Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Toon Boom Harmony 11.2 Release Notes
Release 11.2

Here are the new features, changes, and improvements in Toon Boom Harmony 11.2:
lChanges in Toon Boom Harmony 11.2 (11.2.0.10167) on page 1lChanges in Toon Boom Harmony 11.2 (11.1.0.9764) on page 1

Changes in Toon Boom Harmony 11.2 (11.2.0.10167)
Featureslll

Renabled scene machine option.
Updated Flash import means you can now import .swf files in Harmony that were published using any version ofFlash Player, up to version 14. Note that some effects may not appear when imported in Harmony.
Support for new Harmony 12 license which allows you to open Harmony 11.2 .

Bug Fixes
l

l

l

l

l

Fixed crash when importing a scene in command line that needs to be overridden.
Fixed issue where batch rendering didn't give the same result as through Stage's interface. Deformation modules
were required.
Fixed freeze when opening a scene with sound on Windows 8.1.
Fixed issue where copy/pasted lines did not give the same result; the thickness was different. This happened in the
Camera view between two layers with different scale values applied to them.
Fixed corruption of a scene when doing "Save As" in offline mode on Windows only. The paths to palettes in the ColourOverride became absolute instead of relative to the current scene.

lFixed Blur-Radial-Zoom module which was not giving the same result as the previous version.

lFixed issue where multiple deformations coming from a junction created unwanted texture distortion.

Changes in Toon Boom Harmony 11.2 (11.1.0.9764)
Bug Fixesll

Optimized actions done with the Transform tool to significantly speed them up when working on large number of
selected modules. For example moving keyframes on multiple large character rigs.
Fixed Utransform output to PNG file format.

1

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Toon Boom Harmony 11.1 Release Notes
Version 11.1

Here are the new features, changes, improvements, and bug fixes in Toon Boom Harmony 11.1:•

Features on page 2•

Changes and Improvements on page 3•

What's Fixed? on page 4

FeaturesFeatureDescription

New and Updated Icons

There are improved icons for the Transform and Skew tools, as well as the
Art Layers toolbar. New icons are also available in the Script Editor.
When exporting sprite sheets for games, the following is now supported:

Games

•

Deformation: Harmony can export deformation networks to thegame engine XML format (bones and articulations only).

•

Cutter: Both cutters and inverted cutters are supported.

•

Transparency Nodes: The Transparency parameter attached to anelement module is exported along with animation. You can set thetransparency through the Layer Properties window.

Also, colliders were improved to provide different types of colliders foruse with Unity.

Plugins

When one or more plugins are missing, Stage will prevent the scene frombeing saved. There is a new option in the General tab of the Preferences
dialog box called: Open in Read Only mode if plugin syntax errors aredetected. When you select this option, scenes that load with plugin module errors will open in read-only mode. This prevents you from losing plugin information on subsequent saves.

New scene marker method

When marking a current frame, a single-frame length note is created at
the current active frame.

Support for Non-exposed Drawings

You can import SWF files through the Swf2tvg utility which now supports
non-exposed drawings in symbols from Flash.

Resolution.conf File

There is a new resolution.xml file to store the resolutions of Harmony 11
productions. Previous versions of Harmony, such as 10.3, still use the resolution.conf file, but version 11.1 uses the .xml file. Since they don't havethe same options written in their respective files, there were warning messages when going back to 10.3 scenes.

Export Images to Render FarmIn database mode, the Sketch and Draw modules offer an Export Images
to Render Farm option. This option was removed from the Export Images
and placed in a separate window.

2

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Harmony Cloud•

A Log View tab was added to HarmonyCloud.

•You can now insert new scene(s) before/after a selected item.

•

The following were added: Add Send to Render, Send to
Vectorize, Render and Vectorize Queues.

OTF Fonts

The font manager can now load OTF fonts for Japanese or Chinese forexample. You can use the Text tool with these fonts.

Deformation Keyboard Shortcut

In the Shortcuts tab of the Preferences dialog box, you can now add yourown keyboard shortcut for the Copy Resting Position to Current feature.

Changes and Improvements
Change and Improvement

Adjustments to the Interface

Description•

Shadows no longer appear on icons.

•

Icons that are selected appear with darker backgrounds.

•

When using the dark themed interface, the backgrounds of theicons are now lighter.

Workspace

When moving a view to create a new subdivision, the destination where
you can position the view appears highlighted in a light-blue colour.

Performance

Improved performance when pasting a heavy template into the scene.
•

Bitmap deformation is optimized.

•

Optimization when rendering blurs by using the GPU's acceleration
capabilities. There is a new option in the Render tab of thePreferences dialog box to turn this option on or off; it is called
Enable Graphic Card Acceleration. This option is on by default. Not
all cards support this acceleration.

Optimizations

No Re-rendering

Simply selecting a different module in the Network view no longer starts are-render.

Antialiasing

On Windows and Linux, you can enable antialiasing from the Render tab in
the Preferences dialog box without having to change the settings in thegraphic card itself. Previously this was available only on the Mac, but now
all platforms support this OpenGL option.

Expression Columns

Correction to expression columns so they can be attached to 3D paths.
Note that the correct syntax is: value(column("Peg x")).

Removed•Script Help view: Information contained in the Script Help view is
now available in the Scripting Guide.

•

Rename Drawings with Prefix command in the Drawing and
Camera view menu.

•

Message about deleting sound files when you are only editing
them.

•

In the Sketch module, the Save menu command was changed to:
Advanced Save.

•

The Select Previous/Next Brother menu command was changed to:

Menu Commands

3

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Select Previous/Next Sibling.
Eraser Presets

A separate list was brought back for the Eraser presets. It was previously
combined with the Brush tool list for vector tools.

What's Fixed?
Item Fixed

Description
When video card has no OpenGL platforms.
When creating a scene in offline mode. Harmony would crash before thescene can load and open. This was associated with the timeline pastemodes.
Doing skews and rotations of a bitmap.
For thumbnails of certain templates in the Library.
When opening an element from a scene in the Scan module.
When playing back a deformation-heavy scene.

Fixed Crash

When creating elements via the database selector in the Scan module.
When moving the centre control on a 3D Region module that is attached
to a Bounce particle module.
When filling cells in sound columns.
In the Colour Override module when selecting multiple colour swatchesfrom the Selected Colours area and dragging them to the Colour
Overrides area.
Potential crash when exiting application while a module editor is still
open.
Export to QuickTime of a scene with Glue that didn't render properly.
Bug with Glue module that caused a duplication of one of the drawings in
the render.
Links in documents in the Help system for Particles.
Issue when sliding a keyframe away from a following keyframe that would
mess up the second one.

Fixed Various Items

Issue where copying symbols into the Library would not bring all theframes of the symbol. It would copy only the frames selected from theselected layers.
Issue when scanning images that it would create new layers for each
images instead of adding them to the just created new layer.
Deadlock when rendering scenes with Colour Override using textures,
especially in batch render.
Situation where you can't select and delete a stroke with the Contour
Editor tool.

4

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Render progress bar that went backwards on very long scenes.

5

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Issue where sliding 3D path keyframes left an overlapping highlight in the
XsheetAspect ratio issue when rendering a bitmap file with single-point
deformation. We would have the aspect ratio result.
Pasting to the Library of symbols that did not bring all the frames of thesymbol. It pasted only the frames selected from the selected layers
instead of all the content of the symbol.
Deleting a js script that you just created or imported.
Transform tool bounding box that did not display properly with bitmap
tvgs that are combined with deformation.
Pose Copier script that could not see the thumbnails of some templates
or open the Exceptions window.
Import image that would not let you see the .xli file created when using
Export layout.
(Mavericks) Font errors when you start Stage from a shell.
Adding texture to a pencil preset. It will no longer change your current
colour selection.
Display of Red, Green, Blue and Alpha functions in the Timeline view.
Turbulence module did not render anything when a Gradient or Colour
Card is connected to it.
Database error preventing batch render from working.
Issue with closed shape pencil lines while morphing. For example, asquare to a circle shape.
TB_ExportToEaselJS script to deal with mismatching resolution so it
doesn't cut parts of a character.
Issue when rendering a bitmap tilted at 45 degrees. The resulting image isoffset by about 1 pixel to the left.
Relative path to the scene in templates. Drawings linked using timing
were not loaded when relative path has local timing.
Loss of colour information when exporting to PNG4. Fixed byunmultiplying to keep the colour information but scraping the alphachannel.
Soft trace legacy plugin.
Issues with importing offline scenes into database through Control Center
where renamed, duplicated elements would have ID collision. The
drawings would not appear in the scene because of these element
conflicts. Fix in Control center and Cloud.
Issue where we couldn't run dbu utility from non /USA_DB paths.
Remove Unused Files menu item didn't recognize a Pencil Texture Palettein use and offered wrongly to remove and delete it.

6

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

When using the Create Colour art from Line Art on scanned drawings, theresulting colour art had a centre stroke and a contour stroke. It shouldhave only the centre one.

7

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes
Version 11

Here are the new features and improvements in Toon Boom Harmony 11:•

Timeline and Animation Improvements on page 8•

Network on page 29•

Modules and Effects on page 36•

Library - Importing Files through the Library on page 42•

Drawing and Camera View on page 43•

Import on page 59•

Colour View on page 67•

Game Export on page 70•

Harmony Cloud on page 70•

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes on page 8•

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes on page 8•

Sketch Module on page 75•

Draw Module on page 75•

Miscellaneous changes on page 75

Timeline and Animation Improvements
In this version of Harmony, the Timeline view has been improved to make it clearer and more predictable.

Marked Drawings in the Timeline
When you add markers to a project, such as K for Key Drawing or B for Breakdown, they are now visible in the Timeline. The
colours of the Key Drawing frame and Breakdown markers are customizable via the same Marked Drawing preference
settings.
How to mark a drawing as a key, breakdown or in-between
1. In the Xsheet view or Timeline view, select the cell that you want to mark.
2. Do one of the following:‣

In the Mark Drawing toolbar, select an icon.

‣

In the Xsheet view or Timeline view menu, select a command in Drawing > Mark Drawing.

‣

Right-click the selection and select Drawings > Exposure > Mark Drawing.

8

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Scene Markers
Scene markers are used to display visual indicators at the top of the Timeline in the frame counter area. Use it to denoteanything relevant to your work. You can indicate at what frames you want to clean up work, a change in action, or where you
intend to apply an effect. You can also add a note to a scene marker, which is displayed as a tooltip when you hover over thescene marker.
How to create a scene marker
1. In the Timeline view frame counter, select a range of frames on which to mark your scene.

2. Right-click and select Scene Markers.
The Timeline Scene Marker dialog box opens.

3. Click in the Colour box to select a colour for your scene marker.
4. In the Note field, enter text to display as a tooltip.

9

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

5. Click OK.
In the Timeline view, the scene marker is displayed over the selected frame counters. Hover over the scene marker toview its note which displays as a tooltip.

Custom Timeline Colours
The ability to change the colour of a Timeline layer has been improved. Two things have been done. For an element, it’s not
only the cell blocks that will reflect the custom layer colour, but also the background of that layer. Also, you now have theability to change the colour for almost all element types via the Timeline (like pegs).

Key Exposures
If you want to make sure that a certain drawing remains exposed on a certain frame and is not overwritten by a drawing
swap done on an earlier frame, you can use the key exposure function. The key exposure feature breaks a drawing block
into two pieces. The same drawing is used in both blocks. If you modify the artwork in one, the artwork will also be modified
in the second one. But if you swap the exposure of the first one for another drawing, the second block will remain with thefirst drawing. This feature is used to avoid messing up your animation key poses. It is most frequently used on the mouthlayer.

10

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

How to set a key exposure
1. In the Timeline view, select the drawing cell you want to set as your key exposure.
2. In the Timeline View toolbar, you can click on the Add Key Exposure‣

To delete a key exposure, click on the Remove Key Exposure

button.
button.

Copy/Paste
There is no more auto filling before pasted frame(s). There are held frames and key exposures. A held frame is just a framethat has no specific value but just follows the preceding key exposure’s value. When you paste Key Exposures, Blank, orHeld frames it will try to stay the same as the source. A special case is when pasting a Held frame on a different drawing;
then it will create a Key Exposure of the source held.
When you paste on different drawings:•

The value (Held, Blank or Key Exposure) is extended.

•

A Held becomes a key exposure.

•

A blank stays a blank.

•

A key exposure stays a key exposure.

11

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

When pasting on the same drawing, we do the same as above:

Same behaviour in Xsheet for the copy/paste.

Sliding Behaviour for Drag and Drop in Timeline and Xsheet
There have been improvements to how dragging and dropping an exposure/keyframe works. This has been implemented
to avoid unpredictability in the way certain elements were being extended automatically when performing some of thesetypes of operations:•Cut, copy, paste•

Drag and drop or sliding•

Auto-extend

When the source and destination are on the same drawing or blank, there is an extension in that the Held frame is kept:•

No new Key Exposure is created when you slide a held exposure or a blank exposure.

•

No new Key Exposure is created after the Key Exposure is slid over but the original is kept.

When the destination is a different image, there is no extension:•

The held, blank, or key exposures are moved and a key exposure of the different drawing is created after.

•

Some keyframes or exposures located between the source and destination might be replaced or deleted.

12

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

There is a similar behaviour in the Xsheet. When you use the left side of the cells in the Xsheet, it does the same as the slidein the Timeline view for the drawing and function columns. The Annotation and Sound columns work like before; a slide will
not be performed, but cut and paste of the selected area.
You can see the override area in preview like in the Timeline view.

Filling Selections in the Timeline View
When filling a selection or sequence or filling a selection randomly, the Add Key Exposure After option allows you to insert a
keyframe in the frame following the last cell in a selection. This option appears in these dialog boxes: Fill Selection,
Sequence Fill, and Fill Cells Randomly.

No Auto-fill on Preceding Drawings
In previous versions of Harmony, when creating a new drawing that is placed after a series of blank cells, the previous
drawing's exposure filled the empty cells up to the new drawing. In Harmony 11, this no longer happens. The exposure of
the previous drawing does not fill the blank cells preceding the new drawing.

Drawing Substitution Will Not Auto-fill Preceding or Following Frame(s)You can swap images in the Timeline or Library view. When you use the Drawing Substitution area in the Library view, you
are not selecting drawings from the Library; you are selecting drawings contained in your scene layers.
It is important to understand that when a drawing is swapped, its entire exposure is replaced up to the next drawing block.

13

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Although, if you select a frame range to be swapped, the following exposure will remain the same even if it was part of thesame drawing block.

Fill Empty Cells
After you have created several single frame drawings, you can extend their exposure to fill the empty cells between them.
BeforeAfter

Merging Artwork
You now have the ability to Merge layers or drawings. The feature is mostly accessible via the Timeline, but some of it canbe accessed from the Xsheet.

Merging Selected Layers
You can merge two (or more) selected layers. This operation merges the drawing elements from the top all the way down
to the last selected layer (horizontally). The action of merging will copy drawing elements from other selected elements andmerge them into the bottom layer. The original layers will be deleted.
How to merge selected layers
1. On the left side of the Timeline view, select multiple layers.

14Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

2. In the Timeline view menu, select Layers > Merge Selected Layers.
3. Merge Layers with or without conversion to the destination art-layer type (bitmap or vector).

The top layers are merged down into the bottom one and the top layers are deleted.
There is no warning message, but the action can be undone.

Merging Selected Drawings
You can merge drawings by selecting the drawings on the right side of the Timeline view. This will not delete any drawing
layers. Instead, the artwork is copied into the destination layer. Only the exposure on the source is deleted, not thedrawings themselves. The artwork for the original can always be recovered, but the timing cannot.
How to merge selected drawings
1. Select some drawings from the right side of Timeline view.
2. Do one of the following:‣

Right-click the selection and select Drawings > Merge Selected Drawings.

‣

From the Timeline view menu, select Drawings > Merge Selected Drawings.

The drawing elements are copied down into the last selected element, and the exposure is removed from theoriginal.

In this example, the drawing merged from Drawing_1 remains accessible via the Drawing Substitution area in the
Library view, but is no longer exposed in the Timeline view.

Cloning Columns
Cloning a column provides you with a copy of the selected element that uses the same drawings as the original. For
example, if you modify a drawing in the cloned or original column, it is updated in both columns.
In Harmony 11, you can choose whether or not to copy the column exposure to the cloned column.
•

Clone Selected Layers (Drawings Only): You can modify the column exposure independently from each other and thedrawings remain linked.

•

Clone Selected Columns (Drawings and Timing): You can copy the column exposure and the drawings and timings
remain linked.

15

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

How to clone an element
1. In the Xsheet view, select the column you want to clone.

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Edit > Clone Selected Columns: Drawings Only or Edit > Clone Selected Columns:
Drawings and Timing.

‣

In the Xsheet View toolbar, click the Clone Selected Columns: Drawings Only

button.

The new cloned column appears.

Art Layer Toolbar
Until now, control of the active art layer has always been in the status bar at the bottom of the Camera and Drawing views.
These controls have been moved to a toolbar in the Camera and Drawing views.

Rendering Toolbar
The Rendering toolbar has been moved to the Camera status bar. Many of the display modes are now buttons.

16

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

New Tab in Layer Properties Window
There is a new tab in the Layer Properties window called Controls, which contains new options for the bitmap art layers.
Some properties were also moved to the other tabs in this window.

17

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Drawing with Bitmap Brushes

With Harmony, you now have the choice to draw with vector or bitmap brushes. When adding a new layer, you can set yourlayers (Line Art, Colour Art) to be vector or bitmap. This way, you can draw in bitmap and paint in vector, draw everything inbitmap, or whatever other combination suits you.
When adding a new drawing layer to the Timeline view, you can select the art mode for each art layer. You can set the LineArt layer to be vector, while setting the Colour Art as bitmap. You also have the opportunity to readjust those later by
converting them from one to the other. If you are using the Overlay and Underlay layers, you can also set those to either
bitmap or vector.
If you selected the incorrect art mode for your layers, you can open the Layer Properties view and modify them there
directly. If you switch the art mode for a layer that already has strokes on it, the artwork will NOT be converted. You will beable to add new strokes. A drawing with bitmap strokes will be converted to a vector layer but the bitmap artwork willremain as bitmap. You will be able to use vector drawing tools to continue drawing on it. A drawing with vector lines
switched to a bitmap layer will allow you to draw new bitmap strokes and move the vector strokes with the Select tool, but
you will not be able to edit the vector art further. You need to convert the drawings in order to pass the artwork from one
mode to the other.
To always reuse the same art mode settings, you can adjust them in the Preferences dialog box.
Before you start drawing in bitmap, it is important to understand that your artwork will now be resolution dependent. If you
zoom in your scene, you artwork will be enlarged. It is important to plan ahead of time and decide how high of a resolution
you need your artwork to be. If you plan to zoom in your scene, the smallest section of the image that the camera will frame18

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

must be 100% the size of your scene resolution. For example, if your scene is 1920 x 1080, the smallest portion of yourbitmap image has to be 1920 x 1080. It is important to change the bitmap layer resolution before you start drawing.

The bitmap resolution can be set at the scene level or drawing level. The setting at the scene level affects newly createdbitmap art layers.
There is a function to change the default resolution of bitmap art for individual drawings. It is useful if you want to change
the quality of bitmap art you did. For example, you used the default scene’s resolution for bitmap art but then discover you
are zooming quite close into the lines. If you do not want to see the pixels appear too much when you are zoomed in, you
can put 200% and the bitmap art will have a higher quality with smaller pixels. You can use this function on multiple drawings
using the Apply to All Drawings option. Changing this option will affect existing and selected bitmap art layers.
If you drew an outline drawing on a bitmap layer, you can vectorize your artwork. Using a vector drawing layer, you cansimply select your bitmap drawing and the vector cell on which you want your new vector layer to be, and use the Vectorize
Line Art in Selected Drawing function.
Not all drawing tools are available when working on a bitmap layer. You can use the following tools:•

Select tool•

Cutter tool•

Reposition All Drawings tool•

Brush tool•

Eraser tool•

Text tool•

Paint tool19

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes•

Paint Unpainted tool•

Repaint tool•

Unpaint tool•

Dropper tool•

Pivot tool

How to add a bitmap layer
1. In the Timeline view, click the Add Drawing Layerbutton,The Add Drawing Layer dialog box opens.

If you are using Overlay and Underlay layers, they are also displayed.

2. For each art layer, select the Vector or Bitmap option.

3. Click OK.

20

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

How to change the art mode
1. Open the Layer Properties view.
2. In the Timeline view, select the layer you want to edit.
3. In the Layer Properties view, select the Drawing tab.

4. In the Art Layers section, select the art mode for each art layer.
How to adjust the art mode settings in the Preferences Dialog Box
1. From the top menu, select Edit > Preferences ( Windows/Linux ) or Stage > Preferences ( Mac OS X ).
2. In the Network tab, go to the Layer Drawing Options section.

21

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

3. Set the art layers to the desired art mode.
4. Click OK.
How to convert drawings to match the art mode
1. In the Timeline view, select the layer you want to convert the drawings for.
2. From the Timeline View menu, select Layers > Convert Drawings to Match Art Layer Type.
‣You can also right-click on the selected layer and select Convert Drawings to Match Art Layer Type.

All drawings in the layer are converted to the selected art mode. Note that bitmap strokes are not vectorized whenconverted to a vector art layer. They are simply inserted in a square vector frame containing a bitmap texture.
How to change the bitmap layer resolution at the scene level
1. From the top menu, select Scene > Scene Settings.
The Scene Settings dialog box opens.
2. In the Bitmap Resolution tab, change the bitmap resolution settings.
3. Click OK.
The bitmap resolution settings at the scene level affects newly created bitmap art layers.

22

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Parameter

Description

Scene Resolution

This is the scene resolution preset name and size in pixel.

WidthThis is the width of the resolution for the bitmap that will be created. This is not theactual size of the bitmap. TVG drawings (Toon Boom drawing native format) have an
infinite size. Bitmap TVGs are composed of small tiles. Therefore it does not meanthat because you have artwork at the four corners of your camera frame or evenquite far outside of your drawing that your bitmap image will be very large andheavy. By default, it is set to the same width as the scene resolution.

HeightThis is the height of the resolution for the bitmap that will be created. By default, it is
set to the same height as the scene resolution.

Resolution Factor

This is the size of the bitmap resolution in relation to the scene resolution. If you
increase the percentage, the width and height fields will increase accordingly. If you
plan to animate the camera and zoom into your background, you will need to set ahigher resolution so that the smaller area in which you will zoom will be 100% of thescene resolution.

How to change the bitmap resolution at the drawing level
1. In the Timeline view, select the drawing whose resolution you want to change.

Note that the drawing can be enlarged slightly and retain its original look, but you may lose quality if you enlarge it too much.
Pixels are created and a smoothing pass is applied. It is recommended to set your resolution prior to drawing. If you need tochange the resolution of a drawing to be larger than the one set in the Scene Settings dialog box, create an empty drawing
before follow this procedure.

2. From the top menu, select Drawing > Change Bitmap Drawing Resolution.
The Change Bitmap Drawing Resolution window opens.

23

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Parameter

Description

Scene Resolution

This is the scene resolution preset name and size in pixel.

WidthThis is the width of the resolution for the bitmap that will be created. This is not theactual size of the bitmap. TVG drawings (Toon Boom drawing native format) have an
infinite size. Bitmap TVGs are composed of small tiles. Therefore it does not meanthat because you have artwork at the four corners of your camera frame or evenquite far outside of your drawing that your bitmap image will be very large andheavy. By default, it is set to the same width as the scene resolution.

HeightThis is the height of the resolution for the bitmap that will be created. By default, it is
set to the same height as the scene resolution.

Resolution Factor

This is the size of the bitmap resolution in relation to the scene resolution. If you
increase the percentage, the width and height fields will increase accordingly. If you
plan to animate the camera and zoom into your background, you will need to set ahigher resolution so that the smaller area in which you will zoom will be 100% of thescene resolution.

‣

Resample Bitmap: When this option is enabled, the existing bitmap image is modified to match the newresolution. If the width and height are increased, more pixels will be created to enlarge the image. Visually, theexisting artwork will look the same, maybe a little bit smoothed out, but the size will look the same. When thisoption is disabled, the artwork is not modified. Only the reference grid is resized. If the scene resolution is 1920 x
1080 and you reduce the bitmap resolution to 960 x 540, the image will be scaled down to half the size of thescene.

‣

Apply to All Drawings: When this option is enabled, the settings modification will be applied to all drawings in
the layer.

3. Change the bitmap resolution.
4. Click OK.
How to draw with bitmap brushes
1. In the Timeline view, add a bitmap drawing layer.
2. In the Tools toolbar, select the Brush

tool or press Alt + B.

24

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

3. In the Colour view, select a colour.

‣

To toggle the bitmap colour picker from HSV to RGB, in the Colour View menu, select Colour > Bitmap Colour
Sliders > HSV Sliders or RGB Sliders. You can also right-click directly on the colour sliders and select the optionof your choice.

When using bitmap colours, there is no longer a link between the painted zones and selected colour. You can modify thecolour picker as much as you want. Your drawing will not be affected. You can still select colours from your vector colour
palette to use the same tint, but you will not create links between your drawing and the swatches.
4. In the Camera or Drawing view, start drawing.

25

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

How to vectorize a bitmap drawing
1. In the Timeline view, add a vector drawing layer BELOW the bitmap drawing layer containing the drawing tovectorize. In your bitmap drawing, the artwork to vectorize must be placed on the Line Art layer (default drawing
layer).

‣

If you place your vector drawing on top of the bitmap layer, you will not be able to perform the operation and awarning dialog box will open.

26

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

2. In the right side of the Timeline view, select the bitmap drawing and the corresponding cell in the vector drawing
layer.

3. Right-click on your selection and select Drawing > Vectorize Line Art in Selected Drawing.
The Convert to Vector Drawing dialog box opens.

4. In the Vectorization section, select the vectorization preset of your choice. You can customize your own preset using
the Add or Edit buttons.
5. Click OK.
Your vectorized drawing is created in the vector drawing layer. Your bitmap drawing remains intact.

Bitmap Colour View
When working with bitmap layers, the Colour view is slightly different than the one you see when working with vector layers.
When editing colours, you will use the HSV/RGB controls.
When using bitmap colours, there is no longer a link between the painted zones and selected colour. You can modify thecolour picker as much as you want. Your drawing will not be affected. You can still select colours from your vector colour
palette to use the same tint, but you will not create links between your drawing and the swatches.

27

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Using Independent Colours when Working with Bitmap Layers
When working in the Colour view, by default the current colour is active for both vector and bitmap layers. You canhowever, use different reference colours for each layer.
When using bitmap colours, there is no longer a link between the painted zones and selected colour. You can modify thecolour picker as much as you want. Your drawing will not be affected. You can still select colours from your vector colour
palette to use the same tint, but you will not create links between your drawing and the swatches.
How to use independent colours‣

From the Colour view menu, select Colours > Independent Bitmap Colour.

Whichever colour you choose as the reference color is retained for that layer type.

Overlay and Underlay Art Layers
All art layers have always been available to you by default. There is a new option (on by default) that limits the art layers toLine Art and Colour Art only. If you want to also have the overlay and underlay art layers available, you must turn on thispreference which located in the Advanced Options section of the Advanced tab of the Preferences dialog box.

This preference controls access to the overlay and underlay art layers in the Preferences dialog box, the Layer Properties
window, and in the Art Layer toolbar.

28

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Network
Custom Layer Colours
When you change the colour of elements displayed in the Timeline, it will be reflected in the module(s) in the Network view.
The corresponding colour is displayed on the right side of the module.

29

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Show All Modules
When your scene contains many modules and you cannot see them all, you can display all modules at that level.
How to display all modules‣

From the Network View menu, select View > Show All Modules or press Shift + comma (,).

Searching in the Network View
At the bottom-right of the Network view is a new search field that lets you find modules. This search is not case-sensitive.
When your module is found, it is selected and centred in the view. You can press the Previous and Next buttons to go
through a multiple selection, with each node displayed in turn.

30

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Searching by Name, Pattern or Module TypeYou can search through the Network view and select all modules that match a certain criteria, either by module name (casesensitive or not) or by module type. There only a few operations that can be done on a group of selected modules, such as
delete or disable/enable.
To access the Search For Modules features, display the Network toolbar and then click the Search For Modules

icon.

Setting Properties for Many Layers
When dealing with several modules, you may frequently want to modify a series of settings. Instead of opening eachindividual Layer Properties editors, you can use the Set Properties for Many Layers function to change common settings in
one single click.
This function allows you to modify the state of the following settings:•

3D path or Separate mode•

Use Embedded Pivot•

Overlay•Line Art•

Colour Art•

Underlay•

Animate Using Animation Tools

You can access this function in the Network View toolbar. You can also add the button to your Timeline View toolbar
through the Toolbar Manager.
How to set properties for many layers
1. In the Network view, select all the layers you want to modify at the same time.

31

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

2. In the Network View toolbar, click on the Set Properties for Many Layers button.
The Set Properties for Many Layers dialog box opens.

32

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

3. Modify the properties.
‣

If your modules have different parameters enabled for a certain setting, leave the As Is option selected to avoid
modifying it. Each module will keep its original setting.

‣Select any other options for all modules to change to this parameter regardless of their original setting.

4. Click OK.

Publish Attribute ModeTo quickly access parameters for modules that are grouped, you can use the Publish Attribute Mode feature to select yourmost common parameters to modify and make them appear in the group Layer Properties editor. This way, you can accessthem directly without having to enter the group every time.
How to use the Publish Attribute Mode
1. In the Network View menu, select View > Publish Attribute Mode.
2. In the Network view, enter the group containing the modules you want to promote.
3. Select the module that contains the attributes you want to publish.
4. In the Layer Properties view, select or deselect the publishing options for the different parameters. You can easily
distinguish them as they are labeled in red.

33

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

5. Repeat the previous step for all the modules that have attributes you want to publish.

34

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

6. In the Network view, exit the group.
7. Select the Group module.
In the Layer Properties view, you can see all published attributes. The different modules are tabbed for easy accessand organization.

Groups with certain published attributes are displayed differently in the Timeline view. When you expand a group, only
published attributes are display.

At times, you may not want the Timeline view to display only the published attributes. If you want to turn this off just for theTimeline, press [Ctrl] and click the plus (+)/minus (-) sign to the left of the group icon. The triangle beside the group iconturns red to indicate that you are in Publish Attributes mode.

35

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Modules and Effects
Mesh Warp
The Mesh Warp effect lets you distort your drawings. Using this module, you can create effects such as a character in awarped mirror or looking through a glass jar. You can also animate the position of the grid to perform the distortion overtime.
The main difference between the Envelope tool and the Mesh Warp is that the Mesh Warp can be animated over time withkeyframes, whereas the Envelope tool cannot.
The Mesh Warp module is a position module, same as a Peg module.

36

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

How to use the Mesh Warp Effect
1. In the Module Library, under the Filter tab, select the Mesh Warp module and drag it to the Network view.
2. In the Network view, connect the Mesh-Warp module to your drawing or group modules to deform.

3. In the Network view, select the Mesh Warp module.
4. From the top menu, select View > Show > Control or press Shift + F11 (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + F11 (Mac OS X) to
display the deformation grid in the Camera view.

37

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

5. Move the intersection points and move the Bezier handles to deform the grid.

38

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

6. Grab the grid in the void spaces to pan it around. Using keyframes, you can animate its position over time.
Mesh Warp Properties
Use the Mesh Warp editor to adjust the grid size, deformation quality and the region of interest.

39

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Parameter

Description

Rows

Increase or decrease the Rows value to change the amount of rows to use in the
deformation grid.

Columns

Increase or decrease the Columns value to change the amount of columns to use in
the deformation grid.

Region of Interest

Select the 2D Path option if you want both your X and Y curves to be controlled by
the same velocity function. Select the Separate option if you want your X and Y curves
to be independent and have independent velocity.

(x) AxisThis is the X position of the gird. This value can be animated overtime to move thegrid horizontally.

(y) AxisThis is the Y position of the gird. This value can be animated overtime to move thegrid vertically.

WidthThis is the width value of the gird. This value can be animated overtime to squash or
stretch the grid horizontally.

HeightThis is the height value of the gird. This value can be animated overtime to squash or
stretch the grid vertically.

Deformation Quality

This is the quality of the warm deformation. It ranges from Low to Extreme. The
higher the quality, the better the formation will look, but the longer it will take torender.

40

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Flatten Module
The Flatten module is used to transform 3D objects into flat planes when ordered in the Composite module. That plane canthen be moved around like any other drawing. Instead of intersecting with 2D layers, the 3D object will either be behind or
in front.
When all objects are at the same distance (Z value) from the camera, the order is based on the Composite ports. Whenelements are placed at different distances from the camera, the Z axis value overrides the composite port ordering.

Visibility Module
The Visibility module controls whether an item is visible in OpenGL mode versus the software Render mode in the Camera
view. If soft render is not enabled, the layer will not be exported.

41

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Visualizer Module
There is a new option in the Visualizer module that respects the scaling of a particle system so you can position and resize it
as you like. Old scenes with particle systems will still work as this option is disabled.

Library - Importing Files through the Library
Harmony allows you to import sound files and images directly through the library without going through the Import Filesfeature. You simply need to open the folder containing your files in the Library view and drag them directly from there.
How to open a file through the Library
1. In the Library View menu, select Folders > Open Library.
2. Browse for the folder containing the files you want to import.
3. Click Open.
4. From the Library's template list, drag the file you want to import in the Timeline or Camera view.

42

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Drawing and Camera View
Touch Gesture Support
Touch gesture is now supported in the Drawing and Camera views in Harmony, letting you zoom in and rotate the view. You
can set preferences for this feature on the General tab in the Preferences dialog box.

Shift and TraceThe Shift and Trace interface has been improved. Buttons are greyed out unless the proper option is selected, such as when
the onion skin is active. You can move the drawings up or down with new buttons at the bottom of the window. There is amore compact arrangement of the buttons.
How to send several drawings to the drawing desk
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the Xsheet or Timeline view, select a consecutive cell range from one or several layers.

‣

In the Xsheet view, hold down Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ (Mac OS X), and click on any cell to add it to theselection, even if it is not consecutive.

43

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

2. Do one of the following:‣

In the Timeline or Xsheet view menu, select Drawings > Send Drawings to Desk .

‣In the Xsheet view, right-click and select Send Drawings to Desk .

‣In the Xsheet view, hold down the Alt key and click on the selection.

The drawing desk opens on the side of the Drawing view.

The drawing desk is by default on the left side of the Drawing view. You can change its positioning in the Preferences dialog box.

3. If the drawing desk side panel is hidden, click on the Arrow button, located on the right side of the view.

44

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Onion Skinning by Drawing in the Camera View
There has always been a difference between how the onion skinning is displayed in the Camera view vs. the Drawing view. In
the Camera view, it is based on the number of frames, and not the actual number of drawings, whereas in the Drawing view,
it’s based on the actual number of drawings. In Line test, there is only a Camera view, so the need arose to be able to see
the onion skin in that view like you would have seen it in the Drawing view.
Now there is an option to change the onion skins per drawing. When this option is on, two things happen:
You will lose the little blue handles in the Timeline that indicate to what frame the onion skin is being displayed, as it’s nolonger per frame, but per drawing
Now the amount of frames a drawing is held for is not relevant, the next and previous drawings refers to exactly that, thedrawings on not the frames

How to onion skin by drawing in the Camera view
1. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select View > Onion Skin > Onion Skinning by Drawing.

‣

In the Camera view menu, select View > Onion Skin > Onion Skinning by Drawing.

‣

In the Timeline view menu, select Onion Skin > Onion Skinning by Drawing.

2. Click an icon, menu operation or keyboard shortcut to edit the display.
View > Onion Skin Menu Tools toolbar
Commandicon

Keyboard Shortcut

No Previous Drawing~

Previous Drawing!

Previous Two Drawings@

Previous Three Drawings#

No Next Drawing

Ctrl + ` (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + ` (Mac OS X)

Next Drawing

Ctrl + 1 (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + 1 (Mac OS X)

Next Two Drawings

Ctrl + 2 (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + 2 (Mac OS X)

Next Three Drawings

Ctrl + 3 (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + 3 (Mac OS X)

3. In the Camera view, the previous and next drawings appear with the current one.

45

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Onion skinning by frame in the Camera view
1. If they are not visible, display the blue onion skin markers in the Timeline view by doing one of the following:‣

From the top menu, deselect View > Onion Skin > Onion Skinning by Drawing.

‣

In the Camera view menu, deselect View > Onion Skin > Onion Skinning by Drawing.

‣

In the Timeline view menu, deselect Onion Skin > Onion Skinning by Drawing.

2. In the Timeline view, drag the blue onion skin markers to select the number of previous and next drawings to display.

3. In the Camera view, the previous and next drawings appear with the current one.

Using the top light to modify onion skin settings
1. In the Camera or Drawing View toolbar, click the Top Lightbutton.

The Top Light dialog box opens.

2. Adjust the Onion Skin Opacity slider to modify the opacity value of the onion skin display.
3. Click OK.

46

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Warping a Drawing Using the Envelope Tool

The Envelope tool lets you deform and warp a drawing selection 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 found in 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 deform47

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

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

48

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

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

button.

6. You can also increase the width and height of the grid to get more control points to deform your image.

49

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

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

50

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

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

51

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

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.

52

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes•

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.

•

The Snap to Grid

option snaps your selection according to the currently enabled grid.

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

button.

Apply to Line and Colour Art
The Apply to Line and Colour Art
option uses the concept of Line Art and Colour Art layers. Use this option to apply anaction such as selecting or resizing a drawing on both Line Art and Colour Art layers, as well as the Overlay and Underlay
layers. To access this option, you must be in the Advanced Art mode.

53

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Flip Horizontal and Vertical

The Flip Horizontal

and Flip Verticaloperations flip the current selection horizontally or vertically.

‣ From the top menu, select DrawingSelected > Transform > Flip Horizontal and Flip Vertical.
Rotate 90 Degrees CW and CCW

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

operations rotate the current selection 90 degrees‣

From the top menu, select DrawingSelected > 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 the deformed 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 to54

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

quickly increment the value.

Select Works on Single Drawing
The Select works on Single Drawing option can now be found in the Select tool’s properties as well the preferences. When
you change the state in the properties, it will change the Preference so you don’t have to do it every time you start a new
session. However changing the preference itself will not change the state in the properties view. It will only take effect thenext time you open a session.

Tool Preset Toolbar
The Tool Preset view is now a toolbar. Also, the presets now work in either bitmap or vector mode, depending on the tool.
For example, the Brush has a bitmap and vector mode, depending on which art type is selected. If you create a preset while
using a bitmap brush, you won’t be able to use that preset when you have a vector art layer selected and vice versa. The
unavailable toolbar presets will be greyed out when they are not available.

When using tool presets created in other scenes, its colour palette will not be available in the present scenes. You must either
recover your colours or link to the other colour palette.

Playback, Rendering and Export
Camera Clipping Planes
You can change the near and far clipping planes of the camera. The near plane is the point on the camera cone where thecamera is and the far clipping plane is the far end of the camera cone. Nothing outside that range is visible. This feature isuseful when dealing with 3D elements and 3D sets. For example, the camera can be looking inside a 3D box or room andyou might want the foreground wall not obstruct the view of the interior. By default, the near clipping plane is set to 1 field
and the far clipping plane is set to 1000 fields.

55

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

How to modify the camera clipping plane
1. In the Timeline or Network view, select the Camera module.
2. In the Layer Properties view, go to the Clipping Planes section.

56

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

3. Modify the values of the Near Plane and Far Plane to pull or push the clipping area closer to the camera. Anything
behind this plane will no longer be visible.

57

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Orthographic Camera

The orthographic camera is very specific to the gaming pipeline. It changes the camera type from Perspective toOrthographic. It becomes a camera without vanishing points. This means that there is no more perspective in the Camera
view. Objects, when moved on the z-axis, will not change in size or scale.

The orthographic camera can be set via the Scene Settings panel. In order to create scenes with the orthographic camera bydefault, you need to create a new custom scene resolution. Refer to the Fundamentals Guide to learn about custom
resolutions.
How to set an orthographic camera
1. Select Scene > Scene Settings.
2. In the Projection section under the Resolution tab, select Orthographic.

58

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

OpenGl Frame Grabber/Improved OpenGL Playback
Playback in OpenGL views has been improved; it also provides a way to capture the frames into memory but interactively in
the Camera view during a regular playback.
How to enable/disable playback caching
1. In the Preferences dialog box, select the OpenGl tab.
2. In the Playback Images section, select or deselect the Enable Playback Caching option. By default, this option isenabled and has a default value of 500 Mb.

When you select this option, the first run of the playback will store the frames in memory, so the second time around theyplay in real time. If you have a large scene, 500 Mb may not be enough to hold all the images. In this case, the images will be
dropped as new ones are loaded. Increase the value if you have more memory available in your computer.
If you adjust the OpenGl display, such as changing certain display settings (like Bbox selection style) or resizing the view, theframes will be discarded from memory, and must be reloaded.

ImportNew Twain Scan Interface
A new interface has been designed for Harmony 11 Twain acquisition, combining the best features from the Animate
products and Pencil Check Pro. The album concept no longer exists. You can scan multiple drawings by simply continuing topress the Scan button (you will still be communicating with the driver installed for the particular scanner connected). You
also have the ability to see a preview of the different vectorization styles. Some features from Pencil Check Pro would be thePage Panning, Scan and Advance, Flip Drawing and the different hold value.

59

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Importing Bitmap Images
A bitmap image is an image composed of pixels that are both size and resolution dependent. In Harmony, you can import
bitmap images and vectorize them, making the images editable. Then you can use a variety of drawing tools to edit theimage. Or you can always keep the original bitmap image as is.
Also, you can choose to import bitmap images on bitmap or vector layers depending on your project.
How to open the Import Images dialog box
1. Do one of the following:‣

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

‣

In the File toolbar, click the Import Images‣

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

button.

The Import Images dialog box opens.

60Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

How to import a bitmap image in its original format
1. In the Files section of the Import Images dialog box, click Browse to find and select one or more images on yourcomputer.
2. Decide if the bitmap image will go on a new layer or an existing layer. To add the bitmap image to a new layer, go tostep 4. To add the bitmap image to an existing layer, go to step 5.
3. Add the bitmap image to a new layer by selecting the Create Layer(s) option and one of the following options:‣

Create Single Layer Named: Creates a layer you can name.

‣Create Layer(s) Based on Filenames: Creates a layer based on each unique filename prefix. For example, thefilenames a-1.tga, a-2.tga and b-1.tga will create layers name "a" and "b", where "a" has two drawings and "b"has one. When creating a single layer from these three filenames, all three drawings will be inserted in the newlayers.

4. Select the Add to Existing Layer option if you want to place the bitmap image on a layer you select from the list. If
only vector
layers are available in your scene, they will not be displayed in the list. You can choose to encapsulate
the bitmap in a symbol by selecting the Create Symbols for Imported Items option.
5. In the Import Options section, select the Keep As Original Bitmap option. In the Alignment section, decide on thesize and placement of your image within the camera frame. Depending on the Scene Settings (the height and width inpixels that you chose for your project), an image that you import may be scaled to the point where all its individual
pixels become visible. There are three options available in the Alignment section:
Parameter

Description
Enlarges or shrinks (but not distorts) the image height to match the fullheight of the scene grid.

Fit

If the image orientation is landscape, this will enlarge or shrink (but notdistort) your image width to match that of the scene grid.

61

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Note that the Fit alignment rule equals the Center Fit rule in the layer
properties.
This is the opposite of the Fit parameter. If the image orientation is
portrait, its width will be made to match the width of the scene grid. As
a result, part of the image’s height will extend beyond the height of theframe. This can be useful if you want to make your background moveup and down, or from left to right to make it appear as if the camera ispanning, or to actually perform a camera pan.

Pan

62

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

The opposite will apply to a landscape image. Its height will be fit to
the scene grid, therefore it is possible that the image will extend
beyond the scene grid's boundaries.

Note that the Pan alignment rule equals the Center First Page rule in
the layer properties.
Scales the image in proportion to the scene's resolution. The system
looks at the resolution of the bitmap image, for example 4000 x 2000,
then compares it to the scene's resolution, for example 1920 x 1080,
and adjusts the scale factor in proportion. So, in this example, thebitmap would appear at 208% (4000/1920). If you import a bitmap thatis 960 x 540, it will be displayed at 50% (960/1920) of the size of the
project resolution.

Project Resolution

Note that the Project Resolution alignment rule is equal to the As Is
rule in the layer properties.
6. In the Transparency section, select one of the following from the Alpha menu:
Parameter

Description

Premultiplied with White

Individual pixels at the edge of an image are blended with white.

Premultiplied with Black

Semi-transparent pixels in the original image are blended with black.

Straight

Pixels at the edge of an image are blended with black, white and greys.

Clamp Colour to Alpha

Premultiplies the colour value with the alpha value. When the colour isclamped to the alpha, the colour value cannot be higher than the alpha63

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

value. It calculates the real colour value faster. When the RGB values
are multiplied with the alpha value, that is, if you have a pixel of value
R=247, G=188, B=29 and the alpha is 50% or the image has a 50%
transparency, then the actual RGB values that are output would be halfof the amounts listed above.
7. Click OK.
How to import a bitmap image as a Toon Boom bitmap drawing
1. In the Files section of the Import Images dialog box, click Browse to find and select one or more images on yourcomputer.
2. In the Import Options section, select the Import asToon Boom Bitmap Drawing option.
3. Decide if the bitmap image will go on a new layer or an existing layer. To add the bitmap image to a new layer, go tostep 4. To add the bitmap image to an existing layer, go to step 5.
4. In the Layer section, select the Create Layer option, and one of the following options to add the bitmap image to a
new layer:‣

Create Single Layer Named: Creates a layer you can name.

‣Create Layer(s) Based on Filenames: Creates a layer based on each unique filename prefix. For example, thefilenames a-1.tga, a-2.tga and b-1.tga will create layers name "a" and "b", where "a" has two drawings and "b"has one. When creating a single layer from these three filenames, all three drawings will be inserted in the newlayers.

5. Select the Add to Existing Layer option to place the bitmap image on a layer you select from the list. If only vector
layers are available in your scene, they will not be displayed in the list. You can choose to encapsulate the bitmap
in a symbol by selecting the Create Symbols for Imported Items option.
6. In the Alignment section, decide on the size and placement of your image within the camera frame. Depending on thescene settings (the height and width, in pixels, that you chose for your project), an image that you import may bescaled to the point where all its individual pixels become visible.

Make sure you are in the Camera view’s Render Mode when judging an imported image, otherwise it may appear blurry. You canalso adjust the quality of a bitmap image displayed in the OpenGL mode by using View > Bitmap File Quality. You must selectyour bitmap image using the Transform tool.

The following three Alignment Rules options are available:
Parameter

Description

Vertical Fit

Enlarges or shrinks (but not distort) to your image height to match the full height ofthe scene frame (alignment grid).

64

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Enlarges or shrinks (but not distort) to your image height to match the full width of
the scene frame (alignment grid).

Horizontal Fit

Actual Size

Scales the image in proportion to the scene's resolution. The system looks at theresolution of the bitmap image, for example 4000 x 2000, then compares it to thescene's resolution, for example 1920 x 1080, and adjusts the scale factor inproportion. So, in this example, the bitmap would appear at 208% (4000/1920). If
you import a bitmap that is 960 x 540, it will be displayed at 50% (960/1920) of thesize of the project resolution.

7. In the Transparency section, decide how the bitmap image will be antialiased, more specifically, the way the pixels
along the edge are blended in the RGBA (red, green, blue, alpha (transparent)) channels. Your bitmap image will
exist in the bitmap layer of the newly created drawing element.

65

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Parameter

Description

Premultiplied with White

Individual pixels at the edge of an image are blended with white.

Premultiplied with Black

Pixels at the edge of an image are blended with black.

Straight

Pixels at the edge of an image are blended with black, white and greys.

8. Click OK.
How to import a bitmap image and convert it to a Toon Boom vector drawing
1. In the Files section of the Import Images dialog box, click Browse to find and select one or more images on yourcomputer.
2. In the Import Options section, select the Convert to Toon Boom Vector Drawing option. You can choose toencapsulate the bitmap in a symbol by selecting the Create Symbols for Imported Items option.
3. Decide if the bitmap image will go on a new layer or an existing layer. To add the bitmap image to a new layer, go tostep 4. To add the bitmap image to an existing layer, go to step 5.
4. In the Layer section, select the Create Layer option, and one of the following options to add the bitmap image to a
new layer:‣

Create Single Layer Named: Creates a layer you can name.

‣Create Layer(s) Based on Filenames: Creates a layer based on each unique filename prefix. For example, thefilenames a-1.tga, a-2.tga and b-1.tga will create layers name "a" and "b", where "a" has two drawings and "b"has one. When creating a single layer from these three filenames, all three drawings will be inserted in the newlayers.

5. Select the Add Existing Layer option to place the bitmap image on a layer you select from the list. If only vector
layers are available in your scene, they will not be displayed in the list. You can choose to encapsulate the bitmap in a
symbol by selecting the Create Symbols for Imported Items option.
6. In the Vectorization section, decide whether you want to import your image in black and white or grey.

Parameter

Description

Black and White

Vectorizes drawings as a solid black line; creates a 100% vector-based drawing.

Grey

Vectorizes your image as a mix of vector contour and greyscale bitmap filling. Lines
keep the texture from the scan, and the white of the paper becomes transparent.

If you vectorize your image using the Vectorize as Colour option, you can import it on a vector layer, and use vector tools on it.

You can no longer automatically import a vector tvg file into a Bitmap layer, and vice versa< through a symbol.

66

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Importing PDF and Illustrator Files as Separate Layers
You can import the different groups/elements of a PDF or Illustrator file as separate layers. For Illustrator files, the importwill use the top level group as separate layer names. Deselect this option import PDF or Illustrator file as a single layer.

Colour View
Pencil Line Texture
You can apply a texture on a pencil line.
Pencil lines support texture. Before drawing, you can select or import a texture and apply it to your lines. You can alsochange it afterward using the Select tool. Textures are independent from pencil templates.
When you import a texture in your pencil styles, it is saved in your scene. If you want to add that texture to a bank that you
will be able to reuse in different scenes, you can add that texture to your preferences.
There is a pencil texture palette created in each scene. In order for this palette to be created, you need to draw a pencil
stroke using texture. To see it, you need to enable the Advance Palette Lists preference. Once enabled, you will see apalette named pencilstyle_opacity appear in your palette list.
For advanced usage, you can assign a custom palette as your pencil texture palette. All textures used to draw in your scene
will be added to this custom palette.
This gives you the ability to save your custom palette at the Environment or Job level if you want to reuse that palette inmore than one scene.
How to apply a preset texture to a pencil line
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Pencil

tool.

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

In the Pencil Properties property editor displays.

3. In the Texture section, select a texture for your pencil.

67

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

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

How to create a pencil texture template with the Pencil tool
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Pencil

tool.

2. In the Tool Properties view, click the arrow button beside the stroke preview area.

3. In the Pencil Properties editor, click the New Texture‣

To delete a preset style, click the Delete Texture

button or select New Texture from the Texture menu.
button.

4. Browse for your bitmap texture file.

The file must be a TGA or PSD. Your texture MUST HAVE an alpha channel.

5. Click Open.
The imported texture is saved in your scene texture list.

68Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

6. In the Pencil Properties property editor, select your new texture.

7. In the Tool Properties view, click the Texture menu and select Rename Texture.
The Rename Opacity Texture dialog box opens.

8. In the Name field, type the template name and click OK.
9. In the Camera or Drawing view, draw your pencil lines.

69

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Game Export•

A script named TB_ExportToSpriteSheets creates sprite sheets from the scene’s assets. There is a user interface filethat can be linked to this script.

•

Added export to EaselJS game engine (HTML5).

Harmony Cloud
Harmony Cloud is a web-based application that reads Harmony database files in order to carry out most of the samefunctionality of Control Center remotely—see the Control Center User Guide.

Function View
The Function view has been improved. The Function view is used to edit function curves and parameters. It is a visual graphallowing you to add, remove, and edit keyframes as well and adjusting the velocity. The Function view allows you to display
multiple functions in the background as a reference.

70

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

How to display functions in the Function view
1. Open the Function view.
The Function view is blank until you select the layer containing the functions you want to display.
2. To display a function in the Function view, click on the layer containing the functions to adjust in the Timeline view.
3. To select the functions you want to edit, select them in the Functions List section.

71

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Function List

When selecting a layer in the Timeline view, all the corresponding functions are displayed. Only the created functions will be
displayed. Until a keyframe is added on the function in the Timeline view, it will not be available in the Function view. Enable
all the functions you want to see and edit and disable the ones you want to hide.
Display Options and Interface Navigation
The Display toolbar allows you to modify how the editing area is displayed, You can hide the grid, disable thesynchronization with the current frame, reset the zooming level and normalize the function display by stacking them one
over the other to compare them regardless of their value range.
Current Frame
This field displays the current scene frame.
Selected Keyframe Value
This field displays the value of the selected keyframe.
Display Advanced Parameter Values
The arrow button displays the Projection, Bias, Tension and Continuity parameters to adjust the curve around the selected
keyframe.

Keyframe, Velocity and Interpolation Options
This toolbar allows you to add and delete keyframes, adjust the velocity curve, adjust the segments to motion or stopmotion keyframes and set the velocity to create steps instead of a constant progression.
Function Type
This toolbar allows you to click on the different function types to enable or disable all the listed functions of that type.

72

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Value Scale
The Value Scale displays the value range for the displayed editing area. It can be referenced to know the value of a keyframe.
Selected Keyframe
The selected keyframe is displayed in red. When selected, the keyframe values are displayed in the corresponding fields.
Bezier Handles
The Bezier handles can be used to adjust the ease in and ease out of each keyframe. The more the handle is pulled out
horizontally, the slower the animation will be. The more the handle is pulled out vertically, the faster the animation will be.
Function Curve
The thin line going from keyframe to keyframe is the actual curve. The section of a curve located between two keyframes iscalled segment.
Frame Scale
The Frame Scale displays the frame range for the displayed editing area. It can be referenced to know the current frame of a
keyframe.

Script Help View
The Script Help view provides you with information and object list to create your own custom script to automate your mostrecurrent operations in Harmony.

73

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Categories
The Category tabs allow you to select the category of information you are looking for:•

Script•ScriptModule•

Expression

Search Toolbar
The Search toolbar allows you to type in a variable or object name and quickly find it in the list to access its information.

74

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes

Press Enter/Return to validate your search query.
Objects and Variables List
This lists all the objects and variables available for scripting.
Information
The Information window details the information, parameters and type related to the selected object.

Sketch Module

The Sketch module is a component of the Stage module. It contains the essential tools to animate frame-by-frame drawings
and paint them. It allows you to add layers, animation, paint and adjust the timing. There are no effects, camera or othercompositing tools included in this module. It allows you to focus on the paperless animation tasks at hand without being
distracted by other features that are not necessary to your work.
To learn more about the Sketch module, see the following guides:•

Fundamentals Guide•

Sketch Guide•

Preferences Guide

Draw Module

The Draw module is a component of the Stage module. It contains all the tools necessary to create a paperless frame-byframe animation project. There is no node system included in this module and only the basic essential effects are included in
it. Contrary to the Stage module, instead of creating effects in the Network view, you simply create them in the Timeline
view. Draw also includes all the scene setup and camera features for you to do the compositing for your project.
To learn more about the Draw module, see the following guides:•

Fundamentals Guide•

Draw Guide•

Preferences Guide

Miscellaneous changes•

Backward Compatible: Allow scenes that were optimized in 10.3 to be openable in 11.
75

Toon Boom Harmony 11 Release Notes•

Flash: You are no longer asked if you want the Flash preferences and shortcuts the first time you start theapplication.

•

Magnifier Option: The Magnifier option in Brush and Pencil tool properties has been removed.

•

Colour Protection: There is a keyboard shortcut for Respect Colour Protection: Shift + S.

•

All New Icons: There are brand new icons in Harmony.

•

Dark Interface: There is a preference to change the interface from the new dark look to the original light colours.
This preference is in the General tab. You need to restart the application.

•

Standalone or Database: On both Mac and Windows you can choose to install as standalone or database. You cancreate the appropriate apps or shortcuts for Control Center, Draw, Stage, Paint, etc. You must have theappropriate license for each app. For example, you can install as standalone but using the license tokens, restrict theability to work in other modules.

•

Toolbars: It is no longer possible to drag and drop a toolbar in a view like in version 9.2.

•

Mental Ray: There is support for Mental Ray renderer in Maya for non-server version of our scripts.

•

Stage File: Added preference to optimize the scene's stage file to make it smaller in the database. Keyframes andhandles on Ease and Bezier curves are compressed, but not for 3D path and Quaternion. Unused anonymous
functions are removed.

•

Scene Name: The Welcome Screen has Scene Name instead of Project Name•

Mipmapping for Bitmap Layers: A new OpenGL preference named Enable Mipmapping for Bitmap Layers lets you
disable it if you are using an older graphics card that does not support mipmapping for bitmap layers.

•

Renamed Preference: The Create Posed Deformer in Create Deformation Above/Under option in the Deformation
tab has been renamed: Automatically Create new Deformer Structure for each Pose/Drawing•

Multithreading: Rendering is using more multithreading so it is faster than before.

•

Database Utility: The database utility has been consolidated to remove duplicate drawings and clean the .stage file.

•Particle Example Modules: These modules have been moved from the All Modules tab to the Particle-Examples tab.
Also the menu items in Insert don’t offer all the examples. If you want to use or look at the particle examples, they
are available from the Module Library view.

•

Control Center: The Animator and Supervisor types of user were added in the Control Center. The Animator typecannot delete jobs or scenes but can create, copy, and release their scene’s lock.

76