The Quick Sidebar: Your Speed Layer

Brinimate’s interface is built around one idea: you should spend time drawing, not hunting for menus. The Quick Sidebar (the collapsible panel on the left side) is the direct result of that philosophy. It puts your most frequent actions — the ones you use 50 times per session — a single click away.

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📌 How to Open and Close It

The Quick Sidebar is attached to the left edge of the editor, below the main toolbar.

• Expand: Click the small toggle arrow button at the top of the sidebar.
• Collapse: Click the same button again. The panel shrinks to a compact icon strip so it doesn’t eat into your canvas space.

On smaller screens or during intensive drawing sessions, keeping it collapsed minimizes distraction while still giving you one-click access when you need it.

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🎚️ Opacity Slider

The most common request when working on layered illustrations: “How do I change the opacity without going into the Inspector?”

The Quick Sidebar has a dedicated opacity slider at the top of its controls:

1. Select any object (or multiple objects).
2. The slider shows the current opacity (0–100%).
3. Drag it left to make the object more transparent, right to make it fully opaque.

Use case — Depth & Atmosphere: Create the illusion of distance in a landscape by drawing trees at different sizes and progressively reducing the opacity of those farther away. The far trees become ghostly. Your scene gains depth in seconds — no complex layer effects needed.

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✏️ Duplicate

Select an object and hit Duplicate in the Quick Sidebar to create an instant copy placed slightly offset from the original (so you can see both are there).

This is faster than Ctrl+C → Ctrl+V when you just want a quick copy within the same layer/frame. Combine with the opacity slider to create shadow duplicates.

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🗑️ Delete

Removes the selected object(s) permanently from the current frame. Also available via the Delete/Backspace key.

Important: This deletes the object from all keyframes on its layer, not just the current frame. If you want to hide an object in a specific frame, reduce its opacity to 0 instead of deleting it.

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⬆️ Bring to Front / ⬇️ Send to Back

Z-order — the stacking order of objects — is critical in animation. A character’s arm must be in front of its body but behind its jacket.

The Quick Sidebar gives you two buttons:

• Bring to Front: Moves the selected object above all others on the canvas.
• Send to Back: Moves it below all others.

Scenario: You draw a speech bubble, but it appears behind the character. Click Bring to Front once and the bubble pops above everything else.

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✂️ Separate / Ungroup

When a compound object (like a symbol instance or a grouped path) needs to be broken apart for individual editing, this button handles it.

• On a group: Decomposes the group into its individual child objects.
• On a compound path: Separates it into individual paths.
• On a Symbol instance: Expands the instance back into editable raw shapes (note: this disconnects it from the master symbol).

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🔗 Edit Symbol (Shortcut)

If you have a Symbol instance selected, the Quick Sidebar shows a shortcut button to Edit Selected Symbol — jumping you directly into the symbol’s editing context without needing to open the Inspector.

This is particularly handy when you’re in the middle of the timeline and need to make a fast edit to a repeated prop. For a full guide on Symbols, see Symbols & Instances.

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🔵 Pathfinder Quick Buttons

When two or more objects are selected simultaneously, the Quick Sidebar reveals Pathfinder operation buttons:

• Unite — merge all selected shapes into one.
• Subtract — cut the top shape out of the bottom.
• Intersect — keep only the overlapping area.
• Exclude — keep only the non-overlapping parts.

These are the same operations available in the Inspector — the Quick Sidebar just saves you the trip. For an in-depth tutorial, check the Pathfinder guide.

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💡 Pro Tip: Use the Quick Sidebar during composition passes — those moments in production where you’re rapidly arranging elements, testing depth order, and adjusting translucency. During drawing/detail passes, collapse it to reclaim screen space. Switching modes in seconds keeps your flow state intact.