---
title: "Files, images and pastes"
description: "Bring drawings, images and animations into your document from files or the clipboard."
canonical: "https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/docs/layers/importing/"
last_updated: 2026-10-27
---

# Files, images and pastes

Bring drawings, images and animations into your document from files or the clipboard.

[All layer types](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/docs/layers.md) · [Editing on the stage](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/docs/editing.md)

## Bringing things in

### Dropping files

Drag files onto Creator Terminal (the terminal pastes their paths). Several at once are one undo step,
but for SVGs and Frolic files (`.vd`): they're made while you go on, and each goes in once it's
made, an undo step of its own. The copilot adds files the same way (`import`), all but a Rive
file, which is yours to open.

| file | goes in as |
|---|---|
| Lottie (`.json`, `.lottie`) or Frolic (`.vd`) | a precomp from the playhead, centred and fitted, with its images and fonts |
| a picture (`.png`, `.jpg`, `.jpeg`, `.webp`, `.gif`) | an image layer |
| an SVG (`.svg`, `.svgz`) | its shapes as layers, in a precomp |
| a clip (`.mp4`, `.mov`, `.m4v`, `.webm`, `.mkv`) | a [video layer](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/docs/layers/media.md#video) |
| a sound (`.mp3`, `.wav`, `.wave`) | an [audio layer](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/docs/layers/media.md#sound) |
| a table (`.csv`, `.tsv`, JSON rows) | [data](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/docs/layers/data.md#data) |
| a Rive file (`.riv`) | a document of its own, in a tab: see [Rive](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/docs/layers/importing/#rive) |

### SVG

An SVG's shapes come in as layers to animate, in a precomp named for it (double-click to go in).
Each path is a shape layer with its fills, strokes and gradients; a named group becomes a parent;
clip paths become masks; drop shadows and blurs become effects; text becomes its outlines. What
can't be kept (patterns, inner shadows, other filters, SVG animation) is said.

- Paste an SVG's markup too: Figma's **Copy as SVG**, then `⌘V`.
- `creator-tui icon.svg` opens one as a document of its own, saved beside it as `icon.json`.

### Frolic

A `.vd` file is Frolic, LottieFiles' text language for Lottie. Creator Terminal compiles it.

- `creator-tui bounce.vd` opens one as a document, saved beside it as `bounce.json`; the `.vd` is
  never written over.
- Its loops, physics and scripts become keys you can edit.
- One that doesn't compile says where and why (`line 12:5: …`).
- `creator-tui export bounce.vd --format mp4` renders one without opening it. Any document
  [exports](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/docs/export.md) as Frolic too.

### Rive

`creator-tui ball.riv` opens a Rive file's first artboard as a document of its own, saved beside it
as `ball.json` (the `.riv` is never written over). Open a file… and dropping one open it the same
way, in a tab of its own.

- What Lottie can hold comes over to edit: nodes and shapes as layers, ellipses, rectangles,
  polygons, stars and paths, fills and strokes with their gradients, clips (as track mattes), trim
  paths, images, text (in its first style, its font's glyphs in the file), nested artboards (as
  precomps playing their animation) and bones (a path they bend as they are at the start).
- An image whose picture is bound to a view model's image property is an image token named for
  the property (see [Tokens and themes](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/docs/layers/data.md#tokens-and-themes)), its picture the one the view model
  shows: an app sets it as Rive's sets the property. A picture other images draw unbound is left
  as it is, and said.
- Its layers are in the order Rive draws them, its draw rules followed as the file sets them. A
  rule an animation changes keeps that order throughout, and a rule that would move a part into
  or out of a clip, or rules placing each other in a loop, keep the file's order; each is said.
- Its animations play one after another, each a marker, keyed with Rive's eases. One that plays
  back and forth does where a state or a nested artboard plays it; on the timeline alone it
  loops, and that's said.
- A part that follows another by a constraint (its position, rotation, scale, whole transform, or
  a distance from it) is keyed where Rive puts it at each frame; what hangs under it follows it.
  A constraint on a bone, or above a path bones bend, is left out and said, as bent paths are
  bent as their bones are at the start.
- Its state machines come over as dotLottie's (see [States](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/docs/states.md)): `⌃P` tries them, the
  STATES panel edits them, and a `.lottie` export carries them. Each state plays its animation's
  marker, its inputs and the transitions they guard come as they are, and listeners on a press,
  a click, a hover or a release are interactions on the shape, picture, text or nested artboard
  they listen to (a move, on the whole animation). The events a state or a listener fires come over, as events or links.
  dotLottie plays one stretch at a time, so of a machine's layers the one whose transitions wait
  on something comes over, and the rest are said. What comes roughly is said too: a transition
  taken part way through its animation is taken at its end, a blend state plays its first
  animation.
- What Lottie has nothing for (IK, follow-path and scroll constraints, meshes, data binding, events
  nothing fires, scripts, layouts, listeners on keys or data or on a group, and moving over a
  layer) is left out, and the bottom line says what was, by count (`left out: 1 IK constraint, 1
  state machine layer playing alongside`).

### Tracing a picture

Select a picture layer and click **trace it** in the rail (or right-click it, or the palette's
**Trace the picture into shapes**). It becomes vector shapes where it was, one group per colour,
named by it (`#c9b2fd`), so its parts can be animated.

- **no background** leaves out the colour round its edges, for a cut-out.
- Flat art (logos, icons, illustrations) traces cleanly; a photo makes many small shapes.

### Pasting from other apps

Copy in Figma, LottieFiles Creator or After Effects, then `⌃V` in Creator Terminal. (A terminal's own
paste, `⌘V`, brings only text, so `⌃V` reads the clipboard itself.) Each paste is one undo step.

- **Figma**: select frames or layers and `⌘C`. A frame comes in as a precomp, its layers named as
  in Figma. Shapes, fills, strokes, gradients, groups, booleans, masks, components and text (in
  its font where you have it, else as outlines) come too, and image fills are downloaded. Figma's
  motion comes in as keys from the playhead. What can't be kept is said.
- **LottieFiles Creator**: its `⌘C` is text, so `⌘V` works too. Layers come with their children,
  keys, masks, mattes, effects, text and fonts. Copied keyframes go onto the selected layers from
  the playhead.
- **After Effects**: copied keyframes (position, scale, rotation, opacity, anchor, time remap) go
  onto the selected layers from the playhead. Whole layers can't be read from its clipboard:
  export them with Bodymovin or LottieFiles and drop the `.json` in.
- **Pictures**: a screenshot, a copied image, or a picture dragged from a web page comes in as an
  image layer. Files copied in Finder or Explorer paste as if dropped.

On Linux the clipboard is read with `wl-paste` or `xclip`; over SSH, `⌃V` pastes only what was
copied in Creator Terminal.

## Image layers

An imported picture is an image layer: select it to move, scale, turn, fade, mask or matte it.
To edit its outlines, [trace the picture](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/docs/layers/importing/#tracing-a-picture). The palette also offers
**Trace the picture into shapes, without its background**. The traced shapes replace the picture
in the same place; `u` restores it.

Figma image fills need their images to download. A paste that warns about unsupported parts
may differ from the source; read the bottom line before continuing.