TOON BOOM HARMONY 12.1
- Essentials Edition -Paperless Animation GuideLegal Notices
Toon Boom Animation Inc.
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Montreal, Quebec, Canada
H2W 2R2
Tel: +1 514 278 8666
Fax: +1 514 278 2666
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Disclaimer
The content of this guide is covered by a specific limited warranty and exclusions and limit of liability under theapplicable License Agreement as supplemented by the special terms and conditions for Adobe®Flash® File
Format (SWF). For details, refer to the License Agreement and to those special terms and conditions.
The content of this guide is the property of Toon Boom Animation Inc. and is copyrighted.
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Trademarks
Harmony is a trademark of Toon Boom Animation Inc.
Publication Date
2015-08-07
Copyright © 2015 Toon Boom Animation Inc. All rights reserved.

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Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

Contents
Toon Boom Harmony 12.1- Essentials Edition -Paperless Animation Guide

1

Contents

3

Chapter 1: Paperless Animation - An Introduction

8

Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

11

Preparation

11

Getting References

12

Using the Workspace

12

Sketching the Model

13

Drawing with the Brush or Pencil Tool

13

Override Tool

14

Relative Size

14

Palettes and Colours

17

Sketching the Character

23

Cleaning and Inking the Model

25

Drawing Tasks

27

Current Drawing on Top

28

Drawing with the Pencil Tool

29

Working with Pencil Presets

30

Drawing with the Brush Tool

34

Viewing the Final Lines as You Draw

38

Full Scene Antialiasing

38

Selecting Drawing Objects

40

Erasing Parts of a Drawing

44

Reshaping a Drawing Using the Contour Editor Tool46

Drawing with Shapes

48

Drawing with the Polyline Tool

50

Drawing with Invisible Lines

51

Deforming a Drawing with the Perspective Tool53

Warping a Drawing with the Envelope Tool

54

Cutting Drawing Parts

56

Smoothing Lines

57

Working With Text

58

More Drawing Tools

59

Arrange59

3

Contents

Convert Brush Strokes to Pencil Lines

60

Pencil Lines to Brush Strokes

60

Strokes to Pencil Lines

60

Optimize

61

Grid

62

Group/Ungroup

62

Hand

62

Rotate View

63

Drawing Tool References

63

Pencil Tool Options

64

Vector Brush Tool Options

66

Select Tool Options

70

Eraser Tool Options

76

Contour Editor Options

80

Shape Tool Options

82

Polyline Tool Options

85

Stroke Tool Options

87

Perspective Tool Options

88

Envelope Tool Options

89

Cutter Tool Options

92

Smooth Editor Tool Options

94

Text Tool Options

96

Chapter 3: Colour Styling and Colour Models

101

Preparation

101

Colour Model Storage

102

Scene Creation

102

Colour Model Scene Structure

103

Setting Up the Workspace

103

Working with Palettes

105

Palette Lists

106

Palette File Storage

109

Element Level

110

Scene Level

110

Palette Backup

110

Creating a Colour Palette

1104Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

Duplicating a Colour Palette

114

Cloning a Colour Palette

115

Importing and Linking Palettes

117

Colours122

Adding a Colour Swatch

123

Editing Gradients and Textures

128

Colour Display Modes

129

Copying and Pasting Colours

130

Mixing Colours

131

Painting the Model

133

Chapter 4: Timing

137

Preparation

137

Frames138

Creating Drawings

139

Layer Concepts

140

Layer Types

141

Adding New Drawing Elements

143

Deleting Columns

143

Layer Properties

144

Modifying Layers

145

Duplicating Layers

146

Cloning Layers

146

Filling Exposure146

Typing Exposure

147

Extending a Single Exposure

147

Extending the Exposure of Previous Drawings

149

Dragging Cells

150

Increasing and Decreasing Exposure

151

Deleting Exposure

152

Inserting Blank Cells

152

Setting the Exposure

153

Filling a Selection with a Single Exposure

153

Filling a Selection with a Sequence

154

Filling Empty Cells

155

Creating Cycles

1555

Contents

Managing Key Exposures

156

Adding Key Exposures

156

Removing Key Exposures

158

Removing Duplicate Key Exposures

158

Navigating between Frames

159

Managing Drawings

159

Renaming a Drawing

159

Deleting a Drawing

160

Duplicating a Drawing

160

Copying and Pasting Drawings

161

Merging Drawings

163

Modifying the Layer Display

163

Showing or Hiding Layers

163

Changing the Colour of a Layer

164

Chapter 5: Paperless Animation

167

Preparation

167

Setting Up Your Workspace

168

Setting the Scene Resolution and Length

168

Importing the Layout, Storyboard and Animatic

169

Importing the Animatic

170

Importing the Background Elements

171

Creating the Drawing Elements

171

Creating the Drawings

172

Rough Animation

175

Secondary Animation

179

Bringing Your Animation on Model

182

Animation Clean-up

182

Tools

184

Onion Skin

185

Light Table

186

Rotate View Tool

187

Create Empty Drawing

188

Reposition All Drawings

189

Chapter 6: Ink and Paint

195

Preparation

196

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Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

Painting

199

Painting Using the Paint Tool

199

Selecting a Colour in a Drawing

200

Editing Gradients and Textures

201

Inverting a Colour Selection

202

Inking the Lines

202

Repaint Brush Mode

202

Verifying the Zones are Painted

203

Paint Tool Properties

205

Lasso and Marquee

205

Painting Modes

205

Paint Mode

206

Paint Unpainted Mode

206

Unpaint Mode

206

Apply to Multiple Drawings

207

Select Newly Paintedand Unpainted Contours/Lines

207

Close Gap

207

Glossary

208

Index

218

7

Chapter 1: Paperless Animation - An Introduction

Chapter 1: Paperless Animation - An Introduction
Harmony is a high-performance animation software which not only offers a wide range of features, but also
handles more than one animation type and workflow. In this guide, you will learn how to perform tasks related
to the cut-out animation workflow from start to finish using Harmony.
Before reading this guide, be sure to take some time to familiarize yourself with the basic concepts in theFundamentals Guide. Each chapter is self-contained. so you can concentrate only on the chapter pertaining to
your task. You do not need to read the entire guide, but you should read the whole chapter before starting towork.

Topics in this section:•

Design and Drawing Tools•

Colour Styling and Colour Models on page 101•

Timing on page 137

8Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide•

Paperless Animation on page 167•

Ink and Paint on page 195

9Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

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Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

Another important step in the project creation is the character, prop and location design. This determines thestyle and models to follow for the entire project.
This is also the step where you will need to use most of Harmony's drawing tools.
The design can be created on paper and scanned in or it can be created digitally. You can draw and even create
the colours entirely on paper, while others like to design on paper and scan the drawings to create the colour
model in a software program. The most popular method is to design directly in Harmony.
To save paper and time and avoid having to recreate colour palettes, Harmony gives you the ability to design allelements directly in the application. This keeps all your work within the same software, avoids using a lot of paper
and losing time scanning in elements and importing them.
The character and prop design process is divided in three steps:•

Preparation on page 11•

Sketching the Model on page 13•

Cleaning and Inking the Model on page 25

Harmony has an extensive set of drawing tools that can be used to design your characters. You can learn more
about this in the following topic:•

Drawing Tasks on page 27

Each drawing tool has a series of options to customize its behaviour and drawing style. You can learn more about
them in the following section:•

Drawing Tool References on page 63

Preparation
To prepare for the design task, you will need to go through a few steps:•

Getting References on page 12•

Using the Workspace on page 12

11

Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

Getting References

Creating models requires two main reference sources, the script and the storyboard. Once you have the scriptin hand, you can learn about the characters and their personalities, the props, the ambiances, and so on. This
will be your main reference, so it is very important to read it carefully.
The storyboard is the second reference source and it can be quite useful as well. Although it will not yet be thefinal version of the storyboard, it will show you what the character is doing and what props need to be
designed.

Using the WorkspaceOnce your scene is created, you can open it and set your workspace.
To sketch the characters, props or locations directly in Harmony, you will mostly use the Camera or Drawing
views along with the Colour, Timeline and Tool Properties views.

12Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

Sketching the Model

Now that your references and scene are created, you can start designing. To draw your characters, props and key
locations, you will need to learn the following:

Drawing with the Brush or Pencil Tool

The Brush
tool takes account of pressure sensitivity, allowing you to create lines with variable thicknesses
when using a pen tablet, creating a contour vector shape. You can set different parameters, such as the size andsmoothness of the Brush tool in the Tool Properties view. If you draw with the Brush tool and want to modify the
thickness variation, use the Contour Editor
tool.
The Pencil, Polyline and Shape tools let you create a central vector line of uniform thickness. Pressure
sensitivity is not supported with pencil lines. You can set different parameters, such as the size and smoothness of
the Pencil tool in the Tool Properties view.

13Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

Override Tool
The Override tool lets you increase productivity by rapidly switching between tools used for short tasks andyour previous tool. Most drawing tool shortcuts are accessed using the Alt key followed by another key, suchas the Eraser tool which is accessed by pressing Alt + E.
If you are drawing with the Brush tool and need to briefly switch to the Eraser before continuing, hold down
the E key while you are erasing. Once you are done, release the E key to return to the previous tool; in thiscase, the Brush tool. You can do the same for most drawing tools that have a shortcut composed of Alt
followed by another key.

Relative Size

The size relation between the props, characters and backgrounds is very important in maintaining consistency
and structure throughout the project.
A production can contain many characters and props. It is not unusual for these to be created by different
people. If there is no size control implemented, the characters and elements created by different artists canvary greatly. When this occurs, the characters that are placed together in a scene will be out of proportion. The
animator or person doing the scene setup will then have to scale them to the correct size.

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Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

When a character or prop is scaled down, the outline will become increasingly thinner. By the time the element isscaled to its proper size, the outline may be so thin that a difference between one character's outline and the one
beside it will not look very good.
Here are a few tips you can use to create a suitable size relation.
Line UpA line up consists of copying and pasting all your character designs into the same drawing and then scaling themto the correct proportion in relation to the other characters. This line up is very important and should be handed
to any animator, layout and posing artist or scene setup person working on the project.
For the prop design, it is recommended that you paste one of the main character's hands or even the full bodybeside the prop. This enables the animator to know what size to draw the prop.
In your character design scene, it is a good idea to create a column for the character line up.The line up is usually
done during the character design step. When the character builder imports the model to the breakdown scene,
the size relation should be correct.
Field Chart

15

Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

Harmony includes a field chart in its Drawing and Camera views. This tool is very useful in setting thecharacters' and props' heights.
It is recommended that you keep the character design and breakdown inside the 12 field size. This ensures that
it fits the default camera size and the template thumbnails. If some parts were drawn too big or too far apart,you can use the Reposition All Drawings tool and reposition, scale or rotate multiple drawings from different
layers all at once.
Use the Show Grid option to display a grid in the Drawing or Camera views.
Name

ButtonDescription

Keyboard Shortcut
View > Grid > Show Grid

Show Grid
Displays the grid.

Press Ctrl + ' (Windows/Linux) or⌘ + ' (Mac OS X).

Grid Outline Only

Displays the outline of the grid only.

View > Grid > Grid Outline Only

SquareDisplays a standard square grid.

View > Grid > Square

12 Field Grid

Displays a 12-field size grid.

View > Grid > 12 Field Grid

16 Field Grid

Displays a 16-field size grid.

View > Grid > 16 Field Grid

Underlay

Displays the grid under the drawing
elements.

View > Grid > Underlay

Overlay

Displays the grid over the drawing
elements.

View > Grid > Overlay

How to reposition all drawings
1. In the Tools toolbar from the Select drop-down menu, select the Reposition All Drawings
also automatically selects every stroke in your drawing in the Drawing and Camera views.
2. To deform or reposition a selection:‣

To reposition, click and drag your selection to a new area.

16

tool. This

Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide‣

To scale, pull or push on the top, side, bottom or corner control points. Hold down Shift to lock theselection’s ratio.

3. When you release your cursor, every drawing contained in the drawing layer you repositioned, scaled,rotated or skewed will follow the same transformation.
Brush Size
Harmony provides a variety of pens and brushes and also allows you to create and save your own throughcreating a tool preset.
It is a good idea to create and save pens with precise sizes and parameters to trace and design your models andbreakdowns.

Palettes and Colours
Harmony has an integrated palette system. Each character, prop or background can have its own set of colours
and each colour in the palette can be associated to colour fill zones on a drawing. You can create as many
palettes and colours as you need.

17Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

Each scene created in Harmony includes a default colour palette which contains a standard set of colours for
sketching and painting.

You can sketch and design using the default palette without any problem. However, it is not recommended
that you use the default palette for the colour models. A different colour palette should be created for eachcolour model.
To sketch and design with a different colour swatch or create a palette for each character, prop or key
location, you will need to learn how to manage the Harmony palettes.
How to create a new palette (Basic Palette Lists mode)
1. From the Colour View menu, select Palettes > New or click the New Palette
The Create Palette window opens.
2. Enter the palette name according to the model.

18

button.

Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

3. Click OK.
The palette appears in the drawing element’s palette list.

How to create a palette from the Advanced Palette Lists mode
1. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select the drawing that requires a palette.
2. In the Colour view, click the Show Palette List View button to display the palette list.

3. Do one of the following:‣

From the Colour view menu, select Palettes > New.

‣

Click the Create Palettebutton.

The Palette Browser: Create Palette dialog box opens.

4. Select the level to store the palette file.
‣

Environment: The palette-library folder is stored in the scene's parent environment folder.

‣

Job: The palette-library folder is stored in the scene's parent job folder.

‣

Scene: The palette-library folder is stored directly in the scene folder.

‣

Element: The palette-library folder is stored directly in the drawing element folder.

19

Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

When you select a level that has a palette stored in it, the palette names are displayed in the Palettefield.
5. Name the palette. There is no need to add the suffix "palette" to the name as it is always recognized asa palette file.

6. Select a Palette List option.

‣

The Scene Palette List is mainly used with cut-out animation. A cut-out character will often be divided
in twenty to thirty different drawing elements that use the character's master palette.
The palette list is stored at the scene level instead of the Element directory. This way, all palettes
linked to this list will appear in every drawing element created in the scene. There is no need tomanually load the palette in each element.

‣

The Element Palette List is mainly used with traditional and paperless animation. Unlike cut-out
animation, all columns (drawing elements) contain different characters, props, backgrounds andeffects. The Element Palette List is used because you do not necessarily want all of the palettes forall of your elements linked in every column.
The palette list is stored in the drawing element's directory instead of directly in the Scene level. This
ensures that the links to the palettes appear only in the appropriate element. If you prefer to accessa global palette list, link your palettes to the Scene Palette List.

7. Click OK.
The new palette appears in the palette list.
How to add or modify a solid colour swatch
1. In the Colour view, click the Add Colour

button.

2. From the Colour View menu, select Colours > Edit or double-click on the colour swatch.
The Colour Picker window opens.

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Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

3. To set your colour, do one of the following:‣

In the colour wheel, select a colour.

‣

Enter the HSV or RGB values in the corresponding fields. Select the R,G,B,H,S or V options to change
the look of the colour picking area.

‣

Hold down the Dropper
button as you move along the desktop to preview colours, then release to
select the colour. It can be from the Toon Boom Harmony interface, your operating system or any otheropen application.

NOTE: If the Sticky Eye Dropper option in the Preferences dialog box (Drawing tab > Options section) is selected, thedropper will not have this behaviour.

21Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

You can also click Multi Wheel Mode to open the Multiwheel Colour dialog box. This displays all the
picking area styles together and also contains a picking undo list. To return to the regular Colour Picker
window, click Single Wheel Mode.

4. Click on the Shade Scale swatches to modify the shade of the selected colour.

5. Adjust the desired level of transparency with the Alpha slider, or type the value directly in the Alpha
field.

6. Click the Add button to add the current selected colour to the Colour Storage Library, so you canquickly access it later.

7. You can rename the colour swatch in the Colour Picker window or directly in the colour list by doubleclicking on its name.

22Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

Sketching the Character

You are now ready to sketch your models. There are two tasks to perform in order to draw your characters:l

Add a drawing layerlSketch the model

You have the choice to sketch your model as a bitmap or vector drawing. If you like the feel of drawing withbitmap lines, you can set your layer as bitmap. If you like drawing with vectors, you can set your layer as vector. If
you use vector, you will be able to enlarge your drawing and zoom into it without losing quality or resolution. You
can also use the Contour Editor and Select tools to resize and modify lines. If you draw with bitmap, you will not
be able to scale the drawing beyond 100% of its resolution without encountering pixelization issues.
How to add a drawing layer
1. In the Timeline view, click the Add Drawing Layer(Mac OS X).

button or press Ctrl + R (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + R

The Add Drawing Layer window opens.

2. In the Name field, name your new layer.
3. Do one of the following:‣

Click Add to add a first layer and keep the window open to add more layers.

‣

Click Add and Close to add a new layer and close the window.

23

Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

A new drawing layer is added to the Timeline view.
How to sketch a model
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Brush

tool or press Alt + B.

2. In the Tool Properties view, select a brush preset and adjust its parameters.

3. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, click in the first cell of the drawing layer.
4. In the Drawing or Camera view, enable the Grid (Field Chart). You can press Ctrl + ' (Windows/Linux) or⌘ + ' (Mac OS X).
‣

Make sure the Drawing or Camera view is the active view while using the keyboard shortcut.

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

6. To select a different colour, in the Colour view, select a different colour swatch. Double-click on the colour swatch to open the Colour Picker window and modify the colour. Remember that anything alreadypainted with that colour swatch will update to the new colour.

24Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

7. In the Camera or Drawing view, use the Rotary Table(Windows/Linux) or Ctrl+⌘ (Mac OS X).
‣

to rotate your workspace.You can press Ctrl+Alt

The default keyboard shortcut to reset the workspace rotation is Shift + X.

8. If you decide to draw in the next cell and need to see your previous drawing, enable the Onion Skin bypressing Alt + O.

Cleaning and Inking the Model

When your rough models are ready, it is time to clean and ink them. You can still use the default palette andcolours to do so, especially if you are not the one doing the colour styling. If you have already created a palette
for your model, you can add new colours for tracing.

25

Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

If you want to keep your roughs and sketches, add a new drawing layer and trace in it using the Light Table.
This is the equivalent of adding a sheet of paper and tracing over the rough using the animation disk lighttable. You only need to disable the rough layer to prevent it from appearing in the final scene render.
How to trace your character in a new layer
1. In the Timeline view, add a new drawing layer and name it: clean.
2. If you work in the Drawing view, enable the Light Tableor press Shift + L.

3. Do one of the following:‣

In the Tools toolbar, select a drawing tool.

‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Drawing Tools > desired tool.

4. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select the cell in which you want to draw.
5. Trace the model.

6. To make perfect points and corners, you can intersect the two strokes to create a point. Using the Cutter
tool, you can automatically trim the excess portion. In the Tool Properties view, enable theLassoselection type. Make sure the Use Mouse Gesturebutton is enabled. In this mode, you
can automatically delete any extra sections of line in your artwork by simply clicking, holding and dragging your mouse over it. The intersection will not work well with the Pencil tool. It is recommended touse the Brush tool.

26

Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

Drawing Tasks
Harmony has a wide variety of drawing tools for all kinds of drawing tasks. This section covers how to use thesetools. For the complete details on their options in the Tool Properties view, see Drawing Tool References on
page 63.
In this topic, you will learn about:•

Current Drawing on Top on page 28•

Drawing with the Pencil Tool on page 29•

Drawing with the Brush Tool on page 34•

Viewing the Final Lines as You Draw on page 38•

Selecting Drawing Objects on page 40•

Erasing Parts of a Drawing on page 44•

Reshaping a Drawing Using the Contour Editor Tool on page 46•

Drawing with Shapes on page 48•

Drawing with the Polyline Tool on page 50•

Drawing with Invisible Lines on page 51•

Deforming a Drawing with the Perspective Tool on page 53•

Warping a Drawing with the Envelope Tool on page 54•

Cutting Drawing Parts on page 56•

Smoothing Lines on page 57•

Working With Text on page 58

27

Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools•

More Drawing Tools on page 59

Current Drawing on Top
In Harmony, when you draw on a layer, the artwork is displayed in the correct order. For example, if the layer
on which you are drawing is located behind an object on another layer, the lines you are drawing will be hidden
behind that object.

This lets you display the selected drawing on top of everything while you draw. By enabling this option, eachtime you select a drawing tool, the selected drawing is displayed in front of everything in the Camera view. The
Timeline view ordering remain unchanged.
The Current Drawing on Top status (enabled or disabled) is remembered when you exit Harmony. When you
restart the application, the last status will be used.
You only need to enable this option once, it is not necessary to do it each time you select a drawing tool.
How to display the drawing on top
1. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select View > Show > Current Drawing on Top.

‣In the Camera bottom toolbar, click the Current Drawing on Top

2. In the Tools toolbar, select a drawing tool.
3. In the Camera view, start drawing.

28

button.

Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

Drawing with the Pencil Tool

The Pencil tool is for drawing the final images, such as character nodes, cut-out puppet and clean animation. The
pencil creates a central vector shape.
How to draw with the Pencil tool
1. In the Timeline view, select the cell on which you want to draw.
2. In the Tools toolbar, select the Pencil

tool or press Alt + /.

3. In the Colour view, click a colour swatch to select a colour.

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

When you get close to an existing pencil line, hold Alt to draw and connect your stroke to the existingone. Pencil lines are central vector lines and you might think your line is connected, but in fact, only thecontour is touching the other one. Also, make sure the central vector crosses the other one.
To connect the start or end of your stroke, hold Alt when you start or finish drawing a line.

‣

To draw a straight line, press Shift + Alt as you draw.

29

Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

Working with Pencil Presets

A pencil preset is a pencil with specific properties.

Regular pencil presets allow you to set the size and smoothing of a pencil line, or the size of a shape.
How to select a pencil preset
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Pencil, Line, Ellipse, or Rectangle

2. In the Tool Properties view, use the Presets menu to select a pencil preset.

3. In the Drawing or Camera view, draw your pencil line or shape.

30

tool.

Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

How to create a pencil preset
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Pencil, Line, Ellipse, or Rectangle

tool.

2. In the Tool Properties view, adjust your pencil settings.
3. In the Tool Properties view, click the New Brushbutton.

The New Preset dialog box opens.

4. Type in a name for your new pencil thickness stencil and click OK.
5. Start drawing in the Drawing or Camera view.
How to rename a pencil preset
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Pencil, Line, Ellipse, or Rectangle

2. In the Presets menu, select the preset you want to rename.
3. From the Brush menu

, select Rename Brush.

The Rename Preset dialog box opens.

4. In the Name field, type in the new name.
5. Click OK.
How to delete a thickness stencil or pencil preset
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Pencil

tool.

2. In the Presets menu, select the thickness stencil or preset to delete.

31

tool.

Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

3. Click the Delete Preset

button.

How to import pencils, brushes and erasers
1. From the Brush menu

, select Import Brushes.

2. In the browser window that appears, navigate to and select the .xml file.
3. Click Open.
4. In the Import Brushes dialog box, select the brushes brushes and erasers you want to import. You canalso import pencils at the same time.

5. Click Import.
The imported brush, eraser and pencil styles will appear in the presets library. You can reuse any of theimported tips to create other brush, eraser and pencil style presets.
How to export pencils, brushes and erasers
1. From the Brush menu, select Export.
2. In the Export Brushes dialog box, select the vector brushes and erasers to export, as well as any pencils.

32Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

3. Click Export.
4. In the Export Brushes window that appears, browse to the location where you want to save the .xml fileand give it a name.
5. Click Save.
How to change the Presets Library thumbnail display
1. From the Brush menu, select one of the following:
Parameter

Description

Small Thumbnail

Reduces the size of the thumbnails in order to view more at the same time. Displays an image of the tool's tip and its maximum size.

Large Thumbnail

Increases the size of the thumbnails in order to see the images more clearly. Displays an image of the tool's tip, its maximum size and its name.

Stroke View

Displays the tool's name, maximum size and stroke preview.

33Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

Drawing with the Brush Tool

The Brush tool is pressure sensitive and lets you create a contour shape with a thick and thin line effect, as if it
was created with a paint brush.
With the Brush tool, you can draw as vector or bitmap, depending on your preference. When you add adrawing layer, you can simply select the vector or bitmap option. If you draw with vector, you can enlarge yourdrawing and zoom into it without losing quality or resolution. You can also use the Contour Editor and Selecttools to resize and modify lines. If you draw with bitmap, you will not be able to scale your drawing beyond
100% of its resolution without encountering pixelization issues.
You can create your own brush styles. A variety of brush styles are provided allowing you to create and saveyour own.This way you can create brushes with precise sizes and parameters and save them so you can draw
and design with them. Renaming a brush can make it easier to identify and access the brushes you use mostfrequently.
A dynamic brush can be created for drawing using patterns created from your artwork. Create a new dynamic
brush to copy a pattern you have drawn to reproduce it quickly. You can create dynamic brushes using a single
or multiple patterns that automatically switch through the patterns as you draw.
How to draw with the Brush tool
1. In the Timeline view, click the Add Drawing Layer
R (Mac OS X).
The Add Drawing Layer window opens.

34

button or press Ctrl + R (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ +Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

2. In the Name field, name your new layer.
3. Do one of the following:‣

Click Add to add a first layer and keep the window open to add more layers.

‣

Click Add and Close to add a new layer and close the window.

A new drawing layer is added to the Timeline view.
4. In the Timeline view, select the cell on which you want to draw.
5. In the Tools toolbar, select the Brush

tool or press Alt + B.

6. In the Colour view, click a colour swatch to select a colour.

7. In the Drawing or Camera view, start drawing.
‣

Hold Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ (Mac OS X) to force a line to join the start and end of the shape while
drawing.

How to select a brush style
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Brush

tool or press Alt + B.

2. In the Tool Properties view, select a brush style from the Presets section.

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Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

How to modify the brush settings
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Brush

tool or press Alt + B.

2. In the Tool Properties view, the preview area displays the stroke that will be produced after you customize the different parameters. Click the arrow button.

The Brush Properties window opens.

36Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

This is where you set the minimum and maximum sizes of your drawing tool which will produce the thick and thineffect on your stroke. This works with the pressure sensitivity of a pen tablet.
Parameter

Description

Size and Smoothness
Maximum Size

Sets the maximum width of the line.

Minimum Size

Sets the minimum width of the line in relation to the maximum size.

Smoothness

Lets you modify the central line smoothness of the line. This parameter smooths
the initial movement of your line. Increasing the value will result in a smootherline with fewer control points.

Contour Smoothness

Optimizes the contour line smoothness of the line. This parameter smooths thecontour of the line once it has been traced. The higher the value, the fewer control points will compose your line.
Lets you select a tip shape—from round and square ones to star shaped. This
option is disabled when using a textured brush.

Tip Shape

How to create a brush preset
1. Make sure your current brush has the settings you want in the preset you will create.
2. In the Tool Properties view, do one of the following:‣

Click the arrow button to display the Brush Properties window and click the New Brushthe upper-right corner.

‣

Click the New Brush‣

From the Brushbutton in

button.
menu, select New Brush Preset.

3. In the New Preset window, type a name for your new brush preset.
The new brush is added to the end of the list of brush presets.
How to update a brush preset
1. Select the brush preset to update and click the arrow button to display the Brush Properties window.

37

Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

2. Change the brush settings and click the Update Brush Preset

button in the upper-right corner.

How to rename a brush
1. In the Tool Properties view, select a brush to rename.
2. From the Brushmenu, select Rename Brush.

3. Type in a new name for the brush and click OK.
How to delete a brush preset
1. In the Tool Properties view, select the brush preset you want to delete.
2. Do one of the following:‣

Click the Delete Brush‣

From the Brushbutton.

menu , select Delete Brush.

Viewing the Final Lines as You Draw

Everything you draw in Harmony is vector-based, unless you purposely elected to draw as bitmap. Although,when you draw in the Drawing or Camera view, notice that your lines may appear jagged. This is caused by thefast real-time display called OpenGL. If you prefer to see smooth lines as you draw, you can enable theantialiasing preference.

Full Scene Antialiasing
Full scene antialiasing is generated by your computer’s graphics card. This antialiasing will not only antialias
your drawings, but all your different views in the interface. Full scene antialiasing is an option you can turn on
and off; by default, it is disabled.
There is no need to modify your graphic card settings.

38

Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

NOTE: Full Scene Antialiasing parameters are only valid while you work in your scene. The scene will be rendered to100% of its resolution regardless of your preference settings or graphic card panel.

How to customize the full scene antialiasing parameters

NOTE: You must restart Harmony after you change the parameters.

1. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Edit > Preferences (Windows/Linux) or Stage Essentials > Preferences(Mac OS X).

‣

Press Ctrl + U (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + U (Mac OS X).

The Preferences dialog box opens.
2. In the OpenGL tab, go to the Full Scene Antialiasing section.

‣

Enable: Select this option to enable/disable the Full Scene Antialiasing.

3. Number or samples: Enter the number of samples you want to be used for the antialiasing process. The
number of samples is basically equivalent to the amount of times a pixel will be enlarged to calculate theantialiasing. This technique is called supersampling. The higher the number of samples, the better the antialiasing quality will be, but the longer it will take to calculate.
4. Restart Harmony.

39

Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

Selecting Drawing Objects

The Select tool is used to select strokes in both the Drawing and Camera views, and apply basic
transformations, such as repositioning, rotating, scaling or skewing using the different handles of thebounding box.
Sometimes, when you want to select multiple objects while leaving one unselected, it can be handy to select
only the stroke or line that you do not want included in your selection. Then, you can invert the selection so thateverything else becomes selected. This can be quite a time saver.
By default, when you draw a selection box, the Select tool will select only the drawing strokes of the current
drawing. If you prefer the Select tool to select all the strokes on all layers, you can disable the Works on Single
Drawing option in the Tool Properties view or the Select Tool Works on Single Drawing option in the
Preferences dialog box.
Some of the transformations, such as rotation, scale, skew, and flip are done relative to the position of thepivot point. You can temporarily reposition this pivot point for a transformation using the Select tool.
How to select with the Select tool
1. In the Timeline view, select the cell on which you want to select drawing objects.
2. In the Tools toolbar, select the Selecttool or press Alt + S.

3. In the Camera view, select the drawing objects.
‣

You can select all the drawing objects in a drawing by using Edit > Select All or by pressing Ctrl + A(Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + A (Mac OS X).

4. To deform or reposition a selection:‣

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

40Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide‣

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

‣

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

‣

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

41

Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

How to invert a selection
1. From the top menu, select Edit > Invert Selection or press Ctrl + Shift + I.
How to enable and disable the Select Tool Works on Single Drawing preference
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Selecttool or press Alt + S.

2. Do one of the followings:‣

From the top menu, select Edit > Preferences (Windows/Linux) or Stage Essentials > Preferences(Mac OS X). In the Camera tab, go to the Tools section and select or deselect the Select Tool Workson Single Drawing option and click OK.

‣

In the Tool Properties view, disable the Works on Single Drawing

option.

3. In the Camera view, make your selection. It is possible that you will have to restart Harmony dependingon your system.

How to temporarily reposition the pivot point
1. In the Camera or Drawing view, select the drawing object you want to transform.
The pivot point appears in the middle of your selection.

42

Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

2. Click the pivot point and drag it to a new position.
This becomes the new position of the pivot point for the current transformation and will remain there until
you make a new selection.

43

Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

Erasing Parts of a Drawing

The Eraser tool is pressure sensitive, like the Brush tool, giving you more precision when erasing parts of adrawing. You can also use the Select tool to select drawing objects and delete them instead of erasing.
It is a good idea to create and save erasers with precise sizes and parameters in order to save time whendrawing and designing. There are two icons located at the top, right corner of the Eraser Properties window.
One is to create a new preset, while the other is to update the currently selected preset. Use them after you
have set all the parameters for the new eraser preset.

‣

New Brush Preset: Click on this button to create a new eraser brush style. The new eraser style willappear at the bottom of the list in the Presets section of the Tool Properties window. All the values
and selected options in the Eraser Properties window will be attributed to this new style.

‣

Update Preset: Click on this button to update the selected eraser preset with any changes made in
the Eraser Properties window. If you make changes and do not click on the Update Preset button,then all the changes made will only be applied to the selected eraser preset temporarily. The
moment you switch to another eraser preset or to another drawing tool, these modifications to theeraser preset will disappear.

How to erase with the Eraser tool
1. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select the cell that contains objects you want to erase.
2. In the Tools toolbar, select the Eraser

tool or press Alt + E.

3. In the Camera or Drawing view, start erasing.

44Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

How to modify the eraser settings
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Eraser

tool .

2. In the Tool Properties view, the preview area displays the stroke that will be produced after you customize
the different parameters in the Eraser Properties view. Click the arrow button.

The Eraser Properties window opens.

The Size and Smoothness tab is where you set the minimum and maximum sizes of your drawing tool which willproduce the thick and thin effect on your stroke.
The Soft Eraser tab needs to be enable for its parameters to become active. This feature only works on soft or
textured brush strokes. Both tabs works with the pressure sensitivity of a pen tablet.
Parameter

Description

Size and Smoothness
Maximum Size

Sets the maximum width of the line.

Minimum Size

Sets the minimum width of the line in relation to the maximum size.

Smoothness

Lets you modify the central line smoothness of the line. This parameter smooths
the initial movement of your line. Increasing the value will result in a smootherline with fewer control points.

Contour Smoothness

Optimizes the contour line smoothness of the line. This parameter smooths thecontour of the line once it has been traced. The higher the value, the fewer con-45

Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

trol points will compose your line.

Tip Shape

Lets you select a tip shape—from round and square ones to star shaped. This
option is disabled when using a textured brush.

Reshaping a Drawing Using the Contour Editor Tool

The Contour Editor tool is a powerful tool that allows you to add, remove or modify points on a vector line andcontrol them with Bezier handles. It is used to correct line shapes and modify a single part of a colour zone. If aline is too thin or has a gap in it, you can modify and correct it with the Contour Editor tool. You can also use
this tool to create elaborate shapes.
The Contour Editor displays vector points around a shape and the central vector points in a pencil line. Pullingor pushing on these points adjusts the brush’s line thickness. Points can be selected and deleted. Each point
has two Bezier handles for correcting the curves between two points. Shapes can be modified by pulling andpushing directly on the segment between the points. You can use it to perfect a central shape pencil line, acontour shape brush line, or even create an elaborate shape from a basic ellipse or square.
How to reshape with the Contour Editor tool
1. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select the cell in which you want to draw.
1. In the Tools toolbar, select a shape tool:.

2. In the Tool Properties view, click the Ellipse
size to 0.
3. In the Drawing or Camera view, draw a circle.

46

button, click the Auto Fillbutton and set the pencil

Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

4. In the Tools toolbar, select the Contour Editor

tool.

5. In the Drawing or Camera view, click the line to reshape it.

6. Select one or several points by clicking on them or circling around.

7. Press Delete to delete a selected point.
Press Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ (Mac OS X)and click on the contour to add a new point to adjust thecontour.
8. To modify the shape, you can:‣Pull on the Bezier handle. Both point’s handles will move as one.

‣

Hold down Alt and pull on one of the Bezier handles. The point’s handle will move independently fromthe other one.

47

Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools‣

Move the selected points to a new area.

‣

Pull directly on the line between two points. No selection is necessary. Holding down Shift will limit
the contour modification to the curve between the two first points.

‣

If an anchor point has no visible Bezier handles, hold down the Alt key to display them.

‣

To add control points, press Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ (Mac OS X) and click the line.

‣

To remove control points, select the control point and press Delete.

Drawing with Shapes

In Harmony, you can use the shape tools to draw circles, lines and squares. You can also easily reshape asquare or circle into a much more complex drawing such as these butterfly wings—see Reshaping a Drawing
Using the Contour Editor Tool on page 46 .

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Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

How to draw with a Shape tool
1. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select the cell on which you want to draw.
2. In the Tools toolbar, select a shape tool:.

3. To automatically fill the shape, in the Tool Properties view, select the Auto Fill
4. In the Camera view, click and drag to draw the shape.

‣

Hold down Shift to lock the rectangle or the ellipse ratio to 1:1.

‣

Hold down Alt to draw the rectangle or ellipse from its centre.

‣

Hold down Shift to snap the line every 15 degrees.

‣

Hold down Alt to snap the start or end of the line to a nearby stroke.

5. Use the Contour Editor

tool to deform the shape and create your drawing.

49

option.

Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

Drawing with the Polyline Tool

The Polyline tool is used to draw shapes with a central vector type of line. To form a shape, you click to add apoint and then, without releasing the mouse, pull the handle in the desired direction before adding the next
point and repeat the operation. To edit the shape, you can use the Contour Editor tool.
How to draw with the Polyline tool
1. In the Timeline view, select the cell on which you want to draw.
2. In the Tools toolbar, select the Polyline

tool or press Alt + _.

3. In the Camera or Drawing view, click and drag to create a point and a Bezier handle to shape your line.
‣

Press Alt to pull only one handle, instead of two.

‣Press Shift to snap the handles to 45, 90, or 180 degrees.

4. Click a new area and drag to create a second point and Bezier handle.

5. Repeat the previous step until your shape is completed.
6. Press Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ (Mac OS X) and click to release the Polyline tool from the current pathor shape that it is creating. Continue to use the tool to make multiple, independent paths or shapes.
7. If necessary, reshape the lines using the Contour Editor
Contour Editor Tool on page 46.

50

tool—see Reshaping a Drawing Using theHarmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

Drawing with Invisible Lines

There are two different ways to draw invisible lines.
Using the Pencil tool, you can draw as strokes only, meaning that the line will be invisible. This can be useful for
drawing tones and highlights directly on the character.
The Stroke tool draws invisible lines only. You cannot add thickness to the line. Unlike the Close Gap tool thatcreates a short, straight line between two points, the stroke line will stay exactly where you draw it. This tool canbe useful for closing a zone in a particular way or creating some hard shadows or highlight areas.

Sometimes, it may be difficult to see your strokes, especially if your colours are similar to the blue stroke colour.
In Harmony, you can display the strokes in washed-out colours so that the invisible lines stand out.
How to draw invisible lines with the Pencil tool
1. In the Timeline view, select the cell on which you want to draw.
2. In the Tools toolbar, select the Pencil

tool or press Alt + /.

3. From the top menu, select View > Drawing > Show Strokes

or press K.

4. In the Tool Properties view, set the Pen Style size to 0. You can also adjust the smoothness.

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Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

5. In the Camera or Drawing view, start drawing.
If you forgot to enable the Show Strokes option before drawing, as soon as you draw a first stroke, aMessage dialog box opens.

Select the Don’t Show This Message Again option if you do not want the dialog box to notify you
about the Show Strokes option.
6. Click OK.
7. You can modify the stroke shape with the Contour Editor

tool.

How to draw invisible lines with the Stroke tool
1. In the Timeline view, select the cell on which you want to draw.
2. In the Tools toolbar from the Paint drop-down menu, select the Stroke
3. From the top menu, select View > Show Drawing > Show Strokes

tool or press Alt + V.
or press K.

4. In the Tool Properties view, you can adjust the smoothness.
5. In the Camera or Drawing view, start drawing.
If you forgot to enable the Show Strokes option before drawing, as soon as you draw a first stroke, aMessage dialog box opens.

Select the Don’t Show This Message Again option if you do not want the dialog box to notify you
about the Show Strokes option.
6. Click OK.
7. You can modify the stroke shape with the Contour Editor

52

tool.

Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

Deforming a Drawing with the Perspective Tool

The Perspective tool lets you deform a drawing selection and alter its perspective.
How to deform a drawing with the Perspective tool
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Perspective+ 0.

tool from the Contour Editor drop-down menu or press Alt

2. In the Camera or Drawing view, select a drawing to deform.
3. Click and drag the different anchor points to deform the shape.

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Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

Warping a Drawing with the Envelope Tool

The Envelope tool lets you deform and warp part of a drawing using a grid envelope and Bezier handles.
How to warp a drawing with the Envelope tool
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Envelope

tool from the Contour Editor drop-down menu.

2. In the Timeline view, select a drawing to deform.
3. In the Camera or Drawing view, select the region you want to deform

4. Click and drag the different anchor points and handles to deform the image.

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Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

5. To display more controls, in the Tool Properties view, click the Show Advanced Controls

6. Increase the height and width of the grid to get more control points to deform your image.

55

button.

Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

Cutting Drawing Parts

The Cutter tool lets you cut a drawing area to move, copy, cut or delete it.
How to cut with the Cutter tool
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Cutter

tool or press Alt + T.

2. In the Camera or Drawing view, make a selection around an area to cut away.

‣

To delete the selected zone, press Delete.

‣

To move the selection, click the selection and drag it to a new area.

56

Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide‣

Use the bounding box controls to scale, skew, or rotate the cut piece.

Smoothing Lines

When drawing in a digital application, it is not like drawing on a sheet of paper. Sometimes the lines you draw
may look as if they were drawn with an unsteady hand. When this occurs, you may need to correct the look ofyour lines.
Harmony has a very powerful tool you can use to optimize contours and reduce the number of points on the lines,
the Smooth Editor tool.
How to optimize lines with the Smooth Editor tool
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Smooth Editor

tool or select Drawing > Tools > Smooth Editor.

2. In the Camera or Drawing view, place your pointer over the lines to smooth. You may need to pass overthe same line several times to remove more points and make the line smoother. Note that by default, theSmooth Editor tool colour is yellow, it was changed to orange for screen grab clarity—see Smooth Editor
Tool Options on page 94 to learn about the various settings available.

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Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

Working With Text

With the Text tool, you can type text in your project using various fonts and texts attributes. Text objects arepart of a drawing, so you can manipulate them in the same way. OTF fonts are also supported.
How to add text to drawings
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the Tools toolbar, select the Text‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Tools > Text.

‣

Press Alt + 9.

tool.

2. In the Timeline view, select the cell containing the drawing on which you want to add text.
3. In the Drawing or Camera view, click on the location you want the text to begin.

4. You can use the Tool Properties view to select the font, font size and format of the text you will type—see Text Tool Options on page 96.
5. Type in the desired text.

6. Click outside the text box to exit the typing mode.

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Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

If you want to create another text object, click outside the currently active text box. You can always returnto edit the text by selecting the Text
tool and clicking in the text.

More Drawing Tools
Harmony offers a wide variety of useful tools to optimize your drawings and work more efficiently; tools such asGroup, Arrange, and the animation disk to rotate your workspace.
•

Arrange on page 59•

Convert Brush Strokes to Pencil Lines on page 60•

Pencil Lines to Brush Strokes on page 60•

Strokes to Pencil Lines on page 60•

Optimize on page 61•

Grid on page 62•

Group/Ungroup on page 62•

Hand on page 62•

Rotate View on page 63

Arrange
The different Arrange options let you reorder drawing objects inside a single layer in the Camera view.
Name

ButtonDescription

Access Method
From the top menu, select Drawing >Arrange > Bring to Front.

Bring to Front

Bring Forward

Send Backward

Moves the selected art to the front(on top).

Moves the selected art one level forward (closer to the front).

Moves the selected art one level
lower (behind).

Press Ctrl + Shift + PgUp
(Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + Shift + PgUp
(Mac OS X).
From the top menu, select Drawing >Arrange > Bring Forward.
Press Ctrl + PgUp (Windows/Linux) or⌘ + PgUp (Mac OS X).
From the top menu, select Drawing >Arrange > Send Backward.
Press Ctrl + PgDown (Windows/Linux)or ⌘ + PgDown (Mac OS X).
From the top menu, select Drawing >Arrange > Send to Back.

Send to Back

Moves the selected art behind
everything (bottom / back).

59

Press Ctrl + Shift + PgDown(Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + Shift +PgDown (Mac OS X).

Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

Convert Brush Strokes to Pencil Lines

The Brushes Strokes to Pencil Lines operation converts selected contour strokes into centreline pencil strokes.
The brush stroke thickness will be lost.
How to convert brush strokes to pencil lines‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Convert > Brush Strokes to Pencil Lines or press ^.

‣Right-click on the selection, select Convert > Brush Strokes to Pencil Lines or press ^Pencil Lines to Brush Strokes

The Pencil Lines to Brush Strokes operation converts the selected centreline pencil strokes into contour
strokes brush lines.
How to convert pencil lines to brush strokes‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Convert > Pencil Lines to Brush Strokes or press &.

‣Right-click on the selection, select Convert > Pencil Lines to Brush Strokes or press &Strokes to Pencil Lines

The Strokes to Pencil Lines operation converts the selected invisible line to a pencil line.

60Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

How to convert strokes to pencil lines‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Convert > Strokes to Pencil Lines or press Shift + F12(Windows/Linux only).

‣

Right-click on the selection, select Convert > Strokes to Pencil Lines or press Shift + F12(Windows/Linux only)

Optimize

The Optimize command reduces the number of layers, such as overlapping brush strokes, in the selected drawing
objects. Drawing objects will only be flattened and optimized if the selected objects do not change theappearance of the final image when they are merged.
For example, if you have selected a number of partially transparent objects, which you layered to create an
additive colour effect, the selected transparent drawing objects will not be merged. This is because merging thetransparent drawing objects will cause them to lose the effect of the layered transparent colours.
How to optimize‣

Use the Select tool to select the drawing objects you want to optimize.

‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Optimize > Optimize.

‣

From the Camera or Drawing view menu, select Drawing > Optimize > Optimize.

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Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

Grid

Use the Show Grid option to display a grid in the Drawing or Camera views.
Name

ButtonDescription

Keyboard Shortcut
View > Grid > Show Grid

Show Grid
Displays the grid.

Press Ctrl + ' (Windows/Linux) or⌘ + ' (Mac OS X).

Grid Outline Only

Displays the outline of the grid only.

View > Grid > Grid Outline Only

SquareDisplays a standard square grid.

View > Grid > Square

12 Field Grid

Displays a 12-field size grid.

View > Grid > 12 Field Grid

16 Field Grid

Displays a 16-field size grid.

View > Grid > 16 Field Grid

Underlay

Displays the grid under the drawing
elements.

View > Grid > Underlay

Overlay

Displays the grid over the drawing
elements.

View > Grid > Overlay

Group/Ungroup
Use the Group option to group selected drawing objects. This can help in the selection, repositioning, rescaling and other transformations to be applied to multiple objects of a drawing.
•

From the top menu, select Edit > Group > Group or Edit > Group > Ungroup.

•

From the Camera or Drawing view menu, select Edit > Group > Group or Edit > Group > Ungroup.

•

Press Ctrl + G and Ctrl + Shift + G (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + G and ⌘ + Shift + G (Mac OS X).

Hand
Use the Hand tool to pan through the Drawing or Camera view.

62Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide•

In the Tools toolbar, select the Hand

tool, click in the Drawing or Camera view and drag.

•You can also Hold down the Spacebar, click in the Drawing or Camera view and move your mouse in the
direction you want to pan the view.

Rotate View
The Rotate View
tool lets you rotate the Drawing or Camera view, the same way as you would do with a realanimation disc. This tool can also be used in the Perspective view.

How to use the Rotate View tool
1. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Tools > Rotate View.

‣

Press Ctrl + Alt (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + Alt (Mac OS X).

‣

In the Tools toolbar, select the Rotate View‣

In the Drawing or Camera view, right-click and select Drawing Tools > Rotate View.

tool.

2. In the Drawing or Camera view, click and drag to rotate the space.

Drawing Tool References
Harmony has a wide variety of drawing tools and each one of them has a series of options and modes available.
This section covers these options. For details on how to use these tools, see Drawing Tasks on page 27.
•

Pencil Tool Options on page 64•

Vector Brush Tool Options on page 66•

Select Tool Options on page 70•

Eraser Tool Options on page 76•

Contour Editor Options on page 80•

Shape Tool Options on page 82

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Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools•

Polyline Tool Options on page 85•

Stroke Tool Options on page 87•

Perspective Tool Options on page 88•

Envelope Tool Options on page 89•

Cutter Tool Options on page 92•

Smooth Editor Tool Options on page 94•

Text Tool Options on page 96

Pencil Tool Options
When you select the Pencil

tool, its properties and options appears in the Tool Properties view.

Maximum Size and Smoothing
This is where you set the maximum size of your drawing tool.
‣

MaximumSize: Defines the width of the stroke.

‣

Smoothing: Defines the number of control points added to the centre line. The fewer the control
points the smoother (but less faithful) the line.

64Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

Pencil Presets
Harmony provides a variety of pencil presets and also lets you create and save your own. It is a good idea tocreate and save pencils with precise sizes and parameters when you draw and design for efficiency andconsistency.
You can export the pencil presets that you have created and import those that others have created. This is agood way for you and project collaborators to keep a consistent look for the project—see Working with Pencil
Presets on page 30
Draw Behind

When drawing on vector layers, the Draw Behindappear over your work until you release the tool.

mode lets you paint behind existing art. By default, strokes

Auto-Flatten Mode
When drawing on vector layers, lines do not usually become one object. The Auto-Flatten
mode
automatically merges lines created with the existing ones into one single object as you draw.

NOTE:
Using the Select tool, you can use select and remove a segment of flattened pencil lines. Overlapping pencil lines
drawn with the Auto-Flatten mode enabled are essentially cut into segments by the overlap and can therefore betreated as individual lines.

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Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

Auto-Close Gap

When using the pencil tool, you can automatically close strokes with an invisible stroke.
It is recommended to keep this option enabled when drawing with the Pencil tool.

Vector Brush Tool Options
When you're drawing on a vector layer and select the BrushTool Properties view.

tool, its properties and options appear in thePreviewing the Stroke
The Preview area lets you see a preview of the stroke that will be produced after you customize the different

66Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

parameters in the Tool Properties view.
1. Select a brush style from the Presets section. It's a good idea to choose a brush preset that is closest to
the style you want to create.
2. Click on the Show Extended Properties arrow to display advanced customization parameters.

Maximum Size and Smoothing
This is where you set the maximum size of your drawing tool.
‣

MaximumSize: Defines the width of the stroke.

‣

Smoothing: Defines the number of control points added to the centre line. The fewer the control
points the smoother (but less faithful) the line.

Brush Presets
Brush presets are created by saving the properties of the current brush to a new preset, which you can reuse for
repeated tasks. You can create as many brush presets as you need—see Drawing with the Brush Tool on page 34.
How to import pencils, brushes and erasers
1. From the Brush menu

, select Import Brushes.

2. In the browser window that appears, navigate to and select the .xml file.
3. Click Open.
4. In the Import Brushes dialog box, select the brushes brushes and erasers you want to import. You can also
import pencils at the same time.

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Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

5. Click Import.
The imported brush, eraser and pencil styles will appear in the presets library. You can reuse any of theimported tips to create other brush, eraser and pencil style presets.
How to export pencils, brushes and erasers
1. From the Brush menu, select Export.
2. In the Export Brushes dialog box, select the vector brushes and erasers to export, as well as any pencils.

68Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

3. Click Export.
4. In the Export Brushes window that appears, browse to the location where you want to save the .xml fileand give it a name.
5. Click Save.
How to change the Presets Library thumbnail display
1. From the Brush menu, select one of the following:
Parameter

Description

Small Thumbnail

Reduces the size of the thumbnails in order to view more at the same time. Displays an image of the tool's tip and its maximum size.

Large Thumbnail

Increases the size of the thumbnails in order to see the images more clearly. Displays an image of the tool's tip, its maximum size and its name.

Stroke View

Displays the tool's name, maximum size and stroke preview.

69Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

Draw Behind

When the Draw Behindmode is enabled, the lines you draw will appear behind the art that already exists.

Repaint Brush Mode

The Repaint Brushis used to repaint zones that have already been painted, it will not affect empty zones or
pencil lines. It also automatically flattens each of its brush lines so it does not add new brush lines on top ofexisting ones. You can use this mode to paint tones or highlights onto your character.
Auto-Flatten Mode
When enabled, the Auto-Flatten
mode automatically flattens the new lines created with the existingartwork as you draw in the Drawing or Camera view. Brush strokes will flatten with brush strokes and pencil
lines will flatten with pencil lines.

Select Tool Options
When you use the Selecttool, its properties and options appear in the Tool Properties view.

70Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

Lasso and Marquee
Choose between the Lasso•and Marquee

options to change the selection style of the tool.

Click and hold Alt to temporarily switch from the current mode to the other.

Snap Options
You can enable different snapping modes to help you when repositioning drawings using the Select tool.
•

Snap to Contour: Snaps your selection or point to any line you position it on. As soon as you move it
close enough to another line, your point or selection will snap to it.

•

Snap and Align: Snaps the selected anchor point to any existing line while displaying temporary rulers
as a guide that you can also snap your anchor point to.

•Snap to Grid: Snaps your selection following the currently enabled grid.

How to snap to the grid
1. Do one of the following:‣

Select View > Grid > Show Grid to display the grid in the Camera or Drawing view or press Ctrl + '(Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + ' (Mac OS X).

‣

Select View > Grid > Square Grid, 12 Field Grid or 16 Field Grid for your current needs.

2. In the Tools toolbar, select the Contour Editor

tool or press Alt + Q.

3. In the Tool Properties view, click the Snap to Gridbutton.

4. In the Camera or Drawing view, click on the anchor point you want to snap to the grid, drag it to thedesired position and release.

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Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

Selecting by Colour

The Select by Colour mode lets you select all the zones and lines in your drawing painted with the same colour
swatch.

NOTE: Only the zones painted with the SAME colour swatch will be selected. If another zone is coloured with theexact same RGB value (same colour), but not painted with the same colour swatch, it will not be selected.

How to select areas by colour
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Selecttool or press Alt + S.

2. In the Tool Properties view, click the Select by Colour

button.

3. In the Camera or Drawing view, click on any zone or line in your drawing.
All zones and lines of the same colour are selected.
4. Click the Select tool again to return to the regular Select mode.

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Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

Single Mode

By default, when you draw a selection box in the Camera view, the Select tool will select only the drawing strokesof the current drawing. If you prefer the Select tool to select all the strokes on all layers, you can disable theWorks on Single Drawing
option in the Tool Properties view or disable the Select tool Works on Single
Drawing preference. To do this, go to the top menu, select Edit > Preferences > Camera (Windows/Linux) orStage Essentials > Preferences > Camera (Mac OS X) and uncheck the Select tool Works on Single Drawing
option.
Flip Horizontal and Vertical

The Flip Horizontal‣

and Flip Verticaloperations flip the current selection horizontally or vertically.

From the top menu, select Drawing > Flip Horizontal and Flip Vertical.

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Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

Rotate 90 Degrees CW and CCW

The Rotate 90 Degrees CW
and Rotate 90 Degrees CCW
degrees clockwise or counter-clockwise.

operations rotate the current selection 90‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Transform > Rotate 90 Degrees CW and Rotate 90
Degrees CCW.

‣

Press Ctrl + 7 and Ctrl + 9 (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + 7 and ⌘ + 9 (Mac OS X).

SmoothThe Smooth

operation lets you smooth out selected drawing strokes and remove extra points.

‣ From the top menu, select Drawing> Optimize > Smooth or press Alt + Shift + S.
Flatten

The Flatten
operation is used to merge drawing objects and brush strokes into a single layer. If you draw
new lines to fix a drawing or line with many brush strokes, it can be useful to flatten them all into a single
shape. By default, lines are drawn one on top of each other. If you intend to repaint the lines or modify theirshape, it will be easier if they are flattened.

‣ From the top menu, select Drawing > Optimize > Flatten or pres Alt + Shift + F.

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Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

Distribute to Layers
The Distribute to Layers
option is used to separate the selected art strokes and send them to new drawing
layers. In the Camera view, once you have drawn your artwork, you can select the strokes you want to distributeusing the Selecttool and click on the Distribute to Layers
button; you can also select Drawing >Distribute to Layers. It will automatically take every stroke from the drawing selection made in the Camera viewand separate them into a different layer for each. If an artwork is composed of several strokes, you must groupthem using Edit > Group > Group before using the Distribute to Layers option. This option cannot be done fromthe Drawing view.
Pencil to BrushThe Pencil to Brushlines.

operation converts the selected centre line pencil strokes into contour strokes brushFrom the top menu, select Drawing > Convert > Pencil Lines to Brush or press &.
Offset X and Y
Use the Offset X and Offset Y operation fields to enter specific values and precisely reposition the selected shape.

1. X: Type a value in this field to reposition your selection along the X-axis.
2. Y: Type a value in this field to reposition your selection along the Y-axis.
3. Up/Down arrows: Use the up and down arrows to modify the value in the X or Y value field.
Width and Height
Use the Width and Height operation fields to enter specific values to resize the selected shape with precision.

1. Width: Type a value in this field to resize the width of your selection.
2. Height: Type a value in this field to resize the height of your selection.
3. Up/Down arrows: Use the up and down arrows to modify the value in the Width or Height fields.
4. Lock icon: Click the lock icon to lock or unlock the ratio between the Width and Height values.

75Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

Angle
The Angle operation lets you to enter specific values and accurately rotate the selected shape.

1. Angle: Type a degree value in this field to rotate your selection.
2. Up/Down arrows: Use the up and down arrows to modify the value in the Angle value field.
When you select a pencil line with the Select tool, additional options appear in the Tool Properties view.
Adjusting the Pencil Line Thickness
Use the Adjusting the Pencil Line Thickness operation field to resize the selected centreline strokes. This
operation is not permitted on contour line shapes, such as brush strokes or shape fills.

Adjusting the Text Selection
When you select text with the Select tool, the tool properties will display the Text tool options on the bottomof the view. You can also press Alt + 9 to display only the Text properties in the Tool Properties view—see
Text Tool Options on page 96.

Eraser Tool Options
When you're drawing on vector layer and you select the Eraser
the Tool Properties view.

76

tool, its properties and options appear inHarmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

Previewing the Stroke
The Preview area lets you see a preview of the stroke that will be produced after you customize the different
parameters in the Tool Properties view. Click on the Show Extended Properties arrow to display advanced
customization parameters,

Maximum Size and Smoothing
This is where you set the maximum size of your drawing tool.
‣

MaximumSize: Defines the width of the stroke.

‣

Smoothing: Defines the number of control points added to the centre line. The fewer the control
points the smoother (but less faithful) the line.

Eraser Presets
It is a good idea to create and save erasers with precise sizes and parameters in order to save time when drawing

77Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

and designing. Toon Boom Harmony provides you with a variety of default eraser styles and allows you tocreate and save your own.
Eraser presets are created by saving the properties of the current eraser as a preset, in order to reuse it again
and again. You can create a new preset from the Eraser Tool Properties view, but it is better to do it from theEraser Properties—see Erasing Parts of a Drawing on page 44.
The Eraser tool uses its own preset list, separated from the Brush tool.
How to import pencils, brushes and erasers
1. From the Brush menu

, select Import Brushes.

2. In the browser window that appears, navigate to and select the .xml file.
3. Click Open.
4. In the Import Brushes dialog box, select the brushes brushes and erasers you want to import. You canalso import pencils at the same time.

5. Click Import.
The imported brush, eraser and pencil styles will appear in the presets library. You can reuse any of theimported tips to create other brush, eraser and pencil style presets.

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Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

How to export pencils, brushes and erasers
1. From the Brush menu, select Export.
2. In the Export Brushes dialog box, select the vector brushes and erasers to export, as well as any pencils.

3. Click Export.
4. In the Export Brushes window that appears, browse to the location where you want to save the .xml fileand give it a name.
5. Click Save.
How to change the Presets Library thumbnail display
1. From the Brush menu, select one of the following:
Parameter

Description

Small Thumbnail

Reduces the size of the thumbnails in order to view more at the same time. Displays an image of the tool's tip and its maximum size.

Large Thumbnail

Increases the size of the thumbnails in order to see the images more clearly. Displays an image of the tool's tip, its maximum size and its name.

Stroke View

Displays the tool's name, maximum size and stroke preview.

79Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

Contour Editor Options
When you select the Contour Editor

tool, its properties and options appear in the Tool Properties view.

Lasso and Marquee
Choose between the Lasso•and Marquee

options to change the selection style of the tool.

Click and hold Alt to temporarily switch from the current mode to the other.

Snap to Contour

The Snap to Contour

option will snap the selected anchor point to any line you position it on.

How to snap two shapes together
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Contour Editor

tool or press Alt + Q.

2. In the Tool Properties view, click the Snap to Contour

button.

3. In the Camera or Drawing view, click on an anchor point you want to snap to the other shape, drag it on
top of the contour line area and release it.

80Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

Snap and Align

The Snap and Alignoption lets you snap the selected anchor point to any existing line while displaying
temporary rulers as a guide that you can also snap your anchor point to.
How to snap and align1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Contour Editor

tool or press Alt + Q.

2. In the Tool Properties view, click the Snap and Alignbutton.

3. In the Camera view, click on an anchor point you want to snap, drag it until a ruler is displayed, position it
on the ruler or on the contour line and release.

Show Contour Editor Controls

Use the Show Contour Editor Controls
option to show the contour editor controls. You can use thesecontrols to scale, reposition and rotate the selected anchor points.
Smooth Selection81Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

The Smooth

operation lets you smooth out selected drawing strokes and remove extra points.

‣ From the top menu, select Drawing> Optimize > Smooth or press Alt + Shift + S.

Shape Tool Options
When you select a shape tool (Rectangle, Ellipse, Line), its properties and options appear in the Tool
Properties view.

Previewing the Stroke
The Preview area lets you see a preview of the stroke that will be produced after you customize the different
parameters in the Tool Properties view.
1. Select a brush style from the Presets section. It's a good idea to choose a brush preset that is closest to
the style you want to create.
2. Click on the Show Extended Properties arrow to display advanced customization parameters.

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Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

Size
Move the Size slider left to reduce the line thickness and to the right to increase its width.
Adjusting the Pencil Line Style

You can adjust the start, end, and joint style of a selected pencil line.
•

Start: Lets you select the style of the start tip, which is the first tip you drew. You can choose between
Round or Flat style.

•

End: Lets you select the style of the end tip, which is the last tip you drew. You can choose between Roundor Flat style.

•

Join: Lets you select the joint style. The joints are where the line curves abruptly. You could also define theJoin style as the corner style. You can choose between Round, Mitre and Bevel style.

Pencil Presets
Harmony provides a variety of pencil presets and also lets you create and save your own. It is a good idea tocreate and save pencils with precise sizes and parameters when you draw and design for efficiency andconsistency.
You can export the pencil presets that you have created and import those that others have created. This is agood way for you and project collaborators to keep a consistent look for the project—see Working with Pencil
Presets on page 30
Draw Behind

When the Draw Behindmode is enabled, the lines you draw will appear behind the art that already exists.

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Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

Automatic Filling

Use the Automatic Filling
option to automatically fill your shape with the selected colour as you draw. By
default, the Shape tool creates the outline of an empty shape that you can later fill using the Paint tool. This
option is unavailable for the line tool.
Snap Options
When drawing a shape, you can enable different snap modes to help you create your shape.
•

The Snap to Contour

option snaps your shape to any line you position it on.

•

The Snap and Alignoption snaps the selected anchor point to any existing line, while displaying
temporary rulers as a guide that you can also snap your anchor point to.

•

The Snap to Gridsnaps your shape to the currently enabled grid.

Auto-Flatten Mode
When enabled, the Auto-Flatten
mode automatically flattens the new lines created with the existingartwork as you draw in the Drawing or Camera view. Brush strokes will flatten with brush strokes and pencil
lines will flatten with pencil lines.
Using the Select tool, you can use the middle mouse button to select a segment of flattened pencil line. This
creates a nice finish on the lines and corners of your artwork.

84Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

Auto-Close Gap

When enabled, the Auto-Close Gap
mode automatically connects, with an invisible stroke, the pencil lines you
draw close to each other in the Camera view.

NOTE: It is recommended to leave this option enabled when drawing with the Pencil tool.

Keep Proportion

When the Ellipse or Rectangle mode is enabled in the Tool Properties view, the Draw Circle or Draw Square
option appears. When selecting these options, the shape produced will be a perfect circle or square (as opposed
to an oval or rectangle).
Enabling this option is a good idea if you plan to create many squares or circles. However, if you only need tocreate one, holding down the Shift key as you create your shape will maintain the proportion in the same way.

Polyline Tool Options
When you select the Polyline

tool, its properties and options appear in the Tool Properties view.

85Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

Previewing the Stroke
The Preview area lets you see a preview of the stroke that will be produced after you customize the different
parameters in the Tool Properties view.
1. Select a brush style from the Presets section. It's a good idea to choose a brush preset that is closest to
the style you want to create.
2. Click on the Show Extended Properties arrow to display advanced customization parameters.

Size
The Size parameter lets you set the size of the polyline that you will draw.

86Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

Pencil Presets
Harmony provides a variety of pencil presets and also lets you create and save your own. It is a good idea tocreate and save pencils with precise sizes and parameters when you draw and design for efficiency andconsistency.
You can export the pencil presets that you have created and import those that others have created. This is agood way for you and project collaborators to keep a consistent look for the project—see Working with Pencil
Presets on page 30
Snap to Contour
The Snap to Contour

option will snap your selection to any line you position it on.

Auto-Flatten Mode
When enabled, the Auto-Flatten
mode automatically flattens the new lines created with the existing artwork
as you draw in the Drawing or Camera view. Brush strokes will flatten with brush strokes and pencil lines will
flatten with pencil lines.

Stroke Tool Options
When you select the Stroke tool, its properties and options appears in the Tool Properties view.

Draw Stroke as Straight Lines
Enable the Draw Stroke as Straight Lines
option if you want the new strokes you draw to be a perfectstraight line. Disable the option if you want the stroke to follow the mouse gesture.
Connect Line Ends
Enable the Connect Line Ends
option if you want the start or end point of your new stroke to connect to yourexisting strokes to make sure no gaps are left in your drawing.
Auto-Flatten Mode
When enabled, the Auto-Flatten
mode automatically flattens the new lines created with the existing artwork
as you draw in the Drawing or Camera view. Brush strokes will flatten with brush strokes and pencil lines will
flatten with pencil lines.
Smoothness
You can modify the central line smoothness of your line using this option. This parameter smooths the initial
87Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

movement of your line. Increasing the value will result in a smoother line with fewer control points. Use the left
and right arrows to increment the value by one full unit. Use the Up - Down slider to quickly increment thevalue.

Perspective Tool Options
Selecting the Perspective tool displays its properties and options in the Tool Properties view.

Lasso and Marquee
Choose between the Lasso•and Marquee

options to change the selection style of the tool.

Click and hold Alt to temporarily switch from the current mode to the other.

Snap Options•

The Snap to Contour
option will snap the selected anchor point to any line you position it on—see
Contour Editor Options on page 80.

•

The Snap and Alignoption lets you snap the selected anchor point to any existing line whiledisplaying temporary rulers as a guide that you can also snap your anchor point to—see Contour Editor
Options on page 80.

•

The Snap to Grid

option snaps your selection according to the currently enabled grid.

Flip Horizontal and Vertical88Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

The Flip Horizontal‣

and Flip Verticaloperations flip the current selection horizontally or vertically.

From the top menu, select Drawing > Flip Horizontal and Flip Vertical.

Rotate 90 Degrees CW and CCW

The Rotate 90 Degrees CW
and Rotate 90 Degrees CCW
degrees clockwise or counter-clockwise.

operations rotate the current selection 90‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Transform > Rotate 90 Degrees CW and Rotate 90 Degrees
CCW.

‣

Press Ctrl + 7 and Ctrl + 9 (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + 7 and ⌘ + 9 (Mac OS X).

Envelope Tool Options
Selecting the Envelope tool displays its properties and options in the Tool Properties view.

Width and Height
Increase the width and height values to add more columns and rows to the deformation grids.

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Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

Lasso and Marquee
Choose between the Lasso•and Marquee

options to change the selection style of the tool.

Click and hold Alt to temporarily switch from the current mode to the other.

Snap Options•

The Snap to Contour
option will snap the selected anchor point to any line you position it on—see
Contour Editor Options on page 80.

•

The Snap and Alignoption lets you snap the selected anchor point to any existing line whiledisplaying temporary rulers as a guide that you can also snap your anchor point to—see Contour Editor
Options on page 80.

•

The Snap to Grid

option snaps your selection according to the currently enabled grid.

Show Advanced Controls
To display more controls,you can click on the Show Advanced Controls

90

button.

Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

Flip Horizontal and Vertical

The Flip Horizontal‣

and Flip Verticaloperations flip the current selection horizontally or vertically.

From the top menu, select Drawing > Flip Horizontal and Flip Vertical.

Rotate 90 Degrees CW and CCW

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Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

The Rotate 90 Degrees CW
and Rotate 90 Degrees CCW
degrees clockwise or counter-clockwise.

operations rotate the current selection 90‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Transform > Rotate 90 Degrees CW and Rotate 90
Degrees CCW.

‣

Press Ctrl + 7 and Ctrl + 9 (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + 7 and ⌘ + 9 (Mac OS X).

Smoothness
You can modify the central line smoothness of your line using this option. This parameter smooths thedeformed lines. Increasing the value will result in a smoother line with fewer control points. The more you
increase the value, the less details and curves you will get. Use the left and right arrows to increment the value
by one full unit. Use the Up - Down slider to quickly increment the value.

Cutter Tool Options
When you select the Cutter

tool, its properties and options appear in the Tool Properties view.

Lasso and Marquee
Choose between the Lasso•and Marquee

options to change the selection style of the tool.

Click and hold Alt to temporarily switch from the current mode to the other.

Use Mouse Gesture
When using the Lasso
selection type, the Use Mouse Gesture
option lets you automatically delete any
extra sections of line in your artwork by simply dragging your mouse over it.

NOTE: For this operation to work, you lines CANNOT be flattened.

Use Mouse Gesture Breaker Mode
When using the Lasso

selection type, the Use Mouse Gesture Breaker Mode92

option lets you draw anHarmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

invisible stroke on a pencil line to cut it in two individual objects. Once a pencil line is cut with this option, you will
be able to select the two portions independently with either the Cutter tool, Pencil Editor tool or Select tool.

NOTE: This option only works with pencil lines.

Tip StyleIf you erase the end of a pencil line or erase a pencil line through the centre, new line tips or line ends are created.
Use the Tip Style option to customize the shape of the new line tips that are created.
Antialiasing

When drawing on a bitmap layer, lines are no longer clean vector shapes. For the edges to be smooth, a slightamount of antialiasing is used. When using the Cutter tool, you can cut a portion of your drawing with or without
antialiasing. By default, the option is enabled. If you want to cut your drawing using a hard edge, you can selectthe Antialiasing Off option.

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Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

Flip Horizontal and Vertical

The Flip Horizontal‣

and Flip Verticaloperations flip the current selection horizontally or vertically.

From the top menu, select Drawing > Flip Horizontal and Flip Vertical.

Rotate 90 Degrees CW and CCW

The Rotate 90 Degrees CW
and Rotate 90 Degrees CCW
degrees clockwise or counter-clockwise.

operations rotate the current selection 90‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Transform > Rotate 90 Degrees CW and Rotate 90
Degrees CCW.

‣

Press Ctrl + 7 and Ctrl + 9 (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + 7 and ⌘ + 9 (Mac OS X).

Smooth Editor Tool Options
When you select the Smooth Editor tool, its properties and options appear in the Tool Properties view.

94Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

Brush, Marquee and Lasso Smoothing Style
The Smoothing Style options allow you to smooth a portion of your drawing by tracing a smoothing stroke overthe zone to optimize or by selecting an area of the drawing with the Marquee or Lasso.
Note that by default, the Smooth Editor tool colour is yellow, it was changed to orange for screen grab clarity.

Show Control Points
The Show Control Points
option allows you to show or hide the Bezier points around lines. When the Bezier
points are displayed, you can see the result of your smoothing and the number of points left on the curve. When it
is turned off, only the original artwork is displayed.
Minimum Size and Maximum Size
This is where you set the minimum and maximum sizes of your drawing tool which will produce the thick and thineffect on your stroke. This works with the pressure sensitivity of a pen tablet.
This options is available while using the Brush Smoothingstyle.

‣

Maximum and Minimum Size: Defines the maximum and minimum width of the stroke.

•

Up/Down arrows: Use the up and down arrows to set the minimum and maximum size value.

Smoothness
The Smoothness
impacts the strength of the smoothing result. The higher the value, the more points are
removed and the smoother the curve. The Smoothness range is from 0 to 100; the default value is 20.

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Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

ColourYou can modify the colour of the control points displayed on the artwork while working with the Smooth
Editor tool by double-clicking on the colour swatch.

Text Tool Options
Use the Text tool's properties to select the font type and other formatting options you want to apply to thetext.
If you already wrote your text, you must first use the Text tool and select the text portion you want to format.

Font TypeUse the Font drop-down menu to select a font. OTF fonts are supported.

96Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

Font Style
Use these buttons to select a style for your text:
•

Bold

•

ItalicAlignment
Use these buttons to align the paragraph.
Left

Centered

Right

Justified

Font SizeEnter a size for the text.

97Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

Kerning
Use the kerning field to modify the spacing between letters and characters. You can select the Auto Kern
option to set the kerning automatically based on the font’s predefined standard. A negative value decreases
spacing between each character, creating a letter overlap and a positive value increases it.

IndentEnter a value in the Indent field to increase or decrease the indentation on the first line of your text. A positive
value sets the first line of your paragraph farther to the right and a negative value sets it farther to the left.

Line Spacing
Enter a value in the Line Spacing field to decrease or increase the space between each line of text.

Resizing the Text Box
You can resize the text box by selecting your text box with the Text
tool and moving the anchor pointright or left. Using the Select tool will distort and scale your text itself rather than changing the width andheight of your text box.

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Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

Converting Text into Separate Objects
Text contained in a text field is treated as a single drawing object. You can easily separate the text so eachcharacter becomes an individual drawing object that you can select and modify independently.
How to break a text object
1. In the Tools toolbar, click the Selecttool or press Alt + S.

2. In the Drawing or Camera view, select the text object you want to break.

3. From the top menu, select Drawing > Convert > Break ApartText Layers.
‣

From the Drawing or Camera view menu, select Drawing > Convert > Break ApartText Layers.

Each character is surrounded by a bounding box that you can modify; they remain text objects that you canedit.
4. If you want to convert your independent letter to a complete vector object that you can deform, use theSelect tool to select the letters to convert.
5. From the top menu, select Drawing > Convert > Break Apart Text Layers to break the selection into aregular drawing object, with no more text attributes.
‣

From the Drawing or Camera view menu, select Drawing > Convert > Break Apart Text Layers to
break the selection into a regular drawing object, with no more text attributes.

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Chapter 2: Design and Drawing Tools

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Chapter 3: Colour Styling and Colour Models

Once the characters, props and locations are designed, it's time for the colour styling and colour models
creation. This is when the colours and moods are determined. The line models created during the design step are
painted and organized as colour models for the colourists.
Harmony has a great concept of colour palettes. Each character can have its own set of colours that is carriedthrough the entire project called the master palette. If the master is modified, the colours in the entire project are
updated simultaneously.
By doing the colour styling in Harmony, your master palette will be created at the same time, so you do not need
to use third party software. Also you will not have to recreate the colour palette again in Harmony. It is possible
to create this step in an external software, but it is a great time saver to do it directly in Harmony.

NOTE: Throughout this section, there may be slight differences between your interface and the illustrations in thisguide. This is because the images are taken from Harmony Premium.

To create the colour style and colour models, follow these steps:•

Preparation on page 101•

Working with Palettes on page 105•

Colours on page 122•

Painting the Model on page 133

Preparation
Before painting, you need to organize the colour model scenes and bring in your references. The colour stylingpreparation is done in five steps:•

Colour Model Storage on page 102

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Chapter 3: Colour Styling and Colour Models•

Scene Creation on page 102•

Setting Up the Workspace on page 103•

Preparation on page 101

Colour Model Storage
First, you will need to create a storage location for all your models and palettes. The best way to do this is tocreate a colour model scene. There are different possibilities available to structure your designs and colour
model scenes. We strongly recommend that you put all of your colour models in the same scenes. It is
important to maintain a structure for your models so they do not end up scattered throughout the project.
There are four main model categories:

If you have a small project, such as a short or an advertising contract, you can always place all the characters,
props, effects, and locations in the same scene. For large projects such as feature-length productions or series,
you should create four separate model scenes following these categories.

Scene Creation
In order to create colour models, you need to create your scenes.
When working on a paperless or cut-out animation project, if you have designed your characters, props,
effects and locations directly in Harmony, you can paint your models directly in your design scene. You can also
create a new colour model scene and import your designs in that one. Refer to the Fundamentals Guide tolearn more about creating a scene.
If you have not already done so, refer to the Fundamentals Guide to learn about production structure, fileorganization, and how to create a Project root directory. We recommend storing your colour model scenes in
the root directory or in a colour models subdirectory for even better organization.
A useful way to name your colour model scene is to include the project name, then the colour model type suchas characters, props, effects, or locations, and finally colourmodel. For example, a character colour model

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scene for the Adventure project would be named adventure_characters_colourmodel. This ensures thatyou always know what scene corresponds to what.

Colour Model Scene Structure
To store your colour models in a scene, you should create one drawing layer for each character, prop, effect, or
location. You should name these according to the model.
You can also load other colour references in the scene to balance your overall colours. For example, if you work ina character colour model scene, it's a good idea to import some of the key locations to compare and adjust thecolours so they match well.

Setting Up the Workspace
Now that your scenes are created and structured, you can open the corresponding colour model scene. For the
optimal workspace for inking and painting, set up your workspace with these views:•

Xsheet•Camera•Drawing•

Colour103

Chapter 3: Colour Styling and Colour Models

How to rename a drawing
1. In the Xsheet view, click on a drawing name.

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the Xsheet view menu, select Drawings > Rename Drawing.

‣

Right-click on the drawing name and select Drawings >Rename Drawing.

‣

Press Ctrl + D (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + D (Mac OS X).

The Rename Drawing dialog box opens.

3. Type in a new name and click OK.

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Working with Palettes
In animation, specific colours are used to paint each particular character. In order to maintain absoluteconsistency, a colour palette is created for each character, prop and effect throughout the production. This isreferred to as a master palette1.
Master palettes contain a colour swatch for each zone to colour with a precise RGBA colour value.
Using a master colour palette has many benefits, including:•

Each character consistently retains their dedicated colours.

•

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

•

Standardization and colour consistency throughout the production•

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

Toon Boom Harmony uses palettes to hold all the colours needed to paint your elements, allowing complete
control and consistency in your painting process.
A palette2 is created by assigning a set of colours to each character, prop or effect. You will create a new paletteand add a new colour, known as a colour swatch, for each zone of the character, such as the skin, hair, tongue,
shirt, pants, and so on.
In Harmony, palettes are individual files that you can copy, transfer, and store. Palettes have a *.plt file nameextension—see Palette File Storage on page 109.
When a zone on the character is painted with the colour contained in a colour swatch, a link is automaticallycreated between that colour swatch and the zone. This means that if the tint of the colour in the colour swatch ischanged, any zone linked to it will update to the new tint. This is one way that colour palettes can save time andmoney in your production.
Another advantage of this system is that you can create complete palettes for different lighting situations. For
instance, in addition to the regular palette for a character, you could have one for that character in the rain using
colours that are duller and less vibrant than the dry daytime colours, or yet another for using in a night scene.
Using palettes linked to your character in this way allows you to instantly change its colouring to suit the moodand atmosphere of the scene without tediously repainting each element.

1A master palette is a group of colours attributed to a character or a prop. The palette is used throughout theentire production to maintain consistency in the look and to ensure that the same colours are used throughout
the production. Also known as palette.
2A palette or master palette is a group of colours attributed to a character or a prop. The palette is usedthroughout the entire Toon Boom Studio project to maintain a consistency in the look and avoid the colourchanging during the animation. Also referred to as a master palette.
105Chapter 3: Colour Styling and Colour Models

This section is divided as follows:•

Palette Lists on page 106•

Palette File Storage on page 109•

Creating a Colour Palette on page 110•

Duplicating a Colour Palette on page 114•

Cloning a Colour Palette on page 115•

Importing and Linking Palettes on page 117

Palette Lists
The Colour view has two modes: basic and advanced.

•

Basic Mode106

Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

The Colour view’s basic mode only shows the Colour list. When you open Toon Boom Harmony, you only
see the colours available in the Default palette which contains six basic colour swatches and is
automatically named the same as your scene. For simple projects, you can manage with the default
palette, but for movies, series, or shorts it is recommended that you create palettes for your characters.
To create a palette, you have to switch to the Advanced mode of the Colour view and show the Palette list.
•

Advanced Mode
The Advanced mode displays the list of all palettes that are linked to the scene. To create palettes for yourcharacters, you must display the Palette list.

A palette list is a file containing all of the links to the original palette files. Every drawing layer has a palette list.
The scene also has a palette list. For example, a drawing layer can use three different palettes stored in threedifferent locations, while another drawing layer can use two of these palettes plus another one coming fromanother scene. The palette list keep track of the locations of the palettes.
There are two types of palette lists:•

Scene Palette List
The Scene Palette list is mainly used with cut-out animation, but is also very useful for paperless andtraditional animations. A cut-out character will often be divided into 20 to 30 different drawing elementsthat use the character’s master palette.
The palette list is stored at the scene level instead of the Element directory. This way, all palettes linked tothis list will appear in every drawing element created in the scene. There is no need to manually load thepalette in each element.
The Scene Palette list is the simplest one to use. By default, Toon Boom Harmony is set to use only Scene
Palette lists.

•

Element Palette List

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In Toon Boom Harmony, you can switch to Advanced Palette List mode and choose to save your paletteat an element’s level. The Element Palette list is mainly used with traditional and paperless animation.
Unlike cut-out animation, all columns (drawing elements) contain different characters, props,
backgrounds, and effects. The Element Palette list is used when you do not necessarily want all of thepalettes for all of your elements linked in every column.
The palette list is stored in the drawing element’s directory instead of directly in the Scene level. This
ensures that the links to the palettes appear only in the appropriate element. If you prefer to access a
global palette list, link your palettes to the Scene Palette list.

When you are using several cloned palettes that are related to the same original palette, Toon Boom Harmony
uses the palette located highest in the list to determine the colour of the painted zones—see Cloning a Colour
Palette on page 115.
How to show or hide the Palette list‣

In the Colour view, click the Show/Hide Palette List View
Palette List area.

The Palette List window opens and displays all your palettes.

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button to expand or collapse theHarmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

How to set the Advanced Palette Lists mode
1. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Edit > Preferences (Windows/Linux) or Stage Essentials > Preferences(Mac OS X).

‣

Press Ctrl + U (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + U (Mac OS X).

1. Select the Advanced tab.
2. In the section, select the Advanced Palette Lists option.
3. Click OK.
How to reorder palettes in the Palette list
Do one of the following:‣

From the Colour View menu, select Palettes > Move Up or Move Down.

‣

In the Palette list, click the Up

and Down

buttons.

Palette File Storage

In Harmony, palettes are individual *.plt files that can be copied, transferred and stored. When a palette is
created from Harmony, it needs to be stored somewhere. By default, the palette file is stored in the scene
directory in a palette-library folder unless you specify a different location. There are four locations where you canfind palette-library folders:109Chapter 3: Colour Styling and Colour ModelslElement: The Palette Library folder is stored directly in the drawing Element folder.

l

Scene: The Palette Library folder is stored directly in the Scene folder.

lJob: The Palette Library folder is stored in a Job folder contained in the Scene folder.

lEnvironment: The Palette Library folder is stored in an Environment folder contained in the Scene
folder.

By default, the palette is stored at the scene level. For simple projects and standalone projects, it isrecommended to keep it as is. If you work with a larger studio, it is recommended to verify with them on thefile structure.
This existing structure is compatible with Harmony Server. Harmony’s database has a leveled structure
starting from the Environment down to the Element. Its client-server configuration allows all data, such as
palettes and scenes, to be shared between a series of client machines.

Element Level
Working with Harmony Stand Alone, the Element level is very useful when there are a lot of different palettes.
When a colour model drawing is created, it is stored in its element folder. By storing the corresponding palettefile with the colour model, the colourist can load them both from the same location. This also creates a moreorganized structure.

Scene Level
Working with Harmony Stand Alone, a palette file can also be saved at the scene level, so that all of thepalettes from the scene are stored together. The palette naming must be structured so the colourist or
character builders can find the correct one. Saving the palettes at the scene level makes it very easy to back up
the palettes and retrieve their location.
The scene level can also be useful for cut-out animation. Instead of creating a colour model scene that includes
all of the characters, props, effects, and location, the colour palette or model will often be directly imported
to, or created in, the character building scene. Just as with a cut-out character building scene, each element
uses the same palette so it would not be efficient to save the palette inside one element. Instead, it is saved at
the scene level. This prevents a palette overload because all of the models are in different scenes. It also allows
each scene to have its own set of palettes corresponding to its model.
When working on a cut-out animation production, it is highly recommended that you work with the Scene level.

Palette Backup
When sharing palettes between scenes, some users may accidentally modify the colours, even though thepalettes are locked by default. That is why it is a good idea to copy and back up your palette libraries andmaster palette directories.
When a palette file is copied, it automatically becomes a clone palette, so there will not be any trouble
replacing an altered file. Harmony automatically updates all of the files and drawings linked to it.

Creating a Colour Palette
You can create a palette in either Basic or Advanced mode.

110Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

By default, Toon Boom Harmony is set to the Basic mode. For simple productions, it is recommended to use the
Basic mode. This setting stores the palettes automatically for you and saves them at the Scene level. When you
use the Advanced Palette Lists mode, you can decide at which level you want to store your palettes: Environment,
Job, Scene, or Element.
Before you can create a palette in the Advanced Palette Lists mode, you must first set your preferences to
Advanced Palette Lists mode in the Preferences dialog box.
You can remove palettes from your Palette list if they're not needed in your scene. The actual palette file will not
be deleted and you can reimport it in your Palette list later on.
How to set the Advanced Palette Lists mode
1. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Edit > Preferences (Windows/Linux) or Stage Essentials > Preferences(Mac OS X).

‣

Press Ctrl + U (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + U (Mac OS X).

1. Select the Advanced tab.
2. In the section, select the Advanced Palette Lists option.
3. Click OK.
How to create a new palette (Basic Palette Lists mode)
1. From the Colour View menu, select Palettes > New or click the New Palettebutton.

The Create Palette window opens.
2. Enter the palette name according to the model.

3. Click OK.
The palette appears in the drawing element’s palette list.

How to create a palette from the Advanced Palette Lists mode
1. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select the drawing that requires a palette.
2. In the Colour view, click the Show Palette List View button to display the palette list.

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3. Do one of the following:‣

From the Colour view menu, select Palettes > New.

‣

Click the Create Palettebutton.

The Palette Browser: Create Palette dialog box opens.

4. Select the level to store the palette file.
‣

Environment: The palette-library folder is stored in the scene's parent environment folder.

‣

Job: The palette-library folder is stored in the scene's parent job folder.

‣

Scene: The palette-library folder is stored directly in the scene folder.

‣

Element: The palette-library folder is stored directly in the drawing element folder.

When you select a level that has a palette stored in it, the palette names are displayed in the Palettefield.
5. Name the palette. There is no need to add the suffix "palette" to the name as it is always recognized asa palette file.

6. Select a Palette List option.

‣

The Scene Palette List is mainly used with cut-out animation. A cut-out character will often be divided
in twenty to thirty different drawing elements that use the character's master palette.

112Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

The palette list is stored at the scene level instead of the Element directory. This way, all palettes linked
to this list will appear in every drawing element created in the scene. There is no need to manually load
the palette in each element.
‣

The Element Palette List is mainly used with traditional and paperless animation. Unlike cut-out
animation, all columns (drawing elements) contain different characters, props, backgrounds andeffects. The Element Palette List is used because you do not necessarily want all of the palettes for allof your elements linked in every column.
The palette list is stored in the drawing element's directory instead of directly in the Scene level. This
ensures that the links to the palettes appear only in the appropriate element. If you prefer to access a
global palette list, link your palettes to the Scene Palette List.

7. Click OK.
The new palette appears in the palette list.
How to rename a palette
1. In the Colour view, select the palette to rename.

2. Do one of the following:‣

Right-click and select Rename.

‣

From the Colour View menu, select Palettes > Rename.

3. In the Rename dialog box, give the palette a new name and click OK.

How to remove a palette
1. In the Colour view, select the palette to remove.

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the Colour View menu, select Palettes > Remove.

‣

Right-click on the selected palette and select Remove.

‣

Click the Remove Palettebutton located above the Palette list.

If the palette was used in your scene, the zones painted with its colours turn red.

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Duplicating a Colour Palette
A duplicated palette is a simple copy of the original palette. It uses the same names, colour values, but has adifferent ID and is independent from the original palette. This ensures that both palettes are completely
independent.
This option is used when there are similar models and you want to avoid recreating and naming all the colours.
You can change the values and the names afterward without affecting the original palette. You can also keepsome RGBA values, such as the eyes, teeth, tongue, inside mouth, etc.
How to duplicate a palette
1. In the Colour view, select the palette to be duplicated.

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the Colour menu, select Palettes > Duplicate.

‣

Right-click on the selected palette and select Duplicate.

The Palette Browser: Duplicate Palette window opens.
3. If you are in Advanced Palette List mode, select the palette storage level—see Palette File Storage on
page 109.

4. In the New Palette Name field, name the palette.

5. In the New Palette Name field, name the palette.

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

Cloning a Colour Palette

A character usually has only one master palette, although there are times when the characters are placed indifferent lighting conditions and require a different colour shading. The night palette is a popular choice when ascene or sequence changes from day to night. It can be difficult and time-consuming to repaint everything andcreating two independent palettes can be quite complex. As an alternative, Toon Boom Harmony provides clone
palettes.
The clone palette is a copy of the master palette. The colours in each palette have the same properties. The
colours have the same identification number pointing to the same colour zones, but they can have different names
and RGBA values. Depending on the palette (night or day) you're currently using, the painted drawing will
update. So there's no need to repaint the animation. All you have to do is create or import a clone palette(palette style).
How to clone a palette
1. In the Colour view, select a palette to clone.

2. From the Colour menu, select Palettes > Clone or right-click and select Clone.
The Palette Browser: Clone Palette dialog box opens.

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3. If you're in Advanced Palette List mode, select the palette storage level—see Palette File Storage on
page 109.

4. In the New Palette Name field, name the palette. We recommend keeping the "-clone" in the name.
5. Click OK.
The cloned palette appears in the palette list.

6. In the Palette list, select the clone palette you created to offset or blend colours—see Mixing Colours
on page 131.
7. From the Colour View menu, select Palettes > Tint Panel or right-click and select Tint Panel.
The Blend/Offset Tint panel opens.

116Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

8. Select one or more colours to modify. You can select all your colours by pressing Ctrl + A (Windows/Linux)or ⌘ + A (Mac OS X).
9. Offset, blend, or mix the colours using the sliders and increasing the Amount value.

10. Select the Preview option to see a preview of the colours while you adjust them.

NOTE: You can also modify the colours individually with the Colour Picker window.

Importing and Linking Palettes
Before starting colouring work such as ink and paint or even creating new colour models, you may want to load
existing colour palettes to your scene. You can do so by linking colour palettes to your palette lists.
You may encounter a case where only a colour palette is visible when a layer is selected. If you need that palette ina second layer, you can link the palette to the second layer's palette list. A good example would be a scene where
there is a character on one layer and its arm is on another. In order for both layers to access the palette, you mustlink both Element Palette lists to that palette. If your palette is linked to the Scene Palette list, it will be accessibleby all layers.

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If you created a palette in another project and you want to import it in your current project, you can browse forthe palette file on your computer and add it to your scene. When the palette is imported in your scene, the file
is copied in the project’s directory. It is not linked to the original file.
With Toon Boom Harmony as a stand-alone application, every scene is local to the machine. This means that allof the scene’s data is only accessible from that particular scene. Palettes are also local to the scene; they canbe shared between all drawing layers, but not between scenes.
However, you may want to share palettes across a whole project. Harmony offers that possibility. By default, a
palette is an independent file stored in your scene. This file can be copied, moved, or deleted.
To link a palette throughout an entire project, you need to create a central directory where you can copy all the
palettes you created. Every time you link a palette in an element, it is linked to this folder. If you modify the
palette, it will be updated throughout the whole project.
You will notice that when you create or link a palette, a small icon appears on its left. These icons represent the
palette's link status.
Icon

Description
Indicates that the palette is safe.
There won’t be any problems once the scene is exported. For example, the palette file isstored in the scene folder and is linked to the Scene Palette List.
Indicates that the palette file is stored in a directory external to the scene’s structure.
The palette file is probably stored in a Master Palette directory on a hard drive external tothe palette-libraries planned for the palette storage. The warning in this case is that if you
move your Master Palette directory to another location, you may loose the palette in yourscene.
Indicates that a palette file stored in a level such as Element, Scene, Job or Environment islinked to a Palette list that is not on the same level.
For example, a palette file is stored into the Environment folder and is linked to the
Element Palette list. The palette is shared.
Indicates a potentially dangerous situation.
Problems may occur when trying to export or link to the palette file. For example, a palettefile is stored into the element folder and is linked to the Scene Palette list. The issue in thiscase is that if you decide to delete the layer containing the palette, it will be lost from yourscene.

How to link a colour palette
1. Do one of the following:‣

From the Colour View menu, select Palettes > Link.

‣

Right-click and select Link.

‣

Click the Importbutton.

The Palette Browser: Link Palette dialog box opens.

118Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

2. Select the level where the palette file is stored—see Palette File Storage on page 109.
3. Select the palette list linking level by enabling either Scene Palette List or Element Palette List—see
Palette Lists on page 106.
The palette appears in the Colour view.
How to import a palette into your project
1. Do one of the following:‣

From the Colour menu, select Palettes > Import.

‣

Right-click and select Import.

The Browser window opens.
2. Browse for a palette file located (*.plt) on your hard drive. You will generally find the palettes in your project's palette-library directory.
3. Click Open.
The Palette Browser opens.

119Chapter 3: Colour Styling and Colour Models

4. If you're in Advanced Palette mode, select the level where the palette file is stored—see Palette File Storage on page 109.
5. If you're in Advanced Palette mode, select the palette list linking level by enabling either Scene Palette
List or Element Palette List—see Palette Lists on page 106.
6. In the New Palette Name, name the imported palette.
The palette appears in the Colour view and the file is copied in your project.
How to link to an external palette
1. In the Colour view, click on the Create Palettebutton to create a palette to be used as external.

2. Save your scene by selecting File > Save from the top menu or by clicking the Save
Ctrl + S (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + S (Mac OS X).

button or press

3. On your computer or server, create a master directory. Ideally, this should be created in your Rootfolder to keep it within the project directory. You could also place it inside your Colour Model’s subdirectory—see Chapter 6: Project Organization and File Structure in the Fundamentals Guide.

4. Name the folder appropriately, for example: Joe_master_palette.

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5. From your operating system, browse to your Toon Boom Harmony scene and open the palette-libraryfolder.

6. Select and copy your palette *.plt file to copy it to the master palette directory.

7. Create a new Toon Boom Harmony scene or open the scene where you will link this palette.
8. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select the element to link the palette to.

9. From the Colour View menu, select Palettes > Link to External.
The Link to External Palette dialog box opens.

10. Click Browse to search for your master palettes folder and select the palette *.plt file you want to link.
11. In the Palette list section, select how you want to load the palette; at the scene or element level.
12. Click OK.
The linked palette appears in the Colour view.

121Chapter 3: Colour Styling and Colour Models

If a palette is outside the scene, the External

icon appears beside the palette name.

NOTE: To link an element (such as a colour model) to the palette that is stored in the external palette directory,
you must remove the original palette from the element’s palette list. You will then load the duplicated palette into
the palette list using the Link to External command, like you did for the other elements.

Colours
Toon Boom Harmony has some very powerful colouring features when it comes to painting. To paint yourdrawings, you will use different colour swatches, unlike some other painting programs where you modify themain swatch each time you want to paint with a different colour.

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

122Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

When you modify the colour of an existing swatch, it automatically updates all the zones painted with this swatch
throughout the entire project. The colour swatch has a unique ID number that associates it with the painted
zones. This way, you can change the look of your character at any time without having to repaint it!
This section is divided as follows:•

Adding a Colour Swatch on page 123•

Editing Gradients and Textures on page 201•

Colour Display Modes on page 129•

Copying and Pasting Colours on page 130•

Mixing Colours on page 131

Adding a Colour Swatch
You can use several different types of colour swatches, including solid colour, gradient colour and bitmap texture
swatches.

How to add or modify a solid colour swatch
1. In the Colour view, click the Add Colour

button.

2. From the Colour View menu, select Colours > Edit or double-click on the colour swatch.
The Colour Picker window opens.

123Chapter 3: Colour Styling and Colour Models

3. To set your colour, do one of the following:‣

In the colour wheel, select a colour.

‣

Enter the HSV or RGB values in the corresponding fields. Select the R,G,B,H,S or V options tochange the look of the colour picking area.

‣

Click the Dropper
button to select any colour on your screen. It can be from the Harmony
interface, your operating system or any other open application.

How to add a new colour swatch using the default colour‣

From the Colour View menu, select Colours > New.

A new swatch is added to your palette using the default colour swatch colour. The new swatch createdwith the New command will be named New 0.
How to create a gradient colour swatch
1. In the Colour view, select a colour to modify .
2. Do one of the following:‣

Click the new colour and from the Colour View menu, select Colours > New.

‣

Double-click on the colour swatch.

The Colour Picker window opens.

124Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide

3. Select the Gradient option.
4. Select the Linear or Radial option.
5. Adjust the Gradient arrows to modify the colours.

‣

Add extra colours by clicking between the arrows below the gradient bar. Then click on the Colour
Preview to select a colour.

‣

Pull down the arrows to remove them.

‣Move the arrows left and right to modify the gradient distance.

NOTE: To learn how to reposition the gradient zones in your drawings, see Editing Gradients and Textures on page
201.

How to create a texture colour
1. From the Colour menu, select Colours > New Texture or click the New Texture

button.

The Browser window opens.
2. Browse for a PSD or TGA bitmap file created with a third party software and click Open.

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The texture is added to the colour list.

NOTE:
To learn how to reposition the textured zones in your drawings, see Editing Gradients and Textures on page 201.

You can also replace a texture once it is painted. If you decide to make the character’s shirt wool instead ofplaid, just update the texture file in the swatch and the entire project updates. Any transformation previously
applied to the texture’s position in your drawings will be kept.

How to replace a texture swatch
1. In the Colour view, select the texture swatch that contains the bitmap texture you want to replace.

2. From the Colour View menu, select Colours > Edit Texture or double-click on the swatch.
The Browser window opens.
3. Browse for the new PSD or TGA bitmap file created in a third party software.

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4. Click Open to update the colour swatch.

How to delete a colour swatch
1. In the Colour view, select the colour swatches to delete.

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the Colour View menu, select Colours > Delete.

‣

Click the Delete Colour‣

Right-click and select Delete.

‣Press Delete.

button.

If the colour swatch is used in a drawing, the Delete Colour dialog box opens.

3. Click OK to delete the colours or click Cancel to abort the operation.
‣

If you delete colour swatches already in use, the zones painted with them turn red so you can easily
identify them.

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Editing Gradients and Textures

If you paint a zone with a gradient or texture colour, you can use the Edit Gradient/Texture tool to modify its
position in the zone. You can move, scale, rotate and skew. If you want to match the colour to the animation,
set the first texture position and copy the Edit Gradient/Texture position. When moving to the next drawing,
you can select the next texture and paste the previous position to continue the modifications.
If you are painting a hand-drawn animation or if your want the Brush tool and Paint tool to use your gradient’s
position, angle and scale settings instead of the default ones, you can store your own settings and reuse themafterward.
This way of editing a texture using the Edit Gradient/Texture tool also works with pencil lines drawn with
textured “brushes”. If you then paint your textured pencil line with a gradient, you can do so and then edit
both elements independently at the same time.
How to use Edit Gradient/Texture tool
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the Tools toolbar, click the Edit Texture‣

Press Shift + F3.

2. Click the gradient or texture colour to modify.

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A blue selection frame surrounds the selected gradient or texture.

3. Edit the gradient or texture by adjusting the control handles around the selection frame.

Colour Display Modes
The Colour view has two display modes:
•

List

•

SwatchYou can also display the RGB values and names of your solid colour swatches instead of only the name. This
option is not available when displaying the colours in Swatch mode.

How to switch between the display modes
1. From the Colour View menu, and do one of the following:‣

Select Colours > Swatch Mode to display the swatches.

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Deselect Colours > Swatch Mode to display the colour list.

How to display the swatch colour values‣ From the Colour View menu, select Palettes > Display Colour Values.
The solid colour swatches’ RGB values are displayed between the colour swatch and its name. The
gradient colour swatches will be identified as (gradient).

Copying and Pasting Colours
When you're creating palettes, you may want to copy colour swatches or their values and paste them in otherpalettes to save time. You can also quickly copy a colour value from a palette in your scene to a selected colour
swatch in a different palette.
You can copy a selected colour swatch and paste it as a clone. Since it produces a clone colour swatch, it is
impossible to use the Paste as Clone command in the same palette as you copied the original colour swatch
from.
If you would like to keep a reference file of some colour IDs or use them with custom plug-ins, you can copy thecolour swatch IDs. Here is an example of colour ID: 075cf5b552401130.

How to copy and paste colours
1. In the Colour view, select one or more colours to copy.

2. In the Colour View menu, select Colours > Copy or press Ctrl + C (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + C (Mac OS
X).

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3. In the Palette list, select the palette in which you want to paste the colours.

4. From the Colour View menu, select Colours > Paste as New Colours or press Ctrl + V (Windows/Linux) or⌘ + V (Mac OS X).
‣

To paste the colour values of the copied swatch over an existing colour swatch, select Colours > Paste
Colour Values.

How to clone a colour swatch
1. In the Colour view, select the colour swatch you want to clone.
2. From the Colour View menu, select Colours > Copy or press Ctrl + C (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + C (Mac OS
X).
3. In the Colour view, select the colour palette you want to paste the clone into or create a new palette.
4. From the Colour View menu, select Colours > Paste as Clone.
The cloned colour swatch appears in the palette.
How to copy a colour ID
1. In the Colour view, select the colour swatch you want toget the ID from.
2. From the Colour View menu, select Colours > Copy Colour ID or press Ctrl + C (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ +C (Mac OS X).
3. Paste the copied value as plain text in the desired document.

Mixing Colours
If you want to modify a series of colours to blend a tint in them or offset their RGBA values, you can use the Tint
panel. You can also create palette styles, such as night and day styles.
How to mix colours
1. In the Colour view, select the palette that contains the colours you want to offset or blend.

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the Colour View menu, select Palettes > Tint Panel.

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Right-click and select Tint Panel.

The Tint Blend/Offset panel opens.

3. Select one or more colours to modify in the colour list. To select all the colours, press Ctrl + A (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + A (Mac OS X).

4. Select Preview option.
5. Select the Offset, Blend, or Mixer option.

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Parameter

Description

OffsetOffsets the selected colours by the adjustments made using the HSB and RGB
sliders. Use the Amount slider to adjust the degree of offset. Use the Alphaslider to adjust the opacity of the selected colour.

Blend

Blends the selected colours with the colour swatch in the top-right corner. Use
the Amount slider to adjust the degree of blend. A blend of 100% turns theselected colours into the same colour as the swatch. Adjusting the HSB and
RGB sliders affect the swatch colour, which in turn affects the selected colours
on the left. Use the Alpha slider to adjust the opacity of the swatch.

Mixer

Select a Base and Tint colour to form a third colour swatch. Use the slider justbeneath to mix the Base and Tint colours by different amounts. This will affectthe mixed swatch whether it is selected or not. Select either the Tint or Baseswatch and use the HSB and RGB sliders to adjust its colour. This will affect themixed swatch colour, which in turn affects the selected colours on the left.

6. Click Apply.

Painting the Model
Now that you've created the colours and the palette, you're ready to paint your model.
The colour model needs to be painted in order to adjust the colours with the other elements in the production.
You can paint your model regardless of the colour RGBA and adjust them later when all the elements are
together.

For paperless and cut-out animation, it's a good idea to provide a line-up template with the colour model toshow the scale ratio between the characters, props and backgrounds.

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Once your colour model is completed, create a line-up template by pasting one of the production's main
characters, or even just a hand, beside the colour model to show the relative size. This allows the animator,
layout artist, or scene setup artist to retain the correct scaling throughout the entire project when setting theelements in the scene. You can store your template in the Library.
How to paint a colour model
1. Create your master colour palette—see Creating a Colour Palette on page 110
2. Add new colours to the palette—see Adding a Colour Swatch on page 123.
3. Select your Paint Bucket

tool. We recommend the Paint Unpaintedtool.

4. In the Colour view, select a colour to paint your drawing.

5. Paint the model by selecting colour swatches in the palette and clicking on your drawing. Note that only
closed zones will be painted. If there's a gap in your artwork, you must close before you can paint it.

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6. Adjust the colours—see Mixing Colours on page 131.

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Chapter 4: Timing

When you create hand-drawn animation traditionally or in a paperless environment, it's important to know how
to set and modify the timing of your drawings.
In a traditional workflow, the person in charge of the digital exposure sheet reproduces the paper exposure
sheet created by the animator. In a paperless workflow, the animator creates and manages their own exposure
sheet directly in Harmony without the need for reproduction.
If you're more of a traditional animator, you will probably work with an exposure sheet. If you're a digital
animator, you may prefer to work with a timeline to visualize your timing. Harmony offers both.
The Timeline view is also used to visualize timing, and represents elements and groups of elements as layers.
In this chapter, you will learn how to work on your drawing’s exposure and length. The exposure and animation
paths for symbols are covered in separate chapters.
The basic digital exposure sheet process is divided into the following steps:

Preparation
The digital exposure task is quite simple. There are very few things to prepare in order to get ready.
Opening the Scene
The scene is generally created during a previous step, such as scanning (in a traditional animation workflow),
scene set up, digital layout, or production organization.
Using the Workspace
If you're doing paperless animation, use the Camera or Drawing view if you want to sketch at the same time.
While drawing and animating paperless animation, you can use the Workspace Manager to save a frequently
used layout and name it Paperless Animation, for example.

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Preparing References

To start an exposure sheet, you need to prepare your references. For traditional animation, you will need toreproduce the animator's paper exposure sheet. If you're working remotely, the studio can scan the paper
exposure sheet using third-party software and send the digital files to be opened and viewed digitally.

FramesOnce the references are ready, you need to set the scene length by adding the right number of frames to yourscene. You can set the global scene length from the top menu.
In the Timeline view, you can add and remove frames from a scene to edit its length.
How to set the scene length
1. From the top menu, select Scene > Scene Length.
The Set Scene Length dialog box opens.

2. In the Number of Frames field, enter the number of frames needed.
How to extend or reduce the scene length in the Timeline view
When you remove frames at the end of a scene to reduce the scene length in the Timeline view, the exposeddrawings and symbols are not deleted. They're still available if you extend the scene afterward.
1. In the Timeline view, drag the scene length bracket:‣

Right: To add more frames to your scene.

‣

Left: To reduce the number of frames in your scene.

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How to add frames in the middle of a scene
You can add frames anywhere in the middle of the scene—before or after a selection.
1. In the Timeline view, select the frame to which you want to add frames before or after.

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Scene > Frame > Add Frames Before Selection or Add Frames After
Selection.

‣

Press Ctrl + G and Ctrl + H (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + G and Ctrl + H (Mac OS X).

The Add Frames dialog box opens.

3. In the Number of Frames to Add field, enter the number of frames needed in the scene.
4. Click OK.

How to add frames at the start or end of a scene
1. In the top menu, select Scene > Frames > Add Frames at Start or Add Frames at End.
The Add Frames dialog box opens.

2. In the Number of Frames to Add field, enter the number of frames needed in the scene.
3. Click OK.

Creating Drawings
Before filling any value or setting any timing or exposure, you need to add different drawing elements.
Each drawing element is represented as a horizontal element layer in the Timeline view.

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To start an exposure sheet, you will use drawing elements. Drawing elements are drawing containers. Any
image file, either bitmap or vector, will use a drawing element.
When you add a drawing element to your scene, a folder is added to the scene directory. This folder is named
the same way as the drawing element. Its purpose is to contain all the drawings related to this element. For
example, in cut-out animation, a character can have many heads available. All of the head drawings will becontained in this folder, even if they are not exposed in the Timeline view. There is always a drawing container
connected to a drawing element (column).

NOTE: There are different element types available, such as sound and expression. A sound element contains
sound files. Expressions, Beziers, 3D path, Quadmaps and Pegs are for motion purposes during the compositing
step. It's not necessary to create these types to create your exposure sheet.

You can add drawing elements from the Timeline view and the Scene menu.
This section is divided as follows:•

Layer Concepts on page 140•

Layer Types on page 141•

Adding New Drawing Elements on page 143•

Deleting Columns on page 143•

Layer Properties on page 144•

Modifying Layers on page 145•

Duplicating Layers on page 146•

Cloning Layers on page 146

Layer Concepts
A layer is linked to a directory, the location where all its drawings are saved. This directory has the same nameas the layer. When a name is typed in a cell ,Harmony searches the layer's directory for the corresponding
drawing to display. If there is no corresponding drawing, a new one is created.
Drawings are exposed in cells and linked to the drawings saved in the layer's directory. When you remove adrawing from a cell, it is not displayed and still exists in the directory.
A drawing that is exposed multiple times (for example, in a walk-cycle) would be linked to the same original
drawing in the layer's directory. If you modify, repaint, or correct the drawing, all exposed drawings with thesame name are updated simultaneously. You must duplicate or create a new drawing to modify a single
exposure and retain the others.
When you create a drawing cycle, all of the repeated drawings are linked to the original files. This means thatwhen you modify, repaint, or correct a drawing named “1,” all drawings named “1” are updated
simultaneously. In order to modify a drawing independently from its other exposures, you must duplicate thedrawing.

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Layer Types
There are several types of layers that you can add in the Timeline view. Each layer is indicated by an icon to help
you differentiate them.
Drawing Layer

The most common layer type is the drawing layer. Any time you need to create a vector drawing or import asymbol or image, you can use a drawing layer. You can also create bitmap artwork on a drawing layer.

NOTE: Bitmap images are contained in bitmap layers.

Bitmap Layer

If you import a bitmap images (as original bitmap) in your project, they are inserted in a Bitmap layer. If you
choose to vectorize your image when you import, the vectorized object will be placed on a Drawing layer.
When importing a bitmap image, you have the option of encapsulating the image in a symbol. If you place abitmap into a symbol, you will be able to mix vector drawings with it on the same layer.
Camera Layer

You can only have one Camera layer at a time in the Timeline view. By default, there is no Camera layer when you
create a scene. You need to add a Camera layer when you want to create a camera motion.

NOTE: If you want to have several cameras with different settings, you can keep adding Camera layers in yourTimeline view (however, only one will ever be visible at a time as you can only have one camera at a time in yourtimeline). To switch to a different camera, select Scene > Camera and select another camera layer.

Effect Layer

To enhance the look of your scene, you can add effect layers and attach your drawings to them.

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Colour-Card Layer

The Colour-Card layer is used to add a plain colour background to a scene. By default, your scene has nobackground colour and if you render it as a QuickTime movie or image sequence, it will have a black
background.
Group Layer

A Group layer can be used to organize the Timeline view. You can drag and drop other layers onto a Grouplayer and then collapse the Group layer to hide these other layers from view.
If you create the Group layer in the Timeline view.
Peg Layer

A Peg layer is a trajectory or motion path layer that does not contain drawings. It can be attached to any
drawing layer, cut-out puppet, or other peg layers; they will all follow the trajectory you set in the Peg layer.
Quadmap Layer

A Quadmap layer can be described as a deformation transformation layer that does not contain drawings. Thiscan be attached to any drawing layer, cut-out puppet, or even other Peg layers. They will all follow the
deformation you set in the Quadmap layer.
Sound Layer

You can import sound files to add dialog and sound effects to your project. The sound layer will be added toyour Timeline and Xsheet view when you import a sound file in your scene.
In the Xsheet view, the Sound layer is a dark grey colour.

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Adding New Drawing Elements
There are different ways to add a drawing layer to your project. By default, when you create a new scene there is
one corresponding Drawing layer in the Timeline view.
You can add an element for each drawing and it will appear as a layer in the Timeline view.
How to add a drawing element from the Timeline view
1. In the Timeline view, click the Add Drawing Layer(Mac OS X).

button or press Ctrl + R (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + R

The Add Drawing Layer window opens.

2. In the Name field, name your new layer.
3. Do one of the following:‣

Click Add to add a first layer and keep the window open to add more layers.

‣

Click Add and Close to add a new layer and close the window.

A new drawing layer is added to the Timeline view.
How to add a drawing element from the top menu
1. From the top menu, select Insert > Drawing.
The Add Drawing Layer dialog box opens.

2. In the Name field, type a relevant element name and click OK.
The new drawing element appears in your scene.

Deleting Columns
You can delete an element in the Xsheet view.
How to delete layers in the Timeline view
1. In the Timeline view, select the layers to delete.

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2. Do one of the following:‣

In the Timeline’s Layer toolbar, click the Delete Layers‣

Right-click on the selection and select Delete.

button.

Layer Properties
Each element has its own set of properties that you can modify, including effect and peg layers.
If you want to modify an element’s properties, you can display the properties of a selected layer in the Timeline
view. You can display a layer's properties as a window or as a view of its own.
The Layer Properties editor allows you to:•Rename the layer•

Enable or disable the layer•

Lock the layer•

Change the track colour

The Column Properties editor allows you to:•Rename the layer•

Enable or disable the layer

How to display a layer's properties
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the Layer Properties view is not part of your workspace, from the top menu, select Windows >Layer Properties. In the Timeline view, select a layer‣

In the Timeline view, double-click on a layer.

‣

Press Shift + E.

The properties display.

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Modifying Layers
Once you add layers to your project, you can modify their properties, names, or ordering.
You can change the order of your elements in the Timeline view.
How to rename a layer in the Timeline view
1. In the Timeline view, double-click on the name of the layer to rename.
2. In the Name field, rename the layer and press Enter/Return.

How to rename a layer in the Layer Properties editor
1. In the Timeline view, double-click anywhere on the layer except the layer name to rename.
The Layer Properties editor opens.
2. In the Name field, rename the layer.

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3. Click Close.
How to reorder layers in the Timeline view
1. In the Timeline view, select the layers to move.
2. Drag the selection to the new location.
3. Do one of the following:‣

Drop the selection on an existing layer to make it a child of another element layer.

‣

Drop it between the existing layers. Timeline layers that are located above the selection aredisplayed in front it. Layers located under it in the Timeline View are displayed behind it.

Duplicating Layers
Duplicating an element provides you with a copy of the drawings and their exposure. You can modify anything
you want in the duplicated element without affecting the original one.
How to duplicate an element
1. In the Timeline view, click the layer you want to duplicate.

1. In the Timeline menu, select Drawings > Duplicate Drawings or press Alt + Shift + D.
The new duplicated layer appears.

Cloning Layers
Cloning a layerprovides you with a copy of the selected element that uses the same drawings as the original.
How to clone an element
1. In the Timeline view, select the layer you want to clone.

1. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Edit > Clone: Drawings Only to clone only the layer drawings.

‣

From the Timeline menu, select Layers > Clone Selected Layers: Drawings Only.

The new cloned layer appears.

Filling Exposure
Harmony provides different tools to fill in exposures and values, create cycles, and set increments.
This section is divided as follows:146Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide•

Typing Exposure on page 147•

Extending a Single Exposure on page 147•

Extending the Exposure of Previous Drawings on page 149•

Dragging Cells on page 150•

Increasing and Decreasing Exposure on page 151•

Inserting Blank Cells on page 152•

Setting the Exposure on page 153•

Filling a Selection with a Single Exposure on page 153•

Filling a Selection with a Sequence on page 154•

Filling Empty Cells on page 155•

Deleting Exposure on page 152•

Creating Cycles on page 155•

Managing Key Exposures on page 156

Typing Exposure
If you want to type an exact drawing name or value in the Timeline view, you must use the Parameters section of
the Timeline.

NOTE: You can only use alphanumeric values. (0-9, a-z, underscore (_) and dash (-)).

How to type a value in the Timeline view
1. In the Drawing Substitution field, double-click to edit the field and type the name of the drawing you wantto create.

2. Press Enter/Return to validate the value.

Extending a Single Exposure
Extending the exposure lets you select a cell that contains a value and pull it down to the desired frame.

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How to extend a sequence from the top menu
1. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Animation > Cell > Extend Exposure.

‣Press F5.

The Extend Exposure dialog box opens.
2. Enter the frame number you want to extend the cell to.

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Extending the Exposure of Previous Drawings
When drawing on a blank frame you can automatically create a new drawing and extend the timing from theprevious exposed drawing.
In the following example, a cell is selected on the timeline for creating a new drawing in image A. In image B, theprevious exposure does not extend to the new drawing, while in image C, it does.

How to extend the exposure of previous drawings
1. Open the Preferences dialog box by doing one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Edit > Preferences.

‣

Press Ctrl + U (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + U (Mac OS X).

The Preferences dialog box opens.
2. Select the General tab.

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3. In the Timeline section, select the Extend Exposure of Previous Drawing option.

4. On the left side of the Timeline view, select a cell and create a new drawing.
The previous exposure automatically extends to the beginning of the new drawing.

Dragging Cells
To readjust your timing, you can drag one or more cells to a new location.
You can turn off the Gestural Drag mode for the Xsheet view to prevent drawings from being dragged fromone location to another. This feature does not apply to Annotation columns.
How to drag a cell to another location in the Timeline view
1. In the Timeline view, select one or more cells to move.

2. Drag the cells to the new location.

3. Drop the selection by doing one of the following:‣

Drop by simply releasing the mouse or pen.

‣

Hold Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ (Mac OS X) while dropping the selection to copy the cells. The
original cells will not be moved.

‣

Press Shift while dropping the selection to insert them between existing frames.

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Increasing and Decreasing Exposure
Once a value is entered in the Timeline view, you can increase and decrease its exposure.
Increasing the exposure adds one more exposure to a selected cell; repeating this action adds an extra cell eachtime. This is an efficient way to extend a drawing's exposure and is always set in Insert mode. Increasing an
exposure pushes the existing exposure forward.
Decreasing the exposure removes one exposure from a selected cell and pulls any cells following it to thebeginning of selection.
How to increase exposure
1. In the Timeline view, select a cell.

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Animation > Cell > Increase Exposure.

‣

Right-click and select Exposure > Increase Exposure.

‣Press +.

How to decrease exposure
1. In the Timeline view, select a cell.

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Animation > Cell > Decrease Exposure.

‣

Right-click and select Exposure > Decrease Exposure.

‣Press -.

How to use the Clear Exposure and Pull feature
1. In the Timeline view, select a range of cells.

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2. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Animation > Cell > Clear Exposure and Pull.

‣

Right-click and select Exposure > Clear Exposure and Pull.

The exposure is reduced by the selected number of cells.

Deleting Exposure
You can delete a drawing’s exposure in several ways. When you delete a drawing’s exposure from the Timelineview, you are not deleting the actual drawing file. You can always retrieve it by typing its name again in a cell.
You can delete the exposure in a selected cell range or delete the entire exposure of a drawing exposed over
several cells. Note that you can also delete the exposure for drawings inside a collapsed group.
How to delete selected exposures
1. In the Timeline view, select the exposure you want to delete.
2. Do one of the following:‣

Right-click and select Delete.

‣Press Delete.

How to clear the entire exposure of a drawing
1. In the Timeline view, select a cell of a drawing exposed over several cells.
2. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Animation > Cell > Clear Exposure.

‣In the Timeline view, right-click and select Exposure > Clear Exposure.

Inserting Blank Cells
You can place an empty cell between other cells.
How to insert blank cells
1. In the Timeline view, select the cell in which you want to insert a blank cell.

2. Do one of the following:152Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guide‣

In the top menu, select Animation > Cell > Insert Blank Cell.

‣

Right-click on the selected cell and select Exposure > Insert Blank Cell.

‣In the Timeline toolbar, click the Insert Blank Cell
display it).

‣Press Shift + J.

button (you may have to customize the toolbar to

A blank cell is inserted.

Setting the Exposure
You can easily increase or decrease the exposure for a selected cell range.
How to set the exposure
1. In the Timeline view, select the cell range on which you want to set the exposure.

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Animation > Cell > Set Exposure to > Set Exposure to 1, 2, 3, or Set
Exposure.

‣

In the Timeline toolbar, click one of the Set Exposure
customize the toolbar to display them).

buttons (you may have to

3. If you chose the Set Exposure option, the Set Exposure dialog box opens. Enter the number of frames you
want the drawings to display and click OK.

Filling a Selection with a Single Exposure
You can fill the same value over an entire selection. The selection can be over one cell, a cell range in one column, acell range over many columns, an entire column, or many columns. You can use numbers, words, letters, or any
alphanumeric value.
How to fill a selection with a single exposure
1. In the Timeline view, select a cell range.

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2. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Animation > Cell > Fill Selection.

‣

Press Ctrl + T (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + T (Mac OS X)).

The Fill Selection dialog box opens.

3. In the Value field, type the desired value.
4. To insert a key exposure in the frame following the last cell in the selection, select the Add Key Exposure After option. Otherwise, leave it deselected.
5. Click OK.

Filling a Selection with a Sequence
You can create a numbered sequence over a selection. The sequence can be forward, backward, single, double
or higher increment, as a cycle, and so on. The selection can be over one cell or a cell range.
How to fill a selection with a sequence
1. In the Timeline view, select a cell range.

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Animation > Cell > Sequence Fill.

‣

In the Timeline view, right-click and select Exposure > Sequence Fill.

‣

In the Xsheet toolbar, click the Sequence Fill
display it).

‣Press Ctrl + M (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + M (Mac OS X)).

The Sequence Fill dialog box opens.

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3. In the Starting Value field, type the first number in the sequence.
4. In the Increment field, type the number by which the drawing number will increase from frame to frame. For
example, an increment of 1 gives you: 1-2-3-4; an increment of 2 gives you: 1-3-5-7; and -2 gives you
this: 8-6-4-2.

Filling Empty Cells
You can fill empty cells to extend the exposure of single frame drawings to fill the range of empty cells after each
one.When creating drawings on cells that are not side-by-side, the exposure of the first drawing no longer fills
automatically. You must select the frame range where you want your drawings to hold their exposure up to thenext drawing and use the Fill Empty Cells command.
How to fill empty cells
1. In the Timeline view, select a cell range.

2. Do one of the following:‣

Right-click and select Exposure > Fill Empty Cells.

‣

From the top menu, select Animation > Cell > Fill Empty Cells.

‣

In the Timeline toolbar, click the Fill Empty Cells

button.

Each drawing in the selection is exposed in the range of empty cells that follow it.

Creating Cycles
Once you have entered a series of drawings and exposures, you can create cycles out of them in several ways.
You can loop your drawings using the following command:•

Create Cycle

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When you create a drawing cycle, all of the repeated drawings are linked to the same original files. Thismeans that when you modify, repaint, or correct a drawing named “1” for example, all drawings named“1” are updated simultaneously. In order to modify a drawing independently from its other exposures,
you must duplicate the drawing.
How to create a cycle
1. In the Timeline view, select the cell range to loop.

2. Right-click on the selection and select Create Cycle or in the Timeline toolbar, click the Create Cycle
button (you may have to customize the toolbar to display it).
The Create Cycle dialog box opens.

3. Enter the number of cycles you want, including the current selection.

Managing Key Exposures
Before working with key exposures, it's important to understand how keyframes, exposure and key exposure
work in Harmony:•

Keyframe: A keyframe is a point in time where a change to the properties of the object or characteroccurs. In Harmony, keyframes consist of the coordinates that determine how an entire layer and its
contents are moved. Keyframes include these parameters: XYZ position, skew, scale, angle and pivot.

•

Exposure: Exposure is a property; it is the length of time that a drawing is visible over a series offrames. In Harmony, exposure is independent of keyframes. That is, keyframes are not linked to
drawings. Keyframes can be moved independently from the drawing exposure.

•

Key Exposure: A key exposure in Harmony is a type of exposure that forces a drawing to remain
exposed on a specific frame. If a drawing is exposed before a key exposure and you swap out thatdrawing for another one, then the original drawing is retained. This preserves the key drawing. Notethat Harmony automatically sets a key exposure when you perform a drawing swap.

Adding Key Exposures
Key exposures are mainly used for swapping drawings in cut-out animation where you will have numerous
drawings for the various positions of the mouth or eyes of a character for example.
If there is a particular drawing you want to keep on a specific frame, you can set it as a key exposure. This
prevents it from be overwritten by a drawing swap on a preceding frame. A key exposure is simply a propertyof an exposure that forces it to be exposed on a certain frame regardless of whether the previous exposure is
the same drawing or not.

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NOTE: Keep in mind that if you modify the artwork in a drawing, all instances of that drawing will be automatically
updated even if set as a key exposure. This keeps your existing animation key poses intact. It is frequently used on amouth or eyes layer.

Example: Swapping a drawing with no key exposure
In the following example, drawing 3 (DR 3) is selected on the timeline and it contains no key exposure.

When it is swapped for drawing 4 (DR 4), the entire duration of drawing 3 substituted for drawing 4.

Example: Swapping a drawing with a key exposure
Here's what happens when swapping a drawing with a key exposure. In the following example, the playhead is
positioned in the middle of drawing 5 (DR 5) to set the position for the new key exposure. When the new key
exposure is added, drawing 5 is split in two; both halves contain drawing 5. Now if you swap the first drawing 5
for drawing 1, the second drawing 5 retains its exposure.

How to add a key exposure
1. In the Timeline view, select the drawing cell to set as the key exposure.
2. Do one of the following:In the Timeline toolbar, click the Add Key Exposure

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Chapter 4: Timing Extending the Exposure of Previous Drawings‣

In the Timeline toolbar, click the Add Key Exposure‣

Right-click and select Exposure > Add Key Exposure.

button.

A new key exposure is added.
If you added a key exposure at the beginning of the drawing, the entire exposure is filled with that samedrawing. If you added a key exposure anywhere other than the beginning of the drawing, then thedrawing is split in two and both parts contain the same drawing.

Removing Key Exposures
When you no know longer need a key exposure, you can remove it. When you do this, the existing key
exposure is replaced by the preceding exposure. In the following example, a key exposure is set to drawing 1(DR 1). When the key exposure is removed, the exposure is replaced by the preceding exposure, drawing 4(DR 4).

How to remove a key exposure
1. In the Timeline view, select a key exposure to remove.
2. Do one of the following:‣

In the Timeline toolbar, click the Remove Key Exposure‣

Right-click and select Exposure > Remove Key Exposure.

button.

The key exposure is removed and replaced by the preceding exposure.

Removing Duplicate Key Exposures
When working with drawings to adjust the timing of a mouth in a lipsync, for example, and forcing the use of
specific key exposures, unnecessary key exposures will be created. You can delete these duplicates without
affecting the rest of the drawing. The first drawing of the selection will be used for the range.

NOTE: Duplicate key exposures may occur when pasting with the Enforce Key Exposure option selected.

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How to remove duplicate key exposures
1. In the Timeline view, select the layer that contains duplicate key exposures.
2. In the Timeline toolbar, click the Remove Duplicate Key Exposure
the toolbar to display it).

button (you may have to customize

Navigating between Frames
Once a cell is selected in the Timeline view, you can navigate between the drawings, frames, and layers using
keyboard shortcuts that work in the Camera, Drawing, and Timeline views.
You can navigate through:•Drawings•

FramesHow to navigate through drawings and frames
1. In the Timeline view, select a cell.

2. Once the cell is selected, you can navigate between:‣

Previous and next layers: From the top menu, select Drawing > Previous Layer and Next Layer orpress H and J.

‣

Previous and next drawings: From the top menu, select Drawing > Previous Drawing and Next
Drawing or press F and G.

‣

Previous and next frames: From the top menu, select Play > Previous Frame and Next Frame orpress comma (,) and period (.).

Managing Drawings
Drawings that are created in Toon Boom Harmony are not stored in their cells. They are actual files stored in the
project’s folder. If you want to rename a drawing or delete a drawing from your project, you need to edit the fileand not the cells.
This section is divided as follows:•

Renaming a Drawing on page 159•

Deleting a Drawing on page 160•

Duplicating a Drawing on page 160•

Copying and Pasting Drawings on page 161•

Merging Drawings on page 163

Renaming a Drawing
To rename a drawing, you need to select the drawing cell and use the Rename Drawing command.

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How to rename a drawing
1. In the Timeline view, select the drawing to rename.

2. Do one of the following:‣

Right-click and select Drawings > Rename Drawing.

‣

In the Timeline toolbar, click the Rename Drawing
toolbar to display it).

‣Press Ctrl + D (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + D (Mac OS X).

button (you may have to customize the

The Rename Drawing dialog box opens.

3. In the New Name field, type in the new drawing name.

Deleting a Drawing
You can permanently delete a drawing file from a project's folder.

NOTE: Deleting a drawing file is an operation that cannot be undone.

How to delete a drawing
1. In the Timeline view, select the drawings to delete.

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Delete Selected Drawings.

‣

Right-click and select Drawings > Delete Selected Drawings.

Duplicating a Drawing
If you want to modify a drawing that already exists, but keep the original drawing intact, you can duplicate thedrawing and work on the copy. When duplicating a drawing, the selected cell is replaced with the new
drawing. The exposure of the original drawing that was on the current cell is removed. The original drawing is
not deleted from the project folder or other cells in which it is exposed.
With Toon Boom Harmony, you can create a keyframe at the same time as you duplicate your drawing. Thisway, you can modify and reposition drawings without affecting the original drawing.

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How to duplicate a drawing
1. In the Timeline view, select the drawing to duplicate.

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Duplicate Drawings.

‣

Right-click and select Drawings > Duplicate Drawings.

‣

Press Alt + Shift + D.

Copying and Pasting Drawings
When you copy and paste a selection in the Timeline view, you are not copying and pasting the actual drawings,
you are pasting the exposure. Exposure is a property; it is the length of time that a drawing is visible over a seriesof frames. In Harmony, exposure is independent of keyframes. That is, keyframes are not linked to drawings.
Keyframes can be moved independently from the drawing exposure.
If you want to copy and paste selected drawings into a different layer or paste the selection in the same layer toduplicate the drawings, you must use the Paste Special feature.
There are four different ways to paste your selected drawings with the Paste Special dialog box:
Never create drawing files: When adding exposures to a drawing layer, drawing files will not becreated.
Only create drawing files when they do not exist: When adding exposures to a drawing layer,
new drawings will be created only when drawings with the same name do not already exist in thedestination.
Replace existing drawings. Create drawing files when they do not exist: Replace drawings withthe same names to update a scene with new modified drawings and preserve the animation.
Tip: If you don't want to lose the existing animation when pasting a template, such as
when placing new drawings after the animation, then delete the template's animation.
It will still have updated the drawings but not override the existing animation.
Always create drawing files: When adding exposures to a drawing layer, new drawings will always
be created. If drawing files with the same name already exist, Harmony will create a new name forthe drawing.
If you want to perform another Paste Special operation using the same settings you used previously, you can use
the Paste Special Again command instead. You can paste your selection using the same settings as in the mostrecent Paste Special operation, without opening the Paste Special dialog box.
How to paste drawings with the Paste Special command
1. In the Timeline view, select the drawings to copy and press Ctrl + C (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + C (Mac OS
X).

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2. In the Timeline view, select the cell where you want your pasted selection to start.

3. Do one of the following:‣

Right-click and select Paste Special.

‣

From the top menu, select Edit > Paste Special.

‣

In the Timeline toolbar, click the Paste Special
display it).

‣Press Ctrl + B (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + B (Mac OS X).

button (you may need to customize the toolbar to

The Paste Special dialog box opens.

4. In the Drawings section, select the Always Create Drawings or Only Create Drawings When They Do
Not Exist option.

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How to paste new drawings with the previous Paste Special settings
1. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Edit > Paste Special Again.

‣

Right-click and select Paste Special Again‣

In the Timeline toolbar, click the Paste Special Again
to display it).

‣Press Ctrl + Shift + B (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + Shift + B (Mac OS X).

button (you may have to customize the toolbar

Merging Drawings
You can merge elements. All drawings will be merged. Unused columns and layers will be deleted, but the original
drawing files are still accessible.
How to merge drawings in entire layers or columns
1. In the Timeline view, select the layers you want to merge.

2. In the top menu, select Edit > Merge.

Modifying the Layer Display
You can change the way a layer in the Timeline view display. You can stay organized without changing the content
of elements or your animation output.
This section is divided as follows:•

Showing or Hiding Layers on page 163•

Changing the Colour of a Layer on page 164

Showing or Hiding Layers
As you work in the Drawing or Camera view, some layers may be in the way or are used as references. You canhide these layers to make your work area less cluttered and easier to navigate. You can show and hide layers in
the Timeline view in several different ways.
When using the Solo mode to show or hide layers, here's how it works:•

If you have anything selected, it is not affected.

•

When multiple layers are selected and you enable/disable the Solo mode on any of those layers, it isapplied to all the selected layers.

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When multiple layers are selected and you enable/disable the Solo mode on layers that are not part ofthe selection, it is applied only to those particular layers.

When exporting or rendering a scene, the Solo mode setting of layers is ignored.

NOTE:
When a layer is affected by an inverted cutter, enabling the Solo mode for this layer will not show it unless themask is also enabled.

How to show or hide all layers
1. Click one of the following in the Layers toolbar:‣

Enable/Disable All

button to show or hide all layers.

Any hidden layers are unhidden, so you can view all layers.
‣

Solo Modebutton to view disable your current Solo mode selection. Any soloed drawing orsound layers are disabled, so you can view all layers. When you click again on the Solo Mode button,
you last Solo selection is displayed.

How to show or hide individual layers
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the Layer toolbar, click the Solo Mode‣

Click the layer's Enable/Disable All‣

Press A to show a layer or D to hide selected layers.

‣

In the Timeline toolbar, click the Enable/Disable
to display it).

button.

button to show or hide that layer.

button (you may have to customize the toolbar

How to enable the selected layer and disable all others
1. Do one of the following:‣

Hold down Alt and click the Solo Modelayers.

‣In the Timeline toolbar, click the Disable All Others
toolbar to display it).

button of the layer you want to solo and hide all otherbutton (you may have to customize theChanging the Colour of a Layer
To easily identify elements in the Timeline view, you can change the colour of layers.

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How to change the layer’s colour in the Timeline view
1. In the Timeline view, click the Change Track Colour

button of the layer you want to modify.

2. In the Select Colour dialog box, select a new colour for your layer.

3. Click OK.
The layer’s background colour is updated. In a Drawing layer, exposed cells are the brighter, selectedcolour for easy identification.

How to reset a layer’s colour in the Timeline view
1. In the Timeline view, select the layers to reset.
2. In the Timeline toolbar, click the Default Track Colour
to display it).

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Chapter 5: Paperless Animation

Toon Boom Harmony is a powerful paperless animation software that incorporates animation and drawing tools
to make your work easier and more efficient.
Although it is a digital process, paperless animation is still hand-drawn and the fundamental principles ofanimation still apply.
One of the advantages of working with paperless animation is that you do not lose time scanning elements in andtesting them because everything is already digital. You can simply draw your animation and play back your line
test right away. This also saves the substantial amount of paper required by traditional animation. Anotherpractical advantage is the ability to undo and redo some actions that are often difficult on paper, such as erasingbrush strokes.
This chapter is divided as follows:•

Preparation on page 167•

Rough Animation on page 175•

Secondary Animation on page 179•

Bringing Your Animation on Model on page 182•

Animation Clean-up on page 182•

Tools on page 184

Preparation
To prepare for paperless animation with Harmony, you will need to complete the following tasks.
•

Setting Up Your Workspace on page 168•

Setting the Scene Resolution and Length on page 168•

Importing the Layout, Storyboard and Animatic on page 169•

Importing the Background Elements on page 171•

Creating the Drawing Elements on page 171
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Setting Up Your Workspace
To sketch the animation directly in Harmony, you will mostly frequently need the Camera or Drawing view, theXsheet or Timeline view, and the Tool Properties and Colour views.
While drawing and animating paperless animation, you can use the Workspace Manager to save a frequently
used layout and name it Paperless Animation, for example.
For more information on setting up your workspace, refer to Chapter 2: Interface in the Fundmentals Guide.

Setting the Scene Resolution and Length
If the scene resolution was not already set by the digital layout artist or by a Toon Boom Storyboard Pro
import, it is the next step to be accomplished. The layout artist, scene planner or animator will often take careof this task prior to the animation when working with paperless and cut-out animation.
How to set the resolution and frame rate
1. From the top menu, select Scene > Scene Settings.
The Scene Settings dialog box opens.
2. In the Resolution tab, Choose a resolution from the list or enter a new one.

3. Set your frame rate.

4. Click OK.

NOTE: It is important to set the resolution before you begin to set positioning and camera moves, as it may affectthe ratio and composition.

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Once you have set the resolution and frame rate, you must set the scene length by adding the right number offrames to the scene. You can set the scene length from the top menu. If you do not yet know the number offrames that will be needed, simply add some frames so you can draw different poses. However, if you only needto draw a background and one pose, you do not need to add more frames.
You don't need to do this step if you are importing your animatic in the QuickTime movie file format. The
QuickTime import feature takes care of the scene length at the same time as the movie import.
How to set the scene length
1. From the top menu, select Scene > Scene Length.
The Set Scene Length dialog box opens.

2. Type the scene duration in the Number of Frames field.

3. Click OK.

Importing the Layout, Storyboard and Animatic

To animate a scene, you need to import your layout, storyboard or animatic, depending on which technique you
are using. The most popular method is the animatic.
If you created a digital layout prior to the scene animation, you will animate directly in that scene. In this case,there is no need to import references since they are already there.

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Importing the Animatic
If you have an animatic available, you can import it. The animatic will give you the right timing to expose youranimation poses.
There are three ways to import an animatic in a scene.
How to import a QuickTime animatic
Toon Boom lets you import QuickTime movie files in the scene, cut them as image sequences and import thesound as an independent soundtrack.
1. From the top menu, select File > Import > Movie.
The Select QuickTime Movie window opens.
2. Browse to your animatic.
3. Click Open.
4. The Import Movie window displays the conversion progress.

When the conversion is complete, the Import Images dialog box opens—see the Import chapter in the
Compositing and Effects guide to learn more.
1. Click OK.
How to import an image sequence animatic
You can also import an animatic composed of a sequence of bitmap images that were created in a third-party
software by using the Import Images feature.
Use the same technique to import layouts and poses that were created on paper and scanned in third-party
software.
1. From the top menu, select Import > Images.
2. The Import Images dialog box opens—see the Import chapter in the Compositing and Effects guide tolearn more.
3. Click OK.
How to import a Toon Boom Storyboard Pro animatic
If the animatic was created with Toon Boom Storyboard Pro, you need to create an Export to Toon Boomfunction from that software. This will create your scenes and import your layout and posing and camera moves.
This must be done at the beginning of the production. When you work in Harmony, use the same technique as
you would in any QuickTime animatic.

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If your project was created using Toon Boom Storyboard Pro, the animatic and camera moves are already set inyour scene and you can go ahead and import the background elements.

Importing the Background Elements

Once the layout or animatic is set, you can import the background elements.
There are two types of background elements you can import: bitmap and vector-based.
Bitmap backgroundYou can import external bitmap background elements to your scene using the Import Images dialog box. Be sure
to deselect the Convert to Toon Boom Vector Drawing option to retain your elements as bitmaps and preserve
your colours.
To import a bitmap background, follow the procedure to import an image sequence animatic—see Importing theAnimatic on page 170. For in-depth information on importing bitmap images, refer to Chapter 7: How to Import
Bitmap Images in the Getting Started Guide.

Creating the Drawing Elements
Before beginning to draw in the Camera or Drawing view, you must add a drawing element to the Xsheet orTimeline view. You will also need to select the appropriate cell in your drawing element.
How to add a drawing element from the Timeline view
1. In the Timeline view, click the Add Drawing Layer(Mac OS X).
The Add Drawing Layer window opens.

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2. In the Name field, name your new layer.
3. Do one of the following:‣

Click Add to add a first layer and keep the window open to add more layers.

‣

Click Add and Close to add a new layer and close the window.

A new drawing layer is added to the Timeline view.
How to add a palette to your element
1. In the Timeline view or Xsheet view, select the cell in the drawing element that you plan to animate.
2. Do one of the following:‣

From the Colour view menu, select Palettes > Import.

‣

Click the Import Palettebutton.

The Browser window opens.
3. Select the palette.
4. Click OK.

Creating the Drawings

Once your drawing elements have been created and your palettes are loaded, you are ready to create
drawings for your animation. But before creating the drawings, you should familiarize yourself with thefollowing operations.
There are two different ways to create drawings. You can create drawings automatically by letting Harmony
do it for you or by typing names (Typing mode) in the Xsheet cells.

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How to automatically create a drawing
1. From the Timeline or Xsheet view, select the appropriate cell and start drawing in the Camera or Drawingview.
Harmony creates the drawing and names it using the next available number. If there is no existing drawing,
then it will be named "1", then "2" and so on—see the Preferences guide to learn more about the Use
Current Frame As Drawing Name option.
How to create a drawing using the Typing mode
1. To insert a drawing name in a column cell, double-click on the cell and type the name using alphanumericvalues: 0-9, a-z, underscore (_) and dash (-). By default, if you press the Enter/Return key, the cursor
will move on to the next cell. If you press the Esc key, it will quit the typing mode and return to normal
mode—see Typing Exposure to learn more about the Typing mode.
Drawing Concept
When you add a drawing element to your scene, a folder is automatically added to the scene directory. This
folder is named the same as the drawing element. Its purpose is to store all the drawings related to this drawing
element. For example, when working with cut-out animation, a character can have many hands available. All ofthese hand drawings will be contained in this folder even if they are not exposed in the Timeline or Xsheet view. In
other words, there is always a drawing container associated with a drawing element (layer, column).
All the drawings that were scanned in or created directly in Harmony will be saved in this directory. This meansthat when a value or drawing name is entered in the column, the Harmony will search the directory for thecorresponding drawing to display. If it is unable to find it, a new drawing will be created. The column cells are notstorage places, but simply links to the corresponding directory. If you remove a drawing from the column
exposure, it will not be deleted; it is simply not displayed. You can always access it again.
When you create a drawing cycle, all repeated drawings are linked to the same original files. So when you modify,
repaint or correct drawing 1, the entire cycle will be updated; every time drawing 1 appears, it is accessed from asingle file.

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Renaming a Drawing
When you want to rename a drawing, use the Rename Drawing command. Do not double-click on the frame
and write a new name, as this will create a new drawing and hide your actual drawing. Note that your drawing
will not be deleted; it is still contained inside the element folder. Simply re-enter the name and it will reappear.

NOTE: To learn how to rename a sequence of cells by prefix or by frame position, see Renaming a Drawing.

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Rough Animation

The first step to complete a traditional paperless animation is the rough construction, which is the skeleton ofyour animation. You would usually start with the main action. For example, to animate a walk cycle, you will startwith the torso motion and the legs. Head, arms and clothes will be added later during the secondary animation.
For a satisfactory animation, complete the main action before adding all the details. If you start animating all thedetails right away, you will lose a lot of time if you have to make corrections. Your animation will often look too
rigid.
How to animate
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Brush

tool or press Alt + B.

2. In the Colour view, select a colour for the brush. It is a good idea to choose a light colour for your roughanimation. This will help you in the task that follows, the clean up process.

3. In the Timeline view, select the cell where the first drawing will appear.
4. In the Camera or Drawing view, draw the first key drawing.

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5. In the Tools toolbar, click the Onion Skinbutton. The Onion Skin feature displays your previous andnext drawings as visual references to help you draw your new pose.
6. In the Timeline view, click and drag the blue onion skin markers to extend the number of previous andnext visible drawings.
7. In the Camera View or Drawing View toolbar, press either the Onion Skin Reduce One Next/Previous
Drawing or Onion Skin Add One Next/Previous Drawing to reduce or increase the number of previous
and next visible drawings. The red icons
are for the previous drawings and the green icons
are for the next drawings.
8. In the Timeline view, select the cell where your next key drawing will appear.

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

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10. In the Timeline view, select a cell between the two key drawings.

11. From the Timeline toolbar, click Create Empty Drawing
Shift + R.

to create an empty drawing or press Alt +NOTE: Instead of creating an empty drawing, you can simply start drawing.

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

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13. In the Timeline view, select a new cell and repeat the previous steps for each new drawing.
14. In the Timeline view, use the Enable/Disable All
don't want to see during playback.

and Solobuttons to turn off any layers you

15. To loop playback, move the red playhead to the desired start frame and click the Start button on theTimeline toolbar. Move the playhead to the last frame of the playback and click the Stop button.

16. in the Playback toolbar, click the Loopbutton to start the playback.

17. In the Playback toolbar, click the Playbutton to start the animation.

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Secondary Animation

Once your rough animation is correct, you can start adding extra details, such as arms, clothes or hair.
You can add the extra details on the same layer with the same colour or you can also create a new colour so thatyou can always see your original sketch.

NOTE: If you want to keep your rough animation as it is to avoid any mistakes, you can add an extra drawing element
and use the Light Table feature to draw over the first drawing element. This technique can also be used if you want toreuse your rough animation for other characters. For example, if you have a rough walk-cycle, you can reuse it foranother character and add its personal features in a new layer. This way, you only need to animate the secondary
animation instead of the whole body again.

How to create secondary animation on the same layer
1. In the Timeline view, select the cell in which you want to add new details.
2. In the Colour view, create a new colour (give it the same name and add the prefix _2 or _sec, for example)
or select the same rough colour as before.
3. In the Drawing Tools toolbar, select your drawing tool.
4. In the Camera view, draw the secondary animation.

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5. Do one of the following:‣

In the Xsheet view, select the next cell in which you want to draw.

‣

Press F and G to navigate between your drawings.

6. Do one of the following:‣

Select View > Onion Skin > Show Onion Skin.

‣In the Timeline view menu, select Onion Skin > Show Onion Skin.

‣

Press Alt + O.

7. In the Camera or Drawing view, draw the secondary animation.

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How to create your secondary animation on an extra layer
1. Add a new drawing layer and name it secondary_animation.
2. In the Timeline view, select the rough layer's timing.
3. Copy the timing and in the top menu, select Edit > Paste Special or Ctrl + B (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + B(Mac OS X).
4. Choose Never create drawing files from the options to paste the timing but not the drawing files.

5. If you are working in the Drawing view, in the Drawing View toolbar, enable the Light Table.
6. In the Timeline view, select the cell where you want to add the new details.
7. In the Colour view, create a new colour (give it the same name and add the prefix _2 or _sec, for example)
or select the same rough colour as before.
8. In the Tools toolbar, select your drawing tool.
9. In the Camera view, draw the secondary animation on top of your rough drawing.

10. Do one of the following:‣

In the Xsheet View, select the next cell in which you want to draw.

‣

In the Camera or Xsheet view, press F and G to navigate between your drawings.

11. Do one of the following:‣

In the top or Camera View menu, select View > Onion Skin > Show Onion Skin.

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In the Timeline view menu, select Onion Skin > Show Onion Skin.

‣

Press Alt + O.

12. In the Camera view, draw the next secondary animation.
13. You can also use the Playback toolbar to play the animation in real time.

Bringing Your Animation on ModelIf your primary and secondary animation were done as a rough drawing, it is now time to put your drawing on
model. This means that you have to review your animation and ensure that every single detail is on model andthere is no volume distortion. You can do this directly on the original sketch layer or on a new layer.
If your primary and secondary animation was done quite on model, you can proceed directly to the animation
clean-up. If not, proceed the same way as you did for the secondary animation task to bring your animation onmodel.

Animation Clean-up

When your rough animation is ready, it is time to clean it up and ink it. The clean-up is also called tracing. It
consists of tracing solid and clean lines over the rough animation to get closed zones. This is the final paperlessanimation step before the ink and paint step.

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You will need to add a new drawing layer to create your cleaned up drawing. This is the equivalent of adding asheet of paper and tracing the rough using the animation disk.
This method allows you to keep the roughs and the cleans intact. You only need to disable the rough layer toprevent it from appearing in the scene.
If you plan on tracing your animation in the Drawing view, enable the light table to display all the layers in yourproject.
How to trace your animation in a new layer
1. In the Layer toolbar, click the Add Drawing Layer
2. In the Timeline view, click the Locking the layer in the Camera view.

button.

button of the layer containing your rough animation to avoid select-

3. In the Timeline view, in the new layer, select the cell corresponding to the first key drawing of your roughanimation.
4. In the Tools toolbar, select the drawing tool of your choice. The Pencil

tool is recommended.

5. In the Colour view, select a colour for tracing your animation. A dark bold colour, such as black, would
ensure that it contrasts well with the light colour of your rough animation.
6. In the Camera or Drawing view, start tracing the first key drawing.

7. If you have some other layers in the way, you can disable them temporarily from the Timeline view so that
only the rough animation and clean-up layer are displayed in the Camera view.
8. In the Tools toolbar, click the Onion Skinbutton and pull on the blue onion skin handles in the Timelineview to extend the number of frames you can see.

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9. In the Camera View or Drawing View toolbar, press either the Onion Skin Reduce One Next/Previous
Drawing or Onion Skin Add One Next/Previous Drawing to reduce or increase the number of previous
and next visible drawings. The red icons
are for the previous drawings and the green icons
are for the next drawings.
10. In the Timeline view, select the next cell corresponding to a rough drawing.
11. In the Drawing or Camera view, trace your next drawing.

12. Repeat the previous steps for each drawing.

Tools
To understand paperless animation, you must first discover the tools available. There are, of course, drawing
tools, but also practical features such as setting a drawing as a key, breakdown or in-between.
When you create hand-drawn animation digitally, there are certain tools you require in order to work
efficiently, as you would with an animation table, paper and pencils.
The onion skin and light table are used to preview previous and next drawings, cells, elements and frames.
When designing or animating, it is very useful to see your previous drawings. Just as if you were building a cutout puppet, you want to view other drawing elements to know where to draw the new element.
This topic is divided as follows:•

Onion Skin on page 185•

Light Table on page 186•

Rotate View Tool on page 187•

Create Empty Drawing on page 188•

Reposition All Drawings on page 189

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Onion Skin

The Onion Skin tool lets you preview the previous and next drawings. By default, the previous drawings appear ina shade of red and the next drawings are displayed with a shade of green. You can change these colours in the
Preferences dialog box.
How to enable onion skinning
1. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select View > Onion Skin > Show Onion Skin.

‣In the Timeline view, click the Onion Skinbutton on a layer.

‣

In the Tools toolbar, click the Onion Skinbutton.

‣Press Alt + O.

Blue arrows appear on both sides of the play head.
2. Drag the blue arrows to add more frames to the onion skin display.

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Light Table

The light table is used to preview the previous and subsequent active layers in washed-out colours. It is usefulfor seeing the other layers when designing, animating or cleaning up your animation.
Only the currently selected drawing is displayed by default in the Drawing view. When enabling the light table,
the other layers appear as a washed-out display and are used as a reference. You can not select or manipulatethem.
In the Camera view, when the light table is activated, all layers but the currently selected one are shown
washed-out. The display returns to the normal mode when an animation tool is selected.
How to enable the light table
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the top menu, select View > Light Table.

‣

In the Drawing View toolbar, click the Light Table‣In the bottom Camera View toolbar, click the Light Table‣

Press Shift + L.

button.
button.

2. The drawings for the other layers are displayed as washed-out colours in the Camera and Drawing
views.

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3. In the Timeline view, you can disable the layers you want to hide from the light table.

Rotate View Tool
Use the Rotate View tool (animation disk) to rotate your Camera or Drawing view while you draw for increased
flexibility. The rotary tables in each view are independent; if you rotate the Drawing view 25 degrees, if you switch
to the Camera view, you can use the rotary table in that view and rotate it to a different angle without affecting
the settings in the other view.
How to use the rotary table
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the Camera or Drawing view, hold down Ctrl + Alt (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + Alt (Mac OS X)‣

In the Tools toolbar, click the Rotate View

button.

The rotary table appears.

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2. Rotate the view to the desired angle.

3. Release the keyboard shortcut or switch to a new drawing tool.
4. Press Shift + X to reset the rotation.

Create Empty Drawing
The Create Empty Drawing command automatically creates a drawing in the selected cell, replacing any
drawing that may already be exposed in that cell and the following ones until it meets another drawing, key
exposure or a blank cell.
How to create an empty drawing
1. In the Timeline view, select the cell in which you want to create an empty drawing.
2. Do one of the following:‣

In the top menu, select Drawing > Create Empty Drawing.

‣

In the Timeline View toolbar, click the Create Empty Drawing‣

Press Alt + Shift + R.

The new drawing is created in the Timeline view.

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Reposition All Drawings

The Reposition All Drawings
drawing included in a layer.

option is used to reposition, scale, rotate or skew all drawing strokes on every

How to reposition all drawings
1. From the Tools toolbar, select the Reposition All Drawings
stroke in your drawing in the Drawing and Camera view.
2. Do any of the following:‣

To reposition, click and drag your selection to a new area.

‣

To rotate, rotate the selection box handle.

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tool. This also automatically selects everyChapter 5: Paperless Animation‣

To scale, pull or push on the top, side, bottom or corner control points. Hold down Shift to maintainthe selection’s ratio.

‣

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

3. When you release your cursor, every drawing in the drawing layer you repositioned, scaled, rotated or
skewed will follow the same transformation.
4. You can also adjust the position by modifying the settings and using the operation buttons in the Tool
Properties view.

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Reposition All Drawings Properties

Parameter

Description

Flip Horizontal and Flip Vertical

The Flip Horizontal
and Flip Verticalselection horizontally or vertically.
‣

operations flip the current

From the top menu, select Drawing > Flip Horizontal and Flip
Vertical.

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Rotate 90 Degrees CW and
CCW
The Rotate 90 Degrees CW
and Rotate 90 Degrees CCW
operations
rotate the current selection 90 degrees clockwise or counter-clockwise.
‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Transform > Rotate 90
Degrees CW and Rotate 90 Degrees CCW.

‣

Press Ctrl + 7 and Ctrl + 9 (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + 7 and ⌘ + 9(Mac OS X).

Use the Width and Height operation fields to enter specific values to resize theselected shape with precision.

Width and Height
1. Width: Type a value in this field to resize the width of your selection.
2. Height: Type a value in this field to resize the height of your selection.
3. Up/Down arrows: Use the up and down arrows to modify the value in
the Width or Height fields.
4. Lock icon: Click the lock icon to lock or unlock the ratio between the
Width and Height values.
Use the Offset X and Offset Y operation fields to enter specific values andprecisely reposition the selected shape.

Offset X and Offset Y
1. X: Type a value in this field to reposition your selection along the X-axis.
2. Y: Type a value in this field to reposition your selection along the Y-axis.
3. Up/Down arrows: Use the up and down arrows to modify the value in
the X or Y value field.
The Angle operation lets you to enter specific values and accurately rotate theselected shape.
Angle
1. Angle: Type a degree value in this field to rotate your selection.

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2. Up/Down arrows: Use the up and down arrows to modify the value in
the Angle value field.

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Chapter 6: Ink and Paint

When traditional animation is traced, cleaned up, scanned in and properly exposed, it's time for the ink and paintprocess. This consists of cleaning all dirt and hair (for example, dust that was in the scanner, dots that do notbelong in the drawing, extra floating artwork around the drawing that must be removed), painting the lines andfilling the colours in the empty zones on an entire animation sequence.
For paperless animation, the drawings are cleaned up directly in Harmony, so there is generally no dirt to clean,
only painting and inking.
For cut-out animation, once the character builder paints the pieces, there is no more ink and paint process
because the same parts are always reused and moved around. The ink and paint process applies only to
traditional and paperless animation workflows.
Harmony is optimized to ink and paint drawings efficiently. Since most of the drawings are vector-based, thecolour zones are completely filled and there are no scattered spots left blank. Also, there are some actions thatcan be applied on an entire animation sequence at once, like dirt removal, some colour filling, line repainting, andso on.
Harmony uses palettes to hold all the colours you need to paint your elements. A palette is created by assigning a
set of colours to each character, prop or effect. The colour styling artist will create a new palette and add a newcolour for each zone of the character, such as the skin, hair, tongue, shirt, pants, and so on. Each colour is known
as a colour swatch—see Working with Palettes on page 105.

When a zone on the character is painted with the colour contained in a colour swatch, a link is automaticallycreated between that colour swatch and the zone. This means that if the tint of the colour in the colour swatch ischanged, any zone linked to it will update to the new tint. This is one way that colour palettes can save time andmoney in your production.

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Another advantage of this system is that you can create complete palettes for different lighting situations. For
instance, in addition to the regular palette for a character, you could have one for that character in the rainusing colours that are duller and less vibrant than the dry daytime colours, or yet another for using in a night
scene. Using palettes linked to your character in this way allows you to instantly change its colouring to suit themood and atmosphere of the scene without tediously repainting each element.
The ink and paint process is divided into the following steps:
Preparation

196

Painting

199

Painting Using the Paint Tool

199

Inking the Lines

202

Verifying the Zones are Painted

203

Glossary

208

Index

218

Preparation
The optimal workspace for creating colour models and inking/painting in traditional animation includes thefollowing views:•

Camera•Drawing•

ColourAs there is no default workspace for these tasks, you will need to create a custom workspace for yourself—see
the Fundamentals Guide.
You may have a character or element palette that has colours that are very similar to the Drawing and Camera
view's background colour. For example, a white eyeball colour on a white background which makes it difficult
to know if the zone was painted. You can change the background colour of the Camera or Drawing view in the
Preferences dialog box.

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How to change a view's background colour
1. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Edit > Preferences.

‣

Mac OS X: Select Stage Essentials > Preferences.

‣

Press Ctrl + U (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + U (Mac OS X).

The Preferences dialog box opens.
2. Select the General tab.
3. In the Colours section, click Edit Colours.
The Colours dialog box opens.
4. Select the Camera or Drawing tab.
5. Change the background colour of:‣

Camera View: Click the Background colour swatch.

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Drawing View: Click the Background Colour colour swatch.

The Select Colour dialog box opens.
6. Select a colour by clicking a colour swatch, clicking a colour in the colour gradient, or entering a
HSV/RGB Value.

7. Click OK in the three opened dialog boxes to apply your changes.

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NOTE:
When you need to paint drawings with similar colours throughout the palette, you can create a clone of that paletteand change all the colours to very bright tints to facilitate the paint process—see Cloning a Colour Palette on page
115.

Painting
This section is divided as follows:•

Painting Using the Paint Tool on page 199•

Selecting a Colour in a Drawing on page 200•

Editing Gradients and Textures on page 201•

Inverting a Colour Selection on page 202

Painting Using the Paint Tool

The main tool you will use to paint your drawings with is the Paint tool. The Paint tool can be used in several
different modes, which can be customized in the Tool Properties view.
The Paint tool paints closed zones, including brush strokes and pencil lines. If there are gaps in the lines defining azone, you must close them using the Brush, Pencil, or Close Gap tools or the Automatic Close Gap option.
How to paint with the Paint tool
1. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select the cell on which you want to paint.

2. Do one of the following:‣

In the Tools toolbar, click the Paint‣

Press Alt + I.

tool.

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3. In the Colour view, select a colour.

4. In the Camera view, start painting. Click on a zone or pencil line to paint it, or trace a lasso or marqueeselection to paint several zones or pencil lines at the same time.

NOTE: The last colour you select while using the Paint tool will be used the next time you select the Paint tool if
you're using the unlocked painting tools in the Colour view.

Selecting a Colour in a Drawing

While working in the Camera or Drawing view, you can use the Dropper tool to pick a colour from yourdrawing without going to the Colour view.
How to use the Dropper tool
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the Tools toolbar, select the Dropper‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Drawing Tools > Dropper.

‣

Press Alt + D.

tool.

2. In the Camera or Drawing view, click on the desired colour.
‣

If you're using another drawing tool such as the Paint tool, you can temporarily hold down the D key
and click in your drawing before releasing the key to pick your colour. When you release the key, youwill return to your previous tool. You may also want to select the zones painted with the colour
currently selected in the Colour view. This can be useful for removing rough lines from a clean
drawing.

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How to select the zones painted with the current colour
1. In the Colour view, select the colour from which you want to select the corresponding zones.

2. Do one of the following:‣

Select Drawing > Select Strokes With Current Colour.

‣

Press Ctrl + Shift + A (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + Shift + A (Mac OS X).

Editing Gradients and Textures

If you paint a zone with a gradient or texture colour, you can use the Edit Gradient/Texture tool to modify its
position in the zone. You can move, scale, rotate and skew. If you want to match the colour to the animation, set
the first texture position and copy the Edit Gradient/Texture position. When moving to the next drawing, you canselect the next texture and paste the previous position to continue the modifications.
If you are painting a hand-drawn animation or if your want the Brush tool and Paint tool to use your gradient’s
position, angle and scale settings instead of the default ones, you can store your own settings and reuse themafterward.
This way of editing a texture using the Edit Gradient/Texture tool also works with pencil lines drawn with
textured “brushes”. If you then paint your textured pencil line with a gradient, you can do so and then edit bothelements independently at the same time.
How to use Edit Gradient/Texture tool
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the Tools toolbar, click the Edit Texture‣

Press Shift + F3.

tool.

2. Click the gradient or texture colour to modify.

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A blue selection frame surrounds the selected gradient or texture.

3. Edit the gradient or texture by adjusting the control handles around the selection frame.

Inverting a Colour Selection
When you need to select all colour swatches but one, or select only a few swatches here and there, it might befaster to select the only colour you do not need in order to select and invert the selection.
How to invert a colour swatch selection in the Colour view
1. In the Colour view, select the colour swatch you DO NOT want to have in your final selection.

2. Do one of the following:

Inking the Lines
Repaint Brush Mode
The Repaint Brush mode is used to paint a section by manually painting over the lines. This is useful when thevectorization triangles are not placed as you would like or you simply need to repaint a section of a segment. It

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Harmony 12.1 Essentials - Paperless Animation Guideis also useful for paperless animation, where there are no triangles. So, the Repaint Brush is used to paint a
certain area. It acts like the Brush tool, but will only show on painted areas that are already painted.
Unlike the Brush tool, the Repaint Brush mode flattens automatically. The brush strokes are not added one on
top of each other.
How to enable the Repaint Brush mode
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Brushtool.

2. In the Tool Properties view, enable the Repaint Brushmode.

Verifying the Zones are Painted
When the ink and paint process is completed, it's always a good idea to verify that every zone was painted
properly.
The first step to check your ink and paint is to go through all your drawings and verify that there are no colour
mistakes. You can use the F and G keyboard shortcuts or the Preview option available in the Xsheet.
How to preview drawings from the Xsheet
1. First, save your scene.
2. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select File> Save.

‣

Click the Save‣

Press Ctrl + S (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + S (Mac OS X).

button.

3. In the Xsheet view, select the range of drawings or the whole column to preview.

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4. In the Xsheet View menu, select View > Preview Selected Drawings or press Alt + P.
The Play window opens.

5. Play your drawings.

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6. Select the Preroll option to see blank frames at the beginning and end of the animation sequence while
looping the playback.

Paint Tool Properties
When you select the Paint tool, its properties and options appears in the Tools Properties view.

Icon

Tool Name
Lasso and Marquee on page 205

Painting Modes on page 205
Apply to Multiple Drawings on page 207
Select Newly Paintedand Unpainted Contours/Lines on page 207
Close Gap on page 207

Lasso and Marquee
The Lasso and Marquee options let you choose the type of selection the current tool will perform. The default
selection mode is Marquee.
•

Lasso

•

Marqueelets you draw a custom selection box around zones.
makes a rectangle selection box.

NOTE:
Hold down the Alt key to switch to toggle between the selection modes.

Painting Modes
The Paint tool has four different modes available:

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You can also find these tools directly in the Tools toolbar and in the Drawing Tools menu.

Paint Mode

The Paintmode paints everything it touches, including empty and filled zones—see Painting Using the
Paint Tool on page 199.

Paint Unpainted Mode

The Paint Unpainted

mode paints only empty zones. Any line or filled zone will remain unchanged.

Unpaint Mode

The Unpaintmode unpaints everything it touches, including empty and filled zones.

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Apply to Multiple Drawings

The Apply to Multiple Drawings
option is used for fast painting in hand-drawn animation. When you want topaint several drawings in a same layer at once, such as a walk cycle, you can enable this option and make aselection in the Camera or Drawing view. All the closed zones located within your Paint tool selection are painted
with the selected colour swatch.
You do not need to enable the Onion Skin preview to use this option. The option will stay enabled only for the
next action. If you want to use it again, you must click on the Apply to Multiple Drawings button again, or press
Alt + A.

Select Newly Paintedand Unpainted Contours/Lines

In the Paint tool properties, this option
keeps a selection highlighted around the latest painted zone afterusing the Paint, Unpaint, or Paint Unpainted tool.

Close Gap
The Close Gap option has four modes available:

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When painting, you may notice that some drawing areas are not closed. To close the zone, you can draw themissing line with the Brush or Pencil tool, or close the gap with an invisible line using the Close Gap tool.
The Close Gap tool lets you close small gaps in a drawing by creating small, invisible strokes between the two
closest points to close the colour zone. You do not need to trace directly over the gap. You can draw it a few
millimeters away. The two closest points automatically close the gap.

Glossaryalpha channel

An image channel that carries transparency information. An image alreadyhas three channels: red, green and blue (RGB). The alpha channel is the
fourth channel (RGBA). The matte, or the transparency information, isstored in this fourth channel. An image without an alpha channel is always
opaque.

animatic

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

animation

A simulation of movement created by displaying a series of pictures orframes.

anime

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

arc

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

aspect ratio

The relationship between the width and height dimensions for any scene,

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frame or film format. Television ratio is 4:3 and widescreen ratio is 16:9.
auto-feed

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

automatic lip-sync detection

Automatically mapping drawings in an element to the mouth chart
generated for a sound. This can save time when lip-syncing a voice track.
An imaginary line around which an object rotates.

axis

For 2D graphics, there are two axes: X (horizontal and Y (vertical).
For 3D graphics, there are three axes: X (horizontal, Y (vertical) and Z(depth).

background

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

Bézier

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

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

breakdown

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

camera shake

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

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

cel

In traditional animation, a cel (also known as celluloid) is a transparent
sheet on which the animation is inked and painted before being sent to thecamera. The picture's outline is drawn on the front of the cel and thencoloured along the back.
In Harmony, a cel is an individual space in an Xsheet column from which you
can expose a drawing or a function's coordinate.

character design

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

clean up

After rough drawings have been tested and approved, all the noise in theimage (excess lines, notes, etc) is removed to create final drawings which209

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can be inked, painted and shot. The cleanup process refers to either tracing
a clean line over a rough drawing to achieve the final version, or removing
dirt and extra lines left by the scanning process.
CMYK

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black. Refers to the process used by printers todefine colour on the printed page.

colour card

A colour card is a solid colour card that is the same size as the camera. The
colour card can be used to fill the background with a solid colour when
there is no background image included.

colour model

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

colour wheel

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

compositing

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

cross dissolve

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

cut

A direct transition between two scenes. When a cut is used, there are notransition effects inserted to pass from one scene to the next. The firstscene ends and the second one starts immediately.

cut-out animation

The action of animating characters made of several pieces by moving themaround frame by frame. Cut-out animation can either be computer
generated or done traditionally using paper.

cycle

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

dialogue

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

dope sheet

Used by animators, directors and other members of a crew to track thesequence and timing of images, dialogue, sound effects, sound tracks andcamera moves. Also known as an exposure sheet or Xsheet.

dopingTo assign a particular drawing to a range of frames.

DPI

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

ease/velocity

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

ease-in

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

ease-out

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

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establishing shot

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

exposure

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

exposure sheet

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

fade in/fade out

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

fast-inDramatic acceleration at the start of the action.

fast-out

Dramatic acceleration at the end of the action.

field

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

field chart

A guide containing all the field units that animation and layout artists use todetermine a scene size or camera motion.

film-1.33

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

film-1.66

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

flipping

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

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

forward kinematics

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

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frame

A single photographic image in a movie. In traditional animation, the North
American standard generally contains 24 frames per second, while inEurope the standard is 25 frames per second.
The frame rate is the speed at which the frames are played. They are
generally calculated by frame per second. For example, a scene could beplayed back at 12, 24, 25, 30 or 60 frames per second or any other number.

frame rate

This is the measurement of the frequency (rate) at which an imaging device
produces unique consecutive images, called frames. The term applies
equally to computer graphics, video cameras, film cameras, and motion
capture systems.
Frame rate is most often expressed in frames per second (fps) and in
progressive-scan monitors as hertz (Hz).

functions

A computer-generated motion, trajectory or path on which elements, othertrajectories and effects parameters can be attached. The function can becontrolled by adding keyframes and control points on the function curve.

gamut

The range of colours that a particular device can represent.

HDTV

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

hold

A frame in the animation in which the character maintains its position
without moving. A hold can be created between any two keyframes.

HSV

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

in-between

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

ink and paint

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

interpolation

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

jump cut

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

key pose

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

keyboard shortcuts

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

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keyframe

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

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

layout

The communication step between the storyboard and the animation. It is
the action of putting the storyboard on model. That is, drawing thecharacter by following the design in the model pack, so the animator canstart working.
The layout artist draws the background, creates the camera and field guidematching the scene and camera motion. Lastly, the animator draws on
model the main action poses.

layout and posing

The action of putting on model. That is, at the right scale, the storyboard
for the animator to start working.

library

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

light table

A device that allows you to see other layers in transparency while you areworking on a particular layer.

line of action

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

lip-sync

The character's mouth synchronization with the dialogue sound track.
Frame by frame, the mouth will be adjusted to fit the sound to give theillusion of the character is speaking.

low resolution

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

manual lip-sync detection

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

master palette

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

model/colour model

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

motion keyframe

A keyframe with computer-generated interpolation.

mouth chart

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

multiplane

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

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NTSC

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

nudge

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

onion skin

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

overlay

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

PAL

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

palette/master palette

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

palette style

A palette style is a second version of an existing palette with a slight change
in the tint and value. A palette style can be used to create the night version
of a palette. It may also be called a clone palette.

pan

To move the camera across the scene in any direction.

panel

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

The paperless animation process is the action of animating digitally. The
paperless animation/tradigital main paperless animation process is to draw, frame by frame, theanimation directly in the software.
passing position

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

path of action

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

peg

In traditional animation, a tool used to ensure accurate registration ofaction as cel layers move. In digital animation, in which you are doing amore advanced puppet rigging, you can use peg layers. Peg layers aretrajectory layers that do not contain drawings. They are motion paths thatyou can use to add path articulations. For the latter, you can also use theInverse Kinematics tool.

phonemeA unit of sound in a language.

pivot

The point around which a peg or drawing rotates.
The smallest element of an image displayed on a monitor or TV screen.

pixel

Pixel, short for picture element, is a single point in a graphic image. It is asmall sample of an image, a dot, a square, or a very small section made outof smooth filtering. If you zoom in close enough on a digital image, you will
see the pixels, which look like small squares of different colours andintensity.

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pose-to-pose animation

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

rendering

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

resolution

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

RGB

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

rigging

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

rotary table

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

rotoscoping

An animation technique in which animators trace over live-action film
movement, frame by frame, for use in animated films. The act of sketchingover live-action footage to create an animated sequence.

roughs

The skeleton sketch of an animation or design. Roughs mainly consist of
sketch lines and shapes, though they can also contain design details.

safe area

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

scene

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

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

sequence

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

shot

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

slow-in

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

slow-out

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

slugging

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

sound scrubbing

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

stop-motion keyframe

A keyframe with no computer-generated interpolation.

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storyboard

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

straight-ahead

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

strokes

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

tablet/pen

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

template

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

thumbnails

A very small image used as a reference or indicator.

timecode

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

timeline

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

trace and paint

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

track breakdown

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

traditional animation

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

trajectory

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

transition

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

underlay

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

aspect ratio

The aspect ratio describes the shape of the grid unit. A square grid unit
would have a 1:1 ratio , whereas a grid unit of aspect ratio 4:3 is a unit with
one side 1.33 times as big as the other side.

vector

A vector-based image is composed of points and Bézier curves. The
computer reads the points and traces the segments, linking them toreproduce the image shape. There is no fixed size or resolution in a vector
image. The graphic can be enlarged and distorted as much as desired andthe system will simply recalculate the segments and rebuild the shapes.
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done.

velocity

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

walk cycle

A series of drawings "on the spot" that describe the walk for a character.
The illusion of movement is created by the use of background pans. To
avoid making innumerable drawings, animators routinely make a walk cycle
for a character.
The Xsheet or exposure sheet, is a sheet with several vertical columns andhorizontal frames used to indicate a scene's timing.

Xsheet (exposure sheet)

Each column represents a scene's layer. In each column, the drawing
numbers are indicated and spread over the specific number of frames inwhich they appear.
The exposure sheet is used by animators, directors and other members of
the crew to track the sequence and timing of images, dialogue, soundeffects, sound tracks and camera moves. Also known as dope sheet.

zone

An area which can be painted with colour.

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Indexalpha channel 208
animatic 208
animation 208
anime 208
arc 208
aspect ratio 208, 216
auto-feed 209
axis 209background 209
backing up
palettes 110
Bezier 209
bitmap images 209
Bitmap layer 141
breakdown 209
brush size 17
Brush tooldrawing 13
size 17brushes
exporting 32, 68, 79
importing 32, 67, 78
Camera layer 141
camera shake 209
caption 209
cel 209
celluloid
See cel. 209
character design 209
drawing with brush 13
drawing with pencil 13
getting references 12
preparation 11
sketching model 13

chart

cut-out animation 210

field 15cycle 210

clean up 209

cyclescleaning

exposure, creating 155

model 25deleting

cloning

drawings 160

layers and columns 146
CMYK 210

design tools 11
Override 14

Colour-Card

designinglayer 142

brush size 17

colour card 210

characters 23

colour model 210, 213

drawing with brush 13

colour palettes

drawing with pencil 13

back up 110

field chart 15

location 109

getting references 12colour swatch

line up 15

adding 20

preparation 11

colour wheel 210

relative size 14

colours 17

sketching model 13

adding colour swatch 20
columns

dialogue 210
dope sheet 210

changing colour 164

doping 210

cloning 146

DPI 210deleting 143

drawing

duplicating 146

brush size 17

modifying 145

Brush tool 13

navigating 159

brushes, exporting 32, 68, 79

properties 144

brushes, importing 32, 67, 78

types 141

characters 23

Xsheet 140

cleaning model 25

compositing 210

colour swatch, adding 20

copyingcolours 17

drawings 161

current drawing on top 28

cross dissolve 210

deletiing thickness stencil 31

cut 210exporting brushes 32, 68, 79

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Effect layer 141

frames 138

importing brushes 32, 67, 78

establishing shot 211

adding before/after selection 139

inking model 25

exportingnavigating 159

line up 15

brushes 32, 68, 79

functions 212

model 24

erasers 32, 68, 79

gamut 212

Override tool 14

pencils 32, 68, 79

Group layer 142

palettes 17

exposure 211

HDTV 212

pencil presets, creating 31

creating cycles 155

pencil presets, selecting 30

decreasing 151

Pencil tool 13, 29

deleting 152

Hold 212

presets, pencil 31

extending 147

HSV 212

relative size 14

filling 146

importingtasks 27

filling empty cells 155

brushes 32, 67, 78

thickness stencil, deleting 31

filling selection 154

erasers 32, 67, 78

thickness stencil, renaming 31

filling sequence with single
exposure 153

pencils 32, 67, 78

drawing elements
adding 143
creating 139
duplicating 146
Drawing layer 141
drawing tools 11
drawings
copying/pasting 161
deleting 160
duplicating 160
managing 159
merging 163
navigating 159
renaming 159
repositioning 16
duplicatingdrawings 160
ease 210
ease-in 210
ease-out 210

increasing 151
inserting blank cells 152
moving cells 150
setting 153
typing in values 147
exposure sheet 211, 217
extendinghidinglayers 163

in-between 212
ink and paint 212
inkingmodel 25
interpolation 212
jump cut 212
key pose 212
keyboard shortcuts 212

exposure 147
fade-in 211

keyframes 213
Layer Properties editor

fade-out 211

displaying 144

field 211

renaming layers 145

field chart 15, 211
film-1.33 211

layers 140, 213
bitmap 141

film-1.66 211

camera 141

flipping 211

changing colour 164

follow-through 211
forward kinematics 211
frame 212

cloning 146
Colour-Card 142
deleting 143

frame rate 212

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duplicating 146

mouth

selecting 30

effect 141

chart 213

Pencil toolGroup 142

multiplane 213

hiding 163

navigatingdrawing 13, 29
phoneme 214

modifying 145

columns 159

pivot 214

Peg 142drawings 159

pixel 214

properties 144

frames 159

pixelation See bitmap image

Quadmap 142

NTSC 214

pose-to-pose 215

renaming 145

nudge 214

presets

reordering 146

onion skinning 214

pencil 30

showing 163

overlay 214

pencil, creating 31

Sound 142

Overrride tool 14

pencil, selecting 30

types 141

PAL 214

Quadmap layer 142

palettes 17, 214

relative size 14

layout 213
layout and posing 213

backup 110

library 213

creating, Advanced Palette Listmode) 19, 111

light table 213
line of action 213
line up 15
lip-sync 213
auto detection 209
lip-sync detection
manual 213
low resolution 213
manual lip-sync detection 213
master palette 213-214
merging
drawings 163
model 213
cleaning 25
inking 25
rough 25sketching 13, 24
model sheet See character design
motion keyframe 213

creating, Basic Palette List mode) 18,
111
location 109

renaming
drawings 159
rendering 215
repositioning
drawings 16
resolution 215

style 214

RGB 215

panel 214

rigging 215

panning 214
paperless animation 214
passing position 214

rotary table 215
rotoscoping 215
rough

Paste Special
pasting with 161

models 25
roughs 215

pasting
drawings 161
path of action 214
Peg layer 142
pegs 214

safe area 215
scenes 215
adding frames before/after
selection 139
extending 138

pen 216

setting length 138

pencil presets 30
creating 31
renaming 31

220

script 215
scrubbing 215
sequences 215

Chapter 6: Ink and Paint •shot 215
showinglayers 163
size
brush 17
relative 14
sketching
characters 23
model 13, 24
slow-in 215
slow-out 215
slugging 215
soundscrubbing 215
Sound layer 142
stencils, thickness
deleting 31
renaming 31
stop-motion keyframe 215
storyboard 216
straight-ahead 216
strokes 216
tablet 216
templates 216
thickness stencil
deleting 31
renaming 31
thumbnails 216
timecode 216
timeline 216
Timeline viewcloning layers and columns 146
modifying layers and columns 145
renaming layers 145
reordering layers 146

timingcloning layers and columns 146

adding frames before/after
selection 139
creating cycles 155
decreasing exposure 151
deleting exposure 152
extending exposure 147
extending scenes 138
filling empty cells 155
filling exposure 146
filling selection with sequence 154
filling sequence with single
exposure 153
frames 138
increasing exposure 151
inserting blank cells 152
moving cells 150
preparing 137
references 138
scene length 138
setting exposure 153
typing in exposure values 147
tools
Override 14
trace and paint 216
track breakdown 216
tradigital 214
traditional animation 216
trajectory 216
transition 216
underlay 216
vector 216
velocity 210, 217
walk cycle 217
Xsheet view 145, 217
adding frames before/after
selection 139

221

columns 140
layers 140
modifying layers and columns 145
zone 217