TOON BOOM HARMONY 12.1
Preferences Guide

2

Harmony 12.1 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
toonboom.com
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® FileFormat (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.
Any reproduction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited.
Trademarks
Harmony is a trademark of Toon Boom Animation Inc.
Publication Date
2015-08-07
Copyright © 2015 Toon Boom Animation Inc. All rights reserved.

3

Contents

Contents
Toon Boom Harmony 12.1 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

194Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Preferences Guide

Chapter 1: Introduction to Preferences
Adjusting preferences to suit your work style allows you to work more efficiently. Harmony has a series ofpreferences you can adjust to customize your personal workflow.

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).

5

Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Preferences Guide

6

Harmony 12.1 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.

7

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.

3. If desired, set a different keyboard shortcut.
4. Click OK.

8Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Preferences Guide

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.
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.

9

Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Preferences Guide

10

Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Preferences GuideGeneral Preferences

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

Description
Auto-Save:•Interval (minutes): This is the frequency at which the auto-save takes
place.

•Inactivity Interval (seconds): When Auto-save is about to take place, it
verify if you are drawing or doing anything in the application. If so, Autosave 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 autosave is off by default.

Save

Automatically Save Workspace: This option is enabled by default. Every time
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 gestureis 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 theoperations or keyboard shortcuts to work in the view in which you are working,the focus must be in that view. When the focus is on a particular view, a redrectangle appears around its frame. You must click in the view or on the view’s
header for the focus to be done.
If you enable the Focus on Mouse Enter preference, you will not need to click inthe view to get the focus. It will be done as soon as your mouse enters 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 skin for
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 scalefunctions.

Timeline

Add Keyframe at Beginning and End: Add keyframes at beginning and end:
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, anew drawing is created and the timing is extended from the previous exposeddrawing.

12Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Preferences Guide

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, akeyframe 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
it is 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 andcontrol points.
Control Point Continuity: The default Continuity value for new keyframes andcontrol points.
Control Point Bias: The default Bias value for new keyframes and controlpoints.

Colours

Background Colour: Lets you change the background colour.

13Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Preferences Guide

14

Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Preferences Guide

Drawing Preferences

Parameter

Description
Onion Skin Render Style:

Light Table•

Normal: The onion skinned drawings are displayed in washed outcolours.

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

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

Light Table: Enable Shade: When enabled, the drawings appearing on theLight Table are displayed in washed out colours in the Drawing view. When thisoption is disabled, the drawings appearing in the Light Table are displayedusing normal colours. This option is for the Drawing view only.
Light Table: Shade in Camera View: When enabled, the drawings appearing
on other layers are displayed in washed-out colours in the Camera view. Whenthis option is disabled, the drawings appearing on other layers are displayedusing normal colours. This option is for the Camera view only.
Grid On By Default: When opening the Drawing view, the grid displays
automatically.
Options

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.
Brush Size Cursor: When this option is enabled, the brush tool displays thebrush size as a circle around the cursor.

15

Background Colour: Lets you change the background colour.
Colours
Grid Colour: Lets you change the colour of the grid.
Auto Gap Closing on Startup: The values for automatic gap closing while
painting drawings are: 0 = Disabled, 1=Small, 2=Medium, 3=Big.
Paint

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, thesmaller the gap you can close with the Close Gap tools. By enabling this option,
you choose to make the gap display available in pixel units, which is not zoom
dependent.
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
the corresponding physical height or width of your monitor screen (resolutionheight 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.

16Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Preferences Guide

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
at the 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 not enable this option unless you are experiencing problems with gradientsand cutters in OpenGL.

Settings

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).
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 whendrawing a brush stroke.
Support Desktop Effects: Enable this option for better compatibility withWindows 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.

17

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.
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 theFull 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 basicallyequivalent to the amount of time a pixel will be enlarged to calculate theantialiasing. This technique is called supersampling. The higher the number ofsamples, the better the antialiasing quality will be, but the longer it will take tocalculate. 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 12.1 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 theRGB conversion. It is recommended that you convert these files to RGB images
before importing them into Toon Boom Harmony. Disabling this option willcause all the colours of the imported image to be displayed as red to indicatethat 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 thisoption to import pdf or .ai files as a single layer.

Tablet Support

Use Qt Wintab Tablet Support (Requires Relaunch):19