Manual
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
Fourteen 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; on a Linework layer, Trim stops at the nearest crossing and Stroke takes whole lines |
| F | Fill: flood the region under the click; Range fills every drawing from one frame to another |
| 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 / flip 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. Drag the cross to set the joint it turns about |
| Q | Guide: place the cut's perspective and grid guides (the pen follows them while snap is on), a symmetry guide that mirrors what you draw, or a 3D model to trace |
| H | Hand: drag the paper around |
| A | Node: on a Linework layer, bend, smooth, taper and tidy a line; Ctrl on a node moves just that node |
| P | Redraw: on a Linework layer, draw over part of a line and the new pass replaces it |
Keyboard
Every key below is a default. Preferences has a keyboard section that rebinds any of them, and the menus and tooltips follow.
drawing frames
| 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) |
| Tab | Hide the panels and the dope sheet so the paper fills the window; again brings them back |
| hold a tool's key | That tool lasts until you let go, then you're back on the one you had; a tap still switches for good |
playback
| 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 |
| Shift+M | Bookmark the frame on the ruler, or take the bookmark off; right‑click one to name or color it |
| Ctrl+← / → | Previous / next bookmark |
layers
| 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 |
paint
| 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 |
file & edit
| 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 |
| Help > Keyboard Shortcuts | The whole key list, where every key can be rebound |
touch & pen
| 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 |
| right‑click / pen side button on the paper | A popup with brush size, recent colors, the palette and your brushes |
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.
01
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.
02
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.
03
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, reference image, 3D model, character rig with the Rig Import add‑on, image sequence, animated GIF, video, pose, another Douga project, a Krita image, XDTS timesheet, OpenToonz level, color model) · Export · Export X‑Sheet (PDF) · Export Color Model · Recording (Record Screen · Pause Recording · Record Timelapse · Export or Discard Timelapse) · Purge Unlinked Data · Exit |
| Edit | Undo / Redo (the item names the verb it takes back) · Cut, Copy, Paste Frames · Preferences (the language is set here) |
| Select | All / Deselect / Invert · Modify (Expand · Contract · Feather) · Cut, Copy, Paste Pixels · Paste from Clipboard · Clear |
| View | Fit / 100% · Zoom In / Out · Rotate & level · Flip horizontal · Dim Canvas · Nearest Neighbor · See Through · 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 · Hide Panels |
| Canvas | Canvas Size · Sheet Title · Crop to Selection |
| Layer | New / Delete Layer · Duplicate Layer · Merge Down · Draft (skip on export) · Onion Skin (this layer) · Opacity & Blend (the slider and the nine modes, live in the menu) · Trace to New Layer · Vectorize to Linework |
| 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 Horizontal / Vertical (the drawing, or just the selection) · Remove Key · Extend Hold · Expose On ones / twos / threes · Flip Back / Forward · Camera (set, delete and clear keys · reset · cut, copy and paste keys) · Onion Skin (behind & ahead counts, strength, all layers) · Frame Rate (8 · 12 · 23.976 · 24 · 25 · 30) · New Cut · New Scene |
| Playback | Play / Stop · Stop Back to Start · Loop · Scrub Audio · Loop Cut / Scene / Film / Marked Range · Mark Loop Start / End · Clear Loop Marks · Toggle Bookmark · Previous / Next Bookmark |
| Window | A tick per panel (Color · Palette · Values · Tools · Brush · Scenes · Effects · Files), plus the two dock columns, the Dope Sheet and the Reference picture |
| Help | Start Screen · Tutorials · Keyboard Shortcuts · Enter License Key · What's New · Check for Updates · About Douga · Report a Bug |