Cells

The Cells panel is the drawing library behind a Raster Cells or Vector Cells layer: every cell lives once, and you expose it on whatever frames need it, so editing a drawing updates every frame that uses it.

On a Raster Cells or Vector Cells layer, the Cells panel lists that layer's stored cells as thumbnails. A cell is not tied to a single frame: you expose it on as many frames as you like, and editing it once updates every frame that references it.

Select the layer whose cells you want and open Window ▸ Cells, off by default. Any other layer type shows only a hint to select a cell layer.

Creating, duplicating and removing#

The panel creates cells the same way the Timeline does: one icon strip for Add Cell, Duplicate Cell and Remove Cell, with the count of cells, Total Cells, on the same line. Duplicate and Remove are greyed out until a cell is picked in the panel or one is live on the canvas.

• Add Cell: on a Raster Cells layer it mints a blank cell without touching whatever is already exposed elsewhere. On a Vector Cells layer it inserts an empty cell at the next open frame and moves the playhead there, unless that frame would fall past the end of the project.
• Duplicate Cell: puts the copy on the frame after the playhead and moves the playhead onto it, so the copy is what you are looking at and ready to paint. A cell already standing there, and every cell after it, moves one frame later: nothing is overwritten and no cell is shortened.
• Remove Cell: removes the cell you picked, or the one showing on the canvas.

Exposing a cell#

Cells are drag sources: the panel never exposes a cell just because you clicked it, so scrubbing the timeline can never silently swap what a frame shows. Drag a tile onto the Timeline row of the layer it belongs to: the target frame tints green if it is free to take the cell, red if it already owns a cell keyframe there. Drops are refused on an occupied frame, never overwritten.

Clicking a Raster Cells tile only picks it. Clicking a Vector Cells tile also jumps the playhead to that cell's first frame.

What the highlight means#

A tile says one thing at a time, with colour alone and no outlines:

• Picked: the tile you clicked, painted with the same selection highlight every other list in the app uses.
• Keyed here: the cell that owns a keyframe on the current frame, washed strongly with the accent colour.
• Held here: a cell showing on the current frame because an earlier exposure holds across it, washed faintly with the accent colour.

View options#

The menu button switches between grid and list layouts, sets the thumbnail size to Small, Medium or Large, toggles the cell-name caption and the xN exposure-count badge, and swaps the thumbnail background between a transparent checker and solid white. Every one of these settings is remembered between sessions. Thumbnails refresh after any edit to a cell, painted or drawn.

Edit once, updates everywhere#

Because a cell is content stored once and merely referenced by every frame that exposes it, drawing or painting on it from any exposed frame changes it everywhere else it appears. That is the whole point of a hold. If you want a variation instead of a change, duplicate the cell first.