Groups & Hierarchy
A group (a container that holds other objects in a parent-child relationship) lets you organize objects on the Stage so they move, rotate, and scale together. A child's position, rotation, and scale are always relative to its parent. Grouping makes transforms, animations, and reuse much easier.
Creating Groups
Select multiple objects and press Cmd/Ctrl + G to group them. Press Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + G to ungroup.
You can also drag objects onto a group in the Hierarchy to re-parent them.
Navigating the Hierarchy
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
Enter | Select the first child of the current selection |
Esc | Select the parent of the current selection |
Cmd/Ctrl + click | Deep-select — click through nested groups on the Stage |
Draw Order
Objects render bottom-up: objects lower in the Hierarchy appear in front. Drag items in the Hierarchy to change their draw order.
Keyboard shortcuts for draw order:
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Cmd/Ctrl + ] | Move layer forward |
Cmd/Ctrl + [ | Move layer backward |
Cmd/Ctrl + Opt/Alt + ] | Move layer to top |
Cmd/Ctrl + Opt/Alt + [ | Move layer to bottom |
Solos
A Solo hides every sibling object except the soloed one — like muting all other tracks in a music app so you can focus on one. Use it to isolate a specific part of a complex hierarchy. Press Cmd/Ctrl + L to toggle Solo on a selected object.
Transform Spaces
Transform Space controls how a group's children interpret their position, rotation, and scale — think of it as choosing whether a child's "up" is relative to its parent or to the whole canvas. This setting lives on each group and affects how objects move throughout the parent chain (the series of nested parent objects above this one in the hierarchy).
Understand local, world, and other transform space modes.
Freeze and Origin
Freeze locks an object's current position, rotation, and scale directly into it, then resets those values to zero — a clean slate with the visual result preserved. This is useful before you start animating.
Origin (Y) lets you move the pivot point of a group or shape. The pivot is the center point for rotation and scale operations.
Press Y to activate the Freeze/Origin tool, or find it in the Toolbar.
Learn when to use Freeze and how Origin affects animation.