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1. Create a New Project
   Create a new project.
   
2. Browse Project
   Opens the browser to manually select the path of the project that you want to open (that is not in the recent projects list).
3. Open Selected Project
   Opens the scene selected in the Project Scenes list.
   
4. Close Welcome Screen
   Click to close the welcome screen.
   
5. Preview
   Shows a preview of the scene selected in the Project Scenes list. These are generated by Anima automatically.
6. AXYZ News Blog
   A quick view of the latest posts at the AXYZ Labs Blog.
7. Recent Projects
   Lists the 5 most recently used projects.
   
8. Demo Scenes
   Open any of those scenes to see sample files that show anima®‘s key features.
9. View Website
   Click here to open the AXYZ Design web site.
10. Open Documentation
    Click here to go to the anima® online documentation
11. View Video Tutorials
    Click here to access anima® tutorials
12. FAQ
    Click here to see frequently asked questions about anima®.
13. Contact Support.
    If you have a question that’s not answered in our documentation, in the tutorials or in our Facebook User Group, click this button to contact our Customer Support service and open a ticket.
14. Open at Startup.
    Choose whether you want the welcome screen to appear when anima® starts.

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This mode is arranged into logical panels to help you focus on different aspects of your work such as selecting actors, drawing paths and areas, synchronizing the scene with your 3D app with alive™, applying motion clips, editing the properties of the nodes,  or managing their hierarchy in the node tree.

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1. Main Menu
   This is the core of the application, where you get access to all the other submenus (Project, Scenes, Edit, Preferences, Help, License, and Exit).
   Right next to it you can see the currently activated license on this machine: ALL, PRO, or LITE.
2. Mode
   The mode switch is used to toggle the workspace between Draw [T] and Edit [U] modes.
3. Templates Library
   The Templates library contains system-wide and user-defined area presets. Drag these into the 3d Viewport to quickly populate scenes.
4. Actors Library
   Contains a list of all the actors available in the current project: the ones from the Purchases folder and all the available actors online in the current user account (when using the subscription, all the metropoly® models from the web will be listed).
   Drag them over characters in the 3d Viewport, or into the Crowd field of the Properties panel to assign characters to paths, 4D paths, areas, or chairs.
   The following options will appear when you hover the mouse on the title of all the Library panels (Templates, Actors, Motion Clips, and Backgrounds) and also in the Project properties panel (except the thumbnail option):
   [A] Filter search box
   [B] Thumbnail or List view toggle
   [C] Floating panel toggle
   [D] Hide panel ( use the Panel button [16] to show it again )
5. Motion Clips Library
   Contains a list of all the motion clips and categories available in the current project. Drag these onto the Motion Clip/Category property of an area to assign to all its characters. Assign it to individual characters by dragging to their Actor Clip properties, or directly over a specific actor in the 3d Viewport.
6. Actor submenu
   Right-click on any actor to access the library item sub-menu and organize them as you please.
7. Playback controls
   Use these controls to play back animations. There are 3 playback modes: Simulate and play (showing the tool nodes), Simulate and play preview (hiding the tool nodes), and Generate Preview Video (*.avi).
8. Scene Tabs
   Each opened scene will be displayed in a different tab. You can open multiple scenes from the same project at the same time.
9. Display Buttons
   [F] Display Preferences. Use this button to setup the viewport quality settings and preferred interaction preset (anima®, 3dsMax®, Cinema4D®, Unreal Engine®, Maya® or Blender®).
   [G] Camera Preview. Choose here between the cameras synchronized with alive™.
10. Viewport Navigation tools.
    Let you control the viewport point of view by:
    [H Orbit.
    [I] Pan.
    [J] Zoom.
    [K] Zoom Extents.
    [L] Top View.
11. alive™ button.
    Use this button to connect with the anima® plugin and synchronize scenes, cameras, and backgrounds.
12. Toolbar.
    This toolbar contains all the tools needed to create or edit the scenes:
    [M Select and transform tool. Use this tool to select objects and actors from the viewport.
    [N] Path tools (For 4D walking and Rigged models). Use it to draw walkways (paths) over the collision backgrounds and make the models walk and run over them.
    [O] Avoid area tool. Use this tool to define obstacle areas that the actors must avoid.
    [P] Area Tool. Creates Area objects that provide a simple way to place groups of static actors.
    [Q] Traffic light tool. Creates a special area that let you stop and/or start the actors.
    [R] Chair tool. Lets you create seated people individually or in groups.
    [S] Escalator tool. Lets you create fully animated escalators and moving walkways.
13. 3D Viewport.
    Shows a real-time preview of your animation project and enables you to design, create, and edit areas as well as move actors, assign motion clips, import background models, and create your scenes.
14. Clipping Tool.
    Drag up and down to reveal different levels of the height of the background model. Or click the [+] icon to create more height shortcuts.
15. Timeline bar.
    Use this bar to set the current frame [Z] or the animation range.
16. User Account | Panels.
    [V] Use the Account button to sign in/out of your user account and access your models and notifications.
    [W] Use the Panels button to show or hide the panels available in Draw mode (Actor library, Clip library, Background library, Template library, Project properties, and Node properties).
17. Project node tree.
    This window shows a hierarchical view of all the areas and actors in your scene and allows for an at-a-glance understanding of the project. From here you can create, select and edit all the elements in the animation.
18. Backgrounds Library.
    Contains a list of all the backgrounds available for this project.
19. Node Properties.
    Shows the properties for the currently selected object. This panel is dynamic and its contents will be different depending on the type of object selected.
20. Playback settings
    Adjust the frames, time, playback speed, fps, format, and quality of the video.

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Notice that not all the actors can be modified. For example, the 4D models use cutting-edge technology with animated textures and dynamic topology that is simply too complex to be adjusted. Also, the models from the subscription service cannot be modified yet (they will be in the mid-term future, we are already working on that).

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