Toon Boom Harmony 12.1
Paint 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
Harmony is a trademark of Toon Boom Animation Inc.
Publication Date
2015-08-07
Copyright © 2015 Toon Boom Animation Inc. All rights reserved.

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

Contents
Toon Boom Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

1

Contents

3

Chapter 1: Introduction

9

Chapter 2: Toon Boom Harmony - About this Help System

11

Help Structure

11

Tutorials and Other Help Tools

12

System Requirements

13

Harmony Server

13

Harmony

13

Chapter 3: About Toon Boom Harmony

15

Top Features

15

Toon Boom Pipeline

15

Render Resolution

15

Modules

15

Chapter 4: Starting Toon Boom Harmony

21

Server and Centralized Database

21

What is Harmony Server?

21

Working with Stage Via Harmony Server

21

Starting Paint

22

Connecting to the Database

22

Loading Drawings and Elements

24

Saving a Scene

29

Verifying the Project Integrity

32

Check Files32

Check Colours

33

Basic Commands

33

Preferences

37

Chapter 5: Interface

39

Menus

39

Managing the Views

41

Managing the Toolbars

42

View References

46

Colour View

47

Drawing View

53

3

Contents

Message Log View

55

Model View

56

Perspective View

57

Tool Properties View

58

Toolbar References

59

Top Toolbars

59

View Toolbars

59Interface Navigation

59

Zoom Tool

61

Chapter 6: Design and Drawing Tools

63

Sketching the Model

64

Drawing with the Brush or Pencil Tool64

Override Tool

65

Relative Size

66

Palettes and Colours

69

Sketching the Character76

Cleaning and Inking the Model

78

Drawing Tasks

82

Drawing with the Pencil Tool

83

Working with Pencil Presets

86

Pencil Line Texture

92

Drawing with the Brush Tool

95

Drawing with Textured Brushes on Vector Drawing Layer

100

Drawing with Bitmap Brushes on Bitmap Drawing Layers

111

Creating Bitmap Brushes

117

Viewing the Final Lines as You Draw

119

Full Scene Antialiasing

119

Selecting the Current Colour of a Tool

120

Using Independent Colours when Working with Bitmap Layers

123

Selecting Drawing Objects

123

Erasing Parts of a Drawing

127

Reshaping a Drawing Using the Contour Editor Tool

130

Reshaping Pencil Lines with the Pencil Editor Tool

132

Drawing with Shapes

135

Drawing with the Polyline Tool

136

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

Drawing with Invisible Lines137

Deforming a Drawing with the Perspective Tool

139

Warping a Drawing with the Envelope Tool

140

Cutting Drawing Parts

142

Smoothing Lines

143

Working With Text

144

More Drawing Tools

145

Arrange

145

Convert Brush Strokes to Pencil Lines

146

Pencil Lines to Brush Strokes

146

Strokes to Pencil Lines

147

Optimize

147

Flatten and Remove Extra Strokes

148

Create Contour Stroke

148

Remove Contour Stroke

149

Grid

149

Group/Ungroup

150

Hand

150

Rotate View

150

Smooth Fast

151

Drawing Tool References

151

Pencil Tool Options

151

Vector Brush Tool Options

156

Bitmap Brush Tool Options

161

Select Tool Options

185

Reverse Pencil Thickness

191

Eraser Tool Options

194

Bitmap Eraser Options

197

Contour Editor Options

197

Pencil Editor Options

200

Shape Tool Options

204

Polyline Tool Options

208

Stroke Tool Options

210

Perspective Tool Options

211

Envelope Tool Options

212

5

Contents

Cutter Tool Options

215

Smooth Editor Tool Options

217

Text Tool Options

219

Drawing Pivot Tool

223

Chapter 7: Colour Styling and Colour Models

225

Preparation

225

Colour Model Storage

226

Scene Creation

226

Colour Model Scene Structure

227

Setting Up the Workspace

227

Working with Palettes

228

Palette Lists

229

Palette File Storage

233

Element Level

233

Scene Level

234

Where to Save the Palette File

234

What happens when you export a palette file?

234

Palette Backup

235

Creating a Colour Palette

235

Duplicating a Colour Palette

239

Cloning a Colour Palette

241

Palette Operations

243

Importing and Linking Palettes

247

Colours252

Adding a Colour Swatch

253

Editing Gradients and Textures

259

Colour Display Modes

264

Copying and Pasting Colours

265

Mixing Colours

267

Painting the Model

268

Chapter 8: Ink and Paint

271

Preparation

272

Dirt Clean Up

274

Removing Art Inside a Selection

277

Removing Small Strokes in the Colour Art Layer

277

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

Art Layers

279

Creating Strokes

281

Painting

282

Painting Using the Paint Tool

283

Advanced Painting Features

284

Repaint Selection

284

Repaint Selection on All Drawings

285

Repaint Outside Selection

285

Repaint Outside Selection on All Drawings

286

Unpaint Selection

286

Unpaint Selection on All Drawings

287

Unpaint Outside Selection

287

Unpaint Outside Selection on All Drawings

287

Selecting a Colour in a Drawing

288

Importing Models

289

Editing Gradients and Textures

291

Closing Gaps

296

Protecting Colours

297

Respecting Protected Colours

298

Highlighting a Selected Colour

298

Inverting a Colour Selection

299

Inking the Lines

299

Repaint Tool

300

Repaint Brush Mode300

Ink Tool300

Protecting Colours

302

Verifying the Zones are Painted

302

Ink and Paint Tool Properties

303

Ink Tool Properties

303

Paint Tool Properties

304

Lasso and Marquee

305

Painting Modes

305

Paint Mode

306

Paint Unpainted Mode

306

Repaint Mode

306

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Contents

Unpaint Mode307

Paint and Remove Texture

307

Apply to Multiple Drawings

307

Apply to All Visible Drawings

308

Respect Protected Colour

308

Use Stored Colour Gradient308

Select Newly Painted, Repainted and Unpainted Contours/Lines

309

Close Gap

309

Glossary

310

Index

319

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

Chapter 1: Introduction
The Paint node is mainly used in large productions where there is an Ink and Paint or Colour Stylist team. The
Paint node includes the Drawing and Colour views as well as drawing tools. By using this node the Ink and Paint
team does not need to learn the entire application, but can focus on the Ink and Paint process.
The Paint node can only be used with a connection to the Harmony database, unlike other Harmonynodes which
can be used as a standalone application. To start the ink and paint process, you need to first fill in your scene’s
exposure sheets and import the drawings that need to be coloured.
Refer to the Harmony Xsheet and Scan Guides to learn more about the previous steps of the production.
This guide is divided as follows:•

Toon Boom Harmony - About this Help System on page 11•

About Toon Boom Harmony on page 15•

Starting Toon Boom Harmony on page 21•

Interface on page 39•

Design and Drawing Tools on page 63•

Colour Styling and Colour Models on page 225•

Ink and Paint on page 271

9Harmony 12 Paint Guide

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

Chapter 2: Toon Boom Harmony - About this Help
SystemToon Boom Harmony is an animation and digital content creation tool that offers you a wide array of features andoptions. Harmony is packaged in several different modules and allows you to create animation using thetechnique of your choice—see About Toon Boom Harmony on page 15.
This help system is built to guide you through the different workflows possible and explains which tool andmodule to use in a production context.
Help Structure

11

Tutorials and Other Help Tools

12

System Requirements

13

Help Structure

11Chapter 2: Toon Boom Harmony - About this Help System

The fundamental concepts of animation and Harmony are explained in this guide. It covers the essentials of
various animation workflows, basic animation principles, as well as Harmony's interface. Depending on what
you want to do, you can either start with this Fundamentals Guide to get immersed into the world of Harmony
and animation or go right to the Getting Started Guide , which covers the main functions and tasks. Allconceptual and reference topics are omitted to get you up and running in a very short amount of time.
If your work revolves more around system administration or coordination tasks, you will probably want tomove over to the Installation Guide followed by the Control Center Guide to learn how to install and configure
Harmony.
The core of this help system revolves around the main features and techniques you can use in Harmony tocreate animation:l

Traditional AnimationlPaperless Animationl

Cut-out AnimationlGaming Animation

All workflows join in the compositing step of the process. All the information on compositing in Harmony canbe found in the Compositing Guide. Finally, you can watch the rendered animations in the Play module. To
learn how to use the Play module, refer to the Play guide.
If you are focusing on a single part of the workflow such as ink and paint or scanning, you can simply read theFundamentals Guide and one of the corresponding module guides:lPaint Guidel

Scan Guide

Other satellite guides are also available to learn about additional information such as the preferences andkeyboard shortcuts.
lKeyboard Shortcuts Guidel

Preferences Guidel

Scripting Guidel

Utilities Guide

If you are already a Harmony user and want to know more about the new features that were added to thislatest version, refer to:lWhat's New (Release Notes)

Tutorials and Other Help Tools
Aside from the main product documentation, you can find supplementary material to learn more about
Harmony. The Toon Boom website's online resources section offers a variety of videos and samples that canfurther your knowledge of Harmony.
lVideo Tutorials: toonboom.com/resources/video-tutorials/harmony-networklTemplates and Sample Scenes: toonboom.com/resources/templates/harmony-network

12Harmony 12.1 Paint Guidel

Tips and Tricks: toonboom.com/resources/tips-and-tricks/harmony-networklWhite Papers: toonboom.com/solutions/white-papers

System Requirements
Here are the technical specifications for Harmony 12.1.

Harmony ServerToon Boom Harmony Network is a server-client configuration. The server stores all the assets, and holds the
database. The client machines simply run the software and allow the members of your team to work on Harmony
and access the assets directly from the database.

NOTE: Note that an Internet connection is required to activate the animation software.

Before installing Harmony, refer to the Harmony and Your IT Department white paper to learn about the network
prerequisites for a Toon Boom Harmony installation. This document should be taken as a guide to help you
understand the preliminary steps before performing a typical Harmony installation.
There are multiple ways of installing Harmony, as well as numerous types of hardware that can work with
Harmony. To perform a custom installation which fits the studio’s requirements, a proper analysis of the studio is
required, such as: the type of project, the productivity expected, and the delivery date, etc. If you are not yet
familiar with Harmony, you should get in touch with your sales contact at Toon Boom to organize a needs analysisof your studio and production in order to make the best of Harmony and optimize your production pipeline.
The person who performs the installation should have the knowledge and expertise required for setting up andconfiguring networks, computers, and operating systems. If you do not have an IT department or someone who
knows the network technology thoroughly, contact your sales representative at Toon Boom to organize an
installation with our consulting department.
•

White Paper: Harmony and Your IT Department

Harmony
Here are the specifications to install Harmony on client machines. Note that this does not encompass the networkand server specifications for Harmony Server.
Requirements

Windows

Mac OS X

Operating System

Windows 7 64-bit
Windows 8 64-bit

Processor

Intel Core i7, 3.4 GHz
Intel Core i5, 3 GHzIntel Core 2 DuoMonitorOptimized for 1920 x 1080 or higher
Minimum requirement is 1280 x 800

Memory16 GB

Mac OS X 10.9.5
Mac OS X 10.10.2 or later

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Chapter 2: Toon Boom Harmony - About this Help System

8 GB
4 GB
Fast
Fast
•

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780

Medium•Video Card

Slow•Intel HD Graphics 4000, 5000•

Intel Iris Graphics•

NVIDIA GeForce GT 520, 620,
720

‣ Wacom Intuos Pro‣ Wacom Cintiq
Basic‣ Wacom Intuos
Media Player

AMD FirePro D500•

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 775M

MediumNVIDIA GeForce GTX 560, 650

Best

Drawing Tablet•

Apple QuickTime Player (free)14•

AMD Radeon HD 6770•

NVIDIA GeForce 750M

Slow•Intel HD Graphics 4000, 5000•

Intel Iris Graphics•

NVIDIA GeForce 320M•

Radeon HD 6630

Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

Chapter 3: About Toon Boom Harmony
Toon Boom Harmony is the most advanced professional animation software on the market. Bringing together an
impressive 2D drawing toolset with the ability to work in a real 3D space, and import 3D models,Harmony Server combines the animation toolset of Harmony with an impressive database for collaborative
workflow. Share assets, batch vectorize and render, and increase production efficiency.

Top FeatureslAdvanced Drawing Tools: Texture brushes, and thick and thin pencil lineslSmart Colour Palettes: Colour you can adjust on the flylCharacter Rigging: Hierarchy, deform, and effects for creating sophisticated rigslSpecial Effects: An array of effects including highlights and shadows, glows, blurs, and a full particle
effects enginelReal 3D Camera: A camera you can reposition in a full 3D spacel

3D Integration: Allowing you to import 3D models, position and animate them in 3D space

l

l

l

Batch Vectorizing and Rendering: Quickly process images for import and export through a single workstation or a render farm
Database File Sharing: Share libraries, colour palettes, animation, and more across the whole teamProduction Pipeline Integration: Seamlessly integrate content from pre-production via Toon Boom Storyboard Pro

Toon Boom Pipeline
Toon Boom Harmony has been recognized for its excellence by winning many awards, including a Primetime
Emmy® Engineering Award and the prestigious Ub Iwerks Annie Award for the integrated pipeline with Toon
Boom Storyboard Pro.
Harmony works perfectly with Toon Boom Storyboard Pro for all pre-production phases. Therefore, animatics
created in Toon Boom Storyboard Pro can be imported seamlessly in Harmony for animation and scene setup
guidance.

Render Resolution
The render resolution for the various editions of Harmony are:•

Harmony Essentials: 2K (2048x1556)•

Harmony Advanced: 4K (4096x3112)•

Harmony Premium: Unlimited

Modules

Harmony Server is composed of the following modules:
15

Chapter 3: About Toon Boom HarmonylControl Center on page 16lStage on page 17lScan on page 17lPaint on page 18

lPlay on page 18l

Web Control Center on page 18

These modules are all accessible from:lWindows: Start > Programs > Harmony 12.1l

Mac OS X: Applications > Toon Boom Harmony 12.1

lLinux: /usr/local/ToonBoomAnimation/harmony_12.1/lnx86_64/bin/
l

Stage

l

Stage -paintlControlcenter

l

Scan

l

Play

l

ServerActivationlClientActivationlLicenseWizard

Control Center

The Control Center module controls the database and organizes the production. The Control Center module
is used to create the environments, jobs and scenes, as well as importing and exporting scene packages. The
technical director or system administrator also uses the Control Center to create the login information forusers to access the database.
Control Center is also available in a web form where users can access scenes via the Internet—seeWeb Control
Center on page 18.
To learn more about Control Center, refer to the following guides:lFundamentals GuidelInstallation Guidel

Control Center Guide

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

Stage

The Stage module is the core of Harmony. It comprises all the major drawing, animation and compositing
features. It is used to work in the scene: design, character breakdown, cut-out animation, traditional animation,
ink and paint, exposure sheet, timeline, effects, compositing, camera moves, colour styling, and so on.

NOTE: You cannot create scenes in Stage with Harmony Server, you require the Control Center module. You create
them directly in Stage with Harmony Stand Alone.

To learn more about Stage, refer to the following guides:lFundamentals Guidel

Getting Started Guidel

Traditional Animation Guidel

Paperless Animation Guidel

Cut-out Animation GuidelGaming GuidelCompositing and Effects Guidel

Play Guidel

Preferences Guidel

Keyboard Shortcuts Guidel

Scripting Guidel

Utilities Guide

Scan

The Scan module is used to scan drawings in batch. It creates a drawing list from the timing and exposure
previously created in the exposure sheet via the Stage module.

NOTE: It is possible to scan the drawings from a TWAIN device directly in the Stage module.

To learn more about the Scan module, refer to the following guides:

17Chapter 3: About Toon Boom HarmonylFundamentals Guidel

Scan Guide

Paint

Paint module is a component of the Stage module. It contains the drawing, painting and colour styling tools. It
is mainly used in large traditional animation studios to maintain a structure and avoid users having to learn thefull product application. This way, the colour styling or ink and paint team can concentrate on their task
without having to deal with the compositing and timing tools.
To learn more about the Paint module, refer to the following guides:•

Fundamentals Guide•

Paint Guide•

Preferences GuidePlay

The Play module is used to play back the rendered image sequences enabling the user to view the final scenes
and compositing results.
To learn more about the Play module, refer to the following guides:lFundamentals Guidel

Play Guide

Web Control Center

You can access your database via Web Control Center. When you're running a studio, you will most likely havea database set up. This enables all the artists working on your production to share the same scenes andassets.
Web Control Center lets you host this database on the Internet. This way, freelancers can log in from anywherewith an Internet connection. Then they can download a scene from the database, work on it, and upload it
again.

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

You no longer to spend time copying files to an FTPor have an admin exporting and importing files from thedatabase. You can do it all directly through Web Control Center.
To learn more about Web Control Center, refer to the following guides:lInstallation Guidel

Control Center Guide

19

Harmony 12 Paint Guide

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

Chapter 4: Starting Toon Boom Harmony
Once Harmony is installed, you are ready to start the application and animate! In this chapter, you will learn about
starting the application, setting the resolution and opening the scenes.

Server and Centralized Database

The Harmony solution is a revolutionary team-based infrastructure for animation production and 2D games. Its
array of features increases productivity and encourages creativity. Developed in conjunction with leading studios
worldwide, Harmony is specifically designed for long-term episodic and feature length projects, providing a true
animation pipeline. Several animators can work simultaneously on the same project while the asset libraryprovides users with easy access to up-to-date media assets. Harmony is truly scalable; more than 100 staging
clients can share animation just as easily as a few can.
Note that Harmony can be used in Database mode via the server connection (Harmony Server) or as a standalone
application.

What is Harmony Server?
Harmony Server is the link between the client machines and the server. It lets you work on the different projects
stored in the central Harmony database.
At the heart of the Harmony solution is the server, which centralizes all the production assets in a repository.
Loaded with production proven tools to manage administration tasks, the server is completely flexible and will fit
in your existing infrastructure, whether you are on Windows, Linux or Mac OS X. To learn more, refer to theControl Center Guide.

Working with Stage Via Harmony Server
When you start Stage, you can opt to either work offline in the application as a standalone software, or connect
to the database to work on projects via Harmony Server.
When working with Harmony Server, the scenes and their data are stored directly on the server. No data is saved
or stored on the client machine. The client machines access the database and load the scenes and drawings
directly from the server. Each time the user saves his scene, the data is updated directly on the server. There are
no upload or download operations (check-in, check-out) done between the server and the clients.

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Chapter 4: Starting Toon Boom Harmony

NOTE: If you have a standalone license, you will not have access to the database. You will automatically start theapplication in standalone mode.

Starting Paint
You can run Harmony on Linux, Mac OS X or Windows operating systems.
How to start Harmony Paint
1. Do one of the following:lWindows: Start > Programs > Harmony 12.1 > Stagel

Mac OS X: Applications > Toon Boom Harmony 12.1 > StagelLinux: /usr/local/ToonBoomAnimation/harmony_12/lnx86_64/bin/Stage -paint2. In the User Name field, enter your username. It is generally provided by the supervisor, system administrator or team lead.
3. Click OK.
lLinux: /usr/local/ToonBoomAnimation/harmony_12/lnx86_64/bin/Stage -paintToon Boom Harmony opens.
4. In the User Name field, enter your username. It is generally provided by the supervisor, system administrator or team lead.
5. Click OK.

Connecting to the Database

Before you can work in Paint via Harmony Server, you must be connected to the Harmony Database. When you
connect to the database, you cannot create new scenes directly from Stage. The available scenes will be theones that were previously created using the Control Center.
How to connect to the Harmony database
1. Start Paint—see Starting Paint on page 22.
2. In the User Name field, type in your Harmony username which is provided by your project lead or systemadministrator.

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

3. Click OK.
The Database Selector dialog box opens, displaying the environments available in Harmony database.

4. In the Environments column, select the scene's environment (project, movie).

5. In the Jobs column, select the scene's job (episode, sequence).
6. In the Scenes column, select the scene.
7. Get the permissions needed for this session by selecting one of the following options:

A Harmony project can be locked at various levels. Its timing, drawings, version and palettes can be locked.
Locking means that you have the rights to modify a scene or its assets. Other users cannot modify locked items. If
someone tries to open a locked scene, it will be displayed as read-only.
Here are the different lock possibilities:

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Chapter 4: Starting Toon Boom Harmony

Lock

Description

Scene or Version LockControls the Xsheet timing, layers, nodes but not the drawing, palettes,
palette-lists or templates.

Drawing Lock

Only one user can edit and save a locked drawing.

Palette Lock

Only one user can edit and save a locked palette.

Palette-list Lock

Only one user can edit and save a locked palette-list.

Library Folder lock

Only one user can edit and save into that folder in the Library.

1. Choose the version you want to open from the Version menu—see Saving a Scene.

‣

The Saved By and Saved Date fields display the user who last saved the selected scene and the dateof the last save.

2. Click Open.

Loading Drawings and Elements
Once you launch Paint, you need to load a scene’s drawings from the Database Selector, in order to start the
ink and paint process. The drawings must have previously gone through the Xsheet and Scanning processes.
There are two ways of loading drawings:llOpen Drawings
This option will let you load drawings from one element at a time, for quick ink and paint on a single
layer animation.
Open Elements
This option will let you load drawings from several elements at once. This can be useful when an animation is separated in many layers, to insure that they are well aligned and that the painted shapes andlines fit together. A good example of this would be a dialogue with the chin and mouth separated fromthe rest of the head.

How to open drawings in Paint
1. Once Paint is launched and you are logged in, select File > Open Drawings. Press Ctrl + O (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + O (Mac OS X).
The Database Selector opens, displaying the Environments available from the Harmony database.

24

Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

2. Select the Environment, Job, Scene and Element where the drawings you need to paint are located.

3. Choose the version you want to open from the Version drop-down menu.

l

The Saved By and Saved Date fields display the user who was the last to save the selectedscene and the date of the last save.

4. Click on the Open button.
The Drawings Selector dialog box opens.

25

Chapter 4: Starting Toon Boom Harmony

5. Select the desired drawings from the drawings list:‣

Click on a single drawing to select it.

‣

You can create a continuous multiple selection by holding the Shift key.

‣

You can create a multiple selection by holding the Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ (Mac OS X) key.

‣

Click on the All button to select all the drawings that are listed in the Drawings Selector.

‣

Click on the Unpainted button to select all the drawings whose status appears as UNPAINTED.

‣

Click on the Painted button to select all the drawings whose status appears as PAINTED.

6. Click OK.
The selected drawings appear in the Drawing Thumbnails view
7. Use the Control panel to navigate between the previous and next drawings. Press F and G.

You are now ready to ink and paint!
How to open elements in Paint
1. Once Paint is launched and you are logged in, select File > Open Elements. Press Ctrl + E (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + E (Mac OS X).
The Database Selector opens, displaying the Environments available from the Harmony database.

26

Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

2. Select the Environment, Job and Scene where the elements containing the drawings you need to paint arelocated.

3. Choose the version you want to open from the Version drop-down menu.

l

The Saved By and Saved Date fields display the user who was the last to save the selectedscene and the date of the last save.

4. Click on the Open button.
The Open Elements dialog box opens.

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Chapter 4: Starting Toon Boom Harmony

5. Select the elements you need to paint from the Elements list:l

You can create a continuous multiple selection by holding the Shift key.

l

You can create a multiple selection by holding the Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ (Mac OS X) key.

6. Select the frames you wish to load from the Frames list:l

You can create a continuous multiple selection by holding the Shift key.

l

You can create a multiple selection by holding the Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ (Mac OS X) key.

l

Click on the All Frames button to load all the frames of the scene.

7. Click OK.
The Drawing Thumbnails view is hidden and your selected elements are loaded in Paint.
8. Enable the Light Table

option from the Drawing view toolbar to display all the drawing layers.

The selected layer are displayed in original colours and the other layers are displayed as washed out
colours.

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

9. Use the Control Panel to navigate between previous and next layers. Press H and J.

10. Use the Control panel to navigate between previous and next drawings. Press F and G.

You are now ready to ink and paint!

Saving a Scene
It is important to regularly save your scene. As you make changes to a scene, an asterisk (*) appears in the title
bar beside the scene name to indicate that the scene contains unsaved changes.
When you use Harmony Server and work in a scene on the database, there are many choices and options available
when you save your work.
l

Save the scene as the current version.

lChoose specific assets that you want to save, such as drawings or palettes.

You might want to save some specific aspects of your scene or save a new version. The Advance Save featureallows you to do this. Once you have chosen the components to save, you will conclude the procedure byfollowing the instructions in the section. All the specific components that are selected throughout the different
tabs of the Advanced Save dialog box will be saved.
How to save a scene‣

From the top menu, select File > Save.

‣

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

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Chapter 4: Starting Toon Boom Harmony

About the Advanced Save dialog box
1. Make sure that you have the necessary rights to save the current scene version.
2. From the top menu, select File > Save....
The Advanced Save dialog box opens.
Drawings
The Drawings tab lists the modified drawings.

Parameter

Description

Drawing list

Lets you select the modified drawings to save, and deselect the ones you do
not want to save.

Select All

Selects all modified drawings in list.

Deselect All

Deselects all modified drawings in the list.

Palettes
The Palette tab lists the modified colour palettes.

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

Parameter

Description

Colour Palette list

Lets you select the colour palette to save, and deselect the ones you do notwant to save.

Show Recovered

Displays the recovered palettes in the list of modified palettes.

Select All

Selects all modified colour palettes in the palette list.

Deselect All

Deselects all modified colour palettes in the palette list.

Palette Lists
The Palette Lists tab lists all the modified colour palette lists.

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Chapter 4: Starting Toon Boom Harmony

Parameter

Description

Palette Lists

Lets you select the modified palette list to save, and deselect the ones you
do not want to save.

Show Recovered

Displays the recovered palettes in the list of modified palettes.

Select All

Selects all modified palette lists in the list.

Deselect All

Deselects all modified palette lists in the list.

How to save with advanced settings
1. After selecting the components to save, click Save.
All the specific components that were selected throughout the different tabs of the Advanced Save dialog box are saved.

Verifying the Project Integrity
The Check Files command verifies the integrity of the drawing and palette files in your project.
How to open the Check Files dialog box‣ From the top menu, select File > Check Files.

Check Files
Use the Check Files dialog box to verify that the data is consistent, correct, and accessible.

32Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide•

Click Check Colours to open the Check Colours dialog box.

Check Colours
The Check Colours dialog box checks the palette integrity and displays the colour recovery data.

Basic Commands
This table lists the most common commands used in Harmony.
Command

ActionAccess Methods

Close

Closes the currently opened
scene, but does not close theHarmony application.

File > Close

Save

Saves all changes made to theopened scene, drawings,
palettes, and palette lists.

33

File > Save
Press Ctrl + S (Windows/Linux)or ⌘ + S (Mac OS X).

Chapter 4: Starting Toon Boom Harmony

Command

ActionAccess Methods

Save As New Version

Saves the current scene as
another version. The Save Version dialog box prompts you togive a name for this new verFile > Save As New Version
sion. This will create a new.xstage file in your current project directory.
Windows/Linux: File > Quit

Quit

Closes the application.

Mac OS X: Stage Paint> Quit

Show Scan Information

Displays a status bar showing
the scanning information at thebottom of the Drawing and
Camera view.

Drawing View Menu > View >Show > Show Scan
Information

Cut

Removes selected objects. You
can then paste the object or its
properties to another object.

Copy

Copies selected objects andproperties.

Paste

Places an object you cut or
copied into the location you
select in the Camera, Drawing
and Timeline views.

DeleteRemoves selected objects.

Select All

Selects all drawing objects inthe current drawing window in Edit > Select All
the Drawing, Timeline andPress Ctrl + A (Windows/Linux)
Camera views. This helps you
manage multiple objects as one or ⌘ + A (Mac OS X).
when moving them.

Deselect All

Deselects all selected objects in Edit > Deselect All
the Drawing and Camera views. Esc

Undo

Removes the last change madeto your project. Harmony
supports multiple undo, so you
can undo changes you made in
the order you made them.

Redo

Redoes an operation you have Edit > Redoundone. This command is active Press Ctrl + Shift + Z.

Edit > Cut
Press Ctrl + X (Windows/Linux)or ⌘ + X (Mac OS X).
Edit > Copy

34

Press Ctrl + C (Windows/Linux)or ⌘ + C (Mac OS X).
Edit > Paste
Press Ctrl + V (Windows/Linux)or ⌘ + V (Mac OS X).
Edit > Delete
DeleteEdit > Undo
Press Ctrl + Z (Windows/Linux)or ⌘ + Z (Mac OS X).

Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

Command

ActionAccess Methods

only after you use the Undo
command.

Debug Mode

Enables the Debug mode forgathering and displaying
precise information about eachrendering frame, such as thenodes encountered and action
taken.

Help

Launches the Toon Boom
Harmony Online Help system,complete with instructions on
Help > Help
how to use the system. Thisrequires an internet connection.

Toon Boom Harmony on theWeb

Launches the Toon Boom
Harmony website, whichfeatures a Support andCommunity > Forum section.

About

Use the About command toaccess general information
about the software.

Customer Experience Improvement Program

Help > Debug Mode

Help > Toon Boom Harmonyon the Web

Windows/Linux: Help > About
Mac OS X: Stage Paint > About

Harmony includes an optionalcustomer experience feature
whereby usage information iscollected and sent to Toon
Boom. The data does not contain any personally identifiable
information and cannot be used
to identify you. The data willconsist of a basic hardware
description, a project summary
and usage information. This
information will only be used for Help > Customer Experience
software improvement purImprovement Program
poses, as well as sharing theinformation with third parties
for the same reason.
The customer experiencefeature is enabled by default
but is voluntary. If you prefer
not to participate, you can opt
out when you first launch thesoftware, by using a global
preference, or by a commandline argument.

This table lists the general commands used in Paint.

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Chapter 4: Starting Toon Boom Harmony

CommandFile > Add/Revert

ActionShortcut

Use the Add/Revert command toload new drawings to the alreadyexisting selection or to reload
drawings to revert themodifications to the last save.
This option does not work whenseveral elements are loaded.

Windows > Colour

Use the Colour command to
display the Colour view.

Windows > Colour
EditorUse the Colour Editor command
to display the Colour Editor view.

Windows > Model

Use the Model command to
display the Model view.

Windows > Tool
Properties

Use the Tool Properties command
to display the Tool Properties
view.

File > Load
Background FileUse the Load Background Filecommand to import a backgroundimage in Paint to compare yourdrawing's colours with it.

File > Move
BackgroundUse the Move Backgroundcommand to move thebackground image in the stage.

File > Open Drawings

Use the Open Drawings command
to open the Database Selector
The Ctrl + O (Windows/Linux) or ⌘dialog box to select a set of+ O (Mac OS X).
drawings.

File > Open Elements

Use the Open Elements command
The Ctrl + E (Windows/Linux) or ⌘to open the Open Elements+ E (Mac OS X).
window and select a series ofdrawing elements and a frame
range to work on.

File > Reset
Background Position

Use the Reset Background
Position command to restore thebackground image original sizeand position.

File > Scale
Background Down

Use the Scale Background Down
command to scale down the size ofthe background image.

File > Scale
Background Up

Use the Scale Background Up
command to scale up the size ofthe background image.

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

Command

ActionShortcutFile > Unload
BackgroundUse the Unload Background Filecommand to remove thebackground image from Paint.

Options > Play by
Frame

Use the Play by Frame command
to flip between the frames insteadof the drawings. If a drawing is
exposed on two frames, you will
have to flip twice before moving onto the next drawing.

Preferences
An important feature of Toon Boom Harmony is the Preferences dialog box. From here you can customize yourinterface, tool behaviour and shortcuts. Throughout this guide, you are often required to go to the Preferences
dialog box to set parameters and options.
To learn about the different preferences available, refer to the Preferences Guide.
How to open the Preferences dialog box
1. Do one of the following:‣

Windows/Linux: From the top menu, select Edit > Preferences.

‣

Mac OS X: Select Stage Paint > Preferences.

‣

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

37

Harmony 12 Paint Guide

38

Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

Chapter 5: Interface
Knowing how to manage the Toon Boom Harmony interface helps you to work efficiently and organize yourworkspace conveniently. There are a series of views and toolbars you can use as you perform different
operations. Usually, each person has a specific way of working in the interface and prefer particular views andtoolbars. In this chapter, you will learn about the main elements of the interface and how to manage them.

This chapter is divided as follows:

Menus
Harmony contains three types of menus from which you can access many commands and options:
Top Menu
The top menu contains most of the commands. Depending on the view you're working in and the element, somecommands are available and others are not. The top menu is always located at the very top of the interface.
The top menu contains the following categories:
•

File

•

Edit

•

View

•

Drawing•

Selected

•

Tools

•

Options•

Colours•

Palettes

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Chapter 5: Interface•

Frames•Columns•

Windows•

Help

On Mac OS X, there is also a Stage Paint category that contains the following commands:•

Preferences

•

About

•

Quit

View Menu
A view menu contains commands specifically related to that view.
To access a view menu, click the Menu

button in the top-left corner of a view.

A view menu is available in the following views:•

ColourQuick Access Menu
A quick access menu lets you open a list of the commands you will use most often.
To access this menu, right-click anywhere in a view.

40Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

Managing the Views
The Harmony interface is composed of different views, each one designed for a specific purpose. You can modify
the location of the views by adding a new view as a tab or as a window. You can also swap the location of a view.
When a view is active, a red rectangle appears around the view. Keyboard shortcuts and top menu options areassociated with the active view. If a menu option is greyed out, it means it does not apply to the layer, drawing orother type of selection or the option does not apply to the active view.

Workspace modifications are automatically saved when you exit the application unless you deselected theAutomatically Save Workspace option in the Preferences dialog box.

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Chapter 5: Interface

How to add a view
1. Select the view you want to add from Windows > desired view.
How to close a view
1. Click the Close View button.
How to resize a view
1. Place the pointer on the edge of the view to resize.
2. When you see the Resizing

icon, drag the side of the view to the desired size.

How to temporarily hide a view
1. On the edge of the window you want to hide, click the Collapse/Expand button.
The view is compressed and only the Collapse/Expand button is visible.
2. Click the Collapse/Expand button again to redisplay the view.

Managing the Toolbars
Harmony contains toolbars which, by default, are located at the top of the interface. Some of the views also
have their own toolbars which you can move around. You can reposition the toolbars to suit your work style orhide unused ones.

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

42Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

You can display or hide toolbars using the menus. The Toolbar menu only contains the View toolbars of the views
that are displayed in the workspace. As you show or hide views in your workspace, the Toolbar menu updates.
The top toolbars can also be displayed directly in a view. Only one instance of each toolbar can be displayed. If a
toolbar is already displayed in the top area and you decide to display it in a view, the selected toolbar will movefrom the top area to the view.
The View toolbars can be customized to contain your favourite tools and options. Using the Toolbar Manager
window, you can organize different toolbars to suit your working style.
If the default toolbar does not contain the tools you require, you can customize the toolbar.
How to show and hide a toolbar
1. From the top menu, select Windows > Toolbars > the desired toolbar.
‣

You can right-click anywhere in the toolbar area to access Harmony toolbars. View toolbars, however,are not available by right-clicking the toolbar area. You can access the toolbar of any open and active
view by right-clicking in the view's top area or the Windows menu.

How to resize a toolbar
1. Hide a portion of a toolbar by dragging another open toolbar over its tail-end.
2. Click on the arrows appearing at the end of the collapsed toolbar to expand it.

43Chapter 5: Interface

How to move a toolbar
1. Select the toolbar you want to move by clicking its anchor point and dragging it into a view toolbar areaor another position in the top or side interface toolbar area.

2. When a highlighted zone appears showing an available location for the toolbar, release the mouse button and drop the toolbar into position.

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

How to customize a view toolbar
1. In the chosen view, right-click on any button in the toolbar where you want to add or subtract a new button. You can also reorder the buttons. Make sure the button you right-click on is active.
2. From the menu, select Customize.

The Toolbar Manager window opens.
3. To add a new icon to your toolbar, select the tool or command from the Available Tools list and click the
Right Arrowbutton to switch it to the Toolbar list.

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Chapter 5: Interface

4. To remove an icon from your toolbar, select the tool or command in the Toolbar list and click the Left
Arrow
button to switch to the Available Tools list.

5. To reorder the icons in your toolbar, select the command to be moved from the Toolbar list and click
the Upor Down
buttons to move it to the correct location.

6. Click OK when you are finished.

View References
Harmony contains a series of views that are each focused on a specific set of tasks. Here are the views
available:46

Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide•

Colour view•

Colour Editor view•

Drawing view•Message Log view•

Model view•

Perspective view•

Tool Properties view

Colour View
The Colour view is where you create colours and palettes and import existing palettes into your project. The
Colour view is also necessary for drawing, painting and creating colour styling.

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Chapter 5: Interface

The Colour view has two display modes:•

List mode•

Swatch mode

How to switch between the display modes
1. From the Colour menu, select Colours > Swatch Mode and do one of the following:‣

Select the option to display the swatches.

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide‣

Deselect the option to display the colour list.

When you are painting on bitmap layers, the Colour view will look like the following. It contains a subset of
the tools available when working with vector layers.

Add Colour
The Add Colour

button lets you add a new colour swatch to the bottom of your colour list.

Remove Colour
The Remove Colour
button lets you delete the currently selected colour swatches. If the colour swatch is usedin your project, the Delete Colour dialog box will appear asking you to confirm the operation.

‣ Click OK to confirm the operation or Cancel to cancel it.
Zones painted with colour swatches which have been deleted will turn red, easily identifying them so you can
repaint them with another colour swatch.

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Chapter 5: Interface

Add Texture

The Add Texture
button lets you add a bitmap colour swatch to your palette. You can load photos andtextures and paint your drawings with it. The bitmap image must be a .tga or .psd file format.
Set Current Brush Colour
The Set Current Brush Colour
button let you set the currently selected colour swatch as the colour used by
the Brush
tool. If you select a new colour in the Colour view while using the Brush tool, the Set Current
Brush Colour swatch will be updated.
Set Current Pencil Colour
The Set Current Pencil Colour
button lets you set the currently selected colour swatch as the colour usedby the Pencil, Polyline, Ellipse, Rectangle
and Line
tools. If you select a new colour in the
Colour view while using any of these tools, the Set Current Pencil Colour swatch will be updated.
Set Current Paint Colour
The Set Current Paint Colour
button lets you set the currently selected colour swatch as the colour used by
the Brush
tool. If you select a new colour in the Colour view while using the Paint tool, the Set Current Paint
Colour swatch will be updated.

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

Link/Unlink Three Colours

The Link/Unlink Three Colours
button lets you link the Set Current Brush Colour, Set Current Pencil
Colour and Set Current Paint Colour swatches to the currently selected colour swatches in the Colour view.
Show/Hide Palette List View

The Show/Hide Palette List View button lets you display the Palette List view in the Colour view. This option is forthe advanced user who wants to create colour palettes for their props and characters.
Colour Swatch Name

Each colour swatch available in the Colour view can have its own name, making it easy to identify which colour isused to paint what part of your character or background.
Two colours can have the same name.

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Chapter 5: Interface

Colour Swatch

A colour swatch is a specific colour used to paint a certain zone of a character or background. Colour palettes
are composed of colour swatches. They can also be called colour pots. When you paint a zone with a colour
swatch, the zone is linked to the swatch. So if you update the swatch’s tint, the zone will be updated along with
it. This allows you to modify your animation colours even after it is completely painted.
Colour Menu
The Colour menu lets you access commands related to the Colour view such as creating new palettes, adding
new colour swatches, and displaying the Tint panel.
Add Palette
The Add Palettebutton lets you add a new palette to the bottom of your palette list.

Remove Palette
The Remove Palettebutton lets you delete the currently selected palette. If the colour swatch is used inyour project, zones painted with colour swatches which have been deleted will turn red, easily identifying themso you can repaint them with another colour swatch.

Link Palette
The Link Palettebutton lets you access other palettes created in the project and link them to your scene.

Order Palette List
The Up and Down arrows let you reorder the selected palette. When using clone palettes (colour styles), thehighest palette is the list will override its clone located lower in the list.

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

Edit Palette Mode
In Server mode, the Edit Palette Modebutton lets you get the rights to modify the palette. The palette files
can be locked to avoid accidentally modifying the palette.
Colour Editor
The Colour Editor panel allows you to modify the HSV and RGBA values of the selected colour without using the
Colour Picker window.
Drawing Navigation and Art Layers
These controls are used to quickly have access to common commands.

•

Previous and Next Drawing
These buttons let you switch to the previous or next drawings. The shortcuts are F and G.

•

Previous and Next Layer
These buttons are used to switch to the previous or next layer when you have different layers loaded. The
shortcuts are H and J.

•

Line Art, Colour Art, Preview ModeUse these buttons to toggle between the Line Art to Colour Art layers. The shortcut is L. You can alsoenable or disable the Preview mode. The shortcuts are Shift + P.

Drawing View
Only the selected drawing is displayed by default in the Drawing view. You can use features, such as the lighttable to display the current drawing of all the enabled layers of your scene in washed-out colours, or the Onion
Skin to display the previous and next drawings of the currently selected drawing layer.

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Chapter 5: Interface

Drawing Area
This is the main space in the Drawing view. It is where you draw and where the drawings are displayed.
Zoom Menu
The Zoom menu lets you enlarge or reduce the Camera or Drawing view display.
To make the camera frame size always match the size of your view, select the Fit to View option. Click thedrop-down arrow and select a zoom level or press 1 and 2.

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

Drawing NameThe Drawing Name field displays the name of the selected drawing, as well as the layer containing it. If the cell
does not contain any drawing, an Empty Cell text is shown in the field.
Tool Name
The Tool Name field displays the name of the selected tool. If you temporarily override a drawing tool using akeyboard shortcut, the tool’s name will be highlighted in red. You can temporarily override a tool by holding its
keyboard shortcut without the [Alt] key. For example, the Select tool shortcut is Alt + S. If you hold down the S
key, you will switch to the Select tool. When you release the key, you will return to the tool you were using.
Frame NumberThis field displays the current frame of the animation you are working on.
Cursor Coordinates
This indicates the position of the your pointer in the drawing area.
Colour Picker
The Colour Picker allows you to select a colour for drawing.
Drawing Thumbnails Panel
The Drawing Thumbnails panel displays a list with thumbnails of the loaded drawings. The highlighted drawing is
the one displayed in the drawing area. You can select the drawing you want to paint directly from this list.

Message Log View
The Message log view displays information gathered during a render task, such as which frames and at what timethey were each rendered. The view also contains a list of the colour recovery operations.

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Chapter 5: Interface

Model View
Once you have a fully painted drawing, you can use it as a colour model and load it in the Model view. Thisdrawing can be used and loaded in any of your Harmony scenes.
Once a drawing is loaded in the Model view, you can use the Dropper
tool to select a colour from themodel and use it to paint in the Camera or Drawing view without having to pick the colour from the colour
palette.

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

Perspective View
The Perspective view is used during scene setup. It allows you to see a multiplane scene’s orientation. The
Perspective view is similar to a 3D display, as it lets you rotate the scene through all possible angles tounderstand the spacing between the elements. You can also position and rotate your layers and the camera
inside the 3D display to achieve some 3D setup and camera moves.

1. The red circle rotates the view on its X axis.
2. The green circle rotates the view on its Y axis.
3. The blue circle rotates the view on its Z axis.
4. This is a perspective grid reference.
5. The axis reference arrows let you maintain your orientation when navigating in the Perspective view.
6. There are three view option buttons displayed in the lower-left corner of the view.
‣

Show/Hide Camera: Shows or hides camera frame in the Perspective view.

‣

Reset View: Resets the pan, rotation, and zoom of the Perspective view.

‣

Reset Rotation: Resets the rotation of the Perspective view.

7. This field displays the current zoom level in the Perspective view. You can use the Zoom level drop-downmenu to select a specific zoom level from the list. Zoom levels from 2.5% to 6400% are available; you canalso select Fit To View to automatically use a zoom level that lets you see all your scene layers and information in the Perspective view at once.

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Chapter 5: Interface

8. This field displays the currently selected layer and drawing name.
9. This field displays the currently selected tool.
10. This field displays the currently selected frame of your animation.
11. This field displays the currently selected colour in the palette.
How to rotate a scene in the Perspective view
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Rotate View

tool.

‣

Click in the view, and drag the cursor around to rotate the view.

‣

Press and hold Ctrl + Alt (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + Alt (Mac OS X) and click and drag to rotate theview one axis at a time.

Tool Properties View
The Tool Properties view contains the most common options and operations related to the currently selected
tool. When you select a tool from the Tools toolbar, the Tool Properties view updates.
For example, if you choose the Select tool, the Tool Properties view will display the options and operations
related to it, such as Snap to Contour, Apply to All Drawings, Flip Horizontal, and Flatten.

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

Toolbar References
Harmony has several toolbars. There are two types of toolbars: the top toolbars available at the top of theinterface and the view toolbars in individual windows. View toolbars are only shown if the particular view isdisplayed in the workspace. This is a complete list of the toolbars available in Harmony.

Top Toolbars
Edit Toolbar
The Edit toolbar contains common operations such as Copy, Paste, Cut, Undo and Redo. These options can also
be found in the Edit menu.

File Toolbar
The File toolbar contains the common file operations such as New, Save and Open. These options can also befound in the File menu.

Tools Toolbar

The Tools toolbar contains all of the main tools you will use while working in Harmony. In the default workspace,you will find this toolbar on the left-most side of the interface.

View Toolbars
Here is a list of the toolbars available in the Harmony views:•

Model Toolbar

Interface Navigation
Toon Boom Harmony lets you zoom in, zoom out, rotate, pan and reset views for easy navigation of the interface.
Command

ActionAccess Methods
View > Zoom In

Zoom In

Zooms in the view.

Press 2 or roll the mousewheel up.
In the Timeline view, roll
the mouse wheel up.

Zoom Out

View > Zoom Out
Zooms out the view.

59

Press 1 or roll the mouseChapter 5: Interface

wheel down.
In the Timeline view, roll
the mouse wheel downZooms in or out of the view.

Roll the middle mousebutton up or down.

Pan

Moves parallel to the view.

Hold down the Spacebarand drag n in the directionin which you want to pan
the view.

Recenter view

Recenters the view on the pointer.

Press N

Resets the view’s pan to its default
position.

View > Reset Pan

Reset Pan

Zoom In or Out

Press Shift + N
View > Reset View

Reset View

Resets the view to its default position.

Press Shift + M

Resets the view’s rotation to its default
position.

View > Reset Rotation

Reset Rotation

Press Shift + X

Reset Zoom

Resets the view’s zoom to its default
position.

View > Reset Zoom

Rotate 30 CW

Rotates the Camera view 30 degrees
clockwise, like an animation table.

View > Rotate View CW

Rotate 30 CCW

Rotates the Camera view 30 degrees
counter-clockwise, like an animationtable.

View > Rotate View CCW

Toggle Quick Close-up

Use the Magnifier tool to quickly centeron the mouse position and zoom in to a
pre-defined value such as 4X. Then you
can zoom out again. Hold the Shift key
and press Z to zoom in and back out
again. Replace the Reset Zoom bypressing Shift +.
The area where you zoom in or out isdependent on the pointer location in the
Camera view. If you zoom in and thenmove the pointer to a different location
when you zoom out the mouse will becentered on that location.

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

Zoom Tool
The Zoom

tool in the Tools toolbar lets you zoom in and zoom out of the Camera or Drawing view.

•

The keyboard shortcuts are 1 and 2.

•

When you're in Zoom In mode, hold Alt as you click to zoom out.

When you select the Zoom tool, its properties are displayed in the Tool Properties view.

Parameter

ButtonDescription

Zoom In

Zooms in

Zoom Out

Zooms out

Zoom Tool Options

Zoom in the Camera or Drawing view.
Perform Zoom In
The keyboard shortcut is 2.
Zoom out the Camera or Drawing view.
Operations

Perform Zoom Out
The keyboard shortcut is 1.
Reset Zoom

Restores the current zoom level to 100%.

Reset View

Restores the original display by resetting any
pan, rotation or zoom actions.

61Harmony 12 Paint Guide

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

Chapter 6: Design and Drawing Tools

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

Sketching the Model on page 64•

Cleaning and Inking the Model on page 78

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

Drawing Tasks on page 82

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

Drawing Tool References on page 151

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Chapter 6: Design and Drawing Tools

Sketching the Model

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

Drawing with the Brush or Pencil Tool

The Brushand Pencil
tools are used for drawing and sketching. Both tools support pressure
sensitivity, allowing you to create lines with variable thickness. The Brush tool produces contour vector lines.
The Pencil and shape tools produce central vector lines. This means that a pencil line’s control points (used todeform its shape) are located along the length of the central spine, while the Brush line’s control points arelocated along the contour.
•

If you draw with the Brush tool and want to modify the thickness variation, use the Contour Editor
tool.

•

If you draw with the Pencil tool and want to modify the thickness variation, use the Pencil Editor
tool.

•

You can also convert a brush zone into a pencil line with the Brush Stroke to Pencil Line64

option.

Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

If you sketch a drawing using a semitransparent colour to get a paper-like feel, you should use the Brush tool as it
produces a more realistic and natural feel. The pencil line is very useful for tracing clean or final drawings.

Also, it is recommended to use brush lines when designing cut-out puppet articulations which use patches.

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

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Chapter 6: Design and Drawing Tools

Relative Size

The size relation between the props, characters and backgrounds is very important in maintaining consistency
and structure throughout the project.
A production can contain many characters and props. It is not unusual for these to be created by different
people. If there is no size control implemented, the characters and elements created by different artists canvary greatly. When this occurs, the characters that are placed together in a scene will be out of proportion. The
animator or person doing the scene setup will then have to scale them to the correct size.
When a character or prop is scaled down, the outline will become increasingly thinner. By the time the element
is scaled to its proper size, the outline may be so thin that a difference between one character's outline and theone beside it will not look very good.
Here are a few tips you can use to create a suitable size relation.

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

Line UpA line up consists of copying and pasting all your character designs into the same drawing and then scaling themto the correct proportion in relation to the other characters. This line up is very important and should be handed
to any animator, layout and posing artist or scene setup person working on the project.
For the prop design, it is recommended that you paste one of the main character's hands or even the full bodybeside the prop. This enables the animator to know what size to draw the prop.
In your character design scene, it is a good idea to create a column for the character line up.The line up is usually
done during the character design step. When the character builder imports the model to the breakdown scene,
the size relation should be correct.
Field Chart

Harmony includes a field chart in its Drawing view. This tool is very useful in setting the characters' and props'
heights.
It is recommended that you keep the character design and breakdown inside the 12 field size. This ensures that it
fits the default camera size and the template thumbnails. If some parts were drawn too big or too far apart, you

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Chapter 6: Design and Drawing Tools

can use the Reposition All Drawings tool and reposition, scale or rotate multiple drawings from different layers
all at once.
Use the Show Grid option to display a grid in the Drawing view.
Name

ButtonDescription

Keyboard Shortcut
View > Grid > Show Grid

Show Grid
Displays the grid.

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

Grid Outline Only

Displays the outline of the grid only.

View > Grid > Grid Outline Only

SquareDisplays a standard square grid.

View > Grid > Square

12 Field Grid

Displays a 12-field size grid.

View > Grid > 12 Field Grid

16 Field Grid

Displays a 16-field size grid.

View > Grid > 16 Field Grid

Underlay

Displays the grid under the drawing
elements.

View > Grid > Underlay

Overlay

Displays the grid over the drawing
elements.

View > Grid > Overlay

How to reposition all drawings
1. In the Tools toolbar from the Select drop-down menu, select the Reposition All Drawings
also automatically selects every stroke in your drawing in the Drawing view.

tool. This

2. To deform or reposition a selection:‣

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

‣

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

68Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

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

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

69Chapter 6: Design and Drawing Tools

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

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

Make sure you have the necessary rights to modify the palette list. If not, select Edit > Edit Palette
List Mode.

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

70Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

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

How to create a palette from the Advanced Palette Lists mode
1. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select the drawing that requires a palette.
2. Make sure that you have the necessary rights to modify the palette list. If you do not, select Edit > Edit
Palette List Mode.
3. In the Colour view, click the Show Palette List View button to display the palette list.

4. Do one of the following:‣

From the Colour view menu, select Palettes > New.

‣

Click the Create Palettebutton.

The Palette Browser: Create Palette dialog box opens.

71Chapter 6: Design and Drawing Tools

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

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

‣

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

‣

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

‣

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

When you select a level that has a palette stored in it, the palette names are displayed in the Palettefield.

6. Name the palette. There is no need to add the suffix "palette" to the name as it is always recognized asa palette file.

7. Select a Palette List option.

‣

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

‣

The Element Palette List is mainly used with traditional and paperless animation. Unlike cut-out
animation, all columns (drawing elements) contain different characters, props, backgrounds andeffects. The Element Palette List is used because you do not necessarily want all of the palettes forall of your elements linked in every column.

72Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

The palette list is stored in the drawing element's directory instead of directly in the Scene level. This
ensures that the links to the palettes appear only in the appropriate element. If you prefer to access a
global palette list, link your palettes to the Scene Palette List.
8. Click OK.
The new palette appears in the palette list.
How to lock or unlock the palette list‣

In the Colour view, click the Edit Palette Modebutton.

A grey pencil icon appears in the top-right corner of the Palette list.

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

button.

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

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

In the colour wheel, select a colour.

‣

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

73Chapter 6: Design and Drawing Tools‣

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

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

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

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

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

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

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

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

75Chapter 6: Design and Drawing Tools

Sketching the Character

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

Add a drawing layerlSketch the model

You have the choice to sketch your model as a bitmap or vector drawing. If you like the feel of drawing withbitmap lines, you can set your layer as bitmap. If you like drawing with vectors, you can set your layer as vector.
If you use vector, you will be able to enlarge your drawing and zoom into it without losing quality or resolution.
You can also use the Contour Editor and Select tools to resize and modify lines. If you draw with bitmap, youwill not be able to scale the drawing beyond 100% of its resolution without encountering pixelization issues.
If you would like to separate your lines and colours on separated art layers, see Art Layers on page 279
How to sketch a model
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Brush

tool or press Alt + B.

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

76Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

3. In the Drawing Thumbnails panel, select a drawing.
4. In the Drawing view, enable the Grid (Field Chart). You can press Ctrl + ' (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + ' (MacOS X).
‣

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

5. In the Drawing view, start drawing.

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

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

to rotate your workspace.You can press Ctrl+Alt (Win-The default keyboard shortcut to reset the workspace rotation is Shift + X.

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Chapter 6: Design and Drawing Tools

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

Cleaning and Inking the Model

When your rough models are ready, it is time to clean and ink them. You can still use the default palette andcolours to do so, especially if you are not the one doing the colour styling. If you have already created a palette
for your model, you can add new colours for tracing.
If you want to keep your roughs and sketches, add a new drawing layer and trace in it using the Light Table.
This is the equivalent of adding a sheet of paper and tracing over the rough using the animation disk lighttable. You only need to disable the rough layer to prevent it from appearing in the final scene render.
If you would like to separate your lines and colours on separated art layers, see Art Layers on page 279
How to trace your character
1. In the Drawing Thumbnails panel, select the drawing to trace in.
2. If you work in the Drawing view, enable the Light Table
3. Do one of the following:78

or press Shift + L.

Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide‣

In the Tools toolbar, select a drawing tool.

‣

From the top menu, select Tools > desired tool.

4. Trace the model.

5. To make perfect points and corners, you can intersect the two strokes to create a point. Using the Cutter
tool, you can automatically trim the excess portion. In the Tool Properties view, enable the Lasso
selection type. Make sure the Use Mouse Gesturebutton is enabled. In this mode, you can automatically delete any extra sections of line in your artwork by simply clicking, holding and dragging yourmouse over it.

6. If you are using the Pencil tool to clean your drawing, you will need to merge your pencil lines together
after cropping the points.
‣

In the Tools toolbar, select the Select‣In the Drawing view, select the two strokes to be merged.

tool.

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Chapter 6: Design and Drawing Tools‣

In the Tool Properties view, click the Merge Pencil Lines‣

You can also set the Join option to Mitre.

button.

How to add thick and thin Lines
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Pencil Editor

tool located in the Contour Editor menu.

2. In the Camera or Drawing view, select a pencil line and click the line to reshape it.

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

80Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

4. Press Delete to delete a selected point.
5. Press Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ (Mac OS X) and click the central spine to add a set of points to adjust thecontour.
6. To modify the shape, you can:‣Move the selected points to a new area.

‣

Pull the Bézier handle to move both points' handles as one.

‣

Hold Alt down and pull one of the Bézier handles to move it independently from the other one.

‣

Pull directly on the line in-between two points. No selection is necessary. Holding down the Shift key
limits the contour modification to the curve between the two first points.

‣

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

7. You can also use the Brush
tool to draw some of the lines and change the tip to an oblique shape or
use a pen tablet which provides pressure sensitivity and lets you draw lines of variable thickness.

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Chapter 6: Design and Drawing Tools

Drawing with the Brush tool does not allow you to reshape your lines as easily as with the Polyline or
Pencil tool. The Brush tool creates contour vector lines (also known as fills) where the vector points are
situated on the line’s contour. Pencil lines are central vector lines in which the points follow the centre of
the line.

Drawing Tasks
Harmony has a wide variety of drawing tools for all kinds of drawing tasks. This section covers how to use
these tools. For the complete details on their options in the Tool Properties view, see Drawing Tool
References on page 151.
In this topic, you will learn about:•

Drawing with the Pencil Tool on page 83•

Drawing with the Brush Tool on page 95•

Drawing with Textured Brushes on Vector Drawing Layer on page 100•

Viewing the Final Lines as You Draw on page 119•

Selecting the Current Colour of a Tool on page 120Selecting the Current Colour of a Tool•

Selecting Drawing Objects on page 123•

Erasing Parts of a Drawing on page 12782

Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide•

Reshaping a Drawing Using the Contour Editor Tool on page 130•

Reshaping Pencil Lines with the Pencil Editor Tool on page 132•

Drawing with Shapes on page 135•

Drawing with the Polyline Tool on page 136•

Drawing with Invisible Lines on page 137•

Deforming a Drawing with the Perspective Tool on page 139•

Warping a Drawing with the Envelope Tool on page 140•

Cutting Drawing Parts on page 142•

Smoothing Lines on page 143•

Working With Text on page 144•

More Drawing Tools on page 145

Drawing with the Pencil Tool

The Pencil tool is for drawing the final images, such as character nodes, cut-out puppet and clean animation. The
pencil creates a central vector shape. Pencil lines support pressure sensitivity and texture.
How to draw with the Pencil tool
1. Select a drawing from the Drawing Thumbnails panel.
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Pencil

tool or press Alt + /.

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

83Chapter 6: Design and Drawing Tools

3. In the Drawing view, start drawing.
‣

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

‣

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

How to modify the pencil settings
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Pencil

tool or press Alt + /.

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

The Pencil Properties window opens.

84Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

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

Description

Size and Smoothness tab
Maximum Size

Sets the maximum width of the line.

Minimum Size

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

Smoothness

Lets you modify the central line smoothness of the line. This parameter smooths

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Chapter 6: Design and Drawing Tools

the initial movement of your line. Increasing the value will result in a smootherline with fewer control points.
Contour Smoothness

Optimizes the contour line smoothness of the line. This parameter will smooththe contour of the line once it has been traced; the higher the value, the fewer
control points will compose your line.

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

•

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

•

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

•

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

Texture tab
TextureSee Pencil Line Texture on page 92.

Working with Pencil Presets

A pencil preset is a pencil with specific properties. You can work with regular pencil presets and thickness
stencils.
Regular pencil presets allow you to set the size and smoothing of the line or shape. As you draw, the thicknessof the line varies according the amount of pressure you apply with a pen and tablet.
Thickness stencils that are indicated with thisicon are also set with specific properties, but disregards thepressure you use with your pen and tablet. The line thickness varies. You can access thickness stencils from thelist of presets on the Tool Properties view or create your own.
How to select a pencil preset
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Pencil

86Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide, Line, Ellipse, or Rectangle

tool.

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

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

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

tool.

2. In the Tool Properties view, use the Presets menu to select a thickness stencil. They are marked with thisicon.

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

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Chapter 6: Design and Drawing Tools

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

tool.

2. In the Tool Properties view, adjust your pencil settings—see How to modify the pencil settings on page84.
3. In the Tool Properties view, click the New Brushbutton.

The New Preset dialog box opens.

4. Type in a name for your new pencil thickness stencil and click OK.
5. Start drawing in the Drawing view.
How to create a pencil thickness stencil
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Selecttool.

2. In the Camera view, select the pencil line or shape from which you want to take the style.

3. In the Tool Properties view, click the New Thickness Stencil

button.

A new thickness stencil is added to the end of the list in the Presets menu.
4. In the Presets menu, select a new thickness stencil and click on a line or shape in the Drawing view toapply the thickness stencil you created.
How to apply a thickness stencil to a pencil line or shape
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Select88Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

tool.
2. In the Drawing view, select the pencil line or shape on which you want to apply a style.

3. In the Tool Properties view, select the style you want to apply from the Presets list.

The style you selected is applied to your selection.

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

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

, select Rename Brush.

The Rename Preset dialog box opens.

4. In the Name field, type in the new name.
5. Click OK.

89

tool.

Chapter 6: Design and Drawing Tools

How to delete a thickness stencil or pencil preset
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Pencil

tool.

2. In the Presets menu, select the thickness stencil or preset to delete.
3. Click the Delete Preset

button.

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

, select Import Brushes.

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

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

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

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

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

Description

Small Thumbnail

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

Large Thumbnail

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

Stroke View

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

91Chapter 6: Design and Drawing Tools

Pencil Line Texture
You can apply a texture to a pencil line. Pencil lines support texture. Before drawing, you can select or import a
texture and apply it to your lines. You can also change it afterwards using the Select tool. Textures are
independent from pencil templates.
When you import a texture in your pencil styles, it is saved in your scene. If you want to add that texture to abank that you will reuse in different scenes, you can add that texture to your preferences.
How to apply a preset texture to a pencil line
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Pencil

tool.

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

3. In the Pencil Properties editor, select the Texture tab.

4. In the Texture library, select a texture for the pencil.
5. In the Drawing view, draw a pencil line.

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

tool.

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

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

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

To delete a preset style, click the Delete Texture
Texturemenu.

button or select New Texture from the Texture

button or select Delete Texture from the

4. Browse for your bitmap texture file.

NOTE:
The following file formats are supported: .jpg, .png, .psd, .sgi, .tif. Your texture MUST HAVE an alpha channel.

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

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

7. Click the Texture menu

and select Rename Texture.

The Rename Opacity Texture dialog box opens.

8. In the Name field, type the template name and click OK.

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Chapter 6: Design and Drawing Tools

9. In the Drawing view, draw your pencil line with your new texture.

How to add a texture to your preferences
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Pencil

tool.

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

3. In the Pencil Properties editor, select a texture from the Textures area to add to your preferences.
4. Click the Copy to Preference

button.

How to apply a preset texture to a pencil line
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Selecttool.

2. In the Drawing view, select a pencil line.

94Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

3. In the Tool Properties view, select a texture from the Textures area to apply to the selected stroke.

Drawing with the Brush Tool

The Brush tool is pressure sensitive and lets you create a contour shape with a thick and thin line effect, as if it was
created with a paint brush.
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Chapter 6: Design and Drawing Tools

With the Brush tool, you can draw as vector or bitmap, depending on your preference. When you add adrawing layer, you can simply select the vector or bitmap option. If you draw with vector, you can enlarge yourdrawing and zoom into it without losing quality or resolution. You can also use the Contour Editor and Selecttools to resize and modify lines. If you draw with bitmap, you will not be able to scale your drawing beyond
100% of its resolution without encountering pixelization issues.
You can create your own brush styles. A variety of brush styles are provided allowing you to create and saveyour own.This way you can create brushes with precise sizes and parameters and save them so you can draw
and design with them. Renaming a brush can make it easier to identify and access the brushes you use mostfrequently.
A dynamic brush can be created for drawing using patterns created from your artwork. Create a new dynamic
brush to copy a pattern you have drawn to reproduce it quickly. You can create dynamic brushes using a single
or multiple patterns that automatically switch through the patterns as you draw.
How to draw with the Brush tool
1. Select a drawing from the Drawing Thumbnails panel.
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Brush

tool or press Alt + B.

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

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

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

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

tool or press Alt + B.

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

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

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

tool or press Alt + B.

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

The Brush Properties window opens.

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

Description

Size and Smoothness Tab
Maximum Size

Sets the maximum width of the line.

Minimum Size

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

97Chapter 6: Design and Drawing Tools

Smoothness

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

Contour Smoothness

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

Tip Shape

Texture Tab
TextureSee Drawing with Textured Brushes on Vector Drawing Layer on page 100

NOTE: If you are trying to create artwork on a bitmap drawing layer, and therefore with a bitmap brush, see
Drawing with Bitmap Brushes on Bitmap Drawing Layers on page 111

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

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

‣

Click the New Brush‣

From the Brushbuttonbutton.
menu, select New Brush Preset.

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

98Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

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

button in the upper-right corner.

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

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

Click the Delete Brush‣

From the Brushbutton.

menu , select Delete Brush.

How to create a new dynamic brush
1. In the Tools toolbar, select a drawing tool.
2. In the Drawing view, draw the pattern you want to use as your dynamic brush stamp.

3. In the Tools toolbar, click the Selecttool and select the parts of the drawing you want to repeat.

4. In the Tools toolbar, select the Brush

tool or press Alt + B.

5. In the Tool Properties view, click the Add Dynamic Brushdynamic brush preset.

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button to add your selection as a newChapter 6: Design and Drawing Tools

6. From the Brushmenu, select Rename Brush.

7. Type in a name for the new dynamic brush and click OK.
8. In the Drawing view, start drawing with your dynamic brush to quickly repeat a pattern.

9. To adjust the scale of your pattern to make it bigger or smaller as you stamp it, adjust the Maximum
Size value in the Tool Properties view.

Drawing with Textured Brushes on Vector Drawing Layer

In Harmony, you can use the Brush

tool to draw bitmap textured lines.

100Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

In the Brush Tool Properties view, you will find a series of default textured "brushes", but you can also create andimport your own custom collection. In Harmony, when using a textured brush on a vector layer, the texture of abrush is referred to as the Paper Texture. In other words, we are attributing the texture not to the tool, but tothe texture of the surface that is revealed when a stroke passes over it. You will understand why when you workwith bitmap brushes on bitmap layers, where it is possible to have both a textured brush tip and a paper texture.
To create your own textured brush, you must prepare your texture file ahead of time, either in Harmony or in athird-party software, such as Adobe Photoshop. Colour is not supported and transparency is not supported in
the traditional sense. Black appears as 100% opaque, white appears as 100% transparent, and all the shades ofgrey in between appear as varying degrees of semitransparenty. A range of file formats are supported—.jpeg,.png, .tif, .psd, .tga to name a few. Alpha channels are disregarded on import. It is recommended that you
maintain the texture resolution between 100 x 100 pixels and 400 x 400 pixels.
You can import your custom paper textures in the extended Brush Properties window. Browsing for a texture filewith a brush selected that is already using a paper texture will replace the file currently in use. It will not, however,replace the texture in lines already drawn. The replaced texture swatch will no longer be the selected texture, but
it will remain in the texture library and not be deleted.
Harmony also allows you to import textures as an .xml file that was exported from another project. In this way,
you do not have to import individual image files one-by-one to have the same texture library and brush presets asothers who you are collaborating with. You can also export brush presets and textures, in order to share yourdefault or customized textures and presets with other project collaborators.
When you use the Eraser tool to erase a portion of a textured line, the vector frame is cut straight and you lose
the feather created while drawing with the Brush tool. In Harmony, a special option in the Eraser Tool Properties
lets you create a soft edge on your textured lines. You can also cut or keep the vector frame as is.
At some point, you may want to modify the look of a textured drawing if you suddenly find that your lines look
too hard or too light. You can adjust those parameters by using the Adjust Line Texture Opacity command.
To draw with textured lines, use the Brush tool and the correct brush in the list. You can also draw with pencil line
texture—see Pencil Line Texture on page 92
How to draw with textured lines
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Brush

tool or press Alt + B.

2. In the Tool Properties view, select a brush and click the Arrow button to open the Brush Properties view.

3. Click the Texture tab, select the Texture option.

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4. Set the following parameters:
Parameter

Description
The hardness value corresponds to the softness of the line edge. The lower
the value, the softer the line edge will be. The higher the value, the sharper
the line edge will be.

Hardness

Maximum Opacity

This value corresponds to the transparency of the stroke when the pressureis heavy.
This value corresponds to the transparency of the stroke when the pressure
is light and is a percentage of the Maximum Opacity value.

Minimum Opacity102Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

5. Select a texture for your brush from the premade textures available.

6. Adjust the Texture Scale to change the size of the texture in the lines you draw. If you are using a plaid texture, the squares will be larger if you increase the value and smaller if you decrease it.

7. In the Drawing view, start drawing.

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How to add a paper texture
1. Do one of the following:‣

From the Paper Texture menu , select Add.

‣

Click the Add Paper Texture button.

2. In the browser window that appears, navigate to where you saved your texture file.
3. Click Open to import the file into the Paper Texture library.
By default, an imported texture is given the name of the image file.

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How to rename a paper texture
1. In the Paper Texture library, select a texture.
2. From the Paper Texture menu, select Rename.

3. In the Rename Texture dialog box that appears, type in the new name for the texture.

4. Click OK.
How to delete a paper texture
1. In the Paper Texture library, select a texture.
2. Do one of the following:‣

In the Paper Texture menu, select Delete.

‣

Click the Delete

button.

NOTE: You can delete any texture in the texture library as long as there is no brush preset using it.

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How to change the Paper Texture thumbnail display
1. From the Paper Texture menu, select one of the following:
Parameter

Description

Small Thumbnail

Reduces the size of the thumbnails in order to view more at the same time.

Large Thumbnail

Increases the size of the thumbnails in order to see the images more clearly.

List View

Allows you to see the name, as well as the thumbnail.

How to import paper textures
1. In the Paper Texture menu, select Import.
2. In the browser window that appears, navigate to and select the .xml file.
3. Click Open.
4. In the Import Textures dialog box, select the paper textures that you wish to import. You can importany available brush tips at the same time too.

5. Click Import.
The imported paper textures will appear in the Paper Texture Library. You can reuse any of theimported paper textures to create other brush style presets.

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How to export paper textures
1. In the Paper Texture menu, select Export.
2. In the Export Tips and Textures window, scroll down the textures list to the paper textures and select ordeselect any textures to create the list that you wish to export. You can export brush tips at the same timetoo.

3. Click on the Export button.
4. In the Export Textures window that appears, browse to a location where you would like to save the .xml
file and give it a name.
5. Click Save.
How to erase textured lines
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Eraser

tool, press Alt + E.

2. In the Tool Properties view, click the arrow button.

The Eraser Properties window opens.

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3. Adjust the following:
Parameter

Description

Size and Smoothness Tab
Maximum Size

Sets the maximum width of the line.

Minimum Size

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

Smoothness

Lets you modify the central line smoothness of the line. This parametersmooths the initial movement of your line. Increasing the value will result in asmoother line with fewer control points.

Contour Smoothness

Optimizes the contour line smoothness of the line. This parameter smooths
the contour of the line once it has been traced. The higher the value, thefewer control points will compose your line.

Tip Shape

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

Soft Eraser Tab
HardnessDefines the softness of the stroke edge. The lower the value, the softer the
stroke edge will be. The higher the value, the sharper the stroke edge willbe.

Saturation

Lets you adjust the softness of edge feathering. Works in conjunction with
the Hardness, e.g. 100% Hardness will yield no results in saturation change.
0% Hardness will allow a fine tuning of the feathering of the soft stroke edge.

Maximum Opacity

The transparency of the brush when the pressure is heavy. A smaller value will
leave semi-transparent colour and texture. A larger value will ensure that108Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

everything is properly erased. This option in unavailable if the Keep Vectors
option is disabled.

Minimum Opacity

Sets the minimum transparency of the brush, in relation to the Maximum Opacity, when the pressure is very light. A smaller value will leave semi-transparent colour and texture. A larger value will ensure that everything isproperly erased. This option in unavailable if the Keep Vectors option is disabled.

Keep Vectors

Keeps the vector frames around your strokes intact, only the texture fill disappears. Disabling this option will cut the stroke's vector frame into different
pieces when the Eraser tool passes over it. If you disable this option, the maximum and minimum opacity sliders are disabled as well.

4. In the Drawing view, erase your textures lines.

How to adjust the line texture opacity
1. Select a drawing from the Drawing Thumbnails panel.
1. In the Drawing view menu, select Drawing > Adjust Line Texture Opacity.
The Adjust Line Texture Opacity dialog box opens.

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2. Drag the sliders toward the middle to increase the contrast and opacity of the textured lines.
3. If you want to apply the changes to all drawings exposed on the layer, select the Apply to All Drawings
option and click OK.

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Drawing with Bitmap Brushes on Bitmap Drawing Layers

With Harmony, you have the choice to draw with vector or bitmap brushes. This is decided by what modes you
select for your layer. When adding a new drawing layer in Harmony, you can set your art layers (Line Art, Colour
Art) to vector or bitmap. This way, you can draw in bitmap and paint in vector, draw everything in bitmap, or any
other combination that suits your needs. If you are using the Overlay and Underlay layers, you can also set themto either bitmap or vector.
Not all drawing tools are available when working on a bitmap layer. You can use the following tools:
•

Brush

•

Cutter•Dropper•

Edit Gradient/Texture•

Ellipse•Eraser

•

Line

•

Paint

•

Paint Unpainted

•

Pivot

•

Rectangle•

Repaint•

Reposition All Drawings•

Select•Text•

Unpaint

Any tool that is unavailable for use will be greyed out.
On a bitmap layer, a temporary vector layer is created when painting with a gradient. Until a modification is madeon your layer with a bitmap drawing tool, you can edit your last painted zone—by either editing the gradient111

Chapter 6: Design and Drawing Tools

swatch, which is dynamically linked to the painted zone or with the Edit Gradient texture tool. The moment a
bitmap drawing tool or action is used, a vector-to-bitmap conversion occurs. If there are vector elements on
the layer (such as if you switched your art mode from vector to bitmap after having created vector artwork),
they too will be converted to bitmap.
Here is a list of tools and actions that will trigger a vector-to-bitmap conversion:
•

Brush

•

Ellipse•Eraser

•

Line

•

Paint

•

Paint Unpainted•

Rectangle•

Repaint•

Unpaint•

Performing a paste with the Select tool selected•

Performing a paste with the Cutter tool selected

This means that certain tools, such as the Text tool or the Cutter tool, will not trigger a conversion.
If you selected the incorrect art modes for your layer, you can open the Layer Properties view and change
them. If you switch the art mode for a layer that already has strokes on it, the artwork will NOT be converted
for bitmap artwork, but will be for vector artwork, though not immediately. A drawing with bitmap strokes ona newly converted vector layer will remain bitmap. This means that the bitmap artwork will not be editable bysome tools, such as the Eraser tool, but will be editable by other tools, such as the Cutter tool. However, adrawing with vector lines on a newly converted bitmap layer will remain vector temporarily, until a bitmap
drawing tool or action is used. Then the vector-to-bitmap conversion will occur.
To always reuse the same art mode settings, you can adjust them in the Preferences dialog box.
If you want to be able to edit the artwork in the new mode, you need to convert the drawings.
Vector-to-bitmap conversion includes flattening individual drawings into a single image. Flattening means that
it will not be possible to select non-overlapping or overlapping elements as individual objects with the Selecttool. Instead, the selection of one drawing will initiate the selection of all elements, with a single vector frame
surrounding them.
Resampling is also triggered on bitmap layers with the use of a bitmap drawing tool. For example, if you draw
the outline of a circle, scale it down and then zoom into it, you will see tiny square pixels along the edge of theline. If you then draw a line right next to it, you will notice two things: first that the square pixels of the new line
are gigantic by comparison and that the pixels in the line of your circle suddenly become the same size. This isbecause the circle was resampled. It was not resampled when you scaled it down. It was resampled when you
used a bitmap drawing tool. It is resampled so that all the drawn objects are scaled to the same bitmap grid, inother words that their basic unit, the pixel, is the same size. The grid is defined by the bitmap layer's
resolution.

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Before you start drawing in bitmap, it is important to understand that your artwork will now be resolution
dependent. If you zoom in your scene, you artwork will be enlarged. It is important to plan ahead and decide howhigh of a resolution you need your artwork to be. If you plan to zoom in your scene, the smallest section of theimage that the camera will frame must be 100% the size of your scene resolution. For example, if your scene
resolution is set to 1920 x 1080 and you zoom- in 300% with your camera, then the resolution of the bitmap layer
also has to be set to 300%, otherwise its elements will look pixelated in the final render. It is important to change
the bitmap layer resolution before you start drawing.

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The bitmap resolution can be set at the scene level or drawing level. The setting at the scene level affects newly
created bitmap art layers.
Note that even if your drawing resolution is set to be very large, it doesn't mean that your file will be very
heavy. It depends on the amount of artwork you draw in it.

There is a function to change the resolution of bitmap art for individual drawings. You can reduce theresolution of your bitmap file as well as increase it. Be careful because enlarging the bitmap resolution on an
existing drawing will result in a loss of quality.Harmony will perform a pixel smoothing pass (resampling) andcreate additional pixels to avoid losing too much quality, but only to a certain extent. For example, what if you
used the default scene’s resolution for some bitmap art, but then discover you are zooming-in quite close? If
you do not want to see the pixels appear too much when you are zoomed in, you can set the bitmap resolution
to 200% and the bitmap art will have a higher resolution with smaller pixels, but will NOT retain 100% of its
quality. You can use this function on multiple drawings using the Apply to All Drawings option. Changing thisoption will affect existing and selected bitmap art layers.
If you draw an outline on a bitmap layer, you can still vectorize it. Using a vector drawing layer, simply selectyour bitmap drawing and the vector cell of where you want your vectorized line to be, and use the Vectorize
Line Art in Selected Drawing function.
You should avoid scaling up your bitmap strokes using the Select tool. If you do, keep in mind that when you
continue drawing, your image will be resampled and your new strokes will be scaled to the scene resolution.

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NOTE: Your drawing should be scaled up using the Transform

tool when animating, instead of the Select tool, inorder to avoid creating very large bitmap layers. Harmony calculates the scaling of your drawings when you use theTransform tool; your image is mathematically transformed. When you use the Select tool to scale, you are physicallyscaling the drawing.

How to change the bitmap resolution at the drawing level
1. In the Drawing Thumbnails panel, select a bitmap drawing.

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

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

Parameter

Description

Scene Resolution

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

Width

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

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

Resolution Factor

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

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Resample Bitmap

When this option is selected, the existing bitmap image is modified to matchthe new resolution. If the width and height are increased, more pixels will becreated to enlarge the image. Visually, the existing artwork will look thesame, maybe a little bit smoothed out, but the size will look the same. When
this option is deselected, the artwork is not modified. Only the reference
grid is resized. If the scene resolution is 1920 x 1080 and you reduce thebitmap resolution to 960 x 540, the image will be scaled up to twice the sizeof the scene.

Apply to All Drawings

The modified settings are applied to all drawings in the drawing layer for agiven art layer. If the Apply to Line Art and Colour Art option is enabled, it
will then be applied to all bitmap art layers.

3. Change the bitmap resolution.
4. Click OK.
How to draw with bitmap brushes
1. In the Drawing Thumbnails panel, select a bitmap drawing.
2. In the Tools toolbar, select the Brush

tool or press Alt + B.

3. In the Colour view, select a colour.

‣

To switch the bitmap colour picker from HSV to RGB, in the Colour view menu, select Colour >Bitmap Colour Sliders > HSV Sliders or RGB Sliders. You can also right-click on the colour sliders
and select RGB Sliders or HSV Sliders.

116Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

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

Creating Bitmap Brushes
With bitmap brushes in Harmony, you can create an infinite range of fuzzy, textured and watercolour lines. You
can combine two different brush tips, with separate sets of parameters, with the Dual Tip feature. You can also
select a paper texture that will mimic the texture of the surface that is being painted on. Uses these features
separately or in combination to create distinct, natural-looking strokes.
How to create a Bitmap Brush
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Brush

tool or press Alt + B.

2. In the Tools toolbar, select the Brush

tool or press Alt + B.

3. In the Tool Properties view, select a brush and click the Arrow button to open the Bitmap Brush Properties
view.

4. In the Tip tab, select a brush tip.

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5. Click on the different tabs to access the options available for adjustment. You can use the brush strokepreview at the top to view all your adjustments in real time.
‣

Tip tab: Make adjustments to size, brush tip angle, hardness and spacing—see Bitmap Brush Tool
Options on page 161.

‣

Transparency tab: Make adjustments to flow and opacity—see Transparency Tab on page 172.

‣

Dual Tip tab: Select this option to enable the Dual Tip feature. Select a dual brush tip and makeadjustments to its size, brush tip angle, hardness and spacing—see Dual Tip Tab on page 175.

‣

Paper Texture tab: Select this option to enable the Paper Texture feature. Select a paper texture
and make adjustments to its scale, alignment and additivity—see Paper Texture tab on page 179.

6. When you are satisfied with the look of your bitmap brush, click the Add New Brush Presetat the top-right corner of the Bitmap Brush Properties window.

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buttonHarmony 12.1 Paint Guide

7. In the New Preset dialog box that appears, enter the name for your brush preset.

8. Click OK.
If you continue to make adjustments to your new brush preset and want to save these changes, click theUpdate Preset
button. Otherwise, your modifications will only be saved until another brush preset or
drawing tool is selected.

Viewing the Final Lines as You Draw

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

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

119Chapter 6: Design and Drawing Tools

NOTE: Full Scene Antialiasing parameters are only valid while you work in your scene. The scene will be rendered
to 100% of its resolution regardless of your preference settings or graphic card panel.

How to customize the full scene antialiasing parameters

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

1. Do one of the following:‣

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

‣

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

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

‣

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

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

Selecting the Current Colour of a Tool

While drawing and painting, you can let Harmony retain the last colour you selected for each one of thefollowing tools:
•

Brush

•

Paint

•

Pencil, Ellipse, Line, Rectangle, Polyline120Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

The Colour view has three swatches where you can set a colour for the Brush , Paint, and Pencil tools.
How to unlink the storage swatches
1. In the Colour view, if the storage swatches are linked, click the Link

2. Click on the Brushstorage swatch.

3. In the Colour list, select the desired colour.
4. Click the Pencil

storage swatch.

5. In the Colour list, select a colour.
6. Click the Paint

storage swatch.

7. In the Colour list, select a colour.

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button to unlink them.

Chapter 6: Design and Drawing Tools

NOTE: If you prefer to have Harmony use the same colour swatches regardless of the selected tool, you can link
the three swatches together.

How to link the storage swatches
1. In the Tools toolbar, select one of the following tools:
‣

Brush

‣

Paint

‣

Pencil‣Polyline

‣

Line

‣

Ellipse‣Rectangle

2. In the Colour view, if the storage swatches are unlinked, click the Link

button to link them.

Each time you select a new colour for your current tool, all the storage swatches are updated.
How to link the storage swatches
1. In the Tools toolbar, select one of the following tools:
‣

Brush

‣

Paint

‣

Pencil‣Polyline

‣

Line

‣

Ellipse‣Rectangle

2. In the Colour view, if the storage swatches are unlinked, click the Link

122

button to link them.

Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

Each time you select a new colour for your current tool, all the storage swatches are updated.

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

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

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

Selecting Drawing Objects

The Select tool is used to select strokes in the Drawing view, and apply basic transformations, such as
repositioning, rotating, scaling or skewing using the different handles of the bounding box.
Sometimes, when you want to select multiple objects while leaving one unselected, it can be handy to select only
the stroke or line that you do not want included in your selection. Then, you can invert the selection so thateverything else becomes selected. This can be quite a time saver.
Some of the transformations, such as rotation, scale, skew, and flip are done relative to the position of the pivot
point. You can temporarily reposition this pivot point for a transformation using the Select tool.
How to select with the Select tool
1. Select a drawing from the Drawing Thumbnails panel.

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1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Selecttool or press Alt + S.

2. In the Camera or Drawing view, select the drawing objects.
‣

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

3. To deform or reposition a selection:‣

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

‣

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

‣

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

124Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide‣

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

How to invert a selection
1. From the top menu, select Edit > Invert Selection or press Ctrl + Shift + I.
How to temporarily reposition the pivot point
1. In the Drawing view, select the drawing object you want to transform.
The pivot point appears in the middle of your selection.

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

126Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

Erasing Parts of a Drawing

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

‣

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

‣

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

How to erase with the Eraser tool
1. Select a drawing from the Drawing Thumbnails panel.
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Eraser

tool or press Alt + E.

2. In the Drawing view, start erasing.

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

tool .

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

The Eraser Properties window opens.

128Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

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

Description

Size and Smoothness Tab
Maximum Size

Sets the maximum width of the line.

Minimum Size

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

Smoothness

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

Contour Smoothness

Optimizes the contour line smoothness of the line. This parameter smooths thecontour of the line once it has been traced. The higher the value, the fewer control points will compose your line.

Tip Shape

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

Soft Eraser Tab
HardnessDefines the softness of the stroke edge. The lower the value, the softer the
stroke edge will be. The higher the value, the sharper the stroke edge will be.

Saturation

Lets you adjust the softness of edge feathering. Works in conjunction with theHardness, e.g. 100% Hardness will yield no results in saturation change. 0%
Hardness will allow a fine tuning of the feathering of the soft stroke edge.

Maximum Opacity

The transparency of the brush when the pressure is heavy. A smaller value will
leave semi-transparent colour and texture. A larger value will ensure thateverything is properly erased. This option in unavailable if the Keep Vectors
option is disabled.

Minimum Opacity

Sets the minimum transparency of the brush, in relation to the Maximum Opacity, when the pressure is very light. A smaller value will leave semi-transparent
colour and texture. A larger value will ensure that everything is properly erased.
This option in unavailable if the Keep Vectors option is disabled.

Keep Vectors

Keeps the vector frames around your strokes intact, only the texture fill disappears. Disabling this option will cut the stroke's vector frame into different
pieces when the Eraser tool passes over it. If you disable this option, the maximum and minimum opacity sliders are disabled as well.

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Reshaping a Drawing Using the Contour Editor Tool

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

2. In the Tool Properties view, click the Ellipse
size to 0.

button, click the Auto Fill

3. In the Drawing view, draw a circle.

4. In the Tools toolbar, select the Contour Editor

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button and set the pencil

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

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

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

‣

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

‣

Move the selected points to a new area.

‣

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

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

‣

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

‣

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

Reshaping Pencil Lines with the Pencil Editor Tool

The Pencil Editor tool is used to modify the thick and thin contour o f a pencil line. A pencil line is a central
vector shape. The shape control points are located all along the central spine allowing you to adjust the stroke
curve and position. When using the Contour Editor tool, you can repos ition the spine of the stroke. Whenusing the Pencil Editor tool, you can ad just the thick and thin areas of lines.

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How to use the Pencil Editor tool
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Pencil Editor

tool or press Alt + W.

2. In the Drawing view, select a pencil line and click the line to reshape it.

3. Select one or several points by clicking them or circling around.

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4. Press Delete to delete a selected point.
5. Press Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ (Mac OS X) and click the central spine to add a set of points to adjust
the contour.
6. To modify the shape, you can:‣Move the selected points to a new area. If you select matching points on each side of the line,
holding the Shift key will move them both. This way you can thicken or thin a line from both sides atthe same time.

‣

Pull on the Bezier handle to move both points’ handles s one.

‣

Hold down Alt and pull on one of the Bezier handles. It moves the handle independently from theother one.

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

‣

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

Drawing with Shapes

In Harmony, you can use the shape tools to draw circles, lines and squares. You can also easily reshape a squareor circle into a much more complex drawing such as these butterfly wings—see Reshaping a Drawing Using theContour Editor Tool on page 130 and Reshaping Pencil Lines with the Pencil Editor Tool on page 132.
How to draw with a Shape tool
1. Select a drawing from the Drawing Thumbnails panel.
1. In the Tools toolbar, select a shape tool:.

2. To automatically fill the shape, in the Tool Properties view, select the Auto Fill135

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3. In the DrawingCamera view, click and drag to draw the shape.

‣

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

‣

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

‣

Hold down Shift to snap the line every 15 degrees.

‣

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

4. Use the Contour Editor

tool to deform the shape and create your drawing.

Drawing with the Polyline Tool136

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

tool or press Alt + _.

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

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

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

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

4. Repeat the previous step until your shape is completed.
5. Press Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ (Mac OS X) and click to release the Polyline tool from the current path or
shape that it is creating. Continue to use the tool to make multiple, independent paths or shapes.
6. If necessary, reshape the lines using the Contour Editor
tour Editor Tool on page 130.

Drawing with Invisible Lines

There are two different ways to draw invisible lines.

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

Sometimes, it may be difficult to see your strokes, especially if your colours are similar to the blue strokecolour. In Harmony, you can display the strokes in washed-out colours so that the invisible lines stand out.
How to draw invisible lines with the Pencil tool
1. Select a drawing from the Drawing Thumbnails panel.
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Pencil

tool or press Alt + /.

2. From the top menu, select View > Show Strokes

or press K.

3. In the Tool Properties view, set the Pen Style size to 0. You can also adjust the smoothness.
4. In the Drawing view, start drawing.
If you forgot to enable the Show Strokes option before drawing, as soon as you draw a first stroke, aMessage dialog box opens.

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

tool.

How to draw invisible lines with the Stroke tool
1. Select a drawing from the Drawing Thumbnails panel.
1. In the Tools toolbar from the Paint drop-down menu, select the Stroke

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

2. From the top menu, select View > Show Strokes

or press K.

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

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

tool.

How to show the strokes with washed-out colours‣ From the top menu, select View > Show Stroke With Colour Wash.

Deforming a Drawing with the Perspective Tool

The Perspective tool lets you deform a drawing selection and alter its perspective.

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How to deform a drawing with the Perspective tool
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Perspective
Alt + 0.

tool from the Contour Editor drop-down menu or press

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

Warping a Drawing with the Envelope Tool

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

tool from the Contour Editor drop-down menu.

1. Select a drawing from the Drawing Thumbnails panel.
2. In the Drawing view, select the region you want to deform140

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

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

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Chapter 6: Design and Drawing Tools

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

Cutting Drawing Parts

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

tool or press Alt + T.

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

‣

To delete the selected zone, press Delete.

‣

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

‣

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

Smoothing Lines143

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

tool or select Tools > Smooth Editor.

2. In the Drawing view, place your pointer over the lines to smooth. You may need to pass over the sameline several times to remove more points and make the line smoother. Note that by default, the Smooth
Editor tool colour is yellow, it was changed to orange for screen grab clarity—see Smooth Editor Tool
Options on page 217 to learn about the various settings available.

Working With Text

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

In the Tools toolbar, select the Text‣

From the top menu, select Tools > Text.

‣

Press Alt + 9.

tool.

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

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4. You can use the Tool Properties view to select the font, font size and format of the text you will type—see
Text Tool Options on page 219.
5. Type in the desired text.

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

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

Arrange on page 145•

Convert Brush Strokes to Pencil Lines on page 146•

Pencil Lines to Brush Strokes on page 146•

Strokes to Pencil Lines on page 147•

Optimize on page 147•

Flatten and Remove Extra Strokes on page 148•

Create Contour Stroke on page 148•

Remove Contour Stroke on page 149•

Grid on page 149•

Group/Ungroup on page 150•

Hand on page 150•

Rotate View on page 150•

Smooth Fast on page 151

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

ButtonDescription

Access Method

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From the top menu, select Selected >Arrange > Bring to Front.
Bring to Front

Bring Forward

Send Backward

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

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

Moves the selected art one level
lower (behind).

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

Send to Back

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

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

Convert Brush Strokes to Pencil Lines

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

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

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

146Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

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

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

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

The Strokes to Pencil Lines operation converts the selected invisible line to a pencil line.
How to convert strokes to pencil lines‣

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

‣

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

Optimize

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

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How to optimize‣

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

‣

From the top menu, select Selected > Optimize.

Flatten and Remove Extra Strokes
The Flatten and Remove Extra Strokes option let you flatten your drawing and remove the invisible lines in yourselection.
How to remove extra strokes
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Select tool.
2. In the Drawing view, use the Select tool to select the drawing objects you want to remove invisible lines
from.
3. From the top menu, select Selected > Flatten and Remove Extra Strokes.

Create Contour Stroke

The Create Contour Stroke
option is used to add a permanent invisible line around a shape that was
drawn directly in Harmony. This allows you to unpaint your lines with the Paint
tool but maintain the shapeof the lines, should you need to repaint later.
This command is useful when inking and painting and using the Apply to All Drawings in Layer

option.

How to create contour strokes
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Select tool.
2. In the Drawing view, use the Select tool to select the drawing objects you want to create contour
strokes for.
3. From the top menu, select Selected > Create Contour Strokes.

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Remove Contour Stroke
The Remove Contour Stroke option is used to remove any permanently invisible lines that were created while
scanning and vectorizing drawings or manually adding contour strokes. This is useful if you want to remove theintersection triangles created during vectorization.
How to remove contour strokes
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Select tool.
2. In the Drawing view, use the Select tool to select the drawing objects you want to remove contour strokes
for.
3. From the top menu, select Selected > Remove Contour Strokes.

Grid

Use the Show Grid option to display a grid in the Drawing view.
Name

ButtonDescription

Keyboard Shortcut
View > Grid > Show Grid

Show Grid
Displays the grid.

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

Grid Outline Only

Displays the outline of the grid only.

View > Grid > Grid Outline Only

SquareDisplays a standard square grid.

View > Grid > Square

12 Field Grid

Displays a 12-field size grid.

View > Grid > 12 Field Grid

16 Field Grid

Displays a 16-field size grid.

View > Grid > 16 Field Grid

Underlay

Displays the grid under the drawing
elements.

View > Grid > Underlay

Overlay

Displays the grid over the drawing
elements.

View > Grid > Overlay

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

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

•

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

Hand
Use the Hand tool to pan through the Drawing view.
•

In the Tools toolbar, select the Hand

tool, click in the Drawing view and drag.

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

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

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

From the top menu, select Tools > Rotate View.

‣

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

‣

In the Tools toolbar, select the Rotate View‣

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

tool.

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

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Smooth Fast
The Smooth Fast option allows out to smooth out a drawing stroke at a faster rate than the regular smooth
option.

Drawing Tool References
Harmony has a wide variety of drawing tools and each one of them has a series of options and modes available.
This section covers these options. For details on how to use these tools, see Drawing Tasks on page 82.
•

Pencil Tool Options on page 151•

Vector Brush Tool Options on page 156•

Bitmap Brush Tool Options•

Select Tool Options on page 185•

Eraser Tool Options on page 194•

Bitmap Eraser Options•

Contour Editor Options on page 197•

Pencil Editor Options on page 200•

Shape Tool Options on page 204•

Polyline Tool Options on page 208•

Stroke Tool Options on page 210•

Perspective Tool Options on page 211•

Envelope Tool Options on page 212•

Cutter Tool Options on page 215•

Smooth Editor Tool Options on page 217•

Text Tool Options on page 219•

Drawing Pivot Tool on page 223

Pencil Tool Options
When you select the Pencil

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

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

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

MaximumSize: Defines the width of the stroke.

‣

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

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Adjusting the Pencil Line Style

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

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

•

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

•

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

Pencil Presets and Thickness Stencils
Harmony provides a variety of pencil presets and thickness stencils and also lets you create and save your own. It
is a good idea to create and save pencils with precise sizes and parameters when you draw and design for
efficiency and consistency.
A thickness stencil saves the thickness information across the length of the line. When drawing with a thickness
stencil, the pressure sensitivity of the tablet is discarded. A thickness stencil can be used while drawing, orapplied afterwards.
You also have the possibility to apply different textures to your lines by either using the default presets orimporting your own—See Pencil Line Texture on page 92.
You can export the pencil presets that you have created and import those that others have created. This is agood way for you and project collaborators to keep a consistent look for the project—see Working with Pencil
Presets on page 86
Pencil Line Texture
You can apply a bitmap texture on your pencil line and adjust it as needed—see Pencil Line Texture on page 92
Draw Behind

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

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

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Create Colour Art AutomaticallyAs you draw in the Line Art layer, the Create Colour Art Automaticallycorresponding strokes in the Colour Art layer.

option automatically creates the

Auto-Flatten Mode
When drawing on vector layers, lines do not usually become one object. The Auto-Flatten
mode
automatically merges lines created with the existing ones into one single object as you draw.
When drawing on a bitmap layer, you are laying down the bare pixels, so they are always flattened. You can nolonger access the individual stroke after you draw it.

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

Auto-Close Gap

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

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Line Building Mode

The Line Building
mode is very useful when drawing long lines and curves in small increments with pencil lines
or the line
tool. As the pencil lines are central vector lines, it may be difficult to align the line tips perfectly tocreate a uniform stroke and close all gaps.
In this mode, you can draw lines in small increments and the tips are merge into one single stroke.

NOTE: This mode only works with pencil lines or the line tool.

Auto Adjust Thickness

The Auto Adjust Thickness
tool is useful when you want to render a portion of a line thicker. When tracing adrawing on paper, you will often go back to a section of a curve to make it thicker to add dynamism to the line.
Using the Auto Adjust Thickness tool, you can draw highlight strokes over the section to make thicker. Once you
release the pen or mouse, the line becomes thicker following the shape and curve of the original stroke. This way
is much faster and smoother than using the Pencil Editor tool. You do not have to add extra points and adjust theposition and Bezier handles.
The default overlay colour is light yellow. If this colour is difficult to see because of the background or drawing
colour, you can adjust the colour.
How to change the Auto Adjust Thickness Colour
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Pencil

tool.

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2. In the Tool Properties view, click the Auto Adjust Thickness

button.

3. Click the colour swatch.

The Colour Picker window opens.
4. In the Colour Picker window, select a new colour.
Line Pushing Mode
The Line Pushing Mode
option lets you draw highlight strokes over existing pencil lines. You can reshape
the curves. Depending how you draw the pushing stroke over your line, the highlighted section will bereshaped in one direction or the other.
The default overlay colour is light yellow. If this colour is difficult to see because of the background or drawing
colour, you can adjust the colour.
To change the Line Pushing Mode colour
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Pencil

tool.

2. In the Tool Properties view, select the Line Pushing Modebutton.

3. Click the colour swatch.

The Colour Picker window opens.
4. In the Colour Picker window, select a new colour.

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

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

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

MaximumSize: Defines the width of the stroke.

‣

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

Brush Presets
Brush presets are created by saving the properties of the current brush to a new preset, which you can reuse for
repeated tasks. You can create as many brush presets as you need—see Drawing with the Brush Tool on page 95.

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

, select Import Brushes.

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

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

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

Description

Small Thumbnail

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

Large Thumbnail

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

Stroke View

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

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Draw Behind

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

Repaint Brush Mode

The Repaint Brushis used to repaint zones that have already been painted, it will not affect empty zones or
pencil lines. It also automatically flattens each of its brush lines so it does not add new brush lines on top ofexisting ones. You can use this mode to paint tones or highlights onto your character.
Create Colour Art AutomaticallyAs you draw in the Line Art layer, the Create Colour Art Automaticallycorresponding strokes in the Colour Art layer.

option automatically creates the

Auto-Flatten Mode
When enabled, the Auto-Flatten
mode automatically flattens the new lines created with the existingartwork as you draw in the Drawingview. Brush strokes will flatten with brush strokes and pencil lines will
flatten with pencil lines.
Respect Protected Colour
The Respect Protected Colour
option prevent the colours you marked as protected, in the Colour view, tobe repainted using the Repaint Brush mode or any of the painting tools.

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Use Stored Colour Gradient
The Use Stored Colour Gradientoption makes your tool use the previously stored gradient position. Thisway, every new brush line or colour fill will use the stored gradient position.

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

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

Maximum Size
This is where you set the maximum size of your drawing tool. This parameter defines the width of the stroke.

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Flow
The Flow parameter lets you set the range for the rate at which paint flows from your brush. The analogy
works better with a pen. The greater the flow, the more ink comes out, hence the more consistent the colour
and texture of the line. If the flow is light, then the colour and texture of the line may look spotty. This feature
works with the pressure sensitivity of a pen tablet.
Opacity
The Opacity parameter are where you set the opacity for a brush mark. This works with the pressure sensitivityof a pen tablet.
Brush Presets
Brush presets are created by saving the properties of the current brush to a new preset, which you can reuse
for repeated tasks. You can create as many brush presets as you need.
How to create a brush preset
1. Make sure your current brush has the settings you want in the preset you will create.
2. In the Tool Properties view, do one of the following:‣

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

‣

Click the New Brush‣

From the Brushbuttonbutton.
menu, select New Brush Preset.

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

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

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Draw Behind

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

Repaint Brush Mode

The Repaint Brushis used to repaint zones that have already been painted, it will not affect empty zones or
pencil lines. You can use this mode to paint tones or highlights onto your character.

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Brush Tips LibraryThis is where you select the shape of the brush tip. By default it is round. Note that some tips are designed tohave semitransparent areas, even when the maximum brush opacity is set to 100%.
To create a custom brush tip, you must prepare the file ahead of time, either in Harmony or in a third-party
software, such as Adobe Photoshop. Colour is not supported and transparency is not supported in the
traditional sense. Black appears as 100% opaque, white appears as 100% transparent and all the shades of grey
in between appear as varying degrees of semitransparency. A range of file formats are supported—.jpeg, .png,.tif, .psd, .tga to name a few. Alpha channels are disregarded on import. It is recommended that your file be
between 100 x 100 pixels and 400 x 400 pixels.
You can also import brush tips that you exported from Harmony, so you can share them with colleagues.
How to add a brush tip
1. Do one of the following:‣

From the Brush Tip menu, select Add.

‣

Click the Add

button.

2. In the browser window that appears, navigate to where you saved your file.
3. Click Open to import the file into the Brush Tip Library.
By default, an imported brush tip is given the name of the image file.
How to rename a brush tip
1. In the Brush Tip Library, select a brush tip.
2. From the Brush Tip menu, select Rename.
3. In the Rename dialog box that appears, type in the new name of the brush tip.
4. Click OK.

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How to delete a brush tip
1. In the Brush Tip Library, select a brush tip.
2. Do one of the following:‣

In the Brush Tip menu, select Delete.

‣

Click the Delete

button.

The linked brush tip file does not get deleted and can therefore be reimported.
How to import brush tips
1. In the Brush Tip menu, select Import.
2. In the browser window that appears, navigate to and select the .xml file.
3. Click Open.
4. In the Import Textures dialog box, select the brush tips to import. You can also import paper texturesat the same time.

5. Click Import.

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The imported brush tips appear in the Brush Tips Library. You can reuse any of the imported tips to create
other brush style presets.
How to export brush tips
1. In the Brush Tip menu, select Export.
2. In the Export Tips and Textures window, select or deselect any of the brush tips to create the list toexport. You can also export paper textures at the same time.

3. Click Export.
4. In the Export Textures window that appears, browse to a location where you want save the .xml file andgive it a name.
5. Click Save.
How to change the Brush Tips thumbnail display
1. From Brush Tip menu, select one of the following options:Parameter

Description

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Small Thumbnail

Reduces the size of the thumbnails in order to view more at the same time.

Large Thumbnail

Increases the size of the thumbnails in order to see the images more clearly.

List View

Allows you to see the name, as well as the thumbnail.

Minimum and Maximum Size
The minimum and maximum sizes of your drawing tool produce the thick and thin effect on your stroke. This
works with the pressure sensitivity of a pen tablet.
‣

Maximum Size: Defines the maximum width of the stroke.

‣

Minimum Size: Defines the minimum width of the stroke in relation to and as a percentage of the
maximum size.

NOTE: Setting the Minimum Size value to 100% eliminates the possibility of creating width variation on yourstroke. In other words, you would be forcing a uniform line width using the Maximum Size value.

Roundness and Angle
The Roundness and Angle parameters allow you to change the shape and orientation of the brush tip.
‣

Roundness: Squashes the height of the brush tip from its centre point. 100% roundness = the native
height of the brush tip. A smaller percentage will make the brush tip look flatter and more narrow.
The squashing is NOT relative to the angle value—if the brush tip is rotated, the squashing function
still uses the brush tip's original orientation.

‣

Angle: Rotates the brush tip counter-clockwise. 0° = the brush tip's native orientation.

Hardness and Spacing
The Hardness and Spacing parameters allow you to change the softness and spacing of the marks made by thebrush tip. You can preview the hardness and spacing at the top of the Bitmap Brush Properties window, strokepreview area.
‣

Hardness: The hardness value corresponds to the softness of the brush tip's edges. The lower thevalue, the softer the tip edge. The higher the value, the sharper the tip edge. Be aware that somebrush tips are not 100% opaque, so they will always appear somewhat soft, even at 100% hardness.

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Spacing: Defines the amount of space between each stamp of the brush. A value of 100% sets thestamp marks edge to edge, if there is no white space around the shape. The larger the value, thegreater the space between marks. A really large value can make the brush stroke appear as a string ofindividual marks. Conversely, a small spacing value will give the appearance of a fluid brush stroke.
Spacing is only evident when making a continuous stroke.

Randomness
The Randomness parameters let you create a varied bitmap brush stroke. Refining these options can give yourstroke a lovely, non-mechanical look.
‣

Random Size: You can create variation between the thick and thin of your brush stroke just by setting
the Maximum and Minimum Size values. If you add randomness to the mix, pressure sensitivity fromyour drawing tablet will still be applied. Light pressure will create random values around the minimum,
while heavy pressure will create random values closer to the maximum. The larger the percentage, thelarger the range of random variation.

NOTE: Setting the Minimum Size to 100% eliminates the possibility of creating width variation on your stroke,
whether you are applying randomness or not. Therefore, you would be forcing a uniform line width using theMaximum Size value.

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Random Angle: Sets the range for random rotation around the set Angle value. For example, if theAngle is set to 45° and the Random Angle set to 10°, the software will choose values between 40°–50° (plus or minus 5 degrees, equaling a total of 10 degrees).

‣

Random Spacing: Sets the range for random spacing around the set Spacing value. For example, if
the Spacing is set to 50% and the Random Spacing is set to 10%, then Harmony will choose values
between 45%–55% (plus or minus 5 percent, equaling a total of 10 percent).

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Transparency Tab

Maximum and Minimum Flow
The Maximum and Minimum Flow parameters let you set the range for the rate at which paint flows from yourbrush. The analogy works better with a pen. The greater the flow, the more ink comes out, hence the moreconsistent the colour and texture of the line. If the flow is light, then the colour and texture of the line may lookspotty. This feature works with the pressure sensitivity of a pen tablet.
‣

Maximum Flow: Sets the maximum rate at which colour and texture are applied as you create a fluid
stroke.

‣Minimum Flow: Sets the minimum rate at which colour and texture are applied as you create a fluid
stroke. It is defined as a percentage of the Maximum Flow value. If the Minimum Flow value is set to
100%, then tablet pressure sensitivity will no longer be applicable. The flow will be set to theconstant rate of the Maximum Flow value.

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Maximum Opacity and Minimum Opacity
The Maximum and Minimum Opacity parameters are where you set the opacity range for a brush mark. This
works with the pressure sensitivity of a pen tablet.
‣

Maximum Opacity: Sets the transparency limit of the brush mark when the pressure is heavy.

‣

Minimum Opacity: Sets the transparency limit of the brush mark when the pressure is very light. It isdefined as a percentage of the Maximum Opacity value. If the Minimum Opacity value is set to 100%,
then tablet pressure sensitivity will no longer be applicable. The opacity will be set to the constant rateof the Maximum Opacity value.

RandomnessTh Randomness parameter lets you set the range for the randomness of the flow and opacity. This works with thepressure sensitivity of a pen tablet.
‣

Random Flow: You can create variation in the flow of your brush stroke just by setting the Maximum
and Minimum Flow values. If you add randomness to the mix, pressure sensitivity from your drawing
tablet will still be applied. Light pressure will create random values around the minimum, while heavypressure will create random values closer to the maximum. The larger the percentage, the larger therange of random variation.

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NOTE: Setting the Minimum Flow value to 100% eliminates the possibility of creating flow variation on your stroke,
whether you are applying randomness or not. That is, you would be forcing a uniform flow using the Maximum
Flow value.

‣Random Opacity: You can create variation in the opacity of your brush stroke just by setting theMaximum and Minimum Opacity values. If you add randomness to the mix, pressure sensitivity fromyour drawing tablet will still be applied. Light pressure will create random values around theminimum, while heavy pressure will create random values closer to the maximum. The larger thepercentage, the larger the range of random variation.

NOTE: Setting the Minimum Opacity value to 100% eliminates the possibility of creating opacity variation on yourstroke, whether you are applying randomness or not. That is, you would be forcing a uniform opacity using theMaximum Opacity value.

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Dual Tip Tab
The Dual Tip tab lets you set the parameters for creating a dual tip brush. The primary bitmap brush tip and thedual tip always work together. You can set the parameters for the primary tip in the Tip tab and those for thedual tip in the Dual Tip tab. The Blend mode you select determines how the tips are combined.
You must select the Dual Tip option to access the tab's parameters.
By default, the Blend Mode is set to Multiply and the Random Angle to 360°.

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Blend Mode
The Blend modes let you decide how the primary tip and the dual tip are combined.
‣

Multiply: This is the default blend mode. When the two brush tips are combined in this mode, theyessentially cut each other out in overlapping areas, where one or both tips have an area of 100%transparency. The less opaque the brush tips are, the lighter their combination.

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Colour Dodge: In this mode, the primary tip cuts out the shape of the dual tip. Where the tip shapes
overlap, within the boundaries of the primary shape, the colour and opacity appear darker.

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Combine: This mode treats the two tips as two different and separate brushes that have the same
colour and follow the same path.

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Paper Texture tab
The Paper Texture tab lets you view and select a paperlike texture for your brush. You can also import paper
textures that were previously exported.
You must select this option to access the tab's parameters.

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How to add a paper texture
1. Do one of the following:‣

From the Paper Texture menu , select Add.

‣

Click the Add Paper Texture button.

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2. In the browser window that appears, navigate to where you saved your texture file.
3. Click Open to import the file into the Paper Texture library.
By default, an imported texture is given the name of the image file.
How to rename a paper texture
1. In the Paper Texture library, select a texture.
2. From the Paper Texture menu, select Rename.

3. In the Rename Texture dialog box that appears, type in the new name for the texture.

4. Click OK.
How to delete a paper texture
1. In the Paper Texture library, select a texture.
2. Do one of the following:‣

In the Paper Texture menu, select Delete.

‣

Click the Delete

button.

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NOTE: You can delete any texture in the texture library as long as there is no brush preset using it.

How to import paper textures
1. In the Paper Texture menu, select Import.
2. In the browser window that appears, navigate to and select the .xml file.
3. Click Open.
4. In the Import Textures dialog box, select the paper textures that you wish to import. You can importany available brush tips at the same time too.

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5. Click Import.
The imported paper textures will appear in the Paper Texture Library. You can reuse any of the imported
paper textures to create other brush style presets.
How to export paper textures
1. In the Paper Texture menu, select Export.
2. In the Export Tips and Textures window, scroll down the textures list to the paper textures and select ordeselect any textures to create the list that you wish to export. You can export brush tips at the same timetoo.

3. Click on the Export button.
4. In the Export Textures window that appears, browse to a location where you would like to save the .xml
file and give it a name.
5. Click Save.
How to change the Paper Texture thumbnail display
1. From the Paper Texture menu, select one of the following:

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Parameter

Description

Small Thumbnail

Reduces the size of the thumbnails in order to view more at the same time.

Large Thumbnail

Increases the size of the thumbnails in order to see the images more clearly.

List View

Allows you to see the name, as well as the thumbnail.

‣Texture Scale: Increase or decreases the size of the paper texture.

‣

Additive: This option layers the texture on top of itself as you scribble overlapping lines in one
continuous stroke. If this option is turned off, areas of overlapping lines from a single, continuous
stroke will appear the same, in terms of darkness and texture, as non-overlapping areas.

‣

Aligned: This option defines the way separate, overlapping strokes behave. If this option is enabled,
the paper texture's position does not change with each sweep of the brush. If this option isdisabled, each sweep of the brush produces a different texture position. The texture orientation
always stays the same.

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

Lasso and Marquee
Choose between the Lasso•and Marquee

options to change the selection style of the tool.

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

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

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

•

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

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

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

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

‣

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

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2. In the Tools toolbar, select the Contour Editor
3. In the Tool Properties view, click the Snap to Grid

tool or press Alt + Q.
button.

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

Selecting by Colour

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

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

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

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

button.

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

The Permanent Selection
option lets you maintain a selection over multiple drawings. Once this option isenabled, the selection zone made using the Select tool will remain as you navigate through drawings of the samelayer and drawings from other drawing layers. This option can be used to simultaneously delete artwork inside oroutside of the selection on several drawings when combined with the Apply to Multiple Drawings option.
Apply to All Drawings in Layer

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The Apply to All Drawings in Layer
option is used to perform an action on all the drawings contained in alayer. For example, you could enable the option to paint a section on all the drawings simultaneously. The
Apply Tool to All Drawings option must be activated before performing the action and will stay enabled only
for the next action.
Apply to Line and Colour Art
The Apply to Line and Colour Art
option uses the concept of Line Art and Colour Art layers. Use thisoption to apply an action such as selecting, resizing or erasing a drawing on both Line Art and Colour Art
layers, as well as the Overlay and Underlay layers.
Flip Horizontal and Vertical

The Flip Horizontal‣

and Flip Verticaloperations flip the current selection horizontally or vertically.

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

Rotate 90 Degrees CW and CCW

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

operations rotate the current selection 90‣

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

‣

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

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SmoothThe Smooth

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

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

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

‣ From the top menu, select Selected > Flatten or pres Alt + Shift + F.
Create Colour Art from Line Art
Lets you use the outline you traced on one of the four embedded layers (line art, colour art, overlay, underlay) andcreate invisible strokes to paint your drawings on separate layers. This provides more inking and painting
flexibility.
You can also configure this option to create the invisible strokes on any of the four embedded layers.
How to create Colour Art zones out of the Line Art content
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Selecttool or press Alt + S.

2. In the Drawing view, select the artwork to transfer to the Colour Art.
3. In the Tool Properties view or the Drawing View toolbar, click the Create Colour Art from Line Art
ton or press *.

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How to configure the Create Colour Art from Line Art option
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Selecttool or press Alt + S.

2. In the Tool Properties view or the Drawing View toolbar, Shift + click the Create Colour Art from LineArt
button.
The Configure Line Art to Colour Art dialog box opens.

Parameter

Description

Use rendered version of thedrawing

Renders the drawing and vectorize it to calculate the position of thecentreline that will produce the colour art stroke.

Maximum Resolution for
rendered image

The size of the rendered image.

Threshold for rendered image The value of grey processed to create the rendered vectorized arts.
Fitting error for rendered Bez- This value represents how precise the fitting of the colour art zone in relationiers
to the line art will be.
Source layer

Lets you select the layer (Line Art, Colour Art, Underlay or Overlay) you want
the colour art to be created from.

Destination layer

Lets you select the layer (Line Art, Colour Art, Underlay or Overlay) you want
the colour art to be created on.

Clear Destination Art Layer
First

Deletes the content before the colour art is added. This is useful when you
already have artwork on the destination layer.

Perform Line Art to Colour
Art Operation Immediately

Performs the Create Colour Art from Line Art command when you click OK.

Store Colour Gradient
Use the Store Colour Gradient
operation to record the selected gradient’s position. This reuses thestored position of the gradient when drawing new brush lines or painting colour zones. Enable the Use Stored
Colour Gradientoption in the Paint or Brush Tool Properties view to do this.

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Pencil to BrushThe Pencil to Brushlines.

operation converts the selected centre line pencil strokes into contour strokes brushFrom the top menu, select Selected > Convert > Pencil Lines to Brush or press &.
Merge Pencil Lines

Pencil lines are central vector lines and it might be difficult to match pencil line’s tips properly to align them andmake it look like it is one single line. With the Select tool, you can select several pencil lines and merge them as
one single object using the Merge Pencil Lines
option. The ends of your lines are adjusted to form one single
line.

NOTE: Points must be close enough to be merged. If there is a large gap between the lines, they will not be merged.

Reverse Pencil Thickness

The Reverse Pencil Thickness
option inverts the thick and thin section on a selected pencil line. This option willtake the thickest size on the line and apply it to the thinnest, and it will apply the thinnest to the thickest.

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Offset X and Y
Use the Offset X and Offset Y operation fields to enter specific values and precisely reposition the selectedshape.

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

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

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

1. Minimum Size: Type a value in this field to set the minimum thickness of the selected centreline stroke.

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2. Maximum Size: Type a value in this field to set the maximum thickness of the selected centreline stroke.
3. Up/Down arrows: Use the up and down arrows to modify the value contained in the Thickness value field.
Adjusting the Pencil Line Style

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

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

•

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

•

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

Pencil Stencils

Toon Boom Harmony gives you the flexibility to change the style and thickness of your pencil lines even after they
are drawn. You can apply preset pencil stencils or create your own—see Working with Pencil Presets on page 86.
Adding Texture to a Pencil Line
Pencil lines support texture. Once a pencil line is drawn, you can apply a preset texture or load your own.
Textures are independent from pencil stencils—see Pencil Line Texture on page 92.
Adjusting the Text Selection
When you select text with the Select tool, the tool properties will display the Text tool options on the bottom of
the view. You can also press Alt + 9 to display only the Text properties in the Tool Properties view—see Text
Tool Options on page 219.

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

tool, its properties and options appear in

For information on erasing textured lines—see See How to erase textured lines on page 107.
For information on Bitmap Eraser tool options—see See Bitmap Eraser Options on page 197.

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

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

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MaximumSize: Defines the width of the stroke.

‣

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

Eraser Presets
It is a good idea to create and save erasers with precise sizes and parameters in order to save time when drawing
and designing. Toon Boom Harmony provides you with a variety of default eraser styles and allows you to createand save your own.
Eraser presets are created by saving the properties of the current eraser as a preset, in order to reuse it again
and again. You can create a new preset from the Eraser Tool Properties view, but it is better to do it from theEraser Properties—see Erasing Parts of a Drawing on page 127.
The Eraser tool uses its own preset list, separated from the Brush tool.
How to import pencils, brushes and erasers
1. From the Brush menu

, select Import Brushes.

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

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

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

Description

Small Thumbnail

Reduces the size of the thumbnails in order to view more at the same time.

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Displays an image of the tool's tip and its maximum size.
Large Thumbnail

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

Stroke View

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

Apply to Line and Colour Art
The Apply to Line and Colour Art
option uses the concept of Line Art and Colour Art layers. Use this option
to apply an action such as selecting, resizing or erasing a drawing on both Line Art and Colour Art layers, as wellas the Overlay and Underlay layers.
Tip StyleIf you erase the end of a pencil line or erase a pencil line through the centre, new line tips or line ends are created.
Use the Tip Style option to customize the shape of the new line tips that are created.

Bitmap Eraser Options
The bitmap eraser options are identical to those of the bitmap brush with one obvious exception. Instead ofcustomizing the parameters of a mark or stroke, you will be customizing the parameters for the absence of amark or stroke.
It is a good idea to create an eraser preset with the identical properties of a brush preset and to use them as apair. That way, when part of a stroke is erased, its soft textured look is not interrupted with a hard edged eraser
mark.

Contour Editor Options
When you select the Contour Editor

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

Lasso and Marquee
Choose between the Lasso•and Marquee

options to change the selection style of the tool.

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

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Snap to Contour

The Snap to Contour

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

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

tool or press Alt + Q.

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

button.

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

Snap and Align

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

tool or press Alt + Q.

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

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

Show Contour Editor Controls

Use the Show Contour Editor Controls
option to show the contour editor controls. You can use thesecontrols to scale, reposition and rotate the selected anchor points.
Apply to Line and Colour Art
The Apply to Line and Colour Art
option uses the concept of Line Art and Colour Art layers. Use this option
to apply an action such as selecting, resizing or erasing a drawing on both Line Art and Colour Art layers, as wellas the Overlay and Underlay layers.
Smooth Selection

The Smooth

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

‣ From the top menu, select Selected > Smooth or press Alt + Shift + S.
Split Pencil Line and Join Pencil Lines
When drawing with the Polyline tool, your drawing has an even line thickness. You can use the Pencil Editor toadjust the thickness point by point, but if you want to adjust it quicker, you can use the Split Pencil Line and Point
Pencil Lines options to create segments and apply a pencil stencil to your drawing. Note that if you did not join
the pencil lines on your polyline stroke, the segments between the points will act as separated segments.

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How to split and join pencil lines
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Contour Editor tool.
2. In the Drawing, select the contour points you want to split or join.
3. In the Tool Properties view, click on the Join Pencil Lines or Separate Pencil Line buttons.

Pencil Editor Options
When you select the Pencil Editor

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

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Lasso and Marquee
Choose between the Lasso•and Marquee

options to change the selection style of the tool.

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

Maximum Size and Smoothing
This is where you set the maximum size of your drawing tool.
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MaximumSize: Defines the width of the stroke.

‣

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

Adjusting the Pencil Line Style

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

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

•

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

•

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

PresetTo work with Pencil line presets, see Working with Pencil Presets on page 86.
TexturesTo work with Pencil Line Texture, see Pencil Line Texture on page 92
SmoothThe Smooth

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

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

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Pump Pencil Pressure

The Pump Pencil Pressure

option is used to increase the line thickness of a selected area on a pencil line.

Deflate Pencil Pressure

The Deflate Pencil Pressure

option is used to decrease the line thickness of a selected area on a pencil line.

Merge Pencil Lines

Pencil lines are central vector lines and it might be difficult to match pencil line’s tips properly to align them andmake it look like it is one single line. With the Select tool, you can select several pencil lines and merge them as
one single object using the Merge Pencil Lines
option. The ends of your lines are adjusted to form one single
line.

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Reverse Pencil Thickness

The Reverse Pencil Thickness
option inverts the thick and thin section on a selected pencil line. This option
will take the thickest size on the line and apply it to the thinnest, and it will apply the thinnest to the thickest.

Shape Tool Options
When you select a shape tool (Rectangle, Ellipse, Line), its properties and options appear in the Tool
Properties view.
If the Tool Properties looks different than the image below, you maybe on a bitmap drawing layer instead of avector drawing layer. If you want to use a shape tool on a bitmap drawing layer—See Bitmap Brush Tool
Options on page 161.

Previewing the Stroke
The Preview area lets you see a preview of the stroke that will be produced after you customize the different

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

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

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

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

•

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

•

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

Pencil Presets and Thickness Stencils
Harmony provides a variety of pencil presets and thickness stencils and also lets you create and save your own. It
is a good idea to create and save pencils with precise sizes and parameters when you draw and design for
efficiency and consistency.
A thickness stencil saves the thickness information across the length of the line. When drawing with a thickness
stencil, the pressure sensitivity of the tablet is discarded. A thickness stencil can be used while drawing, orapplied afterwards.
You also have the possibility to apply different textures to your lines by either using the default presets orimporting your own—See Pencil Line Texture on page 92.
You can export the pencil presets that you have created and import those that others have created. This is agood way for you and project collaborators to keep a consistent look for the project—see Working with Pencil
Presets on page 86

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Draw Behind

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

Automatic Filling

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

The Snap to Contour

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

•

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

•

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

Create Colour Art AutomaticallyAs you draw in the Line Art layer, the Create Colour Art Automaticallycorresponding strokes in the Colour Art layer.
Auto-Flatten Mode
When enabled, the Auto-Flatten

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mode automatically flattens the new lines created with the existing artwork as you draw in the Drawingview.
Brush strokes will flatten with brush strokes and pencil lines will flatten with pencil lines.
Using the Select tool, you can use the middle mouse button to select a segment of flattened pencil line. This
creates a nice finish on the lines and corners of your artwork.

Auto-Close Gap

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

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

Use Stored Colour Gradient
The Use Stored Colour Gradientoption makes your tool use the previously stored gradient position. Thisway, every new brush line or colour fill will use the stored gradient position.
Line Building Mode

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The Line Building
mode is very useful when drawing long lines and curves in small increments with pencil
lines or the line
tool. As the pencil lines are central vector lines, it may be difficult to align the line tips
perfectly to create a uniform stroke and close all gaps.
In this mode, you can draw lines in small increments and the tips are merge into one single stroke.

NOTE: This mode only works with pencil lines or the line tool.

Keep Proportion

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

Polyline Tool Options
When you select the Polyline

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

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

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

Pencil Presets and Thickness Stencils
Harmony provides a variety of pencil presets and thickness stencils and also lets you create and save your own. It
is a good idea to create and save pencils with precise sizes and parameters when you draw and design for
efficiency and consistency.
A thickness stencil saves the thickness information across the length of the line. When drawing with a thickness
stencil, the pressure sensitivity of the tablet is discarded. A thickness stencil can be used while drawing, orapplied afterwards.
You also have the possibility to apply different textures to your lines by either using the default presets orimporting your own—See Pencil Line Texture on page 92.
You can export the pencil presets that you have created and import those that others have created. This is agood way for you and project collaborators to keep a consistent look for the project—see Working with Pencil
Presets on page 86
Snap to Contour
The Snap to Contour

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

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As you draw in the Line Art layer, the Create Colour Art Automaticallycorresponding strokes in the Colour Art layer.

option automatically creates the

Auto-Flatten Mode
When enabled, the Auto-Flatten
mode automatically flattens the new lines created with the existingartwork as you draw in the Drawingview. Brush strokes will flatten with brush strokes and pencil lines will
flatten with pencil lines.

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

Draw Stroke as Straight Lines
Enable the Draw Stroke as Straight Lines
option if you want the new strokes you draw to be a perfectstraight line. Disable the option if you want the stroke to follow the mouse gesture.
Connect Line Ends
Enable the Connect Line Ends
option if you want the start or end point of your new stroke to connect toyour existing strokes to make sure no gaps are left in your drawing.
Auto-Flatten Mode
When enabled, the Auto-Flatten
mode automatically flattens the new lines created with the existingartwork as you draw in the Drawingview. Brush strokes will flatten with brush strokes and pencil lines will
flatten with pencil lines.
Apply to Line and Colour Art
The Apply to Line and Colour Art
option uses the concept of Line Art and Colour Art layers. Use thisoption to apply an action such as selecting, resizing or erasing a drawing on both Line Art and Colour Art
layers, as well as the Overlay and Underlay layers.
Smoothness
You can modify the central line smoothness of your line using this option. This parameter smooths the initial
movement of your line. Increasing the value will result in a smoother line with fewer control points. Use the left
and right arrows to increment the value by one full unit. Use the Up - Down slider to quickly increment thevalue.

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

Lasso and Marquee
Choose between the Lasso•and Marquee

options to change the selection style of the tool.

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

Snap Options•

The Snap to Contour
option will snap the selected anchor point to any line you position it on—see
Contour Editor Options on page 197.

•

The Snap and Alignoption lets you snap the selected anchor point to any existing line while displaying
temporary rulers as a guide that you can also snap your anchor point to—see Contour Editor Options on
page 197.

•

The Snap to Grid

option snaps your selection according to the currently enabled grid.

Apply to Line and Colour Art
The Apply to Line and Colour Art
option uses the concept of Line Art and Colour Art layers. Use this option
to apply an action such as selecting, resizing or erasing a drawing on both Line Art and Colour Art layers, as wellas the Overlay and Underlay layers.
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The Flip Horizontal‣

and Flip Verticaloperations flip the current selection horizontally or vertically.

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

Rotate 90 Degrees CW and CCW

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

operations rotate the current selection 90‣

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

‣

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

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

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

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Lasso and Marquee
Choose between the Lasso•and Marquee

options to change the selection style of the tool.

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

Snap Options•

The Snap to Contour
option will snap the selected anchor point to any line you position it on—see
Contour Editor Options on page 197.

•

The Snap and Alignoption lets you snap the selected anchor point to any existing line while displaying
temporary rulers as a guide that you can also snap your anchor point to—see Contour Editor Options on
page 197.

•

The Snap to Grid

option snaps your selection according to the currently enabled grid.

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

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Apply to Line and Colour Art
The Apply to Line and Colour Art
option uses the concept of Line Art and Colour Art layers. Use thisoption to apply an action such as selecting, resizing or erasing a drawing on both Line Art and Colour Art
layers, as well as the Overlay and Underlay layers.
Flip Horizontal and Vertical

The Flip Horizontal‣

and Flip Verticaloperations flip the current selection horizontally or vertically.

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

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Rotate 90 Degrees CW and CCW

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

operations rotate the current selection 90‣

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

‣

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

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

Cutter Tool Options
When you select the Cutter

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

Lasso and Marquee
Choose between the Lasso•and Marquee

options to change the selection style of the tool.

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

Apply to Line and Colour Art
The Apply to Line and Colour Art
option uses the concept of Line Art and Colour Art layers. Use this option
to apply an action such as selecting, resizing or erasing a drawing on both Line Art and Colour Art layers, as wellas the Overlay and Underlay layers.
Use Mouse Gesture
When using the Lasso
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selection type, the Use Mouse Gesture
option lets you automatically delete any extra sections of line
in your artwork by simply dragging your mouse over it.

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

Use Mouse Gesture Breaker Mode
When using the Lasso
selection type, the Use Mouse Gesture Breaker Mode
option lets you draw aninvisible stroke on a pencil line to cut it in two individual objects. Once a pencil line is cut with this option, youwill be able to select the two portions independently with either the Cutter tool, Pencil Editor tool or Selecttool.

NOTE: This option only works with pencil lines.

Tip StyleIf you erase the end of a pencil line or erase a pencil line through the centre, new line tips or line ends are
created. Use the Tip Style option to customize the shape of the new line tips that are created.
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When drawing on a bitmap layer, lines are no longer clean vector shapes. For the edges to be smooth, a slightamount of antialiasing is used. When using the Cutter tool, you can cut a portion of your drawing with or without
antialiasing. By default, the option is enabled. If you want to cut your drawing using a hard edge, you can selectthe Antialiasing Off option.
Flip Horizontal and Vertical

The Flip Horizontal‣

and Flip Verticaloperations flip the current selection horizontally or vertically.

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

Rotate 90 Degrees CW and CCW

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

operations rotate the current selection 90‣

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

‣

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

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

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

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

‣

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

•

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bold

•

ItalicAlignment
Use these buttons to align the paragraph.
Left

Centered

Right

Justified

Font SizeEnter a size for the text.

Kerning
Use the kerning field to modify the spacing between letters and characters. You can select the Auto Kern

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option to set the kerning automatically based on the font’s predefined standard. A negative value decreases
spacing between each character, creating a letter overlap and a positive value increases it.

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

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

Resizing the Text Box
You can resize the text box by selecting your text box with the Text
tool and moving the anchor point rightor left. Using the Select tool will distort and scale your text itself rather than changing the width and height ofyour text box.

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

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

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

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

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Drawing Pivot Tool
The Drawing Pivot
and symbols.

tool lets you set the pivots on your character. You can set the drawing pivots on drawings

Setting the Drawing Pivot for Symbols on All Frames
The Set the Pivot for Symbol on All Frames
option is enabled by default. When you set a drawing pivot on asymbol, all of its cells use the same drawing pivot. This means you do not have to set a drawing pivot on all
frames. Once you set it, it is done.
If you prefer to set a different drawing pivot for a series of cells, you can deselect the option and set your pivots
on each cell or cell range.

NOTE: If you have already set several different pivots on your symbol's cells and selected the Set the Pivot for Symbolon All Frames option, once you set a new pivot on the same symbol, all of its pivots will be reset and will use your new
pivot.

Snapping

When you drag the drawing pivot around, you can enable a snap option so that when the drawing pivot isreleased, it either snaps to the reference grid, drawing's contour, or aligns with an existing drawing stroke.
Reset Pivot
When you click the Reset Pivot
centre of the Camera view.

option, the drawing pivot of the selected drawing or symbol is reset to the

Copying Pivot on Parent Symbol
When you import new extra drawings, such as hands and mouths, you can use the drawing pivot that was set on
your drawings and report them to the symbol's cells. Use the Copy Pivot to Parent Symbol
command for this.

NOTE: When you copy drawing pivots to the parent symbol, there is no link between the drawings' pivots and thesymbol's pivots. If you modify the drawing pivot later, it will not link to the symbol. You would need to perform theoperation again. If you need to modify the symbol's pivots, you can do it directly on the symbol's cells.

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

Chapter 7: Colour Styling and Colour Models

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

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

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

Preparation on page 225•

Working with Palettes on page 228•

Colours on page 252•

Painting the Model on page 268

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

Colour Model Storage on page 226

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Scene Creation on page 226•

Setting Up the Workspace on page 227•

Preparation on page 225

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

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

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

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Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

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

To learn how to create environment, job, and scene for your colour models, refer to the Control Center Guide.

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

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

Drawing•

Colour•Model

How to rename a drawing
1. Do one of the following:‣

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

The Rename Drawing dialog box opens.

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2. Type in a new name and click OK.

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

Each character consistently retains their dedicated colours.

•

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

•

Standardization and colour consistency throughout the production•

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

Toon Boom Harmony uses palettes to hold all the colours needed to paint your elements, allowing complete
control and consistency in your painting process.
A palette2 is created by assigning a set of colours to each character, prop or effect. You will create a newpalette and add a new colour, known as a colour swatch, for each zone of the character, such as the skin, hair,
tongue, shirt, pants, and so on.
In Harmony, palettes are individual files that you can copy, transfer, and store. Palettes have a *.plt file nameextension—see Palette File Storage on page 233.
When a zone on the character is painted with the colour contained in a colour swatch, a link is automaticallycreated between that colour swatch and the zone. This means that if the tint of the colour in the colour swatch
is changed, any zone linked to it will update to the new tint. This is one way that colour palettes can save timeand money in your production.
Another advantage of this system is that you can create complete palettes for different lighting situations. For
instance, in addition to the regular palette for a character, you could have one for that character in the rainusing colours that are duller and less vibrant than the dry daytime colours, or yet another for using in a night
scene. Using palettes linked to your character in this way allows you to instantly change its colouring to suit themood and atmosphere of the scene without tediously repainting each element.

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

Palette Lists on page 229•

Palette File Storage on page 233•

Creating a Colour Palette on page 235•

Duplicating a Colour Palette on page 239•

Cloning a Colour Palette on page 241•

Palette Operations on page 243•

Importing and Linking Palettes on page 247

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

•

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

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

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

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

•

Element Palette List

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

To prevent users from accidentally removing a link to a palette, the palette lists are locked. To link or create a
new palette, the palette list must first be unlocked.
When you are using several cloned palettes that are related to the same original palette, Toon Boom Harmony
uses the palette located highest in the list to determine the colour of the painted zones—see Cloning a Colour
Palette on page 241.
How to show or hide the Palette list‣

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

The Palette List window opens and displays all your palettes.

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button to expand or collapse the PaletteChapter 7: Colour Styling and Colour Models

How to lock and unlock to the palette list‣

From the top menu, select Edit > Edit Palette List Mode.

A grey pencil appears on the top-right corner of the Palette list to indicate that it can be modified.

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

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

‣

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

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

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

‣

In the Palette list, click the Up

and Down

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Palette File Storage

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

l

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

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

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

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

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

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

Where to Save the Palette File
The palette storage location depends on the type of production and the backup plan being used. Somestudios like to store their palettes at the Element level and others at the Environment level as this will not
create a problem so long as the scene is in the Harmony structure. In fact, as long as the Harmony structure ismaintained it can be stored at any level. However, difficulties may occur when the scene is backed up ortransferred to another studio or database and removed from the structure.

What happens when you export a palette file?
It is important to understand what is happening to a palette file when the scene is exported.
Because of the Harmony client-server configuration, all of the data can be shared through all of the scenes inthe database. This also includes the palette files, even if they are stored at the Element, Scene, Job, Drawing
or Environment level. The palette files can be accessed from any scene of any project.
When you export scenes from Harmony to either archive or send them to other users or studios, the palettes
stored in external scenes, jobs or environment will NOT be exported.
An exported scene will carry palettes stored in its own Element’s Palette Library, scene’s palette library, theJob and the Environment where it is stored. Any other palette from other Environments, Jobs, Elements or
Scenes (even from the same job) will NOT follow. Instead a recovery palette will be created when the scene isreopened in another Harmony system. A recovery palette is a local palette created by the system when
palettes and colours are missing. This palette is no longer shared with the rest of the project.
For example, in the following chart, if you export Scene 2 from Job 1, the package will carry the palettes from
Scene 2, Job 1 and Environment. It WILL NOT carry the palettes from Element 3 in Scene 1, Scene 1 and Job 2.
If Scene 2 was linked to any of these, the system will create a recovery palette the next time Scene 2 is opened
in another Harmony system.

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The best place to store your palette is:•Environment level for a movie or series•

Job level for a publicity or small project•

Scene level for a student exercise

To store your palette with their colour models, you can use the Element level, however, it will require morestructure when exporting the scenes. The scene will have to be exported along with its colour model scene. The
other studio you are working with must recreate an identical structure to yours, then import the received scenes
into the same location as you have them in order to maintain the links.

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

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

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By default, Toon Boom Harmony is set to the Basic mode. For simple productions, it is recommended to use
the Basic mode. This setting stores the palettes automatically for you and saves them at the Scene level. Whenyou use the Advanced Palette Lists mode, you can decide at which level you want to store your palettes:
Environment, Job, Scene, or Element.
If you are using Harmony Server, see Palette File Storage on page 233.
Before you can create a palette in the Advanced Palette Lists mode, you must first set your preferences to
Advanced Palette Lists mode in the Preferences dialog box. You also need to have the rights to modify the
palette list. If you do not, select Edit > Edit Palette List Mode from the top menu.
You can remove palettes from your Palette list if they're not needed in your scene. The actual palette file will
not be deleted and you can reimport it in your Palette list later on.
How to set the Advanced Palette Lists mode
1. Do one of the following:‣

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

‣

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

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

Make sure you have the necessary rights to modify the palette list. If not, select Edit > Edit Palette
List Mode.

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

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

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How to create a palette from the Advanced Palette Lists mode
1. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select the drawing that requires a palette.
2. Make sure that you have the necessary rights to modify the palette list. If you do not, select Edit > Edit
Palette List Mode.
3. In the Colour view, click the Show Palette List View button to display the palette list.

4. Do one of the following:‣

From the Colour view menu, select Palettes > New.

‣

Click the Create Palettebutton.

The Palette Browser: Create Palette dialog box opens.

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

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

‣

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

‣

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

‣

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

When you select a level that has a palette stored in it, the palette names are displayed in the Palette field.

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6. Name the palette. There is no need to add the suffix "palette" to the name as it is always recognized asa palette file.

7. Select a Palette List option.

‣

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

‣

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

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

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2. Do one of the following:‣

Right-click and select Rename.

‣

From the Colour View menu, select Palettes > Rename.

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

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

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the Colour View menu, select Palettes > Remove.

‣

Right-click on the selected palette and select Remove.

‣

Click the Remove Palettebutton located above the Palette list.

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

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

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How to duplicate a palette
1. In the Colour view, select the palette to be duplicated.

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the Colour menu, select Palettes > Duplicate.

‣

Right-click on the selected palette and select Duplicate.

The Palette Browser: Duplicate Palette window opens.
3. If you are in Advanced Palette List mode, select the palette storage level—see Palette File Storage on
page 233.

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

5. In the New Palette Name field, name the palette.
6. Click OK.
The palette appears in the palette list.

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Cloning a Colour Palette

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

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

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3. If you're in Advanced Palette List mode, select the palette storage level—see Palette File Storage on
page 233.

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

6. In the Palette list, select the clone palette you created to offset or blend colours—see Mixing Colours
on page 267.
7. From the Colour View menu, select Palettes > Tint Panel or right-click and select Tint Panel.
The Blend/Offset Tint panel opens.

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

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

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

Palette Operations
When you start Toon Boom Harmony connected to the database, you can access the Palette Operations dialog
box which lets you clone, rename, or delete palettes.
How to open the Palette Operations dialog box
1. Start Paint and log in.

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2. Close the Database Selector dialog box.
3. From the top menu, select Tools > Palette Operations.

The Palette Operations dialog box opens.

How to clone a palette in the Palette Operations dialog box
1. Select the palette you want to clone at the location and level in which it was stored.

2. Click Clone.
A Warning dialog box opens.

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3. Select the Don't show this message again option if you do not want to see this message every time you
perform this operation.
4. Click Yes.
The Palette Browser dialog box opens.
5. Select the level to store the palette file.

6. Name the palette. There is no need to add the suffix "palette" to the name as it is always recognized as apalette file.

7. Select a Palette List option.

‣

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

‣

The Element Palette List is mainly used with traditional and paperless animation. Unlike cut-out
animation, all columns (drawing elements) contain different characters, props, backgrounds and245

Chapter 7: Colour Styling and Colour Models

effects. The Element Palette List is used because you do not necessarily want all of the palettes forall of your elements linked in every column.
The palette list is stored in the drawing element's directory instead of directly in the Scene level. This
ensures that the links to the palettes appear only in the appropriate element. If you prefer to accessa global palette list, link your palettes to the Scene Palette List.
8. Click OK.
How to rename a palette in the Palette Operation dialog box
1. Select the palette you want to rename at the location and level in which it was stored.

2. Click Rename.
A Warning dialog box opens.

3. Select the Don't show this message again option if you do not want to see this message every time
you perform this operation.
4. Click Yes.
The Rename Palette dialog box opens.

5. Type in a name for the palette.

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6. Click OK.
How to delete a palette in the Palette Operation dialog box
1. Select the palette you want to delete at the location and level in which it was stored.

2. Click Delete.
A Warning dialog box opens.

3. Select the Don't show this message again option if you do not want to see this message every time you
perform this operation.

NOTE: It is not recommended to disable the warning message as deleting a palette cannot be undone.

4. Click Yes.

Importing and Linking Palettes
Before starting colouring work such as ink and paint or even creating new colour models, you may want to load
existing colour palettes to your scene. You can do so by linking colour palettes to your palette lists.
You may encounter a case where only a colour palette is visible when a layer is selected. If you need that palette ina second layer, you can link the palette to the second layer's palette list. A good example would be a scene where247

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there is a character on one layer and its arm is on another. In order for both layers to access the palette, youmust link both Element Palette lists to that palette. If your palette is linked to the Scene Palette list, it will beaccessible by all layers.
If you created a palette in another project and you want to import it in your current project, you can browse forthe palette file on your computer and add it to your scene. When the palette is imported in your scene, the file
is copied in the project’s directory. It is not linked to the original file.
Harmony lets This method is not recommended. It is always safer to have the palettes contained within the
database to avoid data loss if the source palette were to be deleted or the project exported without including
the external palettes.
You will notice that when you create or link a palette, a small icon appears on its left. These icons represent the
palette's link status.
Icon

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

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

From the Colour View menu, select Palettes > Link.

‣

Right-click and select Link.

‣

Click the Importbutton.

The Palette Browser: Link Palette dialog box opens.

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2. Select the level where the palette file is stored—see Palette File Storage on page 233.
3. Select the palette list linking level by enabling either Scene Palette List or Element Palette List—see
Palette Lists on page 229.
The palette appears in the Colour view.
How to import a palette into your project
1. Do one of the following:‣

From the Colour menu, select Palettes > Import.

‣

Right-click and select Import.

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

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4. If you're in Advanced Palette mode, select the level where the palette file is stored—see Palette File Storage on page 233.
5. If you're in Advanced Palette mode, select the palette list linking level by enabling either Scene Palette
List or Element Palette List—see Palette Lists on page 229.
6. In the New Palette Name, name the imported palette.
The palette appears in the Colour view and the file is copied in your project.
How to link to an external palette
1. In the Colour view, click on the Create Palettebutton to create a palette to be used as external.

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

button or press

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

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

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

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

7. Create a new Toon Boom Harmony scene or open the scene where you will link this palette.
8. From the Colour View menu, select Palettes > Link to External.
The Link to External Palette dialog box opens.

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

icon appears beside the palette name.

251Chapter 7: Colour Styling and Colour Models

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

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

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

When you modify the colour of an existing swatch, it automatically updates all the zones painted with thisswatch throughout the entire project. The colour swatch has a unique ID number that associates it with thepainted zones. This way, you can change the look of your character at any time without having to repaint it!
This section is divided as follows:252Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide•

Adding a Colour Swatch on page 253•

Editing Gradients and Textures on page 291•

Colour Display Modes on page 264•

Copying and Pasting Colours on page 265•

Mixing Colours on page 267

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

A colour palette is an actual file on the hard drive. These palette files can be stored in a different location on theserver. They can be stored in the Environment, Job, Scene, or Element folder and linked to any palette list. Thismeans that if the original palette file is modified, it will update in every drawing element the palette is linked to.
To avoid accidentally modifying the palette, the palette files can be locked. If a palette must be modified, youmust get the rights to modify them before doing so.
How to lock and unlock the palette list‣

In the Colour view, click the Edit Palette Modebutton.

A grey pencil icon appears in the top-right corner of the Palette list.

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

button.

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

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

In the colour wheel, select a colour.

‣

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

‣

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

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

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

5. Adjust the transparency with the Alpha slider or type the value directly in the Alpha field.

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

7. Rename the colour swatch in the Colour Picker window or directly in the colour list by double-clicking on its
name.

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

From the Colour View menu, select Colours > New.

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

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

‣

Double-click on the colour swatch.

The Colour Picker window opens.

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

‣

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

‣

Pull down the arrows to remove them.

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

NOTE: To learn how to reposition the gradient zones in your drawings, see Editing Gradients and Textures on page291.

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

button.

The Browser window opens.
2. Browse for a PSD or TGA bitmap file created with a third party software and click Open.
The texture is added to the colour list.

NOTE:
To learn how to reposition the textured zones in your drawings, see Editing Gradients and Textures on page 291.

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

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

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

4. Click Open to update the colour swatch.

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

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the Colour View menu, select Colours > Delete.

‣

Click the Delete Colour‣

Right-click and select Delete.

‣Press Delete.

button.

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

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

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

Editing Gradients and Textures

If you paint a zone with a gradient or texture colour, you can use the Edit Gradient/Texture tool to modify its
position in the zone. You can move, scale, rotate and skew. If you want to match the colour to the animation, set
the first texture position and copy the Edit Gradient/Texture position. When moving to the next drawing, you canselect the next texture and paste the previous position to continue the modifications.
If you are painting a hand-drawn animation or if your want the Brush tool and Paint tool to use your gradient’s
position, angle and scale settings instead of the default ones, you can store your own settings and reuse themafterward.
This way of editing a texture using the Edit Gradient/Texture tool also works with pencil lines drawn with
textured “brushes”. If you then paint your textured pencil line with a gradient, you can do so and then edit bothelements independently at the same time.
How to use Edit Gradient/Texture tool
1. Do one of the following:259

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In the Tools toolbar, click the Edit Texture‣

From the top menu, select Tools > Edit Gradient/Texture.

‣

Press Shift + F3.

tool.

2. Click the gradient or texture colour to modify.

A blue selection frame surrounds the selected gradient or texture.

3. Edit the gradient or texture by adjusting the control handles around the selection frame.
How to store gradient and texture settings
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Selecttool or press Alt + S.

2. In the Drawing view, select the gradient or texture zone to store.

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3. In the Tool Properties view, click the Store Colour Gradientbutton.

How to use the stored gradient and texture settings
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Brushor Paint

tool.

2. In the Tool Properties view, click the Use Stored Colour Gradientbutton.

3. In the Drawing view, draw and paint.
How to use Pencil Editor tool to edit the texture or gradient on a pencil line
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the Tools toolbar, select the Pencil Editor‣

Press Alt + W.

tool.

2. Click on the pencil line to be modified to bring up its contour envelope.

3. Select one of the contour points around the envelope and move its position to change the size of the tiled
texture or gradient. You can also pull directly on the lines of the contour envelope or play with the Bezier
handles of any given point in order to continue to modify the envelope form.

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Expanding the width of the envelope parallel to the pencil line’s central vector will cause the tiled
texture to be stretched. Conversely, reducing the envelope’s width will cause the tiled texture to looksquashed.
Reducing the contour’s width perpendicular to the pencil line’s central vector will reduce the number oftiles, while expanding it will increase the number of tiled images.

This editing technique does not just work on texture fills, but can also be applied to pencil lines drawn
with a textured “brush”.
How to use Edit Gradient/Texture tool to edit the texture or gradient on a pencil line
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the Tools toolbar, select the Edit Gradient/Texture‣

From the top menu, select Tools > Edit Gradient/Texture.

‣

Press Shift + F3.

tool.

2. Click on the pencil line to be modified to bring up the editor controls.

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3. The editor controls delineate a single tile in the texture. For gradients, this is less applicable. Pull on the
top of the editor controls to stretch the tiled texture throughout the length of the stroke.
As gradients are parallel to the stroke’s central vector, this will stretch the way that the gradient is
distributed in the pencil line’s envelope. The envelope still acts as a boundary for the texture or gradient.

4. Drag the editor control perpendicular to the stroke. You will feel it glide along the strokes central vector
line. This is another way to resize the texture tile. Instead of stretching or shrinking it vertically, this motion
stretches or shrinks it vertically. As gradients are parallel to the pencil line’s central vector, stretching themvertically gives no visual result.

How to use Edit Gradient/Texture tool to edit the texture and gradient of a pencil line
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the Tools toolbar, select the Edit Gradient/Texture‣

From the top menu, select Tools > Edit Gradient/Texture.

‣

Press Shift + F3.

tool.

2. Click on the pencil line to be modified to bring up the editor controls.

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3. Use the top editor controls edit the gradient.

4. Use the bottom controls edit the “brush” texture.

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

List

•

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

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

Select Colours > Swatch Mode to display the swatches.

‣

Deselect Colours > Swatch Mode to display the colour list.

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

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

‣

In the Colour view, click the Edit Palette Mode265

button to edit the colour list.

Chapter 7: Colour Styling and Colour Models

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

In the Colour view, click the Edit Palette Modebutton to edit the colour list.

2. In the Colour View menu, select Colours > Copy or press Ctrl + C (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + C (Mac OS
X).
3. In the Palette list, select the palette in which you want to paste the colours.

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

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

How to clone a colour swatch
1. In the Colour view, select the colour swatch you want to clone.
‣In the Colour view, click the Edit Palette Modebutton to edit the colour list.

2. From the Colour View menu, select Colours > Copy or press Ctrl + C (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + C (MacOS X).
3. In the Colour view, select the colour palette you want to paste the clone into or create a new palette.
4. From the Colour View menu, select Colours > Paste as Clone.
The cloned colour swatch appears in the palette.
How to copy a colour ID
1. In the Colour view, select the colour swatch you want toget the ID from.
‣In the Colour view, click the Edit Palette Modebutton to edit the colour list.

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

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3. Paste the copied value as plain text in the desired document.

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

2. Do one of the following:‣

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

‣

Right-click and select Tint Panel.

The Tint Blend/Offset panel opens.

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

4. Select Preview option.

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

Parameter

Description

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

Blend

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

Mixer

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

6. Click Apply.

Painting the Model
Now that you've created the colours and the palette, you're ready to paint your model.
The colour model needs to be painted in order to adjust the colours with the other elements in the production.
You can paint your model regardless of the colour RGBA and adjust them later when all the elements are
together.
Once your palette is created and your model is painted, you can import a key background and other charactersusing the Import Drawings option or the Library to compare and adjust the palettes—see Basic Commands on
page 33 to learn how to import your background file.

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

Once your colour model is completed, create a line-up template by pasting one of the production's main
characters, or even just a hand, beside the colour model to show the relative size. This allows the animator, layout
artist, or scene setup artist to retain the correct scaling throughout the entire project when setting the elementsin the scene. You can store your template in the Library.
How to paint a colour model
1. From the Drawing or Camera View menu, select View > Switch to Colour Art/Switch to Line Art or pressL.
1. Click the Line Art or Colour Art button or press L.

2. Create your master colour palette—see Creating a Colour Palette on page 235
3. Add new colours to the palette—see Adding a Colour Swatch on page 253.

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4. Select your Paint Bucket

tool. We recommend the Paint Unpainted

tool.

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

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

7. To separate the lines and fill zones on separated art layers, see Art Layers on page 279.
8. Adjust the colours—see Mixing Colours on page 267.

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Chapter 8: Ink and Paint

When traditional animation is traced, cleaned up, scanned in and properly exposed, it's time for the ink and paintprocess. This consists of cleaning all dirt and hair (for example, dust that was in the scanner, dots that do notbelong in the drawing, extra floating artwork around the drawing that must be removed), painting the lines andfilling the colours in the empty zones on an entire animation sequence.
For paperless animation, the drawings are cleaned up directly in Harmony, so there is generally no dirt to clean,
only painting and inking.
For cut-out animation, once the character builder paints the pieces, there is no more ink and paint process
because the same parts are always reused and moved around. The ink and paint process applies only to
traditional and paperless animation workflows.
Harmony is optimized to ink and paint drawings efficiently. Since most of the drawings are vector-based, thecolour zones are completely filled and there are no scattered spots left blank. Also, there are some actions thatcan be applied on an entire animation sequence at once, like dirt removal, some colour filling, line repainting, andso on.
Harmony uses palettes to hold all the colours you need to paint your elements. A palette is created by assigning a
set of colours to each character, prop or effect. The colour styling artist will create a new palette and add a newcolour for each zone of the character, such as the skin, hair, tongue, shirt, pants, and so on. Each colour is known
as a colour swatch—see Working with Palettes on page 228.

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

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

272

Dirt Clean Up

274

Art Layers

279

Painting

282

Painting Using the Paint Tool

283

Importing Models

289

Protecting Colours

297

Inking the Lines

299

Verifying the Zones are Painted

302

Ink and Paint Tool Properties

303

Glossary

310

Index

319

Preparation
The optimal workspace for creating colour models and inking/painting in traditional animation includes thefollowing views:•

Drawing•

Colour•Model

As there is no default workspace for these tasks, you will need to create a custom workspace for yourself—see
the Fundamentals Guide.
You may have a character or element palette that has colours that are very similar to the Drawing and Camera
view's background colour. For example, a white eyeball colour on a white background which makes it difficult
to know if the zone was painted. You can change the background colour of the Camera or Drawing view in the
Preferences dialog box.

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How to change a view's background colour
1. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Edit > Preferences.

‣

Mac OS X: Select Stage Paint > Preferences.

‣

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

The Preferences dialog box opens.
2. Select the General tab.
3. In the Colours section, click Edit Colours.
The Colours dialog box opens.

4. In the Others section, click the Background colour swatch.
The Select Colours dialog box opens.

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5. Select a colour by clicking a colour swatch, clicking a colour in the colour gradient, or entering a
HSV/RGB Value.

6. Click OK in the three opened dialog boxes to apply your changes.

NOTE:
When you need to paint drawings with similar colours throughout the palette, you can create a clone of thatpalette and change all the colours to very bright tints to facilitate the paint process—see Cloning a Colour Paletteon page 241.

Dirt Clean Up
When paper drawings are passed through a scanner, there can be some hair and dirt scattered across them.
These lines and dots need to be cleaned. Harmony provides different tools to help get rid of them quickly.

The Remove Dirt tool selects small dots and hairs on the drawing. Raising the Remove Dirt level will selectbigger dots. When selecting larger dots, be careful not to lose small details like pupils and nostrils. Once you

274Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

have chosen the level, you can apply it to the current drawing or the entire animation sequence. This is a quick way
to get rid of most dirt and dust.
During this process, the dirt that will be removed is highlighted in red.

The Remove Art Outside Selection option lets you remove any art existing outside a selection. It is recommended
that you clean your Colour Art level as well. If you have a stroke accumulation in your Colour Art, it can result inlarge output files, especially if you work in high-definition resolutions.

If there are some marks that cannot be removed with the automated tools, you can erase them with the Eraser
tool or select them with the Select tool and then delete them. It's always safer to select and delete them than toerase them, so you do not overlook anything.

How to use the Remove Dirt tool
1. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Remove Dirt.

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Press Shift + D.

2. Increase the Remove Dirt value by moving the slider to the right.
3. Select the Apply to All Drawings option if you want to apply the operation to all drawings in the layer.
How to clean dirt with Remove Art Outside Selection
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Selecttool.

2. From the top menu, select Options > Permanent Selection.
3. Draw a selection around the animation making sure to include the entire animation sequence.

4. From the top menu, select Selected one of the following options:‣Remove Art Outside Selection to delete artwork outside your selection on a single drawing.

‣

Remove Art Outside Selection on All Drawings to delete artwork outside your selection on all thedrawings.
The art outside the selection is removed.

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Removing Art Inside a Selection

You can delete any art inside a selection with the Remove Art Inside Selection option. We recommend that you
clean your Colour Art level as well. If you have a stroke accumulation in your Colour Art, it can result in large
output files, especially if you work in high definition resolutions.
You can simultaneously apply this operation to all your drawings in the layer by using the Remove Art Inside
Selection on All Drawings command.
How to clean dirt with Remove Art Inside Selection
1. In the Tools toolbar, click the Selecttool or press Alt + S.

2. To apply the action to your entire animation, select Options > Permanent Selection.
3. In the Drawing view, draw a selection around the animation. Make sure the area is large enough to include
all the zones to be cleaned up on all drawings.
4. From the top menu, select Selected > Remove Art Inside Selection to delete artwork inside your selection on one single drawing. You can also press Delete.
5. To apply the action on all your drawings in the layer, select Selected > Remove Art Inside Selection on
All Drawings to delete artwork inside your selection on all the drawings.

Removing Small Strokes in the Colour Art Layer

The Remove Hair command lets you remove any small strokes created in the Colour Art layer from very thick lines
or filled zones. Increasing the Remove Hair level value will select larger strokes for removal from the drawing.

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How to use the Remove Hair tool
1. Select the drawing containing the drawing to clean.
2. From the top menu, select View > Show Strokes to display the invisible lines or press K.
3. In the top menu, select Drawing > Remove Hair.
The Remove Hair dialog box opens.

4. Move the slider to the right to increase the number and length of hairs to be selected.
5. Select the Apply to All Drawings option if you want to apply the operation to all the drawings in thelayer.
6. Click OK.
How to access the Eraser tool‣

From the Tools toolbar, click the Eraser‣

From the top menu, select Tools > Eraser.

‣

From theDrawing View menu, select Drawing > Drawing Tools > Eraser.

‣

Press Alt + E.

button.

How to access the Select tool‣

From the Tools toolbar, click the Select‣From the top menu, select Tools > Select.

‣Press Alt + S.

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Art Layers

Art layers give you the possibility to divide the artwork in your drawing on different layers. For example, you canseparate the outline and colour fill on two art layers, similar to 1950s traditional cell animation. These art layers
are contained within a single drawing—see Creating Strokes on page 281.
Toon Boom Harmony drawings include two layers in Advanced Art mode.
•

Line Art on page 279•

Colour Art on page 280

Each layer can be used for separate hand-drawn animation tasks, letting you organize your work and facilitatecreation and revision.
Line Art

In hand-drawn animation, the Line Art layer is mainly used to trace and clean up animation. The outline is drawn in
the Line Art layer and colour is painted in the Colour Art layer.

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Colour Art

In hand-drawn animation, you use the Colour Art layer to paint your animation. The outline is drawn in the LineArt layer and colour is painted in the Colour Art layer. Strokes (invisible lines) are generated from Line Art tocontain the painted area.

When you are doing rough animation, you may want to send a clip for feedback or approval before carrying onwith your work. If you have several characters in your project that are overlapping, it may be difficult tounderstand what is going on as you can see through the characters. Toon Boom Harmony can generate amatte automatically in the Colour Art layer, and fill all the zones inside your characters to make them opaque.
This process is fast and easy, and allows you to send easy-to-understand movies.
How to switch between Line Art and Colour Art layers and enable the Preview mode
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the Drawing view, right-click and select Switch to Colour Art/Switch to Line Art or press L.

‣

In the Colour view, click the Colour Art‣

In the Colour view, click the Line Art

button.
button.

2. To preview the Line Art and Colour Art at the same time:‣

In the Drawing view, right-click and select Preview Line Art and Colour Art or press P. While using
the Preview mode, edit one mode at a time.

‣

In the Colour view, click the Preview

button.

NOTE:
To edit both Line Art and Colour Art at the same time, you must enable the Apply to Line Art and Colour Art

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button in the Tool Properties of the tools supporting the operation.

Creating Strokes
A drawing is composed of Line and Colour filling layers. Lines and colours can be separated or kept together,
depending on which animation process you use. The following diagram presents Line Art and Colour Art
recommendations based on the selected animation workflow.

When a traditional drawing is scanned, strokes are automatically created in the Colour Art from the Line Art whendrawings are vectorized unless you specified otherwise.
When working with Cut-out animation, we recommend that you do all of the work in the Line Art.
Once the drawing sequence is completed for paperless drawings, you can proceed with creating Colour Art
strokes if you plan to paint the animation in the Colour Art. Use the Create Colour Art from Line Art option tocreate strokes from your lines.
You can create strokes in the Colour Art during the following stages:•

After the full drawing is completed in Line Art•

While drawing in Line Art

You may have some traditional drawings that need to be fixed; for example, needing extra lines to patch gaps.
Use the Auto-Create Colour Art from Brush option to create the strokes at the same time as the lines are drawn.
This creates strokes from the lines and brush strokes created in the Line Art while you draw and is useful for fixing
drawings. However, if you are drawing a new sketch, it is better to create the strokes afterward using the Create
Colour Art from Line Art option.

NOTE: Make sure to select the Advanced Art Mode in the Preferences dialog box to use this feature.

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How to create Colour Art zones out of the Line Art content
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Selecttool or press Alt + S.

2. In the Tool Properties view, click the Permanent Selection
on all drawings in the layer.

button if you want to apply the operation

3. In the Camera or Drawing view, select the artwork to transfer to the Colour Art. Create a selection
around the entire animation sequence if you want to apply the operation to all your drawings.
1. In the Drawing View toolbar, click the Create Colour Art from Line Art

button or press *.

How to create strokes with the Create Colour Art Automatically option
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Brush tool.
2. In the Tool Properties view, enable the Create Colour Art Automatically

option.

3. Draw the required lines.
4. Once you're done, deselect the Create Colour Art Automatically

option.

You are now ready to paint your model.

Painting
You can choose to paint your animation in the Line Art or Colour Art level. You can paint in Line Art, but fortraditional and paperless animation, you should fill your colour zones in Colour Art. You can access the art
layers through the Art Layer toolbar—see Art Layers on page 279.
There are many advantages to separating the lines and colour zones, but the main one concerns the painting
process. To paint very quickly, it's useful to not have to worry about painting over the lines. If the lines are
separated, you can fill the zones very quickly and you will never accidentally paint the lines. Conversely, if you
are inking the lines, you will not repaint the colour zones either.
If you have transparent lines, bitmap lines, or textured lines with transparency, it's better to have your colour
zones bleeding under your lines to avoid seeing the backgrounds and other elements through the lines.

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NOTE: To avoid painting in Line Art by mistake, turn off the Preview mode and paint in the Drawing view instead of
the Camera view. Press P to turn the mode on or off.

This section is divided as follows:•

Painting Using the Paint Tool on page 283•

Advanced Painting Features on page 284•

Selecting a Colour in a Drawing on page 288•

Importing Models on page 289•

Editing Gradients and Textures on page 291•

Closing Gaps on page 296•

Protecting Colours on page 297•

Highlighting a Selected Colour on page 298•

Inverting a Colour Selection on page 299

Painting Using the Paint Tool

The main tool you will use to paint your drawings with is the Paint tool. The Paint tool can be used in several
different modes, which can be customized in the Tool Properties view.
The Paint tool paints closed zones, including brush strokes and pencil lines. If there are gaps in the lines defining azone, you must close them using the Brush, Pencil, or Close Gap tools or the Automatic Close Gap option.
How to paint with the Paint tool
1. Select the drawing on which you want to paint.
2. Do one of the following:‣

In the Tools toolbar, click the Paint‣

From the top menu, select Tools > Paint or press Alt + I..

tool.

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Press Alt + I.

3. In the Colour view, select a colour.

4. In the Drawing view, start painting. Click on a zone or pencil line to paint it, or trace a lasso or marqueeselection to paint several zones or pencil lines at the same time.

NOTE: The last colour you select while using the Paint tool will be used the next time you select the Paint tool if
you're using the unlocked painting tools in the Colour view.

Advanced Painting Features
The following advanced painting features are available in Toon Boom Harmony:•

Repaint Selection on page 284•

Repaint Selection on All Drawings on page 285•

Repaint Outside Selection on page 285•

Repaint Outside Selection on All Drawings on page 286•

Unpaint Selection on page 286•

Unpaint Selection on All Drawings on page 287•

Unpaint Outside Selection on page 287•

Unpaint Outside Selection on All Drawings on page 287

Repaint Selection
The Repaint Selection command is used to repaint any art inside a selection. You must first draw a selection
using the Select tool in order for this command to be available.

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Repaint Selection on All Drawings
The Repaint Selection On All Drawings command is used to repaint any art inside a selection on all the drawings
contained within the same layer. You must enable the Permanent Selection
option in the Select tool Tool
Properties view and then select an area of your drawing using the Select tool in order for this command to beavailable. The Permanent Selection option lets you maintain the same selection throughout the drawings of asame layer.

Repaint Outside Selection
The Repaint Outside Selection command is used to repaint any art outside a selection. If no selection has beendrawn using the Select tool, the entire drawing will be repainted.

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Repaint Outside Selection on All Drawings
The Repaint Outside Selection On All Drawings command is used to repaint any art outside a selection on all
the drawings contained within the same layer. You must enable the Permanent Selection
option in the
Select tool Tool Properties view and then select an area of your drawing using the Select tool in order for thiscommand to be available. The Permanent Selection option lets you maintain the same selection throughout thedrawings of a same layer.

Unpaint Selection
The Unpaint Selection command is used to unpaint any art existing inside a selection. You must first draw aselection using the Select tool in order for this command to be available.

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Unpaint Selection on All Drawings
The Unpaint Selection on All Drawings command is used to unpaint all art contained inside a selection on all thedrawings within the same layer.
You must enable the Permanent Selection
option in the Select tool Tool Properties view and then select anarea of your drawing using the Select tool in order for this command to be available. The Permanent Selection
option lets you maintain the same selection throughout the drawings of a same layer.

Unpaint Outside Selection
The Unpaint Outside Selection command is used to unpaint any art existing outside a selection. If no selection
have been drawn using the Select tool, the entire drawing will be unpainted.

Unpaint Outside Selection on All Drawings
The Unpaint Outside Selection on All Drawings command is used to unpaint all art outside a selection on all thedrawings within the same layer. You must enable the Permanent Selection
option in the Select tool Tool
Properties view and then select an area of your drawing using the Select tool in order for this command to beavailable. The Permanent Selection option lets you maintain the same selection throughout the drawings of asame layer.

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How to access the advanced painting tools‣

From the top menu, Camera or Drawing view menu, select Drawing > Paint and one of thefollowing:‣

From the top menu, select Selected > Paint and one of the following.
Repaint Selection
Repaint Selection on All Drawings
Repaint Outside Selection
Repaint Outside Selection on All Drawings
Unpaint Selection
Unpaint Selection on All Drawings
Unpaint Outside Selection
Unpaint Outside Selection on All Drawings

Selecting a Colour in a Drawing

While working in the Drawing view, you can use the Dropper tool to pick a colour from your drawing without
going to the Colour view.
How to use the Dropper tool
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the Tools toolbar, select the Dropper‣

From the top menu, select Tools > Dropper.

‣

Press Alt + D.

tool.

2. In the Drawing view, click on the desired colour.
‣

If you're using another drawing tool such as the Paint tool, you can temporarily hold down the D key
and click in your drawing before releasing the key to pick your colour. When you release the key, youwill return to your previous tool. You may also want to select the zones painted with the colour
currently selected in the Colour view. This can be useful for removing rough lines from a clean
drawing.

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Importing Models

Once you have a fully painted drawing, you can use it as a colour model and load it in the Model view. That
drawing can be used and loaded in any of your Harmony scenes.
Once a drawing is loaded in the Model view, you can use the Dropper
to select a colour from the model anduse it to paint in your Drawing view without having to pick the colour from the colour palette.
You can do more than just copy colours from a colour model. Harmony gives you the ability to copy parts of thecharacter directly from its colour model and paste these elements into the Drawing view.
How to browse for a colour model drawing on your hard drive
1. Do one of the following:‣

Right-click in the Model View and select Import Model.

2. In the Browser window, browse for any *.tvg drawing file on your hard drive or in the database.
3. Click Open.
The model appears in the Model view.
How to load the default models
1. In your scene’s folder, create a new folder and name it: models.
2. On your hard drive, copy the *.tvg drawing file you want to use as colour models in your scene.
3. Do one of the following:‣

Right-click in the Model View and select Load Default Models.

How to clear a colour model‣

Right-click in the Model view, select Clear Model or press Delete.

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How to copy the entire model from the Model view
1. Right-click and select the Selecttool.

1. In the Model view, select your model.

2. PressCtrl + C (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + C (Mac OS X).
2. Select the Drawing view, then go to the top menu and select Edit > Paste Drawing Objector pressCtrl+ V (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + V (Mac OS X).
The model appears in the selected view.
How to copy part of the model in the Model view
3. Right-click in the Model view and select Cutter Selection or press Alt + T.
1. In the Model view, use the Cutter tool to create a selection around the part of your model that you wantto copy.

4. PressCtrl + C (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + C (Mac OS X).
2. Do one of the following:‣

Select the Drawing view and select Edit > Paste Drawing Object.

The model appears in the selected view.

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Editing Gradients and Textures

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

In the Tools toolbar, click the Edit Texture‣

From the top menu, select Tools > Edit Gradient/Texture.

‣

Press Shift + F3.

tool.

2. Click the gradient or texture colour to modify.

A blue selection frame surrounds the selected gradient or texture.

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3. Edit the gradient or texture by adjusting the control handles around the selection frame.
How to store gradient and texture settings
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Selecttool or press Alt + S.

2. In the Drawing view, select the gradient or texture zone to store.

3. In the Tool Properties view, click the Store Colour Gradientbutton.

How to use the stored gradient and texture settings
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Brushor Paint

tool.

2. In the Tool Properties view, click the Use Stored Colour Gradientbutton.

3. In the Drawing view, draw and paint.
How to use Pencil Editor tool to edit the texture or gradient on a pencil line
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the Tools toolbar, select the Pencil Editor‣

Press Alt + W.

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2. Click on the pencil line to be modified to bring up its contour envelope.

3. Select one of the contour points around the envelope and move its position to change the size of the tiled
texture or gradient. You can also pull directly on the lines of the contour envelope or play with the Bezier
handles of any given point in order to continue to modify the envelope form.

Expanding the width of the envelope parallel to the pencil line’s central vector will cause the tiled texture
to be stretched. Conversely, reducing the envelope’s width will cause the tiled texture to look squashed.
Reducing the contour’s width perpendicular to the pencil line’s central vector will reduce the number oftiles, while expanding it will increase the number of tiled images.

This editing technique does not just work on texture fills, but can also be applied to pencil lines drawn witha textured “brush”.
How to use Edit Gradient/Texture tool to edit the texture or gradient on a pencil line
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the Tools toolbar, select the Edit Gradient/Texture

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From the top menu, select Tools > Edit Gradient/Texture.

‣

Press Shift + F3.

2. Click on the pencil line to be modified to bring up the editor controls.

3. The editor controls delineate a single tile in the texture. For gradients, this is less applicable. Pull on the
top of the editor controls to stretch the tiled texture throughout the length of the stroke.
As gradients are parallel to the stroke’s central vector, this will stretch the way that the gradient is
distributed in the pencil line’s envelope. The envelope still acts as a boundary for the texture or
gradient.

4. Drag the editor control perpendicular to the stroke. You will feel it glide along the strokes central vector line. This is another way to resize the texture tile. Instead of stretching or shrinking it vertically, thismotion stretches or shrinks it vertically. As gradients are parallel to the pencil line’s central vector,
stretching them vertically gives no visual result.

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How to use Edit Gradient/Texture tool to edit the texture and gradient of a pencil line
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the Tools toolbar, select the Edit Gradient/Texture‣

From the top menu, select Tools > Edit Gradient/Texture.

‣

Press Shift + F3.

tool.

2. Click on the pencil line to be modified to bring up the editor controls.

3. Use the top editor controls edit the gradient.

4. Use the bottom controls edit the “brush” texture.

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Closing Gaps

When painting, you may notice that some drawing areas are not closed. To close the zone, you can draw themissing line with the Brush or Pencil tool, or close the gap with an invisible line using the Close Gap tool.
The Close Gap tool lets you close small gaps in a drawing by creating small, invisible strokes between the two
closest points to close the colour zone. You do not need to trace directly over the gap. You can draw it a few
millimeters away. The two closest points automatically close the gap.
How to close gaps
1. From the top menu, select View >Show Strokes or press K to see a preview of the result.
2. If you want the strokes you draw to be flattened in your drawing instead of being on top, click the AutoFlatten
button in the Tool Properties view.
3. From the top menu, select Drawing > Close Gaps or press Shift + F10 (Windows/Linux only).
The Close Gaps dialog box opens.

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4. Adjust the slider to set the size of the gap you want to be closed.

5. To close all gaps in the drawings of the selected layer, select the Apply to all drawings option and clickOK.
6. In the Tools toolbar, select the Close Gaps

tool.

7. In the Drawing view, trace a line near the gap to be closed. Your strokes will be invisible
The gap automatically closes.

Protecting Colours

When you are finished inking one colour, you can lock it so if you ever paint over it accidentally, the work alreadydone will not be affected. You can also use the Protect Colour feature to block the filling colours if you painted allof the animation in Line Art and you plan to repaint the lines.
How to protect colours
1. In the Colour view, select the colour to be protected.

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2. Do one of the following:‣

From the Colour view menu, select Colours > Protect Colour.

‣

From the top menu, select Colours > Protect Colour.

A red bar appears beside the colour to indicate that it is locked.

Respecting Protected Colours
When painting, the Respect Protected Colour
option is enabled by default. In the Colour view, you canprotect In the Colour view, you can protect a colour swatch to avoid repainting or unpainting the zones linked
to that swatch. If you using the Paint tool and this option is deselected, you will repaint or unpaint theprotected colours on your drawings until you enable the option again.
How to enable the Respect Protected Colours option
Do one of the following:‣

In the Paint tool properties, click the Respect Protected Colour‣

From the top menu, select Options > Colour Protection > Respect Colour Protection.

‣

Press Shift + S.

button.

Highlighting a Selected Colour
If there are unnamed colours in your palette and you want to know if a particular colour was used on thecurrent model or drawing, you can select a colour and it will be used to highlights the parts that use thatcolour. The rest of the colours are dimmed, so you can easily identify the highlighted colour. You can thenrename it accordingly.

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How to highlight a selected colour
1. In the Colour view, select the colour to highlight.
2. From the Drawing menu, select View > Highlight Selected Colour.

Inverting a Colour Selection
When you need to select all colour swatches but one, or select only a few swatches here and there, it might befaster to select the only colour you do not need in order to select and invert the selection.
How to invert a colour swatch selection in the Colour view
1. In the Colour view, select the colour swatch you DO NOT want to have in your final selection.

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Edit > Invert Selection.

‣

Press Ctrl + Shift + I.

Inking the Lines
Unless you're repainting all the lines in the entire animation sequence, do not use the Apply Tool to All Drawings
option. Since the line positions change a lot over time, you risk painting lines that should not be painted.
These are the main tools and techniques used to ink lines:•

Repaint Tool on page 300•

Repaint Brush Mode on page 300
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Inking the Lines on page 299•

Protecting Colours on page 302

Repaint Tool
The main tool used to ink the lines is the Repaint tool. As the colour filling is probably done in the Colour Art,
you will not have to worry about not touching it. The Repaint tool will not paint empty zones either.
During the vectorization process on traditional scanned drawings, triangles are added on the lines'
intersections to break the artwork in segments. This way, when you paint a line, it will not repaint the wholedrawing, only the relevant segment.

How to access the Repaint Tool
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Repainttool located in the Paint tool drop-down menu.

Repaint Brush Mode
The Repaint Brush mode is used to paint a section by manually painting over the lines. This is useful when thevectorization triangles are not placed as you would like or you simply need to repaint a section of a segment. It
is also useful for paperless animation, where there are no triangles. So, the Repaint Brush is used to paint a
certain area. It acts like the Brush tool, but will only show on painted areas that are already painted.
Unlike the Brush tool, the Repaint Brush mode flattens automatically. The brush strokes are not added one on
top of each other.
How to enable the Repaint Brush mode
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Brushtool.

2. In the Tool Properties view, enable the Repaint Brushmode.

Ink Tool
Although pencil lines can be painted in much the same way as closed zones, you can use the Paint, Repaint,
Repaint Brush, and Ink tools to make painting segmented lines easier. Normally when you have a drawing, suchas the one below, and you use the Paint tool to paint one of the lines, the entire line is painted.

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However, if you select the Inktool instead and click on the same pencil line, only the segment that you clicked
on between two intersections will be painted.

The newly inked segment will always be moved to the front of all other pencil strokes, even if it was behind allother pencil strokes before it was inked.

That is, unless you hold down Alt while clicking a segment. Then the opposite happens. The inked segment will besent to the back, even if it was in front of all other segments to begin with.

Painting and inking can be used in combination depending on what you need to paint. If you need to ink acharacter’s outline in black, it might be easier to use the Paint tool. If you need to paint the outline of acharacter’s neck with a tan colour and its shirt outline blue and both the neck and shirt belong to the same
continuous outline, then the Ink tool might prove more useful.
How to access the Ink tool
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Inktool located in the Paint tool drop-down menu.

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Protecting Colours

When you are finished inking one colour, you can lock it so if you ever paint over it accidentally, the work
already done will not be affected. You can also use the Protect Colour feature to block the filling colours if you
painted all of the animation in Line Art and you plan to repaint the lines.
How to protect colours
1. In the Colour view, select the colour to be protected.

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the Colour view menu, select Colours > Protect Colour.

‣

From the top menu, select Colours > Protect Colour.

A red bar appears beside the colour to indicate that it is locked.

Verifying the Zones are Painted
When the ink and paint process is completed, it's always a good idea to verify that every zone was painted
properly.
The backlight produces a silhouette effect by changing the drawing’s coloured areas into a single dark, solid
colour. Use this to verify the completeness of the ink and paint process. Any unpainted zones can be seen as
the light shows through the unpainted areas of the silhouetted drawing.
How to use the backlight

NOTE: This feature is only available in the Drawing view.

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1. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select View > Backlight.

‣

From the Tools toolbar, click the Backlight‣

Press Alt + Shift + B.

button.

2. Verify the drawings in the Colour Art to make sure that all the areas are painted. In the Colour view, click
the Colour Art
button.
1. In the Colour view, click the Preview
button to see the colour zones with lines to ensure that you did
not forget any spots between the colour filling and lines.

Ink and Paint Tool Properties
The Ink and Paint tool properties contain many options that will help you along with your task.
•

Ink Tool Properties on page 303•

Paint Tool Properties on page 304

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

Icon

Tool Name

Tool
The Lasso and Marquee options let you choose thetype of selection the current tool will perform. The
default selection mode is Marquee.

Lasso and Marquee

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Lasso lets you draw a custom selection box
around zones.

•

Marquee makes a rectangle selection box.

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NOTE: NOTE: Hold down the Alt key to switch totoggle between the selection modes.

Highlights all pencil lines (no brush strokes) on theselected layer. Pencil line segments that are alreadyinked with the selected swatch colour from the colour palette are also not highlighted.

Show Inkable Lines

Be Smart on Connecting Lines

As you hover and move the cursor acrossintersecting pencil lines, the path that you create
will be highlighted. When you click on your mouseor stylus the highlighted segments are inked. With
this option disabled, all the intersecting segmentsthat your cursor comes near will be highlighted andbecome part of the selection, even if they were notsituated in the direction of the chosen path.

NOTE: NOTE: This option only works if the Ink tool
is in Hover mode.

Select ModeUse this mode instead of the Hover Mode. In the
Hover Mode, any potentially inkable pencil line will
have its central vector line highlighted as the Inktool’s cursor hovers over it. Use Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ (Mac OS X) to toggle between
the two modes.

Mitre

As you hover over two perpendicular or nearly perpendicular segments, a highlighted path with acorner is created. Clicking on these highlighted segments inks both segments and makes them appear
as a single stroke with a corner or bend. Options
include: As Is, Round, Miter, and Bevel.

Tip StyleLets you customize the edge of the Ink tool.
Options include: Round, Flat, and Bevel.

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

Icon

Tool Name

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Lasso and Marquee on page 305

Painting Modes on page 305
Paint and Remove Texture on page 307
Apply to Multiple Drawings on page 307
Apply to All Visible Drawings on page 308
Respect Protected Colour on page 308
Use Stored Colour Gradient on page 308
Select Newly Painted, Repainted and Unpainted Contours/Lineson page 309
Close Gap on page 309

Lasso and Marquee
The Lasso and Marquee options let you choose the type of selection the current tool will perform. The default
selection mode is Marquee.
•

Lasso

•

Marqueelets you draw a custom selection box around zones.
makes a rectangle selection box.

NOTE:
Hold down the Alt key to switch to toggle between the selection modes.

Painting Modes
The Paint tool has four different modes available:

You can also find these tools directly in the Tools toolbar and in the Drawing Tools menu.

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Paint Mode

The Paintmode paints everything it touches, including empty and filled zones—see Painting Using the
Paint Tool on page 283.

Paint Unpainted Mode

The Paint Unpainted

mode paints only empty zones. Any line or filled zone will remain unchanged.

Repaint Mode

The Repaintremain intact.

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Unpaint Mode

The Unpaintmode unpaints everything it touches, including empty and filled zones.

Paint and Remove Texture

The Paint and Remove Texture
option is used when you vectorized images as greyscale texture style. An
image vectorized as texture is a mix of bitmap filling encapsulated in a vector-based frame. Painting a textured
zones with the Paint tool will change the tint of the textured lines. Painting the textured zones using the Paint andRemove Texture option transforms the bitmap filling into a 100% vector based zone and fills it with a solid colour.

Apply to Multiple Drawings

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The Apply to Multiple Drawings
option is used for fast painting in hand-drawn animation. When you wantto paint several drawings in a same layer at once, such as a walk cycle, you can enable this option and make aselection in the Drawing view. All the closed zones located within your Paint tool selection are painted with theselected colour swatch.
You do not need to enable the Onion Skin preview to use this option. The option will stay enabled only for the
next action. If you want to use it again, you must click on the Apply to Multiple Drawings button again, or press
Alt + A.

Apply to All Visible Drawings
The Apply to All Visible Drawings
option is used to paint several drawings on separated layers on thecurrent frames. If you have a character broken in several layers, you can enable this option to paint all yourlayers at once. The operation is only applied on the current frame. This option will stay enabled only for the
next action. If you want to use it again, you must click on the Apply to All Visible Drawings button again.

NOTE: This option is only available in the Camera view and does not affect symbols.

Respect Protected Colour
The Respect Protected Colour
option is enabled by default. In your Colour view, you can protect somecolour swatches to avoid repainting or unpainting the zones linked to that swatch.
If you disable this option the Paint tool will not follow the protect colour rule and will repaint or unpaint theprotected colours on your drawings until you enable the option again—see Protecting Colours on page 297.

Use Stored Colour Gradient

When you paint a zone with a gradient or textured colour swatch, the gradient or texture’s position is set
relative to the size of the zone you are painting. If you want the Paint tool to use a particular size and position,
you must first store your desired position and size using the Selecttool and then enable the Use Stored
Colour Gradientoption in the Paint tool properties—see Editing Gradients and Textures on page 291.

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Select Newly Painted, Repainted and Unpainted Contours/Lines

In the Paint tool properties, this option
keeps a selection highlighted around the latest painted zone afterusing the Paint, Repaint, Unpaint, or Paint Unpainted tool.

Close Gap
The Close Gap option has four modes available:

When painting, you may notice that some drawing areas are not closed. To close the zone, you can draw themissing line with the Brush or Pencil tool, or close the gap with an invisible line using the Close Gap tool.
The Close Gap tool lets you close small gaps in a drawing by creating small, invisible strokes between the two
closest points to close the colour zone. You do not need to trace directly over the gap. You can draw it a few
millimeters away. The two closest points automatically close the gap.
For more information, see Closing Gaps on page 296.

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Glossaryalpha channel

An image channel that carries transparency information. An image alreadyhas three channels: red, green and blue (RGB). The alpha channel is the
fourth channel (RGBA). The matte, or the transparency information, isstored in this fourth channel. An image without an alpha channel is always
opaque.

animatic

A movie with sound that is developed from the storyboard. The storyboard
panel is exposed for the duration of the scene and at times, the characters
are placed on a trajectory to indicate motion. The camera moves are also
animated. The animatic is used to determine the rhythm of a project andprovides a good overview of the project before beginning production.

animation

A simulation of movement created by displaying a series of pictures orframes.

anime

An animation style known for its sinister and dark feel; popular in Japan.

arc

Action rarely occurs in a straight-forward manner; rather it typically unfolds
in what storytellers refer to as an arc. The purpose of a story arc is to movea character or situation from one state or scenario to the next.

aspect ratio

The relationship between the width and height dimensions for any scene,
frame or film format. Television ratio is 4:3 and widescreen ratio is 16:9.

auto-feed

An automated method of feeding drawings into a scanner in which multiple
drawings are stacked into a sheet feeder. When the scanner is activated,the drawings are scanned consecutively, without further user intervention.

automatic lip-sync detection

Automatically mapping drawings in an element to the mouth chart
generated for a sound. This can save time when lip-syncing a voice track.
An imaginary line around which an object rotates.

axis

For 2D graphics, there are two axes: X (horizontal and Y (vertical).
For 3D graphics, there are three axes: X (horizontal, Y (vertical) and Z(depth).

background

The part of a scene that is farthest to the rear. The background is theartwork, or decor, against which the animation takes place.

Bézier

A method of defining curved lines invented by French mathematician Pierre
Bézier. A Bézier curve is a mathematical or parametric curve. Bézier curves
use at least three points to define a curve.

bitmapAn image composed of pixels with a single resolution (size). If it is enlarged
too much, it will lose definition and pixels will begin to appear. This is
known as pixelation.

breakdown

In cut-out animation, breakdown is the action of breaking a character into
pieces to create a puppet with articulations. To break down a character,the artist cuts parts, such as the hands and arms, from the character's
model and pastes them in separate layers. Next, the joints are fixed and thepivots set.

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In traditional animation, a breakdown is an animation pose generally foundbetween two key poses. The key poses are the main poses in an animationand the breakdowns are secondary poses, ones that help describe themotion and the rotation curve (usually referred to as an arc).
camera shake

Camera shake occurs in a scene when the camera moves slightly and quickly
in several directions. This gives the impression of an impact, vibration or,for example, bumps on the road.

captionA text field containing dialogue, effects, sound, or slugging information in astoryboard.

cel

In traditional animation, a cel (also known as celluloid) is a transparent
sheet on which the animation is inked and painted before being sent to thecamera. The picture's outline is drawn on the front of the cel and thencoloured along the back.
In Harmony, a cel is an individual space in an Xsheet column from which you
can expose a drawing or a function's coordinate.

character design

Each character in an animated film is drawn from multiple angles in posterstyle format, called a model sheet, which serves as a reference for the
animators.

clean up

After rough drawings have been tested and approved, all the noise in theimage (excess lines, notes, etc) is removed to create final drawings which
can be inked, painted and shot. The cleanup process refers to either tracing
a clean line over a rough drawing to achieve the final version, or removing
dirt and extra lines left by the scanning process.

CMYK

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black. Refers to the process used by printers todefine colour on the printed page.

colour card

A colour card is a solid colour card that is the same size as the camera. The
colour card can be used to fill the background with a solid colour when
there is no background image included.

colour model

The official colour design that must be used to paint the animation. A
model is the definitive character, prop, or location design that each artist
must follow for the production.

colour wheel

A display of the colour spectrum in the form of a circle.

compositing

Compositing is the action of incorporating all of a scene's elements tocreate the final result prior to rendering. For example, the compositing
artist will import all the animation sequences, background, overlays andunderlays in the scene and position them correctly. The artist will then set
the camera frame and animate it, if needed. Finally, the animator will create
all the computer-generated effects for the project.

cross dissolve

An effect used to fade two scenes, one into the other.

cut

A direct transition between two scenes. When a cut is used, there are notransition effects inserted to pass from one scene to the next. The firstscene ends and the second one starts immediately.

cut-out animation

The action of animating characters made of several pieces by moving themaround frame by frame. Cut-out animation can either be computer
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generated or done traditionally using paper.
cycle

A group of images that together make up an action, such as walking. A
cycle is an action repeated as a loop over a period of time. It can be a seriesof animated drawings or keyframes.

dialogue

The text spoken by a character in a movie or animation.

dope sheet

Used by animators, directors and other members of a crew to track thesequence and timing of images, dialogue, sound effects, sound tracks andcamera moves. Also known as an exposure sheet or Xsheet.

dopingTo assign a particular drawing to a range of frames.

DPI

Dots per inch is the standard measure of resolution for computerized
printers. It is sometimes applied to screens, in which case it should moreaccurately be referred to as pixels per inch. Either way, the dot is thesmallest discrete element making up the image.

ease/velocity

In animation, the ease, also known as velocity, is the acceleration anddeceleration of a motion. It can be a motion created by a function curve, ora series of animated drawings. Other common terms for ease-in and easeout are slow-in and slow-out.

ease-in

Gradual acceleration in the action. Also known as slow-in.

ease-out

Gradual deceleration in the action. Also known as slow-out.

establishing shot

A scene in which the viewer can see the whole area in which a sequence ishappening. For example, if a child is playing on the ground in front of his
house, the establishing shot would be a scene where the viewer can see thehouse, the ground, a part of the street and the buildings around the central
point of action. This helps the viewer understand the story location andscene orientation.

exposure

In animation, an exposure is the number of cels on which a drawing appears
in the scene. For a drawing to appear longer, the exposure must be
extended over a greater number of cels.

exposure sheet

A sheet with several vertical columns and horizontal frames used to indicate
a scene's timing. Each column represents a scene layer. The drawing
numbers in each column are indicated and repeated over the particularamount of frames they need to appear.
The exposure sheet is used by animators, directors and other members of acrew to track the sequence and timing of images, dialogue, sound effects,
sound tracks and camera moves. Also known as a dope sheet.

fade in/fade out

Fade in or fade out is a transition effect used to open or close a sequence. A
fade in occurs when the first scene appears progressively, from complete
transparency to its complete opacity. A fade out occurs when the last scene
progressively disappears, going from complete opacity to complete
transparency.

fast-inDramatic acceleration at the start of the action.

fast-out

Dramatic acceleration at the end of the action.

field

In animation, a field is a measurement unit used to calculate motion,

312Harmony 12.1 Paint Guide

registration and camera positioning. A standard animation scene will vary
between 6 to 12 fields.
field chart

A guide containing all the field units that animation and layout artists use todetermine a scene size or camera motion.

film-1.33

A resolution that is ideal for the widescreen film format that conforms to
the standard 4:3 pixel aspect ratio.

film-1.66

A resolution that is ideal for the widescreen film format that conforms to
the 16:9 pixel aspect ratio. (The pixels are wider than they are high).

flipping

In traditional animation, flipping is the action of going through the drawingsof an animation sequence very quickly in order to see the animation in
motion. Flipping can also be the action of creating a mirror transformationof an object.

follow-throughThe secondary motion caused by the main action. For example, a character
wearing a cloak is running. The main action is the body running. This willcause the cloak to follow the motion, although it will not move at the sametime, but react a few frames later and follow the main motion curve.

forward kinematics

Forward kinematics is a feature used to animate principally 3D charactersand cut-out puppets with hierarchy. It is used to animate a puppet from oneof parent parts, such as a shoulder, and make the rest of the arm move with
it as a single piece.

frame

A single photographic image in a movie. In traditional animation, the North
American standard generally contains 24 frames per second, while inEurope the standard is 25 frames per second.
The frame rate is the speed at which the frames are played. They are
generally calculated by frame per second. For example, a scene could beplayed back at 12, 24, 25, 30 or 60 frames per second or any other number.

frame rate

This is the measurement of the frequency (rate) at which an imaging device
produces unique consecutive images, called frames. The term applies
equally to computer graphics, video cameras, film cameras, and motion
capture systems.
Frame rate is most often expressed in frames per second (fps) and in
progressive-scan monitors as hertz (Hz).

functions

A computer-generated motion, trajectory or path on which elements, othertrajectories and effects parameters can be attached. The function can becontrolled by adding keyframes and control points on the function curve.

gamut

The range of colours that a particular device can represent.

HDTV

High Definition Television delivers a higher quality image than standard
television does because it has a greater number of lines of resolution. To
take advantage of the superior quality and make full use of your resolution
setting, the output device must be compatible with HDTV technology.

hold

A frame in the animation in which the character maintains its position
without moving. A hold can be created between any two keyframes.

HSV

Hue, Saturation, Value. A method of defining colours in terms of hue (tint),

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saturation (shade) and value (tone or luminance).
in-between

The drawings that exist between the key poses. These are drawn to create
fluid transitions between poses.

ink and paint

The ink and paint process is the action of painting the empty zones andcolouring the lines on the final animation drawings, while following a colour
model.

interpolation

The computer-generated motion created between two keyframes. You
have the choice to create interpolation, or not, between your keyframes.

jump cut

A jerky cut between two scenes. Typically, a jump cut is not visuallypleasing. It is generally caused by one scene ending, and a second one
starting, with a similar image. The lack of difference causes the eye to see alittle jump between the two scenes.

key pose

Important positions in the action defining the starting and ending points ofany smooth transition. Keys, or key poses, are the main drawings in an
animation sequence describing the motion. For example, if an arm iswaving, the keys will be of the arm at one extremity of the wave motion andthe other extremity. By flipping those drawings, the animator can see theskeleton of the motion without having all the drawings.

keyboard shortcuts

One or more keyboard keys which, when used, cause an operation to be
performed.

keyframe

Important positions in the action defining the starting and ending points ofany action. A keyframe is a computer-generated position at a specificmoment (frame) on a given trajectory.

layersIn animation, a layer is an individual column, level or character. A scene's
layers are superimposed to form the final image.

layout

The communication step between the storyboard and the animation. It is
the action of putting the storyboard on model. That is, drawing thecharacter by following the design in the model pack, so the animator canstart working.
The layout artist draws the background, creates the camera and field guidematching the scene and camera motion. Lastly, the animator draws on
model the main action poses.

layout and posing

The action of putting on model. That is, at the right scale, the storyboard
for the animator to start working.

library

A storage area containing templates and assets that can be reused in any
project or scene.

light table

A device that allows you to see other layers in transparency while you areworking on a particular layer.

line of action

The direction that the action will follow. Also known as path of action.

lip-sync

The character's mouth synchronization with the dialogue sound track.
Frame by frame, the mouth will be adjusted to fit the sound to give theillusion of the character is speaking.

low resolution

A format that is ideal for videos destined for the web, where size and fast

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download of a video file take precedence over quality. A low-resolution
image is one that lacks fine detail.
manual lip-sync detection

The manual swapping of mouth position drawings to match a voice track.
For this process, both sound scrubbing (listening to a sound wave broken
up frame-by-frame) and drawing substitutions are used.

master palette

A group of colours attributed to a character or prop. The palette is usedthroughout the entire production to maintain consistency in the look and toensure that the same colours are used throughout the production. Also
known as palette.

model/colour model

The definitive character, prop or location design each artist must follow fora production. A colour model is the official colour design that must be used
to paint the animation.

motion keyframe

A keyframe with computer-generated interpolation.

mouth chart

A chart based on the eight animation phonemes (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and X,
which is used to represent silence) used for lip-sync.

multiplane

The effect of passing through multiple levels of drawings to create a senseof depth in a shot. A multiplane is a scene in which the layers are placed at
different distances from the camera so that when the camera moves, adepth illusion occurs. With a multiplane, all the perspective and scale iscalculated automatically.

NTSC

The standard analogue television broadcasting system used in North
America. NTSC conforms to North American standards on how rectangularpixels are displayed for computer and television screens.

nudge

A small push (left, right, up, down, forward or backward) done with the
keyboard arrow keys on a selected element. Nudging is used to move aselection very slightly and precisely.

onion skin

A feature that lets you see the previous and next drawings of a sequence.

overlay

A part of the scene environment, such as a chair or a bush, that is placed in
front of the main animation.

PAL

A resolution that works best with the European format for television andcomputer screens, as the rectangular pixels are displayed at a different
orientation.

palette/master palette

A palette or master palette is a group of colours attributed to a characteror a prop. The palette is used throughout the entire project to maintain aconsistency in the look and avoid the colour changing during the animation.
Also referred to as a master palette.

palette style

A palette style is a second version of an existing palette with a slight change
in the tint and value. A palette style can be used to create the night version
of a palette. It may also be called a clone palette.

pan

To move the camera across the scene in any direction.

panel

In a storyboard, a panel is a frame in a shot. A shot can be composed of one
or several panels.

paperless animation/tradigital The paperless animation process is the action of animating digitally. The
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main paperless animation process is to draw, frame by frame, theanimation directly in the software.
passing position

When drawing a walk sequence for a character, the passing position is thepoint at which one leg passes the other.

path of action

Direction that the action will follow. Also known as line of action.

peg

In traditional animation, a tool used to ensure accurate registration ofaction as cel layers move. In digital animation, in which you are doing amore advanced puppet rigging, you can use peg layers. Peg layers aretrajectory layers that do not contain drawings. They are motion paths thatyou can use to add path articulations. For the latter, you can also use theInverse Kinematics tool.

phonemeA unit of sound in a language.

pivot

The point around which a peg or drawing rotates.
The smallest element of an image displayed on a monitor or TV screen.

pixel

Pixel, short for picture element, is a single point in a graphic image. It is asmall sample of an image, a dot, a square, or a very small section made outof smooth filtering. If you zoom in close enough on a digital image, you will
see the pixels, which look like small squares of different colours andintensity.

pose-to-pose animation

The pose-to-pose animation process is the action of creating all the main
action poses, called key poses, and then placing the secondary poses
between the keys. The secondary poses are called breakdown. Finally, theanimator fills the gaps with the in-between drawings to achieve a smoothanimation.

rendering

The final step when animating by computer. During rendering, thecomputer takes each pixel that appears on screen and processes all of thecomponents, as well as adding motion blur before it produces a final
image. The process of calculating the final images after the compositing
process.

resolution

The size of a scene, generally calculated in pixels. For example, the NTSC
resolution is 720 x 480. The resolution should match the final output: HDTV,
film-1.33, film-1.66, NTSC, PAL, low.

RGB

Red, Green, Blue. A method of defining colour by specifying amounts ofthese three colour components.

rigging

The process of attaching the various parts of a cut-out puppet.

rotary table

Equivalent to the animation disk/table, a device that allows you to rotate
the workspace for greater comfort while drawing.

rotoscoping

An animation technique in which animators trace over live-action film
movement, frame by frame, for use in animated films. The act of sketchingover live-action footage to create an animated sequence.

roughs

The skeleton sketch of an animation or design. Roughs mainly consist of
sketch lines and shapes, though they can also contain design details.

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safe area

The zone at the center of a scene's frame that is safe from being cropped
by the TV frame. As a TV frame cuts a margin off the original frame size,
maintaining a safe area ensures that the scene's main action will remain
clearly visible once the film is screened on television.

scene

A shot in a movie or show. A sequence is composed of several scenes. A
scene changes to another scene by a simple cut or transition.

scriptThe original text containing all the movie or show information. In animation,
the script contains all of the location descriptions, dialogue, time and more.
A project starts with a script.

sequence

A series of scenes or shots forming a distinct part of the story or movie,
usually connected by unity of location or time.

shot

A scene in a movie or show. A sequence is composed of several shots. A
shot changes to another shot by a simple cut or transition.

slow-in

The gradual acceleration in the action. Also known as ease-in.

slow-out

The gradual deceleration in the action. Also known as ease-out.

slugging

To indicate the start and stop times of dialogue and relevant actions.

sound scrubbing

A process that lets you hear sound in real time while you move the playhead
forward or backward. This is very useful for finely-tuning a lip-sync.

stop-motion keyframe

A keyframe with no computer-generated interpolation.

storyboard

A visual plan of all the scenes and shots in an animation. The storyboard
indicates what will happen, when it will happen and how the objects in ascene are laid out.

straight-ahead

A technique in which an entire sequence is drawn from the first position to
the last, in order. There is very little planning in this methodology. Where
the character ends up and how it gets there can be a surprise for both theaudience and the animator. While this approach is spontaneous andcreative, it can create inaccurate results.

strokes

Invisible vector lines forming the drawing zones. They can be adjusted with
Bézier handles.

tablet/pen

A device used in conjunction with, or instead of, a mouse to move a mousepointer (sometimes referred to as the cursor) around the computer screen.

template

An asset stored in the library that can be reused in any project. A template
can be a drawing, a series of keyframes, a sound file, a panel, a cut-out
character, an effect, a trajectory, an animation, or anything else used in the
animation.

thumbnails

A very small image used as a reference or indicator.

timecode

The timing information printed on a movie clip to indicate the scene, hour,
minute and second that is currently displayed on the screen.

timeline

A horizontal representation of a scene's elements, timing and keyframes.

trace and paint

After the rough animations have gone through cleanup and a final line or
pencil test, each drawing is traced and painted for the final animation. In

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today's digital world, this may be done in a variety ways other than the
traditional celluloid or acetate methods.
track breakdown

The break down of an animated film's soundtrack into individual sounds to
produce the precise frame-by-frame position of each sound.

traditional animation

A type of animation process whereby all the animation sequences are
drawn by hand on paper before scanning or inking them on cels.

trajectory

A computer-generated path or trajectory that elements can follow. The
trajectory can be controlled by control points, keyframes and velocity.

transition

An effect placed between two scenes as they pass from one to the other.
Common transition effects are cross-dissolve and wipe.

underlay

In animation, an underlay is a specific part of the decor placed behind themain animation.

aspect ratio

The aspect ratio describes the shape of the grid unit. A square grid unit
would have a 1:1 ratio , whereas a grid unit of aspect ratio 4:3 is a unit with
one side 1.33 times as big as the other side.

vector

A vector-based image is composed of points and Bézier curves. The
computer reads the points and traces the segments, linking them toreproduce the image shape. There is no fixed size or resolution in a vector
image. The graphic can be enlarged and distorted as much as desired andthe system will simply recalculate the segments and rebuild the shapes.
Vector images are translated and displayed in pixels once the calculation isdone.

velocity

In animation, the velocity, also known as ease, is the acceleration or
deceleration of a motion. This can be achieved by a function curve, or via aseries of animated drawings. Other common terms for ease-in and ease-out
are slow-in and slow-out.

walk cycle

A series of drawings "on the spot" that describe the walk for a character.
The illusion of movement is created by the use of background pans. To
avoid making innumerable drawings, animators routinely make a walk cycle
for a character.
The Xsheet or exposure sheet, is a sheet with several vertical columns andhorizontal frames used to indicate a scene's timing.

Xsheet (exposure sheet)

Each column represents a scene's layer. In each column, the drawing
numbers are indicated and spread over the specific number of frames inwhich they appear.
The exposure sheet is used by animators, directors and other members of
the crew to track the sequence and timing of images, dialogue, soundeffects, sound tracks and camera moves. Also known as dope sheet.

zone

An area which can be painted with colour.

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Index
about
Cloud module 18
Harmony 15
Harmony Control Center 16
Paint module 18
Play module 18
Scan 17
Stage 17
addingviews 42alpha channel 310
animatic 310
animation 310
anime 310
arc 310
aspect ratio 310, 318
auto-feed 310
axis 310
background 310
backing up
palettes 235
Bezier 310
bitmap images 310
bitmap resolution
height 115
resolution factor 115
width 115
breakdown 310
brush size 69
Brush tooldrawing 64
size 69
brushes

importing 90, 158, 195
camera shake 311

Colour view 47
switching palette display modes 48

caption 311

colour wheel 311

cel 311colours 69

celluloid

adding colour swatch 73

See cel. 311
character design 311

checking 33
commands

drawing with brush 64

basic 33

drawing with pencil 64

compositing 311

sketching model 64

Control Center

chart

about 16

field 67

counterclockwise

checking

rotating 60

colours 33

cross dissolve 311

files, project 32

customizing

project files 32

toolbars 45

clean up 311

cut 311cleaning

cut-out animation 311

model 78

cycle 312

clockwise

databaserotating 60
closing

connecting 22
design tools 63

views 42Override 65

CMYK 311

designing

colour card 311

brush size 69

colour model 311, 315

characters 76

colour palettes

drawing with brush 64

back up 235

drawing with pencil 64

location 233

field chart 67

locking 24line up 67

storage location 234

relative size 66

switching display modes 48

sketching model 64colour swatch

dialogue 312

adding 73

dope sheet 312
doping 312

exporting 91, 158, 196

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DPI 312drawing
applying thickness stencil 88

drawings

Harmony Server

locking 24

centralized database 21

repositioning 68

connecting to database 22

brush size 69

ease 312

interface 39

Brush tool 64

ease-in 312

network connections 21

brushes, exporting 91, 158, 196

ease-out 312

starting 21-22

brushes, importing 90, 158, 195establishing shot 312

HDTV 313

characters 76

exportingHelpcleaning model 78

brushes 91, 158, 196

Harmony 11

colour swatch, adding 73

erasers 91, 158, 196

structure 11

colours 69

palettes 234

creating thickness stencil 88

pencils 91, 158, 196

hidingviews temporarily 42

deletiing thickness stencil 90

exposure 312

Hold 313

exporting brushes 91, 158, 196

exposure sheet 312, 318

HSV 313

field chart 67

fade-in 312

importingimporting brushes 90, 158, 195

fade-out 312

brushes 90, 158, 195

inking model 78

field 312

erasers 90, 158, 195

line up 67

field chart 67, 313

pencils 90, 158, 195

model 76

File toolbar 59

in-between 314

Override tool 65

files

ink and paint 314

palettes 69

checking project files 32

inkingpencil presets, creating 88

film-1.33 313

model 78

pencil presets, selecting 86

film-1.66 313

Pencil tool 64, 83

flipping 313

presets, pencil 88

follow-through 313

interface 39

relative size 66

forward kinematics 313

interpolation 314

stencils 86

frame 313

jump cut 314

tasks 82

frame rate 313

key pose 314

thickness stencil, applying 88

functions 313

keyboard shortcuts 314

thickness stencil, creating 88

gamut 313

keyframes 314

thickness stencil, deleting 90

Harmony

layers 314

integrity
project, checking 32

thickness stencil, renaming 89

interface 39

layout 314

thickness stencil, selecting 87

modules 15

layout and posing 314

starting 21-22

Libary folder

drawing tools 63
Drawing view 53

locking 24

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Chapter 8: Ink and Paint •library 314

navigating

light table 314

centering screen on mouse 60

line of action 314

panning 60

line up 67

recentering view 60

lip-sync 314

resetting pan 60

auto detection 310

resetting rotation 60

lip-sync detection

resetting views 60

manual 315

resetting zoom 60

locking 23

rotating clockwise 60

drawing 24

rotating counterclockwise 60

Library folder 24

zooming in 59

palette list 24

zooming in or out 60

palettes 24, 73

zooming out 59

scenes 24

network connection 21

version 24

nodes

manual lip-sync detection 315

Control Center 16

master palette 315

Harmony 15

Message Log view 55

Scan 17model 315

Stage 17

unlocking 73
panel 315
panning 60, 315
resetting 60
paperless animation 315
passing position 316

pen 317
pencil line

selecting 86

nudge 315

rough 78

onion skinning 315

sketching 64, 76

overlay 315

Pencil tooldrawing 64, 83
settings, modify 84

model sheet See character design

Overrride tool 65

Model view 56

Paint module

movingswitching display modes 48

renaming 89

inking 78

chart 315style 315

creating 88

NTSC 315

mouth

storage location 234

pencil presets 86

cleaning 78

motion keyframe 315

locking 24, 73

texture 92

Paint 18
Play 18

location 233

pegs 316

Cloud 18

menus 39

exporting 234

path of action 316

low resolution 314

exporting 234

creating, Basic Palette List mode) 70,
236

Perspective view 57
rotating a scene 58
phoneme 316

about 18

pipeline

PAL 315

Toon Boom 15

palette list
locking 24

toolbars 44

palettes 69, 315

multiplane 315

backup 235
creating, Advanced Palette Listmode) 71, 237

321

pivot 316
pixel 316
pixelation See bitmap image
Play module
about 18

Harmony 12 Paint Guide

pose-to-pose 316

width, bitmap 115

preferences 37

RGB 316

Preferences dialog box 37

rigging 316

presets

rotary table 316

pencil 86

soundscrubbing 317
Stage 17rotating

about 17
starting

pencil, creating 88

resetting rotation 60

Harmony 21-22

pencil, selecting 86

rotating clockwise 60

ToonBoomProductName 22

product requirements

rotating counterclockwise 60

stencils, thickness

Harmony 13

rotoscoping 316

applying 88

Harmony Server 13

roughdeleting 90

projects

models 78

pencil 88

checking colours 33

roughs 316

renaming 89

checking files 32

safe area 317

selecting 87

colours, checking 33

savingthickness 86

files, checking 32
locking 23
verifying integrity 32
recenteringview 60

scenes 29
Scan module

stop-motion keyframe 317
storyboard 317

about 17

straight-ahead 317

scene resolution 115

strokes 317

scenes 317

system requirements

relative size 66

locking 24

Harmony 13

rendering 316

rotating in Perspective view 58

Harmony Server 13

repositioning

saving 29

drawings 68
resettingtablet 317

script 317

technical specifications

scrubbing 317

Harmony 13

pan 60sequences 317

Harmony Server 13

rotation 60

shot 317

templates 317

views 60

size

textureszoom 60
resizing
toolbars 43

brush 69

pencil line 92

relative 66

thickness stencil 86

sketching

applying 88

views 42characters 76

deleting 90

resolution 316

model 64, 76

pencil, creating 88

factor, bitmap 115

slow-in 317

pencil, selecting 87

height, bitmap 115

slow-out 317

renaming 89

scene 115

slugging 317

thumbnails 317

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Colour 47

timeline 317

Drawing 53

Tool Properties view 58

hiding temporarily 42

toolbars 59

managing 41

customizing 45

Message Log 55

Edit 59

Model 56

File 59

Perspective 57

hiding 43

recentering 60

managing 42

resetting 60

moving 44

resizing 42

resizing 43

Tool Properties 58

showing and hiding 43

walk cycle 318

Tools 59

Web Control Center

top 59about 18

view 59

Xsheet view 318

tools

zone 318

Override 65

Zoom tool 61

Zoom 61

zooming

Tools toolbar 59

in 59

trace and paint 317

in or out 60

track breakdown 318

out 59tradigital 315

resetting zoom 60

traditional animation 318

Zoom tool 61

trajectory 318
transition 318
underlay 318
unlockingpalettes 73
vector 318
velocity 312, 318
versionlocking 24
views 41
adding 41-42
closing 42323

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