Handbook contents
Handbook
How to use Diffreel
Everything on this site, written for the person using it: how to draw a reel step by step, what every control does, and — for anything that changes something — what it changes, who sees it, when to do it and how to undo it.
Start here
- What Diffreel isTwo things live on this site: a playground where you draw animated explainer reels, and a blog of finished ones. This is how both work.3 sections
- Getting an accountRegistering, signing in, resetting a password, and what an account is actually for. Free, and no card.3 sections
- Draw your first reelThe whole loop in ten minutes: pick a template, change the words, arrange the beats, watch it, save it.9 sections
The playground
- The editorThe four areas of the playground, the toolbar above the stage, and what every switch along the top does.4 sections
- Beats and timingA reel is a row of beats. What each one is for, how long it should hold, and how one becomes the next.5 sections
- Every pieceThe toolbox in full — shapes, numbers, words and labels, what each is for, and which need Plus.6 sections
- ConnectionsThe line between two circles, the five things it can be doing, and how to make it say the thing.3 sections
- Colour, backdrop and frameAccents, the ground the reel sits on, the shape of a piece, and the frame the whole thing is cut to.4 sections
- MotionHow a piece arrives, how fast, in what order, and when to leave all three alone.3 sections
- The checksWhat the Checks panel reads, why nothing there blocks a save, and the five questions it deliberately cannot answer.3 sections
- Saving, history and getting the reel outDrafts, the save that spends a month, undo that goes back further than you remember, and the two ways a reel leaves the site.5 sections
Your account
- Plans and the monthly limitFree and Plus, what counts against your month, what happens at the limit, and exactly what changes if a plan ends.4 sections
- Paying for PlusCheckout, what you actually buy, stopping auto-renew, invoices, refunds, and what happens when access ends.4 sections
- Your account screenName, password, the sessions you are signed in on, the sign-ins recorded against you, and deleting the lot.5 sections
Watching reels
Reference
- Keyboard shortcutsEvery key the playground binds. Press ? in the editor for the same list.1 section
- Sizes and limitsHow big a reel may get, on each plan, and what the numbers mean.2 sections
- When something goes wrongThe messages people actually hit, what each one means, and what to do about it.3 sections
18 chapters. Every screenshot here was taken from a working copy of the thing it shows. If the handbook and the product disagree, the product is right — tell us and we will fix the page.