Toon Boom Harmony 11.1
Preferences Guide

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Toon Boom Harmony 11.1 Preferences Guide

Legal Notices
Toon Boom Animation Inc.
4200 Saint-Laurent, Suite 1020
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
H2W 2R2
Tel: +1 514 278 8666
Fax: +1 514 278 2666
toonboom.com
Disclaimer
The content of this guide is covered by a specific limited warranty and exclusions and limit of liability
under the applicable License Agreement as supplemented by the special terms and conditions for
Adobe®Flash® File Format (SWF). For details, refer to the License Agreement and to those special
terms and conditions.
The content of this guide is the property of Toon Boom Animation Inc. and is copyrighted.
Any reproduction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited.
Trademarks
Toon Boom® is a registered trademark and Harmony™ is a trademark of Toon Boom Animation Inc.
Credits
Art Development: Tania Gray
Technical Editor: Peter Cawthorne, Liven Tam
Technical Reviewer: Lindsay Brown, Steve Masson, Lilly Vogelesang
Technical Writer: Marie-Eve Chartrand, Liven Tam, Tamu Townsend, Phoebe Wang-Chao, Anouk
WhissellPublication Date
2014-11-28
Copyright © 2014 Toon Boom Animation Inc. All rights reserved.

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Contents
Toon Boom Harmony 11.1 Preferences Guide

1

Legal Notices

2

Contents

3

Chapter 1: Interface Preferences

55

Chapter 2: Shortcut Preferences

7

Chapter 3: General Preferences

9

Chapter 4: Camera Preferences

15

Chapter 5: Network Preferences

19

Chapter 6: Exposure Sheet Preferences

23

Chapter 7: Drawing Preferences

27

Chapter 8: Template Preferences

31

Chapter 9: Timeline Preferences

33

Chapter 10: Sound Preferences

35

Chapter 11: OpenGL Preferences

37

Chapter 12: Render Preferences

41

Chapter 13: Advanced Preferences

43

Chapter 14: Particle Preferences

45

Chapter 15: Deformation Preferences

47

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Toon Boom Harmony 11.1 Preferences Guide (Stage)

Chapter 1: Interface Preferences
Adjusting preferences to suit your work style allows you to work more efficiently. Harmony has aseries of preferences you can adjust to customize your personal workflow.

The Preferences dialog box is divided into the following tabs:

55Chapter 1: Interface Preferences•

Shortcuts•

General•

Camera•Network•

Exposure Sheet•

Drawing•

Template•

Timeline

•

Sound

•

OpenGL•

Render•Advanced•

Deformation•

Particle

Some preferences require you to exit and restart the application or to close a view and reopen it.

How to access the Preferences dialog box
Do one of the following:‣

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

‣

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

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Chapter 2: Shortcut Preferences
To speed up your work, all of the keyboard shortcuts can be customized. You can even choose othersoftware keyboard shortcut sets.
In Toon Boom Harmony, you can choose a set of default keyboard shortcuts you are familiar with. You
can choose between the following:•

Adobe Flash•Toon Boom Harmony•

Toon Boom Studio

You can also customize most of the shortcuts.

How to switch keyboard shortcut sets
1. Do one of the following:‣

Windows: Select Edit > Preferences‣

Mac OS X: Select Stage> Preferences.

‣

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

2. In the Preferences dialog box, select the Shortcuts tab.
3. From the Shortcut Set list, select the desired set.

How to set a keyboard shortcut
1. Do one of the following:‣

Windows: Select Edit > Preferences‣

Mac OS X: Select Stage> Preferences.

‣

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

2. In the Preferences dialog box, select the Shortcuts tab.
3. In the left pane, select a category and then select a command to modify.
4. Click on the shortcut rectangle (above the right pane).

77Chapter 2: Shortcut Preferences

5. On your keyboard, click the desired shortcut.
‣

To remove any keyboard shortcut associated to a command, click Clear.

‣

To reset a command’s default keyboard shortcut, click Default.

6. Click OK.
If a keyboard shortcut is already in use, the Conflict Detected dialog box will appear notifying youof the command to which it is already associated. You can continue to associate the shortcut orcancel the operation and choose another command.

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Chapter 3: General Preferences

To customize your interface, you will use some of the preferences located in the General tab as well as
the Camera tab.
Parameter

Description

Open in Read Only
Opens scenes that contain plugin module errors in read-only mode to prevent
mode if plugin syntax
you from losing plugin information on subsequent saves.
errors are detected

Automatically Save
Workspace

This option is enabled by default. Every time you add a view to your workspace,remove a toolbar or change a view’s width, these modifications are saved whenyou quit the application. If you do not want the system to save these modifications, disable the preference. This preference does not require you to restart
the application.

Save
Auto-Save:
Interval (minutes): This is the frequency at which the auto-savetakes place.
Inactivity Interval (seconds): When Auto-save is about to take99

Chapter 3: General Preferences

place, it verify if you are drawing or doing anything in theapplication. If so, Auto-save waits this number of seconds before
attempting another save.
Ask Before Saving: Before performing an auto-save, the system
will prompt you with a message to confirm if you want to save ornot. You can choose to turn off this option.
Enabled: This enables the Auto-save feature. If you do not want thesystem to automatically save your work, deselect this option. The
auto-save is off by default.
Touch Interface
Support Gestures: Enable the gestural touch interface for the
OpenGL views. Note, on Mac OS, this determines whether a 2 finger
drag gesture is interpreted as a zoom or a pan.
Invert Scroll Direction: Invert the scroll direction.
Touch Sensitivity: Control touch sensitivity. On Mac OS, higher
numbers give a slower response to pans. On Windows, higher
numbers favour scale/rotates over pans.
Colour Management
Default to Element Palette Lists: When this option is enabled thenew, cloned, duplicated, imported and linked palettes will be stored in
the Element Palette list instead of the Scene Palette List.
Interactive Colour Recovery: If a colour palette for your scene isdeleted or cannot be found, you will be asked if you want to recover
colours from the program’s memory. If this option is unchecked, theprogram recovers missing colours without displaying a dialog box foryour input.

Colour Recovery: If this option is unchecked, colour recovery will notoccur.
Replacement Colours: If colours are no longer available for yourscene, these colours are automatically replaced with the ones
indicated by the Replacement Colour swatch. The default colour is red,
as it acts as a missing colour warning device.

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Colours
The Colours preference allows you to modify the colours of thedifferent user interface views and elements. For example, you canchange the Camera view’s background colour from grey to white.
Altering these preferences requires you to restart the application or toclose a view and reopen it for the modifications to be applied.
Current View Border: Sets the colour of the frame around theworkspace view you are currently using, also known as focus. By
default, the colour is red. Click on the red colour swatch to select a
new colour in the Colour Picker window.
Current View Border in Template Edit: Sets the colour of the frame
around the workspace view you are currently using when editing atemplate from your library view. By default, the colour is green. Clickon the green colour swatch to select a new colour in the Colour Picker
window.
Edit Colours Button: Click on the Edit Colours button to open the
Colours window.
Options
Auto Apply: When enabled, values entered or options selected inmodule editors are automatically applied to elements in your scene.
The Apply and OK buttons are hidden in the Layer Properties when
this feature is enabled.
Native Windows Playback: When enabled, the native Windows
functions are used for play back in Enable Cache mode.
Snap Keyframe: If two keyframes have the same value, they will both
update to the same new position when the first of the two keyframes is
modified. The previous keyframe has to be a Stop-Motion keyframe.
Editors Always on Top: When enabled, the Layers and Function
Editors are on top of the main window.
Close Previous Editors: Closes previously opened editors.
Automatically Save Workspace: This option is enabled by default.
Every time you add a view to your workspace, remove a toolbar orchange a view’s width, these modifications are saved when you quit
the application. If you do not want the system to save thesemodifications, disable the preference. This preference does not
require you to restart the application.
Focus on Mouse Enter: Disabled by default. In Toon Boom Harmony,for the operations or keyboard shortcuts to work in the view in which
you are working, the focus must be in that view. When the focus is on aparticular view, a red rectangle appears around its frame. You mustclick in the view or on the view’s header for the focus to be done.
If you enable the Focus on Mouse Enter preference, you will not needto click in the view to get the focus. It will be done as soon as yourmouse enters the view.

11Chapter 3: General Preferences

Note: If you enable the Focus On Mouse Enter preference, certain
operations from the top menu may not be available since the view
focus may change as you make your way to the top menu. In this caseuse keyboard shortcuts and quick access menus (right-click menus).
Shortcut Zooms on Mouse: When enabled, shortcut zooming will
centre on the cursor location.
Auto-Render: Automatically enables the Auto-Render option.
Cycle Exposure: Make navigation in the Xsheet View wrap-aroundfrom the last frame or the last column to the first.
Display Cardinal Coordinates: Display coordinates throughapplication either scalar (ex:+1 -1) or cardinal (1N1S).
Flat Tool Toolbar (Requires Relaunch): Lets you expand the toolbar
so there are no nested toolsets in the toolbar. You will need to close
Harmony and relaunch it for the new interface to be displayed. A
default set of tools will appear in the toolbar. However, you cancustomize which tool icons appear in the toolbar to fit your own work
pattern.
Once you have enabled the Flat Tool Toolbar preference, you cancustomize the tools that appear in the toolbar. This means you canchange the default set of tools and replace the tools which you use lessfrequently with ones which are used more often. This customizing isdone through the Toolbar Manager.

Use Dark StyleSheet (Requires Relaunch): Application loads a darkskin for the User Interface.
Settings
Stop-Motion Keyframes: New keyframes are created as stop-motion
keyframes.
Default Separate Positions for Pegs: New pegs are created withseparate position functions.
Default Separate Scale for Pegs: New pegs are created withseparate scale functions.
Default Separate Positions for Elements: New elements are created12

Toon Boom Harmony 11.1 Preferences Guide (Stage)

with separate position functions.
Default Separate Scale for Elements: New elements are created withseparate scale functions.
Default Bezier: New functions curves are created as Bezier Curves.
Default Bezier Velocity: New velocity curves are created as Bezier
Curves.
Minimum FOV: This is the minimum field-of-view value of the camera.
Maximum FOV: This is the maximum field-of-view value of the camera.
Field Chart:
X: Default value for the number of units in the X axis (east-west) of
the field chart used for new scenes. This value should be half thetotal number of units in the X axis of the field chart. This value willappear by default in the Alignment dialog box.
Y: Default value for the number of units in the Y axis (north-south)of the field chart used for new scenes. This value should be half thetotal number of units in the Y axis of the field chart. This value willappear by default in the Alignment dialog box.
Z: Default value for the number of units in the Z axis (front-back) of
the field chart used for new scenes. This value will appear by default
in the Alignment dialog box.
Levels of Undo: Determines the number of actions retained by the
Undo list. By default, 50 actions are stored in the list. You can alter thenumber if you want to.

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Chapter 4: Camera Preferences

Parameter

Description

Tools
Initial Animation Mode: Determines which animation modeare enabled when the scene is opened.
Show Locked Drawings As Outlines: In the Camera view,
locked elements are displayed as outlines only.
Bounding Box Selection Style: In the Camera view, selected
elements are not highlighted in colour but are displayed withthe bounding box only.
Nudging Factor: The nudging increment value.
Set Keyframe on All Functions with the Transform Tool:
When true, the transform tool will create a keyframe for all
functions of the selected pegs, including the functions that15

Chapter 4: Camera Preferences

normally would not be affected by the transformation.
Set Keyframe At Frame One With First Application On theTransform Tool: When this preference is enabled, wherever
you set a keyframe on your layer, there will be a keyframe
added on your frame 1. If the preference is disabled, there will
be only a keyframe added to the current frame. If later on, you
add a keyframe on your frame one, it may modify the first
keyframe you added.
Paste/Drag&Drop adds keyframes at beginning and end:
Add keyframes at beginning and end: Select this option to copy
and paste a set of frames that includes an interpolatedsequence between two keyframes, but only extracts a partial
section. Under normal circumstances, cutting and pasting afunction without either the start or end keyframe would render
the function null. This option caps the partial function with a
new keyframe when you perform the paste.
Select Tool Works on Single Drawing: By default, when you
draw a selection box in the Camera view, the Select tool will
select only the drawing strokes of the current drawing. If you
would prefer the Select tool to select all the strokes on alllayers, you can disable the Select Tool Works on Single
Drawing preference.
Use Rotation Lever with transformation tools: Enable thispreference if you prefer to see the rotation lever when using thetransformation tools. Without this preference enabled,
hovering your cursor of the corner of an element’s boundingbox is sufficient to rotate it.
Zoom Settings
Camera View Default Zoom: The default zoom value for the
Camera view.
Top/Side View Default Zoom: The default zoom value for the
Top/Side views.
Settings
Thumbnail Size: The thumbnail size, in pixels, that appears in
the Top and Side views.
Small Bitmap Resolution: The size, in pixels, of the smaller
bitmap version of your image. When you import a bitmap
image into a scene, a smaller version of it is created by thesystem in order to accelerate the compositing and playback
processes.
Override Small Bitmap Files: Enable this option if you want
the system to generate new versions of the already existingsmaller bitmap files, every time you modify the Small Bitmap
Resolution value. When the option is disabled, the alreadyexisting smaller bitmap versions will not be regenerated andwill keep the same resolution as when they were created.

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TV Safety: The ratio value for the TV Safety frame inproportion to the regular camera frame.
Wash Background
Enable in Camera: Dulls background bitmaps in Camera view.
This allows you to see other elements clearly, such as the ones
that have not yet been painted.
Enable in Camera Drawing Mode: Dulls background bitmaps
in Camera view while using drawing tools. This allows you tosee other elements clearly, such as the ones that have not yet
been painted.
Wash Background Percentage: The Wash Percentage value.
Control Points
Show Control Points On Selected Layer: By default, when you
select an element with the Transform tool, the motion path
related to the object is displayed.
Control Point Tension: The default Tension value for new
keyframes and Control Points.
Control Point Continuity: The default Continuity value for new
keyframes and Control Points.
Control Point Bias: The default Bias value for new keyframes
and Control Points.
Preview Wash
Enable For Out of Date Previews: When you disable theautomatic render preview, you need to click on the Update
Preview button in either the Rendering toolbar or the Camera
view bottom toolbar in order to recalculate and update thepreview. When this option is enabled, if ever the current renderpreview is out of date and requires you to press the Update
Preview button, the Camera view will display the current
preview as washed out colours.
Wash Background Percentage: This is the value in percentage
by which the outdated preview will be washed out.
Inverse Kinematics
Min/Max Angle Constraint Weight: This value acts similar to the Stiffness setting in the Inverse Kinematics Properties panel. This preference
only affects the minimum and maximum angle values set using the
Min/Max Angle Mode. The greater the value is, the stronger your need tomove the body part to approach the minimum and maximum values set.
Although the maximum value goes up to 1.0, in a production setting, themost practical value to use would be closer to 0.1.

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Chapter 5: Network Preferences

Parameter

Description

Navigator
Show Navigator: Show or hide the display of the Navigator in
the Network view when starting Toon Boom Harmony.
Navigator Starting Corner: Indicates which corner is thedefault Navigator’s position.
MagnifierWidth Multiple: Sets the width of the magnifier in tenths of the
Network view width. Values range from 0.1 to 10.
Aspect Ratio: Sets the width to height ratio of the magnifier.
Values range from 0.1 to 10.
Opacity: Sets the transparency of the magnifier. Values range
from 0 to 100. A value of 100 make the magnifier completelytransparent. A value of 0 makes the magnifier completely

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Chapter 5: Network Preferences

opaque.
Options
Cable Type: Displays Network connections as Line (straight) or
Bezier (curves).
Middle Mouse Button Pans the View: Lets you use the middle
mouse button to pan the Network view.
Double Click on a Module Opens the Editor: Lets you open a
module's property editor by double-clicking.
Port Output Ordering: Orders the Output Port Right to Leftor Left to Right.
Port Input Ordering:Orders the Input Port Right to Left or Leftto Right.
Layer Drawing Options
Antialiasing Quality: Smoothness setting applied to colour art.
The higher the setting, the greater the amount of antialiasingthat is applied. Higher quality images require more time torender and more system memory. Choose a lower quality if you
are rendering a Pencil Test.
Low: No antialiasing
Medium Low: Some antialiasing
Medium: Medium antialiasing
High: Extensive antialiasing
Antialiasing Exponent: Controls the amount of area aroundthe Line and Colour Art edges that is used in the antialiasing
process. A higher value uses less area, resulting in sharperedges, while a lower value uses more area, resulting in softeredges. If the Antialiasing Quality value is set to Low (noantialiasing), this value is ignored.
Read Colour: Controls the production of colour informationfrom bitmap images. If this module reads 3 or 4-channel
bitmaps, this selection determines whether the colour should
be read or ignored. If this module reads 1-channel bitmaps, thisselection determines whether the channel should be read as
colour. When this option is selected with 1-channel images, theresult will be a greyscale image.
Read Transparency: Controls the production of alphainformation from bitmap images. If this module reads a 1 or 3channel image, this option will create a matte from the colour
values in the image. If the module reads a 4-channel image andthis option is not selected, the alpha information in the image
will be ignored.
Alignment Rule: The Alignment position for the element
module. The new element module will be created following this20

Toon Boom Harmony 11.1 Preferences Guide (Stage)default rule of alignment.
Transparency Type:
Premultiplied with Black: Pixels at the edge of an image
are blended with black.
Straight: Pixels at the edge of an image are blended withblack, white and greys.
Premultiplied with White: Pixels at the edge of an image
are blended with white.
Clamp Colour to Alpha: Select this option when you wantto premultiply the colour value with the alpha value. Whenthe colour is clamped to the alpha, the colour value cannot
be higher than the alpha value. It calculates the real colour
value faster. When the RGB values are multiplied with thealpha value, that is to say, 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 output would be
half of the amounts listed above.
Art Layer Options:Overlay Art:
- Vector: Determines if a newly created element will havethis layer as vector or bitmap.
- Bitmap: Determines if a newly created element will havethis layer as vector or bitmap.
Line Art:- Vector: Determines if a newly created element will havethis layer as vector or bitmap.
- Bitmap: Determines if a newly created element will havethis layer as vector or bitmap.
Colour Art:
- Vector: Determines if a newly created element will havethis layer as vector or bitmap.
- Bitmap: Determines if a newly created element will havethis layer as vector or bitmap.
Underlay Art:
- Vector: Determines if a newly created element will havethis layer as vector or bitmap.
- Bitmap: Determines if a newly created element will havethis layer as vector or bitmap.

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Chapter 6: Exposure Sheet Preferences

Parameter

Description

Filtering
These preferences are used to display or hide certain layer
types in the Xsheet view.
Show Drawing Columns: Displays the Drawing layers in the
Xsheet view.
Show Sound Columns: Displays the Sound columns in the
Xsheet view.
Show Annotation Columns: Displays the Annotation columns
layers in the Xsheet view.
Show 3D Path Columns: Displays the 3D Path columns in the
Xsheet view.
Show Function Columns: Displays the Function columns layers
in the Xsheet view.
Show Selection: Sets the Show Selection option On or Off bydefault in the Xsheet view.
Centre of Current Frame: Turns auto-centering on or off whenplaying back a scene. Auto-centering is to be used duringsound breakdown with the ShuttleXpress device.

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Chapter 6: Exposure Sheet Preferences

Options
Default Add Columns: The default position where the newcolumn will be added.
Default Column Width: The default width value for the newcolumn being created.
Drawing Creation
Use Current Frame as Drawing Name: Automatically names
the drawing corresponding to the frame position. This avoids
numbering conflicts while animating.

For example, using the default preferences, you start with thefirst drawing on frame 1, this drawing is called 1. You thendraw the extreme position drawing on frame 10, this drawing
is called 2. Next, the in-between pose is drawn on frame 5,
this drawing is called 3 and so on.
At the end, you have a sequence like this: 1-9-4-6-3-8-5-7-10-2.

Instead, using the Use Current Frame as Drawing Name
preference, each drawing is automatically named by its frame
number and the sequence looks like: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10.
Zoom Levels
You can set the minimum and maximum zoom levels to view the
Xsheet, depending on the number of columns and rows in the
project. Once you set a level, close and reopen the Xsheet so
the new values take effect.
Minimum Zoom Level: Lets you set the lowest level of zoom.
Choose a value between 1 and 6.
Maximum Zoom Level: Lets you set the highest level of zoom.
Choose a value between 14 and 20.
Tip: You can set a keyboard shortcut to view the entire
Xsheet.

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Function Editors
Show Grid: When selected, the grid is displayed by default
when opening the Function Editor.
Use Constant Z By Default: When selected, the Constant Z
option will be enabled by default in the Function Editor.
Constant Z means that even when creating Motion
keyframes, the Z function will use Stop-Motion keyframes
and will not be interpolated, this can be very useful for cutout animation. The Constant Z feature only works with
3Dpaths.
You can also enable the Constant Z option directly in the
Function Editor or Function view for specific functions.
Gestural Drag
Default Setting for Gestural Drag: This is the default value enabling gestural dragging of cells in the Xsheet view.
Apply/Next
From Left to Right: When clicking the Apply/Next button in
the Xsheet view Column Properties, the next column to be
displayed in the Column Properties will be the one on the right.
From Right to Left: When clicking the Apply/Next button in
the Xsheet view Column Properties, the next column to be
displayed in the Column Properties will be the one on the left.
New Element
Bitmap Format: By default, when you create a new empty bitmap
column, it will use the file format indicated in the field as the new column
format. The default value is SCAN, which means that it is set for scannedin drawings.

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Chapter 7: Drawing Preferences
Adjusting preferences to suit your techniques allows you to paint your drawings more efficiently.
In the Preferences panel, you will find the following preferences that are related to adding colours toyour project.

Parameter

Description

Light Table
Light Table: Opacity (0,0-1,0):Light Table: Wash (0,0-1,0): The washed-out value for the lighttable display.
Light Table: Enable Shade: When enabled, the drawings
appearing in the Light Table are displayed in washed out
colours in the Drawing view. When this option is disabled, thedrawings appearing in the Light Table are displayed using
normal colours. This option is for the Drawing view only.
Light Table: Shade in Camera View: When enabled, the27Chapter 7: Drawing Preferences

drawings appearing on other layers are displayed in washedout colours in the Camera view. When this option is disabled,
the drawings appearing on other layers are displayed using
normal colours. This option is for the Camera view only.
Enable Onion Skin for Other Elements: When both Onion
Skin and Light Table options are enabled, the drawings
appearing in the Light Table also display their previous andnext onion skinned drawings. This option is for the Drawing
view only.
Onion Skin Render Style:
Normal: The onion skinned drawings is displayed in washedout colours.
Enable Shade: The previous onion skinned drawings are
displayed in washed out red shades and the next onion
skinned drawings are displayed in washed out green
shades.
Outlines Only: The onion skinned drawings are displayed
as outlines only.
Onion Skin: Maximum Wash Value (0,0-1,0): The maximum
washed-out value for onion skinned drawings.
Onion Skin: Minimum Wash Value (0,0-1,0): The minimum
washed-out value for onion skinned drawings.
Onion Skin: Maximum Opacity (0,0-1,0): The maximum
opacity value for onion skinned drawings. (0 = transparent).
Onion Skin: Minimum Opacity (0,0-1,0): The minimum opacity
value for onion skinned drawings. (0 = transparent).
Options
Grid On By Default: When opening the Drawing view, the griddisplays automatically.
Select Tool is Lasso: When this option is enabled, the Selecttool behaves as a lasso selector. When this option is disabled,
the Select tool behaves as a rectangle selector.
Brush Size Cursor: When this option is enabled, the brush tool
displays the brush size as a circle around the cursor.
Default Multiwheel Colour Picker: Displays the Mutliwheel
Colour Picker window instead of the regular Colour Picker.
Auto Save Pencil Styles: When this option is enabled, newpens and pen styles are automatically saved.
Sticky Eye Dropper: Keeps the Colour Picker’s Dropper tool
active until it is released by clicking on the Dropper icon again.
Desk Location: Defines the location of the Desk panel in the
Drawing view.

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Default Pencil Line Tip: Sets the default pencil line tip to either
Round, Flat, or Bevel.
New Colour Pots
Create New Colour Pots Using Default Colour: Set the default colourfor creating a new colour swatch. Enable the option so that this default
colour is used each time you add a new colour in your palettes. This
option is useful for when you create new colour pots so that a more recognizable colour is created and not just a duplicate of the currently selectedcolour. Choosing a colour that is the opposite of your intended colour
palette is recommended, such as grey if your palette will be filled withbright, primary colours.
Settings
Save modified drawing as a new version: When this option isenabled, the modified drawings will be saved as a new version
if the drawing is also used in another scene version.
Morphing Quality: Sets the default quality value for themorphing sequences. If you change this value, it will not affectthe morphing sequence which was created previously. After amorphing sequence has been created using this default quality
value, its quality can be changed manually by using theMorphing Tool Properties.
Paint
Auto Gap Closing on Startup: The values for automatic gap
closing while painting drawings are: 0 = Disabled, 1=Small,
2=Medium, 3=Big.
Auto Gap Closing in Pixel Units: Disabling this option willcause your gap to be zoom dependent. Zoom dependent
means that the more you zoom in, the smaller the gap you canclose with the Close Gap tools. By enabling this option, youchoose to make the gap display available in pixel units, which is
not zoom dependent.
Zoom
Enable Paper Zoom: Enabling this option allows you to set the
100% Zoom level onscreen, in order to physically match themeasurements of your paper drawing.
Number of Pixels per Inch: Enter the PPI for your monitor. To
obtain the PPI of your screen, divide the height or width of yourmonitor's resolution setting by the corresponding physicalheight or width of your monitor screen (resolution height
divided by physical height, or resolution width divided byphysical width) in inches.
Maximum Zoom Factor: Sets the maximum zoom level for thepaper zoom.
Quick Close Up Zoom Factor: Sets the zoom level for the
Quick Close up Zoom keyboard shortcut.

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Chapter 8: Template Preferences
In the Preferences panel's Template tab you will find the following preferences that are related to
managing templates and symbols.

Parameter

Description

Paste/Drag & Drop
Always Create New Drawings: By default, when you import
timeline templates in the right section of the Timeline view, tostack them, the system will analyze and create only the nonexisting drawings and only expose the already existing ones.
When enabled, this option will automatically create new
drawings for every one of them that is exposed.
Palettes:
Ask User: When dropping a template into a scene, thesystem will ask if you want to link the palette to the originalor create a local copy in the scene.
Use Original Palette: The system will automatically linkdrawing elements to the original palette file. If the original
palette is not encountered a local copy will be created.
Use Copy of Palettes: The system will automatically create
a local copy of the palette in the scene.
Editing a Template
Generate Thumbnails Automatically: When this option is enabled, thesystem will automatically create thumbnails for the template when theuser wants to see the thumbnails in the Template Library or when saving atemplate modification.

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Chapter 9: Timeline Preferences

Parameter

Description

Defaults
Show Groups: Displays the Group layers in the Timeline.
Show Effects: Displays the Effect layers in the Timeline.
Show Sound: Displays the Sound layers in the Timeline.
Show Sound Waveforms: Displays the imported sounds
waveform in the Timeline.
Note: You can always toggle the visibility of the waveformin the Timeline view by adding the Show Sound Waveform
button from the Toolbar Manager. This button will work
whether you have the Show Sound Waveform option
enabled or disabled in the Preferences panel.
Show End of Scene Marker: Displays the red bracket thatdelineates the end of your scene in the Timeline view. If you
know that many different hands will be working on your scene,
you may want to deselect this option so the scene length is notincreased or decreased by accident.

Reduce Indentation: When this option is enabled, thehorizontal indentation for parented modules in the Timeline isreduced to optimize the amount of space taken in the Timeline.
When you have a cut-out character and there is a long cascadeof parented modules, you can enable this option so that theTimeline (left side) does not have expand too wide to see all
your modules.

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Chapter 9: Timeline Preferences

Always Display Unconnected Modules: Enable thispreference if you prefer to see elements in the Timeline thathave not yet been connected to a particular Display, even whenin Normal View mode. This preference is not on by default.
Paste/Drag & Drop
Add Keyframes at Beginning and End: Select this option to copy andpaste a set of frames that includes an interpolated sequence between
two keyframes, but only extracts a partial section. Under normal circumstances, cutting and pasting a function without either the start or end
keyframe would render the function null. This option caps the partial function with a new keyframe when you perform the paste.

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Chapter 10: Sound Preferences

Parameter

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

Settings

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

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Toon Boom Harmony 11.1 Preferences Guide (Stage)

Chapter 11: OpenGL Preferences

Parameter

Description

Settings
Conservative Texture Management: Turns on and off
conservative memory management for bitmap texture files.
Performance will improve when this is enabled. If disabled, youwill have a better on-screen rendering of bitmap files at theexpense of slower performance.
Smooth Textures: Smooths out the pixels of bitmap images
when zooming in; this improves bitmap image quality.
Alternate Gradient and Cutter: This is an alternative way todisable write in the OpenGL Backbuffer, required for somevideo cards (i.e. GeForce FX5200). Do not enable this option
unless you are experiencing problems with gradients andcutters in OpenGL.
Use PBuffer for Picking: This will use an off-screen buffer for
picking, resulting in a quicker response. This option should not
be enabled if using a small capacity video card (32MB).
Support Triple Buffer: Enable this option for a better
compatibility with Windows Vista if your video card driver does
not allow to disable the triple buffering option. Not enabling
this option may result in a dashing line when drawing a brushstroke.

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Chapter 11: OpenGL Preferences

Support Desktop Effects: Enable this option for better
compatibility with Windows 7, Windows Vista and Mac OS X
desktop effects. This will prevent graphic compositing
problems from happening when the full-scene anti-aliasing
option is enabled.
Enable Mipmapping on Bitmap Layers: Generate anti-aliased
mipmap textures. Disable this option for increased
performance when working on Bitmap layers with nonstandard graphic cards.
Maximum Texture Size: The size that the bitmap file will be
reduced to when using the Conservative Texture Management.
Texture Memory: The amount of temporary memory used tostore bitmap texture files.
Vector Drawing Maximum Texture Size: This is the size thatthe .tvg file will be reduced to for better performance when in
OpenGL render mode.
Full Scene Antialiasing
The Full Scene Antialiasing is generated by your computer’s
graphic card. It provides a smooth line display in OpenGL. Thisantialiasing will not only antialias your drawings but all thedifferent views in the interface.
This option lets you see smooth lines as you draw as well as anantialiased drawing area. You can change the value of the Full
Scene Antialiasing using the Preferences dialog box to fit thecurrent level used in the Camera or Drawing view.
Enable: By default, this option is off. Select to turn on the Full
Scene Antialiasing option. You'll need to restart Toon Boom
Harmony.
Number or samples: Enter the number of samples you want to
be used for the antialiasing process. The number of samples isbasically equivalent to the amount of time a pixel will beenlarged to calculate the antialiasing. This technique is calledsupersampling. The higher the number of samples, the betterthe antialiasing quality will be, but the longer it will take tocalculate. The recommended value is 4.
Note: If you are using Windows or Linux, you must enable yourgraphic card’s antialiasing parameter. Refer to user guide ofyour graphics card. For example, the parameters for an NVIDIA
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Toon Boom Harmony 11.1 Preferences Guide (Stage)

Playback Images
Enable Playback Caching: Enable image caching for
OpenGL playback.
Playback Cache Size (in Mb): Cache size in for playback images
in Mb.
Drawings
Support Transparency in Pencil Lines: When the option isenabled, the pencil lines are displayed normally. The lines will
be opaque (unless there are transparencies). Disabling thisoption will reduce rendering times, but will display additive
opacities for overlapping pencil lines and unevenly filled curved
pencil lines.
Enable Textures in Pencil Lines: Disabling this will produce adrawing performance improvement in OpenGL views.
Enable Variable Line Thickness: Turns on and off therendering of the variable line thickness option of the Element
Module.
Effects
Enable Tone and Highlight: Turns the Tone and Highlighteffects on and off in the Camera, Top and Side views.
Enable Cutter: Turns the rendering of Cutter effects on and off
in the Camera, Top and Side views.
Enable Composite Passthrough for All Effects (requires
relaunch): Control the behaviour of composite passthrough inconjunction with effects that require a matte. This preference
can be used in specific cases where certain modules interferewith the OpenGL display of elements in the Camera view. Thispreference is off by default.
Enable Colour-Override: Turns the rendering of the ColourOverride effects on and off in the Camera, Top and Side views.
Enable Glue: Turns the rendering of the Glue effects on and off
in the Camera, Top and Side views.

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Chapter 12: Render Preferences

Parameter

Description

Preview Options
Enable Blur: Renders blur effects derived from the BlurDirectional Module, Blur-Radial Module, and the Blur-Variable
Module in the Render View window.
Enable Line Texture: Renders line texture in the Render View.
Enable Focus: Renders focus effects from the Focus-Apply and
Focus-Set modules.
Preview Images
Cache Size in RAM (in Mb): Cache size in RAM for intermediatepreview images (Mb).
Cache Path and Capacity in MB: If this field is left empty,
Harmony's temporary directory will be used to off-loadintermediate images. There is no disk usage limit for the
temporary directory.
When you specify a folder, you must type in the capacity (inMB) inside the path. Use the following method:
path;capacity in MB;
ex: C:\user\tmp_image_folder;2000;
Note: The specified folder must already exist. If there isan error in the path, Harmony’s temporary directory will
be used. You can also specify a RAM drive in the path.
Multi Threading
The Multi Threading preference lets you specify the level ofparallel processing done during the final image calculation(soft-rendering). Allowing parallel processing speeds up thesoft-render process.

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Chapter 12: Render Preferences

Number of Rendering Threads: Lets you specify the numberof parallel processes during the soft-render process. A value of
1 disables the multi threading process because it specifies that
only one rendering thread will be used during the process. The
maximum number of threads value is 64. The recommended
starting value is 2 threads per CPU core, meaning that if you
are using a 2 Quad Core CPU, the preferences should initiallybe set to 16 threads.
GPU
Enable Graphic Card Acceleration: Optimizes the rendering blurs byusing the GPU's acceleration capabilities. This option is on by default.
Not all cards support this acceleration.

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Chapter 13: Advanced Preferences

Parameter

Description

Advanced Options
Support Overlay and Underlay Arts: When enabled, options
to manipulate overlay and underlay arts are available.
Advanced Display: Enable or disable the Advanced Display
mode.
Advanced Palette Lists: In the Advanced section, you will findthe Advanced Palette Lists option. Enable this feature to switch
your palette list to advanced mode. The Advanced Palette Lists
mode is used to create and store palettes in the Scene or
Element Palette List.
Restore Current Selected Drawing On Undo: If a drawing
other than the current one is being affected by an Undo
command, the system will display the affected drawing when
this is enabled.
Advanced Element Mode: Displays more options in the Add
Column dialog box and the Column Properties dialog box.
Auto-rename Elements: Auto-rename Elements: Controls
whether to rename the element whenever thecorresponding module name in the Network view or layer
name in the Timeline view is changed.
Support CMYK in PDF/Illustrator Import: Lets you import
PDF and AI files that were created or exported in CMYK mode.
The colours of the resulting imported image may still not look
100% faithful to its CMYK original due to the RGB conversion. It
is recommended that you convert these files to RGB images
before importing them into Toon Boom Harmony. Disabling
this option will cause all the colours of the imported image tobe displayed as red to indicate that the file was not converted
to RBG prior to import.
PDF/Illustrator Import as Separate Layers: Imports the43Chapter 13: Advanced Preferences

different groups/elements of the PDF or Illustrator file asseparate layers. For Illustrator files, the import will use the top
level group as separate layer names. Deselect this option toimport PDF or Illustrator file as a single layer.
Element Module "Animate Using Animation Tools" Default
Value: If you know that you prefer to work in the style ofversion 7.3 or earlier, or if you intend to substitute many
drawings throughout your animation, you might wish touncheck the Animate Using Animation Tools Default Value
option. This way, you will not have to do it every time (throughthe Layer Properties) for each new drawing layer that you
create.
Compress Saved Keyframes: Compress key frame values
when there are no changes between adjacent key frames. The
resulting project is not compatible with versions of Harmony
prior to Harmony 11.

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Chapter 14: Particle Preferences

Parameter

Description

OpenGL
Always Show Particles as Dots: If this preference is enabled,
the particles will always be displayed as dots in the OpenGL
preview mode. This will make the playback speed faster whenrunning a heavy scene.
Horizontal Resolution of Image Fracture Input: This is thesize in pixels of the proxy bitmap image rendered in OpenGL
when using the Image Fracture particle. A smaller image size
will increase the playback speed when running a heavy scene.

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Chapter 15: Deformation Preferences

You can customize the display of deformation, its functionality, and the performance of the system byaltering the preferences.
Parameter

Description

Scale Controls
The Scale Controls Preferences let you customize theappearance of the Deformation-Scale and DeformationUniform-Scale controls by setting the distance from thedeformer axis.
Display Scaling Module in Pixel Size: This preference isdisabled by default. The distance between the controls and thedeformer axis is calculated using fields as a value. Select thisoption to change the value to pixels.
Scaling Field Size: The default value is 2 fields, meaning the
distance between the controls and the deformer axis is 2 fields.
You can enter any field value. When the Display Scaling Modulein Pixel Size preference is enabled, this option changes to
Scaling Pixel Size.
Deformation Creation
Automatically Create New Deformer Structure for Each Pose/Drawing: This preference is enabled by default. When enabled, the Deformergroups will automatically be built using the more advanced structure,
which lets you rig and manipulate deformers for several views of a character turnaround within a single element. When this preference is disabled, the structure within the Deformation Group will be simpler and will
disallow a different rig on each drawing of the same element.
Deformation Convert Deformed Drawings
Texture Resolution when Converting Gradient and Textures: This preference sets the size of the bitmap texture used during the conversion of
deformed drawings to drawings. The maximum value accepted is 2048
pixels.

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