Essentials

Toon Boom
Harmony Essentials V15.0
Preferences 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 Preferences Guide

Legal Notices
Toon Boom Animation Inc.
4200 Saint-Laurent, Suite 1020
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
H2W 2R2
Tel: +1 514 278 8666
Fax: +1 514 278 2666
toonboom.com
Disclaimer
The content of this guide is covered by a specific limited warranty and exclusions and limit of liability under theapplicable License Agreement as supplemented by the special terms and conditions for Adobe®Flash ® 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.

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Table of Contents

2

Preferences

4

Chapter 1: Preferences File Location

6

Chapter 2: Shortcuts Preferences8

Switching Keyboard Shortcut Sets

9

Searching for Keyboard Shortcuts

10

Customizing Keyboard Shortcuts

12

Chapter 3: General Preferences

14

Chapter 4: Camera Preferences

20

Chapter 5: Exposure Sheet Preferences

22

Chapter 6: Drawing Preferences

24

Chapter 7: OpenGL Preferences

26

Chapter 8: Advanced Preferences30

2Harmony 15.0 Essentials Preferences Guide

3

Preferences

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

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

How to access the Preferences dialog box
Do one of the following:lSelect Edit > Preferences (Windows/Linux) or Harmony Essentials > Preferences (macOS).

l

Press Ctrl + U (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + U (macOS).

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Harmony 15.0 Essentials Preferences Guide

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Chapter 1: Preferences File Location

Chapter 1: Preferences File Location
T-HFND-002-002
When you change any of the options in the Preferences dialog box, they are stored in a folder called Toon
Boom Harmony. You can copy this folder if you want to use the same preferences on a different computer.
lWindows: C:\Users\[user_name]\AppData\Roaming\Toon Boom Animation\Toon Boom [Harmony
Essentials\full-1500-pref
NOTE
On Windows, the AppData folder is hidden. To display it in Explorer, in the top menu, open
the View pane and check the Hidden Items checkbox.

lmacOS: /Users/[user_name]/Library/Preferences/Toon Boom Animation/Toon Boom [Harmony
Essentials/full-1500-pref
NOTE
On macOS, the Library folder is hidden. To display it in Finder, hold down the Alt key.

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Harmony 15.0 Essentials Preferences Guide

7

Chapter 2: Shortcuts Preferences

Chapter 2: Shortcuts Preferences
To speed up your work, all of the keyboard shortcuts can be customized. You can even choose other software
keyboard shortcut sets.
In Toon Boom Harmony, you can choose a set of default keyboard shortcuts you are familiar with. You canchoose between the following:lToon Boom HarmonylAdobe FlashlToon Boom StudioSome tools or commands do not have default keyboard shortcuts assigned to them. You can add them if you
find it helpful. If you want to customize an existing keyboard shortcut, you can perform a search by name or its
shortcut.

8Harmony 15.0 Essentials Preferences Guide

Switching Keyboard Shortcut Sets
If you are accustomed to a certain set of keyboard shortcuts, you can change the shortcuts set to something
more familiar.

How to switch keyboard shortcut sets
1. Do one of the following:lWindows: Select Edit > PreferenceslmacOS: Select Harmony Essentials> Preferences.

l

Press Ctrl + U (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + U (macOS).

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

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Chapter 2: Shortcuts Preferences

Searching for Keyboard Shortcuts
If you are unsure of what the keyboard shortcut is for a certain tool or function, or even what category it would
be located under, you can use the search engine in the Shortcuts Preferences tab to find it. You can also use thesearch engine to determine if a keyboard shortcut (character or combination of characters) is already assigned
to a tool or command in the software.

How to search for a keyboard shortcut
1. In the Preferences dialog box, select the Shortcuts tab.
2. In the keyboard shortcut search section, select an option:‣

Name to search for a keyboard shortcut by its name.

‣

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

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

10Harmony 15.0 Essentials Preferences Guide

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

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Chapter 2: Shortcuts Preferences

Customizing Keyboard Shortcuts
You can create your own keyboard shortcut for a tool or command, by assigning it to a certain key or
combination of keys.

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

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

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

‣

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

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

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Harmony 15.0 Essentials Preferences Guide

13

Chapter 3: General Preferences

Chapter 3: General Preferences

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

Description
In Harmony Server, you can decide which kinds of assets are saved when
you use the Save command. This can be useful if you need specific users to
only be able to make changes to certain aspects of the scene they're
working on, or if you want to prevent yourself from accidentally making
undesired changes to important assets. Unchecking any of the following
options will prevent you from saving their corresponding type of assets:
l

Save
l

l

l

Save Scene: Save changes to the list of layers, elements, animation,
timing, layout, effects, scene properties, etc.
Save Palette Lists: Save changes to the list of palettes associated tothe scene or to individual elements.
Save Palettes: Save changes to the colours and textures contained inpalettes.
Save Drawings: Save changes to existing drawings as well as newly
created drawings.

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Harmony 15.0 Essentials Preferences Guide

TIP
If you want to save changes made to a type of asset that for whichsaving was disabled, you can do so by selecting File > Advanced

Save from the top menu. In the Advanced Save dialog, assets forwhich saving is disabled will be unchecked, so you must manuallycheck the assets you want to save.

IMPORTANT
When you close a scene, Harmony will not ask for confirmation todiscard changes made to assets for which saving is disabled.

Auto-Save:lllInterval (minutes): This is the frequency at which the auto-savetakes place.
Inactivity Interval (seconds): When Auto-save is about to take place,it verifies if you are drawing or doing anything in the application. If
so, Auto-save waits this number of seconds before attempting
another save.
Ask Before Saving: Before performing an auto-save, the system willprompt you with a message to confirm if you want to save or not.
You can choose to turn off this option.

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

Automatically Save Workspace: Changes to your workspace, such as how
views and toolbars are laid out, are automatically saved, making sure yourworkspace remains the same after you close and re-launch Harmony or if
you switch between different workspaces. If this option is disabled, youmust manually save changes to your workspace by selecting Windows> Workspace > Save Workspace from the top menu.

Options

Support Gestures: Enables manipulating views such as the Camera andDrawing views using the following gestures: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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Chapter 3: General Preferencesl

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 thesame direction.

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Harmony 15.0 Essentials Preferences Guide

Invert Scroll Direction: When panning a view by dragging it with yourfingers in one direction, this makes the view pan in the opposite direction.
Touch Sensitivity: Control touch sensitivity. On macOS, higher numbers
give a slower response to pans. On Windows, higher numbers favour
scale/rotates over pans.
Auto Render: Controls whether the Camera view's Auto Render option isenabled or disabled when launching Harmony. When Auto Render isdisabled, if any change is made to the scene while the Camera view is in
Render Preview mode, it will switch to OpenGL Preview mode. Whenenabled, it will merely refresh the render preview.
Focus on Mouse Enter: In Harmony, some keyboard shortcuts, menus or
toolbar buttons are intended for specific views in your workspace. To use
keyboard shortcuts or other functionalities on a specific view, this viewmust be focused on. For example, the Centre on Selection shortcut will findthe selected element in the Timeline or Camera view, depending on which
one is focused on. Harmony draws a red rectangle around the currently
focused on view.
By default, to set the focus on a view, you must click on its tab or on
anything inside the view itself. The Focus on Mouse Enter preference will
make Harmony automatically focus on the view the mouse cursor is over,making it switch the focus on a view and use keyboard shortcuts on it.

17Chapter 3: General Preferences

NOTE
Some items in the top menu also have functionalities that are
specific to the focused on view, but moving the mouse cursor to the
top menu might leave the wrong view focused on. To circumvent
this problem, it might be necessary to become familiar withkeyboard shortcuts, contextual (right-click) menus and the view
menus available via the menu

button at the top-left corner ofsome views.

IMPORTANT
Because not all tools can be displayed simultaneously in a single
column, some tools will be hidden from the Tools toolbar by default.
You can customize which tools appear in the Tools toolbar by rightclicking on it and selecting Customize.

Use Dark StyleSheet (Requires Relaunch): Application loads a dark skin for
the User Interface.
Stop-Motion Keyframes: New keyframes are created as stop-motion
keyframes.
Settings

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

Timeline

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

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Chapter 4: Camera Preferences

Chapter 4: Camera Preferences

Parameter

Description

Settings

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

Control Points

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

Colours

Background Colour: Lets you change the background colour.

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Chapter 5: Exposure Sheet Preferences

Chapter 5: Exposure Sheet Preferences

Parameter

Description
These preferences are used to display or hide certain layer types in the Xsheet
view.
Show Drawing Columns: Displays the Drawing layers in the Xsheet view.

Filtering

Show Sound Columns: Displays the Sound columns in the Xsheet view.
Show 3D Path Columns: Displays the 3D Path columns in the Xsheet view.
Show Function Columns: Displays the Function columns layers in the Xsheet
view.
Default Add Columns: The default position where the new column will be added.

Options

Default Column Width: The default width value for the new column being
created.
You can set the minimum and maximum zoom levels to view the Xsheet,depending on the number of columns and rows in the project. Once you set alevel, close and reopen the Xsheet so the new values take effect.
Minimum Zoom Level: Lets you set the lowest level of zoom. Choose a value
between 1 and 6.

Zoom Levels

Maximum Zoom Level: Lets you set the highest level of zoom. Choose a value
between 14 and 20.

NOTE
You can set a keyboard shortcut to view the entire Xsheet.

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Chapter 6: Drawing Preferences

Chapter 6: Drawing Preferences

Parameter

Description
Onion Skin Render Style:•

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

•

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

•
Light Table

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

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

Options

Select Tool is Lasso: When this option is enabled, the Select tool behaves as alasso selector. When this option is disabled, the Select tool behaves as arectangle selector.
Brush Size Cursor: When this option is enabled, the brush tool displays thebrush size as a circle around the cursor.
Auto Gap Closing in Pixel Units: Disabling this option will cause your gap to be24Harmony 15.0 Essentials Preferences Guide

zoom dependent. Zoom dependent means that the more you zoom in, the smaller
the gap you can close with the Close Gap tools. By enabling this option, youchoose to make the gap display available in pixel units, which is not zoom
dependent.
Auto Gap Closing on Startup: The values for automatic gap closing while
painting drawings are: 0 = Disabled, 1=Small, 2=Medium, 3=Big.
Pencil Lines Opacity (%): Lets you set the default tranparency of your pencil lines.

Colours

Background Colour: Lets you change the background colour.
Grid Colour: Lets you change the colour of the grid.
Enable Paper Zoom: Enabling this option allows you to set the 100% Zoom level
onscreen, in order to physically match the measurements of your paper drawing.

Zoom

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

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Chapter 7: OpenGL Preferences

Chapter 7: OpenGL Preferences

Parameter

Description
Conservative Texture Management: Turns on and off conservative memory
management for bitmap texture files. Performance will improve when this isenabled. If disabled, you will have a better on-screen rendering of bitmap files atthe expense of slower performance.
Smooth Textures: Smooths out the pixels of bitmap images when zooming in;this improves bitmap image quality.
Alternate Gradient and Cutter: This is an alternative way to disable write in the
OpenGL Backbuffer, required for some video cards (i.e. GeForce FX5200). Do notenable this option unless you are experiencing problems with gradients andcutters in OpenGL.

Settings

Support Triple Buffer: Enable this option for a better compatibility with Windows
Vista if your video card driver does not allow to disable the triple buffering option.
Not enabling this option may result in a dashing line when drawing a brushstroke.
Support Desktop Effects: Enable this option for better compatibility with
Windows 7, Windows Vista and Mac OS X desktop effects. This will prevent
graphic compositing problems from happening when the full-scene anti-aliasing
option is enabled.
Maximum Texture Size: The size that the bitmap file will be reduced to whenusing the Conservative Texture Management.
Texture Memory: The amount of temporary memory used to store bitmap texture
files.
Vector Drawing Maximum Texture Size: This is the size that the .tvg file will be
reduced to for better performance when in OpenGL render mode.

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Harmony 15.0 Essentials Preferences Guide

The following options allow you to configure the way drawings are previewed
in Harmony.
Enable (Requires Relaunch) : By default, drawings displayed in Harmony, such as
in the Camera or Drawing view, have no antialiasing and display hard pixels at theedge of strokes and lines. If this preference is enabled, antialiasing will be done
through the graphic card to enhance the quality of drawings and make a preview
that resemble the final render more closely. This may impact application
performance negatively.
Number of samples: The amount of times the OpenGL preview is scaled up before
processing it for antialiasing. The higher this value is, the better the antialiasing
quality will be but the heavier it will be on the machine's resources.

NOTE
Full Scene Antialiasing

It may be necessary to restart the application to see the effects after
changing either of these settings.

NOTE
These settings may be overriden by the 3D antialiasing settings of thedriver for your graphics card. If changing these settings and restarting theapplication seems to have no effect, make sure your graphics card
supports antialiasing, that antialiasing is enabled and that it is configured
to let applications control their antialiasing.

NOTE
These settings only affect the way drawings are previewed in OpenGL.
They have no effect on the final rendered image, or on the way the image
looks when setting the Camera view in Render Preview mode.

Enable Rendering Caching of CacheLock Nodes: Controls whether
OpenGL Cache Lock nodes are used to generate the OpenGL preview. Disabling
this preference has the same effect as disabling all OpenGL Cache Lock nodes inthe scene.

Rendering Caching

Cache Capacity of CacheLock Nodes (in Mb): The maximum amount of cacheavailable to store preview images cached by OpenGL Cache Lock nodes. Thiscache is stored in the graphic card's video memory. If your machine has a lot ofvideo memory, increasing this setting could enhance the performance of Harmony
when working with heavy scenes.
Enable Rendering Caching of Composite Nodes: Controls whether nonpassthrough Composite nodes cache their composited image when Harmony
generates an OpenGL preview. This is useful when the image generated by acomposite is used several times in a scene, for example because a composite's

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Chapter 7: OpenGL Preferences

output port is connected to several other nodes. If this preference is disabled, thecomposite will regenerate the preview for its node system for each of its outgoingconnections. When enabled, the composite will generate the preview for its node
system once, cache it, and output the cached image to its other outgoingconnections.
Cache Capacity of Composite Nodes (in Mb): The maximum amount of cacheavailable to store images cached by Composite nodes. This cache is stored in thegraphic card's video memory. If your machine has a lot of video memory,increasing this setting could enhance the performance of Harmony when working
with heavy scenes.

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Chapter 8: Advanced Preferences

Chapter 8: Advanced Preferences

Parameter

Advanced Options

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

Tablet Support

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

UnicodeAllow Unicode Names: Lets you use up to 120 ASCII characters for names ofenvironments, jobs and scenes. This means you can use characters for languages,
such as Japanese, Chinese, French, Spanish, and others, characters for names inyour database setup.

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