Toon Boom
Harmony 17
Release Notes

TOON BOOM ANIMATION INC.

+1 514 278 8666

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

contact@toonboom.com
toonboom.com

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

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 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.

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
10-27-2020
Copyright © 2020 Toon Boom Animation Inc., a Corus Entertainment Inc. company. All rights reserved.

1

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

Table of Contents
Table of Contents

2

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2

3

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.1

12Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.0

202

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2
Here is the list of changes in Harmony 17.0.2, build 15414 (2020-01-17):lDrawing on page 3lDigital Animation on page 4lEffects on page 4lImport from Flash / Animate on page 5l

GNU/Linux Installation on page 8lEnhancements on page 9lFixed Issues on page 9

DrawingFeatureDescription

Editions

In Harmony 17.0.0 and 17.0.1, the modifier keys for drawing straightlines using freehand drawing tools had been changed to match otherdrawing software and to add the ability to lock the angle of a straightline and redraw over it.
As of Harmony 17.0.2, these modifier keys have been reverted to theones used in Harmony 16. However, it is now possible to use theSpacebar key to lock the angle of a straight line and redraw over it.
The new drawing tool modifier keys are as follows:l

Reverted to old drawing toolmodifier keys and added a
new onell

If you press and hold the Shift key before or while drawing, youwill draw a straight line in any direction.
If you press and hold the Spacebar while drawing a straight line,
it will lock the angle of your line. If you are using a pressuresensitive tablet, you can then draw over your line to adjust its
thickness.
If you press and hold the Shift and Alt keys before or while
drawing, you will draw a straight horizontal or vertical line.

If you preferred the modifier keys from Harmony 17.0.1, it is possible torevert to them by toggling a hidden preference which can be done bydownloading, importing and running the script at the URL below:
docs.toonboom.com/go/download/ToggleStraightLineShortcuts
For reference, the drawing tool modifier keys in Harmony 17.0.1 wereas follows:l

If you press and hold the Shift key before or while drawing, your3

All editions

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

Editions

drawing stroke will be a straight horizontal or vertical line.
ll

If you press and hold the Shift and the Alt keys before or while
drawing, you will start drawing a straight line until you release
both the Shift and Alt keys.
When drawing a straight line using the Shift and Alt keys,
releasing a single one of either key will lock the angle of yourline. If you are using a pressure-sensitive tablet, you can thendraw over your line to adjust its thickness.

Digital Animation
FeatureDescription

Editions

It is now possible to create a keyboard shortcut to toggle thePeg Selection Mode option of theKeyboard shortcut for Peg
Selection mode

Transform tool. When thismode is enabled, clicking on a drawing in the Camera view willautomatically select the element’s parent peg, if it has one.

All editions

This keyboard shortcut can be found in the General section of theKeyboard Shortcuts dialog.

Effects
FeatureDescription

Editions

The new Increase-Opacity node allows you to reduce thetransparency for any visual element in your scene. It works bymultiplying the opacity of each pixel in the input image by acustomizable factor.

Increase Opacity nodeThis can be used to fix a common issue in digital animation when
one element is used as the cutter for another element, and bothelements are composited together, creating a visible seam between
them. A known work-around to this is to connect the problematic
parts of the rig several times to the same composite so as to increase
the opacity on their edges, but this can negatively impact
performance. This node will increase the opacity around the edges ofscene elements without causing unnecessary overhead.

4

Premium

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

Editions

Import from Flash / Animate
FeatureDescription

Editions

Support for latest versions of
Adobe Animate

Previously, the Export to Harmony extension for Adobe Flash /Animate was only supported from Flash CS 5.5 up to Adobe
Animate 2015.1. The extension has been significantly modernized,
and now only supports Adobe Animate 2018 and later.

All editions

When importing a character rig exported from Adobe Animate, thesymbol hierarchy is converted to a peg hierarchy.

Automatic rig clean-up

Before, the conversion was straightforward: One peg was created forevery symbol, and the position of each peg was offset to correspondto the position of their respective symbol in the Animate scene. In
cases of complex symbol hierarchies, this could create an overly
complex peg hierarchy. It also made it difficult to “reset” the positionof a peg, as it would often not return to the correct position in thecharacter rig.
Now, when importing a character rig from Adobe Animate, twoclean-up routines are performed on the imported rig to make the5

All editions

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

Editions

model easier to edit and animate by making it more simple:l

The value of each peg in the hierarchy is removed from thepeg and baked into the drawing layer it connects to. Thismeans that all pegs in the imported rig are at a position of (0,0), and the drawing layers are offset to preserve theirposition.

When multiple pegs are connected in a row, their respective
positions are combined and baked into the drawing layer thatthe chain connects to.

l

If several pegs are connected in a row in the hierarchy
without any of them branching to multiple pegs, thesuperfluous pegs are removed. Only pegs that branch tomultiple pegs or to a drawing layer will be preserved.

It is now possible to import the content of symbols in your Adobe
Animate character rigs as synchronized layers in Harmony.

Support for synchronized layers

For example, when rigging in Animate, it is common to create bodyparts made of multiple layers that need to remain synchronized—asin changing the drawing for one layer must also change the drawing
for other layers—inside symbols. The rigger typically accomplishes
this by putting all these layers inside a single symbol. Then theycreate every possible drawing combination for these layers inside the6

Advanced &Premium

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

Editions

symbol’s timeline, and the animator only has to change the symbol’s
current frame.
Previously all the layers inside such symbols were imported as
separate, independent layers in Harmony. This kept the different
layers of the artwork separate but then the animator had to change
the exposed drawing separately on each layer to have a valid
drawing combination.
It is now possible to indicate that layers inside a symbol must be
imported as synced layers in Harmony. To do this, in Adobe
Animate, simply add the label “Sync” (case-insensitive) to the first
frame of the layer containing the symbol which contains the layersthat need to remain synced. When the model is exported from
Animate and imported into Harmony, all the layers inside this symbol
will be synchronized.

TIP
This is especially useful if some body parts of yourcharacters are made of a symbol which contains mask
layers. The mask layer and the masked layers will be
converted to two synced drawing layers connected througha cutter. Afterwards, when you change which drawing is
exposed in the masked layer in Harmony, the drawing
exposed in the mask layer will be automatically updated tomatch.

NOTE
If a symbol marked with the “Sync” label contains a layer
containing a symbol, that symbol will be “broken apart” andconverted to flat drawings.

IMPORTANTThis feature is only supported in Adobe Animate 2020 orlater.

Enhancements to the
Swfimport utility

The Swfimport terminal utility, which is used by Harmony whenimporting character rigs exported from Adobe Animate, has been
updated with the following changes:l

The utility is now able to import all drawings contained in amovie clip exported from the Library in Adobe Animate.

7

All editions

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

FeatureDescriptionlEditions

The new -ignore_position parameter will ignore theposition information in the target SWF file. This causes all
coordinates in the SWF file to be imported as they are into
Harmony.

NOTE
This generally results in the top-left corner of thedrawing being positioned in the centre of the scene,
as point (0, 0) in Animate represents the top-leftcorner of the stage, whereas it points to the centreof the stage in Harmony.

l

The new -resolution <width> <height> parameter will
ignore the resolution of the SWF file and allow you to input acustom resolution instead.

GNU/Linux Installation
FeatureDescription

Editions

In Harmony 14 and earlier releases, the install script for GNU/Linux
generated two environment scripts: One for Bash, named usa_
profile, and one for CSH, named usa_cshrc. Depending on yourshell environment, you could use either script to set someenvironment variables used by Harmony.
When the installer was refactored for Harmony 15, the Bashenvironment script was also refactored and renamed tba_profile,
but the CSH environment script was removed.

CSH environment script

As of Harmony 17.0.2, the installer also generates a CSH
environment script, named tba_cshrc. This script does the samething as the Bash environment script, except it uses CSH syntax.
To include the Harmony environment script in your shell, type in thefollowing command in a terminal:l

For Bash:$ . /usr/local/ToonBoomAnimation/harmony[Edition]_17/etc/tba_profilel

For CSH:$ source/usr/local/ToonBoomAnimation/harmony[Edition]_17/etc/tba_cshrc

8Advanced &Premium

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

Enhancementsl

The distance for the pen stabilizer in the Pen Settings toolbar is now set to 20 by default.

lWhen importing an image as a Toon Boom bitmap, the canvas for the bitmap layer will be at least as big as thecanvas for a new bitmap layer, providing sufficient space to edit the image.

Fixed Issues
Performance and StabilitylMemory leak and crash could occur when rendering QuickTime movies on macOS.

l

Playback could slow down drastically when playing a scene multiple times without making changes.

l

Crash occurred when using a keyboard shortcut to create a node while holding and dragging a cable in the Node
View.

l

Crash occurred when rendering a scene containing a Genarts Sapphire plug-in in batch mode.

l

Crash occurred when attempting to paint on a bitmap layer with a colour that has an opacity of 0.

l

Crash occurred when rendering a scene containing a 3D model with a directional blur effect applied to it in batch
mode.

l

Crash could occur when holding the T key to temporarily select theline while thelCutter tool and cut out an intersected pencil

Pencil Editor tool is selected.

Rare crash could occur when using the

Select tool with theSnap to Contour tool mode enabled.

Securityl

On macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) and later, launching Harmony would trigger a prompt to allow Harmony to accept
incoming connections if the firewall was enabled.

Drawingl

If the Brush Size Cursor preference was enabled, the brush size cursor would disappear when drawing a stroke.

lWhen drawing a closed shape with thePencil tool by holding the Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ (macOS) key, theline that closes the shape would sometimes disappear.
l

If the user held the Shift key while drawing with thePencil tool to create a straight line, and then released andheld the Shift key quickly to create another straight line, the lines would not be joined together and could beselected independently.
lWhen artwork was selected with theSelect tool with thePermanent Selection tool mode enabled, selecting

a different frame would not cause the selection to update if the Drawing view was not in the workspace.

9

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

Digital AnimationlWhen rotating or scaling a layer using theTransform tool, keyframes would be created for its scale and rotation

functions, but not for its position functions.

EffectslLight rectangles appeared over the rendered image if a pass through composite was connected to a Dither node,
which was connected to a Highlight node, which was connected to a bitmap composite.

3DlWhen running the script TB_MayaXmlToHarmony.js on a 3D model that had not been rotated, its scale value on
the z-axis would be reset to 1.

Audio
l

The waveform of sound effects displayed in the Timeline and Xsheet views was offset by a single frame on macOS.

RenderinglRendering a scene with a Multi-Layer-Write node created TGA files by default when its default format is supposed
to be PSD.

lWhen images were rendered in PNG format, at 16-bit/channel with alpha, the colour values were premultipliedwith black. PNG images do not support premultiplication.

lMovies exported at 23.976 FPS on macOS played at 24 FPS in video editing software.

CompositinglLarge PNG images with a 16-bit/channel colour depth would use twice the amount of RAM they actually needwhen imported as original bitmap files in Harmony.

lLarge PNG images with a 16-bit/channel colour depth would sometimes not fully load when imported as original
bitmap files in Harmony.

l

In bitmap images that are premultiplied with black, pixels that had an alpha value of 0 or less but which had positive
colour values were not composited into the rendered image.

Import from Flash / AnimatelTiled textures in Animate that were created with an image in any format but JPEG were not tiled when imported inHarmony.

l

If a mask layer contained several symbols in different keyframes, some of the symbols would not be imported into
the corresponding drawing layer in Harmony.

l

If an image imported in Animate was broken apart and its rectangle was transformed with perspective using theFree Transform tool, its texture would not be imported to Harmony.

10

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

Scriptingl

The node.removeDynamicAttr() method sometimes returned a random boolean value when used to remove
attributes from a Subnode-Animation node. If the random value was false, the Timeline view would not refresh even
if an attribute was removed.

l

The Palette.acquire() method always failed to move the target colour to the palette.

Terminall

Attempting to launch Control Center, Scan or Play via the terminal failed on macOS.

Cosmeticl

When pressing the Centre on Selection keyboard shortcut (O) in the Timeline view, the layers list would not display
properly.

lThe

expand andcollapse arrows in the Library view and the 3D Graph view always appeared collapsed on

macOS.

11

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.1
Here is the list of changes in Harmony 17.0.1, build 15085 (2019-09-05):l

Rig Cache on page 12lDrawing on page 13lExport on page 14lNode View on page 14lPreferences on page 15lUtilities on page 15lScripting on page 16lFixed Issues on page 16

Rig CacheFeatureDescription

Editions

In Harmony 17.0.0, when character models are cached, they wererendered from an arbitrary point of view right in front of them. In
most cases, this did not cause any issue. However, if a cached rig
had elements that were placed at different positions on the z-axis,
the cached preview image would be inaccurate due to the parallax
effect.
Accurate parallax rendering oflayers

As of Harmony 17.0.1, all cached rigs are rendered from the point ofview of the scene's camera.
As such, theBypass Problematic Nodes andPremium only

Hide

Problematic Nodes options have been removed from the toolbar at
the bottom of the Camera view. These options were added
specifically to deal with character rigs containing elements that are
too far apart on the z-axis, and are no longer useful.

Onion Skin support

Keyboard shortcut

Top View and Side View
supportWhen

Onion Skin is enabled, drawing layers in cached rigs will

also appear in the Onion Skin preview.
The OpenGL Node Caching command was added to the Keyboard
Shortcuts dialog. When assigned to a keyboard shortcut, it toggles
node caching on or off.
The following changes have been made:lCached rigs now appear as flat green hairlines in the Top

12Premium only

Premium only

Premium onlyToon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

Editions

View and Side View. Those lines represent the amount oflateral space the cached preview image occupies in the
OpenGL preview.
lCached rigs appear as a single, flattened thumbnail in the listof element thumbnails on the side of these views.

DrawingFeatureBetter control when drawing
a straight line with a freehand
tool

Description

EditionIn Harmony 17.0.0, the key combination for drawing straight lines witha freehand drawing tool changed to Alt + Shift. The behaviour was alsochanged: When moving your tablet pen or mouse in the opposite
direction as the line, the angle of the line locked, allowing you to draw
over it to adjust its thickness.
As of Harmony 17.0.1, you can keep adjust the angle and length ofyour line as long as you're holding both the Alt and Shift keys,
regardless of the direction you pull your pen or mouse. You can lockthe angle of your line by releasing one of either the Shift or Alt keys,

Allafter which you can redraw over your line. If you release both keys, youwill resume drawing freehand.

Locking a drawing guide'sangle

If you press and hold the Alt key while using drawing guides, the angleof the guide lines will stop following your mouse cursor and lock inposition until you release the Alt key, allowing you to keep the guidelines at the right angle.

All

By using this feature, you can rework the thickness or length of linesthat you are drawing with a guide. It's also useful if you want to draw adotted line along an axis.
A hidden preference was added to allow users who preferred thedrawing key modifiers for Harmony 16 and earlier to restore thosemodifiers. Enabling this preference does the following:

Hidden preference to enablelegacy drawing keyboard
modifierslll

Holding Shift will make your freehand drawing tool draw astraight line in any angle.
Holding Shift + Alt will make your freehand drawing tool draw astraight horizontal or vertical line.
There is no way to lock your line's angle and draw over it.

You can toggle this preference by downloading, importing and running

13

All

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

Editionthe script at the URL below:
docs.toonboom.com/go/download/ToggleStraightLineShortcuts

ExportFeatureDescription

Edition

It is now possible to export movies in H.264/MPEG-4 format withaudio.

Export in H.264/MPEG-4 withaudio

In order to support this, exports made with the H.264/MPEG-4
codec will now use the QuickTime Movie (.mov) extension insteadof the MPEG-4 (.mp4) extension. This is because, when using thiscodec, Harmony can only export sound in uncompressed audio(PCM) , which is not supported by the MPEG-4 container.

All

Hence, the option in the Export Movie dialog and the Write Nodelayer properties has been renamed H.264/MPEG-4 (*.mov). It is still
different from QuickTime Movie (*.mov) in that it is created by
Harmony and does not depend on Apple QuickTime.

Node View
FeatureFollow Node View hierarchy
instead of Timeline viewhierarchy when navigating
nodes

Description

EditionThe keyboard shortcuts, Select Parent Skipping Effects (B) andSelect Child Skipping Effects (Shift + B) are often used to quickly
navigate the hierarchy of a scene. However, in certain cases, thehierarchy may appear different in the Timeline and in the Node views.
Up until now, these keyboard shortcuts only followed the hierarchyin the Timeline view.

Premium only

A new option,Follow Node View Parenting for Node Navigation,
was added to the Advanced tab of the Preferences dialog. Whenenabled, these keyboard shortcuts will allow you to navigate thescene's hierarchy as represented in the Node View, rather than in theTimeline view.

14

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

Preferences
FeatureDescription

Edition

It is now possible to select your preferred user interface language in
the Preferences dialog.

User interface language

Harmony currently supports English, Chinese (Simplified), Japaneseand Spanish. In previous versions, Harmony would always launch in
the language of your operating system if supported, or in English
otherwise. By setting this preference, you can make Harmony launchAllin a specific supported language regardless of the language of youroperating system.
You can change this preference in the General tab of the Preferences
dialog.

Utilities
FeatureDescription

Editionutransform has the following new parameters:l-addlineart <file>: Import an image as the drawing's
line art layer.

lImport image to line art or color
art with utransformll-uselineartlayer <art layer>: When importing a
Toon Boom Vector Drawing as the target drawing's line art
layer, select which of the source drawing's art layers toimport.
-addcolorart <file>: Import an image as the drawing's
color art layer.

All-usecolorartlayer <art layer>: When importing a
Toon Boom Vector Drawing as the target drawing's color art
layer, select which of the source drawing's art layers toimport.

These new parameters work exactly like the already existing addoverlay, -useoverlaylayer, -addunderlay and useunderlaylayer, except you can now perform the same tasks
on the target drawing's line art and color art layers.

Preserve artworktransformations when replacing
bitmap artwork

utransform now has the -keep_bitmap_transform parameter.
When using this parameter in conjunction with the -addlineart, addcolorart, -addoverlay or -addunderlay art layers, if thetarget art layer is a bitmap layer, Harmony will replace the artwork inthis bitmap layer without resetting the geometrical transformations

15

All

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

Editionthat were done to it with theSelect tool.

ScriptingFeatureDescription

Edition

The new convertToSeparate() method of the func class allows
you to convert a 3D path function into an array of three Bezierfunctions representing its x, y and z axes.
Convert 3D Path functions to
Separate functions

The conversion must be approximate. Hence, it allows you to use
one of two approximation algorithms: one that prioritizes theaccuracy of the spline's shape, which may cause some keyframes tobe offset in time, and one that prioritizes the position of its
keyframes in time, which may affect the shape of the spline a bit.

All

Get tension of an ease function

The tensionEase() method was added to the func class. It will
return the tension of the ease function that is passed as its
parameter.

All

Specify colour IDs whenchecking for used colours

The containsUsedColors() method of the Palette class now
requires a list of colour IDs as a parameter, to check whether specificcolours in the palette are used.

All

Export to SVG

The TB_ExportSVG.js script has been enhanced to be easy to use.
Comments have been added at the beginning of the script to explain
how to use it.

All

Fixed IssueslWhen opening a scene on Windows, Harmony sometimes fails to initialize the audio device, preventing audio
playback.

l

WebCC fails to launch on GNU/Linux.

lHarmony crashes when attempting to delete a control point when using thelHarmony may crash when pressing a keyboard shortcut to temporarily use theCenterline Editor.
Centerline Editor tool and a

keyboard shortcut to temporarily use another tool simultaneously.
lHarmony occasionally crashes when working in the Camera or Drawing view with multiple OpenGL views openedon macOS.

16

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release NoteslHarmony crashes when attempting to undo after copying and pasting animation keyframes on a layer's parametersin the Timeline view.

lHarmony may hang when a Two-Points-Constraint node has a parent peg with a scale of 0.

lHarmony crashes when connecting an Image-Switch node that has no input image to a Composite node.

lHarmony hangs indefinitely when using theContour Editor with theSnap to Contour andApply to Lineand Colour Art tool modes enabled.
lHarmony may crash when enabling caching on several nodes.

lMemory leak may occur when playing a scene that has multiple cached rigs in high resolution.

lWhen a scene created in Harmony Premium and which contains cached rigs is opened in Harmony Advanced or
Harmony Essentials, then saved, caching gets disabled for all rigs in the scene.

lChanging drawings in a cached rig using the Drawing Substitutions view will not make the cached preview image
update.

l

Switching between the

Rigging tool and another tool will not make the cached preview image update.

l

Selecting an element in a cached rig does not disable its cache if the rig is connected twice to its composite.

l

The first playback of a scene with cached rigs is slower than if there was no cached rigs.

lManipulating thelCached preview images may appear in the exported images when exporting Open GL frames.

lCached elements may appear cropped when moving them in the Top or Side views. HAR-5358

lThe

Toggle Node's Cache button is not greyed out when no element is selected.

l

The

Load Grid Preset button of thelNo error message appears when attempting to create a Master Controller with the Grid Wizard or the Slider

Transform tool control box on an element in a cached rig is slower.

Grid Wizard opens an Open dialog, then displays an error message.

Wizard where all the source poses are the same.
lWhen creating a Master Controller in a Harmony Server scene and creating the poses database (.tbstate) file atthe job or the environment level, Harmony will not create the scripts folder in which to store the Master
Controller, causing it to fail to create the file.

lError message appears when saving a grid preset in the Grid Wizard dialog.

l

The left column of the Timeline view does not scroll along when holding Spacebar and clicking and dragging on it.

lView specific toolbars may disappear after restarting Harmony.

lTimeline view does not remain centred on mouse cursor when using the keyboard shortcuts to zoom in or out.

lLibrary view toolbar is not present in the default workspace.

lPreview of drawing stroke does not appear when drawing with thetheDraw Behind option is enabled

17

Pencil tool while holding a modifier key if

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notesl

When starting a drawing stroke with a drawing guide, the start of the stroke may shift a bit as Harmony
determines which one of the guide's axes to lock onto.

l

The

Stamp tool draws an extra line when drawing a stroke with theDraw Behind tool mode and theCurrent Drawing On Top switch enabled.
llPreview of drawing stroke does not appear when drawing with theBrush orPencil tools and a drawing

guide if theDraw Behind tool mode is enabled.

When the

Apply to Visible Drawing Layers tool mode is enabled, it is not possible to select several strokes with

theSelect tool by holding Shift and clicking on each of them.

l

The Alt modifier key has no effect when using a keyboard shortcut to temporarily override the current tool.

lWhen drawing with theBrush tool using a textured brush, if there is a minimum amount of pressure set in the

Pen Pressure Feel dialog, the vector envelope of the brush stroke may be too small and clip the texture inside it.
lWhen drawing with thePencil tool using a fixed thickness preset, if there is a minimum amount of pressure set

in the Pen Pressure Feel dialog, pencil lines are drawn even when not putting the minimum amount of pressure to
draw a stroke.
l

If the user presses and releases Shift while drawing with a guide, the drawing stroke may end up different fromwhat was drawn.

lVisual artifacts appear when drawing a straight line with the Stroke tool by holding the Shift and Alt keys on
macOS.

lControl box of theTransform tool's is extremely small when selecting an element that contains an empty

drawinglControl box of theTransform tool is wrong when selecting a peg containing several elements and one of them

contains an empty drawing.
l

The bounding box of theTransform tool does not adjust to new position of peg when pasting a keyframe on theselected peg layer.
lllBounding box of selected drawing does not update when undoing a transformation with theAnimate Off mode, if the selected drawing is animated with a 3D path function.

Transform tool in

Bounding box of selected drawing does not update when undoing a transformation with theAnimate Off mode, if the selected drawing is animated with a 3D path function.

Transform tool in

Attempting to select an element in the Camera view sometimes fails after zooming in or out when in

RenderView mode.
lCopying and pasting a keyframe on a parameter in the Timeline view does not update the value displayed for thecurrent frame.

lSome drawings are discarded when importing a template containing synced layers.

l

If the user syncs two layers, undoes, then copies and pastes one of the formerly synced layers using Paste Special,
the resulting copied layer will appear to be synced.

18

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notesl

When a layer that is a clone or a duplicate of a synced layer is selected, the synced layer indicator appears for thatlayer in the Node view and the Xsheet view.

l

The names of every layer listed in the Convert to Synced Drawing Layer dialog are prefixed with Top/.

l

If the Default Pass Through Composite preference is enabled, composite nodes created with the Group Selection
with Composite command are not Pass Through.

lUsing the Select Child Skipping Effects keyboard shortcut (Shift + B) does not work if the child layer is connectedunder a deformation group containing a Transformation-Switch node.
NOTE
Attempting to select a child node through a group that contains a Transfromation-Switch node will
only work if the Follow Node View Parenting for Node Navigation preference is enabled. Thispreference can be enabled in the Advanced tab of the Preferences dialog.

lWhen rendering a scene in double-precision (16-bit / channel) PNG format (ie: PNGDP3 and PNGDP4), pixels withnegative colour values (ie: pixels rendered through by a Shadow node) are rendered as solid red.

lCannot remove Subnode-Animation attributes that have been created dynamically with a script.

l

If the user sets a custom keyboard shortcut, switches to a different shortcut set, then clicks Cancel, the new custom
keyboard shortcut is saved.

l

WebCC crashes when attempting to render a preview movie if the Cisco OpenH264 codec is not installed.

lError when attempting to download the Cisco OpenH264 codec on GNU/Linux.

l

In Harmony Server, if a palette stored in a job or environment that is locked for editing by another user is selected
while

l

Edit Palette mode is enabled, its colour swatches will not load in the Colour view.

When uploading changes to a scene on WebCC, the content of the scene's frames folder on the database server
gets deleted.

lWhen loading a skin on certain gaming character rigs, the exposure of some of the drawings in the affected layers
is reduced to one frame.

l

The Harmony SDK does not compile on macOS without explicitly adding its subdirectories to the INCLUDEPATH
variable.

19

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.0
Here is the list of changes in Harmony 17.0.0, build 14765 (2019-06-07):l

Master Controller on page 20lDrawing Tools on page 24lDrawing Guides on page 28lDeformations on page 32

lDigital Animation on page 33

lNode View on page 34lEffects on page 35lPerformance on page 36lExport on page 36lImport on page 37lPreferences on page 37

lInstallation on page 38

lHarmony Server on page 39lScripting on page 39lEnhancements on page 40lFixed Issues on page 40

Master Controller
FeatureDescription

EditionStack Wizard

A new Master Controller wizard, the Stack Wizard, allows you tocreate a Master Controller that combines a 2D point widget and aslider widget. It works similarly to the Grid Wizard, except that itallows you to combine several grids of poses. The 2D point allows
you to pose your character based on the current grid of poses, andthe slider allows you to switch between grids.

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Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

EditionA good example of how this can be used is by creating a 2D point
widget that sets the angle your character's head is facing, and aslider that sets its mouth pose. By creating a grid of the character'shead looking in every direction, then creating alternate versions of
this grid for each mouth pose, you can use the Stack Wizard togenerate a Master Controller that controls both aspects of yourcharacter.

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Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

EditionTo use this wizard, create a grid of poses in a scene like you would
for the Grid Wizard, then all the variations needed for that grid ofposes. Then, in the Master Controller toolbar, click on the

Stack

Wizard button.
The following new Master Controller widgets can be created inHarmony:l

Button: This widget can be scripted to fire an action whenclicked on.

New widgets

Premium onlyl

Checkbox: This widget is like a button, except that it toggles
on and off. It can be scripted to fire different actions
depending on whether it's switched on or off.

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Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

FeatureDescriptionlEditionLabel: This widget creates a simple text label inside a
rectangle. It cannot be interacted with, but it can help makeother widgets easier to identify.

For more information, refer to the scripting API documentation.
The new Unroll Wizard allows you to "unroll" the original character
poses of a Master Controller into the current scene, and makeschanges to them.

Editing Master Controllers

For example, if you have a character with a Master Controller that
controls the direction in which it is looking, you can use the Unroll
Wizard to recreate the poses of your character looking in every
direction that were used to generate this Master Controller, into thecurrent scene.

Premium only

Unrolling a Master Controller can be useful if you wish to makechanges to an existing Master Controller. By unrolling its poses intoa scene, you get to make changes to the poses, then create a new
Master Controller that uses the modified poses.
To use the Unroll Wizard, select a Master Controller in your scene.
Then, in the Master Controller toolbar, click on the

Unroll Wizard

button.

Stepped Slider

When creating a Slider-type Master Controller with the Slider
Wizard, you now have the option to make the slider "stepped". Thismeans that, when you manipulate the slider, instead of interpolating
between the different poses that were used to create the Master
Controller, it will set the character to one of these poses, with nointerpolation.

Premium onlyThis can be useful if you wish to create a slider to select between a
set of poses that are not meant to interpolate between one another,such as mouth poses..
To use this option, simply uncheck the Interpolate Between Poses
option when using the Slider Wizard.

Pose database storage

When creating a Master Controller in Harmony Server using the
Stack Wizard, the Grid Wizard or the Slider Wizard, you will beprompted to select at which level (scene, job, environment or global)
you want the Master Controller's poses database to be stored.

23

Premium onlyToon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

EditionA new button in the Master Controller toolbar,

Show MasterShow Master Controllers button

Controllers, allows you to pull a list of Master Controllers in theselected group, and select which ones to display or hide.

Premium only

Nudging Master Controller
widgets

It is now possible to select a Master Controller widget and nudge itin any direction by pressing the arrow keys.

Premium only

Persistent Wizard state

When you close the Grid Wizard or the Stack Wizard, the current
configuration of its grid or grid stack is saved to your preferences,and will be reloaded the next time you open that wizard.

Premium only

Jumping to selected frame

In the Grid Wizard and the Stack wizard, when you associate a pointin the grid to a frame, the current frame in the Harmony user interface
is automatically set to that frame.

Premium only

In addition to the Label widget, the following Master Controller
widgets can be configured to have labels by setting some of theirproperties:l

2D PointlSliderl

Buttonl

Checkbox

LabelsPremium onlyThis can be done by setting the widget's label property, as well asother related properties, when creating the widget. For more
information, refer to the scripting API documentation .
It is now possible to make the 2D point widget appear either ascircle, a square, a triangle or a diamond. This can be done by setting
the widget's point_style property when creating it. For more
information, refer to the scripting API documentation

Premium only

FeatureDescription

Editions

Pen stabilizer

The new pen stabilizer can help you draw smooth, stable lines bystabilizing your drawing strokes as you draw, without having tosmooth them afterwards. It works by letting you draw a stroke

All

Customization

Drawing Tools

24Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

Editions

without generating a line immediately, instead it starts generating aline that trails behind your mouse cursor or tablet pen once itreaches a certain length. By trailing behind your stroke, it cansmooth out the flaws in your drawing gesture and generate asmooth stroke.
There are two different stabilizing method methods:lAverage: Harmony calculates the average direction of all of
your mouse or pen gestures between the end of the actual
drawing stroke and the current position of your mouse
cursor or pen tip, and extends the stroke in this average
direction, effectively evening out jitter and rounding sharp
turns.

lPulled String: When you start drawing a stroke, Harmony
positions the drawing tool where your stroke starts. As you
move the mouse or tablet pen, the drawing tool remains inthat position, but a "string" appears, linking your drawing
tool to your mouse cursor or pen tip.

Once a certain maximum length is reached, the string pulls
the drawing tool in the direction of your mouse cursor ortablet pen.

The distance between your mouse cursor or tablet pen and thestroke can be customized.
This feature can be enabled by adding the Pen Settings toolbar toyour workspace, and selecting either Average or Pulled String in the
toolbar's drop-down menu.

Pen tilt support

If you have a tablet and pen that support reading the tilt angle ofyour pen, you can configure the Brush tool to use this informationand draw with a tilted tip. A tilted tip will be stretched or projected at
the angle in which you tip your tablet pen, simulating the effect ofdrawing with a tilted pencil or felt pen.

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Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

Editions

This feature can be used by adjusting the Pen Tilt Sensitivity
parameter in the Brush Properties dialog.
If you have a tablet and pen that supports reading the rotation angleof your pen, you can configure the Brush tool to use this information
so that the rotation of your brush tip is based on how you rotate
your tablet pen.

Pen rotation

All

This feature can be used by enabling the Use Pen Rotation property
in the Brush Properties dialog.
Harmony now allows you to configure the curve by which itprocesses the amount of pressure you put on your pen tablet to
calculate the thickness, flow or opacity of your brush or pencil lines.

Pen pressure feel editor

All

The Pen Pressure Feel dialog can be accessed by adding the Pen

26

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

Editions

Settings toolbar to your workspace, then clicking on thePressure Feel button.

When drawing straight lines with theBrush or

Pen

Pencil tool

using a pressure sensitive pen tablet, you can drag your pen backover your stroke to adjust or increase its thickness, as if you weredrawing with a pressure-sensitive pen against a ruler. There are twodifferent approaches to this:Adjust thickness when drawing
straight linesll

If you draw while pressing and holding the Shift key, you willdraw a horizontal or a vertical line.
If you draw while pressing and holding both the Alt and Shift
keys, you will draw a straight line in any direction. If you dragyour pen in the opposite direction of your line, the angle ofyour line will lock and you will be able to draw over it.

The brush presets for thell

New & updated brushesl

All

Brush tool have been updated.

Solid vector brushes are now sorted by size, starting from 5
and going to 25.

Fine Pencil, Tilting Pencil and Chisel Tip brushes have been
added.

Charcoal has been updated, and its alternative, Charcoal
Pencil, has been replaced with Dark Charcoal.

27

Advanced &Premium

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

FeatureStroke tool smoothing

Description

The

Editions

Stroke tool now creates smoother lines with lessunnecessary control points.

All

It is now possible to assign a keyboard shortcut to toggle theKeyboard shortcut for Draw
BehindDraw Behind tool property. This shortcut is listed as Draw Behind
under the Drawing Mode section of the keyboard shortcuts list, andhas no default assignment.

The

Contour Editor tool now has a

All

Tip Style option in the

Tool Properties view. This option allows you to select which style oftips should the extremities of pencil lines be left with when you
select and delete a pencil line segment with theContour Editor

tool.
Tip Style option for the Contour
Editor tool

Advanced &Premium

When you set theDefault Tip Style

Synchronize Brush and Eraser
size

Tip Style for the

Cutter,Eraser or

Ink tool in the Tool Properties view, it is now saved in yourpreferences, separately for each tool.

Advanced &Premium

It is now possible to synchronize the size of the Brush and Eraser
tools. To do this, open the Preferences dialog and, in the Drawing
tab, check Synchronize Eraser and Brush.

Advanced &Premium

Description

Editions

Drawing Guides
FeatureSeveral new drawing guides have been added:
New drawing guidesl

The Ruler allows you to position and rotate a simple straightaxis, and then draw a line along that axis, like a regular ruler.

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Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

FeatureDescriptionlEditions

The Isometric Perspective guide helps you draw lines thatare parallel to one of three axes: The x-axis, the y-axis and thez-axis. The angle of each axis can be customized as needed.
This type of pseudo-perspective, also referred to as parallel
projection, is often used in 2D games, computer graphics
and schematics to depict 3D objects and environments
without using any actual perspective, foreshortening or 3D
rendering. In 2D animation, it is often used to draw longpanning backgrounds from a low or high angle.

l

The 3-Point Perspective (Horizontal Pan) guide helps you
draw horizontally panoramic backgrounds, with curvilinear
horizontal lines. A vanishing point is placed in the middle ofthe horizon line, to help draw lines on the z-axis, and two
vanishing points are placed on the horizon line outside of thecamera field, to define the curve of horizontal lines. Verticallines are made perpendicular to the horizon line.
This is useful for drawing backgrounds meant to be pannedover horizontally. Panning the camera horizontally over a
background drawn with a 3-Point Perspective (HorizontalPan) guide will simulate a rotation of the camera on the yaxis.

l

The 3-Point Perspective (Vertical Pan) guide helps you draw
vertically panoramic backgrounds, with curvilinear verticallines. A vanishing point is placed in the middle of the horizon
line, to help draw lines on the z-axis, and two vanishingpoints are placed above and below the horizon line, outsideof the camera field, to define the curve of vertical lines.

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Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

Editions

Horizontal lines are made parallel to the horizon line.
This is useful for drawing backgrounds meant to be pannedover vertically. Panning the camera vertically over a
background drawn with a 3-Point Perspective (Vertical Pan)
guide will simulate a vertical rotation of the camera on the xaxis.

l

The 4-Point Continuous Perspective guide is very similar to
the 3 Point Perspective (Horizontal Pan) guide, except that itis designed to help draw full 360° panoramic backgrounds.
This guide uses 5 vanishing points. When drawing ahorizontal line, it is curved by arching over one of thevanishing points and reaching down to the two surrounding
vanishing points. This creates a perspective effect where
each vanishing point represents one of the cardinal points,
except that the leftmost and the rightmost points represent
the same cardinal point, effectively creating a looping
background. Backgrounds made with the 4-Point
Continuous Perspective guide can be looped horizontally tosimulate a full rotation of the camera on the y-axis.

l

The 4-Point Perspective (Vertical Pan) is a lot like the 2Point Perspective guide, except that its vertical lines are
curvilinear, so it can be used to make vertically panningbackgrounds. Two vanishing points are on the horizon line,
outside of the camera field, to help draw lines on the x-axis
and the z-axis, and two vanishing points are placed aboveand below the camera field to define the curve of the verticallines.

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Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

Editions

This is useful for drawing backgrounds meant to be pannedover vertically, in which cuboid objects are seen from anangle.

l

The 5-Point Perspective (Fish Eye) guide helps you draw
backgrounds that are curvilinear on both the x-axis and they-axis. It has one central vanishing point on the horizon line,from which lines on the z-axis are drawn, two vanishingpoints at the extremities of its horizon line, to define thecurve of horizontal lines, and two vanishing points aboveand below the horizon line, to define the curve of the verticallines.
This guide can be used to draw backgrounds with a fisheyestyle wide angle lens effect. It can also be used to draw
backgrounds that are meant to be panned in various
directions.

Each guide is available in the

Add Guide pop-up menu of the

Guides view.

Locking the guide angle

If you press and hold the Alt key while using drawing guides, theangle of the guide lines will stop following your mouse cursor andlock in position until you release the Alt key, allowing you to keep
the guide lines at the right angle.
By using this feature, you can rework the thickness or length of linesthat you are drawing with a guide. It's also useful if you want todraw a dotted line along an axis.

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Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

Editions

Guide angle display

When you rotate a guide, its exact angle is displayed in the top-leftcorner of the Camera view.

All

Some guides can be rotated by moving one of the two points on
their horizon line, which rotates them around the opposite point. If
you press and hold the Alt key while moving one of their points, itwill rotate the guide around its centre instead. This works for thefollowing guides:
Rotating guides from centre

All

l

Ruler

l

2-Point Perspectivel3-Point Perspective (Bird's-Eye View)l3-Point Perspective (Worm's-Eye View)

Deformations
FeatureDescription

Editions

The new Free Form Deformation is a type of deformer that can beused to deform textures. It works by creating points anywhere inside
an element, then manipulating these points to deform the element ina way similar to pulling on different parts of a piece of cloth.

Free Form Deformation

Premium only

To create a Free Form Deformation, select the Rigging tool in the
Deformation toolbar. Then, in the Tool Properties view, selectFree Form Mode. Select the element you want to deform, and click32

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

Editions

where you want to create deformation points.

A
Show deformations without
hiding others

Show Selected Deformers button was added to the

Deformation toolbar. Contrary to the existing

Show Selected

Deformation Chains and Hide All Others button, this button displays
the deformation chain for the selected element without hiding
others.

All

Description

Editions

Digital Animation
FeatureIt is now possible to add horizontal and vertical guides to the
Camera view. Alignment guides are visible when theTransform

tool is selected, and can be used to help you align elements tospecific areas of the stage.
l

You can add guides using the
Guide andNew Horizontal Alignment

New Vertical Alignment Guide buttons in the

toolbar above the Camera view.
l

Alignment guides in the Cameraview

You can manipulate alignment guides using theTransform tool.

l

You can hide or display guides by toggling the

Show

All

Alignment Guides button in the toolbar below the Camera
view.
l

l

You can lock or remove alignment guides using the menu
commands available when selecting View > Alignment
Guides in the top menu.
You can make elements snap to alignment guides byenabling theSnap to Alignment Guides option of theTransform tool in the Tool Properties view.

Frame markers

It is now possible to add coloured markers to frames in the Timeline
view. Frame markers differ from drawing markers in that they are nottied to a drawing, but to a frame. They can be added to any frame,
whether or not it contains a drawing. They also differ from scene
markers as they are added to specific layers rather than the entire
scene, and only mark a single frame.
To add a frame marker, right-click on a frame in the Timeline viewand select Mark Frame, then select the desired colour to mark the

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Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

Editions

frame with.
It is possible to assign keyboard shortcuts to quickly navigate
between frame markers, whether of any colour or of a specificcolour. Those keyboard shortcuts can be set in the Timeline sectionof the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog.
The Pose Copier dialog now allows you to select layers in your rig to

Exclude layers in Pose Copierexclude from the pose copying process. This can be useful if you
have a template containing many full character poses, but you only
want to paste certain parts of these poses on your character.
To use this feature, first, select every layer you want to exclude in theTimeline view. Then, right-click on them and select Tag > Timeline
Tag. Then, once in the Pose Copier dialog, check the checkbox next
to the Exclude Layers button, then click on this button.

Advanced &Premium

Node View
FeaturePreference for pass throughcomposite as default

Description

Editions

There is now a preference to make new Composite nodes in Pass
Through mode by default.
This preference, named Default Pass Through Composite, isavailable in the General section of the Preferences dialog.

Premium only

It is now possible to insert a composite in the middle of a connection
cable by holding the Alt key and moving it over the cable.
Rip & insert composite

It is also possible to rip a composite from a connection by holding
the Alt key and moving it out of its cables.

Premium only

Up until Harmony, this was possible with every node that has atleast one input and one output port, except for the Composite node.

Straight cable display

It is now possible to display cables in the Node view as straight lines
going directly from one port to the other. This can be useful if yournode network uses a lot of waypoints, as connections between
waypoints display as straight lines.

Premium only

Set composite mode on several
composites

Using the Set Properties on Many Layers dialog, you can change themode of all composite nodes in the selection to either As Bitmap or
Pass Through.

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Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

Editions

To access this dialog, click on the

Set Properties on Many Layers

button in the Node View toolbar.

Effects
FeatureDescription

Editions

A new Motion-Blur effect was added to Harmony. This effect has
four significant enhancements over the legacy Motion-Blur node:ll

New Motion Blur effectll

It can blur animations on the angle and scale of elements,
whereas the legacy Motion-Blur effect only blurredtranslations.
It can be connected to a peg that will dictate the direction of
the blurring effect, if desired. Otherwise, it will use thedirection of its input image, like with the legacy Motion-Blurnode.
It has a Preroll Motion option that allows you to simulate thatthe motion started before the first frame of the scene, making
the motion blur already in effect in the first frame.

Premium only

The motion blur effect continues even after its input element
has exited the camera field.

NOTE
The legacy Motion-Blur node was renamed Motion-Blur-

Legacy.

A new chroma keying effect, the RGB-Difference-Keyer node, wasadded to Harmony. It has the following enhancements over thelegacy Chroma-Keying node:l

New Chroma Keying effectll

It has a lot more parameters, allowing you to customize
properly how to select which pixels in the input image to keyout.
It is able to despill the borders of the output image without
blurring it.
It can be used to apply the keyed matte to another image thatthe image used to generate the matte.

35

Premium onlyToon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

Performance
FeatureDescription

Editions

It is now possible to make Harmony cache the output image ofnodes and composites for the OpenGL preview of the Camera view:llNode & Rig Caching

Each node that outputs an image has a Cached option. Whenenabled on a node, Harmony generates the OpenGL previewof that node once, stores it in a cache, and uses the cachedimage to display in the Camera view.
More importantly, if this option is enabled on a Composite
node, the composite will store each of its input images into
separate caches.

This can significantly improve the performance of Harmony whenworking on heavy scenes with several character rigs. For example, byenabling the Cached parameter on a Composite node to which
several character rigs are connected, the preview image of each ofthese character rigs becomes cached.
Since a character rig that is cached cannot be manipulated, it ispossible to temporarily uncache a cached node or rig simply byclicking on it. Then, if you click on another cached node or rig in thescene, the previously active node or rig becomes cached again, andPremium only

the newly selected node or rig becomes uncached.
To enable cache on a node or composite, open its layer properties
and, in the top-right corner, check the Cached checkbox.
You can also add the Node Caching toolbar to your workspace, withwhich you can enable or disable caching on selected nodes andcontrol how caching is temporarily disabled and re-enabled.
The

OpenGL Node Caching Enabled button in the toolbar below

the Camera view allows you to toggle caching on and off, control
what happens when a cached rig has elements that are too far aparton the z-axis, and adjust the resolution of cached images.

ExportFeatureDescription

Editions

It is now possible to export a movie in MPEG-4 (.mp4) format.
Export as MP4

To export an MP4 movie, select File > Export > Movie from the top
menu. Then, in the Video Format drop-down, select H.264/MPEG-4(*.mp4).

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Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

Editions

NOTE
Movies export in MP4 format from Harmony use the H.264
video codec and have no audio.

On macOS, Harmony now uses the Apple AVFoundation frameworkthat is built into macOS to export movies in QuickTime Movie (.mov)
New QuickTime movie interface
for macOS

format, instead of the QuickTime application.
This allows Harmony to encode video using the H.264, Apple
ProRes 442 and or Apple ProRes 4444 codecs built into
AVFoundation.

All

ImportFeatureDescription

Editions

Import MP4/M4V

It is now possible to import MP4 or M4V movies into your scene. To
import an MP4 or M4V file, select File > Import > Movie from the top

All

menu.

Preferences
FeatureDescription

Editions

The Shortcuts tab of the Preferences dialog is now its own dialog,
the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog.
Keyboard Shortcuts dialog

Create, export, import andswitch between keyboard
shortcuts sets

To access this dialog box, in the top menu, select Edit
(Windows/Linux) or Harmony [Edition] (macOS) > Keyboard
Shortcuts.
It is now possible to create your own keyboard shortcut sets. You
can also export your keyboard shortcut sets as XML files and use
them as backups or share them with project collaborators.
You can create, export and import keyboard shortcut sets using theNew, Load... and Save... buttons at the top of the Keyboard
Shorcuts dialog.

37

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Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

FeatureExport and import preferences

Description

Editions

It is now possible to export your preferences as XML files, and use
them as backups or share them with project collaborators.
You can export and import preferences using the new Load... andSave... buttons at the top of the Preferences dialog.

All

Harmony now comes preloaded with five different sets of default
preferences, which you can quickly switch between in the
Preferences dialog.
Default preference sets

Most of the preferences in these sets are the same, except for key
workflow preferences such as

All

Focus on Mouse Enter, Default Separate Position for Pegs, StopMotion Keyframes, Support Overlay Arts and Underlay Arts,
Advanced Palette List and others. For more information, refer to thePreferences guide.

Default preference overrides

You can use a specific preference set as the default preferences for
Harmony users. To do this, save this preference set as the fileprefs_override.xml in the resources sub-folder of theHarmony installation folder.

All

Description

Editions

Installation
FeatureThe Harmony package for macOS now only contains a single
application.
Single application on macOS

Easy authorization on macOSYou can launch any of the side applications bundled with Harmony,such as License Wizard, Control Center and Configuration
Assistant, by first launching Harmony, then selecting Harmony[Edition] > Harmony Tools from the top menu.
The way Harmony is packaged for macOS no longer triggers theoperating system's security mechanisms. Hence, it is no longer
required to right-click on Harmony, select Open and authorize theapplication as a user with administrative privileges to be able to run
Harmony and its side applications. You will be able to launch
Harmony as soon as it is copied to your Applications folder.

38

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Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

Harmony Server
FeatureDescription

Editions

It is now possible to customize the way Harmony Server locks ascene when it is opened by a user.
By default, when a Harmony Server scene is opened, it is locked sothat no one else can open it. It can also not be opened more thanonce by the same user. The database server daemon, dbserver, now
has a -logical-lock parameter which can be specified to modify
this behavior. The parameter supports the following modes:lScene locking modellindividual: The default behaviour. A scene cannot be
opened more than once, whether by the same or by several
users.

Advanced &Premium

disabled: A single scene can be opened any amount oftimes by any amount of users.
host: A single user can open a scene several times, butothers users cannot open a scene until that user closes thescene.

To learn how to specify command line parameters when launching
the database server, please contact support.

ScriptingFeatureRunning script in batch without
savingGet coordinates of a view

Description

Editions

It is possible to run scripts on Harmony scenes from the commandline by running Harmony with the -batch parameter. However,since scripts are typically used to make changes to a scene, thissaves the scene by default.
When running a script in command line on a Harmony Server scene,
it is possible to make Harmony execute the script without saving thetarget scene. To do this, simply add the -readonly parameter to thecommand.
The viewPosition() method was added to the view class. It
returns a QPoint object containing the position of the top-leftcorner of the specified view, in pixels. The individual coordinates canbe obtained by using the x() and y() methods of the returned
QPoint object.

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Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

Editions

var myView = view.currentView();
var myViewPosition = view.viewPosition(myView);
var myViewX = myViewPosition.x();var myViewY = myViewPosition.y();The setValue(), setValueAt(), getValue() and getValueAt() methods of the Attribute class can now work with Quaternionfunctions:
Getting and setting Quaterniontype attributesllApply selected colour toselected artwork

The "set" methods can can now take Quaternion objects astheir parameterAll

The "get" methods will return a Quaternion object when ran
on a Quaternion function.

The new applyColorSelection() method of the
PaletteManager class will apply the selected colour in the Colour
view to the selected artwork in the Camera or Drawing view.

All

EnhancementslWhen drawing, the preview of the stroke now refreshes four times as fast, making it feel smoother and more
responsive.

l

The way Harmony initializes the DirectSound interface on Windows has been modernized, which may increase thestability and reliability of audio playback as well as prevent issues.

lThe version of the Cisco OpenH264 library used by Harmony was upgraded to 1.8.

l

The Draw Circle and Draw Square options for the

Ellipsis andRectangle tools are now togglable icon

buttons in the Tool Properties view.
l

The Centerline Smoothing slider has been removed from the Tool Properties view for theBrush andErasertool. It is now only available in the Brush Properties and Eraser Properties dialogs.
l

The Apply Parent Modifier's Transformation property of Curve nodes has been renamed Apply Parrent
Transformation.

Fixed Issues
The following issues have been fixed in this release:l

Crash when attempting to view the layer properties of an Element node created when the Preserve Line Thickness
By Default preference is enabled.

lRare crash when using curve or envelope deformations on a drawing with pencil lines.

40

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release NoteslRare crash when undoing a modification with theContour Editor.

l

Crash on certain macOS workstations when moving artwork with theSelect tool while both the Drawing andthe Camera views are visible.
l

Crash on certain macOS workstations when selecting a Drawing node that has the Adjust Pencil Line Thickness
property enabled with thelTransform tool if there is a floating Camera view in

Render View mode.

Crash when generating colour art from artwork that was created while the Pixel Density Proportional to Camera
preference is enabled and the camera zoom is not at 12F.

l

Possible crash when attempting to move the Playback toolbar on macOS.

l

Crash when selecting artwork from multiple art layers and multiple drawing layers at the same time, then copying
and pasting it into a different layer.

l

Crash when selecting Top in the Monitored Attributes list of a Master Controller wizard, then clicking on the
Search button.

l

Crash when manipulating a 3D Rotation widget in a Master Controller node.

l

Crash when attempting to rename a newly created template while the Library view is in Detailed display mode on
Windows in Stand Alone mode.

l

Crash when copying and pasting Master Controller nodes using the copyPaste scripting object.

l

Crash when dragging and dropping a vector or bitmap image from the Library view to a cell in the Xsheet view.

l

Crash when deleting a composite node inside a group if the composite node is connected to multiple input images
going from the Multi-Port-In node and some of its cables are crossed.

lHang when opening theView menu of the Drawing Substitutions view if no layer is selected.

lPerformance of scenes with Pass Through composites is unnecessarily impacted by disconnected drawing nodes
that are not displayed in the Camera view.

lHarmony computes the bounding box of selected elements multiple times when refreshing the Camera view,
impacting performance.

l

The Camera view takes longer to refresh in

Render View mode each time it has to refresh if the scene has

deformations.
l

Output image of composite node does not appear in rendered image if the composite is connected both an elementthat is at a position higher than 0 on the z-axis and a node such as the Line Art, Color Art, Underlay, Overlay, Image
Switch or Layer Selector node and which has no input image.

l

Drawing slowly using a pen tablet on a bitmap layer on macOS results in shaky lines.

l

On Windows, when drawing a very long brush stroke with a pen tablet, then immediately drawing another stroke,
the second stroke starts off with a straight line segment.

lSome Brush tool tips that were packaged with earlier versions of Harmony were not packaged with Harmony
16.0.0 and Harmony 16.0.1.

41

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notesl

When using the

Stamp tool with theDraw Behind tool mode, the different strokes in the stamp's artwork

are laid on the canvas in their reverse order.
l

Random effect of Quake node, Shake node and Lens Flare node renders differently on Windows, macOS and
GNU/Linux.
NOTE
To avoid affecting existing scenes, this fix only applies to Shake, Quake and Lens Flare Nodes created inHarmony 17 or later. To use the new, platform-independent random effect on a node created in anolder version, open its layer properties and set the Version property to 2.

lRendering of 3D models through Maya using Renderman does not work with Renderman 22.0 or later.

l

Attempting to use Unicode characters in a scene or layer name does not work on certain GNU/Linux machines.

l

In Harmony Server, when inserting a template that contains a Master Controller from a different job, the Master
Controller's pose database files do not get copied over.

lElements connected to a Pixelate node are invisible in the OpenGL preview of the Camera view.

lAfter having synced a layer with another layer, then unsyncing it, it is impossible to sync it with a different layer.

lUsing theReposition All Drawings tool in the Drawing view offsets a drawing multiple times if it is exposed

multiple times.
lCopying and pasting text with rich text formatting into any of the script fields of the Layer Properties for a Master
Controller or Script node may result in illegible or scrambled text.

lExporting a QuickTime movie via the scripting interface fails when passing -1 as the horizontal and verticalresolution. Using -1 is supposed to make it use the default preview resolution instead.

lWhen pasting layers using Paste Special, with the Palettes option set to Copy and create new palette files inelement folder, the palette files get copied to their origin folder and renamed.

lEmpty Group layer gets locked and cannot be unlocked when collapsed in the Timeline view.

lMany translation issues across the user interface.

l

The Play application always launches in Stand Alone mode in Japanese.

l

No option to import 3D models in trial mode in Japanese.

lError message when clicking on the

l

The

l

Layer properties of Master Controller or Script node do not have a scroll bar when they exceed the available display

Save Grid Preset button in the Grid Wizard.

Load Grid Preset button of the Grid Wizard opens an Open File dialog, then displays an error message.

space.
l

When using a Master Controller wizard on GNU/Linux, the .tbState extension is not automatically added to thepose databases file generated for the Master Controller.

42

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notes

l

Seams may appear where different colour zones meet when looking at a drawing with the Backlight mode enabled,at certain zoom levels, in the Drawing view.

l

Pencil icon next to modified drawings in Xsheet view is not properly centred on macOS that use a Retina display.

l

Some

Brush tool tips that were packaged with earlier versions of Harmony were not packaged with Harmony

16.
lProgress bar window appears at the top of the screen when movie file on macOS.

l

Up & down buttons right of decimal number input fields appeared only on Windows and GNU/Linux, and only
when using dark style.

l

Cannot select a node by clicking on its debug information, when Debug mode is enabled.

l

Empty item in Undo/Redo list after using the Rename Transformation button of the Deformation toolbar.

lTool tips of Game Skinning toolbar are not translated in other languages.

lButtons to flip a stamp horizontally or vertically in the Tool Properties view appear too small when using a Retina
display on macOS.

l

When customizing certain toolbars such as Master Controller, Deformation, Shift and Trace, Mini Playback, Game
Skinning and Master Controller, clicking on Default will remove all the buttons from the toolbar.

lWhen nudging a deformation point with the keyboard while in

Animate Off mode, the deformation point moves

too far.
l

If the toolbar for a specific view is hidden, it reappears after switching to another view, then back to that view.

lImpossible to select a point with thelSome frames may be corrupted when exporting a Windows Media Video (.wmv) file at 100% quality.

lWhen copying and pasting artwork from multiple art layers, with theContour Editor using a tablet pen.

Apply to Line Art and Colour Art tool

property enabled, all of the artwork ends up only on the current art layer.
lContent of Grid Wizard dialog shifts when selecting or deselecting a grid point on macOS.

l

Exporting layout images in PSDDP4 format results in 8-bit/channel PSD images, whereas they should be 16bit/channel.

lMany preferences are not restored to their default value by the Restore All Defaults button.

lWhen using drawing guides, using the arrow keys to switch between axes also changes the current Stamp tooldrawing.

lUsing the [ and ] keyboard shortcuts to substitute the current drawing does not work in the Timeline view, theNode view or the Library view.

lKeyframe is created when modifying a deformation point with thelImported layers are not properly scaled when importing a multi-layer PSD file as individual layers with thealignment rule set to Project Resolution.

43

Rigging tool.

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notesl

The custom configuration of some toolbars is not preserved after closing Harmony.

lWhen changing the icons for scripts added to the Scripting toolbar, they do not get updated until Harmony isrelaunched.

lHarmony cannot load SDK plugins unless their path is specified in the TOONBOOM_PLUGINPATH environment
variable on GNU/Linux.

lSome synced layers are ignored when using the Pose Copier dialog with a template that has synced layers.

lSome drawings are discarded when importing a template containing synced layers.

lDrawings offset with thelSelected preset for thelChanging the scene's length from the Timeline view while it is fully zoomed-in positions the end-of-scene handle

Shift and Trace tool appear offset when using Mini Playback.
Pencil tool and theEraser tool are swapped each time Harmony is launched.

one frame off the actual end of the scene.
lErrors in the script samples of the Master Controller widgets provided in the scripting documentation.

lBounding box of element selected with theTransform tool is inaccurate if the element is selected while theCamera view is rotated, then the Camera view is reset to its default angle.
lRender Preview node does not update when selecting a frame in the Timeline view if the Enable Interactive
Camera View Cache preference is enabled.

lError messages appear when cancelling any operation while creating a Master Controller using one of the Master
Controller wizards.

lView-specific toolbars are not listed in the context menu when right-clicking on the toolbar area of a view.

lUsing the Lock All or Lock All Others commands lock group layers in the Timeline view.

lOpening the Layer Properties dialog for a locked layer locks all of its children in the Timeline view.

lUsing the Configuration Assistant to add the path to the Harmony executables to the $PATH environment variable
on macOS does not always work.

l

If two Harmony Server scenes with the same name but different environments are open at the same time, theDatabase Lock Manager will always display the locks for both scenes when trying to view the locks for only one of
them.

l

The drawing key object returned by the Drawing.Key() method does not have a layer property if it is createdfrom a synced layer.

l

The -adjustpencil parameter of the utransform does not work.

l

The

l

The Line Art options in the Nodes ViewLayer tab of the Preferences dialog are inverted.

l

Options for thelWrong translation of the word "name" is used in the Welcome dialog in Japanese.

Perspective tool performs excessive smoothing on short vector lines in the selected artwork.

Centerline Editor tool are labeled "Contour Editor Options" in the Tool Properties view.

44

Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.2 Release Notesl

Name of some tool properties may not appear translated when using Harmony in a language other than English.

l

The FixURLHandler.sh shell script packaged with the macOS edition does not work when run from any
directory but its own directory.

l

Scripts designed to duplicate the timing of Xsheet columns for paperless workflows (TB_PL_LOKEY, TB_PL_KEYMC
and TB_PL_MCIB) renumber the drawings incrementally instead of copying their numbers.

l

In the Japanese workflow mode, when using the Create Repeating Cycle dialog in Insert mode, the drawing in theselected cells and all the affected cells will be replaced with the drawing in the first selected cell.

l

In the Japanese workflow mode, in the Create Repeating Cycle dialog, it is possible to set the number of cycles to 0,
which causes unexpected changes in the Xsheet.

lBlank cells are added after the exposure when extending the exposure of a repeat cycle in Japanese workflow
mode.

l

Blank cells are left behind when reducing the exposure of a repeat cycle in Japanese workflow mode.

45