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
Twelve 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 |
| U | Shape: drag a rectangle or oval in the brush's ink; Shift makes it a square or circle |
| V | Motion: slide the whole layer on its peg bar; drag writes a motion key at the playhead, the drawing never changes |
| Q | Guide: place the cut's perspective and grid guides; the pen follows them while snap is on |
| 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 |
| R (hold) | Roll: riffle the drawings under your hand at your own tempo; release snaps back home |
| Ctrl+= / - | Zoom in / out a notch (the numpad pair works too) |
| 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 |
| Esc | Stop, and put the playhead back on the frame Play started from; it only does anything while the film is running, so the Esc that closes a card is untouched |
| 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 |
| Shift+E | Erase with the brush that's in hand, its own tip and pressure, without switching to the eraser |
| 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 |
| two‑finger tap / three‑finger tap | Undo / redo |
| pinch · twist | Zoom · rotate the paper; it snaps level when you're close |
| one finger | Pan the paper |
| pen flick | Scrolls the layer list, the sheet or the cut band, with no scrollbar hunting |
Getting ffmpeg, if you want the unusual formats
PNG sequences, animated GIFs, APNGs, audio and H.264 MP4 (in and out) are all built in and need nothing installed. ffmpeg is only for the containers Windows itself won't handle, WebM and MKV and ProRes, and Douga doesn't bundle it.
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, another Douga project, a Krita image, XDTS timesheet, 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 · Guides · Snap to Guides · Sheet Frame (16:9 HD · 3:2 layout · 4:3 TV · Full field, and its color) · Fullscreen |
| Canvas | Canvas Size · Sheet Title · Crop to Selection |
| Layer | New / Delete Layer · Duplicate Layer · Merge Down · Draft (skip on export) · Opacity & Blend (the slider and the six modes, live in the menu) · Trace to New Layer |
| 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 (behind & ahead counts, strength, all layers) · Frame Rate (8 · 12 · 23.976 · 24 · 25 · 30) · New Cut · New Scene |
| Playback | Play / Stop · Loop · Scrub Audio · Loop Cut / Scene / Film / Marked Range · Mark Loop Start / End · Clear Loop Marks |
| Window | A tick per panel (Color · Palette · Values · Tools · Brush · Scenes · Effects · Cel Bin), 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.
The program itself has no generative features: nothing in it invents or finishes a drawing, and it doesn't send your work anywhere.