# element

Elements are the layers of your animation. A simple scene consisting of a character linked to a peg, a background and a camera filming the scene, would consist of four elements - the character, the peg, the image (for the background) and the camera.

You can add elements in either the Exposure Sheet or Timeline. However, the elements you can work on are determined by the which window you are working in. In addition, there are certain elements that appear in the Timeline window, but not in the Exposure Sheet window.

There are eight element types you can add to your animation:

- Drawing: vector drawings you create with Toon Boom Studio drawing tools or from bitmap graphics you vectorize, import from Adobe® Illustrator®.

Drawing elements appear in both the Exposure Sheet and the Timeline.

- Image: bitmap graphics that you import into your animation.

Image elements appear in both the Exposure Sheet and the Timeline.

- Sound: sound files you import into your animation.

Sound elements appear in both the Exposure Sheet and the Timeline.

- Media: multimedia files that you link into your animation.

You use the media element type to make a link from your animation to a multimedia file (such as a Macromedia® Flash movie, bitmap, or sound, as well as any Toon Boom Studio template) on your system. Rather than copy the contents of the multimedia file to your animation set directory, Toon Boom Studio makes a link to the file in its location.

This makes it easy for you to update and manage reusable elements in your animation.

Media elements appear in both the Exposure Sheet and the Timeline.

- Peg

Peg elements appear only in the Timeline. You can modify peg elements in Sceneplanning Views, but not in the Drawing View.

- Camera

Camera elements appear only in the Timeline. You can modify camera elements in this window.

- Color Transform Effect: an effect element that you add when you want to transform the colors of attached elements over time.

Color Transform Effect elements appear only in the Timeline.

- Clip Effect: an effect element that you add when you want to create a mask that shows only part of the attached elements below it. For example, if you want to use a cut-out circle to focus attention on a part of your movie, you would add a Clip Effect element and use an elliptical vector drawing as the mask.

Clip Effect elements appear only in the Timeline.

See Also
Drawing Line Art
Basic Sceneplanning Concepts
Exposure Sheet and Timeline Windows
Additive and Multiplicative Color Changes
Clipping Mask Effects