Toon Boom
Harmony 20 Premium
Preferences Guide

TOON BOOM ANIMATION INC.

+1 514 278 8666

4200 St.Laurent Blvd, Suite 1020
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
H2W 2R2

contact@toonboom.com
toonboom.com

Harmony 20 Premium 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 document is the property of Toon Boom Animation Inc. and is copyrighted. Any
reproduction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited.
The content of this document is covered by a specific limited warranty and exclusions and limit of liability under

the applicable 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.

Trademarks
Toon Boom® is a registered trademark. Harmony™ and the Toon Boom logo are trademarks of Toon Boom
Animation Inc. All other trademarks of the property of their respective owners.

Publication Date
03-11-2021
Copyright © 2021 Toon Boom Animation Inc., a Corus Entertainment Inc. company. All rights reserved.

1

Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Table of Contents

2

About Harmony Preferences

4

Accessing the Preferences Dialog

6

Switching Between Preference Sets

8

Exporting Preferences

12

Importing Preferences

14

Resetting Preferences

16

Preferences File Location

18

Preferences Dialog Reference

20

General Preferences

21

Camera Preferences

29

Node View Preferences

32

Exposure Sheet Preferences

35

Drawing Preferences

38

Timeline Preferences

43

Template Preferences

45

Sound Preferences

46

OpenGL Preferences

47

Render Preferences

51

Advanced Preferences

53

Deformation Preferences

57

Particle Preferences

582

Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

3

About Harmony Preferences

About Harmony Preferences
The Preferences dialog box allows you to adjust preferences to suit your workflow and your production's needs.

4Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

5

Accessing the Preferences Dialog

Accessing the Preferences Dialog
You can access the Preferences dialog from the Edit menu on Windows and GNU/Linux, or from the Harmony
Premium menu on macOS.

How to open the Preferences dialog box
1. Do one of the following:llWindows or GNU/Linux:l

In the top menu, select Edit > Preferences.

l

Press Ctrl + U.

macOS:l

In the top menu, select Harmony Premium > Preferences.

l

Press ⌘ + U.

6

Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

7

Switching Between Preference Sets

Switching Between Preference Sets
Harmony comes preloaded with five different preference presets (referred to as preference sets), each tailored
for a different kind of task. By default, the Basic preference set is used. You can choose which preference set touse in Preferences dialog.
A large part of the default settings in the different preference sets are the same. The following table describes
which option is different depending in each preference set, and how:
Preference Set
Tab /Location

Preference
Basic

Compositing

CutoutAnimation

Paperless
Animation

Rigging

Focus on Mouse
Enter

Off

On

On

On

On

Default pass
Through
Composite

Off

Off

On

Off

On

Off

Off

On

Off

On

Stop-Motion
Keyframes

Off

Off

On

Off

On

ReduceIndentation

Off

On

On

Off

On

Drawing
Substitution:
Create Key
Exposure

On

Off

Off

Off

On

Support Overlay
and Underlay
Arts

Off

On

On

Off

On

Advanced
Display

Off

On

Off

Off

On

GeneralDefault Separate
Position for
Pegs

Timeline

Advanced8Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

Preference Set
Tab /Location

Preference
Basic

Compositing

CutoutAnimation

Paperless
Animation

Rigging

Off

On

On

On

On

Off

On

Off

Off

Off

Element Node
Animate Using
Animation Tools

On

On

Off

On

Off

Auto Close Gap

On

On

On

On

Off

Advanced
Palette List
Advanced
Element Mode

PencilTool
Properties

NOTES
l

When you customize a preference manually, it is not saved to the current preference set. It issaved as an override for all preference sets.

l

Switching between preference sets only affects preferences that you have not manuallycustomized yourself. This means, for example, that if you manually enable the Focus on MouseEnter preference, this preference will no longer be affected when you switch to a different
preference set.

l

To make all your preferences affected by the preference set you select again, you must reset
your preferences—see Resetting Preferences on page 16.

How to switch between preference presets
1. Do one of the following to open the Preferences dialog:lWindows or GNU/Linux:l

In the top menu, select Edit > Preferences.

l

Press Ctrl + U.

9

Switching Between Preference SetslmacOS:l

In the top menu, select Harmony Premium > Preferences.

l

Press ⌘ + U.

2. In the top-left corner of the Preferences dialog, open the Preference Set drop-down and select thepreset you want to use.

Preferences will be updated according to the table above, except for those that you manually set.
3. Click on OK.

10Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

11

Exporting Preferences

Exporting Preferences
You can export your current preferences to an XML file. You can reimport this file later to restore yourpreferences, or share it with project collaborators so that you all use the same preferences.
NOTE
When you export your preferences, only the preferences for the currently selected preference set
are exported.

How to export your preferences configuration
1. Do one of the following to open the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog:llWindows or GNU/Linux:l

In the top menu, select Edit > Preferences.

l

Press Ctrl + U.

macOS:l

In the top menu, select Harmony Premium > Preferences.

l

Press ⌘ + U.

2. Near the top of the dialog, right of the Preference Set: drop-down, click on the Save... button.
A save dialog appears.
3. Browse to the location where you want to save your preference file.
4. Type in the desired name for your preference file.
5. Click on Save.
Your current preference settings have been exported as an XML file, in the selected location withthe file name you gave it.

12Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

13

Importing Preferences

Importing Preferences
You can import a preference file exported from Harmony.
NOTESl

To export preferences into a file, see Exporting Preferences on page 12.

l

When you import a preference file, it will override all your preferences for the currently selected
preference set.

How to import a keyboard shortcut configuration file
1. Do one of the following to open the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog:llWindows or GNU/Linux:l

In the top menu, select Edit > Preferences.

l

Press Ctrl + U.

macOS:l

In the top menu, select Harmony Premium > Preferences.

l

Press ⌘ + U.

2. At the right of the Preference Set: drop-down, click on the Load... button.
An open dialog appears.
3. Browse to the directory where your preference file is located.
4. Select the preference file you want to import.
5. Click on Open.
The settings in the selected preference file are loaded into the Preferences dialog, overwriting yourcurrent preferences.

14

Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

15

Resetting Preferences

Resetting Preferences
You can reset the preferences in Harmony to their default settings.
IMPORTANTThis will permanently undo all the changes you made to your Harmony preferences.

How to reset your keyboard shortcuts configuration
1. Do one of the following to open the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog:lWindows or GNU/Linux: In the top menu, select Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts.

lmacOS: In the top menu, select Harmony Premium > Keyboard Shortcuts.

2. In the bottom-left corner of the Preferences dialog, click on Restore All Defaults.
A confirmation prompt appears.
3. If you are sure you want to restore the default preferences for Harmony, click on Yes.
All the preferences in the Preferences dialog are now set to their default setting.

16Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

17

Preferences File Location

Preferences File Location
T-HFND-002-002
After the first time you have launched Harmony, your preferences, along with numerous other options andswitches in the user interface, are stored in a hidden directory on your computer. If you are using Harmony
Server, they are stored in a directory for your user on the database server.
Depending on your operating system, and whether or not you are using Harmony Stand Alone or Harmony
Server, you can find your preference files in the following location:lWindows: C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Toon Boom Animation\Toon Boom Harmony
Premium\full-2000-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/[username]/Library/Preferences/Toon Boom Animation/Toon Boom Harmony
Premium/full-2000-pref
NOTE
On macOS, the Library folder is hidden. To display it in Finder, hold down the Alt key.

l

GNU/Linux: /home/[username]/Toon Boom Animation/Toon Boom Harmony Premium/full-2000-pref/

When using Harmony Server, preferences are stored in your Harmony Server account's user space on the
database server, in the following path:l/USA_DB/users/[user_name]/Harmony Premium/full-2000-pref18

Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

19

Preferences Dialog Reference

Preferences Dialog Reference
The following section contains a an article for each tab in the Preferences dialog. Each article contains a list of
all the preferences in its tab, as well as a description of the preference. Refer to this section if you want to know
more about what a specific preference does or if you want to get familiarized with all of the preferences in
Harmony.
General Preferences

21

Camera Preferences

29

Node View Preferences

32

Exposure Sheet Preferences

35

Drawing Preferences

38

Timeline Preferences

43

Template Preferences

45

Sound Preferences

46

OpenGL Preferences

47

Render Preferences

51

Advanced Preferences

53

Deformation Preferences

57

Particle Preferences

58

20

Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

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:

Save

l

l

l

Save Scene: Save changes to the list of layers, the node system,
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.

21

Preferences Dialog ReferencelSave Drawings: Save changes to existing drawings as well as newly
created drawings.

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.

Open in Read Only mode if plugin syntax errors are detected: Opens scenesthat contain plugin node errors in read-only mode to prevent you fromlosing plugin information on subsequent saves.
Auto-Save:llInterval (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.

ll

Ask Before Saving: Before performing an auto-save, the system willprompt you with a message to confirm if you want to save or not.
You can choose to turn off this option.
Enabled: This enables the Auto-save feature. If you do not want thesystem to automatically save your work, deselect this option. The
auto-save is off by default.

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.

Colour Management

Default to Element Palette Lists: When this option is enabled the new,cloned, duplicated, imported and linked palettes will be stored in the
Element Palette list instead of the Scene Palette List.
Interactive Colour Recovery: If a colour palette required to display a drawing

22Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

is not found because it was moved or deleted from its location, you will be
asked if you wish to recover the missing colours into a new temporary
palette. If this option is disabled, the colour recovery will happen
automatically without your confirmation.

Colour Recovery: By default, if a colour palette required to display a drawing
is missing because it has been moved or deleted, Harmony recovers themissing colours into a new temporary palette. If this option is disabled,
Harmony will skip this step and display the zones painted with missing
colours with the Replacement Colour, which is solid red by default.
Replacement Colour: If certain colours are no longer available, Harmony will
display the replacement colour in the zones painted with missing colours.
You can select the colours for a lot of coloured elements in the userinterface of Harmony.

NOTE
Some changes to colour preferences may not appear until Harmony
is restarted or until the affected view is closed and reopened.

Colours

Current View Border:Sets the colour of the frame around the workspaceview you are currently using, also known as focus. By default, the colour isred. Click on the red colour swatch to select a new colour in the Colour
Picker window.
Current View Border in Template Edit: Sets the colour of the frame aroundthe workspace view you are currently using when editing a template fromyour library view. By default, the colour is green. Click on the green colour
swatch to select a new colour in the Colour Picker window.
Edit Colours: The Edit Colours button opens the Colours dialog, whichallows you to set the colour for dozens of visual elements in the userinterface.

3D ModelsDefault Scale Factor: The default scale factor to apply to a 3D model when it23

Preferences Dialog Reference

is imported into your scene. You can enter a decimal value between 0 and 1
to make newly imported 3D models appear smaller than their original size,or a decimal value greater than 1 to make 3D models appear bigger thantheir original size.
Auto Apply: When enabled, values entered or options selected in node
editors are automatically applied to elements in your scene. The Apply andOK buttons are hidden in the Layer Properties when this feature is enabled.
Snap Keyframe: If two keyframes have the same value, they will both updateto the same new position when the first of the two keyframes is modified.
The previous keyframe has to be a Stop-Motion keyframe.
Auto-Get Rights to Modify Drawings: When using Harmony Server, thisoption will automatically grant you the right to modify a drawing as soon as
you attempt to make a change to it. If disabled, you must manually obtain
the rights to each drawing you want to make changes to.
Auto-Get Rights to Modify Palettes: When using Harmony Server, thisoptions automatically grants you the right to modify the colour and texture
swatches in a palette as soon as you attempt to make such changes. If
disabled, you must manually obtain the rights to modify a palette before
attempting to make changes to it.

Options

Auto-Get Rights to Modify Palette List: When using Harmony Server, thisoption automatically allows you to make changes to the palette list. If
disabled, you must manually obtain the right to the palette list before
adding, removing or reordering palettes.
Editors Always on Top: Displays Function Editor and Layer Properties
dialogs over other dialogs.
Close Previous Editors: When opening a new Layer Properties or Function
Editor dialog, automatically close other such dialogs.
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, Camera or Node view, depending on
which one is focused on. Harmony draws a red rectangle around thecurrently 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.

24Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

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.

Shortcut Zooms on Mouse: When enabled, shortcut zooming will centre on
the cursor location.
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.
Cycle Exposure: Make navigation in the Xsheet View wrap-around from thelast frame or the last column to the first.
Display Cardinal Coordinates: When enabled, coordinates displayed in theapplication are expressed using cardinal points. For example, 1N2E means 1
field to the north and 2 fields to the east. When disabled, coordinates are
expressed in scalar notation. For example, 1N2E would be expressed as +1,2.
Flat Tool Toolbar (Requires Relaunch): When enabled, the Tools toolbar
will display each tool in its own button, instead of grouping certain tools
together in pop-up menus. Harmony must be relaunched to apply a change
to this preference.

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.
Language (Requires Relaunch): The language in which to display the userinterface.
Language

By default, this is set to Autodetect, which means that Harmony will launchin the language of your operating system, if it is one of the supported
languages, and will otherwise launch in English.

25

Preferences Dialog Reference

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.
Default Separate Position for Elements: New elements are created withseparate position functions.
Default Separate Scale for Elements: New elements are created withseparate scale functions.
Stop-Motion Keyframes: New keyframes are created as stop-motion
keyframes.
Default Bezier: New functions curves are created as Bezier Curves.
Default Bezier Velocity: New velocity curves are created as Bezier Curves.

Settings

Default Pass Through Composite: New composite nodes are created in with
their Mode parameter set to Pass Through mode instead of As Bitmap .
Field Chart:ll

X: Default value for the number of units in the X axis (east-west) of
the field chart used for new scenes. This value should be half thetotal number of units in the X axis of the field chart. This value willappear by default in the Alignment dialog box.
Y: Default value for the number of units in the Y axis (north-south) of
the field chart used for new scenes. This value should be half thetotal number of units in the Y axis of the field chart. This value willappear by default in the Alignment dialog box.

l

Z: Default value for the number of units in the Z axis (front-back) of
the field chart used for new scenes. This value will appear by default
in the Alignment dialog box.

Levels of Undo: Determines the number of actions retained by the Undo list.
By default, 50 actions are stored in the list. You can alter the number if you
want to.

Touch Interface

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.

26

Harmony 20 Premium Preferences 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 thesame direction.

27

Preferences Dialog Reference

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.
This setting is only available in Harmony Stand Alone. It is made to allow
Harmony to connect to a WebCC server. When working on a scene
exported from WebCC, you can download changes made to the scene fromthe database and upload changes you made to the database from Harmony.
URL: The full URL to the WebCC server, including the protocol and port
number, as you would type it in a web browser:
protocol://hostname:portnumber
Web Control Center

For example, to access a server named webcc.mystudio through https via
port 8843, you would enter:
https://webccserver.mystudio:8843

NOTE
If the URL starts with the name of the server rather than the
protocol, http is presumed.

28

Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

Camera Preferences

Parameter

Description
Initial Animation Mode: Determines which animation mode is enabled when thescene is opened.
Show Locked Drawings As Outlines: In the Camera view, locked elements are
displayed as outlines only.
Bounding Box Selection Style: In the Camera view, selected elements are nothighlighted in colour but displayed with the bounding box only.
Nudging Factor: The nudging increment value.

Tools

Set Keyframe on All Functions with the Transform Tool: When this option is
selected, the Transform tool will create a keyframe for all functions of the selected
pegs, including the functions that normally would not be affected by thetransformation.
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.
Paste/Drag&Drop Adds Keyframes at Beginning and End: Select this option to29

Preferences Dialog Reference

copy and paste a set of frames that includes an interpolated sequence between
two keyframes, but only extracts a partial section. Under normal circumstances,
cutting and pasting a function without either the start or end keyframe would
render the function null. This option caps the partial function with a new
keyframe when you perform the paste.
Use Rotation Lever with Transformation Tools: Lets you see the rotation leverwhen using the transformation tools. When this option is deselected, hovering
your cursor over the corner of an element’s bounding box is sufficient to rotate it.

Zoom Settings

Camera View Default Zoom: The default zoom value for the Camera view.
Top/Side View Default Zoom: The default zoom value for the Top/Side views.
Thumbnail Size: The thumbnail size, in pixels, that appears in the Top and Side
views.
The size, in pixels, of the smaller bitmap version of your image. When you importa bitmap image into a scene, a smaller version of it is created in order to accelerate
the compositing and playback processes.

Settings

Override Small Bitmap Files: Enable this option if you want the system togenerate new versions of the existing smaller bitmap files, every time you modify
the Small Bitmap Resolution value. When the option is disabled, the existingsmaller bitmap versions will not be regenerated and will keep the same resolution
as when they were created.
TV Safety: The ratio value for the TV Safety frame in proportion to the regularcamera frame.
Enable in Camera: Dulls background bitmaps in the Camera view. This allows you
to see other elements clearly, such as the ones that have not yet been painted.

Wash Background

Enable in Camera Drawing Mode: Dulls background bitmaps in Camera view
while using the drawing tools. This allows you to see other elements clearly, suchas the ones that have not yet been painted.
Wash Background Percentage: The Wash Percentage value.
Display Colour Space: The colour space in which to display the OpenGL preview
in the Camera view.

Colour SpaceIn OpenGL View mode, colours in original bitmap images are converted from thecolour space selected in their layer properties to the colour space selected in thispreference, without getting converted to the project colour space first, andcolours in bitmap and vector drawing layers are not converted at all.
In Render View mode, this preference is not used. However, this option is also thedefault colour space selected in the drop-down at the bottom of the Camera view
when adding a Camera view to the workspace or when resetting or switching30

Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

your workspace, and the colour space in this drop-down is the one used in
Render View mode.
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 Continuity value for new keyframes and control
points.

Preview Wash

Enable For Out of Date Previews: When you disable the automatic renderpreview, you must click the Update Preview button in the Rendering toolbar or
the Camera view bottom toolbar in order to recalculate and update the preview.
When this option is enabled, if the current render preview is out of date andrequires you to press the Update Preview button, the Camera view will display thecurrent preview as washed out colours.
Wash Background Percentage: This is the value, in percentage, by which theoutdated preview will be washed out.

Inverse Kinematics

Min/Max Angle Constraint Weight: This value acts similar to the Stiffness settingin the Inverse Kinematics Properties panel. This option only affects the minimum
and maximum angle values set using the Min/Max Angle Mode. The higher thevalue, the stronger your need to move the body part to approach the minimum
and maximum values set. Although the maximum value goes up to 1.0, in a
production setting, the most practical value to use would be closer to 0.1.

31Preferences Dialog Reference

Node View Preferences

Parameter

Navigator

Description
Show Navigator: Shows or hides the display of the Navigator in the Node view
when starting Toon Boom Harmony Premium.
Navigator Starting Corner: Indicates which corner is the default Navigator
position.
Width Multiple: Sets the width of the magnifier in tenths of the Node view width.
Values range from 0.1–10.

MagnifierAspect Ratio: Sets the width to height ratio of the magnifier. Values range from
0.1–10.
Opacity: Sets the transparency of the magnifier. Values range from 0–100. A valueof 100 makes the magnifier completely transparent. A value of 0 makes themagnifier completely opaque.

Options

Default Thumbnail Background Colour: The default background colour whendisplaying the thumbnail of a node in the Node view.
Middle Mouse Button Pans the View: Lets you use the middle mouse button to32

Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

pan the Node view.
Double Click on a Node Opens the Editor: Lets you open a node's property editor
by double-clicking.
Two Colour Cables for Pass Through Connections: When enabled, cables
coming from a Composite node with its Mode property set to Pass Through will
display wider and in two shades of blue to distinguish them from other image
cables. These cables carry several layers of image information, whereas image
cables usually carry a single layer of image information.
Default Thumbnail Resolution: The default horizontal and vertical resolution of a
thumbnail, in pixels, when displaying the thumbnail of a node in the Node view.
Cable Type: Displays node connections as Line (straight) or Bezier (curves).
Port Output Ordering: Orders the Output Port Right to Left or Left to Right.
Port Input Ordering: Orders the Input Port Right to Left or Left to Right.
Antialiasing Quality: Smoothness setting applied to colour art. The higher thesetting, the more antialiasing is applied. Higher quality images require more time
to render and more system memory. Choose a lower quality if you are rendering apencil test.
•

Low: No antialiasing•

Medium Low: Some antialiasing•

Medium: Medium antialiasing•

High: Extensive antialiasing

Antialiasing Exponent: Controls the amount of area around the Line and Colour
Art edges used in the antialiasing process. A higher value uses less area, resulting
in sharper edges, while a lower value uses more area, resulting in softer edges. If
the Antialiasing Quality value is set to Low (no antialiasing), this value is ignored.
Layer Drawing Options

Read Colour: Controls the production of colour information from bitmap images.
If this node reads 3 or 4-channel bitmaps, this selection determines whether thecolour should be read or ignored. If this node reads 1-channel bitmaps, thisselection determines whether the channel should be read as colour. When thisoption is selected with 1-channel images, the result will be a greyscale image.
Read Transparency: Controls the production of alpha information from bitmap
images. If this node reads a 1 or 3-channel image, this option will create a mattefrom the colour values in the image. If the node reads a 4-channel image and thisoption is not selected, the alpha information in the image will be ignored.
Alignment Rule: The Alignment position for the element node. The new element
node will be created following this default rule of alignment.
Transparency Type:•

Premultiplied with Black: The colour values of semi-transparent pixels in

33

Preferences Dialog Reference

the image have been encoded so that the more transparent they are, thecloser to black they are. When an image that is premultiplied with black is
loaded in a software that does not support transparency, it appears
blended with a black background. Select this to make Harmony reverse
this premultiplication so that the image blends properly with other visualelements in your scene.
•

Straight: The colour of semi-transparent pixels in the image is encoded
independently from their transparency. When an image that is notpremultiplied is loaded in a software that does not support transparency,
semi-transparent pixels simply appear fully opaque, making its edges
appear pixelated.

•

Premultiplied with White: The colour values of semi-transparent pixels in
the image have been encoded so that the more transparent they are, thecloser to white they are. When an image that is premultiplied with white isloaded in a software that does not support transparency, it appears
blended with a white background. Select this to make Harmony reverse
this premultiplication so that the image blends properly with other visualelements in your scene.

•

Clamp Colour to Alpha: This is the same as Premultiplied with Black,
except that it also prevents the colour values for a given pixel from being
higher than that pixel's alpha value. This option is only useful if you areworking with images that are supposed to be premultiplied with black,but where the colour values of pixels have been increased without theiralpha values being adjusted accordingly.

Art Layer Options: Allows you to select the default art type (Vector or Bitmap) for
each type of art layer (Line Art and Colour Art), when creating a new drawing
layer.

NOTE
If you have the Support Overlay and Underlay Arts preference of theAdvanced tab enabled, you can also select the default art type for those
art layers (Overlay Art and Underlay Art)

34

Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

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.
Show Sound Columns: Displays the Sound columns in the Xsheet view.
Show Annotation Columns: Displays the Annotation columns in the Xsheet view.

Filtering

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.
Show Selection: Sets the Show Selection option On or Off by default in the
Xsheet view.
Centre on Current Frame: Turns auto-centering on or off when playing back ascene. Auto-centering is used during sound breakdown with the ShuttleXpress
device.
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.

35

Preferences Dialog Reference

Use Current Frame as Drawing Name: Automatically names the drawing
corresponding to the frame position. This avoids numbering conflicts while
animating.

For example, using the default preferences, you start with the first drawing onframe 1, this drawing is called 1. You then draw the extreme position drawing onframe 10, this drawing is called 2. Next, the in-between pose is drawn on frame 5,
this drawing is called 3 and so on.
Drawing Creation

At the end, you have a sequence like this: 1-9-4-6-3-8-5-7-10-2.

Instead, using the Use Current Frame as Drawing Name option, each drawing is
automatically named by its frame number and the sequence looks like: 1-2-3-4-56-7-8-9-10.
Extend Exposure of Previous Drawing: When drawing on a blank frame, a new
drawing is created and the timing is extended from the previous exposeddrawing.
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.
Zoom Levels

Minimum Zoom Level: Lets you set the lowest level of zoom. Choose a value
between 1 and 6.
Maximum Zoom Level: Lets you set the highest level of zoom. Choose a value
between 14 and 20.

36

Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

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

Show Grid: When selected, the grid is displayed by default when opening the
Function Editor.
Use Constant Z By Default: When selected, the Constant Z option will be enabled
by default in the Function Editor.
Function Editors

Constant Z means that even when creating Motion keyframes, the Z function will
use Stop-Motion keyframes and will not be interpolated, this can be very usefulfor cut-out animation. The Constant Z feature only works with 3Dpaths.
You can also enable the Constant Z option directly in the Function Editor or
Function view for specific functions.

Gestural Drag

Apply/Next

New Element

Default Setting for Gestural Drag: This is the default value enabling gestural
dragging of cells in the Xsheet view.
From Left to Right: When clicking the Apply/Next button in the Xsheet view
Column Properties, the next column to be displayed in the Column Properties willbe the one on the right.
From Right to Left: When clicking the Apply/Next button in the Xsheet view
Column Properties, the next column to be displayed in the Column Properties willbe the one on the left.
Bitmap Format: By default, when you create a new empty bitmap column, it will
use the file format indicated in the field as the new column format. The default
value is SCAN, which means that it is set for scanned-in drawings.
Scan Type: By default, the Scan Type is set to 2 which equals vector import. Thismeans that the imported bitmap images will be placed into a Drawing layer. Scan
type 1 is bitmap import.

37

Preferences Dialog Reference

Drawing Preferences

Parameter

Description
Light Table: Opacity (0,0-1,0):The maximum opacity value for the light tabledisplay (0 = transparent).
Light Table: Wash (0,0-1,0): The washed-out value for the light table display (0 =transparent).
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

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.
Enable Onion Skin for Other Elements: In the Drawing View, when the Light
Table is enabled, making other layers visible alongside the current layer, this will
make the Onion Skin for other visible layers appear alongside the Onion Skin forthe current layer. Drawings for elements above the current layer will appear inblue, and drawings for elements below will appear in yellow.

38

Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

NOTE
The drawings from other elements that get displayed in the Onion Skin
are the drawings that are exposed at the same time as the drawings
displayed in the current layer's Onion Skin.

Onion Skin Render Style:•

Original Colours: Drawings displayed in the Onion Skin are renderedusing their real colours.

•

Coloured:Drawings displayed in the Onion Skin are displayed in solid red
if they are before the current frame, or in solid green if they are after thecurrent frame.

•

Coloured Outlines: Drawings displayed in the Onion Skin are displayed in
red outlines if they are before the current frame and in green outlines ifthey are after the current frame.

Onion Skin: Maximum Wash Value (0,0-1,0): The maximum washed-out value foronion skinned drawings.
Onion Skin: Minimum Wash Value (0,0-1,0): The minimum washed-out value foronion skinned drawings.
Onion Skin: Maximum Opacity (0,0-1,0): The maximum opacity value for onion
skinned drawings. (0 = transparent).
Onion Skin: Minimum Opacity (0,0-1,0): The minimum opacity value for onion
skinned drawings. (0 = transparent).
Grid On By Default: When opening the Drawing view, the grid displays
automatically.
Brush Size Cursor: When this option is enabled, the brush tool displays thebrush size as a circle around the cursor.
Synchronize Eraser and Brush: When enabled, changing any of the Brush tool's
properties simultaneously changes the corresponding property for the Eraser tool
to the same setting, and vice versa. Likewise, selecting a preset for one tool will
apply this preset's properties for the other tool.
Options

Auto Gap Closing in Pixel Units: Disabling this option will cause your gap to bezoom dependent. Zoom dependent means that the more you zoom in, the smaller
the gap you can close with the Close Gap tools. By enabling this option, youchoose to make the gap display available in pixel units, which is not zoom
dependent.
Default Multiwheel Colour Picker: Displays the Multiwheel Colour Picker window
instead of the regular Colour Picker.
Auto Save Pencil Styles: When this option is enabled, new pens and pen styles
are automatically saved.

39

Preferences Dialog Reference

Sticky Eye Dropper: Keeps the Colour Picker’s Dropper tool active until it isreleased by clicking on the Dropper icon again.
Desk Location: Defines the location of the Desk panel in the Drawing view.
Morphing Quality: Sets the default quality value for the morphing sequences. If
you change this value, it will not affect the morphing sequence which was
created previously. After a morphing sequence has been created using thisdefault quality value, its quality can be changed manually by using the Morphing
Tool Properties.
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.
Create New Colour Pots Using Default Colour: Set the default colour for creatinga new colour swatch. Enable the option so that this default colour is used eachtime you add a new colour in your palettes. This option is useful for when you
create new colour pots so that a more recognizable colour is created and not justa duplicate of the currently selected colour. Choosing a colour that is the opposite
of your intended colour palette is recommended, such as grey if your palette will
be filled with bright, primary colours.
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.

Default Texture Pixel Density
for Vector Drawings

Pixel Density: Determines the amount of pixels to store in textured brush strokes
for each pixel that displays when the drawing is not zoomed in or scaled up. For
example, at 100%, zooming in or scaling up textured brush strokes will makethem lose texture quality. If set to 200%, textured brush strokes can be zoomed inor scaled up until they're twice their original size without losing picture quality.

40Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

NOTE
This setting is applied to your scene's drawing resolution settings whencreating a new scene, which is then applied to every new vector drawing
created in your scene. Therefore, to apply changes to these settings to an
existing scene, they must also be changed in the Drawing Resolution tabof the Scene Settings dialog. To apply changes to these settings toexisting drawings, they must be changed using the Change Vector
Drawing Brush Resolution dialog available from the Drawing top menu.

Canvas Width: The default width of the canvas when creating drawings in abitmap drawing layer. The percentage is relative to the width of the scene. Its
default value, 200%, makes the width of the canvas twice the width of the stage.
Canvas Height: The default height of the canvas when creating drawings in abitmap drawing layer. The percentage is relative to the height of the scene. Its
default value, 200%, makes the height of the canvas twice the height of the stage.

Default Canvas for Bitmap
LayersPixel Density: Determines the amount of pixels to store for each pixel that
displays on the screen when the drawing is not zoomed in or scaled up. For
example, at 100%, zooming in or scaling up a bitmap drawing will make it lose
picture quality. If set to 200%, bitmap drawings can be zoomed in or scaled up
until they're twice their original size without losing picture quality.

NOTE
These settings are applied to your scene's drawing resolution settings
when creating a new scene, which are then applied to every new bitmap
drawing created in your scene. Therefore, to apply changes to thesesettings to an existing scene, they must also be changed in the Drawing
Resolution tab of the Scene Settings dialog. To apply changes to thesesettings to existing drawings, they must be changed using the Change
Bitmap Drawing Resolution dialog available from the Drawing top menu.

Pixel Density Proportional to Camera: By default, the pixel density of new drawings is set to the scene's default pixel
density. With this option enabled, the pixel density of new drawings is set to the scene's default pixel density
multiplied by the camera's zoom factor.
For example, if this option is enabled and you create a new drawing while the camera is zoomed in at 6 fields (200%)
and your scene's default pixel density is set to 150%, the new drawing will have a pixel density of 150% x 200% =
300%.

41

Preferences Dialog Reference

NOTE
The factor by which the pixel density is multiplied is rounded to the nearest power of 2, ie: 25%, 50%, 100%,200%, 400%, etc. The rounding is done on an exponential curve. This means that, for example, if the scene's
default scale factor is set to 100% and the scene is currently zoomed it at 9 fields (150%), a new drawing will
have a 100% pixel density, as the multiplier will be rounded down from 150% to 100%. Hence, even if you
enable this option, you must set your scene's default pixel density to at least 200% to prevent pixelated
drawings.

42

Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

Timeline Preferences

Parameter

Description
Show Groups: Displays the Group layers in the Timeline.
Show Effects: Displays the Effect layers in the Timeline.
Show Sound: Displays the Sound layers in the Timeline.
Show Sound Waveforms: Displays the imported sounds waveform in theTimeline.

NOTE
You can always toggle the visibility of the waveform in the Timeline viewby adding the Show Sound Waveform button from the Toolbar Manager.
This button will work whether you have the Show Sound Waveform
option enabled or disabled in the Preferences panel.

Defaults
Show End of Scene Marker: Displays the red bracket that delineates the end ofyour scene in the Timeline view. If you know that many different hands will beworking on your scene, you may want to deselect this option so the scene lengthis not increased or decreased by accident.

Reduce Indentation: When this option is enabled, the horizontal indentation forparented nodes in the Timeline is reduced to optimize the amount of space takenin the Timeline. When you have a cut-out character and there is a long cascade ofparented nodes, you can enable this option so the Timeline (left side) does not

43Preferences Dialog Reference

have expand too wide to see all your nodes.
Always Display Unconnected Nodes: Enable this preference if you prefer to seeelements in the Timeline that have not yet been connected to a particular Display,even when in Normal View mode. This preference is not on by default.
Add Keyframes at Beginning and End: Copies and pastes a set of frames that
includes an interpolated sequence between two keyframes, but only extracts apartial section. Under normal circumstances, cutting and pasting a function
without either the start or end keyframe would render the function null. This
option caps the partial function with a new keyframe when you perform the paste.

Paste/Drag & Drop

Overwrite exposures and keyframes during drag and drop:When enabled,
dragging and dropping drawings and keyframes in the Timeline view will
overwrite the drawings and keyframes between the selection and the destination,
as if the selection "wiped" everything on the way to the destination.

NOTE
Whether this option is enabled or not, dragging and dropping a selectionof drawings will always overwrite the drawings at the destination withthe drawings in the selection. This option only changes what happens withthe drawings between the selection and the destination.

Drawing Substitution

Create Key Exposure: When enabled, changing the drawing at the current frame
using the Drawing Substitution panel of the Library view will always create a key
exposure at the current frame, even if the drawing is the same as the drawing in
the previous frame. If disabled, a key exposure is only created if the drawing at thecurrent frame is different from the drawing in the previous frame. If the drawing at
the current frame is the same as the drawing in the previous frame, the exposureof the drawing in the previous frame is extended over the current frame.

44Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

Template Preferences

Parameter

Description
Always Create New Drawings: By default, when you import timeline templates in
the right section of the Timeline view, to stack them, the system will analyze andcreate only the non-existing drawings and only expose the existing ones. Whenenabled, this option automatically creates new drawings for every one of themthat is exposed.
Palettes:

Paste/Drag & Drop

Editing Template•

Ask User: When dropping a template into a scene, the system will ask if
you want to link the palette to the original or create a local copy in thescene.

•Use Original Palette: The system will automatically link drawing elements
to the original palette file. If the original palette is not encountered a local
copy will be created.

•

Use Copy of Palettes: The system will automatically create a local copy ofthe palette in the scene.

Generate Thumbnails Automatically: Automatically create thumbnails for thetemplate when you want to see the thumbnails in the Library or when saving atemplate modification.

45

Preferences Dialog ReferenceSound Preferences

Parameter

Description
Analog Sound Scrubbing: Switches from digital to analog sound scrubbing.

Settings

Analog Jog Speed: Lets you control the sensitivity of the jog slider or dial. Choose
a value between 1 and 20. The higher the jog speed value, the slower you canscrub to have the sound play at an average pace.
Analog Jog Dampening: Lets you choose a value between 1 and 100 for the
Analog Jog Dampening. The higher the value, the less precise Harmony is at
responding to the jog's changes in speed. However, the more smooth the playback is using the jog slider or dial.

46

Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

OpenGL Preferences

Parameter

Description
Conservative Texture Management: Turns on and off conservative memory
management for bitmap texture files. Performance will improve when this isenabled. If disabled, you will have a better on-screen rendering of bitmap files atthe expense of slower performance.
Smooth Textures: Smooths out the pixels of bitmap images when zooming in;this improves bitmap image quality.

Settings

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.
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

47

Preferences Dialog Referencegraphic compositing problems from happening when the full-scene anti-aliasing
option is enabled.
Enable Mipmapping on Bitmap Layers: Generate anti-aliased mipmap textures.
Disable this option for increased performance when working on Bitmap layerswith non-standard graphic cards.
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.
The following options allow you to configure the way drawings are previewed inHarmony.
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.

Full Scene Antialiasing

NOTES
l

l

l

Playback Images

It may be necessary to restart the application to see the effects
after changing either of these settings.
These settings may be overriden by the 3D antialiasing settingsof the driver for your graphics card. If changing these settings
and restarting the application seems to have no effect, make sure
your graphics card supports antialiasing, that antialiasing isenabled and that it is configured to let applications control theirantialiasing.
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 Playback Caching: Enable the caching of OpenGL previews for quick
playback.
Playback Cache Size (in Mb): The maximum size of the cache used to store

48

Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

cached playback images.
Enable Textures in Pencil Lines: Controls whether textures applied on pencil lines
are rendered for the OpenGL preview.
Drawings

Enable Variable Line Thickness: Controls whether lines with a variable width are
rendered with their variable width or with a constant width in the OpenGL
preview.
Enable Tone and Highlight: Controls whether Tone and Highlight effects are
rendered in the OpenGL preview.
Enable Cutter: Controls whether Cutter effects are processed for the OpenGL
preview.

Effects

Enable Composite Passthrough for All Effects: When this option is enabled,
effects that display in the OpenGL preview are ordered based on the logic that will
be used for the final rendered image, which may fix some issues with the OpenGL
preview when using complex node systems comprised of effects and mattes.
However, enabling this option may impact performance if the scene has effects
that use a matte, such as the Cutter or Tone effect.
Enable Colour Override: Controls whether Colour-Override effects are rendered in
the OpenGL preview.
Enable Glue Node: Controls whether Glue effects are rendered in the OpenGL
preview.
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
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.

Rendering Caching

Composite Cache Capacity (MB): The maximum amount of cache available tostore images cached by Composite nodes. This cache is stored in the graphic
card's video memory. If your machine has a lot of video memory, increasing thissetting could enhance the performance of Harmony when working with heavy
scenes.
Enable Interactive Camera View Cache (Beta): When enabled, Harmony keeps acache of the current preview image in the Camera view. This cache is used toregenerate parts of the preview image when moving the mouse cursor around orwhen manipulating drawing and animation controls in the Camera view.
Otherwise, Harmony will regenerate these parts of the preview image, which may
impact performance when working on a complex scene.

49

Preferences Dialog Reference

Enable Rendering Caching of CacheLock Nodes: Controls whether OpenGL
Cache Lock nodes are used to generate the OpenGL preview. Disabling thispreference has the same effect as disabling all OpenGL Cache Lock nodes in thescene.
CacheLock Cache Capacity (MB): The maximum amount of cache available tostore preview images cached by OpenGL Cache Lock nodes. This cache is stored
in the graphic 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.
OpenGL Node Cache Size in Memory: The amount of RAM, in megabytes, that
Harmony is allowed to use to cache the OpenGL preview image of cached nodes.
When Harmony uses up all the RAM in this preference, it starts caching the
OpenGL preview of cached nodes on the disk instead, which can significantly
impact its performance.
OpenGL Node Cache Size on Disk: The amount of disk space, in megabytes, that
Harmony is allowed to use to cache the OpenGL preview image of cached nodes
when it used up all the RAM reserved for this purpose.

NOTE
If there is no more memory and no more disk space left to store thepreview image of cached nodes, Harmony will not be able to cache every
frame in the scene, which means it may have to regenerate the preview
image of cached nodes when you scrub through the scene.

50Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

Render Preferences

Parameter

Description
Enable Blur: Renders blur effects derived from the Blur-Directional, Blur-Radial,and Blur-Variable in the Render View window.

Preview Options

Enable Line Texture: Renders line texture in the Render view.
Enable Focus: Renders focus effects from the Focus-Apply and Focus-Set nodes.
Cache Size (Percentage of System RAM): The percentage of RAM on yourmachine to reserve for the Render View cache.
Disk Cache: If enabled, Harmony will also use your machine's storage space tostore Render View image cache, increasing its total capacity.

Render View Image Cache

Cache Path and Capacity on Disk (in MB): You can use this field to specify one orseveral storage location for the Render View disk cache. If you do, you mustspecify the path and the desired storage limit of each location, in this format:
Directory path;Capacity (in megabytes)
If you want to specify several storage spaces, you must specify the path andcapacity of each storage space, in this format:
Directory path 1;Capacity (in megabytes) of directory
1;Directory path 2;Capacity (in megabytes) of directory
251

Preferences Dialog Reference

NOTES
l

l

This field is only accessible if the Disk Cache option is checked,
as Harmony will not store a Render View cache on the diskotherwise.
If this field is left empty, Harmony's temporary directory will be
used instead, and will not have a storage limit.

l

The specified directory or directories must already exist.

l

You can use RAM disks as storage locations.

This lets you specify the level of parallel processing done during the final image
calculation (soft-rendering). Allowing parallel processing speeds up the softrender process.
Multi Threading

Number of Rendering Threads: Lets you specify the number of parallel processes
during the soft-render process. A value of 1 disables the multi-threading process
because it specifies that only one rendering thread will be used during theprocess. The maximum number of threads is 64. The recommended starting valueis 2 threads per CPU core, meaning that if you are using a 2 Quad Core CPU, thepreferences should initially be set to 16 threads.
Enable Graphic Card Acceleration: Optimizes the rendering blurs by using theGPU

GPU's acceleration capabilities. This option is on by default. Not all cards support
this acceleration.

52

Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

Advanced Preferences

Parameter

Description
Support Overlay and Underlay Arts: When enabled, options to manipulate
overlay and underlay arts are available.
Advanced Display: Enable or disable the Advanced Display mode.
Advanced Palette Lists: Lets you switch your palette list to Advanced Palette
Lists mode for creating and storing palettes in the Scene or Element Palette List.
Restore Current Selected Drawing on Undo: If a drawing other than the current
one is being affected by an Undo command, the affected drawing is displayed.

Advanced Options

Advanced Element Mode: Displays more options in the Add Column dialog box
and the Column Properties dialog box.
Auto-rename Elements: Controls whether to rename the element whenever thecorresponding node name in the Node view or layer name in the Timeline view ischanged.
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 Premium. Disabling this option will

53

Preferences Dialog Reference

cause all the colours of the imported image to be displayed as red to indicate thatthe 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.
Element Node "Animate Using Animation Tools" Default Value: If you know thatyou prefer to work in the style of version 7.3 or earlier, or if you intend to
substitute many drawings throughout your animation, you might wish to deselectthis option. This way, you won't have to do it every time (through the Layer
Properties) for each new drawing layer that you create.
Compress Saved Keyframes: Compresses keyframe values when there are nochanges between adjacent keyframes. The resulting project is not compatible
with versions of Harmony prior to version 11.
Enable Logging of IO Operations: When enabled, Harmony will create a log ofevery file operation it performs in a log file in the logs subfolder of the scenefolder.
Enable Middle Button Pans View: When enabled, clicking and dragging the
Drawing or Camera view with the middle mouse button will pan it.
Follow Node View Parenting for Node Navigation: When using the keyboard
shortcuts, Select Parent Skipping Effects (B) and Select Child Skipping Effects(Shift + B) to navigate the hierarchy of a scene, the hierarchy as it appears in theTimeline view is used by default. When enabled, the hierarchy as it appears in the
Node view is used instead.
Event processing interval while running scripts: When a Harmony script is
executed, this setting determines at which interval, in milliseconds, Harmony
should pause the script to see if the user attempted to do something, and torespond accordingly.
For example, if the setting is set to 1000, and the user starts running a heavy
script that takes several seconds to execute, Harmony will pause the execution of
the script every second to check if the user pressed any key or clicked onanything, and will respond accordingly, making Harmony responsive despite
running a heavy script. This also allows the script debugger to detect if the script
has an infinite loop and to interrupt it if needed.
The default value of this setting, which is -1, disables the processing of any event
while a script is running until the script is fully executed. This means that if a
script takes several seconds to execute, Harmony will "hang" until the execution
is over. This can cause Harmony to freeze if the script has an infinite loop.
However, this has for an advantage that it prevents user action from making any
changes or actions that could interfere with the script before it is done running.

54

Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

NOTE
Disabling event processing during scripts can be critical when using
Master Controllers, as they are often scripted to manipulate elements inthe scene in response to user input that refreshes several times per
second. If the user input refreshes too quickly for Harmony to fully
execute the Master Controller script for every user input, this may cause
the execution of the script to be paused recursively.

Default Colour Editor: The type of colour editor to use in the Layer Properties ofeffects that have colour parameters. This setting is applied to new effects added
to a scene, but not to existing effects. Harmony supports the following types ofcolour editors:ll

Separate Channels: Displays a simple input field and a function button foreach of the Red, Green, Blue and Alpha channels, with a preview of theresulting colour below.

Colour Wheel: Displays compact "click and drag" style input fields for theAlpha, Hue, Saturation, Value, Red, Green and Blue channels. The theinput fields can be clicked and dragged left and right to decrease or
increase their values, or double-clicked to type their value in. Each channel
also has a toggle button allowing you to select one of the channels, andto the right is a visual colour picker which allows you to visually pick thevalue of that selected channel. To the bottom-left is a control to navigate
the existing keyframes of the colour functions, as well as add or remove
keyframes at the current frame.

lCompact: Displays a single slider control for the Alpha channel of thecolour along with a function button for the alpha channel. To the right are
buttons to navigate existing keyframes in the alpha function as well as to
add or remove keyframes on the alpha function at the current frame. To
select the actual colour, you must double-click on the colour preview toopen the colour picker. This editor only allows you to animate the alpha55

Preferences Dialog Reference

value, and hence should not be used if other channels must be animated.

TIP
In any of the colour editors, you can double-click on the colour preview toopen a Colour Picker dialog, giving you access to more convenient visual
controls to select a colour.

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.

56

Harmony 20 Premium Preferences Guide

Deformation Preferences

Parameter

Description
The Scale controls let you customize the appearance of the Deformation-Scaleand Deformation-Uniform-Scale controls by setting the distance from thedeformer axis.

Scale Controls

Display Scaling Node in Pixel Size: This option is disabled by default. The
distance between the controls and the deformer axis is calculated using fields asa value. Select this option to change the value to pixels.
Scaling Pixel Size: The default value is 64 pixels, meaning the distance between
the controls and the deformer axis is 64 pixels. You can enter any pixel value.
Scaling Field Size: The default value is 2 fields, meaning the distance between thecontrols and the deformer axis is 2 fields. You can enter any field value.

Deformation Convert
Deformed Drawings

Texture Resolution when Converting Gradient and Textures: Sets the size of thebitmap texture used during the conversion of deformed drawings to drawings.
The maximum value accepted is 2048 pixels.
Default Pencil Line Deformation Quality: The Pencil Line Deformation Quality
setting applied to new drawing layers. This setting is set to Low by default
because the increase in quality in higher settings is very rarely visible, except withextreme deformations in ultra high definition renders.

Drawing Layer

TIP
You can change this setting for individual drawing layers. In the Layer
Properties of a drawing layer, look for the Pencil Lines Quality setting in
the Deformation section of the Line Thickness tab.

57

Preferences Dialog Reference

Particle Preferences

Parameter

Description
Always Show Particles as Dots: Displays the particles as dots in the OpenGL
preview mode. This makes the playback speed faster for a heavy scene.

OpenGL

Horizontal Resolution of Image Fracture Input: This is the size, in pixels, of theproxy bitmap image rendered in OpenGL when using the Image Fracture particle.
A smaller image size increases the playback speed in heavy scenes.

58