Interactive Documentation
Many examples in this documentation were built directly in Autograph. When a figure or a video comes with a Copy to Autograph button, you can bring the exact composition that produced it into your own project, then explore its layers, change its parameters and see the result for yourself.
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How It Works
In Autograph, everything you copy from the Project panel is stored in the clipboard as plain text. When you select a composition and press Cmd+C / Ctrl+C, Autograph writes a complete description of it in a text format called JSON: its format and duration, its layers, their sources, Generators, Modifiers, keyframes and every parameter value.
Because this is only text, it can travel anywhere text can go. Pasting it back in the Project panel, in any project, even a blank one or on another computer, recreates the same composition.
The Copy to Autograph buttons use exactly this mechanism: the text of each example composition is stored, hidden, in the documentation page, and the button puts it in your clipboard.
The copied text describes the composition, not the media it uses. If a composition relies on external files, such as images, videos or 3D models, the corresponding readers are recreated in the Project panel with their original file paths, but the files themselves are not transferred.
If a file with the same name exists at that same location on the target computer, for example because both computers access the same network drive or shared folder, the reader is relinked automatically. Otherwise, the media appears as missing.
This is why all the examples of this documentation are built without any external file: they only use Generators and Modifiers, and work on any computer.
You can use the same mechanism to share your own setups. Select one or more compositions in the Project panel, copy them, and paste the text in an email, a chat message or a text file. Whoever receives it only needs to copy the text and paste it in their own Project panel.
Using the Copy to Autograph Button
- Click the Copy to Autograph button next to the figure or video. The button shows Copied! for a moment to confirm.
- Switch to Autograph and click in the Project panel, so that it has the focus.
- Press Cmd+V / Ctrl+V.
- Double-click the new composition to open it in the Viewer and the Timeline.
Compositions are pasted in the Project panel: make sure it has the focus, by clicking in it, before pressing Cmd+V / Ctrl+V.
What You Get
- A single composition, named after the page and the example it comes from, starting with _Doc_. For example, _Doc_Circle_Edge_Modes is the first example of the Circle page. The underscore keeps these compositions grouped together in the Project panel.
- A self-contained composition: it does not rely on other compositions or on imported files, so nothing is missing after pasting (see External files).
- Layers with descriptive names, such as Background, Circle - Thickness or Title - Edge Radius, so you can quickly find the part you are interested in.
The composition is yours: change any parameter, animate it, or copy the layers you need into your own compositions.
Try It
Click the button below, then paste in the Project panel of Autograph: you get the composition used to create this animation.