Getting it running.
No installer and no account. Unzip the folder anywhere and run douga.exe. It writes its starter brushes beside itself the first time; delete the folder and it's gone.
Windows may still warn you. The download is code‑signed, but SmartScreen wants a reputation as well as a signature, and a new certificate earns that one run at a time. If the blue "Windows protected your PC" panel shows, click More info, then Run anyway. Every install teaches it the build is fine.
Tools
Nine tools that aim, plus brush, eraser and fill which live with the brush sliders. Each has a single‑key shortcut.
| B | Brush — lay down paint at the pressure you press with |
| E | Eraser — take paint back off |
| F | Fill — flood the region under the click |
| I | Eyedropper — take the color under the click onto the brush |
| N | Line — drag a straight segment; Shift snaps the angle |
| C | Camera — drag the export crop, keyed at the playhead; it moves the camera, not the artwork |
| M | Marquee — drag out a rectangular selection |
| L | Lasso — draw a freehand selection |
| W | Magic wand — select the region that matches what you click |
| T | Transform — move / scale / rotate what's selected |
| Y | Text — click the paper to aim, type into the card; Place lands the letters as paint |
| H | Hand — drag the paper around |
Keyboard
Every key below is a default. Preferences has a keyboard section that rebinds any of them, and the menus and tooltips follow.
| K | New cel on the active layer at the playhead |
| D | Duplicate the previous cel |
| , / . | Flip back / forward — drawing to drawing, so a hold is one tap |
| O | Onion skin on / off |
| 0 / 1 | Fit canvas / zoom to 100% (the numpad pair works too) |
| / | Flip the paper horizontally to check the drawing |
| Shift+, / . | Rotate the canvas left / right; Shift+/ levels it |
| Space | Play / stop |
| ← / → | Previous / next frame; Shift makes it a jump |
| Home / End | First / last frame |
| Shift+I / O | Mark the loop start / end; loop the marked range from the Playback menu |
| Ctrl+Shift+N | New layer |
| Ctrl+J / E | Duplicate layer / merge down |
| Ctrl+] / [ | Move the layer up / down the stack |
| Alt+] / [ | Select the layer above / below |
| Ctrl+Shift+H | Layer visibility on / off |
| X | Swap the foreground and background colors |
| [ / ] | Brush smaller / bigger |
| Ctrl+N / O / S | New · Open · Save (Ctrl+Shift+S for Save As) |
| Ctrl+Z / Y | Undo / redo — through structure as well as strokes (Ctrl+Shift+Z also redoes) |
| Ctrl+X/C/V | Cut / copy / paste — frames in the sheet, pixels in a selection |
| Ctrl+A / D / I | Select all / deselect / invert |
| Del | Clear the selection |
| F11 | Fullscreen |
| Ctrl+, | Preferences |
Getting ffmpeg, if you want video
PNG sequences, animated GIFs, APNGs and audio are built in and need nothing installed. Only MP4 out and the video‑import add‑on need ffmpeg, which Douga doesn't bundle.
Get the build
Download ffmpeg-release-essentials.zip from gyan.dev/ffmpeg/builds (linked from ffmpeg.org's download page) and unzip it. The file that matters is ffmpeg.exe, in the bin folder.
Drop it beside Douga
Put that ffmpeg.exe into the Douga folder, next to douga.exe. Douga looks there first, so there's nothing else to set up.
Or point at it
Rather keep it elsewhere? Paste the full path into the ffmpeg path box in Preferences and every video verb finds it there.
The menus
| File | New, Open, Open Recent, Save, Save As · Import (audio, image into cel, image sequence, animated GIF, video, pose, color model) · Export · Export X‑Sheet (PDF) · Export Color Model · Purge Unlinked Data · Exit |
| Edit | Undo / Redo — the item names the verb it takes back · Cut, Copy, Paste Frames · Preferences |
| Select | All / Deselect / Invert · Modify (Expand · Contract · Feather) · Cut, Copy, Paste Pixels · Clear |
| View | Fit / 100% · Rotate & level · Flip horizontal · Dim Canvas · Sheet Overlay · Camera Frame · Sheet Frame (16:9 HD · 3:2 layout · 4:3 TV · Full field, and its color) · Fullscreen |
| Canvas | Canvas Size · Crop to Selection |
| Layer | New / Delete Layer · Duplicate Layer · Merge Down · Trace to New Layer |
| Cut | New Cut · New Scene |
| Effects | One item per loaded plugin — drop a DLL in the folder and the menu grows |
| Animation | New Cel · Duplicate Previous Cel · Clear Cel · Flip Cel Horizontal · Remove Key · Expose On ones / twos / threes · Flip Back / Forward · Camera keys (set · delete · reset) · Onion Skin · Frame Rate (8–30 fps) |
| Playback | Play / Stop · Loop · Scrub Audio · Loop Cut / Scene / Marked Range · Mark Loop Start / End · Clear Loop Marks |
| Window | A tick per panel — Color · Palette · Values · Tools · Brush · Scenes · Camera — plus the two dock columns and the Dope Sheet |
| Help | Start Screen · Tutorials · Enter License Key · What's New · Check for Updates · About Douga · Report a Bug |
Was any of this built with AI?
Some of Douga's source code was written with AI assistance. That's disclosed on the itch.io page and it's the same answer here.
What it doesn't mean: Douga has no generative features. Nothing in it invents, interpolates or finishes a drawing. There's no model in the program and no server behind it, and it doesn't send your drawings anywhere. Every frame in a Douga file is one a person drew, and an export is exactly what was on the cels.
Douga is a traditional hand-drawn tool and the roadmap keeps it one.