Assets Panel

Manages all media assets and compositions in your project. Import, organize, preview, and filter images, videos, and audio files.

The Assets panel is the central hub for everything in your project. It has two areas from top to bottom: Details (preview and metadata for the current selection) and a single project tree holding compositions, folders, and assets together.

Layout

Details

The top section shows a preview and metadata for the currently selected item. It has a fixed height and stays anchored at the top regardless of what's selected.

Image / Video assets display:

• A thumbnail preview (left side) with a blurred ambient background
• Filename and type badge (IMG / VID / AUD)
• A green comp button — click it to create a new composition sized to this asset (with a source layer already added)
• Dimensions (e.g. 1920 x 1080)
• For video: frame rate and duration (e.g. 30fps · 4.2s)
• Full file path (hover to see untruncated)
• "In Use" indicator if the asset is referenced by any ImageSource or VideoSource node

Compositions show the comp name, an "Active" badge when it's the open comp, resolution, frame rate, duration, and layer count.

Folders show the folder name and a count of contained items.

No selection collapses to a minimal "No asset selected" label.

Thumbnails are cached in memory (up to 50) so re-selecting a previously viewed asset is instant.

Toolbar

A single row between the details area and the tree:

1. Color filter dot -- a single dot to the left of the search bar. Click it to open a color picker popover. Select a color to filter the tree to only show items tagged with that color. Click the empty circle (or the same color again) to clear the filter.

2. Search bar -- full-width text input. Type to filter compositions and assets by name. The filter applies across all folders (flattening the hierarchy during search). Press Escape to clear.

3. Action buttons -- New Composition (green comp icon), New Folder, Import Image Sequence, and Import (+).

Project tree

One scrollable tree view for the whole project. At every level, compositions sort first, then folders, then assets.

Composition rows show a green comp icon, the comp name (highlighted in the accent color for the active comp), and resolution / frame-rate badges:

• Click a comp to switch to it
• Double-click to open Composition Settings
• Hover for settings, duplicate, and remove buttons
• Drag a comp onto a folder to file it, like any asset
• Comps take color tags and appear in search results

Asset and folder rows show their color tag dot, type icon, name, and metadata badges. Folders expand/collapse and can be nested.

Importing Assets

There are several ways to import media:

• Click the + button in the toolbar
• Double-click empty space in the tree
• Drag files from your OS file manager into the tree

Supported formats:

• Images: PNG, JPEG, WebP, TIFF, BMP, GIF, EXR, HDR (EXR / 16-bit sources keep their full precision and high-dynamic-range values)
• Video: MP4, MOV, AVI, WebM, MKV

On import, Caddis reads image dimensions and video metadata (resolution, frame rate, duration, frame count) and stores them as asset metadata for display in the panel.

Importing image sequences

A folder of numbered image files — render_0001.exr, render_0002.exr, … — is footage, not a pile of stills. Caddis detects this on import:

• Import (or shift-select) any frames of a numbered run and they collapse into a single sequence asset, named for its range, e.g. render_[0001-0240].exr. You only need to select one frame — the whole run in that folder is found automatically.
• The asset shows its dimensions, frame count, and (when present) a yellow "missing N" badge if frames are absent from the run. Gaps hold the previous frame rather than going blank.
• To force a file to be treated as a sequence even when only one frame matches, use File > Import Image Sequence… and pick any frame.

Dragging a sequence asset onto the viewer or timeline creates a layer wired ImageSequenceSource → Output, trimmed to the sequence length. Because a sequence has no embedded frame rate, the ImageSequenceSource node's Frame Rate parameter sets how its frames are interpreted in time — it defaults to the composition's frame rate (one source frame per comp frame) and can be changed to match the rate the sequence was rendered for.

Organizing with Folders

Click the folder icon in the toolbar to create a new folder. Drag assets — or compositions — onto folders to organize them.

• Folders can be nested (drag a folder onto another folder)
• Folders display a color-tinted icon matching their color tag (neutral gray when untagged)
• Rename a folder by double-clicking its name or selecting it and pressing Return
• Delete a folder with the red X button on hover (assets inside move to root)

Color Tags

Every asset and folder can be assigned a color tag for visual organization. The available colors are:

Tag	Color
Blue	#3272BB
Green	#B1E457
Orange	#E47C0C
Red	#FF2E2E
Pink	#FE75DA
Cyan	#6AF0FF
Purple	#B52FDA

Assigning color tags

Click the small dot to the left of any asset or folder row to open the color picker. Select a color to tag it, or click the empty circle to remove the tag.

Filtering by color

Click the filter dot in the search bar to open a color picker. Select a color to show only assets with that tag. The filter works in combination with text search. Click the empty circle or the same color again to show all assets.

Automatic color inheritance

When you drag an untagged asset into a folder that has a color tag, the asset automatically inherits the folder's color. Assets that already have a tag keep their existing color -- the folder's color doesn't override it.

This makes it easy to set up a color-coded folder structure and have new assets automatically pick up the right color as you sort them.

Using Assets in Compositions

• Drag an image from the tree onto the Viewer or Timeline to create a new layer with an ImageSource -> Transform2D -> Output chain
• Drag an image onto the node graph to create an ImageSource node
• Drag a video to create a VideoSource node/layer
• Click a composition in the tree to switch to it
• Drop an asset on the New Composition button (or click the green comp button in the details area) to create a comp sized to that asset, with a source layer already in place

Missing Files & Relinking

When an asset's file can't be found on disk, its row shows a red Missing badge. This is checked when the project loads, when assets change, and each time the app window regains focus — so restoring a file in the file manager clears the badge when you come back.

Right-click any asset row for a context menu:

• Relink File… (shown when the file is missing) / Replace File… (when it's present) — pick a new file for the asset. Every node that referenced the old file follows automatically, as a single undo step. Metadata (dimensions, frame rate, duration) is re-read from the new file. Relinking an image sequence means picking any frame of the new run; the frame range and name update to match.
• Rename — same as pressing Return on the row.
• Remove — same as the row's remove button.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
Return	Rename selected item (comp, asset, or folder)
Delete / Backspace	Remove selected assets and folders (compositions are excluded — use the remove button on the comp row)
Arrow Up / Down	Navigate the tree
Arrow Right	Expand selected folder
Arrow Left	Collapse selected folder
Escape	Clear search

Tips

• The "In Use" badge appears on assets that are currently referenced by at least one ImageSource or VideoSource node in any layer of any composition. Use this to identify unused assets you might want to clean up.
• Video thumbnails are generated from the first frame using ffmpeg. If ffmpeg isn't available, videos show a VID type badge without a preview.
• Asset details thumbnails are resized to fit within 256px on their longest edge, keeping memory usage low even with many large source files.
• Color tag filters persist while you navigate -- you can select different assets and the filter stays active until you clear it.