Keyboard & pointer

Pixploder's editor runs on one zoom-and-pan model that is identical on every canvas step — from Step 3 · Locate & Segment through Step 8 · Reconstruct & View, plus the Edit mask dialog. Learn it once and every step handles the same. The rule that ties it together: a plain left-drag is always the step's own tool — draw a box, paint a mask, move a sprite — so panning the view lives on the middle button, the right button, or Alt held with the left. Everything on this page moves the view, picks elements, or sets up work.

Zoom and pan — every canvas step

Steps 3 through 8 render their canvas inside the same zoomable viewport, so these gestures work the same on all six canvases — Locate & Segment, Background, Mask Sprites, Shadow, Harmonize, and the 2D view in Reconstruct — and inside the Edit mask dialog. Zoom is anchored to the cursor: the point under the pointer stays fixed as you scroll, so aim at the detail you want before you wheel in.

The % reset button sits in the canvas toolbar on Steps 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and Step 8's 2D view. On Step 3 the hint line under the canvas spells the model out: Scroll to zoom at the cursor · middle-drag or Alt+drag to pan.

Selecting — clicks and modifiers

Selection shares the same conventions across the element list (Step 3), the sheet chips (Step 5 · Mask Sprites), and the shadow tree (Step 6 · Shadow). The multi-select set is mirrored on the panel and on the canvas — build it from whichever is closer to your pointer.

• Ctrl/Cmd-click an element, chip, or tree row to toggle it in a multi-selection set. The set drives Group (Step 3), Combine (Step 5), and bulk shadow moves (Step 6).
• Shift-click a row in the shadow tree to range-select every sprite between your last click and this one (Step 6).
• Click a tag in Step 3 to highlight its masks on the canvas; Ctrl-click more tags to light up several at once.
• Click overlapping boxes in Step 3 to cycle through stacked boxes smallest-first; one more click deselects.
• Double-click a Step 3 box, or a Background layer's name in Step 4, to open its inline rename field. Enter commits, Esc cancels.

Build Element — the pointer model (Step 3)

Build in Step 3 composes one element from masks you already have, with no AI and no credits. While it is on, boxes stop catching clicks so every press lands pixel-accurately, and the composer bar states the model: Click a mask to add it · right-click (or Ctrl-click) to subtract · click empty space for the background — inside a region that's just the region's leftover. Free, no AI.

• Left-click a mask to union its pixels in.
• Right-click a mask (or Ctrl-click) to subtract it — use whichever your hand prefers. The browser menu is deliberately suppressed over the canvas so the right-click can negate.
• Click empty space for the background remainder; inside a manual region, just that region's leftover.

Enter creates the element from your picks; Esc clears them, or exits Build when there are none.

The Edit mask dialog

The brush icon on a Step 3 element row opens Edit mask, a modal with its own deeper zoom, pan, and undo. Its wheel zoom runs from 0.05× to 64× — far past the main canvases — for pixel-level work, and its toolbar legend reads right-click = opposite · wheel = zoom · middle/Alt-drag = pan.

• Left button paints the active mode; the right button paints the opposite — hold it to add while Remove is active, or remove while Add is active, without toggling. Right-drag does not pan here, unlike the main canvases; pan is middle-drag or Alt+drag.
• Brush paints pixel by pixel — drag to stroke a line — at a Brush size of 1px, 2px, 4px, or 8px (the size picker shows only while Brush is active).
• Wand floods the connected same-color area in one click.
• Rect drags a box that fills every pixel inside at once.
• Undo (Ctrl+Z), Redo (Ctrl+Y), and Invert (swap kept and removed pixels) step or flip the whole mask.
• Apply mask commits the edit; Cancel closes without applying. The % button is titled Reset zoom to 100% (1:1 pixels, centered).

Keyboard: Esc closes without applying, Ctrl/Cmd+Z undoes, and Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Z or Ctrl/Cmd+Y redoes.

Moving and sizing on the canvas

Three steps let you reshape directly on the image.

• Step 2 · Extend Canvas — drag a side or corner handle outward to extend the canvas, inward to crop. A plain drag is 1 px precise; hold Shift to snap margins to a 16 px grid. Your original pixels never move.
• Step 8 · Reconstruct & View, 2D — click a sprite to select it (an indigo box with four corner handles), drag to move it, drag a corner to scale it proportionally about the opposite corner, and double-click to reset it to its natural geometry. The HUD repeats it: drag = move · corners = scale · arrows = nudge (Shift ×10) · dbl-click = reset.
• Step 8 · Reconstruct, 3D — drag anywhere to orbit the diorama. The tilt is clamped (about −10° to 45°) so the scene can't flip under the floor, and the 3D view does not wheel-zoom — only the 2D view does.

Compare and peek

Two steps let you check your work against the source without leaving the canvas — and their two Compare controls behave differently, so it is worth knowing which is which.

• Step 4 · Background — Hold: original (C) peeks the original while you hold the button, or hold the C key; release to return. Compare toggles a wipe you then press-and-drag anywhere over the image (left-button only) to move the divider between original (left) and result (right).
• Step 8 · Reconstruct, 2D — Hold: original peeks the flat image the same way. Here Compare opens a split you move with a slider, not by dragging over the image.

Tap and hold the peek button (or C on Step 4) for a quick before/after glance; reach for Compare when you want to park the divider and study a single seam.

Keyboard shortcuts at a glance

Shortcuts are scoped to the step or dialog that owns them — there is no global hotkey to jump between the eight steps; use the stepper. Every handler ignores keystrokes while you are typing in an input, textarea, or rename field, so naming a layer never nudges a sprite or clears a selection.