Essentials

Toon Boom
Harmony Essentials V15.0
Getting Started Guide

TOON BOOM ANIMATION INC.

+1 514 278 8666

4200 Saint-Laurent, Suite 1020
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
H2W 2R2

contact@toonboom.com
toonboom.com

Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started 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 ® 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.
Any reproduction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited.
Trademarks
Harmony is a trademark of Toon Boom Animation Inc.
Publication Date
01-15-2020
Copyright © 2018 Toon Boom Animation Inc., a Corus Entertainment Inc. company. All rights reserved.

1

Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Table of Contents

2

Getting Started

6

Chapter 1: About the Welcome Screen

8

Chapter 2: Creating a Scene

10

Chapter 3: Introduction to the Harmony User Interface

12

Views

14

Camera view

14

Drawing view

15

Tool Properties view

16

Colour view

17

Timeline view

17

Xsheet view

18

Library view

19

Interface Navigation

20

Touch Interface

22

Chapter 4: How to Draw

26

Adjusting Drawings

27

Chapter 5: How to Paint

30

Colour Palettes

31

Painting

33

Closing Gaps

34

Chapter 6: How to Create Paperless Traditional Animation

36

Creating a Rough Animation

36

Reviewing your Animation

39

Cleaning Up

40

Chapter 7: How to Import Images

46

Vectorizing Images

48

Chapter 8: How to Set Up a Scene

50

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Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

Adding a Camera

50

Positioning the Camera

50

Positioning Objects

53

Repositioning the Pivot

55

Chapter 9: How to Animate Objects and the Camera

58

Animating a Layer

58

Animating the Camera

61

Chapter 10: How to Rig a Cut-out Character

66

Drawing the Pieces

66

Adding Pegs

69

Creating a Layer Hierarchy

70

Master Peg

72

Chapter 11: How to Animate a Cut-out Character76

Navigating Layers

81

Chapter 12: How to Use Deformers

84

Bone Deformer

84

Game Bone Deformer

85

Creating Deformers

85

Displaying Deformers

88

Modifying Existing Deformation Chains

89

Animating With Deformers

92

Chapter 13: How to Import Sound and Add Lip-Sync

96

Importing Sound

96

Automatic Lip-Sync Detection

97

Animating Lip-Sync Manually100

Chapter 14: How to Add Effects to a Scene

102

About Effects

102

Adding an Effect103

Using the Cutter Effect105

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Table of Contents

Animating an Effect107

Creating an Effect Based on an Animated Character

117

Chapter 15: How to Use Drawing Guides

120

Chapter 16: How to Create a Multiplane

126

Chapter 17: How to Create and Use Templates

130

Creating a Template

130

Importing a Template

131

Chapter 18: How to Export a Movie

134

Glossary142

4Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

5

Getting Started

Getting Started
Harmony is a complete animation software allowing you to create all kinds of creative animation projects. It
comes with a very wide variety of tools and features.
In this Getting Started Guide, you will learn about the main features and basic concepts of Harmony Essentials,
which will quickly bring you up to speed. Refer to the complete Toon Boom Harmony documentation available
online at docs.toonboom.com to learn about all the tools and options, as well as advanced techniques.

6Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

7

Chapter 1: About the Welcome Screen

Chapter 1: About the Welcome Screen
When you start Toon Boom Harmony, the Welcome screen appears. If a scene is already open, you can display
the Welcome screen by selecting Help > Show Welcome Screen.

The Welcome screen allows you to:
1. Create scenes
2. Choose your scene resolution
3. Manage your scene resolution presets
4. Quickly open recently opened scenes
5. Browse for and open a scene from your documents
6. Watch Harmony video tutorials
7. Open the online support page8

Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

9Chapter 2: Creating a Scene

Chapter 2: Creating a Scene
You can create or open a scene using the Welcome screen.

How to create a scene from the Welcome screen
1. In the Name field, type the scene’s name.

NOTE
The scene name should not exceed 23 characters and cannot contain special
characters, such as *&^%!.
2. To decide in which directory the scene will be created, click the Browse button next to the Location
field.

3. From the Camera Size menu, select a scene resolution.

4. Click on Create Scene.
A new scene is created.

10Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

11

Chapter 3: Introduction to the Harmony User Interface

Chapter 3: Introduction to the Harmony User
Interface
Using Toon Boom Harmony will be significantly easier if you first become familiar with its user interface. This
chapter gives you a basic introduction to the most important elements of the user interface. As you go throughthe ensuing chapters, you will learn more detailed information about each of these elements.
When you start Toon Boom Harmony for the first time, the default workspace is displayed. The workspace iscomprised of toolbars and panels, referred to as views, which allows you to create and edit your scene. The
default workspace contains the most commonly used toolbars and views for digital animation.

How to add a view to your workspace as a tab
1. In the top-right corner of an existing view, click the Add View

12buttonHarmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

2. Select the desired view from the list.
The view appears as a new tab in the same section of your workspace:

NOTE
Some views, such as the Camera view, can be opened in multiple instances. For example, thiscan be useful if you want to have two instances of the Camera views open, each focused on
different areas of your scene, to quickly switch between working on these two areas.

How to add a view to your workspace as a window
1. Open the Windows menu.
2. Select the view you wish to add.
The view will appear as a new window over Harmony's main application window.

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Chapter 3: Introduction to the Harmony User Interface

How to dock a view window to your workspace
1. Drag a window by its tab and do one of the following:lDrop the window onto other existing tabs to add it to that set of tabs.

lDrop the window above, below or beside an existing view. When you get close to theedge of a view, a black rectangle with a blue background appears, indicating wherethe view will be inserted.

Views
Here is a short introduction to each of the most commonly used views in Harmony.

Camera view
The Camera view is the centre of operations in Harmony. In this view, you can draw, paint, animate, set up yourscene, manipulate objects, open symbols and preview your animation.
The Camera view also has a top and bottom toolbar that you can use to navigate in the view, change thedisplay mode or go up your symbol hierarchy.

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Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

Drawing view
In Harmony, you can draw in both the Drawing or Camera views. Although the two views are similar, there aresome differences when it comes to drawing.
Only the selected drawing is displayed by default in the Drawing view. You can use features, such as the lighttable to display the current drawing of all the enabled layers of your scene in washed-out colours, or the Onion
Skin to display the previous and next drawings of the currently selected drawing layer.

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Chapter 3: Introduction to the Harmony User Interface

Tool Properties view
The Tool Properties view contains the most common options and operations related to the currently selected
tool. When you select a tool from the Tools toolbar, the Tool Properties view updates.
For example, if you choose the Select tool, the Tool Properties view will display the options and operations
related to it, such as Snap to Contour, Apply to All Drawings, Flip Horizontal, and Flatten.

16Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

Colour view
The Colour view is where you create colours and palettes and import existing palettes into your project. The
Colour view is also necessary for drawing, painting and creating colour styling.

Timeline viewTo set your animation timing, you will mostly work with the Timeline and Xsheet views. It's extremely useful to
become familiar with the Timeline view, how it works, and its interface.
The Timeline view is the main view used when adjusting the timing of drawings, adding keyframes andordering layers. The Timeline view displays layers, effects, sounds, keyframe values, scene length, layer names,
drawings, keyframes, timing, and frames.

17

Chapter 3: Introduction to the Harmony User Interface

The Timeline view allows you to read your timing from left to right. It represents the scene’s elements in theirsimplest form. You can also see the layers and their names, as well as the drawing’s exposure. The drawing
name is displayed when you place your pointer over the drawing’s exposure.

Xsheet view
The Xsheet view lets you read the timing vertically by displaying it in a grid, with each drawing layer
represented by a column, each frame of your scene represented by a row, and each exposed drawing displayedby its name in the cells. It is meant to work like a traditional animation exposure sheet.
Using the functions panel, you can also view the functions and keyframes of the motion paths for the selectedcolumn, with the value of those functions for each frame listed in the cells.
Contrary to the Timeline view, the Xsheet view does not display pegs, effects or layer hierarchy. Hence, it is
optimized for traditional and paperless animation, whereas the Timeline view is optimized for digital or cut-out
animation.

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Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

Library view
The Library view is used to store elements such as animation, drawings, backgrounds and character models so
as to reuse in different scenes and projects. You can also use the Library view to create and store symbols, aswell as to store and import images and sound files.
To reuse elements from a scene in other scenes, you must create a template so that you can import it into
different scenes. Templates can contain anything from a single drawing to a whole scene structure. You cancreate a template by creating it in a scene, then copying the elements you want in your template into a library.
The resulting template is structured like a mini-scene that contains only the elements you copied into it. A
template does not have any dependencies on the scene it was originally created in. Hence, it can safely be
imported in any other scene.
Additionally, the Library view's Drawing Substitution panel allows you to quickly change the current frame's
exposure to one of the existing drawings in a layer. This is especially useful for animating a cut-out character's
mouths, hands, eyelids and other such body parts which typically contain several drawings to choose from.

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Chapter 3: Introduction to the Harmony User Interface

Interface Navigation
Toon Boom Harmony lets you zoom in, zoom out, rotate, pan and reset views for easy navigation of theinterface.
The navigation commands in the table below can be used in the following views, with some exceptions:lCameralDrawinglTimelinel

XsheetlFunctionlSide and Top

Command

ActionAccess Methods
View > Zoom In

Zoom In

Press 2Zooms in the view.

Roll the mouse wheel up (except in
the Timeline and Xsheet views)
View > Zoom Out
Zoom Out

Press 1

Zooms out the view.

Roll the mouse wheel down (except
in the Timeline and Xsheet views)

20Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

Zoom Inor OutRoll the middle mouse button up or
down.
Zooms in or out of the view.

Hold down the Spacebar and the
middle mouse button while dragging
the mouse up or down.
Hold down the Spacebar and drag inthe direction you want to pan the
view.

Pan

Moves the view horizontally or vertically.

Reset Pan

Resets the view’s pan to its default position.

Reset
View

Resets the view to its default position.

Reset
Rotation

Resets the view’s rotation to its default position.

Reset

View > Reset Pan
Press Shift + N
View > Reset View
Press Shift + M
View > Reset Rotation
Press Shift + X

Resets the view’s zoom to its default position.

View > Reset Zoom

RotateView

Rotates the view.

Press Ctrl + Alt (Windows/Linux) or
Ctrl + ⌘ (macOS) and drag in the
direction you want to rotate the view.

Rotate 30
CW

Rotates the Camera view 30 degrees clockwise, like ananimation table.

View > Rotate View CW

Rotate 30
CCW

Rotates the Camera view 30 degrees counter-clockwise,
like an animation table.

View > Rotate View CCW

ToggleQuick
Close-up

Instantly multiplies the view's Zoom Factor by 4. For
example, if the Camera View's Zoom Factor is at 100%,
this will make it toggle between 400% and 100%.

Shift + Z

ToggleFull
ScreenCycles through the following display modes:

View > Toggle Full Screen

Zoom

l

Normal Full-Screen: The main application
window becomes full screen.

21

Press Ctrl + F (Windows/Linux) or ⌘+ F (macOS)

Chapter 3: Introduction to the Harmony User InterfacellView Full-Screen: The selected view becomes fullscreen and all other views are collapsed.
Normal: The main application window is restored
to its original size and collapsed views are
expanded.

Touch Interface
If you are working with a touch screen, a trackpad or a tablet that supports touch input, you can also use
standard two-finger gestures to zoom, rotate and pan the Camera and Drawing Views. To be able to do this,you must first enable the Support Gestures preference.

How to enable gesture support
1. From the top menu, go to Edit > Preferences (Windows/Linux) or Harmony > Preferences (Mac OS
X).
2. Open the General tab.
3. In the Touch Interface section, check the Support Gestures check box.
4. Click on OK.
5. Restart Harmony.
You can now manipulate the Camera and Drawing views by dragging two fingers on your touch
interface.

How to use gestures
1. In the Camera or Drawing view, press two fingers a short distance from each other.
2. Do one of the following:l

To pan the view, drag your two fingers in any direction, keeping both fingers at the same
distance from each other.

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Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guidel

To zoom in, drag your two fingers away from each other.

l

To zoom out, drag your two fingers closer to each other.

l

To rotate, drag your two fingers in a curve so that they revolve in the same direction.

23

Chapter 3: Introduction to the Harmony User Interface

24Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

25

Chapter 4: How to Draw

Chapter 4: How to Draw
As soon as Toon Boom Harmony is started, you can start to draw straight away using the default drawing
layer.

How to draw
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Brush

tool or press Alt + B.

2. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, click in the first cell of the drawing layer.

3. To select a colour, click on the colour you wish to use in the Colour view. For more information on how
to create and edit colours, see How to create or edit colour swatches on page 32.

4. In the Drawing or Camera view, start drawing.

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Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

Adjusting Drawings
Harmony offers multiple ways to adjust drawings. You can undo your last stroke, erase parts of a drawing,
move, transform or delete strokes, and tweak the points and curves of your pencil lines.

How to undo your last stroke
1. Do one of the following:l

From the top menu, select Edit > UndolPress Ctrl + Z (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + Z (macOS).

How to erase
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Eraser

tool or press Alt + E.

2. In the Drawing or Camera view, draw a stroke over the parts of your drawing you want to erase.

How to edit drawing strokes
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Selecttool or press Alt + S.

2. In the Camera view, select strokes you want to edit by doing one of the following:lClick on a stroke to select it.

lHold Shift while clicking on a stroke to add it to your selection.

lDraw a lasso around drawing strokes to select them simultaneously.

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Chapter 4: How to Draw

3. Do one of the following to edit your selection:l

To reposition, click the selected drawing object and drag the selection to a new area.

NOTE
You can also nudge your selection using the arrow keys, and fast-nudge
your selection by holding Shift and pressing the arrow keys.

l

To rotate, grab the selection box handle and rotate it.

l

To scale, pull or push on the top, side, bottom or corner control point. Hold down Shiftto lock the selection’s ratio.

28Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guidel

To skew, drag sideways or up and down the sides or top and bottom segments,
between the control points.

l

To delete, press Del (Windows/Linux) or Backspace (macOS).

29

Chapter 5: How to Paint

Chapter 5: How to Paint
Toon Boom Harmony has some very powerful painting features to add colour to your drawings. Whereas someother software only allow users to work with one colour swatch at a time, painting in Harmony is done by using
palettes containing multiple colour swatches that can be saved and reused as needed.

In the Colour view, you choose a different colour swatch for each colour you want to paint in your drawing. You
can add as many swatches as you want. You can also rename them and modify existing ones.

When you modify the colour of an existing swatch, it automatically updates all the zones painted with thisswatch throughout the entire scene. The colour swatch has a unique ID number that associates it with thepainted zones. This way, you can change the look of your character at any time without having to repaint it!
Another advantage of this system is that you can create complete palettes for different lighting situations. For
instance, in addition to the regular palette for a character, you could have one for that character in the rain30

Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guideusing colours that are duller and less vibrant than the dry daytime colours, or yet another for using in a night
scene. Using palettes linked to your character in this way allows you to instantly change its colouring to suit themood and atmosphere of the scene without having to repaint each element.

Colour Palettes
In animation, specific colours are used to paint each part of each character. In order to maintain absoluteconsistency, a base colour palette should be created for each character, prop and effect in the production. Thisis referred to as a master palette.
Master palettes contain a colour swatch for each area to colour. Each swatch stores a colour in precise levels ofred, green, blue and opacity (the latter which is referred to as alpha).
Using a master colour palette has many benefits, including:lEach character consistently retains their dedicated colours.

l

You cannot accidentally use a colour which is not in the master palette.

lStandardization and colour consistency throughout the production.

lMultiple artists can use the same colour palette and produce the same results.

Harmony uses palettes to hold all the colours needed to paint your elements, allowing complete control andconsistency in the painting process.
A palette is created by assigning a set of colours to each character, prop or effect. You will create a new paletteand add a new colour, known as a colour swatch, for each zone of the character, such as the skin, hair, tongue,
shirt, pants, and so on.

How to create a new palette
1. From the Colour view menu, select Palettes > New or click the New Palette
The Create Palette dialog box opens.
2. Enter the palette name according to the model.

3. Click OK.
The palette appears in the palette list.

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Chapter 5: How to Paint

How to create or edit colour swatches
1. If you want to create a new colour swatch, click the Add Colour

button in the Colour view. If you

want to edit an existing colour swatch, select the colour in the Colour view.
2. Do one of the following to edit the colour swatch:l

From the Colour view menu, select Colours > Edit.

l

Double-click on the colour swatch.

The Colour Picker window opens.

3. To set your colour, do one of the following:lSelect either Red, Green, Blue, Hue, Saturarion of Value to change the colour wheel's
spectrum, then click on the desired colour in the colour wheel.

lEnter the hue, saturation, value, red, green and blue values manually into theircorresponding fields. All values range from 0 to 255.

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Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

NOTE
If you change a colour swatch after having drawn or painted areas of a drawing with it, all the areasthat were painted with this colour in your drawings will update to the new colour.

Painting
You can paint the closed zones of your drawings by using the Paint tool.

How to paint drawings
1. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select the drawing you want to paint.
2. In the Tools toolbar, select the Paint

tool or press Alt + I.

3. In the Colour view, select your character's palette.
4. Select a colour from the palette.

5. In the Drawing or Camera view, start painting the colours on your drawing.

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Chapter 5: How to Paint

NOTE
When opening a scene, the scene's palettes will not be immediately loaded into the Colour
view. You must select a drawing first.

Closing Gaps
When painting, you may find that some areas of your drawings were not completely closed due to small gaps intheir outlines, which prevents the Paint tool from filling the area as it only fills closed shapes. To close the zone,
you can draw a line over the gap with the Brush or Pencil tool. However, it is also possible to close the gap byadding an invisible line over it, which the Paint tool will treat like an ordinary line. In Harmony, invisible lines
used to define areas to colour are called strokes.

The Close Gap tool lets you close small gaps in a drawing's outline by instantly drawing a stroke to fill the gap.
Contrary to the Stroke tool, you do not need to draw with precision when using the Close Gap tool. Simply
drawing a crude stroke near the gap will automatically create a straight stroke that connects directly from one
end of the gap to the other.

How to use the Close Gap tool
1. Before working with strokes, it's recommended to enable the Show Strokes option so that you can
see them in the Drawing or Camera view. You can enable the Show Strokes option by doing one of
the following:l

From the top menu, select View > Show > Show StrokeslPress K.

2. Do one of the following:34

Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guidel

In the Tools toolbar, select the Close Gap

tool.

l

From the top menu, select Drawing > Drawing Tools > Close Gap.

l

Press Alt + C.

3. In the Camera or Drawing view, trace an invisible line near to the gap to be closed.
The gap automatically closes.

NOTE
The Paint tool also has a Close Gap option which can be enabled from the Tool Properties view.
When enabled, Harmony will attempt to automatically find and close small gaps when you attempt
to fill a shape that is not closed.

35

Chapter 6: How to Create Paperless Traditional Animation

Chapter 6: How to Create Paperless Traditional
Animation
Creating a Rough Animation
The first step to create paperless animation is the rough construction, which is the skeleton of your animation.
You would usually start by animating the most important part of a character's action. For example, to animate awalk cycle, you will start with the torso motion and the legs. Secondary animation such as the head, arms andclothes can be added afterward.

For a satisfactory animation, start by animating the main action with quick, rough sketches, then add thedetails when you're satisfied with the movement. If you start animating all the details right away, you will lose a
lot of time if you have to make corrections, and your animation is likely to look rigid.

How to create a rough animation
1. In the top row of the Timeline view, click on Show All Thumbnails

2. In the Tools toolbar, select the Brushto enable Thumbnail mode.

tool or press Alt + B.

3. In the Colour view, select a colour for the brush. It is a good idea to choose a light colour for yourrough animation. This will make the clean up process easier as your clean dark lines will contrast
with your light sketch lines.

36Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

4. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select the cell where you want your first drawing to appear.
5. In the Camera or Drawing view, draw the first key drawing.

As soon as you draw your first stroke, a drawing is automatically created in the cell you selected.

6. Increase the Timeline view's zoom level until you see the thumbnails inside the cells by doing one of
the following:lDrag the Timeline Zoom

slider to the right.

lClick on the Timeline view's tab, then press 2 repeatedly.

lMove the mouse cursor in the Timeline view, then hold Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ (macOS)
and roll the mouse wheel up.

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Chapter 6: How to Create Paperless Traditional Animation

7. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select the cell where your next key drawing will appear.

8. In the Tools toolbar, click the Onion Skinbutton. This will display the previous and next

drawings in a light colour in the Camera or Drawing view, behind your current drawing, so that you
can use them as references to draw new drawings with accuracy. This can be useful to draw
breakdown poses between two key poses, or to add an in-between drawing between two otherdrawings.
9. Ensure the onion skin displays your first key drawing, so that you can base your second key drawing
on it. To do this, do one of the following:l

In the Timeline view, drag the blue onion skin markers to extend the number of pastand future drawings to display as onion skin.

l

In the Camera View or Drawing View toolbar, use the Onion Skin Add One Previous
Drawing, Onion Skin Reduce One Previous Drawing

Next Drawing

and Onion Skin Add One Next Drawing, Onion Skin Reduce One
buttons to adjust the

span of the onion skin frame by frame.
10. Create a new empty drawing by doing one of the following:l

In the Timeline or Xsheet toolbar, click on the Create Empty DrawinglPress Alt + Shift + R.

11. In the Camera or Drawing view, draw your second key drawing.

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Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

12. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select a cell between the two key drawings. Using the onion skinmarkers, ensure the onion skin covers both your first and last drawings.

13. Create a new empty drawing by doing one of the following:l

In the Timeline or Xsheet toolbar, click on the Create Empty DrawinglPress Alt + Shift + R.

button.

14. In the Camera or Drawing view, draw your new pose.

15. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select a new cell and repeat the previous steps for each new
drawing.
NOTE
When working with overlay layers in the Camera view, you can enable the Current Drawing
on Topoption to make the layer you're working on appear over other layers.

Reviewing your Animation
Flipping through drawings can help see if the drawings you're working on connect well together and create
the proper illusion of movement. You can quickly flip through your drawings using the Go to Previous Drawing
and Go to Next Drawing keyboard shortcuts.

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Chapter 6: How to Create Paperless Traditional Animation

How to flip through drawings
1. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select the drawing from which you wish to flip.
2. Do one of the following:l

Press F to go to the previous drawing.

l

Press G to go to the next drawing.

3. Press either shortcut repeatedly at a fast pace to flip through drawings backward or forward.
When your rough animation is finished, play it back to make sure it looks as expected before proceeding to thenext step.

How to play your animation
1. In the Timeline view, use the Enable/Disable All

and Solobuttons to turn off any layers you

don't want to see during playback.

2. In the Timeline view, move the red playhead to the first frame of your animation and click the Start
button on the Timeline toolbar. Then, move the playhead to the last frame of your animation andclick the Stop button.

3. In the Playback toolbar, click the Loopbutton to enable looping during playback.

4. In the Playback toolbar, click the Playbutton to begin playback.

Cleaning Up
When your rough animation is completed, it is time to clean it up and ink it. This step is also called tracing. It
consists of tracing solid and clean lines over the rough animation to close any open zones. This is the final
paperless animation step before the ink and paint step.

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Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

In traditional animation, cleaned up drawings are usually traced on a new sheet of paper with the roughunderneath, made visible using the animation disk's light table. Likewise, in Harmony, you will need to add a
new drawing layer on which to draw cleaned up drawings. When you're done cleaning up, you can simply
disable the layer containing the rough animation so that it does not appear in the final animation. Thisapproach also allows you to keep the roughs and the cleaned up drawings intact and to manage them
independently.
In the Camera view, you will see your rough animation while working on your clean up layer. If you prefer towork in the Drawing view, you can enable the light table to display the rough animation while tracing on yourclean up layer.

How to trace your animation in a new layer
1. In the Timeline view, rename the layer on which you created your rough animation by doubleclicking on its name and entering its new name, for example: "Rough".
2. In the Timeline view, add a layer by doing one of the following:l

In the Timeline view's layers toolbar, click on the Add Drawing LayerlPress Ctrl + R (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + R (macOS).

The Add Drawing Layer window opens.

2. In the Name field, type in your new layer's name, for example: "Clean-up".
3. Click Add and Close to add a new layer and close the window.
A new drawing layer is added to the Timeline view.

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buttonChapter 6: How to Create Paperless Traditional Animation

4. In the Timeline view, click the Lockicon of the layer containing your rough animation to preventthe layer from being selected in the Camera view.

5. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select the new layer’s cell corresponding to the first key drawing ofyour rough animation.

6. In the Tools toolbar, select a drawing tool such as the Pencil

tool.

7. In the Colour view, select a colour for tracing your animation. Pick a dark bold colour, such as black, tomake sure it contrasts well with the light colour of your rough animation.
8. In the Camera or Drawing view, start tracing the first key drawing.

42Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

NOTE
If overlay layers are in the way, you can disable them temporarily by clicking on
their Enable/Disable buttonin the Timeline view, so that only your roughanimation and your clean up layers are displayed.
9. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select the next cell corresponding to a rough drawing.
10. In the Tools toolbar, click the Enable Onion Skinbutton.

11. Ensure onion skin displays your previous cleaned up drawing, by doing one of the following:l

In the Timeline view, drag the blue onion skin markers to extend the number of pastand future drawings to display as onion skin.

l

In the Camera View or Drawing View toolbar, use the Onion Skin Add One Previous
Drawing, Onion Skin Reduce One Previous Drawing

Next Drawing

and Onion Skin Add One Next Drawing

span of the onion skin frame by frame.
12. In the Camera view, trace your next drawing.

43, Onion Skin Reduce One
buttons to adjust theChapter 6: How to Create Paperless Traditional Animation

13. Repeat the previous steps for each drawing.

44Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

45

Chapter 7: How to Import Images

Chapter 7: How to Import Images
By default, Harmony works with vector images created within its own interface. Vector images are primarily
composed of information about the different shapes composing the images, as well as their line and fill colours.
This makes them easy to edit and paint, and allows us to resize them without affecting the image quality. In
contrast, bitmap images are composed of colour information about each individual pixel composing the image.
Hence, they are more fit for very detailed or realistic pictures, but they cannot be scaled without losing image
quality.
Typically, you would need to work with bitmap images if you must create some of your scene assets, such as
backgrounds or props, in a different software. You can then import those bitmap image files into your Harmony
scene.
When importing a bitmap image, you must decide how Harmony must process it. You can choose between thefollowing options:lImport as Bitmap: This imports the image exactly as is and ensures that it cannot be modified whenworking on the scene. This is useful for using backgrounds that were created in different software inyour project.

l

Vectorize: Converts a bitmap into Toon Boom vector art, which can easily be painted and edited using
Harmony's vector drawing tools. This can be useful for importing line art scanned or created using a
different software.

How to import a bitmap image in its original format
1. Do one of the following:l

From the top menu, select File > Import > Images.

l

In the File toolbar, click the Import Imagesl

In the Xsheet view, right-click anywhere in the frame area and select Import >Images.

The Import Images dialog box opens.

46

button.

Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

2. In the Files section of the Import Images dialog box, click Browse to find and select one or more
images on your computer.
3. Add the bitmap image to a new layer by selecting the Create Layer(s) option and one of thefollowing options:lCreate Single Layer Named: Creates a new layer with the specified name and imports
the images into it.

lCreate Layer(s) Based on Filenames: Creates a layer based on each unique filename
prefix. For example, if you import three files named a-1.tga, a-2.tga and b-1.tga, thiswill create two layers, one named "a" and one named "b". Layer "a" will contain thetwo first images and "b" will contain the third one.

l

Add to Existing Layer: Imports the images into the specified layer. Note that you can
only import into layers that are compatible with your import options. For example, if
you're importing images as vector drawings, you can only import them into vector
drawing layers.

4. In the Vectorization section, make sure the Vectorize Image option is unchecked.
5. Click OK.
NOTE
By default, bitmap images will display in low resolution in the Camera view so as to avoid
affecting playback performance. You can also adjust the display quality of a bitmap image by
selecting it with the Transform tool, then opening the Bitmap Image Quality dialog via View >Bitmap File Quality. You can also preview your bitmap image in your scene's resolution by
activating the Render Preview

mode in the Camera view.

47

Chapter 7: How to Import Images

Vectorizing Images
Harmony allows you to import images as vector drawings. Vector drawings can easily be painted and editedusing Harmony's vector drawing tools. This can be useful for importing line art scanned or created using a
different software, as you can then paint it in Harmony.

How to import and vectorize a bitmap image
1. Do one of the following:l

From the top menu, select File > Import > Images.

l

In the File toolbar, click the Import Imagesl

In the Xsheet view, right-click anywhere in the frame area and select Import >button.

Images.
The Import Images dialog box opens.

1. In the Files section of the Import Images dialog box, click Browse to select one or more images fromyour computer.
2. Select the destination for your images:lCreate Single Layer Named: Creates a new layer with the specified name and imports
the images into it.

lCreate Layer(s) Based on Filenames: Creates a layer based on each unique filename
prefix. For example, if you import three files named a-1.tga, a-2.tga and b-1.tga, thiswill create two layers, one named "a" and one named "b". Layer "a" will contain thetwo first images and "b" will contain the third one.

48

Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guidel

Add to Existing Layer: Imports the images into the specified layer. Note that you can
only import into layers that are compatible with your import options. For example, if
you're importing images as vector drawings, you can only import them into vector
drawing layers.

3. In the Vectorization section, select the Vectorize Image option.
4. Select one of the following options:‣

Colour: Imports bitmaps as vector objects with their image as a bitmap texture. The resulting
drawing can be drawn or erased over, but not repainted or tweaked.

‣

Black and White: Vectorizes drawings with a solid black line. This creates a 100% vector-based
drawing and paints it with the Vectorized Line colour swatch from your scene's palette.

5. If you selected the Black and White option, set the following parameters:
Parameter

Description

Threshold

Determines what values in the scanned image will beconsidered as part of the drawing, and what will be ignoredand eliminated in the vectorized drawing. The lower the value,
the darker the image and vice versa.
Determines how smooth the lines will be. The lower the

Smoothvalue, the more detail will be retained. The higher the value,
the more polished and easy to edit the lines will be.

6. Click OK.
Your vectorized images will appear in their selected destination.

NOTE
If you have bitmap images in your Library, you can drag and drop them directly into your scene as aquick way of importing a bitmap image. However, you will not have access to all the import options.

49

Chapter 8: How to Set Up a Scene

Chapter 8: How to Set Up a Scene
Setting up your scene can be compared to building a set for a television show. This is the point when you
position each scene element such as the camera frame, the background elements and the characters.

Adding a Camera
By default, a scene does not have a camera layer. In order to be able to tweak the scene's camera angle andposition, you must add one to your scene. Although it is possible to have several cameras in the same scene, you
can only view your scene using one camera at a time. This can be useful if you are still working on your scene
composition and have different camera set-ups to try out.

How to add a camera in the Timeline view or Top menu
1. Do one of the following:l

In the Timeline view, click the Add Layerl

From the top menu, select Insert > Camera.

button and select Camera.

A new camera layer is added to the scene and appears in the Timeline view.

How to switch between cameras
1. From the top menu, select Scene > Camera.
2. Among the listed cameras, select the one you want to work with.

Positioning the Camera
The scene action occurs inside the camera frame, so it’s really important to set it up correctly. You can adjust thecamera resolution as well as other related parameters in the Scene Settings window, accessible from the Scene
top menu.
Note that the Camera layer is static. If you need to animate it, you must put it under a peg, which you cananimate—see Animating the Camera on page 61.
You can reposition your camera frame directly in the Camera view by using the Translate
Scale, Rotateandtools of the Advanced Animation toolbar. Alternatively, you can set up your camera by typing its

coordinates directly in the camera's properties. This can be useful if you've done your scene planning on paper,

50Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

as the coordinates match the ones on a traditional animation camera grid. Hence, using this approach allows
you to position the camera exactly where you want it to be.

How to reposition the camera frame in the Camera view
1. In the Tools toolbar, disable the Animate

mode.

2. Do one of the following:l

From the top menu, select Animation > Tools > Translate.

l

In the Advanced Animation toolbar, click the TranslatelPress Alt + 2.

tool.

3. In the Camera view, click on the camera frame (thin rectangle) to select it. You can also select thecamera layer from the Timeline view.
The selected camera frame is highlighted.

4. Drag the camera frame to a new position.

51

Chapter 8: How to Set Up a Scene

5. To tilt the camera frame, do one of the following to select the Rotate tool:l

From the top menu, select Animation > Tools > Rotate.

l

In the Advanced Animation toolbar, select the RotatelPress Alt + 3.

tool.

6. In the Camera view, drag to rotate the camera frame until it reaches the desired rotation angle.

7. To move the camera frame closer to or further away from the scene, do one of the following to selectthe Scale tool:l

From the top menu, select Animation > Tools > Scale.

52

Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guidel

In the Advanced Animation toolbar, select the RotatelPress Alt + 4.

tool.

NOTE
The Transform tool can also be used to move the camera, but not to rotate or scale it.

Positioning Objects
Setting up the scene also involves positioning the different scene elements within the camera frame.

How to pan a layer using the Transform tool
1. In the Tools toolbar, disable the Animate

mode.

2. In the Tools toolbar, select the Transform

tool or press Shift + T.

3. In the Tool Properties view, make sure the Peg Selection Modeis deselected.

4. In the Camera view, select a drawing layer. If you want to select multiple layers, hold down Shift andclick on each layer you wish to select.
5. Drag the selection to a new area.

53

Chapter 8: How to Set Up a Scene

How to rotate a layer using the Transform tool
1. In the Tools toolbar, disable the Animate

mode.

2. In the Tools toolbar, select the Transform

tool or press Shift + T.

3. In the Tool Properties view, make sure the Peg Selection Modeis deselected.

4. In the Camera view, select a drawing layer. If you want to select multiple layers, hold down Shift andclick on each layer you wish to select.
5. Place the pointer outside of a corner of the bounding box, then click and drag to rotate.

How to scale a layer using the Transform tool
1. In the Tools toolbar, disable the Animate

mode.

2. In the Tools toolbar, select the Transform

tool or press Shift + T.

3. In the Tool Properties view, make sure the Peg Selection Modeis deselected.

4. In the Camera view, select a drawing layer. If you want to select multiple layers, hold down Shift andclick on each layer you wish to select.
5. Click an drag the top, side or corner control point.

54

Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

NOTE
When scaling your selection, you can hold down Shift to preserve the proportions between its
width and height.

How to skew a layer using the Transform tool
1. In the Tools toolbar, disable the Animate

mode.

2. In the Tools toolbar, select the Transform

tool or press Shift + T.

3. In the Tool Properties view, make sure the Peg Selection Modeis deselected.

4. In the Camera view, select a drawing layer. If you want to select multiple layers, hold down Shift andclick on each layer you wish to select.
5. Place the pointer on the edge of the selection's bounding box, between two control points and dragsideways or up and down.

Repositioning the Pivot
Transformations made on a drawing layer, such as rotation, scale, skew and flip, are made relative to theposition of the drawing's pivot point. While making transformations using the Transform tool, you can drag anddrop your selection's pivot. However, this has no permanent effect. It will only temporarily change the pivot's
position to help you make transformations at the selected frame, but the actual pivot point of your drawing
layer will remain the same. You can reposition a layer's pivot point permanently using the advanced animation
tools.

55

Chapter 8: How to Set Up a Scene

How to permanently reposition the pivot point
1. In the Advanced Animation toolbar, select the Translate, Rotate, Scale, or Skew

2. In the Camera view, Ctrl + click (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + click (macOS) to select your element.
The pivot point appears in the Camera view.

3. Drag the pivot point to a new position.

NOTE
When you permanently move the pivot point of a layer that is already animated, all thetransformations done on the layer on other keyframes will be recalculated according to thenew pivot point's position. Therefore, your existing animation will look completely different,
except at the current frame. It is recommended to always make sure your pivot point is at its
ideal position before you start animating.

56

tool.

Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

57

Chapter 9: How to Animate Objects and the Camera

Chapter 9: How to Animate Objects and the Camera
In Harmony, you can animate objects by drawing them on their individual layer, then positioning them at
different locations on different keyframes across the timeline, creating a motion path. The same principle can beapplied to the scene's camera, since it is a layer itself.

Animating a Layer
You can create a motion path directly on layers (animated layers).

You can control and define a trajectory using several different parameters, including:l

X, Y and Z positionslAngle (rotation)

l

Skew

l

X and Y Scales

Harmony keeps track of the animation by storing each parameter of each layer in their own function curve.
When you add a keyframe to a layer, a keyframe is created on each of these functions, and transformations
done on a layer via the Camera view are translated into coordinates which are then stored in those functions. It
is possible to edit these functions individually using the Function view, but that is rarely necessary, as Harmony
provides easy-to-use tools for visually controlling trajectories and timing in the Camera and Timeline views.

58

Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

How to animate a layer or a peg
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Transform

tool or press Shift + T.

2. If your layer has a parent peg and you want to animate the drawing layer directly, make sure thePeg Selection Modeis disabled in the Tool Properties view.

3. In the Tools toolbar, enable the Animate

mode. This allows the Transform tool to affect theposition and size of a layer at the current keyframe only, whereas it would otherwise affect thelayer's position and size throughout the whole scene.
4. In the Timeline view, go to the first frame.

5. From the top menu, select Animation and make sure the Stop-Motion Keyframe option isunchecked. This will make it so Harmony automatically creates the animation between the
animation keyframes you create.
6. Select the cell where you want to create your first keyframe
7. To create your first keyframe, do one of the following:l

In the Timeline toolbar, click the Add KeyframelRight-click and select Add Keyframe.

lPress F6.

button.

A keyframe is created on the first frame of the Timeline view.

8. In the Camera view, select the element to animate and move it to its first position.

59

Chapter 9: How to Animate Objects and the Camera

9. In the Timeline view, go to the frame on which you want to set the second position.

10. Select the cell where you want to create your second keyframe. right-click on the selection andselect Insert Keyframe.
The second keyframe appears in the Timeline view, along with a line going from your first keyframe
to your second keyframe. This indicates that every frame in-between will be animated by Harmony.

11. In the Camera view, move the element to its second position.

12. In the Timeline view, select the first frame to rewind to the beginning of your animation.
13. In the Playback toolbar, click on the Playbutton to preview your animation.

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Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

NOTE
If you animate layers on the Z axis, you may want to preview your animations from the Top orSide views during playback. However, playback is disabled by default in those view. To enable
them, from the top menu, select Play > Enable Playback > Top View or Side View.

Animating the Camera
A scene's camera can be manipulated and animated just like any other layer. It is listed in the Timeline view andyou can use the same tools and selection modes to offset or animate it. However, the camera layer itself is static,
which means it keeps the same position and angle throughout the whole scene. In order to be able to animate
the camera, you need to connect it to a peg layer, which can be animated, and which will directly affect theposition and angle of the camera.

You can animate your camera movements directly in the Camera view. Alternatively, you can use the Side or
Top views, which can be especially useful when animating a camera in a multiplane scene, where each layer ispositioned at a different distance from the camera.

How to open the Top and Side views
1. Do one of the following:l

From the top menu, select Windows > Top or Side.

l

From any view already open, click the Add View

button at the top-right cornerand select Top or Side.

How to add a camera and its parent peg
1. By default, new scenes do not have a camera layer. To add a camera layer, do one of the following:l

From the top menu, select Insert > Camera.

l

From the Layers toolbar, click the Add Layers

button and select Camera.

A new camera layer is added to the scene and appears in the Timeline view.
2. In the Timeline view, select the Camera layer.

61

Chapter 9: How to Animate Objects and the Camera

3. From the Layers toolbar, click the Add Peg

button.

A Peg layer appears directly above the Camera layer and is automatically attached to it. The new
Peg layer takes the name of the camera layer with the suffix -P added to indicate that it is its Peg
layer.

If the new Peg layer did not appear directly above the camera, you may have clicked elsewhere in
the scene, which deactivated the layer on which you want to add the Peg layer. To fix this:lSelect the Camera layer and drag and drop it under the new Peg layer. Or delete themisplaced Peg layer, select the Camera layer and click the Add Peg

button again.

You can also press Ctrl + P (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + P (macOS) to create a peg and connect it to
the camera.

How to animate the camera
1. In the Tools toolbar, enable the Animate

mode.

2. In the Tools toolbar, select the Transform

tool or press Shift + T.

3. On the right side of the Timeline view, on the Camera Peg layer, select the frame at which you want
the camera movement to start.

4. Do one of the following to add a keyframe:l

In the Timeline toolbar, click the Add KeyframelRight-click and select Add Keyframe.

62

button.

Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guidel

Press F6.

A keyframe appears in that cell. Any frames preceding this keyframe cell will hold the same camera
position as this keyframe.

5. Do one of the following to move the camera:l

In the Camera view, select the Camera, which is now be represented by a thin yellow
rectangle with a red highlight, and move it to the desired position.

l

In the Top or Side view, select the camera, which is now represented by a large, yellow
V-shaped cone, and move it to the desired position.

6. On the Timeline view, click on the cell where the camera movement will end.
7. Do one of the following:63

Chapter 9: How to Animate Objects and the Cameral

In the Timeline toolbar, click the Add KeyframelRight-click and select Add Keyframe.

lPress F6.

button.

A keyframe appears in that cell.

8. Select the camera in the Camera, Top or Side view and move it to the desired position.
9. In the Timeline view, select the first frame to rewind to the beginning of your animation.
10. In the Playback toolbar, click on the Playbutton to preview your animation.

64Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

65

Chapter 10: How to Rig a Cut-out Character

Chapter 10: How to Rig a Cut-out Character
In Harmony, a character rig is basically a template based on your character's model, but in which all movableparts are broken down into different layers, and arranged in a hierarchy that facilitates digital animation, also
known as cut-out animation.
To make a character rig, we must first make sure you have a character model to build on. If you have any
drawing of a character available, import it into a new scene, then scale and position it to your liking. Otherwise,
you can draw your character's model directly in Harmony. Once you have a model ready, we can start breaking
it down into parts to build your rig with.
There are many techniques you can use to break down a puppet. In this section, you will learn about one of themost common and simplest methods. For your first character breakdown, follow these instructions to get an
idea of the way Harmony works. Once you understand Harmony's basic functions and commands, you will beable to create your own techniques to satisfy the needs of your production.

Drawing the Pieces
The main breakdown technique shown here is to trace your model.

How to break down a character by tracing
1. In the Timeline view, add a new drawing layer for each body part to separate. You can press Ctrl + R(Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + R (macOS).

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Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

2. In the Timeline view, select the layer's first cell in which you want to draw the part.

3. In the Tools toolbar, select the drawing tool of your choice. There are two commonly used methods
to drawing the parts of a cut-out character model:lUsing the Pencil

tool, then smoothing your lines with the Smooth Editor

tool

l

Using the Polyline

tool. This method allows you to draw with great precision, but

may take more time.
These methods ensure each part is made with as few points as possible, so that they are easy tomanipulate, modify or redraw.
4. In the Colour view, select a colour swatch. If you haven't created a palette for your character yet, see
How to Paint on page 30.
5. If you prefer working in the Drawing view, do one of the following to display the other layers in
washed out colours:l

In the Drawing view toolbar, lick the Light Tablel

Press Shift + L.

6. In the Camera or Drawing view, draw the new part.

67

button.

Chapter 10: How to Rig a Cut-out Character

7. If you want to close an open shape without drawing a visible outline, you can draw an invisible line
using the Stroke

tool.

NOTE
By default, your strokes are not visible. To see the strokes in your drawing, select View >Show > Show Strokes from the top menu or press K.
8. In the Tools toolbar, select the Paint

or Paint Unpainted

tool to colour your drawing.

9. In the Colour view, create the desired fill colour if it's not already in your palette, then select it.
10. In the Camera or Drawing view, paint your drawing.

11. In the Tools toolbar, select the Selectthe Flatten

tool. Select your drawing and flatten the lines by clicking

button in the Tool Properties view.

12. Repeat the entire process for every body part that you wish to make animatable.

68Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

Adding Pegs
Pegs are a special type of layer that do not contain any drawing. They are used strictly to offset and transformdrawings that are under their hierarchy, without transforming the drawings directly.
When rigging or setting up a scene, it is recommended to add parent pegs for each of your drawing layers. This
allows you to keep animation keyframes and drawings on separate layers, making it easier to work on theposition and exposure of your drawing layers independently in the Timeline view. It also makes it easier tocreate a hierarchy of which body parts can be animated together and independently.

If you want to animate only on pegs, you can activate the Peg selection mode of the Transform tool in the Tool
Properties view. You can also disable animating drawing layers, so that only pegs can be animated.

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Chapter 10: How to Rig a Cut-out Character

NOTE
It is also possible to make a drawing layer the parent of another drawing layer. Just like the way
animating a peg animates its children layers, animating a drawing layer with children will also
animate its children layers. Both layers will still appear in the animation.

How to create parent pegs for your layers in the Timeline view
1. In the Timeline view, select all the layers.

2. In the Timeline Layer toolbar, click the Add Peg

button to add a parent peg to all selected layers.

Creating a Layer Hierarchy
Harmony lets you build your rig in an elaborate hierarchy, allowing you to set which parts of your rig should
influence other limbs, and how they can move independently. For example, when rigging a simple character'sarm, you can make the forearm layer a child of the arm layer, and the hand layer a child of the forearm layer.
This way, if the character moves their forearm, the hand will follow, and if they move their arm, the forearm andhand will follow.

70Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

When building a basic character rig, you should at least have a hierarchy for each arm and each leg. You canmake a hierarchy going from the torso, the neck and the head, and rig the arms to the torso, and you can rig
the legs to the hips. This would make a hierarchy like this:How to create a hierarchy in the Timeline view
1. In the left area of the Timeline view, select the layer which you want to make a child layer.
2. Drag the child and drop it over the layer which you want to make the parent layer. Make sure you
are not dropping the child layer between two layers.
3. Repeat until you've created a hierarchy that rigs all of your character's parts, with a master peg at
the root. While rigging, if you want several layers to have a common parent, but no existing part of71

Chapter 10: How to Rig a Cut-out Character

your rig can serve as that parent, create a new peg and nest those layers under that peg.

NOTE
In the Timeline view, you can unparent layers by holding down Shift, dragging the selectedparent away from the child layer and dropping it somewhere else in the list.

When rigging, keep in mind that the order of the layers in the Timeline view affects the order in which they are
rendered. Layers on top of the list will be rendered over layers at the bottom of the list. Should you need tochange a layer's order while animating, you can nudge this layer's position on the Z-axis to override the layerorder and force it to appear beneath or over other layers.

How to nudge a layer on the Z-axis
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Transform

tool.

2. In the Timeline, Node or Camera view, select the layer you want to nudge.
3. If you selected the layer from the Timeline or Node view, click on the Camera view tab to set thefocus on the Camera view.
4. Do one of the following:l

To nudge the layer forward, press Alt + Down Arrow.

l

To nudge the layer backward, press Alt + Up Arrow.

Master Peg
Your character rig should always have a master peg which connects to all of its parts. The master peg allows
you to manipulate the entire rig from a single layer, without having to manipulate each individual part. This is72

Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

useful for positioning and scaling your character relative to the scene, as well as to animate your character's
trajectory when it has to move between areas of the scene.

How to add a master peg in the Timeline view
1. In the Timeline view, select the top layer.
2. In the Timeline view, click on the Add Peg

button.

A new peg is added to the timeline as a parent of the selected layer.
3. Name the new peg Master plus the character's name.
4. In the Timeline view, select all the layers you want to attach to your new peg. Remember that your
top layer is already a child of the peg, so don't include it in your selection.
5. Drag your selection ON to the peg layer to parent all your character's pieces to the peg. If your layers
are added above the already parented layers, move that parented layer back on top of the layer
stack.

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Chapter 10: How to Rig a Cut-out Character74Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

75

Chapter 11: How to Animate a Cut-out Character

Chapter 11: How to Animate a Cut-out Character

Harmony provides very useful tools for animating cut-out character models. Using the Transform tool, you canmove your character's parts to make your key poses, and let Harmony create the in-betweens. The timing of
the movement can be adjusted to make life-like motion, and the drawings for the character's parts can beswapped at any point in your animation, allowing you to combine movement and drawing changes to create
frame-perfect cut-out animations.

How to create a simple cut-out animation
We will create a simple cut-out animation by making your character's first pose on the first frame, its
second pose on a later frame, and letting Harmony interpolate them.
1. In the Timeline view, collapse your character using the Expand/Collapse arrow.

2. Select the first frame of the scene.

3. To ensure your model doesn't disappear after 1 frame, open the Extend Exposure dialog by doing
one of the following:l

Right-click on the first frame in the Timeline and select Extend Exposure.

lPress F5.

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Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

4. In the Extend Exposure dialog, type in the amount of frames in your scene and confirm. This will
make your model exposed (visible) throughout your whole scene.
5. Now, we will make your character's first pose. First, make sure there is a keyframe on the first frameof every layer of the model. This ensures that when you make the second pose later, your first posewill not be affected. To do this do one of the following:l

In the Timeline toolbar, click the Add KeyframelRight-click and select Add Keyframe.

lPress F6.

button.

A keyframe is added on the current frame.

6. In the Tools toolbar, select the Transform

tool or press Shift + T.

7. In the Tools toolbar, enable the Animate

mode. This allows the Transform tool to affect theposition and size of a layer at the current keyframe only, whereas it would otherwise affect thelayer's position and size throughout the whole scene.
8. In the Camera view, select the parts to animate. The Transform tool's control box will appear aroundthe selected layer. Each part of the Transform tool control can be used to make different kinds oftransformations:

9. Use the Transform

tool to rotate, skew, scale or translate the selection to its new position.

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Chapter 11: How to Animate a Cut-out Character

10. Repeat for other parts of your character model until your first pose is complete.
11. In the Tools toolbar, enable the Onion Skinfeature.

12. In the Timeline view, select the frame where you want to have your second pose.

13. Create keyframe for your second pose by doing one of the following:l

In the Timeline toolbar, click the Add KeyframelRight-click and select Add Keyframe.

lPress F6.

button.

Your second keyframe appears, along with a line going from your first keyframe to your second
keyframe. This indicates that every frame in-between will be interpolated by Harmony.

If no line appears, it means your first keyframe was created as a stop-motion keyframe. To fix this, do
one of the following.
l

Right-click on the first keyframe and select Set Motion Keyframe.

lSelect the first keyframe and press Ctrl + K (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + K (macOS)

To make sure your new keyframes are set to Motion by default, select Animation from the top menu
and make sure the Stop-Motion Keyframe option is unchecked.
NOTE
Each keyframe can be a Motion keyframe or a Stop-Motion keyframe. The frames78Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

between two keyframes are interpolated by Harmony if the first of the two keyframes is
a Motion keyframe.
14. In the Camera view, change your character's pose again.

15. Repeat this process for all the poses you wish to add to your animation.

How to adjust the ease of the animation
1. In the Timeline view, collapse your character model's hierarchy.
2. Select one of your animation keyframes. Since your model's hierarchy is collapsed, this selects the
keyframe on every layer simultaneously.

3. Do one of the following:l

In the Timeline view, right-click and select Set Ease For Multiple Parameters.

l

In the Timeline toolbar, you can click the Set Ease For Multiple Parameters

The Set Ease For Multiple Parameters dialog box opens.

79

button.

Chapter 11: How to Animate a Cut-out Character

4. In the graph, pull on the Bezier handle to adjust the velocity for all the selected functions.

5. To apply these easing parameters to a certain type of function only, such as Rotation or Scale, in theFilters section, deselect the function types you do not want to affect.
l

Motion: Applies the easing parameters to the selected Position X, Position Y, Position
Z and 3D Path functionslRotation: Applies the easing parameters to the selected Angle functions.

l

Scale: Applies the easing parameters to the selected Scale functions.

l

Skew: Applies the easing parameters to the selected Skew functions.

lMorphing: Applies the easing parameters to the selected Morphing Velocity functions.
Note that Morphing is only available in Harmony Advanced and Harmony Premium.

l

Other: Applies the easing parameters to all the other selected functions, such as allfunctions created to animate effect parameters.

6. You can also adjust the easing by typing values in the Time Ratio and Value Ratio fields. The values
are calculated in percentage.

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Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guidel

In the Left Time Ratio and Right Time Ratio fields, type the percentage value
corresponding to the length of time you want the easing to last. The value must be
between 0% and 100%.

l

In the Left Value Ratio and Right Value Ratio fields, type the percentage value of how
strong you want the easing out. The value must be between 0% and 100%.

l

If your Time Ratio and Value Ratio values are equal, you will have a linear motion.

7. Click one of the following buttons:lApply/Previous: Applies the easing parameters to the selected keyframes and thenselects the previous keyframe in the timeline.

lApply: Applies the easing parameters to the selected keyframes.

lApply/Next: Applies the easing parameters to the selected keyframes and thenselects the next keyframe in the timeline.

lClose: Closes the dialog box. If you did not apply the modifications, they will becancelled.

NOTE
If a range containing multiple keyframes is selected, only the first selected keyframe will beaffected by the Seat Ease for Multiple Parameters functionality.

Navigating Layers
Since cut-out animation often involves complex models with extensive hierarchies, learning shortcuts to easily
navigate between layers can save a lot of time.
One very useful trick to learn is the Centre on Selection command, along with its keyboard shortcut. This
command allows you to navigate directly to the selected layer in the Timeline view. Hence, you can use theCamera view to visually select the layer you wish to work on, then use the Centre on Selection shortcut to findthe layer in the Timeline view, instead of going through the scene structure to locate it.

How to centre on the current selection in the Timeline view
1. In the Timeline view, collapse all your layers.
2. In the Tools toolbar, select the Transformtool.

3. In the Camera view, select any layer.
4. Do one of the following:81

Chapter 11: How to Animate a Cut-out Characterl

Click on the Timeline view's tab to set the focus on it, then press O.

l

In the Timeline view toolbar, click the Centre on Selection

button.

The Timeline view is now centred on the selected layer, and all its parents have been automatically
expanded.
If you want to use the keyboard shortcut frequently, you might find that having to click on the Timeline viewtab every time is tedious. To remedy this, you can enable the Focus On Mouse Enter preference. This will set thefocus on a view as soon as your mouse cursor enters it, instantly making all of this view's keyboard shortcuts
functional.

How to enable the Focus On Mouse Enter preference
1. From the top menu, go to Edit > Preferences (Windows/Linux) or Harmony > Preferences (Mac OS
X).
2. Open the General tab.
3. In the Options section, check the Focus On Mouse Enter check box.
4. Click on OK.
Keyboard shortcuts for specific views will now work as soon as your mouse cursor enters theintended view.
Harmony also has commands and keyboard shortcuts to quickly change your selection from the currently
selected layer to its parent or child, allowing you to quickly navigate your character's hierarchy.

How to select the parent or child of the selected layer
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Transform

tool.

2. In the Transform Tool Properties view, make sure the Peg Selection

mode is deselected.

3. In the Camera or Timeline view, select a layer or object attached to a hierarchy.

82Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

4. Do one of the following:lSelect Animation > Select Parent or press B to select the parent layer.

lSelect Animation > Select Child or press Shift + B to select the child layer.

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Chapter 12: How to Use Deformers

Chapter 12: How to Use Deformers
Deformers give the ability to animate objects and parts of a character model using computer generated
deformations. This allows you to bend or distort drawings without having to redraw them. When used in cutout animation, they can extend considerably the range of movements and poses a character model can pull
without having any of its parts drawn in different poses, which can save a lot of time and make your cut-out
animation look much more natural with little effort.
Deformers can be used to deform a single drawing layer or a hierarchy of layers, so a single deformer can beused to deform anything ranging from a simple prop to a whole character rig.
Deformers work by rigging them as a parent of the drawing you wish to deform, building the deformer
structure, then animating it. This can be easily done using the Rigging

tool.

There are two types of deformers available in Harmony Essentials:
l

Bone

l

Game BoneNOTE
Harmony Premium also supports Curve and Envelope deformers, which offer extended deformation
capabilities that are not supported in Harmony Essentials.

Bone Deformer
The Bone deformation allows you to create a bone-like structure in which each part is solid, but witharticulations that are flexible. This is mostly useful for animating a character's limbs, such as the arms or legs, orother parts that can be articulated such as torsos or fingers. For example, a Bone deformation can be used to
articulate an arm that is made of a single drawing, so that the upper arm and forearm can be moved
independently, without having to draw the upper arm and the forearm on different layers. Harmony will
deform the drawing to make it look articulated. The different parts of a Bone deformation can be rotatedaround their joint, extended and shortened, giving you the same capabilities as animating articulations on
different layers, without having to worry about parts detaching, pivot points, or clipping outlines.

84Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

Game Bone Deformer
The Game Bone deformation is very similar to the Bone deformation. It allows you to create a bone-likestructure in which each part is solid, but with articulations that are flexible. However, it is optimized for gameengines such as Unity. Hence, it is usually only used for game development and not in animated productions.
Contrary to the Bone deformations, Game Bone deformations do not have a Bias property. The articulation
folds also look slightly more rounded.

Creating Deformers
The most simple way of creating deformers is to use the Rigging

tool, available in the Deformation toolbar.

With this tool, all you need to do to create a deformer is to select the layer you wish to deform, then place eachpoint of your deformer in the Camera view.
Deformers exist in your scene as a hierarchy of deformation layers. When you create a new deformer, the firstpoint you set is the deformer's root, and each new point you create is a child of the previous point. Deformers

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Chapter 12: How to Use Deformers

are hence created in a chain, and should be created with your character's hierarchy in mind. For example, when
you create a deformer for an arm, the root should be the shoulder joint, the second point should be the elbow
and the third should be the wrist.

How to select the element on which to create a deformer
A deformer affects all the layers under its hierarchy. When you create a new deformer using the rigging
tool, it is automatically created as a parent of the selected layer, and will affect the selected layer and all its
children. Hence, it's important to select the right layer before attempting to create a deformer.
For example, if you wish to create a deformer for an arm, and the arm is broken into several layers, you
could rig the arm in a hierarchy where the upper arm is the root, the forearm is the upper arm's child andthe hand is the forearm's child. Then, if you create your deformer on the upper arm, it will be created as aparent of the upper arm, and will hence affect the whole arm.

You can also group several layers under a peg, and create your deformer with this peg selected. When you
create a deformer on a peg, the deformer is created as a child of the peg, but as a parent of all of this peg's
children. This is because a peg is likely to be more useful over a deformer than under. If you move layersthat are under a deformer, they will exit the intended deformation zone, and may appear severely warped
and distorted. Hence, it's better to create deformations under pegs as much as possible, and pegs underdeformers should only be animated if the deformer is left untouched. Since the deformer will be created asa parent of all the peg's children, it will affect all the layers under the peg.

How to create a Bone deformation chain
1. Make sure the right element for the creation of your deformation chain is selected.
2. Once your element is selected, select the

Rigging tool in the Deformation toolbar

3. In the Tool Properties view, click on theBone button to enable Bone mode.

86Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

4. Place the cursor at the root of your drawing or drawing hierarchy, click once and release. For
example, if you're creating a deformer for a whole arm, click on the shoulder joint.

5. Move your cursor at the location where you want your first bone to finish and your second bone tostart, and click again. An articulation control point will automatically be inserted between each bone
you create.

6. Move your cursor where you want the next articulation to be and click to create the next point.

Observe that, as you create a new point, the previous point now has a circle around it. This is theradius of the articulation, which allows you to determine how much of the drawing should be part of
the articulation. Every point in a bone deformer, except for the first and the last one, has a radiussetting.
7. Click and hold the previous articulation's radius manipulator and adjust the articulation's radius sothat it covers the limb.

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Chapter 12: How to Use Deformers

8. Repeat this until you are finished creating the Bone chain. Make sure you build each articulation in
the right order going from the root to the extremity.

Displaying Deformers
Harmony lets you control which deformers are displayed in the Camera view independently from the current
selection. When you create a deformation chain, its deformation controls are displayed in the Camera view.
However, if you select an existing deformer or a layer that's connected to existing deformers, its deformation
controls won't display right away. Likewise, deselecting a deformation chain will not hide its deformation
controls. Before you can animate or modify an existing deformation chain, you must manually display it.

How to display deformation controls
1. Do one of the following:l

In the Camera or Timeline view, select one of the drawing elements linked to the deformation
chain you want to display.

l

In the Timeline view, select any part of the deformation chain you want to display.

2. In the Deformation toolbar, click the Show the Selected Deformation Chain and Hide All Others
button.
The selected deformation controls appear in the Camera view and all the others are hidden.
NOTE
The Show the Selected Deformation Chain and Hide All Others button will display all
deformation chains that are in the hierarchy of the selection. For example, if the master peg ofa character model is selected, all of its deformation chains will be displayed. Likewise, if multiple
layers linked with different deformation chains are selected, all of their deformation chains will
be displayed.

How to hide deformation controls
1. Do one of the following:lClick in the negative space of the Camera view, Timeline view or Node view to discard
the current selection, then click on the Show Selected Deformation Chain and Hide All
Otherslbutton in the Deformation toolbar.

Select a layer that is not linked to any deformer, then click the Show the Selected
Deformation Chain and Hide All Others

88

button in the deformation toolbar.

Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guidel

In the Camera toolbar, click the Hide All ControlslFrom the top menu, select View > Hide All Controls.

lPress Shift + C.

button.

Modifying Existing Deformation Chains
As you attempt to animate a deformation, or if you need to make changes to the drawings under a deformation,
you may need to make adjustments to the deformation chain to better fit your needs.

How to add an articulation to an existing Bone or Game Bone deformation
1. Select the drawing layer or the deformation chain to which you want to add an articulation.
2. In the Deformation toolbar, click the Show the Selected Deformation Chain and Hide All Others
button to display the deformer controls in the Camera view. This also hides all the deformer controlsthat were displayed.
3. Select the Rigging

tool.

The deformation chain turns from green to red. A green chain indicates that you're animating thedeformation. A red chain indicates that you're modifying the rig.
4. Move your cursor over the bone segment, where you want to add an articulation.
5. Hold Alt and click.

How to make adjustments to existing deformers
1. Select the drawing layer or the deformation chain for which you need to make adjustments.
2. In the Deformation toolbar, click the Show the Selected Deformation Chain and Hide All Others
button to display the deformer controls in the Camera view. This also hides all the deformer controlsthat were displayed.
3. In the Deformation toolbar, click the Rigging

tool.

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Chapter 12: How to Use Deformers

The deformation chain turns from green to red. A green chain indicates that you're animating thedeformation. A red chain indicates that you're modifying the rig.

4. In the Camera view, set up the deformation chain.
lRotate the first bone to change the angle of the chain.

l

Use the root control to reposition (offset) the entire chain.

90

Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guidel

Use the control points to reposition the articulations. This will elongate, shorten orchange the direction of the bone. This will also offset the subsequent points in the
deformation chain.

l

Use the articulation's control (square) to change the size of the articulation. For quality
purposes, it is recommended to have an articulation which fits the diameter of the part
it controls.

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Chapter 12: How to Use Deformers

5. Repeat until all the articulations and bones of the chain are correctly aligned to the element towhich it is linked.
NOTE
When manipulating the articulation of a Bone or Game Bone deformer, you can hold the Alt
key to lock the bone's angle and only shorten or elongate the bone. You can also hold the Ctrl
(Windows/Linux) or ⌘ (macOS) key to break the articulation off its chain and make it into a
new, separate deformer chain.

Animating With Deformers
Just like with animating pegs and drawing layers, you can animate your deformers by creating keyframes on
their corresponding layers in the Timeline. Animating deformers works exactly like making modifications to a
deformer, except it requires using the Transform

tool instead of the Rigging tool. When the Transform tool

is selected, deformation controls in the Camera view display in green, which means they are in animation mode,
whereas when the Rigging tool is selected, they display in red, meaning they are in rigging mode.

How to animate Bone and Game Bone deformations
1. In the Timeline view, collapse your character using the Expand/Collapse arrow.

2. Select the first frame of the scene.

92Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

3. To ensure your model doesn't disappear after 1 frame, open the Extend Exposure dialog by doing
one of the following:l

Right-click on the first frame in the Timeline and select Extend Exposure.

lPress F5.

4. In the Extend Exposure dialog, type in the amount of frames in your scene and confirm. This will
make your model exposed (visible) throughout your whole scene.
5. Now, we will make your character's first pose. First, make sure there is a keyframe on the first frameof every layer of the model. This ensures that when you make the second pose later, your first posewill not be affected. To do this do one of the following:l

In the Timeline toolbar, click the Add KeyframelRight-click and select Add Keyframe.

lPress F6.

button.

A keyframe is added on the current frame.

6. In the Tools toolbar, select the Transform

tool or press Shift + T.

7. In the Tools toolbar, enable the Animate

mode. This allows the Transform tool to affect theposition and size of a layer at the current keyframe only, whereas it would otherwise affect thelayer's position and size throughout the whole scene.
8. Do one of the following:l

In the Camera or Timeline view, select one of the drawing elements linked to the deformation
chain you want to display.

l

In the Timeline view, select any part of the deformation chain you want to display.

9. In the Deformation toolbar, click the Show the Selected Deformation Chain and Hide All Others
button.
The selected deformation controls appear in the Camera view and all the others are hidden.
10. In the Camera view, do the following:l

Rotate the first bone to rotate the limb.

93

Chapter 12: How to Use DeformerslRotate the subsequent bones to bend the limb.

l

Use the root control to reposition (offset) the entire chain.

l

Use the control points to reposition the articulations. This will elongate, shorten, orchange the direction of the bone and offset the subsequent children.

94Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

11. In the Timeline view, go to the frame on which you want to set the next key pose.
12. Add a keyframe on the current frame by doing one of the following:l

In the Timeline toolbar, click the Add KeyframelRight-click and select Add Keyframe.

lPress F6.

button.

13. Transform your deformation chain's points to make your new key pose.
14. Repeat the previous steps until your animation is complete.
NOTE
When manipulating the articulation of a Bone or Game Bone deformer, you can hold the Alt
key to lock the bone's angle and only shorten or elongate the bone. You can also hold the Ctrl
(Windows/Linux) or ⌘ (macOS) key to break the articulation off its chain and make it into a
new, separate deformer chain.

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Chapter 13: How to Import Sound and Add Lip-Sync

Chapter 13: How to Import Sound and Add Lip-Sync

Importing Sound
If you wish to add sound to your animation, it is recommended to edit and mix your sound files in a soundediting software. Having full-length pre-mixed soundtracks ensures the audio preserves its timing, mixing andquality should you use third party software for post-production. Another good practice is to keep yoursoundtrack separated in tracks for music, sound effects and characters to make it easier to sync your animation
with voices and sounds. Otherwise, it is possible to clip sound effects and adjust their volume directly
in Harmony when needed.
If you create your project in Toon Boom Storyboard Pro, you can export all of your project's scenes as separate
Harmony scenes. The storyboard's sound track will be cut up by scene and each piece will be inserted into theexported scenes, allowing you to save time on splitting and importing your sound track.
Harmony can import .wav, .aiff and .mp3 audio files.
NOTE
Importing a soundtrack longer than your scene will not extend your scene's length. Sound playback
will stop at the end of your scene's length.

How to import a sound file
1. Do one of the following:l

From the top menu, select File > Import > Sound.

l

In the Xsheet view, right-click anywhere in the frame area and select Import >Sounds.

The Select Sound File dialog box opens.
2. From the Select Sound File dialog box, find and select a sound file.
The sound file appears as a layer in the Timeline view. Its waveform is displayed in the track to help
you visualize at which frames the sound effects in your soundtrack occur.

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Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

Your soundtrack also appears as a column in the Xsheet view, but will not display a waveform by
default. If you wish, you can display a sound column's waveform by right-clicking on it, thenselecting Sound Display > Waveform.

Automatic Lip-Sync Detection
Adding a lip-sync to your animation is essential to making your characters seem alive. However, it is also aparticularly tedious part of the animation process.

To solve this problem, Harmony provides an automatic lip-sync detection feature. This feature analyzes thecontent of a sound track in your scene and associates each phoneme it detects with one of the mouth shapes in
the following mouth chart, which is a standard mouth chart in the animation industry.

NOTE
The letters assigned to these mouth shapes are standard identifiers, they do NOT correspond to
the sound they are meant to produce.
This is an approximation of the English phonemes each mouth shape can be used to represent:97

Chapter 13: How to Import Sound and Add Lip-Syncl

A: m, b, p, hl

B: s, d, j, i, k, tl

C: e, al

D: A, E

l

E: o

l

F: u, ool

G: f, phl

X: Silence, undetermined sound

When performing automatic lip-sync detection, Harmony does not create mouth drawings. It simply fills thedrawing column of your character's mouth layer with the generated lip-sync, by inserting the letter associatedwith the right mouth shape into each cell of the column. Therefore, for the automatic lip-sync detection to work,
your character's mouth layer should already contain a mouth drawing for each drawing in the mouth chart, andthese drawings should be named by their corresponding letter.

How to generate a sound detection for lip-sync using the Layer Properties view
1. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select the sound layer.
The options for that layer will appear in the Layer Properties view.
2. In the Layer Properties, click Detect.

Harmony analyzes the selected sound clips and assigns a lip-sync letter to each sound cell.
3. Click the Map button to open the Lip-Sync Mapping dialog box.

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Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

4. From the Destination Layer menu, select the layer that contains the mouth positions for thecharacter's voice track.

NOTE
If the selected layer contains symbols, you can map the lip-sync using drawings locateddirectly on the layer or use the symbol's frames. In the Symbol Layer field select Don't
Use Any Symbol if you want to use the drawings or select the desired symbol from thedrop-down menu.
5. In the Mapping section, type the drawing name or Symbol frames in the field to the right of thephoneme it represents. If your drawings are already named with the phoneme letters, you can skip
this step.
6. Click OK.
7. In the Playback toolbar, enable the Enable Sound
8. Press the Play

option.

button in the Playback toolbar to see and hear the results in the Camera view

If you need to make adjustments to the automatically-generated lip-sync, see Animating Lip-Sync
Manually on page 100.

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Chapter 13: How to Import Sound and Add Lip-Sync

Animating Lip-Sync Manually
You can manually create the lip-syncing for your scene by selecting which mouth drawing should be exposed ateach frame of your character's dialogue. For this process, you will be using the Sound Scrubbing functionality,
which plays the part of your sound track at the current frame whenever you move your Timeline cursor,
allowing you to identify which phonemes you should match your character's mouth to. You will also be usingdrawing substitution to change which mouth drawing is exposed at every frame.

How to animate lip-sync using the Timeline view
1. In the Playback toolbar, enable the Sound Scrubbing

button.

2. In the Timeline view, drag the red playhead along the sound layer waveform.
3. When you reach a frame where a mouth position should go, for example, an open mouth withrounded lips for an "oh" sound, click on that frame on your mouth shapes layer.
4. In the Parameters section, staying on your mouth shapes layer, place your cursor on top of thedrawing name (often a letter) until it changes to the swapping

pointer.

5. Pull the cursor to see the list of mouth shape names and choose the one you want. The current
drawing automatically changes to the new selection.

How to animate lip-sync using the Library view
1. In the Playback toolbar, click the Sound Scrubbing

button.

2. In the Timeline view, drag the red playhead along the waveform of your sound layer.
3. When you reach a frame where a mouth position should go, for example, an open mouth withrounded lips for an "oh" sound, click on that frame on your mouth shapes layer.
4. In the Drawing Substitution window of the Library view, drag the slider to choose a mouth shape.
The current drawing is swapped for the one in the preview window.

100Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

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Chapter 14: How to Add Effects to a Scene

Chapter 14: How to Add Effects to a Scene
When creating a scene, rigging a character or once your animation is finished, you can add effects such as blurs,
glows, shadows, colour filters and transparency filters and to enhance your project's quality. Effects change theway layers or groups of layers are rendered in your scene.

About Effects
Effects are special types of layers that you can add to your scene's structure. For an effect layer to work, it must
be connected as the child of a drawing, a group, or another effect. Effects only alter the element that they areconnected to. This gives you flexibility in deciding which elements of your scene are affected by an effect.
Some effects need to be linked to another layer, referred to as a matte layer, which is used to define the area
they should affect. The most basic example of this is the Cutter effect. Alone, a cutter effect has no impact on
the drawing it is connected to. Once combined with a matte layer, the Cutter effect cuts the shape of the matteout of the drawing.

102Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

A matte layer is simply a regular drawing layer that is connected to an effect as its matte. The effect takes theshape of the drawing in the matte layer to determine the area of the drawing it affects. The colours and details
in the matte layer are ignored by the effect, only its shape is taken in account.
In the Timeline view, an effect must be rigged as the child of the drawing layer or group it is meant to affect.

If the effect can use a matte layer, it will have a Matte parameter when you expand its parameters list. You candrag and drop the layer you want to use a matte for your effect onto the Matte parameter of your effect to linkthem.

If the effect can use a matte layer, it will have a matte port on its left to which the matte layer can be connected.
Once your effect is connected, you can adjust its parameters by selecting it, then adjusting its parameters using
the Layer Properties view. You can also double-click on the layer to open its Layer Properties dialog. If desired,
you can even animate the parameters of your effect by converting their values to functions.

Adding an Effect
In Harmony, you can add effects by selecting the layer or group you wish to add an effect to, then adding theeffect through the Timeline view's Add Layers menu. Then, you can achieve the intended effect by adjusting its
parameters in the Layers Properties view, and connecting it to a matte layer if applicable.

How to add an effect
1. In the Timeline view, select the layer on which you want to add an effect.
2. Do one of the following:l

In the top menu, select Insert > Effects and select the effect you want to add.

l

In the Layers toolbar above the layer list, click the Add Layers

button, selectEffects then select the effect you want to add.
l

Right-click on the layer, then select Insert > Effects and select the effect you want toadd.

The effect appears in the Timeline view, underneath the selected layer.

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Chapter 14: How to Add Effects to a Scene

3. In the Camera view, click the Render View

button to see the scene's rendered current frame andeffect.
NOTE
By default, your background will appear pitch black. To remedy this, you can add
a Colour Card layer at the bottom of your layers list, and tweak its colour in theLayer Properties view.
4. In the Timeline view, double-click on the effect layer to open the Layer Properties window. You canalso select the effect layer and see its properties in the Layer Properties view.
The Layer Properties view opens, displaying the parameters available for the selected effect.

5. In the Layer Properties view, adjust the effect’s parameters as needed.
NOTE
Each time you make a change, the Camera view will need to refresh the rendered
image, which may cause a little delay before you can observe its effect.
6. Most effects will not play back in real time in Harmony. To play back your scene with the final effects,
in the Playback toolbar, click the Render and Playbutton in the Timeline view toolbar.

NOTE
Once you have set the parameters for the effect, you can store it in the Library view as atemplate, so you can quickly reuse it without resetting the parameters again—see How toCreate and Use Templates on page 130.

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Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

Using the Cutter Effect

The Cutter effect cuts out a portion of an image. To do this, it needs to be connected to the drawing it isintended to cut as well as to a matte layer. The cutter will take the shape of the drawing in the matte layer andcut this shape out of the drawing layer. This is especially useful if you want to make a character disappear
between a background element, or if you want to cut out a hole in the middle of a character.
Like all effects that use a matte, the Cutter's effect has an Inverted parameter, which is disabled by default.
When enabled, the Cutter will have the reverse effect: Instead of cutting the matte's shape out of the drawing,
it will cut everything outside of the matte's shape out of the drawing, leaving only the parts of the drawing thatare covered by the matte. This can be useful if, for example, you want to draw shadows or highlights for acharacter, but you don't want to have to worry about them bleeding beyond your character's outline. You cansimply connect your shadow or highlight to an inverted cutter, and use a clone of your character as the matte,
and your effect will not display outside of your character's outlines.

How to use the Cutter effect
1. Select a drawing layer.
2. Do one of the following:l

In the toolbar above the layer list in the Timeline view, click on the Add Layer
select Effects > Cutter.

lRight-click on the layer and select Insert > Effects > Cutter.

The Cutter effect is created as a child of the selected layer.

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1. In the toolbar above the layer list in Timeline view, click on Add Drawing Layer.

2. In the Add Drawing Layer dialog, give your new drawing layer a relevant name for a matte layer,such as "Matte-Drawing", then click on Add and Close.

3. In the new matte drawing layer, draw a matte for your effect. Your matte can be a simple shape, butshould be filled with a colour, as only parts of the matte that are opaque will be taken in account.

NOTE
Mattes can also have semi-transparent areas. Areas of the drawing that are covered bysemi-transparent areas of the matte are partially affected by the effect.
4. In the Timeline view, click on the Expand

button right of the Cutter layer.

The Cutter's Matte parameter appears below it.

5. Drag and drop your matte layer next to your Cutter layer's Matte field, under the Parameterscolumn.

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The matte drawing layer becomes the Cutter layer's matte. At this point, areas of the artwork thatintersect with the artwork in the matte drawing layer are hidden.

6. If you want to invert the Cutter's effect, so that the artwork that intersects with the artwork in thematte layer is visible and that everything else is hidden, double-click on the Cutter layer (but not on
its name) to open its Layer Properties dialog, then check the Inverted parameter.

Animating an Effect
You may need to animate some effects to obtain the expected results. For example, you may want the radius ofa Glow effect to slowly increase and decrease to make it pulsate throughout a scene, or you may want thetransparency of a Transparency effect to increase from 0% to 100% to make a drawing vanish.
Almost all numerical parameters in an effect can be attached to a function. A function allows you to set a
parameter to different values at different points in the scene by adding keyframes to it, and setting each
keyframes to a specific value. Between keyframes, the value of the parameter will progress from the value of theprevious keyframe to the value of the next keyframe. Drawing layers are animated by having their coordinates
associated to functions. Likewise, effects can be animated by associating their parameters to functions.
Some effect parameters can be animated directly in the Timeline view, but not all. When you expand an effect's
parameters in the Timeline view, some of its parameters may be hidden to avoid cluttering the Timeline view.
You can animate those parameters from the Layer Properties view or the Layer Properties dialog, which display
all of a layer's parameters.

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How to animate an effect parameter in the Timeline view
1. In the Timeline view, locate the effect you want to animate, and click on the Expand

button rightof its name.

The list of parameters that effect's paramaters that are available in the Timeline view appears.

2. In the right area of the Timeline view, in the same row as the parameter you want to animate, selectthe frame where you want to create the first animation keyframe for the effect.

3. Create a keyframe by doing one of the following:l

In the Timeline toolbar, click the Add KeyframelRight-click and select Add Keyframe.

lPress F6.

button.

4. In the left area of the Timeline view, under the Parameters column, adjust the value of the parameterfor this keyframe by doing one of the following:108Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guidel

Click and hold on the value of the parameter, then drag it towards the left to reduce its value,or towards the right to increase its value.

lClick on the value of the parameter. A text field will appear. Type in the new value of theparameter, then press Enter.

5. In the right area of the Timeline view, click on the frame where you want to create the second
animation keyframe for the effect.

6. Create the second keyframe for your effect's animation by doing one of the following:l

In the Timeline toolbar, click the Add KeyframelRight-click and select Add Keyframe.

lPress F6.

button.

7. In the Parameters column, adjust the value of the parameter at the current keyframe.
8. Repeat the steps to create as many animation keyframe for your effect as needed.
9. To adjust the timing between the keyframes of your animation, select the first keyframe.
10. In the Timeline toolbar, click on the Set Ease for Multiple Parameters

109Chapter 14: How to Add Effects to a Scene

button.
The Set Ease for Multiple Parameters dialog appear. The function graph in this dialog will be focusedon the first keyframein your animation, which should have a Bezier handle

right next to it,

pointing to the right.

11. Click on the Bezier handle

and drag it towards the right, at any angle, to adjust the ease-in of

the animation.

12. Click on Apply/Next.
The Set Ease for Multiple Parameters dialog will focus on the second keyframe. If this is the last
keyframe in the animation, it will only have one Bezier handle, pointing towards the left. If there are
more animation keyframes after this one, it will have two Bezier handles, one pointing in eachdirection.

110Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

13. Click on the left Bezier handle

and drag it towards the left, at any angle, to adjust the ease-outof the animation between the previous keyframe and the current keyframe.

14. If there is a Bezier handle pointing towards the right, click on it and drag it towards the right, at

any angle, to adjust the ease-in of the animation between the current keyframe and the next
keyframe.

15. Repeat the previous steps until the timing for your animation is adjusted throughout the entire
scene.

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How to animate an effect in the Layer Properties dialog
1. Open the effect's Layer Properties by doing one of the following:l

Add the Layer Properties view to your workspace, then select the effect in the Timeline view.

lIn the Timeline view, double-click on the effect layer, but not on its name.

2. In the effect's layer properties, locate the parameter that you want to animate and click on the
Functionbutton to its right.

The parameter's input field will be greyed out. This is because you cannot directly edit a parameter
once it is attached to a function. The field will indicate the name of the function that was created forit, in this format:
Name of layer: Name of function: Value at current frame
3. Click on the parameter's Function button again.
The Bezier Editor dialog opens.

112Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

This dialog will allow you to animate the function. The function graph at the bottom is made torepresent the values of the function throughout each frame in the scene.
4. In the function graph, click and drag on the red cursor

to move it to the frame where you want tocreate your first animation keyframe.

5. Click on the Add Keyframe
A keyframe

button to create the first animation keyframe for the effect.

is created and should be visible in the function graph. If you do not see it, that is

because the function graph is not positioned to include the keyframe within its frame. To move thefunction graph to view the function's keyframe, click on the Reset View
button.

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or Reset View VerticallyChapter 14: How to Add Effects to a Scene

6. Adjust the value of the parameter at the current frame by doing one of the following:l

In the Value field over the function graph, type in the desired value for the parameter.

l

In the function graph, click and drag on the keyframe, and move it up to increase its value,or down to decrease it.
TIP
If you want to set the keyframe to a value that is outside of the function graph's
frame, you can press the 1 key to zoom out. You can also press the 2 key to zoom
back in.

7. Click and drag on the red cursor to move it to the frame where you want to create your second
animation keyframe.

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8. Click on the Add Keyframe

button to create the second animation keyframe for the effect.

9. Adjust the value of the parameter at the current frame by doing one of the following:l

In the Value field over the function graph, type in the desired value for the parameter.

l

In the function graph, click and drag on the keyframeor down to decrease it.

115, and move it up to increase its value,Chapter 14: How to Add Effects to a Scene

10. If you want to adjust the timing of the animation between the first and second keyframes, do thefollowing:lClick and drag the Bezier handle of the first keyframe

towards the right, in any direction,

to affect the ease-in of the animation.

lClick and drag the Bezier handle of the second keyframe

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towards the left, in any

Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

direction, to affect the ease-out of the animation.

11. Repeat these steps until you created and timed every animation keyframe required to animate youreffect.

Creating an Effect Based on an Animated Character
The following tutorial demonstrates how to combine Effects with other Harmony functionalities to easily createa drop shadow for an animated character. By following these steps, you can create a drop shadow that willautomatically follow your character's animation, even if you change the animation afterward.

How to create a drop shadow for an animated character
1. In the Timeline view, select all the layers making your character's rig. If your character is under amaster peg, selecting the master peg will also work.

2. Make sure your character's rig is in a group. If it is not, right-click on your selection, then select Group
Selection.

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3. With your character selected in the Timeline view, create a Clone of your character by doing one of
the following:l

Right click on your selection, then select Clone Selected Layers: Drawings and Timing.

l

From the Top menu, select Edit > Clone: Drawings and Timing.

NOTE
Contrary to a duplicate, a cloned layer always has the same timing and exposure as its
origin layer, even if its origin layer is changed later. Hence, you can make changes toyour character's animation, and your cloned character's animation will automatically
update with these changes.
4. Add a Shadow effect to your group by doing one of the following.
l

In the Timeline view's layers toolbar, click on Add Layers

and select Effects> Shadow.
l

Right-click on your selection, then select Insert > Effects > Shadow.

5. In the Timeline view, select the root layer of your character's clone.
6. Create a parent peg for your clone by doing one of the following:l

From the Timeline View layers toolbar, click the Add PeglPress Ctrl + P (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + P (macOS).

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Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

7. In the Timeline view, select your clone's parent peg.
8. In the Tools toolbar, select the Transformtool.

9. In the Camera view, scale and skew your clone so that it looks like a drop-shadow.

119Chapter 15: How to Use Drawing Guides

Chapter 15: How to Use Drawing Guides
When you need to draw backgrounds or objects with a lot of straight lines, square angles and perspective, you
can use Drawing Guides to assist you. Guides add a horizon line as well as vanishing points to your drawing
space, which can be moved to fit your scene's needs, and they lock your drawing tools so that they always
draw straight lines, either going from one of your vanishing points, or parallel to your guide's horizontal orvertical axis.
Harmony supports the following types of drawing guides:l

The Square Grid guide simply helps you draw on the horizontal and vertical axes, which are relative tothe horizon line.

l

The 1-Point Perspective guide helps you draw lines coming from a single vanishing point, which is in
the middle of the horizon by default. It also helps you draw along the horizontal and vertical axes. Thiscan help create realistic-looking backgrounds with buildings, walls and objects that are facing yourcamera.

l

The 2-Point Perspective guide helps you draw lines going from one of two vanishing points, which are
positioned left and right of your drawing space. This can help create realistic-looking backgrounds withbuildings, walls and objects that are at an angle from your camera.

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Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guidel

The 3-Point Perspective guide helps you draw lines going from one of 3 vanishing points: Twohorizontal vanishing points positioned left and right of your drawing space, and one vertical vanishingpoint positioned below or above your drawing space. This can help you draw realistic looking
backgrounds from a low or high angle. The 3-Point Perspective guide has two presets: Bird's Eye View
preset and the Worm's-Eye View, which can be used for high angle and low angle perspectives,
respectively.

In order to use a drawing guide, you must first add it to your scene's Guides list.

How to add a drawing guide to your scene
1. From the top menu, select Windows > Guides to add the Guides view to the current workspace.
2. In the Guides view, select the

New Guide button and choose one of the following types ofguides:l

Square Gridl

1-Point Perspectivel2-Point Perspectivel3-Point Perspective (Bird’s-eye View)l3-Point Perspective (Worm’s-eye View)

The new guide appears in the Guides view list.

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Chapter 15: How to Use Drawing Guides

3. To add another guide, repeat the previous step.

How to edit a drawing guide
1. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select a drawing, or select an empty cell and create a new drawing
by doing one of the following:l

Right-click on the cell and select Drawing > Create Empty Drawing.

l

Press Alt + Shift + R

2. In the Tools toolbar, select the Brush, Pencil, Strokeor Linetool.

3. In the Guides view, select a guide to make it the active guide.
Once a guide is active, its horizon line and vanishing point(s) appear in the drawing area.

4. In the Guides view, make sure the Lock Guide

option is disabled. This ensures you're able to edit

the active guide.
5. In the drawing area, zoom out until all vanishing points are visible (if necessary).
6. In the drawing area, grab either the horizon or a vanishing point and move it to its desired location.

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When using the square grid or 1-point perspective guides, the angle of the horizon can be modified
by manipulating the horizon line itself.

When using the 2-point or 3-point perspective guides, the angle of the horizon can be modified bymanipulating one of the two vanishing points on the horizon.

When adjusting the horizon line, you can hold down Shift to snap the horizon line at every 15
degrees. This makes it easy to maintain a perfectly horizontal horizon.
NOTE
Each modification to a guide can be undone with the Undo command.

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Chapter 15: How to Use Drawing Guides

How to draw with drawing guides
1. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select a drawing, or select an empty cell and create a new drawing
by doing one of the following:l

Right-click on the cell and select Drawing > Create Empty Drawing.

l

Press Alt + Shift + R

2. In the Tools toolbar, select the Brush, Pencil, Strokeor Linetool.

3. In the Guides view, select the guide you wish to use.

4. In the drawing area, draw a stroke with the current drawing tool. From the initial gesture, the toollocks on one of the guide's axes, forcing it to draw a straight line that follows the axis.

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125

Chapter 16: How to Create a Multiplane

Chapter 16: How to Create a Multiplane
In live action, when the camera moves around in a scene, objects near the camera will appear to move by agreater distance than objects far from the camera. In 2D animation, a similar effect can be achieved by creating
a multiplane.

In Harmony, you can easily set-up a multiplane by creating a background over several layers, spreading themon the Z-axis to add depth, and then moving the camera through the resulting environment to create an
impressive perspective illusion.
In the following example, the background is made of 6 different layers, each picturing an object that is at adifferent distance from the camera. On the left, you can see how each object is positioned relative to thecamera, as if you were looking at them from the side. On the right, you can see how layers are positioned
relative to each other as if you were looking at the scene from a corner. Below, you can see the scene from thecamera's point of view.

126Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

Using the Maintain Size tool, you can easily turn a normal multi-layered background into a multiplane. This tool
allows you to move a layer closer to or further away from the camera all the while automatically adjusting thelayer's size proportionally to its distance from the camera, preserving its a apparent size from the camera's
point of view. Hence, you do not have to worry about the size and position of your layers when you design yourbackground.
In a new Harmony scene, draw the different elements of a background on separate layers. Then, follow thesteps below to turn your background into a multiplane.

How to set up a multiplane using the Maintain Size tool
1. Do one of the following:l

In the Advanced Animation toolbar, select the Maintain SizelFrom the top menu, select Animation > Tools > Maintain Size.

l

Press Alt + 6.

tool.

2. In the Side or Top view, select one of the layers in the thumbnails section. You can also select a layerfrom the Timeline view.
The selected layer is highlighted in the Top, Side and Camera views.

127Chapter 16: How to Create a Multiplane

3. Drag the layer along the Z-axis inside the camera cone.

Your element will move on your scene's Z-axis, but it will keep the same apparent size in the Camera
view.

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129

Chapter 17: How to Create and Use Templates

Chapter 17: How to Create and Use Templates
You can create a template from a layer or from cells. You can store anything available in the Timeline view as atemplate.

Creating a Template
How to create a template
1. In the Timeline view, select some cells or layers.
You can create a template from a whole hierarchy of layers by collapsing the hierarchy and selecting
its root layer. This can be useful for creating templates based on character rigs or scene
backgrounds.
2. In the Library view, select a folder to store the template. By default, you will have a library named
Harmony Essentials Library , which is stored on your computer, in the Toon Boom Harmony
Essentials Library subfolder of your Documents folder.
3. If the library folder is locked, right-click and select Right to Modify.

4. Drag the selection to the chosen library folder.

5. In the Rename dialog box, give the new template a name.
6. Click OK.

130Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

NOTE
If you create a template by selecting layers in the layers list of the Timeline view, your template withinclude the layer as well as all the drawings it contains, even drawings that are not exposed in thescene's timeline, whereas creating a template by selecting specific cells in the Timeline will only
save the selected drawings in the template.

NOTE
To rename a template once it is created, right-click on the symbol and select Rename.

Importing a Template
How to import a template
1. In the Library view, select the template you want to import.
2. Drag the selected template to the Camera view or to the left side of the Timeline view.

If you drop the template in the Camera view, its layers will be added at the top of your layers list. If
you drop a template in the layers list in the Timeline view, it will be inserted between the layers
where you dropped it.
If your template has the same layer structure as a part of your scene, you can drop the template
directly onto the frames on the right side of the Timeline view. Instead of inserting new layers into
your scene, this will replace the drawings and keyframes in your scene with the ones from thetemplate. This is useful for importing pose or animation templates for characters that are already inyour scene.

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133

Chapter 18: How to Export a Movie

Chapter 18: How to Export a Movie
Using the Export Movie dialog, you can export your animation as a video file. By default, Harmony will export
your entire scene in its full resolution. If you prefer, you can choose to export only a specific frame range in yourscene, or to export in a smaller resolution, which can be useful if you need to save on time or disk space.
If you have specific requirements for the quality and size of your exported video files, you can use the Movie
Options dialog to configure the video and audio compression settings. If you're exporting a QuickTime movie,
you have access to all of the codecs and compression settings made available by QuickTime's interface.

How to export a movie file
1. From the top menu, select File > Export > Movie.
The Export to QuickTime Movie dialog box opens.

2. In the Video Format drop-down menu, select the desired format for your movie file:lQuick Time Movie (*.mov): Available on Windows, macOS and GNU/Linux.

lWindows Media Video (*.wmv): Available on Windows only.
NOTE
On Windows and macOS, Apple QuickTime must be installed in order to export
QuickTime movies. On GNU/Linux, Harmony uses a more limited, open source
QuickTime-compatible library which does not require additional software.

3. Click Browse to select the location and file name of your exported movie file.

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4. Click OK.
5. From the Export Range section, decide whether you want to export the entire scene (All) or a
specific frame range. If you decide on the latter, enter the frame range.

6. In the Resolution section, select one of the following from the menu:lA preferred resolution ratio.

lCustom: Enables the Width and Height fields so you can enter a specific size.

7. In the Options section, click Movie Options to configure your movie's video and sound compression
settings.
l

If your video format is Quick Time Movie, refer to the How to export a lossless
QuickTime movie with transparency on page 138 and How to configure video andsound settings for QuickTime movies on page 136 sections.

l

If your video format is Windows Media Video, refer to the How to configure video andsound settings for Windows Media Video on page 139 section.

8. Click OK.
9. In the Export to QuickTime Movie dialog box, click OK.
A progress bar appears.

135Chapter 18: How to Export a Movie

10. Browse to the location on your computer where you exported your movie and double-click on it toview it in your video player.

How to configure video and sound settings for QuickTime movies
1. In the Movie Settings dialog box, select whether you want your movie to include Video and Sound
data, as well as if the video should be optimized for Internet streaming.

2. In the Video section, click Settings.
The Standard Video Compression Settings dialog box opens.

136Harmony 15.0 Essentials Getting Started Guide

3. From the Compression Type menu, select a codec. The availability of certain compression settings
depends on the Compression Type selected. For example, when the Animation compression type isselected, the Data Rate option is greyed out.
TIP
If you want to render a QuickTime movie with high quality compression andtransparency, you can use the Animation video codec with the colour depth set toMillions of Colours+.
4. In the Motion section, choose a Frame Rate from the list.
By default, it is set to match the frames-per-second (fps) of your Harmony project. If you choose alower frame rate, your export playback will be faster than your actual project. The reverse is also true
for a higher frame rate.
5. If you want keyframes inserted, select the Every option and set the number per frame.
This is the option recommended by QuickTime. For further details, refer to the QuickTime
documentation.
6. In the Quality section, use the slider to choose a quality setting. Remember that the better thequality of the export, the larger the file.

7. From the Data Rate section, either choose to allow the program to automatically select the most
optimal bit rate, or enter a Restricted rate to save space and allow for faster downloading at a costto the quality of the export.
8. In the same section, from the Optimized For menu, select the intended viewing method for theexport.
9. Click OK.
10. From the Movie Settings dialog box, click Sound Settings.
The Sound Settings dialog box opens.

137Chapter 18: How to Export a Movie

11. From the Compressor menu, select a compression type. The default setting is None. This exports
your audio as is without performing any lossy compression or conversion, preserving its fidelity.
Other compressors can be used if you need your movie's audio track to be exported in a specificformat, or if disk space or download speed is critical, but they may impact the quality of your movie's
soundtrack negatively.
12. From the Rate menu, select a rate. It is best to export your audio at a rate that matches the rate ofyour original sound files. For example, if your file has an audio sample rate of 48 kHz and you choose
a conversion rate of 22.05 kHz, the sound will play at the same speed, but higher frequencies will be
missing, making it sound muffled. For reference, the standard sound quality is 48 kHz forbroadcasting and DVD. Lower rates are liable to impact the quality of your movie's soundtracknegatively, but they can be useful if disk space or download speed is critical.
13. Select the Size of your audio's encoding. Also known as Bit Depth, this determines the amount ofprecision used to record each wavelength in the soundtrack. The standard size is 16-bit. If you
choose 8-bit, the amount of disk space your sound track requires is halved, but the audio will soundmuffled.
14. Select whether to Use the Mono or Stereo channel mode. Stereo sound has a separate sound track
for the left and the right speakers, allowing to make the origin of each sound realistically match theorigin of their corresponding action. If you choose Mono, your sound track may use less disk space,but both the left and right channels will be merged into a single track.

How to export a lossless QuickTime movie with transparency
1. In the Video section of the Movie Settings dialog, select Settings.
2. In the Standard Video Compression Settings dialog, set the Compression Type to Animation.
3. In the Compressor section, set the Depth to Millions of Colors+ .

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4. Click OK.

How to configure video and sound settings for Windows Media Video
1. In the Video section, select the desired Variable Bit Rate Quality for your video. A higher setting will
ensure a better image quality. A lower setting will create a smaller video file.

2. Using the Sound checkbox, select whether or not you want your movie file to have sound.
3. Using the Profile drop-down menu, select the preferred compression settings for your movie's
soundtrack. Each profile has a combination of audio sample rate, sample size and channel mode,
which cover the following options:lSample rate: Available sample rates are 8000 Hz, 16000 Hz, 22050 Hz and 44100 Hz. The
default setting is 22050 Hz. It is best to export your audio at a rate that matches the rate ofyour original sound files. For example, if your file has an audio sample rate of 48000 Hz andyou choose a sample rate of 22050 Hz, the sound will play at the same speed, but higher
frequencies will be missing, making it sound muffled. For reference, the standard sound139

Chapter 18: How to Export a Movie

quality is 44000 kHz for films, and 48000 kHz for DVD. Lower rates are liable to impact thequality of your movie's soundtrack negatively, but they can be useful if disk space or
download speed is critical.
lSample size: Also known as Bit Depth, this determines the amount of precision used torecord each wavelength in the soundtrack. The standard size is 16-bit. If you choose 8-bit,
the amount of disk space your sound track requires is halved, but the audio will soundmuffled.

lChannel mode: Stereo sound has a separate sound track for the left and the right speakers,
allowing to make the origin of each sound realistically match the origin of their corresponding
action. If you choose Mono, your sound track may use less disk space, but both the left andright channels will be merged into a single track.
NOTE
Exporting in 8-bit audio requires Apple QuickTime to be installed.

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141

Glossary

Glossary
TermDefinition

3D stereoscopic

The ability to create stereo images which, when animated and viewed through 3D active
shutter glasses or using glasses with one red and one blue lens, will appear as a threedimensional movie.

alpha channel

An image channel that carries transparency information. An image already has threechannels: red, green and blue (RGB). The alpha channel is the fourth channel (A). The matte,
or the transparency information, is stored in this fourth channel. An image without an alphachannel is always opaque.

animatic

A movie with sound that is developed from the storyboard. The storyboard panel is exposed
for the duration of the scene and at times, the characters are placed on a trajectory to indicate
motion. The camera moves are also animated. The animatic is used to determine the rhythmof a project and provides a good overview of the project before beginning production.

animation

A simulation of movement created by displaying a series of pictures or frames.

anime

An animation style known for its sinister and dark feel; popular in Japan.

arc

Action rarely occurs in a straight-forward manner; rather it typically unfolds in whatstorytellers refer to as an arc. The purpose of a story arc is to move a character or situationfrom one state or scenario to the next.

aspect ratio

The relationship between the width and height dimensions for any scene, frame or film
format. Television ratio is 4:3 and widescreen ratio is 16:9.

auto-feed

An automated method of feeding drawings into a scanner in which multiple drawings arestacked into a sheet feeder. When the scanner is activated, the drawings are scanned
consecutively, without further user intervention.

automatic lip-sync
detection

Automatically mapping drawings in an element to the mouth chart generated for a sound.
This can save time when lip-syncing a voice track.

axis

An imaginary line around which an object rotates.
For 2D graphics, there are two axes: X (horizontal and Y (vertical).
For 3D graphics, there are three axes: X (horizontal, Y (vertical) and Z (depth).
In animations that constantly rotate, the axis element specifies what axis the object rotatesaround. A negative number causes an animation to rotate counter clockwise whereas apositive number causes an animation to rotate clockwise.

background

The part of a scene that is farthest to the rear. The background is the artwork, or decor,
against which the animation takes place.

Bézier

A method of defining curved lines invented by French mathematician Pierre Bézier. A Bézier
curve is a mathematical or parametric curve. Bézier curves use at least three points to define acurve.

bitmapAn image composed of pixels with a single resolution (size). If it is enlarged too much, it willlose definition and individual pixels will begin to appear. This is known as pixelation.

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Bitmap image files are defined as a standard rectangular mesh of individual pixels. Eachindividual pixel contains a value that represents a specific colour.
breakdown

In cut-out animation, breakdown is the action of breaking a character into pieces to create apuppet with articulations. To break down a character, the artist cuts parts, such as the hands
and arms, from the character's model and pastes them in separate layers. Next, the joints are
fixed and the pivots set.
In traditional animation, a breakdown is an animation pose generally found between two key
poses. The key poses are the main poses in an animation and the breakdowns are secondary
poses, ones that help describe the motion and the rotation curve (usually referred to as anarc).

camera shake

Camera shake occurs in a scene when the camera moves slightly and quickly in several
directions. This gives the impression of an impact, vibration or, for example, bumps on theroad.

captionA text field containing dialogue, effects, sound or slugging information in a storyboard.

cel

In traditional animation, a cel (also known as celluloid) is a transparent sheet on which theanimation is inked and painted before being sent to the camera. The picture's outline isdrawn on the front of the cel and then coloured along the back.

character design

Each character in an animated film is drawn from multiple angles in poster-style format,
called a model sheet, which serves as a reference for the animators.

chromatic aberration

In optics, chromatic aberration (CA), achromatism or chromatic distortion, is a type of
distortion in which there is a failure of a lens to focus all colours to the same convergencepoint.

clean up

After rough drawings have been tested and approved, all the noise in the image (excess lines,
notes, etc.) is removed to create final drawings which can be inked, painted and shot. The
clean up process refers to either tracing a clean line over a rough drawing to achieve the final
version or removing dirt and extra lines left by the scanning process.

CMYK

Acronym for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black. These colours are the standard model used in aprocess called offset printing.

colour card

A colour card is a card containing one solid colour that is the same size as the camera. The
colour card fills the background with a solid colour when there is no background image
included.

colour model

The official colour design that must be used to paint the animation. A model is the definitive
character, prop or location design that each artist must follow for the production.

colour wheel

A display of the colour spectrum in the form of a circle.

compositing

Compositing is the action of incorporating all of a scene's elements to create the final result
prior to rendering. For example, the compositing artist will import all the animation
sequences, background, overlays and underlays in the scene and position them correctly.
The artist will then set the camera frame and animate it, if needed. Finally, the animator will
create all the computer-generated effects for the project.

cross dissolve

An effect used to fade two scenes, one into the other.

cut

A direct transition between two scenes. When a cut is used, there are no transition effects

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inserted to pass from one scene to the next. The first scene ends and the second one starts
immediately.
cut-out animation

The process known as cut-out animation is the action of animating characters made out ofseveral pieces by moving them around frame by frame. Cut-out animation can either becomputer generated or done traditionally using paper.

cycle

A group of images that together make up an action, such as walking. A cycle is an action
repeated as a loop over a period of time. It can be a series of animated drawings or keyframes.

dialogue

The text spoken by a character in a movie or animation.

dope sheet

Used by animators, directors and other members of a crew to track the sequence and timingof images, dialogue, sound effects, sound tracks and camera moves. Also known as an
exposure sheet.

dopingTo assign a particular drawing to a range of frames.

double bounce walk

In the key frames and passing positions in a double bounce walk, the body is lower than areference line drawn in the upright position. During the in-betweens, the body is above thisline giving the appearance of a bounce.

DPI

Dots per inch is the standard measure of resolution for computerized printers. It issometimes applied to screens, in which case it should more accurately be referred to as
pixels per inch. Either way, the dot is the smallest discrete element making up the image.

ease

In animation, the ease, also known as velocity, is the acceleration and deceleration of amotion. It can be a motion created by a function curve, or a series of animated drawings.
Other common terms for ease-in and ease-out are slow-in and slow-out.

ease-in

Gradual acceleration in the action. Also known as slow-in.

ease-out

Gradual deceleration in the action. Also known as slow-out.

establishing shot

A scene in which the viewer can see the whole area in which a sequence is happening. For
example, if a child is playing on the ground in front of his house, the establishing shot would
be a scene where the viewer can see the house, the ground, a part of the street and thebuildings around the central point of action. This helps the viewer understand the story
location and scene orientation.

exposure

In animation, an exposure is the number of cels on which a drawing appears in the scene. Fora drawing to appear longer, the exposure must be extended over a greater number of cels.

exposure sheet

A sheet with several vertical columns and horizontal frames used to indicate a scene's
timing. Each column represents a scene layer. The drawing numbers in each column are
indicated and repeated over the particular amount of frames they need to appear.
The exposure sheet is used by animators, directors and other members of a crew to track thesequence and timing of images, dialogue, sound effects, sound tracks and camera moves.
Also known as a dope sheet.

fade in/fade out

Fade in or fade out is a transition effect used to open or close a sequence. A fade in occurs
when the first scene appears progressively, from complete transparency to its complete
opacity. A fade out occurs when the last scene progressively disappears, going fromcomplete opacity to complete transparency.

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fast-inDramatic acceleration at the start of the action.

fast-out

Dramatic acceleration at the end of the action.

field

A measurement unit used to calculate motion, registration and camera positioning. A
standard animation scene will vary between 6 to 12 fields.

field chart

A guide containing all the field units that animation and layout artists use to determine ascene size or camera motion.

film-1.33

A resolution that is ideal for the widescreen film format that conforms to the standard 4:3
pixel aspect ratio.

film-1.66

A resolution that is ideal for the widescreen film format that conforms to the 16:9 pixel
aspect ratio. (The pixels are wider than they are high).

flipping

In traditional animation, flipping is the action of going through the drawings of an animation
sequence very quickly in order to see the animation in motion. Flipping can also be the actionof creating a mirror transformation of an object.

follow-throughThe secondary motion caused by the main action. For example, a character wearing a cloak isrunning. The main action is the body running. This will cause the cloak to follow the motion,although it will not move at the same time, but react a few frames later and follow the main
motion curve.

forward kinematics

Forward kinematics is a feature used to animate principally 3D characters and cut-out
puppets with hierarchy. It is used to animate a puppet from one of parent parts, such as ashoulder, and make the rest of the arm move with it as a single piece.

frame

An animation frame is a single photographic image in a movie. In traditional animation, theNorth American standard generally contains 24 frames per second, while in Europe thestandard is 25 frames per second.

frame rate

The frame rate is the speed at which the frames are played. They are generally calculated byframe per second. For example, a scene could be played back at 12, 24, 25, 30 or 60 frames
per second or any other number.
This is the measurement of the frequency (rate) at which an imaging device produces uniqueconsecutive images, called frames. The term applies equally to computer graphics, video
cameras, film cameras, and motion capture systems.
Frame rate is most often expressed in frames per second (fps) and in progressive-scanmonitors as hertz (Hz).

function

A computer-generated motion, trajectory or path on which elements, other trajectories andeffects parameters can be attached. The function can be controlled by adding keyframes andcontrol points on the function curve.

gamut

The range of colours that a particular device can represent.

HDTV

Acronym for High Definition Television which delivers a higher quality image than standard
television because it has a greater number of lines of resolution. To take advantage of thesuperior quality and make full use of your resolution setting, the output device must becompatible with HDTV technology.

hold

A frame in the animation in which the character maintains its position without moving. A

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hold can be created between any two keyframes.
HSV

Hue, Saturation, Value. A method of defining colours in terms of hue (tint), saturation(shade) and value (tone or luminance).

in-between

The drawings that exist between the key poses. These are drawn to create fluid transitions
between poses.

ink and paint

The ink and paint process is the action of painting the empty zones and colouring the lines
on the final animation drawings, while following a colour model.

interpolation

The computer-generated motion created between two keyframes. You have the choice tocreate interpolation, or not, between your keyframes.

inverse kinematics (IK)

A feature used mainly to animate 3D characters and cut-out puppets with hierarchy. Inverse
kinematics will animate a puppet from one of the extremities, such as a hand, and make therest of the body follow naturally.

jump cut

A jerky cut between two scenes. Typically, a jump cut is not visually pleasing. It is generally
caused by one scene ending, and a second one starting, with a similar image. The lack ofdifference causes the eye to see a little jump between the two scenes.

key pose

Important positions in the action defining the starting and ending points of any smoothtransition. Keys, or key poses, are the main drawings in an animation sequence describing
the motion. For example, if an arm is waving, the keys will be of the arm at one extremity of
the wave motion and the other extremity. By flipping those drawings, the animator can see
the skeleton of the motion without having all the drawings.

keyboard shortcuts

One or more keyboard keys which, when used, cause an operation to be performed.

keyframe

Important positions in the action defining the starting and ending points of any action. A
keyframe is a computer-generated position at a specific moment (frame) on a given trajectory.

layer

In animation, a layer is an individual column, level or character. A scene's layers aresuperimposed to form the final image.

layout

The communication step between the storyboard and the animation. It is the action of
putting the storyboard on model. That is, drawing the character by following the design inthe model pack, so the animator can start working.
The layout artist draws the background, creates the camera and field guide matching thescene and camera motion. Lastly, the animator draws on model the main action poses.

layout and posing

The action of putting on model (at the right scale) the storyboard for the animator to startworking.

layout artist

The artist who draws the background, and creates the camera and field guide to match thescene and camera motion. They will draw on model the main action poses.

layout planning

Drawing of the main features of the scene used as reference when planning the animationand executing the initial stages of it.

layout process

The communication step between the storyboard and the animation.

library

A storage area containing templates and assets that can be reused in any project or scene.

light table

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particular layer.
line of action

The direction that the action will follow. Also known as path of action.

lip-sync

The process of synchronizing a character's mouth to sounds in the dialogue sound track.
The mouth is adjusted frame-by-frame to match the sound of the dialogue and provide theillusion that the character is speaking. Lip-sync can be used for any sound sequence, notonly speech, you could for instance have a bird chirping or a wolf howling at the moon.

low resolution

A format that is ideal for videos destined for the web, where size and fast download of avideo file take precedence over quality. A low-resolution image is one that lacks fine detail.

manual lip-sync detection The manual swapping of mouth position drawings to match a voice track. For this process,both sound scrubbing (listening to a sound wave broken up frame-by-frame) and drawing
substitutions are used.
master palette

A group of colours attributed to a character or prop. The palette is used throughout the entire
production to maintain consistency in the look and to ensure that the same colours are usedthroughout the production. Also known as palette.

model/colour model

The definitive character, prop or location design each artist must follow for a production. A
colour model is the official colour design that must be used to paint the animation.

morphing

A feature for creating computer-generated drawings between a source drawing and a
destination drawing. Animation created with the morphing feature can be reused in different
projects.

motion keyframe

A keyframe with computer-generated interpolation.

mouth chart

A chart based on the eight animation phonemes (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and X, which is used torepresent silence) used for lip-sync.

multiplane

The effect of passing through multiple levels of drawings to create a sense of depth in a shot.
A multiplane is a scene in which the layers are placed at different distances from the camera
so that when the camera moves, a depth illusion occurs. With a multiplane, all theperspective and scale is calculated automatically.

NTSC

The standard analogue television broadcasting system used in North America. NTSC
conforms to North American standards on how rectangular pixels are displayed for computer
and television screens.

nudge

A small push (left, right, up, down, forward or backward) done with the keyboard arrow keys
on a selected element. Nudging is used to move a selection very slightly and precisely.

onion skin

A feature that lets you see the previous and next drawings of a sequence.

overlay

A part of the scene environment, such as a chair or a bush, that is placed in front of the main
animation.

PAL

A resolution that works best with the European format for television and computer screens,as the rectangular pixels are displayed at a different orientation.

palette/master palette

A palette or master palette is a group of colours attributed to a character or a prop. The
palette is used throughout the entire project to maintain a consistency in the look and avoid
the colour changing during the animation. Also referred to as a master palette.

palette style

A palette style is a second version of an existing palette with a slight change in the tint and147

Glossaryvalue. A palette style can be used to create the night version of a palette. It may also be calleda clone palette.
pan

To move the camera across the scene in any direction.

panel

In a storyboard, a panel is a frame in a shot. A shot can be composed of one or several
panels.

paperlessanimation/tradigital

The paperless animation process is the action of animating digitally. The main paperlessanimation process is to draw, frame by frame, the animation directly in the software.

passing position

When drawing a walk sequence for a character, the passing position is the point at which
one leg passes the other.

path of action

Direction that the action will follow. Also known as line of action.

peg

In traditional animation, a tool used to ensure accurate registration of action as cel layers
move. In digital animation, in which you are doing a more advanced puppet rigging, you can
use peg layers. Peg layers are trajectory layers that do not contain drawings. They are motion
paths that you can use to add path articulations. For the latter, you can also use an inverse
kinematics tool.

phonemeA unit of sound in a language.

pivot

The point around which a peg or drawing rotates.

pixel

The smallest element of an image displayed on a monitor or TV screen.
Pixel, short for picture element, is a single point in a graphic image. It is a small sample of animage, a dot, a square, or a very small section made out of smooth filtering. If you zoom inclose enough on a digital image, you will see the pixels, which look like small squares ofdifferent colours and intensity.

pose-to-pose animation

The pose-to-pose animation process is the action of creating all the main action poses,
called key poses, and then placing the secondary poses between the keys. The secondary
poses are called breakdowns. Finally, the animator fills the gaps with the in-between
drawings to achieve a smooth animation.

rendering

The final step when animating by computer. During rendering, the computer takes each pixelthat appears on screen and processes all of the components, as well as adding motion blur
before it produces a final image. The process of calculating the final images after thecompositing process.

resolution

The size of a scene, generally calculated in pixels. For example, the NTSC resolution is 720 x
480. The resolution should match the final output: HDTV, film-1.33, film-1.66, NTSC, PAL,
low.

RGB

Red, Green, Blue. A method of defining colour by specifying amounts of these three colour
components.

rigging

The process of attaching the various parts of a cut-out puppet.

rotary table

Equivalent to the animation disk/table, a device that allows you to rotate the workspace forgreater comfort while drawing.

rotoscoping

An animation technique in which animators trace over live-action film movement, frame byframe, for use in animated films. The act of sketching over live-action footage to create an148

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animated sequence.
roughsRough is a common name in an animation movie for a drawing that is used as a reference but
which does not form part of the final image. A layout is a rough.
The skeleton sketch of an animation or design. Roughs mainly consist of sketch lines andshapes, but can also contain design details.

safe area

The zone at the center of a scene's frame that is safe from being cropped by the TV frame. As
a TV frame cuts a margin off the original frame size, maintaining a safe area ensures that thescene's main action will remain clearly visible once the film is screened on television.

scene

A shot in a movie or show. A sequence is composed of several scenes. A scene changes toanother scene by a simple cut or transition.

scriptThe original text containing all the movie or show information. In animation, the script
contains all of the location descriptions, dialogue, time and more. A project starts with ascript.

sequence

A series of scenes or shots forming a distinct part of the story or movie, usually connectedby unity of location or time.

shot

A scene in a movie or show. A sequence is composed of several shots. A shot changes toanother shot by a simple cut or transition.

slow-in

The gradual acceleration in the action. Also known as ease-in.

slow-out

The gradual deceleration in the action. Also known as ease-out.

slugging

To indicate the start and stop times of dialogue and relevant actions.

sound scrubbing

A process that lets you hear sound in real time while you move the playhead forward or
backward. This is very useful for finely-tuning a lip-sync.

stop-motion keyframe

A keyframe with no computer-generated interpolation.

storyboard

A visual plan of all the scenes and shots in an animation. The storyboard indicates what will
happen, when it will happen and how the objects in a scene are laid out.

straight-ahead animation

A technique in which an entire sequence is drawn from the first position to the last, in order.
There is very little planning in this methodology. Where the character ends up and how itgets there can be a surprise for both the audience and the animator. While this approach isspontaneous and creative, it can create inaccurate results.

strokes

Invisible vector lines forming the drawing zones. They can be adjusted with Bézier handles.

symbol

A symbol combines animation, artwork or layers into a single object that you can control in
one layer. You can also create symbols out of each body part in your cut-out puppets.
You can place whatever you want in a symbol. You can use symbols to animate a puppet or
create reusable animations such as blinking.

tablet/pen

A device used in conjunction with, or instead of, a mouse to move a mouse pointer(sometimes referred to as the cursor) around the computer screen.

template

An asset stored in the library that can be reused in any project. A template can be a drawing,a series of keyframes, a sound file, a panel, a cut-out character, an effect, a trajectory, ananimation, or anything else used in the animation.

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thumbnailA very small image used as a reference or indicator.

timecode

The timing information printed on a movie clip to indicate the scene, hour, minute andsecond that is currently displayed on the screen.

timeline

A horizontal representation of a scene's elements, timing and keyframes.

trace and paint

After the rough animations have gone through cleanup and a final line or pencil test, eachdrawing is traced and painted for the final animation. In today's digital world, this may bedone in a variety of ways other than the traditional celluloid or acetate methods.

track breakdown

The break down of an animated film's soundtrack into individual sounds to produce theprecise frame-by-frame position of each sound.

traditional animation

A type of animation process whereby all the animation sequences are drawn by hand on
paper before scanning or inking them on cels.

trajectory

A computer-generated path or trajectory that elements can follow. The trajectory can becontrolled by control points, keyframes and velocity.

transition

An effect placed between two scenes as they pass from one to the other. Common transition
effects are cross-dissolve and wipe.

underlay

In animation, an underlay is a specific part of the decor placed behind the main animation.

vector

A vector-based image is composed of points and Bézier curves. The computer reads thepoints and traces the segments, linking them to reproduce the image shape. There is no fixed
size or resolution in a vector image. The graphic can be enlarged and distorted as much as
desired and the system will simply recalculate the segments and rebuild the shapes. Vector
images are translated and displayed in pixels once the calculation is done.

velocity

In animation, the velocity, also known as ease, is the acceleration or deceleration of a motion.
This can be achieved by a function curve, or via a series of animated drawings. Other
common terms for ease-in and ease-out are slow-in and slow-out.

walk cycle

An animation depicting a character walking in place. The illusion of movement is created by
the use of background pans. To avoid animating a character walking over and over again in
every episode in a series, it is common practice to prepare walk cycles for each character in a
production so that they can be reused as needed.

zone

An area which can be painted with colour.

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