---
title: "Learn Creator Terminal, a minute at a time"
description: "Short films, one idea at a time, from your first look round the studio to export: 47 lessons, 73 minutes in all. Each is recorded from the real app and narrated."
canonical: "https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/lessons/"
last_updated: 2026-10-30
---

# Learn Creator Terminal, a minute at a time

> Short films, one idea at a time, from your first look round the studio to export: 47 lessons, 73 minutes in all. Each is recorded from the real app and narrated.

Install Creator Terminal to follow along:

- macOS & Linux (sh): `curl -fsSL https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/install.sh | sh`
- Windows (PowerShell): `irm https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/install.ps1 | iex`

## 1. The studio

- [1.1 A tour of the studio](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/tour.md) (1:38): Find your way round: the Tools panel, the stage, the Properties panel, the Timeline and the status bar.
- [1.2 Play, scrub and preview](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/play-scrub.md) (1:24): Play an animation, scrub the ruler, step a frame at a time, and watch it in Preview.

## 2. Making things

- [2.1 Draw your first shapes](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/first-shapes.md) (1:25): Draw a rectangle, an ellipse and a star, round their corners, and move one into place.

## 3. Animating

- [3.1 Your first keys](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/first-keys.md) (1:05): Make your first animation: key a circle's position, move it in time, and play it.
- [3.2 Retime on the score](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/retime.md) (1:20): Make the same move slower, then quicker, by moving its keys on the score.
- [3.3 Shape the ease](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/shape-the-ease.md) (1:25): Shape how a move starts and settles: ease presets, a handle, and cubic-bezier().
- [3.4 Motion paths and onion skin](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/motion-paths.md) (1:32): See the path a move travels, bend it into a curve, and use onion skin.
- [3.5 Animation presets and stagger](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/presets-stagger.md) (1:17): Give five dots a ready-made animation, each starting a little after the last.
- [3.6 Squash and stretch](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/squash-stretch.md) (1:31): Give a bouncing ball weight: squashed as it lands, stretched as it falls.
- [3.7 Animate text](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/animate-text.md) (1:19): Bring a headline on a letter or a word at a time, without keying each one.
- [3.8 Strokes that draw on](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/strokes-draw-on.md) (1:19): Make a line draw itself across the stage with trim paths, its Start and End.
- [3.9 Motion without keys](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/behaviours.md) (1:39): Motion without keys: a wiggle for a bell, and a spring to soften a landing.

## 4. Motion principles

- [4.1 Timing and spacing](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/timing-spacing.md) (1:48): Give the same move a different feel by changing its duration and the gaps between frames.
- [4.2 Anticipation and follow-through](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/anticipation.md) (1:55): Give a move intent and weight with a small pull-back before it and an overshoot that settles afterwards.
- [4.3 Arcs and overlap](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/arcs-overlap.md) (1:52): Make a move feel alive: bend its path into an arc and let a smaller part lag behind.
- [4.4 Choreography](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/choreography.md) (1:49): Give a small interface a reading order: one move leads, then the others follow.
- [4.5 A motion system](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/motion-system.md) (1:44): Give a product one motion language: shared timing, easing and a spring, driven by one control.

## 5. Particles

- [5.1 Your first emitter](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/first-emitter.md) (1:22): Make an emitter on an empty stage, aim its particles, and play their flight.
- [5.2 Stream or burst](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/stream-or-burst.md) (1:42): Choose a steady flow or a group at once, then set how often that group repeats.
- [5.3 Over a particle's life](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/particle-life.md) (1:39): Give each particle a lifetime, then make it shrink and fade as it grows older.
- [5.4 Your own particle](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/own-particle.md) (1:42): Turn an animated petal into a particle, keeping its shape, colour and opening movement.
- [5.5 Presets for the moment](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/presets.md) (1:46): Choose a particle preset for the moment, swap its piece, and make it quieter.
- [5.6 Bounces](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/bounces.md) (1:39): Make particles bounce off the floor and a rectangle, then control how they settle.

## 6. Shipping

- [6.1 Export your animation](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/export.md) (1:30): Export a finished animation as an MP4 video, and as a dotLottie for a player.

## 7. Going deeper

- [7.1 Anchor points](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/anchor-points.md) (1:27): See why moving an anchor leaves the drawing in place, and choose where a layer turns.
- [7.2 Parenting](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/parenting.md) (1:44): Connect two layers so one carries the other, while each keeps its own position.
- [7.3 Masks and mattes](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/masks-mattes.md) (1:40): Reveal a circle through another layer, then draw a mask on the circle itself.
- [7.4 The graph editor](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/graph-editor.md) (1:46): Read values over time, shape a handle, and move a key without confusing the graph with a motion path.
- [7.5 Precomps and their time](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/precomps.md) (1:47): Understand a scene's own time, go inside it, and move the whole scene on the main score.
- [7.6 Repeats that follow](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/repeats.md) (1:53): Keep copies linked to one original, arrange them in a row, and delay their motion.
- [7.7 Expression controls](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/expression-controls.md) (1:43): Give a circle a named slider, link its scale, and see why exports keep the motion as keys.
- [7.8 State machines](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/state-machines.md) (1:41): Make a button wait for a press, play one pulse, then return to idle.
- [7.9 What players draw](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/players.md) (1:46): Understand why a material stays in Creator Terminal while a player draws the plain layer.

## 8. Make it with AI

- [8.1 Meet the copilot](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/meet-the-copilot.md) (1:27): Ask Claude Opus to animate a card in the document you have open.
- [8.2 Ask precisely, undo in one step](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/ask-precisely.md) (1:18): Give the copilot a target, timing and limit, then undo and restore its turn.
- [8.3 Tune what it made](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/tune-what-it-made.md) (1:17): Drag Speed and Stagger to adjust a copilot turn without another request.
- [8.4 Let it direct an explainer](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/direct-an-explainer.md) (1:27): Give the copilot a story to tell with an existing solar-power diagram.
- [8.5 Notes on the stage](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/notes-on-the-stage.md) (1:20): Pin a note on an arrow and box the battery, then ask the copilot to fix both.
- [8.6 Recreate a picture](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/recreate-a-picture.md) (1:20): Attach a rocket reference, recreate it, and compare the result on the stage.
- [8.7 Zen](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/zen.md) (1:17): Make a three-dot loader with the picture, conversation and time ribbon in Zen.
- [8.8 Zen's words](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/zens-words.md) (1:18): Ask for snappier, softer and another take with the words beneath a Zen turn.
- [8.9 Try it in Zen](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/try-it-in-zen.md) (1:02): Test a like button's state machine in Zen, then return to editing.

## 9. Agents and explainers

- [9.1 Ideas and takes](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/ideas-and-takes.md) (1:15): Start an idea in Frolic and compare three separate animation takes.
- [9.2 Refine and open](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/refine-and-open.md) (1:15): Refine take B, open its new version in the studio, and save a local document.
- [9.3 A directed explainer film](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/a-directed-explainer.md) (1:58): Choose a directed film and follow a topic all the way to a narrated, finished cut.
- [9.4 Film styles](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/film-styles.md) (1:54): Choose a film's style, and see one director make an explainer in two different looks.
- [9.5 An explainer from your script](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/an-explainer-from-your-script.md) (1:58): Give the director your own script, watch its film, then slow one shot in a new cut.