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Symbols

A symbol is artwork you reuse. Its instances share their shapes, colours and the animation inside them, so a change made in one reaches them all, while each instance has its own place, size and keyframes.

Do it in the editor: guided tour6 steps · about 3 minutes · opens a practice scene

Step by step

  1. Make a symbol

    Right-click the tree on the canvas and choose Make symbol. The Tree group becomes the symbol's first instance: the inspector's header reads symbol · 1 instance.

  2. Duplicate it

    Click Duplicate in the Layers panel's top bar, or press Ctrl D. The copy is a second instance of the same symbol, a little below and to the right.

  3. Move the copy

    Drag the new tree to the right of the first. Its position, size, rotation, opacity and keyframes are its own.

  4. Edit the symbol

    Double-click either tree. The rest of the scene dims, the other instance shows as a dashed outline, and a chip on the canvas says which symbol you are editing.

  5. Change its colour

    Click the crown, type #e8933a in Fill and press Enter. The other tree follows: a change inside the symbol reaches every instance.

  6. Finish editing

    Click Done on the chip. Esc does it too, once nothing is selected. The scene comes back, with two autumn trees.

Good to know. Alt-drag an instance for another one, or click the symbol's card in Assets › Symbols, which lists every symbol with its number of instances (✎ edits it, × deletes it and leaves its instances as plain groups). An instance's Instance section in the inspector has Edit symbol, a Time offset (see Staggering instances) and Detach instance, which turns it into a plain group that no longer follows the symbol.

Keys

Ctrl DDuplicate
EscFinish editing the symbol, once nothing is selected