Navigation

Ordinary Animator is organised around entities -- projects, episodes, scenes, shots, characters, locations, and props. Three ideas do most of the work:

• Lists -- every entity of a type (all your characters, all your shots).
• Views -- the different pages of a single entity (Media, Properties, Sequencer, ...).
• Recent -- the app remembers where you've been, so you can jump back without searching.

The sidebar ties them together for whole-entity-type navigation, and the page header handles moving between the entities in a sequence.

The sidebar

The primary navigation is a persistent sidebar down the left edge of the app. It is always there -- you don't open it from a menu.

• It can be expanded (icons with labels) or collapsed (icons only). Use the chevron at the bottom to toggle; your choice is remembered between sessions.
• Its contents appear once you open a project. With no project open, the sidebar shows a single Projects entry that takes you to your project list.

The anchor: current project and episode

The top of the sidebar is an anchor showing where you are:

• The current project, and -- once you open one -- the current episode beneath it.
• Click either name to jump to that entity's home page.
• Each has an X to close it. Closing the episode drops you back to the project; closing the project returns you to your project list. The anchor stays visible even while you work on a character, location, or prop, so you always know the project and episode in context.

Sections

Beneath the anchor, once a project is open, are the entity-type sections: Characters, Locations, Props, and Episodes. Each is a direct link -- click it to open that type's full list, where you can browse, create, star, and search. There is no hover menu; one click takes you to the list.

Scenes and shots are not sidebar sections. You reach them through the episode's Shot List, and step between them from the page header (see Moving between scenes and shots below).

Recent

The bottom of the sidebar keeps a unified Recent history -- the entities you last opened, across every type, newest first. Click one to jump straight back to the exact view you were on. The list fits the space available; when there are more than fit, the last row becomes a See N more link that opens the rest in a popup.

Views

Within an open entity, you switch between its views from its page header.

The current views for each entity type (opening an entity lands on the first view in its list -- for a project that is the Episodes list, for an episode its Properties):

Entity	Views
Project	Episodes, Characters, Locations, Props, Timeline, Schedule, Properties, Team, AI Models, Workflows, Recipes, Media, Sound, Agents
Episode	Properties, Outline, Script, Analysis, Dialogue, Storyboard, Brief, Shot List, Sequencer, Media, Guide
Scene	Media, Properties, Sequencer
Shot	Media, Properties, Sequencer
Character	Media, Properties, Voice, Profile
Location	Media, Properties, Profile
Prop	Media, Properties, Profile

The episode's Script view is where you write the screenplay, and the Guide view is where you work through its production plan (see Guide).

Moving between scenes and shots

Scene and shot pages carry their navigation in the page header rather than the sidebar:

• The name at the left of the header is a link back to the Shot List -- click it to see every scene and shot in the episode and pick a different one. The Shot List highlights and scrolls to wherever you came from.
• A stepper at the far right -- previous, up, next -- walks the episode's table of contents in order: a scene, then each of its shots, then the next scene, and so on. The up arrow returns you to the Shot List; the previous and next arrows step one entry at a time. Because the stepper is pinned to the right, it never shifts as names change length, so you can click through a run of shots quickly.

For characters, locations, and props, the header name is paired with a Looks picker for switching between that entity's variants (see the relevant reference page).

The guide bar

A slim highlighted strip sits directly under the page header on nearly every page. It is a coach: it knows the plan's recommended next step, it knows what you are working on, and it keeps the two apart.

• Before you have any projects, it invites you to create your first one; with projects but none open, it offers to open one; inside a project with no episodes yet, it points you at creating an episode.
• When it tells you to create something, it gives you the button. On an empty Projects page it carries New project; on an empty episode list, New episode; on an empty Characters, Locations or Props list, New character, New location or New prop. It is the same button, opening the same dialog, as the one on the page itself -- so you never have to hunt for it. Once the list has entries the bar drops the button; the list's own toolbar has it from then on. Scenes and shots have no such button: they come from your screenplay and the shot list, not from a list page.
• While you are working on something, it helps you finish it. On a character, location, prop, scene or shot page with unfinished work, the bar names the card you are on and how far along it is: "Story for VENN, 2 of 6." It does not mention anything else. If you have jumped ahead of the plan and an earlier step really feeds this one, it adds one sentence saying which and why, with a button to go there. If nothing earlier feeds it, it says nothing about the plan at all -- working out of order is allowed, and the bar does not nag about it.
• When you finish, it hands you back. "VENN's story is done! HELM's story is next." The next name is a dropdown: open it to pick a different character, location or prop and the sentence changes to match; the Next button after the sentence takes you to whoever it names. If you had jumped ahead, the bar offers the same kind of work on someone else first and the unfinished earlier phase last, by name, with Next and Go back after the sentence, so returning is one click but never forced.
• Some steps put their answer in the bar itself. A step that asks for something optional offers Create and Don't create side by side, so declining is one click and a real recorded answer. A step you complete by hand ends with I'm done.
• If a page is empty because an earlier step has not been done -- a scene list before the script has been analysed -- the bar says so and links the step.
• The Explain button asks the assistant to explain the current step, and the checklist icon at the right opens the episode's Guide at that step, where you can see overall progress.
• When the next step is on another page and this one has nothing open, the bar keeps its options few: Next to go there, and Explain current page, which asks the assistant to describe the page you are on.

The bar remembers nothing about where you have been. Reload the page and it reads the plan again.

If you are ever unsure what to do next, follow the guide bar.

The Help button

Help sits at the top right of the page header, on every page. Click it and three things happen at once: the assistant chat opens at a comfortable width with the cursor already in the message box, and the two introductory spotlights play again -- first the guide bar, then the chat panel. It is the "I am lost" button: it never changes your work, so it is always safe to press.

First-time hints

The first time you encounter a few key parts of the app -- creating your first project or episode, the sidebar anchor, the Recent list, the view switcher, the assistant chat, and the guide bar itself -- a one-time spotlight dims the page around that element and explains it briefly. Click Got it (or anywhere) to dismiss. Each hint appears only once per account; they are independent pointers, not a tour you can fall behind on. Help replays the guide bar and chat hints whenever you want them again.

The account menu

Your avatar sits at the bottom of the sidebar. Click it for the account menu -- settings, configuration, and account actions (What's New, My Account, Settings, Change Log, Comfy Queue, the light/dark theme toggle, and Sign out). See Account Menu for the full list.

While the sidebar is expanded, a live credits consumed figure sits beside the avatar, so what you are spending is visible without opening anything.