TOON BOOM HARMONY 12.2.1
Preferences Guide

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Harmony 12.2 Essentials - Preferences Guide

Legal Notices
Toon Boom Animation Inc.
4200 Saint-Laurent, Suite 1020
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
H2W 2R2
Tel: +1 514 278 8666
Fax: +1 514 278 2666
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Disclaimer
The content of this guide is covered by a specific limited warranty and exclusions and limit of liability under theapplicable License Agreement as supplemented by the special terms and conditions for Adobe®Flash® File Format(SWF). For details, refer to the License Agreement and to those special terms and conditions.
The content of this guide is the property of Toon Boom Animation Inc. and is copyrighted.
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Trademarks
Harmony is a trademark of Toon Boom Animation Inc.
Publication Date
7/6/2018
Copyright © 2016 Toon Boom Animation Inc. All rights reserved.

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Contents

Contents
Toon Boom Harmony 12.2.1 Preferences Guide

1

Contents

4

Chapter 1: Introduction to Preferences

5

Shortcut Preferences

7

General Preferences

11

Camera Preferences

13

Drawing Preferences

15

OpenGL Preferences

17

Advanced Preferences

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Chapter 1: Introduction to Preferences
The Preferences dialog box lets you adjust preferences to suit your work style, allowing you to work more efficiently.

The Preferences dialog box is divided into the following tabs:•

Shortcuts•

General•

Camera•Drawing•

OpenGL•

Advanced

NOTE: Some preferences require you to exit and restart the application, or close a view and reopen it.

How to access the Preferences dialog box
Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Edit > Preferences (Windows/Linux) or Stage Essentials > Preferences(Mac OS X).

‣

Press Ctrl + U (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + U (Mac OS X).

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Harmony 12.2 Essentials - Preferences Guide

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Harmony 12.2 Essentials - Preferences Guide

Shortcut Preferences

To speed up your work, all of the keyboard shortcuts can be customized. You can even choose other software
keyboard shortcut sets.
In Toon Boom Harmony, you can choose a set of default keyboard shortcuts you are familiar with. You can choose
between the following:•

Adobe Flash•Toon Boom Harmony•

Toon Boom Studio

You can also customize most of the shortcuts and use the search feature to find particular shortcuts.
How to switch keyboard shortcut sets
1. Do one of the following:‣

Windows: Select Edit > Preferences‣

Mac OS X: Select Stage Essentials> Preferences.

‣

Press Ctrl + U (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + U (Mac OS X).

2. In the Preferences dialog box, select the Shortcuts tab.
3. From the Shortcut Set list, select the desired set.

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How to search for a keyboard shortcut
1. In the keyboard shortcut search section, select an option:‣

Name to search for a keyboard shortcut by its name.

‣

Shortcut to search for a keyboard shortcut by its actual keys that activate the shortcut.

2. In the Search field, enter the name of a keyboard shortcut or its shortcut keys.
The keyboard shortcut is highlighted in the left pane. Its shortcuts is displayed on the right pane.

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3. If desired, set a different keyboard shortcut.
4. Click OK.
How to set a keyboard shortcut
1. Do one of the following:‣

Windows: Select Edit > Preferences‣

Mac OS X: Select Stage Essentials> Preferences.

‣

Press Ctrl + U (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + U (Mac OS X).

2. In the Preferences dialog box, select the Shortcuts tab.
3. In the left pane, select a category and then select a command to modify.
4. In the right pane, click the keyboard shortcut.

5. Use the keyboard to set a new shortcut.
‣

To remove a command's current keyboard shortcut, click Clear.

‣

To return a command’s keyboard shortcut to its default, click Default.

6. Click OK.

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If a keyboard shortcut is already in use, the Conflict Detected dialog box will appear notifying you of thecommand to which it is already associated. You can continue to associate the shortcut or cancel theoperation and choose another command.

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General Preferences

To customize your interface, you will use some of the preferences located in the General tab as well as the Cameratab.
Parameter

Description
Auto-Save:•

Interval (minutes): This is the frequency at which the auto-savetakes place.

•

Inactivity Interval (seconds): When Auto-save is about to takeplace, it verify if you are drawing or doing anything in the application.
If so, Auto-save waits this number of seconds before attempting
another save.

•

Ask Before Saving: Before performing an auto-save, the system willprompt you with a message to confirm if you want to save or not. You
can choose to turn off this option.

•

Enabled: This enables the Auto-save feature. If you do not want thesystem to automatically save your work, deselect this option. The
auto-save is off by default.

Save

Automatically Save Workspace: This option is enabled by default. Everytime you add a view to your workspace, remove a toolbar or change a view’s
width, these modifications are saved when you quit the application. If you do
not want the system to save these modifications, disable the preference.
This preference does not require you to restart the application.
Touch Interface:•

Support Gestures: Enable the gestural touch interface for the
OpenGL views. Note, on Mac OS, this determines whether a 2 finger
drag gesture is interpreted as a zoom or a pan.

•

Invert Scroll Direction: Invert the scroll direction.

Options11

•Touch Sensitivity: Control touch sensitivity. On Mac OS, higher
numbers give a slower response to pans. On Windows, higher
numbers favour scale/rotates over pans.

Focus on Mouse Enter:
Disabled by default. In Toon Boom Harmony, for the operations or keyboard
shortcuts to work in the view in which you are working, the focus must be inthat view. When the focus is on a particular view, a red rectangle appears
around its frame. You must click in the view or on the view’s header for thefocus to be done.
If you enable the Focus on Mouse Enter preference, you will not need toclick in the view to get the focus. It will be done as soon as your mouseenters the view.

NOTE: If you enable the Focus On Mouse Enter preference, certain
operations from the top menu may not be available since the view focus
may change as you make your way to the top menu. In this case use
keyboard shortcuts and quick access menus (right-click menus).

Auto Render: Automatically enables the Auto-Render option.
Use Dark StyleSheet (Requires Relaunch): Application loads a dark skinfor the User Interface.
Stop-Motion Keyframes: New keyframes are created as stop-motion
keyframes.
Settings

Default Separate Position for Pegs: New pegs are created with separate
position functions.
Default Separate Scale for Pegs: New pegs are created with separate
scale functions.

Timeline

Add Keyframe at Beginning and End: Add keyframes at beginning andend: Select this option to copy and paste a set of frames that includes aninterpolated sequence between two keyframes, but only extracts a partial
section. Under normal circumstances, cutting and pasting a function without
either the start or end keyframe would render the function null. This option
caps the partial function with a new keyframe when you perform the paste.
Extend Exposure of Previous Drawing: When drawing on a blank frame,a new drawing is created and the timing is extended from the previous
exposed drawing.

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Camera Preferences

Parameter

Description

Settings

Set Keyframe At Frame One With First Application of the Transform Tool:
When this option is selected, wherever you set a keyframe on a layer, a keyframe
is added on your frame 1. If this options is deselected, a keyframe is only added
to the current frame. If later on, you add a keyframe on your frame 1, it may
modify the first keyframe you added.
Small Bitmap Resolution: The size, in pixels, of the smaller bitmap version ofyour image. When you import a bitmap image into a scene, a smaller version of itis created in order to accelerate the compositing and playback processes.
Show Control Points On Selected Layers: By default, when you select anelement with the Transform tool, the motion path related to the object isdisplayed.

Control Points

Control Point Tension: The default Tension value for new keyframes and control
points.
Control Point Continuity: The default Continuity value for new keyframes andcontrol points.
Control Point Bias: The default Bias value for new keyframes and control points.

Colours

Background Colour: Lets you change the background colour.

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Harmony 12.2 Essentials - Preferences Guide

Drawing Preferences

Parameter

Description
Onion Skin Render Style:•

Normal: The onion skinned drawings are displayed in washed out colours.

•

Enable Shade: The previous onion skinned drawings are displayed in
washed out red shades and the next onion skinned drawings are displayedin washed out green shades.

•

Outlines Only: The onion skinned drawings are displayed as outlines
only.

Light Table
Light Table: Enable Shade: When enabled, the drawings appearing on the Light
Table are displayed in washed out colours in the Drawing view. When this option
is disabled, the drawings appearing in the Light Table are displayed using normal
colours. This option is for the Drawing view only.
Light Table: Shade in Camera View: When enabled, the drawings appearing onother layers are displayed in washed-out colours in the Camera view. When thisoption is disabled, the drawings appearing on other layers are displayed using
normal colours. This option is for the Camera view only.
Grid On By Default: When opening the Drawing view, the grid displays
automatically.
Select Tool is Lasso: When this option is enabled, the Select tool behaves as alasso selector. When this option is disabled, the Select tool behaves as arectangle selector.
Options

Brush Size Cursor: When this option is enabled, the brush tool displays thebrush size as a circle around the cursor.
Auto Gap Closing in Pixel Units: Disabling this option will cause your gap to bezoom dependent. Zoom dependent means that the more you zoom in, the smaller
the gap you can close with the Close Gap tools. By enabling this option, youchoose to make the gap display available in pixel units, which is not zoom
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dependent.
Auto Gap Closing on Startup: The values for automatic gap closing while
painting drawings are: 0 = Disabled, 1=Small, 2=Medium, 3=Big.
Background Colour: Lets you change the background colour.
Colours
Grid Colour: Lets you change the colour of the grid.
Enable Paper Zoom: Enabling this option allows you to set the 100% Zoom level
onscreen, in order to physically match the measurements of your paper drawing.

Zoom

Number of Pixels per Inch: Enter the PPI for your monitor. To obtain the PPI of
your screen, divide the height or width of your monitor's resolution setting by thecorresponding physical height or width of your monitor screen (resolution height
divided by physical height, or resolution width divided by physical width) in
inches.
Quick Close Up Zoom Factor: Sets the zoom level for the Quick Close up Zoom
keyboard shortcut.
Maximum Zoom Factor: Sets the maximum zoom level for the paper zoom.

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OpenGL Preferences

Parameter

Description
Conservative Texture Management: Turns on and off conservative memory
management for bitmap texture files. Performance will improve when this isenabled. If disabled, you will have a better on-screen rendering of bitmap files atthe expense of slower performance.
Smooth Textures: Smooths out the pixels of bitmap images when zooming in;this improves bitmap image quality.
Alternate Gradient and Cutter: This is an alternative way to disable write in the
OpenGL Backbuffer, required for some video cards (i.e. GeForce FX5200). Do notenable this option unless you are experiencing problems with gradients andcutters in OpenGL.
Use PBuffer for Picking: This will use an off-screen buffer for picking, resulting
in a quicker response. This option should not be enabled if using a small capacity
video card (32MB).

Settings

Support Triple Buffer: Enable this option for a better compatibility with Windows
Vista if your video card driver does not allow to disable the triple buffering option.
Not enabling this option may result in a dashing line when drawing a brush stroke.
Support Desktop Effects: Enable this option for better compatibility with
Windows 7, Windows Vista and Mac OS X desktop effects. This will prevent
graphic compositing problems from happening when the full-scene anti-aliasing
option is enabled.
Maximum Texture Size: The size that the bitmap file will be reduced to whenusing the Conservative Texture Management.
Texture Memory: The amount of temporary memory used to store bitmap texture
files.
Vector Drawing Maximum Texture Size: This is the size that the .tvg file will be
reduced to for better performance when in OpenGL render mode.
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The Full Scene Antialiasing is generated by your computer’s graphic card. It
provides a smooth line display in OpenGL. This antialiasing will not only antialias
your drawings but all the different views in the interface.
This option lets you see smooth lines as you draw as well as an antialiased
drawing area. You can change the value of the Full Scene Antialiasing using thePreferences dialog box to fit the current level used in the Camera or Drawing
view.
Enable (Requires Relaunch): By default, this option is off. Select to turn on the
Full Scene Antialiasing option. You'll need to restart Toon Boom Harmony.

Full Scene Antialiasing

Number of samples (For Mac OS): Enter the number of samples you want to be
used for the antialiasing process. The number of samples is basically equivalent
to the amount of time a pixel will be enlarged to calculate the antialiasing. This
technique is called supersampling. The higher the number of samples, the betterthe antialiasing quality will be, but the longer it will take to calculate. The
recommended value is 4.

NOTE: If you are using Windows or Linux, you must enable your graphic card’s
antialiasing parameter. Refer to user guide of your graphics card. For example,
the parameters for an NVIDIA GeForce card may look like this:18Harmony 12.2 Essentials - Preferences Guide

Advanced Preferences

Parameter

Advanced Options

Description
Support CMYK in PDF/Illustrator Import: Lets you import .pdf and .ai files thatwere created or exported in CMYK mode. The colours of the resulting imported
image may still not look 100% faithful to its CMYK original due to the RGB
conversion. It is recommended that you convert these files to RGB images before
importing them into Toon Boom Harmony. Disabling this option will cause all thecolours of the imported image to be displayed as red to indicate that the file was
not converted to RBG before import.
PDF/Illustrator Import as Separate Layers: Imports the different
groups/elements of the .pdf or .ai file as separate layers. For Illustrator files, theimport will use the top level group as separate layer names. Deselect this option
to import pdf or .ai files as a single layer.

Tablet Support

Use Qt Wintab Tablet Support (Requires Relaunch): If you are using a tablet
other than Wacom, deselect this option (and relaunch) if you are having issues
with offset or pressure sensitivity.

UnicodeAllow Unicode Names: Lets you use up to 120 ASCII characters for names ofenvironments, jobs and scenes. This means you can use characters forlanguages, such as Japanese, Chinese, French, Spanish, and others, charactersfor names in your database setup—see Advanced Tips and Guidelines on page 1.

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