Aphelion Editor

User guide

Aphelion is a node compositor: media and effects live on a graph, preview plays through a Viewer, and export reads the active Viewer.

Workspace

The main window is a set of docks:

Dock	Role
Viewport	Preview of the active Viewer
Node graph	Create, wire, and select nodes
Timeline	Playhead, in/out, duration
Properties	Selected node's parameters and keyframes
Media pool	Project media
Logs	Application log (`Ctrl+Shift+L`)

Focus shortcuts: viewport Ctrl+1, graph Ctrl+2, timeline Ctrl+3, properties Ctrl+4.

Reset docks with Reset Layout (Ctrl+Shift+R). Show every dock with Ctrl+Shift+P. Fullscreen is F11.

Node graph

Tab opens the node search palette.
Add Node menus (graph context menu and the application menu) list every registered type, including plugins that are enabled.
Number keys 1 and 2 create Video Input and Viewer by default. Slots 3–0 are unassigned; bind them in Preferences.
Wire output sockets to compatible inputs. Unary video effects take one frame and emit one frame.
F / Shift+F fit the graph. Ctrl+Shift+O auto-layouts by data flow.

Copy, paste, duplicate, and delete operate on the selection (Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V / Ctrl+D / Delete).

Playback and preview

Space toggles play. Left/Right step a frame. Home/End jump to the start/end. I / O set in/out.

Preview is a float32 RGB pipeline in [0, 1]. Decode-time proxy width defaults to 960px. Playback can independently drop to a 640px proxy (Preferences → Performance). Frame cache default budget is 2048 MB (range 256–16384 MB).

Ctrl+Shift+K clears the frame cache.

Timeline and keyframes

The timeline drives current_frame for the project. Animated properties are edited in the properties dock / keyframes panel. Project resolution, fps, and duration are under Project Settings (Ctrl+Shift+,).

Export

Ctrl+E exports the active Viewer to MP4 or a PNG sequence on a background worker. If no Viewer is active, set one in the graph first.

Projects

Projects are .aph JSON documents. Ctrl+S saves; Ctrl+Shift+S saves as. Autosave runs every 30 seconds once the project has a path (disable in Preferences → General).

Preferences

Ctrl+, opens Preferences.

Tab	Typical settings
General	Font, graph grid, autosave, status key hints
Performance	Cache size, decode cache, prefetch, playback proxy, drop-frames
Plugins	Discovery sources, enable/disable, reload, plugin folders
Keybinds	Remap every action and create-node slot
Appearance	Built-in themes or a custom `.aph.theme`
Node Colors	Header colors per node type

Ctrl+/ opens the keyboard shortcuts overview.

Default shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
New / Open / Save / Save As	`Ctrl+N` / `Ctrl+O` / `Ctrl+S` / `Ctrl+Shift+S`
Export	`Ctrl+E`
Undo / Redo	`Ctrl+Z` / `Ctrl+Shift+Z`
Search nodes	`Tab`
Fit graph	`F`
Organize graph	`Ctrl+Shift+O`
Play / Pause	`Space`
Previous / Next frame	`Left` / `Right`
In / Out	`I` / `O`
Preferences	`Ctrl+,`
Keyboard shortcuts	`Ctrl+/`

Pin frequently used actions on the pin bar (toolbar). Visibility is remembered in preferences.