TOON BOOM HARMONY 12.2.1
Preferences Guide

2

Harmony 12.2 Advanced - 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 theapplicable License Agreement as supplemented by the special terms and conditions for Adobe®Flash® File Format(SWF). For details, refer to the License Agreement and to those special terms and conditions.
The content of this guide is the property of Toon Boom Animation Inc. and is copyrighted.
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.
Publication Date
7/6/2018
Copyright © 2016 Toon Boom Animation Inc. All rights reserved.

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Contents

Contents
Toon Boom Harmony 12.2.1 Preferences Guide

1

Contents

4

Chapter 1: Introduction to Preferences

5

Shortcut Preferences

7

General Preferences

11

Camera Preferences

15

Layer Preferences

17

Exposure Sheet Preferences

19

Drawing Preferences

23

Template Preferences

27

Timeline Preferences

29

Sound Preferences

31

OpenGL Preferences

33

Render Preferences

37

Advanced Preferences

39

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Harmony 12.2 Advanced - Preferences Guide

Chapter 1: Introduction to Preferences
The Preferences dialog box lets you adjust preferences to suit your work style, allowing you to work more efficiently.

The Preferences dialog box is divided into the following tabs:•

Shortcuts•

General•

Camera

•

Layer

•

Exposure Sheet•

Drawing•

Template•

Timeline

•

Sound

•

OpenGL•

Render•Advanced

5Chapter 1: Introduction to Preferences

NOTE: Some preferences require you to exit and restart the application, or 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 Advanced > Preferences(Mac OS X).

‣

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

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Harmony 12.2 Advanced - Preferences Guide

Shortcut Preferences

To speed up your work, all of the keyboard shortcuts can be customized. You can even choose other software
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 and use the search feature to find particular shortcuts.
How to switch keyboard shortcut sets
1. Do one of the following:‣

Windows: Select Edit > Preferences‣

Mac OS X: Select Stage Advanced> 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.

7

How to search for a keyboard shortcut
1. In the keyboard shortcut search section, select an option:‣

Name to search for a keyboard shortcut by its name.

‣

Shortcut to search for a keyboard shortcut by its actual keys that activate the shortcut.

2. In the Search field, enter the name of a keyboard shortcut or its shortcut keys.
The keyboard shortcut is highlighted in the left pane. Its shortcuts is displayed on the right pane.

8Harmony 12.2 Advanced - Preferences Guide

3. If desired, set a different keyboard shortcut.
4. Click OK.
How to set a keyboard shortcut
1. Do one of the following:‣

Windows: Select Edit > Preferences‣

Mac OS X: Select Stage Advanced> 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. In the right pane, click the keyboard shortcut.

5. Use the keyboard to set a new shortcut.
‣

To remove a command's current keyboard shortcut, click Clear.

‣

To return a command’s keyboard shortcut to its default, click Default.

6. Click OK.

9

If a keyboard shortcut is already in use, the Conflict Detected dialog box will appear notifying you of thecommand to which it is already associated. You can continue to associate the shortcut or cancel theoperation and choose another command.

10Harmony 12.2 Advanced - Preferences Guide

General Preferences

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

Description
Open in Read Only mode if plugin syntax errors are detected: Opens
scenes that contain plugin node errors in read-only mode to prevent you fromlosing plugin information on subsequent saves.
Auto-Save:•

Interval (minutes): This is the frequency at which the auto-savetakes place.

•

Inactivity Interval (seconds): When Auto-save is about to takeplace, it verify if you are drawing or doing anything in the application.
If so, Auto-save waits this number of seconds before attempting
another save.

•

Ask Before Saving: Before performing an auto-save, the system willprompt you with a message to confirm if you want to save or not. 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.

Save

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Automatically Save Workspace: This option is enabled by default. Everytime you add a view to your workspace, remove a toolbar or change a view’s
width, these modifications are saved when you 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.
Default to Element Palette Lists: When this option is enabled the new,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 is deleted
or cannot be found, you will be asked if you want to recover colours from theprogram’s memory. If this option is unchecked, the program recovers
missing colours without displaying a dialog box for your input.

Colour Management

Colour Recovery: If this option is unchecked, colour recovery will notoccur.
Replacement Colours: If certain colours are no longer available, they areautomatically replaced with the ones indicated by the Replacement Colour
swatch. The default colour is red, as it acts as a missing colour warning
device.
The Colours option allows you to modify the colours of the different userinterface views and elements. For example, you can change the Camera
view’s background colour from grey to white.
Altering these preferences requires you to restart the application or to closea view and reopen it for the modifications to be applied.

Colours

Current View Border: Sets the colour of the frame around the workspaceview you are currently using, also known as focus. By default, the colour isred. 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 a templatefrom your library view. By default, the colour is green. Click on the green
colour swatch to select a new colour in the Colour Picker window.
Edit Colours: Click on the Edit Colours button to open the Colours window.
Host name: Name of the Web Control Center server name.

Web Control Center

Host port: 8080 (the default port number) or custom port number set by the12Harmony 12.2 Advanced - Preferences Guidesystem administrator.
Auto Apply: When enabled, values entered or options selected in node
editors are automatically applied to elements in your scene. The Apply andOK buttons are hidden in the Layer Properties when this feature is enabled.
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.
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 inthat view. When the focus is on a particular view, a red rectangle appears
around its frame. You must click in the view or on the view’s header for thefocus to be done.
If you enable the Focus on Mouse Enter preference, you will not need toclick in the view to get the focus. It will be done as soon as your mouseenters the view.

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 case use
keyboard shortcuts and quick access menus (right-click menus).

Options
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-around from thelast frame or the last column to the first.
Display Cardinal Coordinates: Display coordinates through application
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 can customize
the tools that appear in the toolbar. This means you can change the default
set of tools and replace the tools which you use less frequently with ones
which are used more often. This customizing is done through the Toolbar
Manager—see Managing the Toolbars on page 1.
Use Dark StyleSheet (Requires Relaunch): Application loads a dark skinfor the User Interface.
Settings

Stop-Motion Keyframes: New keyframes are created as stop-motion

13

keyframes.
Default Separate Position for Pegs: New pegs are created with separate
position functions.
Default Separate Scale for Pegs: New pegs are created with separate
scale functions.
Default Separate Position for Elements: New elements are created withseparate position functions.
Default Separate Scale for Elements: New elements are created withseparate scale functions.
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.

Support Gestures: Enable the gestural touch interface for the OpenGL
views. On Mac OS X, this determines whether a two-finger drag gesture isinterpreted as a zoom or a pan.
Touch Interface

Invert Scroll Direction: Inverts the scroll direction.
Touch Sensitivity: Control touch sensitivity. On Windows, higher numbers
favour scale/rotates over pans. On Mac OS X, higher numbers give a slower
response to pans.

14Harmony 12.2 Advanced - Preferences Guide

Camera Preferences

Parameter

Description
Initial Animation Mode: Determines which animation mode is enabled when thescene 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 nothighlighted in colour but displayed with the bounding box only.
Nudging Factor: The nudging increment value.

Tools

Set Keyframe on All Functions with the Transform Tool: When this option is
selected, the Transform tool will create a keyframe for all functions of theselected pegs, including the functions that normally would not be affected by thetransformation.
Set Keyframe At Frame One With First Application of the Transform Tool:
When this option is selected, wherever you set a keyframe on a layer, a keyframe
is added on your frame 1. If this options is deselected, a keyframe is only added
to the current frame. If later on, you add a keyframe on your frame 1, it may
modify the first keyframe you added.
Paste/Drag&Drop Adds Keyframes at Beginning and End: Select this option

15

to copy and paste 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.
Select Tool Works on Single Drawing: By default, when you draw a selection
box in the Camera view, the Select tool will select all the drawing strokes andsymbols in its path. If you prefer the Select tool to only select the current drawing
and not the other visible drawings, select the Select Tool Works on Single
Drawing option.
Use Rotation Lever with Transformation Tools: Lets you see the rotation leverwhen using the transformation tools. When this option is deselected, hovering
your cursor over the corner of an element’s bounding box is sufficient to rotate it.
Camera View Default Zoom: The default zoom value for the Camera view.
Zoom Settings
Top/Side View Default Zoom: The default zoom value for the Top/Side views.
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 ofyour image. When you import a bitmap image into a scene, a smaller version of itis created in order to accelerate the compositing and playback processes.
Settings

Override Small Bitmap Files: Enable this option if you want the system togenerate new versions of the existing smaller bitmap files, every time you modify
the Small Bitmap Resolution value. When the option is disabled, the existingsmaller bitmap versions will not be regenerated and will keep the same resolution
as when they were created.
TV Safety: The ratio value for the TV Safety frame in proportion to the regularcamera frame.
Enable in Camera: Dulls background bitmaps in the Camera view. This allows
you to see other elements clearly, such as the ones that have not yet been
painted.

Wash Background

Enable in Camera Drawing Mode: Dulls background bitmaps in Camera view
while using the drawing tools. This allows you to see other elements clearly, suchas the ones that have not yet been painted.
Wash Background Percentage: The Wash Percentage value.
Show Control Points On Selected Layers: By default, when you select anelement with the Transform tool, the motion path related to the object isdisplayed.

Control Points

Control Point Tension: The default Tension value for new keyframes and control
points.
Control Point Continuity: The default Continuity value for new keyframes andcontrol 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 the automatic render16Harmony 12.2 Advanced - Preferences Guide

preview, you need to click on the Update Preview button in the Rendering toolbar
or the Camera view bottom toolbar in order to recalculate and update the preview.
When this option is enabled, if the current render preview is out of date andrequires 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 theoutdated preview will be washed out.

Layer Preferences

Parameter

Description
Antialiasing Quality: Smoothness setting applied to colour art. The higher thesetting, the greater the amount of antialiasing applied. Higher quality images
require more time to render and more system memory. Choose a lower quality if
you are rendering a pencil test.

Layer Drawing Options•

Low: No antialiasing•

Medium Low: Some antialiasing•

Medium: Medium antialiasing•

High: Extensive antialiasing

Antialiasing Exponent: Controls the amount of area around the Line and Colour
Art edges used in the antialiasing process. A higher value uses less area,
resulting in sharper edges, while a lower value uses more area, resulting in softeredges. If the Antialiasing Quality value is set to Low (no antialiasing), this value isignored.
Read Colour: Reads colour information from bitmap images. If this node reads 3
or 4-channel bitmaps, this selection determines whether the colour should be reador ignored. If this node reads 1-channel bitmaps, this selection determines
whether the channel should be read as colour. When this option is selected with
1-channel images, the resulting image will be a greyscale image.
Read Transparency: Reads the alpha information from bitmap images. If thisnode reads a 1 or 3-channel image, this option will create a matte from the colour
values in the image. If the node reads a 4-channel image and this option is notselected, the alpha information in the image will be ignored.
Alignment Rule: The Alignment position for the element node. The new element

17

node will be created following this default rule of alignment.
Transparency Type:•

Premultiplied with Black: Pixels at the edge of an image are blended withblack.

•

Straight: Pixels at the edge of an image are blended with black, white andgreys.

•

Premultiplied with White: Pixels at the edge of an image are blended withwhite.

•

Clamp Colour to Alpha: Select this option when you want to premultiply
the colour value with the alpha value. When the colour is clamped to thealpha, 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, if you have a pixel of value R=247, G=188, B=29 andthe alpha is 50% or the image has a 50% transparency, then the actual
RGB values output would be half the amounts listed above.

Art Layer Options:•Overlay Art, Line Art, Colour Art, Underlay Art
Vector/Bitmap: Determines if a newly created element will have this layer
as vector or bitmap.

18Harmony 12.2 Advanced - Preferences Guide

Exposure Sheet Preferences

Parameter

Description
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 3D Path Columns: Displays the 3D Path columns in the Xsheet view.

Filtering

Show Function Columns: Displays the Function columns layers in the Xsheet
view.
Show Selection: Sets the Show Selection option On or Off by default in the
Xsheet view.
Centre on Current Frame: Turns auto-centering on or off when playing back ascene. Auto-centering is used during sound breakdown with the ShuttleXpress
device.
Default Add Columns: The default position where the new column will be added.

Options

Drawing Creation

Default Column Width: The default width value for the new column being
created.
Use Current Frame as Drawing Name: Automatically names the drawing
corresponding to the frame position. This avoids numbering conflicts while19

animating.

For example, using the default preferences, you start with the first drawing onframe 1, this drawing is called 1. You then draw the extreme position drawing onframe 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 option, each drawing is
automatically named by its frame number and the sequence looks like: 1-2-3-4-56-7-8-9-10.
Extend Exposure of Previous Drawing: When drawing on a blank frame, a new
drawing is created and the timing is extended from the previous exposed drawing.
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 alevel, 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.
Zoom Levels

Maximum Zoom Level: Lets you set the highest level of zoom. Choose a value
between 14 and 20.

NOTE: You can set a keyboard shortcut to view the entire Xsheet.

Show Grid: When selected, the grid is displayed by default when opening the
Function Editor.
Function Editors
Use Constant Z By Default: When selected, the Constant Z option will beenabled by default in the Function Editor.

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Harmony 12.2 Advanced - Preferences Guide

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 usefulfor cut-out 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.
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 willbe the one on the right.

Apply/Next
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 willbe 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 scanned-in drawings.

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Harmony 12.2 Advanced - Preferences Guide

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Harmony 12.2 Advanced - Preferences Guide

Drawing Preferences

Parameter

Description
Light Table: Enable Shade: When enabled, the drawings appearing on the Light
Table are displayed in washed out colours in the Drawing view. When this option
is disabled, the drawings 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, the drawings appearing onother layers are displayed in washed-out colours in the Camera view. When thisoption is disabled, the drawings appearing on other layers are displayed using
normal colours. This option is for the Camera view only.

Light Table

Enable Onion Skin for Other Elements: When both the Onion Skin and Light
Table options are enabled, the drawings appearing in the Light Table also display
their previous and next onion skinned drawings. This option is for the Drawing
view only.
Onion Skin Render Style:•

Normal: The onion skinned drawings are displayed in washed out colours.

•

Enable Shade: The previous onion skinned drawings are displayed in
washed out red shades and the next onion skinned drawings are displayedin washed out green shades.

•

Outlines Only: The onion skinned drawings are displayed as outlines
only.

23

Grid On By Default: When opening the Drawing view, the grid displays
automatically.
Select Tool is Lasso: When this option is enabled, the Select tool behaves as alasso selector. When this option is disabled, the Select tool behaves as arectangle selector.
Brush Size Cursor: When this option is enabled, the brush tool displays thebrush size as a circle around the cursor.
Auto Gap Closing in Pixel Units: Disabling this option will cause your gap to bezoom dependent. Zoom dependent means that the more you zoom in, the smaller
the gap you can close with the Close Gap tools. By enabling this option, youchoose to make the gap display available in pixel units, which is not zoom
dependent.

Options

Default Multiwheel Colour Picker: Displays the Multiwheel Colour Picker
window instead of the regular Colour Picker.
Auto Save Pencil Styles: When this option is enabled, new pens and pen styles
are automatically saved.
Sticky Eye Dropper: Keeps the Colour Picker’s Dropper tool active until it isreleased by clicking on the Dropper icon again.
Desk Location: Defines the location of the Desk panel in the Drawing view.
Default Pencil Line Tip: Sets the default pencil line tip to either Round, Flat, orBevel.
Morphing Quality: Sets the default quality value for the morphing sequences. If
you change this value, it will not affect the morphing sequence which was createdpreviously. After a morphing sequence has been created using this default quality
value, its quality can be changed manually by using the Morphing Tool Properties.
Auto Gap Closing on Startup: The values for automatic gap closing while
painting drawings are: 0 = Disabled, 1=Small, 2=Medium, 3=Big.

Settings

Create New Colour Pots Using Default Colour: Set the default colour for
creating a new colour swatch. Enable the option so that this default colour is usedeach 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 notjust a duplicate of the currently selected colour. Choosing a colour that is the
opposite of your intended colour palette is recommended, such as grey if yourpalette will be filled with bright, primary colours.
Save modified drawing as a new version: Saves modified drawings as a newversion if the drawing is also used in another scene version.
Enable Paper Zoom: Enabling this option allows you to set the 100% Zoom level
onscreen, in order to physically match the measurements of your paper drawing.

Zoom

Number of Pixels per Inch: Enter the PPI for your monitor. To obtain the PPI of
your screen, divide the height or width of your monitor's resolution setting by thecorresponding physical height or width of your monitor screen (resolution height
divided by physical height, or resolution width divided by physical width) in
inches.
Quick Close Up Zoom Factor: Sets the zoom level for the Quick Close up Zoom

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Harmony 12.2 Advanced - Preferences Guide

keyboard shortcut.
Maximum Zoom Factor: Sets the maximum zoom level for the paper zoom.
Default Canvas for Bitmap
Layers

Sets the default values for the resolution, width and height of the canvas whenworking with bitmap layers in a new scene. This prevents you from creating
unusually large bitmap canvases.

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Harmony 12.2 Advanced - Preferences Guide

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Harmony 12.2 Advanced - Preferences Guide

Template Preferences

Parameter

Description
Always Create New Drawings: By default, when you import timeline templates
in the right section of the Timeline view, to stack them, the system will analyze
and create only the non-existing drawings and only expose the existing ones.
When enabled, this option automatically creates new drawings for every one ofthem that is exposed.
Palettes:

Paste/Drag & Drop

Editing Template•

Ask User: When dropping a template into a scene, the system will ask if
you want to link the palette to the original or create a local copy in thescene.

•Use Original Palette: The system will automatically link drawing
elements to the original palette file. If the original palette is not encountereda local copy will be created.

•

Use Copy of Palettes: The system will automatically create a local copyof the palette in the scene.

Generate Thumbnails Automatically: Automatically create thumbnails for thetemplate when you want to see the thumbnails in the Library or when saving a template modification.

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Harmony 12.2 Advanced - Preferences Guide

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Harmony 12.2 Advanced - Preferences Guide

Timeline Preferences

Parameter

Description
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 theTimeline.

NOTE: You can always toggle the visibility of the waveform in the Timeline viewby adding the Show Sound Waveform button from the Toolbar Manager. Thisbutton will work whether you have the Show Sound Waveform option enabled or
disabled in the Preferences panel.

Defaults

Show End of Scene Marker: Displays the red bracket that delineates the end ofyour scene in the Timeline view. If you know that many different hands will beworking on your scene, you may want to deselect this option so the scene lengthis not increased or decreased by accident.

Reduce Indentation: When this option is enabled, the horizontal indentation forparented nodes in the Timeline is reduced to optimize the amount of space takenin the Timeline. When you have a cut-out character and there is a long cascade ofparented nodes, you can enable this option so the Timeline (left side) does nothave expand too wide to see all your nodes.

Paste/Drag & Drop

Add Keyframes at Beginning and End: Copies and pastes a set of frames that
includes an interpolated sequence between two keyframes, but only extracts apartial 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.

29

Overwrite exposures and keyframes during drag and drop: If the area on
which you are dropping a selection contains exposures and/or keyframes, they
are overwritten by the content you are selected by dragging.

30Harmony 12.2 Advanced - Preferences Guide

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 the jog speed value, the slower you
can scrub to have the sound play at an average pace.
Analog Jog Dampening: Lets you choose a value between 1 and 100 for the
Analog Jog Dampening. The higher the value, the less precise Harmony is at
responding to the jog's changes in speed. However, the more smooth the playback is using the jog slider or dial.

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Harmony 12.2 Advanced - Preferences Guide

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Harmony 12.2 Advanced - Preferences Guide

OpenGL Preferences

Parameter

Description
Conservative Texture Management: Turns on and off conservative memory
management for bitmap texture files. Performance will improve when this isenabled. If disabled, you will have a better on-screen rendering of bitmap files atthe expense of slower performance.
Smooth Textures: Smooths out the pixels of bitmap images when zooming in;this improves bitmap image quality.

Settings

Alternate Gradient and Cutter: This is an alternative way to disable write in the
OpenGL Backbuffer, required for some video cards (i.e. GeForce FX5200). Do notenable 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 brush stroke.
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-aliasing33

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 non-standard graphic cards.
Maximum Texture Size: The size that the bitmap file will be reduced to whenusing the Conservative Texture Management.
Texture Memory: The amount of temporary memory used to store bitmap texture
files.
Vector Drawing Maximum Texture Size: This is the size that the .tvg file will be
reduced to for better performance when in OpenGL render mode.
The Full Scene Antialiasing is generated by your computer’s graphic card. It
provides a smooth line display in OpenGL. This antialiasing will not only antialias
your drawings but all the different views in the interface.
This option lets you see smooth lines as you draw as well as an antialiased
drawing area. You can change the value of the Full Scene Antialiasing using thePreferences dialog box to fit the current level used in the Camera or Drawing
view.
Enable (Requires Relaunch): By default, this option is off. Select to turn on the
Full Scene Antialiasing option. You'll need to restart Toon Boom Harmony.

Full Scene Antialiasing

Number of samples (For Mac OS): Enter the number of samples you want to be
used for the antialiasing process. The number of samples is basically equivalent
to the amount of time a pixel will be enlarged to calculate the antialiasing. This
technique is called supersampling. The higher the number of samples, the betterthe antialiasing quality will be, but the longer it will take to calculate. The
recommended value is 4.

NOTE: If you are using Windows or Linux, you must enable your graphic card’s
antialiasing parameter. Refer to user guide of your graphics card. For example,
the parameters for an NVIDIA GeForce card may look like this:Enable Playback Caching: Enable image caching for OpenGL playback.
Playback Images
Playback Cache Size (in Mb): Cache size in for playback images in Mb.
Drawings

Enable Textures in Pencil Lines: Disabling this will produce a drawing
performance improvement in OpenGL views.
Enable Variable Line Thickness: Turns on and off the rendering of the variable34Harmony 12.2 Advanced - Preferences Guideline thickness option of the Element Node.
Enable Tone and Highlight: Turns the Tone and Highlight effects on and off in
the Camera, Top and Side views.
Effects

Enable Cutter: Turns the rendering of Cutter effects on and off in the Camera,
Top and Side views.
Enable Colour Override: Turns the rendering of the Colour-Override effects on
and off in the Camera, Top and Side views.

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Harmony 12.2 Advanced - Preferences Guide

Render Preferences

Parameter

Description

Preview Options

Enable Blur: Renders blur effects derived from the Blur-Directional, Blur-Radial,and Blur-Variable in the Render View window.
Enable Line Texture: Renders line texture in the Render view.
Cache Size in RAM (in Mb): Cache size in RAM for intermediate preview
images (Mb).
Cache Path and Capacity on Disk (in MB): If this field is left empty, Harmony's
temporary directory will be used to offload intermediate images. There is no disk
usage limit for the temporary directory.

Preview Images

When you specify a folder, you must type in the capacity (in MB) inside thepath. Use the following method: path;capacity in MB;
example: C:\user\tmp_image_folder;2000;

NOTE: The specified folder must already exist. If there is an error in the path,
Harmony’s temporary directory will be used. You can also specify a RAM drivein the path.

This lets you specify the level of parallel processing done during the final image
calculation (soft-rendering). Allowing parallel processing speeds up the softrender process.
Multi ThreadingGPU

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

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Harmony 12.2 Advanced - Preferences Guide

Advanced Preferences

Parameter

Description
Support Overlay and Underlay Arts: When enabled, options to manipulate
overlay and underlay arts are available.
Advanced Palette Lists: Lets you switch your palette list to Advanced Palette
Lists mode for creating and storing palettes in the Scene or Element Palette List.
Restore Current Selected Drawing on Undo: If a drawing other than thecurrent one is being affected by an Undo command, the affected drawing isdisplayed.
Advanced Element Mode: Displays more options in the Add Column dialog box
and the Column Properties dialog box.
•

Advanced Options

Auto-rename Elements: Controls whether to rename the element
whenever the corresponding node name in the Node view or layer name in
the Timeline view is changed.

Support CMYK in PDF/Illustrator Import: Lets you import .pdf and .ai files thatwere 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 thecolours of the imported image to be displayed as red to indicate that the file was
not converted to RBG before import.
PDF/Illustrator Import as Separate Layers: Imports the different
groups/elements of the .pdf or .ai file as separate layers. For Illustrator files, theimport will use the top level group as separate layer names. Deselect this option
to import pdf or .ai files as a single layer.
Element Node "Animate Using Animation Tools" Default Value: If you knowthat you prefer to work in the style of version 7.3 or earlier, or if you intend to
substitute many drawings throughout your animation, you might wish to deselectthis option. This way, you won't have to do it every time (through the Layer
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Properties) for each new drawing layer that you create.
Tablet Support

Use Qt Wintab Tablet Support (Requires Relaunch): If you are using a tablet
other than Wacom, deselect this option (and relaunch) if you are having issues
with offset or pressure sensitivity.

UnicodeAllow Unicode Names: Lets you use up to 120 ASCII characters for names ofenvironments, jobs and scenes. This means you can use characters forlanguages, such as Japanese, Chinese, French, Spanish, and others, charactersfor names in your database setup—see Advanced Tips and Guidelines on page 1.

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