Toon BoomHarmony22
Release Notes

TOON BOOM ANIMATION INC.

+1 514 278 8666

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

contact@toonboom.com
toonboom.com

Toon Boom Harmony 22.0.0 Release Notes

Legal Notices
Toon Boom Animation Inc.
4200 Saint-Laurent, Suite 1020
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
H2W 2R2
Tel: +1 514 278 8666
Fax: +1 514 278 2666
toonboom.com

Disclaimer
The content of this document is the property of Toon Boom Animation Inc. and is copyrighted. Any reproduction in w holeor in part is strictly prohibited.
The content of this document is covered by a specific limited w arranty and exclusions and limit of liability under theapplicable License Agreement as supplemented by the special terms and conditions for Adobe® Flash® File Format(SW F). For details, refer to the License Agreement and to those special terms and conditions.

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

Publication Date09-23-2022
Copyright © 2022 Toon Boom Animation Inc., a Corus Entertainment Inc. company. All rights reserved.

1

Toon Boom Harmony 22.0.0 Release Notes

Table of Contents
Table of Contents

2Harmony 22 Release Notes

3General102

Toon Boom Harmony 22.0.0 Release Notes

Harmony 22 Release Notes
Here is the list of changes in Harmony 22, build 22.0.0.18XXX (2022-09-XX):

New Features
Drawing W orkflow
FeatureDescription

The Reference view (formerly know n as the Model view ) can now be used toimport and display bitmap images that can be used as inspiration or as
references w hile draw ing.

Updated Model view , now renamed
Reference View
Imported images are automatically saved in the scene's models folder. These
reference images can then be loaded on demand in subsequent sessions using
the Load Default References command.
The new Delete Current command has been added to the view to allow
deleting images from the scene's models folder, w ithout having to manually
delete them using the file brow ser.
You can now import images and draw ings into the Reference View using dragand-drop from a file brow ser or by pasting images from the clipboard.

Live Preview W hen Draw ing w ith a
Textured Pencil

The Pencil tool now displays the pencil texture as w ell as the thickness stencil
assigned to the selected pencil preset as the line is being draw n, providing a live
and accurate preview of the final line.

Paste in Place

A new command named Paste Draw ing Object in Place is now available in theEdit menu. Unlike the Paste Draw ing Object command, w hich pastes a copied
draw ing object w ith a slight offset, the new Paste Draw ing Object in Place
command alw ays pastes the copied draw ing object in the same position as theoriginal. The new command can be accessed from the Edit menu and has theCtrl+Shift+V (Command+Shift+V on macOS) shortcut assigned.

Frame Draw ing Selection shortcut

A new shortcut command named Frame Draw ing Selection has been added toHarmony. Using this command w hen a draw ing tool is active w ill centre theCamera or Draw ing view on the selected draw ing. The default shortcut for this3

Toon Boom Harmony 22.0.0 Release Notes

FeatureDescriptioncommand is Shift+F.

Rendering
FeatureDescription

Internal render operations in Harmony can now be performed using 32 bits perchannel floating point values. This provides more precision and adds support forcolour values below 0 and above 1 for high dynamic range rendering and colour
accuracy.
The bit depth used for internal processing can be changed betw een 16 bits or
32 bits per channel from the Colour Space tab of the Scene Settings w indow .

32 Bits Per Channel Rendering Processing

W hen 16 bits per channel is selected, scenes render as they did w ith previous
versions of Harmony. W hen 32 bits per channel (float) is selected, all internal
processing operations are performed w ith 32-bit floating point precision anddoes not clip colour values to 1. This allow s Harmony to preserve colour values
even w hen an effect raises the values of colours beyond w hite, w hich allow s
subsequent effects to recover those colours w hen low ering the values.
New scenes created in Harmony 22 are set to use 32 bits per channel render
processing by default. Scenes from previous versions are set to 16 bits perchannel for backw ards compatibility.

Support for 32-bit floating-point EXR
imagesEXR Images saved w ith 32-bit floating-point colour depth containing values
above 1 can now be read and their values preserved throughout the rendering
process.
Harmony now also has the ability to w rite EXR images in 32-bit floating-point
colour depth.

Displaying Colour Values

The Camera view status bar now displays the colour values of the pixel that isunder the mouse w hen the Camera view is in Render View mode. Values areexpressed as integers betw een 0 and 32767 w hen the scene is set to render in
16-bit per channel and as float values w hen the scene is set to render in 32-bit
per channel.

4Toon Boom Harmony 22.0.0 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

Effects and Compositing
FeatureDescription

The new Bokeh Blur effect in Harmony simulates how a camera lens blurs outof-focus elements based on the shape of its iris.

Bokeh Blur EffectTo simulate depth of field, an alpha matte can be used w ith this effect to control
the amount of blur applied to different areas of the image. Opaque areas in thealpha matte w ill fully apply the effect w hile transparent areas in the alphamatte w ill not apply the effect. The Bokeh Blur node is available in the NodeLibrary in the Filter > Blur category.

For more information, see Bokeh-Blur Node.

Animate Pencil Texture Effect

The new Animate Pencil Texture effect node w orks similarly to the Shake nodebut instead of shaking draw ings or the camera in the scene, it applies randomtransformations to pencil line textures. This can be used to add life to draw ings
by simulating line boiling that occurs in hand-draw n animation w here a newline is draw n for every frame.
The Animate Pencil Texture node can automatically detect w hen there is atransformation or a draw ing change from its input and apply the effect to the5Toon Boom Harmony 22.0.0 Release Notes

FeatureDescriptiontexture. There is no need to manually time the effect and maintain the timing
manually.
The Animate Pencil Texture node is available in the Filter category of the NodeLibrary.

For more information, see Animate Pencil Texture Node.

The blending modes available in the Blending and Composite-Generic nodes
have been updated to support rendering in scenes set to use 32 bits per channel
processing as w ell as provide closer results to blend modes from third party
applications.

Improved Blending modes

The list of blending modes w as simplified to remove beta and legacy blendingmodes. How ever, to provide backw ard compatibility, Blending and CompositeGeneric nodes in scenes from previous versions of Harmony w ill have the fulllist of legacy and beta blending modes. New instances of these nodes w ill only
list the update list.
Some blend modes require values higher than 1 to be clamped in order toprovide the same result as third party softw ares. How ever, clamping limits theuse of those blend modes in the context of an HDR pipeline. A new Clamping
Mode attribute has been introduced to the Blending and Composite-Genericnodes to control w hether values should be clamped or not.

Improvements to the Colour Curve effectnodeThe Colour Curve node has been improved and extended to fully support scene
set to render using 32 bits per channel processing.

6

Toon Boom Harmony 22.0.0 Release Notes

FeatureDescriptionl

The new Clamp Output Values attribute can be used to control w hethervalues should be clamped to the values specified in the Minimum andMaximum fields. This attribute is not available in 16 bit per channelprocessing.

l

The new Extrapolate Curve Bounds attribute w ill extrapolate the curves
beyond their first and last points. This attribute is not available in 16 bit
per channel processing.

l

A Zoom slider w as added to allow zooming out the graph view andmanipulate points beyond the 0 and 1 range.

Animation
FeatureDescription

New W eighted Deformer Nodes

Four new w eighted deformation nodes are now available in Harmony. These canbe used to create different types of w eighted deformation systems andindividually control their influence on the overall deformation. Multiple types ofw eighted deformer nodes can be used in the same deformation system for more7

Toon Boom Harmony 22.0.0 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

flexibility.
The follow ing new nodes are available:l

W eighted Point: The W eighted Point node uses the pivot of each peg tocreate the deformation system. Add them to existing W eighted
Deformer systems to apply different influence w eights to individual
groups of pegs.

lW eighted Curve: Used to define a curve that influences the deformationsystem. Three types of curves are available and are built using pegs
connected to the node.

lW eighted Line: Creates a straight line defined by the attached pegs. The
resulting line is used to influence the deformation.

lW eighted Drawing: Uses a single draw ing as an input that is used toinfluence the deformation system. The draw ing defines the shape of theinfluence and can be transformed w ith a peg in order to deform theoverall system.

The new w eighted deformation nodes are available in the Node Library under
the Deformation >W eighted category.

The new OGL Controller node provides a pickable controller that can be used asa handle to select a draw ing or a peg anyw here in the scene and that w ould beotherw ise difficult to select. OGL Controllers are not visible in softw are renders
and are only visible in OpenGL.

OGL Controller Node

The node provides basic shapes that can be used as the graphic representationof the handle. A draw ing node can also be connected to use as a custom shapedhandle.
This new node is available in the Node Library under the Controller category.

The follow ing improvements w ere done to the graphical representation andmanipulation of pivots w hen using the Translate and Transform tools:
Transform and Translate Tool Pivot
Improvementsl

A new preference named Use a Donut-Style pivot in the Transform Tool,
located on the Advanced tab in the Preferences, changes the circularpivot of the Transform to a donut, w hich allow s selecting anchors
located under the pivot through its central hole. This preference isdisabled by default.

8Toon Boom Harmony 22.0.0 Release Notes

FeatureDescriptionl

A new preference named Allow Temporary-Pivot dragging in camera
view , located on the Advanced tab of the Preferences, disables theinteractive manipulation of the Transform Tool pivot w hen unchecked.
This preference is enabled by default.

lNew shortcuts w ere added to move the position of the temporary
Transform Tool pivot as w ell as the Translate tool pivot w ithout having
to click and grab it.
lMove Element or Peg Pivot to Cursor: Moves the selected
Element or the Peg’s pivot to the mouse position w hile theTranslate Tool is active. The Tab key is assigned as the default
shortcut.

lMove Temporary Pivot to Cursor: Moves the Transform Tool’stemporary pivot to the mouse's current position in the camera
view . The Tab key is assigned as the default shortcut.

lMove Temporary Pivot to Default: Resets the Transform Tool’s
temporary pivot to its default position. Default shortcut: Ctrl+Tabon W indow s and Option+Tab on macOS

ScriptingFeatureDescription

Harmony's Python Document Object Model provides a Python representation ofHarmony and its loaded project. This allow s for the creation of custom tools andautomation tasks that can be run from w ithin Harmony using the new Python
Script Console, or externally to Harmony from a Python Interpreter.
The Harmony Python module is compatible w ith Python 3.9 or later. If themodule is imported from Harmony's Python Script Console view , Python 3.9.x isrequired.
Python Scripting and Python Script
ConsoleThe Python Script Console w ill only be available w hen Harmony is launched in
an environment that provides the Python libraries. The Python libraries path canbe specified using the preference PYTHON_LIB_PATH or by making the python
executable available from the PATH environment variable.
For more information please refer to the Main Page in the Python Interface
documentation. The documentation is available by opening the index.html file inthe Harmony application Documentation folder:
W indow s:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Toon Boom Animation\Toon Boom Harmony 22
Premium\help\python\9Toon Boom Harmony 22.0.0 Release Notes

FeatureDescription

macOS:/Applications/Toon Boom Harmony 22 Premium/Harmony 22
Premium.app/Contents/Documentation/python/Updates to Qt Classes

Since updating to Qt 6 for Harmony 21.1 some Qt classes that w ere part of theQtScriptBinding packaged in previous versions of Harmony w ere either
deprecated, replaced or w ere not included in Harmony 21.1.
All the missing Qt classes are now packaged w ith Harmony 22.

FixesGenerall

Focus on Mouse Enter does not alw ays w ork w hen the mouse is quickly moved to an OpenGL view . HAR-8218

lTransform tool BBox is at the w rong position w hen using bitmap draw ings w ith w eighted and freeform deformers.
HAR-7787lTransform tool BBox is at the w rong position w hen a Deformer is used w ith an Element node that has an offset.
HAR-8464

lPoor performance w hen a Channel-Sw ap node is used under a pass through composite. HAR-8340

l

OpenGL compositing order is w rong w hen an Apply-Peg-Transformationa node is used w ithin a 3D scene. HAR8518

l

Vertex colours from alembic files are missing. HAR-8304

l

The preference Element Node “Animate Using Animation Tools” Default Value is ignored w hen importing a multilayer PSD. HAR-6845

lHigh Discretizer Spacing values can cause the Envelope Creator to crash. HAR-7396

lLines are not Anti-aliased during playback. HAR-8262

lHarmony may crash w hen opening a second scene if the node cache is active. HAR-8348

lDisconnecting a cable from a W eighted Deform node sometimes disconnects the w rong cable. HAR-8535

lScan application crashes w hen attempting to import an image using the Load From File command. HAR-8350l

H.264/MP4 is not available as an export format w hen running Harmony on an Apple Silicon system. HAR-8188

10

Toon Boom Harmony 22.0.0 Release Notes

Drawingl

Thumbnails are not properly refreshed in the Draw ing Substitutions view . HAR-7493

l

The Stroke tool's Draw Stroke as Straight Lines and Connect Line Ends options don’t w ork. HAR-8416

lVectors are not offset w hen pasting them multiple times to another art layer. HAR-8436

lThe draw ing view does not refresh immediately w hen changing the Draw ing Desk's shift and trace options. HAR8487

l

Tiny gaps at colour junctions after using the Stencil brush in Repaint mode. HAR-8417

Reference ViewlLayers cannot be dragged from the Timeline to Reference (Model) View . HAR-8323

lDragging and dropping a template from the Library to the Reference (Model) View does not w ork. HAR-8547

l

The Reference View uses the forw ard delete key rather than delete key to unload draw ings. HAR-8539

Renderingl

Turbulent Noise shifts w hen a blur effect is added below . HAR-7789

l

EXR images from “Multi Layer W rite” nodes have multiple frames stacked on each other. HAR-8228l

The Alignment Rule attribute has no effect in softw are renders w ith certain JPEG files. HAR-7335

Master Controllers
lMaster Controller rig state stops being parsed w hen a small or high value is met. HAR-8412

lAdding or deleting row s and columns does not w ork from the Master Controller Grid W izard. HAR-8564

Scriptingl

SCR_Draw ingKey alw ays returns null w hen a draw ing key is provided in scripting. HAR-8407

l

Control Center’s scripting interface alw ays renders the “Default” camera if no camera is specified. HAR-8403

lQByteArray cannot be constructed w ith a string as its constructor's argument. HAR-8497

lInvisible plus (+) and minus (-) buttons in TB_ExportToEaselJS, TB_ExportToSpriteSheets and TB_SelectionPreset.
HAR-8500

Databasel

Link Server does not run on Linux if there is no X-W indow s server. HAR-8563

lLocks can be taken on the root folder, preventing locks to any other folders in the database. HAR-8556

lPalettes are locked w hen batch rendering scenes if colours are recovered. HAR-8536

lImporting scenes in batch mode crashes Control Center if the scene already exists. HAR-8503

11

Toon Boom Harmony 22.0.0 Release Notes

Known Issuesl

W hen there’s not enough room for all the buttons in a toolbar, the extension that can be opened to access thebuttons is hidden w hen it opens over an OpenGL view . HAR-8186

lTouch Gestures to zoom, pan and rotate don't w ork on W indow s. HAR-8739

l

W hen using Harmony on Big Sur, Harmony may crash w hen saving a colour in macOS’s native colour picker. HAR8032

l

Database scenes that have a custom path cannot be copied using Control Center. HAR-6386

lStroke remains in place after removing the last point of a branch w ith the centreline editor. HAR-5994l

On macOS Mojave, GateKeeper prevents launching Harmony unless the quarantine extended attribute is removed
from the application bundle. The quarantine extended attribute can be removed using the follow ing command inthe Terminal:$ sudo xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Toon Boom Harmony 21.1
Premium"12