PNG, JPG, or WebP) |
[ / ] | Trim the selected clip(s)' start / end edge to the playhead |
Timeline & playback
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Space | Play / pause |
Home | Jump the playhead to time 0 |
End | Jump the playhead to the last thing that happens in the scene (not the padded project duration) |
, / . | Step the playhead back / forward exactly one frame |
I / U | Set the loop region's in-point / out-point at the playhead |
L | Toggle the loop region on/off |
M | With clip(s) selected: mute/unmute them (skipped by preview and render). Otherwise: drop a chapter marker at the playhead (compiles to self.next_section()) |
| drag a clip | Move its start time (snaps to 0.1s) |
| drag a clip's right edge | Trim its duration |
| right-click a clip | Context menu: Duplicate after, Copy, Mute/Unmute, Delete |
A stray focused text input can silently swallow every shortcut below — clicking anywhere on the canvas clears that automatically, so if shortcuts seem "dead," a canvas click is the fix.
Why the razor and trim sometimes do nothing
S, [, and ] act on the clips selected on the timeline, not on selected objects. With only an object selected, they do nothing.
Beyond that, the razor (S) has real limits worth knowing:
- Only keyframe and camera clips can be split. Entrances and exits, morphs, matrix transformations, warps, and curve sweeps are skipped — there's no meaningful halfway point to cut them at.
- The playhead has to sit properly inside the clip, not right at an edge.
- Locked clips are never touched.
When nothing qualifies you'll see "Nothing to split — move the playhead inside a keyframe or camera clip."
Splitting a clip clears its speed ramp on both halves — a ramp shaped for the whole clip can't be divided sensibly. Re-apply the ramp after cutting. Trimming with
[ / ] leaves the ramp alone.[ pulls the clip's start to the playhead while leaving its end where it is; ] pulls the end to the playhead. Both leave the clip at least a sliver long, and both skip locked clips — if nothing happens, the playhead is probably at or past an edge.
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