The interface at a glance
A quick tour of the five places you'll spend your time in DNA.
DNA's window is a set of dockable panels. You can drag any panel by its tab to re-arrange the layout, split a panel in any direction, stack panels as tabs, or pop one out into its own window. The layout you build is remembered between sessions.
Here are the five panels you'll use most.
The node graph
This is where you build. Every effect, shape, render, and export in DNA is a node, and you wire nodes together to make things happen. The graph is the heart of the app — the other panels are all views onto what the graph is doing. Press Tab anywhere in the graph to search for and drop in a new node.
See The node graph and Creating & wiring nodes.
The viewport
The viewport shows the live result of whatever node you're looking at — your 2D canvas, your 3D scene, your render. It's fully interactive: navigate the camera, grab and move objects, and switch between on-screen tools. It's not a read-only preview, so you can author directly in it.
See The viewport and Viewport tools.
The parameters panel
When you select a node, its settings appear here — sliders, colours, toggles, menus, and so on. This is where you dial in a look, type in exact values, or right-click a parameter to animate it or drive it from a live input.
See Parameter widgets.
The timeline
The bottom of the window holds the timeline and the layer list. The timeline drives playback and time — hit Space to play or pause, scrub the playhead, and set keyframes to animate. The layer list sits alongside it, where you control visibility, opacity, blend mode, and stacking order.
See The timeline and Layers & compositing.
The asset browser
Your library of files to bring in — images, models, audio, and more. Search and filter it, switch between grid and list views, and drag a file straight onto the graph or viewport to import it.
See The asset browser.
Don't like the default arrangement? Drag any tab to the edge of another panel to dock it there, or out of the window entirely to float it. See Panels & Layout and Pop-out windows.